Julying...

Hi..

I have been in a very punny mood lately, so when I saw the following, I knew it had to be the title of this post.....

June's over?

Julying...

har..har...har...

Main July news, Red Butte concert shows are in full swing!!!  The Avett Brothers, Counting Crows, Retro Night (which had a ton of bands from the 80's),  TajMo, Chris Isaak, and Toad the Wet Sprocket..  I've moved up the totem pole a bit, so I'm doing a variety of jobs, including ticket taking.  So if you attend a concert, I might scan your ticket.....

I also helped out at Red Butte at a Monday Night event, cause I hadn't been there enough in July.  They are actually really fun events, free to members or with your admission to the Garden.  They are held in the courtyard and feature a local band or cultural group, plus there are crafts......

On the 19th, I took a major step forward in a New Year's Resolution, I took a 4 hour workshop on lettering/calligraphy.  I learned how to correctly work the tip of the brush pen and realized that my work is going to have a slightly different slant than everyone else's.  It's going to set me apart when I get it consistent, so practice, practice, practice is my motto now.

Are you melting yet?  SLC has been roasting this July.  I get very excited when I see a temperature below 95, because it hasn't  happened a whole lot.  ugh.

I had the opportunity to finally see "Phantom of the Opera" when it was here.  WOW was it good!  I really enjoy my season tickets, paying for them always makes me wince, but all throughout the year, I appreciate them.

I am currently in the middle of another Oprah and Deepak Chopra Meditation event.  It's a nice habit former to do it for 21 days straight..and it keeps me on track with my New Year's resolution.

Miss Bacall, or Super B, as she is now known, had a rough patch and went to the vet where her heart and lungs were pronounced clear and she is still good.  It's soooooo hard when your fur-family member is getting up there in years.

I continue to read, go to my art group, knit and row...  I think you would go into shock at this point if I said I wasn't doing one of those things.   :)

a page in my big Art Journal that I did in July..

Hope your July was happy and healthy.....

and I'm not Julying..... har har har

Melissa

June Bug....

Please stay away from me for the rest of the summer......

Ouch...
that was my motto of June.  I got stung by a bee and a wasp and got spider bite.  NOT COOL insects of the world!!!!!!  And an added bonus for all of this, it turns out I am allergic to wasp bites, my finger where I got stung got blisters, doubled in size and ITCHED like no tomorrow, I about went cra-cra.  The test is if I ever get stung again, my doctor said I could have the same reaction or worse, I don't even want to think about worse.............

In other news, Red Butte concerts are rolling along.  In June, I worked shows for Ryan Adams, Violent Femmes, BareNaked Ladies with KT Tunsdall and Better than Ezra, and Michael Franti.  The Violent Femmes are one of my all time favorite bands and I had a job that was after the show, so I got to attend and sing along and just be a fan, but the BEST part happened after the show.  I was finished with my work and headed to the area where we check out, which is behind the stage.  Meanwhile, the band had been signing autographs after the show and were just finishing when I was done.  Can you tell what happened?  I GOT TO MEET THEM!!!!!! and have like a 5 minute conversation with The Violent Femmes!  I completely forgot to take my phone out and take a picture, but I don't care, I have the memory embedded in my brain.  They were so nice, asked if they had played my favorite song (they did and I have about 5 favorites of theirs), asked if I had ever seen them in concert before (I hadn't) and just chatted about how much they love being on the road again.   I Love when things like that happen............ The other shows have been amazing as well!  I had forgotten how many songs of Better Than Ezra I knew and the Michael Franti show was just a feel good/high energy night.

Miss Bacall wants me to tell you that she is ok but wants someone to turn down the heat.  I am vigilant about the signs of her not being ok and happy.  She is just the happiest dang soul I have ever encountered.

If you live along the Wasatch front, have you ever been to the CenterPointe Theater in Centerville?  I went for the first time in June with my mom, some aunts and a cousin.  We saw their performance of Crazy for You.  It was cute and well done!  You might want to check it out.......

Rowing is still happening, but not as much as I would love to.  The wind has been blowing here and long skinny boats do not get along with wind, plus the firefighters battling all of the fires around here would probably appreciate the wind going away.  The club cancelled 5 scheduled club rows due to wind in June.  UGH....

I know this will come as a bit of a shock, but I am still reading a lot....if you are on Facebook at all, you will have noticed that I did 10 days of my favorite books on there.  It was about the only time I have been consistent with FB in a while.   A book I read in June that  I highly recommend is "Freedom Riders: 1961 and the Struggle for Racial Justice by Raymond Arsenault". It's the book the PBS special was based on.  Phenomenal book!!!

I know this post was a wee bit disjointed, so I apologize for that, but writing at the end of the month and remembering what happened leads to that.

I hope your summer is going well and that you are able to stay cool!!

Hiding from all insects and bugs from here on out.....
Melissa

10 Random Things...

My writing binge of June has faded away, and ideas have come in but not enough for a whole blog, so I decided to revive a 10 random things entry, so July doesn't fly by without at least one.

#1.  Holy Cats has it been a HOT HOT and DRY summer!  It rained for about 5 minutes the other day and I was excited as a kid at Christmas!

#2.  Ice Blocks are back in stores...  I searched and searched last summer when family was in town last summer to no avail, this year, as they were visiting again, I FOUND them!!  We were able to revive a summer time tradition of tempting fate and injury and ice blocking down the hill at Sugarhouse Park.

#3.  Did you know that at the Winter Olympic Park in Park City you can do extreme tubing?  You cruise down the ski jumping hills and can reach speeds of 50 mph...  Here's a little video.. and I did it!

#4.  Sometimes you need visitors to come to town to become a tourist in your own area again.  It's fun  to do the things that on the surface seem touristy...  My tip, don't wait until someone comes to town, get out and explore your area so you know the really fun stuff.

#5.  I've started knitting stuffed animals to giveaway.  I'm leaning towards donating them to 'The Teddy Bear Cops Program' which gives them to cops for them to give to kids in accidents and other stressful incidents.  I've got to check to see if SLC has a program set up, if not I may start one up....

#6.  My tv viewing has plummeted this summer and I haven't even missed it....  It's going to be interesting to see what happens in the fall.

#7.  I have joined the ranks of Red Butte Garden Volunteers...  I am a second generation volunteer as my Mom is a volunteer as well.  I have done one shift and had a wonderful time.  I can't wait to have more opportunities to get involved.

#8.  Miss Bacall's favorite summertime activity is hanging out on the porch, so it has been a lot of fun to talk to all my neighbors and dogs as they stroll past....

#9.  My health journey is an adventure....  I am recovering, not as fast as I would like, but I am recovering.  There have been a few hiccups, but no major setbacks.  The main thing that has come out of this whole thing, I LOVE my medical team.  They are a mixture of traditional and for lack of a better word non traditional approaches and they work together!

#10.  Don't go into shock, but I am still rolling forward on my New Year's Resolutions!!!  My pushups are almost there!  My bad habit just got another reason to stay away.  My book challenge is going nicely, and for the most part, I have enjoyed the books.  I've seen movies in theaters!  My food challenge is keeping me on my toes in the kitchen.  My daily walk has had some misses, but has started a wonderful routine that connects me to my neighborhood.  The Weird Holidays have been SO MUCH FUN!!!!  and I now have others giving me suggestions now!

I hope your summer is going well!

Melissa

Here We Go Again...

Hi.

New Year's Resolutions get such a bad rap and a significant number of eye rolls, but I like them, so I am sticking with them and I ask that you don't throw anything at the computer/phone as you read what is coming up in this post....

Here we go for 2016!  (ok, I guess my first one should be to type 2016 within 4 tries....)

#1.  See a movie in a theater once a month.

        I managed to see 3 movies in the theater this year.  THREE!!!  It's not like I didn't have opportunities because I did, I just never seem to make it.  This also seems like a fun resolution to do.

Update:  I saw 15!!!!!!!  It was such a fun thing to do and I found out that I like going to the movies on my own.  I never thought I would say that...

#2.  Daily walk.

       As I went outside today and froze, I was questioning this a bit, but here is the thing, being outside is so dang good for me and an added little boost of exercise is never a bad thing either.  I'm not setting any conditions on this but, trusting that each day, I will make the right choice for me.

Update:  I missed on average 3 days a month but this was a sanity saver this year!

#3.  Celebrate a Weird/non traditional  Holiday a Month

        Why you ask?  Why not?  I found a great website that I made my selections from and have a plan.  I plan on writing about most of the adventures, so it will help keep me writing on here as well.
The link for the website is Here

Update:  I had so much fun with this!  I tried new things, ate new foods, and realized that there is an opportunity to celebrate everyday!

#4.  Validate the People in my life more.

        How often do you tell the people in your life they are loved? doing a good job? or that you appreciate how much they do for you?  I realized I could do a lot better in this.  I'm going to take different forms on how I do this, but I believe this is a good focus for the year.

Update: I did well with texts and phone calls, and I definitely told people what they meant to me, but I realized something this year that I really value the written word.  Sometimes you just need to put it on paper, so I will be incorporating that into my 2017 resolutions...

#5.  Classic Book Challenge

       Yep, the reading challenge is back.....  I LOVED doing this in 2015 and as I was finding my books, I realized one thing, I had not read a ton of the 'Top Books to Read' and in noticing this, I found that there are A LOT of Top 50, Top 100 book lists out there, and was wondering what list to do and then I found it.  This WEBSITE solved my conundrum, due to the fact, the person behind the website crunched all of the data from all of the booklists they could find and statistically ranked the books.  I am going to read the top 50 this year, which seems like a lot, but as you'll see due to last year and a little rule I put in, it's really quite doable.

Update:  I am not going to lie, this was rough....although I found some books that I loved, I also read some books that I never want to read again.

#6.  Don't Relapse on Things I have been Working on

       There is nothing more frustrating that having to start over once again.  My intention in setting this resolution is that I keep moving forward and not stall or slide back on any of the things that I have worked through or have found that keep me in the present.

Update:  I maintained in some areas and considering what I dealt with this year, I am a-ok with this.  Other areas, I moved WAY forward....

#7.  Break a Bad Habit

       I have a couple of bad habits that I want to break, but I am going to focus on one and then see where I'm at.  I may or may not keep you updated on here depending on which one I chose, but know that I am working on improving my life.  :)

Update:  Made progress on one, and completely eliminated one.  WAHOOOOOO!

#8.  Do a Food Challenge

      I found a Food Challenge from the same group that did my Reading Challenge last year and I decided to tackle it.   Here is a LINK to it.  I'm going to tweak it a bit, so there will be more information to come....

Update:  I have 6 items left to do, but this was a fun thing to attempt.

#9.  A Perfect Form Push Up

      Are you ready for a confession?  I struggle (and by struggle, I mean I am unable to do them correctly) with push ups, even the so-called and somewhat insulting (yet, appropriate for me) girl push ups.  It affects my yoga practice; it puts me at risk for injury due to weakness; and at the end of the day just ticks me off!!!  I have been doing research for a bit and have found a program that starts at a very beginner level and builds from there....  Wish me luck, I'm gonna need it.

Update:  I can do 1 really well!!  This was rough, especially with the health adventure I went on this year..

#10.  Bucket List stuff

       Were you getting worried that the item that has been on my Resolution list for the past 4 years wasn't going to make it?  Never fear, here it is....

Update:  Once again, I did ones I did not expect and didn't do ones I thought I would, but I still love this being a resolution, because it keeps it on my radar.

My list seems to get longer each year, but this one has a number of light hearted items, and I went with what felt right.

Here's to another year!
Melissa

A Change in Stitches

In October, an era ended for me....

I delivered my last batch of quilts to Primary Children's Hospital.

For the past 15 or so years, I have made at least 10 quilts a year, but normally 15,  and donated them.  It was a labor of love, but the time has come to change my focus.

So I thought in honor of the end of this era, I would do a post about my adventures in quilting....

my trusty sewing machine

I did a simple pattern found in a Woman's Day magazine many years ago.  You simply cut 7 inch squares, then sewed them into strips of 7 and then sewed nine strips together.  It ended up being about  a crib size quilt.

I did holiday themes, sports, animals and many others...

getting its batting on...

I loved searching out fun fabric to use...

Pirate Rubber Duckies, too cute!

They weren't always perfect and in alignments, but they were made with love...

A girly pink poodle quilt

They were a bit of work, but I enjoyed working on them...

Animals playing sports!

I decided to end the quilt donations due to one simple reason, the cost of making each one has SKY ROCKETED in the last two years..  :(  

Never fear, however, I still will be giving of my time, but just in a different form.. 

Instead of sewing with a machine, my stitches will be knitted.   I have been knittin' for kittens and have a few other knitting projects to donate in mind.

Still stitching....

Melissa