Our Number One House Cleaning Tip

Monday was Mary's house tour and snacks for me.  She and I both love all things British. She also subscribes to my method of house cleaning. I've been asking for a house tour for months, but she didn't think her house was up to being toured.  However, her brother and sister-in-law came to stay a few days last week, so she had to clean up for that.  That left her house tour ready.

The funny thing is that also have had some people wanting to tour our house.  So with a party on Thursday, I knew I could invite them to tour the next day.  Yep, that's how I get my house clean.  I plan a party and invite people then ...

Here she is with her cute puppy.

Yummies first

Loved her little desk, its a barrel desk, as opposed to a roll top desk, its like the one in the big guest room at home, only much smaller.  I've never seen such a small barrel desk.  She bought it at Treasures while I was on my mission.  If not I'd now have 7 desks instead of only 6, unless you count the one I have for sale at the mall.

Loved this stunning awning and she has another, I am hoping to negotiate a sale for.

Great idea for store lace in my craft room someday. It was a lovely afternoon.

Found this great quote on Insta.  I'm so grateful to have had a mother who taught me this as a child.

Which is really why Pollyanna is my hero. And coincidentally Tuesday morning was the day I put the final touches on Eleanor's Golden Birthday gift.  She is also a Pollyanna.  I gave them a Pollyanna Book in their Christmas basket one year, and Eleanor read it and loved it.  She has now read it more times than she can actually count.  So I thought her golden birthday theme should be perfectly Pollyanna

all wrapped up in cellophane.

Then it was off for some Kayaking with Ann's friend Janey.

Before heading in to work for Kathy, in trade for one of my Texas days ... but oops Kathy forgot and couldn't take my Texas day after all .... but I had a big project in mind for the store.  I hauled out a huge and heavy shelf to the yard, and got rid of a lot of my smalls, the ones that didn't sell well, and cleaned up this booth with a smaller shelf.  It looks so much better, and I have been selling stuff out of it all week. 

That evening I headed into The Grove Vintage to add some hats and the outfit Terry had given me to sell for her.  Aren't they cute?

Then I went to give Eleanor her birthday gift, on her birthday eve.  When I got there Penny showed me how they had placed the fairy garden, that used to be in the well at my house.

Here's Eleanor with her basket

Here are some of the things in the basket.  It was kind of fun, that as she pulled things out we talked about what they represented from the book or movie.  I realized that Eleanor had never seen a movie of Pollyanna, but somehow Penny knew a lot about the things I'd included.  Then we realized that Eleanor had read the entire book to Penny at some point.  Her parents weren't even aware of that.  What a joyful girl she is, and so service oriented.

She seemed to like all the goodies.

On Wednesday it was Eleanor's birthday, and this is the collage Dad posted for her.

Dad himself spent the day with these men work on fencing at Mosida while I was at work.

After work we met up with Trevor's family at Coasta Vida for dinner to celebrate the big day.

When we got home I finished up my craft room.  I had found all my orphan salt and pepper shakers in costume from different countries and got them out to display.  We'd been working like mad during every spare moment since Monday getting the house clean, because we were to have a Halloween dinner for the Mosida Missionaries who live in Utah County the next day, and I worked that day too.

 On Thursday, while I was at work, Dad worked his magic to get the exercise bike to the basement where we will be doing a gym room, which will include a sauna.  It had been in the family room for several months, but since we were getting the house all tidied up for the party, we thought it was time to move it down.  It was so tricky that Dad started texting me pictures about descending into the pit of despair. Poor Guy .. a circular staircase is always tricky anyway, and this was bulky and heavy to boot.  Thanks honey.

Someone at the mall had this sweet picture for sale ....

and I saw it when I went to see Keith's newly reworked booth.  He knows how I love cubby displays, and he always does an outstanding job at any display.

Dad had added the silverware to the place settings while I was at work, as well as doing some additional shopping and vacuuming, well you get the idea.

Here is a visual of our spooky menu.

Our satisfied guests at the end of the meal.

It was so fun. Four of these couples are being released this month, and we will miss them all so much.  It will be just four couples moving on into next year.

and while we are being all about spooky, I thought I'd share this picture Britt posted of Alex with an antique horse drawn hearse.

On Friday I had made arrangements to show the house to a couple of gals who had showed an interest.  The gal in black I met as she was walking up and down the sidewalk with a daughter.  I showed her the garden house that day, and said I'd call after a party I had clean the house for.  The other is a friend of Briahnna's who lives in Payson and expressed an interest.  I haven't done a tour to children before, but I think my degree in Elementary Ed, held me in good stead.  It was a lot of fun.

I loved the expression on the candy corn eaters face .... so much fun.

I took this picture to show the color of the Virginia Creeper on the fence.

Its turning on the house now too.

I just love how this one vine looks across the dental molding at the top of the picture.

I had bought some other colored pumpkins at work that needed to be painted to finish up our fence project.  Dad had looked for them at the dollar store and Walmart, and could not find any, not even for ready money. (Think cucumbers and The Importance of Being Earnest)

We left for Mesquit, Nevada about one, as Dad's cousin Cathie was having her Groom's dinner there at 6:00.

Here we are at her groom's house.

I loved his sense of whimsy in the placement of these sculptures in his entry hall.

We headed to Las Vegas and checked into our hotel, where I fell fast asleep almost immediately.

The next morning we spent several hours junking before heading over to Henderson for a visit with Claudia and Mark.  Claudia grew up next door to me in Bountiful, and Mark served his mission with Dad for about a year of over-lap.  They are both a year older than Dad and me.  They plan to move back to Utah, hopefully next year and we are looking forward to that.

Then we were off to the Las Vegas temple for Cathie's wedding.  You may recall that they use your maiden name in the temple sealing, so we were super surprised when the officiator started our by saying he was so glad to be there with Brother and Sister Perkins, reading off her maiden name instead of his surname .... hahaha, it took me a second to figure that out.

And here are the happy couple as they come out of the temple.

They really look so perfect for each other.  Likes they've been together for 50 years, don't you think?

Well, while we were in Nevada, Andy and Ashley found the time for a little disc golfing in the wild.

and speaking of wild ... I just love this artist on Instagram.  You should follow her if you don't already ... her work really tops the whimsy scale if you ask me.

So fun.

Then I thought I'd take a few after party pics of my slightly Halloweeny house.

There's those spray painted jacks with their repainted black facial details.

and a few of the very few Halloween bits ... definitely not a big decor year for us.

Today was Stake Conference, and it was so fun that the man sitting next to us used to teach with Grandpa Carlo at Taylorsville.  His name is Walter Schofield.

And here are our new Stake Presidency. Matt Siufanua is the first councilor, Isreal Zepeda, as President and Daniel Bradly.  Brother Zepeda had been the bishop of the Spanish Ward, Brother Siufanua had been on the High Couselor and Brother Bradly had been the Stake Executive Secretary.  All of them gave wonderful speeches and we expect great things from them.  (In fact brother Siufanua gave my favorite talk at the last Stake Conference.)

Darby invited us to dinner again, for some wonderful vegetarian enchiladas.  We had fun talking about horses, antiques, and remodeling.

Afterward we hurried to a fireside being held for Payson Temple workers.in Spanish Fork.  Elder Brooke Hales of the Seventy, and also the secretary to the First Presidency for the past 20 years spoke.  He gave an amazing talk about the history of ordinances, it was super interesting.

Afterwards we ran into Elder Olson, who worked with us at Mosida this past summer.  That was fun.