A Week of Wonders

The first wonder of the week, is either that we finally called a tree guy recommended by Dave and Bri, or that he came the day he said he'd come and cut down the dead cedar tree and trimmed out the largest of our poplars, which was half dead, in one day.

We had the best view on the balcony ...

All the mess on the ground here is the cedar tree pieces awaiting their turn in the chipper.

They finished by about six, and did an amazing an cleanup job.  

Our second wonder that day was being able to watch loved ones on the TV from Finland, as they celebrated 75 years of growth since the country received it's first mission president in 1947, Finland had been dedicated by Ezra Taft Benson in 1946.

Sister Anna-Leena Punnu Hartiala led the music.  Spencer met her on his mission in Canada, and hooked Dad up with her as facebook friends.  She moves back and forth fairly freely between the two countries, so we met her in Finland on our second mission, but met her sister Mimu Sloan on our first mission.

The missionaries sang the new Finnish Mission Song, in a choir for the event!

The wife of the area president's first counselor speaks with Noora Holopinen nee' Lehtinen, who translated for her. (The best translator I ever had in Finland, BTW)

And here the counselor in the area Presidency, Scott D. Whiting, has President Airto, a member of the Helsinki Stake Presidency, and son of our beloved Irma Airto, as his translator.

Also that wonderful day, its not such a wonder, but a pleasant surprise that LaVern and Ron stopped by.

In the midst of the wonders, I managed to decoupage this old clock case that's been kicking around in my basement for some 20 years ... see I really do eventually get around to things, that's a wonder too.

I used up most of a Little Golden Book of Alice in Wonderland to accomplished this Wonderland clock.

On Tuesday it was time to clear out the garden house.

Because I found the perfect flooring to make it more of 'Mad Hatter's Hat Shop', don't you think?  (The Ekins had it at their yard sale last month, and when I called, they still had it!)

Here is the floor as of Monday ... it is the second treatment ... when the house was built in 2012, it had a cream colored floor with a white stamped wallpaper type design.  It was originally themed as Chawton Cottage, the name of the house where Jane Austen did most of her writing.  After Ben's death in 2018 I redid did it, with the new floor, etc, as Ben's Bee Haven ... and decorated it with lots of yellow and bee theme stuff. 

Now its all ready for its latest transition, to the Mad Hatter's shop and tea party house. Where we can hold 'very merry unbirthday parties'. 

and in other wonderful news, we got all of the missionaries together for a picture, except that one had run to the rest room, without anyone noticing.  Oops.  Also one of our young missionaries had left, but still, its almost everyone.

It was also something of a wonder to see the couple we met two weeks ago, the Spradlins, with Irene Tukuafu as they traveled to start their mission.  The Spradlins had met initially when they were serving in Nauvoo and Irene taught Susan how to play dulcimer, Susan had posted the picture on her blog page.  

Another wonder occurred on Wednesday when I was working, and this woman, who is a native of Spanish Fork, noticed this nice large painting by Steve Swan.  The Swans evidently owned a grocery store in Spanish Fork back in the 50's through the 70's.  The father, mother and son of the family were all prolific oil painters, and displayed their work for sale at the store.  The gal who found this beautiful large painting, by the son, had purchased another forty years ago for $300, it was by the father ... the most wonderful thing of all is that it only cost her $30. 

After work, that day, I hurried home to pick up Dad so we could meet the Shumways and the Andersons (Who work in Becca's Real Estate office) for dinner before going to a play I had been looking forward to, Enchanted April, its a wonderful story, one of my favorites. 

Here we are after the play.  I was pretty disappointed in the play.  The book and movie, though they have a bit of humor in them, as mostly magical, mystical and romantic ... the play focused on the humor in the  work, and sort of caricature-ized the characters. Some fun, but not as lovely as I had anticipated.

At work the next day, I ran into the Kunzlers, their shirts are embroidered with Heber Valley Camp, which is where the Sevys are serving ... and yep, they know them ... out of the 80 sets of missionaries serving there, these two have the same assignment as Clark and Kimberly, and their trailers are parked next to each other. Wonder of Wonders ... Dad's favorite.

 I also ran into a very talented man named Clark Shaffer.  He has worked in set building and painting during his entire career.  An absolute artist.  He built one of Robert Downey Junior's Ironman suits, he worked on a set of the land Bountiful, which was built up Hobble Creek Canyon, but has since been torn down, he worked on the Church's Jerusalem set in Goshen, painted the woman, shown in the collage, and did the Taco Bell painting for a movie, (which made me think of Ben, of course) and then animated it for a scene, where a car drives by on the right for the movie.  All so cool ... and of course it was fun to see a picture of him with Elder and Sister Uchtdorf.

I added a couple of thermoses to this display ....

Then at home, I  set up these cool lion bookends on our 'monstrosity' in the library, so I could do a post of the items I had purchased with my prize money, last week at the Farm House Peddler. 

Charlie had a wonderful week too, because she got to travel to Seattle with friends doing dance-life stuff.

This sweet blast from the past showed up on Facebook by way of Megan's page.  She said this was the first time she was ever allowed to hold a real baby, and she was a big fan of babies, just like yours truly  ... the baby is Emily on her blessing day.  I thought it was the sweetest.  Babies truly are wonderful.

and speaking of wonderful babies, this one also showed up on line and made me smile ... maybe we can caption it, "Being an older sister is not all it is cracked up to be."  Yes, that's Bekie and Abby.

 

And just for fun, I took a picture of this little black calf who escaped under the electric fence at the walking path on Christensen's farm in Salem, where I met Ann to walk on Friday morning. 

Later that day I headed north to take a piece of Masonite to Eva, as she will be painting me a wonderland mural for the garden house ... now that is wonderful!!  I can't wait.

While in North country I stopped to see my friend Jami's new shop.  They've been working on this old church in Lehi for at least two years.  Jami used to be part of a group of sellers I belonged to, and later did some shows that I participated in, before getting her first store front.

Here are some shots of her store interior.

And here's the girl herself ... like Becca, she was doing so well in her start up, that her husband was able to quit work and come home so they could work together ... it takes an extraordinary woman to do that.

And speaking of women who own their own businesses, it was time for me to get to work on our fliers and posters for our upcoming sale.  Katie, Sherri's daughter, made up the basic pic for this poster, I added the background and info.

I also made this poster for the fence and got the dealer email sent out for the sale on September 10th.

Of course its no wonder at all that I spent my morning garaging on Saturday morning.  I had pretty good success, but nothing like Nell finding a traffic light that same morning!!

Dad meanwhile filled turmeric capsules for us to take, and for the first time, he also made Amla capsules ... Amla is also called Indian Gooseberry, and it is just about the highest antioxidant food on the planet,  and it is also good for hair growth!!  It will be wonderful if it works!! Oh Dad wants to add its also good for lowering bad cholesterol. 

Here's our healthy lunch ... with tomatoes from our garden.

Then the munch people invaded ... we love the munchkins and had so much fun, it was just wonderful.

The girls helped me unpack the decor to redecorate the Mad Hatter' Hat Shoppe.  They even checked out the hats ....

as did I.

They hung the new Alice banner.

Now its easy to see where Eva's Wonderland painting will go. 

Then its off to Kneaders for dinner to support their school fund raiser.

Then we headed to the Strap-tank Brewery Mall, as they were hosting a summer evening flea market and fair with live band music ... the kids loved the several rock vendors and found some treasures to take home ... I was charmed by this crystal crown ... how perfect for me for fairy parties ... Adi wants to go and get one too.  The gal that sold it to me, has a shop on Main Street in Spanish, so if she saves up her rubles she can buy her own ... or maybe just wait until I die, then she can inherit it.  Don't forget sweet Adi.  With any luck she can own and wear it at her wedding in 15 years ... it could be the 'something old', isn't that a wonderful thought?

Yes, I know, she wore it better.

Look at our stair steppers ...

When we got home we played Zilch, at the girl's request!!  Yes we did... then after Nenna, McKenna, Bobenna, Kenna errrr Ellie was too tired to finish up the game and headed to bed, I went out to take some pictures without the sunny blurr that is day time photography out there. Terry Kew gave me these cute Alice prints, she had picked up in a museum shop.  I think they are wonderful.

I added the wonderland clock ...

and the flamingo.

This morning, after church I took a picture of my morning glories ...  They make me so happy ...

As do my periodic rainbows ... My friend Mary gave me the book, and it wasn't until I started to read it that I realized what a perfect gift she had found me ... it about Susan Brand and her husband's  cruise to England and their subsequent two months traveling to all the places any self respecting Anglofile would traverse ... yes, Mary and I both love everything English, and it feels wonderful to be so understood. 

I hope you had some wonderful moments this week, and that you are looking forward to more wonderful people, travels, events and goodies in your life.  We think you're wonderful, by the way.