This Old House

Besides a sink walled up underneath our stairs, Adam found another little treasure in our basement. This hole is underneath our outside stairs up to kitchen door. We think, given the evidence of old walnuts, that it was once used as a storage space, but then at some point, someone boarded it up and put drywall over it...except that they didn't use treated wood or anything, so the wood rotted and the drywall got all wet and yucky, too. So, we had to rip it all down and remove it and seal it up.

It's not quite as funny as the sink under the stairs, but it's still interesting to see what sorts of little surprising keep popping up as we're trying to finish the basement.

Latest and Greatest

I made a new necklace this week, and I think I like it the best out of all the jewelry I've made. (It looks better in real life than it does in the picture.)

Silly Rabbit

Ruby is hilarious! She has certainly kept me entertained over the past few days.

Today, she was literally running circles inside her cage. She also kept grabbing a hold of her "litter box" (which is really an old square cake pan) with her mouth and dragging it back and forth around her cage.

She likes to jump up on EVERYTHING. Currently, since it's wet outside and she needs to run around, we're in the sewing room, and she keep jumping up on all the boxes (we haven't completely unpacked) and trying to eat the cardboard...even though I have carrots out for her.

My personal favorite story: On Saturday, I put Ruby on her leash (which we attach to a spike in the middle of the back yard) so she could run around or dig under the apple tree or whatever. While I was out there, I thought maybe I'd just jog around the yard, even though it's pretty small. So, I started jogging laps around the yard, and my cute rabbit kept running after me! It was SOOOO funny. I was worried I might actually startle her, but I guess not because she kept running around with me. :) Totally made my day.

My Not-So-Great Idea

Adam and I have a bunch of material, and a sewing machine, and a pretty good amount of free time. So while Adam has been working in the basement, I decided, hey, why don't I sew something? I read up on rag quilts on the internet and everyone seemed to insist that they are SOOOOOO easy. Well, either everyone lied or I'm completely incompetent...

My rag quilt ended up being quite the project. I'm not that great at sewing, I'll admit, but seriously, when the unknown internet people talked about how easy it was, why didn't they mention that it's NOT at all easy to try to use denim because your seams get super fat and you will break....SEVEN (yes, seven) sewing machine needles trying to sew your quilt?

Anyway, it didn't turn out nearly as good as I'd hoped...and I'll be a little more wary of internet instructions from now on.

Oh, well...flaws and all, here it is.

front

back

Mona Fireworks

Most people have never even heard of little Mona, Utah, but they have about the best fireworks I've ever seen. For Pioneer Day, they put on quite a nice fireworks show. My only complaint is that it only lasts about 15 minutes...but it's sure fun to watch while it lasts.

Bunny Baby

Ruby and her "daddy"...awww...

She used to be the size of my hand...

Ute Stampede

We went to the Ute Stampede on July 15, including the parade beforehand. The parade was pretty hot, and there weren't exactly a lot of real floats, but most people threw candy and otter pops, so it was fun.

Mater made an appearance

Adam was pretty good about getting the candy for us

The rodeo always starts with a parachuter bringing in the flag.

There's always a special something to see in Nephi....

Adopt-a-pet

I'm not entirely sure how to spell my new friend's name, but I like him all the same. Adam's parents' neighbors got a dog...and I got to spend some time with him. He's super funny and he weighs only about a third as much as Ruby.

Ty Bear likes to sleep a lot...here he is taking a TWO hour nap in my lap.

This is another nap, on a different day, for over an hour.

He's awake!

He likes to eat my face...

...and the ball...

...and my hair.

Aw...isn't he adorable? (And now, I need a dog of my own, just like him...)

New Jewelry

I made some new jewelry this week. Admittedly, the necklace only took two seconds to slip the "bead" onto the cord. But the bracelet and earrings are legitimately mine.

I also decided that I didn't quite like this other pair that I had made...so, I changed them. I enjoy the freedom of being able to change things when I decide to.

Before

After

Ally Carter

On June 24th, Ally Carter visited the Library, and she was awesome! Ally is the author of two teen series, the Gallagher girls series (which features a group of girls who attend a special private school to receive training to be in the CIA) and the Heist Society series (featuring a girl raised in a family of art thieves who decides to re-steal art that has already been stolen and return it to the rightful owners). Ally was very funny and personable and it was awesome to be able to have her at the library. I have some photos and videos to share...except I can't get the videos to play when I load them in Blogger, so I don't know if other people can either...but here goes.

Ally's presentation in the Library ballroom.

Adam getting some books signed for my birthday present; Ally was a little surprised to see a guy (there weren't many there), but AMM, fellow librarian extraordinaire, explained that this was my hubby and I'd left hints that I wanted this for my birthday.

Me and Ally

Staff members posing with Ally; the plaid skirts are from the GG series; the others of us are dressed as thieves,from the Heist Society series

I've been trying for weeks to get the videos to load; hopefully they work now!
Here's Ally answering which of her characters she'd want to be and which she'd want to date--pretty much the BEST question and answer of the night.

Here, Ally talks about the "love triangle" in Heist Society...which in her mind, doesn't even exist. (P.S. Afterwards, I asked Ally if she likes Hale better than Zack, the romantic lead in the GG series, and she said she does like Hale better; Zack is more complicated and Hale is pretty much the perfect boyfriend.)

I didn't quite get all of this...but basically, the aforementioned Hale (Hale being his last name, his first name being unknown--we just know his initials are W.W.) was named while Ally Carter was in Utah, visiting Temple Square! Sweet!

Ally talked about how it was a huge struggle to write the second GG novel, but not as hard to do the second Heist Society book.