Parties, and Concerts and Art Shows, Oh My.

We started our week in Dad's favorite way, we ran into folks from our Orem ward, the Steels who now live in Genola at Walmart as I was shopping for tea party food.  When we got home I worked, and worked and worked on party matters.  I set the tables and dragged Jane Austen books from three different rooms on three different floors to use as the centerpieces for the Austen Tea the next day, to celebrate the 250th anniversary of Jane Austen's birthday the next day.

I got a break later in the day when I took Adi and McKenna shopping for long dresses to wear to the party.  Dad dropped by to change keys with me, as he said my keys to the Jeep would likely not open the doors.  YIKES,  But it made for a fun photo op.

I finished up all the goodies for the favor box shown here.  Making the little tags for the rings and the tea bags, and finishing up a few more folding bookmarks. The heart is a fridge magnet, and the pictures are Austen Stickers.  There's a turquoisesque ring, because Austen wore one, it was her only ring.

Dad headed off to Barbershop that night, and I got started baking, making the scones.

I made food in earnest on Tuesday.  These are asparagus wraps.

I set the tables up; this is the hot water and tea caddy for tea.

For non-tea girls, there were two kinds of hot chocolate mix, with two edible stirring spoons, peppermint and chocolate.

Here are Ginger Snaps with blue cheese (A Finnish favorite), Pecan pies, and sugar free blueberry tarts.

The mushrooms on oversized crackers were my favorite looks wise, but the crackers got soggy.  I'll be rethinking this one.

Dad headed off to the Stake Center for his Presidency Meeting, and the ladies started to gather.

Everyone was dressed up and it was so fun.

Then we all headed out, I'm putting out the scones here.  Several ladies brought other treats.

Here's the whole group, all 27 of us. 

Back in the house we had a gal from our ward, Shelley Taylor show us a Jane Austen quilt that she made with her quilt group.  It's a copy of one that Jane and her sister Cassandra completed over several years. We know the particulars because when the sisters were apart, they would include comments about finding fabrics to complete it in their letters.  The original now hangs in Chawton Cottage.  A few years ago a gal from Utah got permission to take pictures of the individual pieces and she engineered the reprinting of these fabrics and made-up kits.

We had people in both the dining room and parlor, so Shelley did her presentation in the archway between.

Afterwards I got a picture with Heather Graham from whom I bought this picture sometime last month at the capitol.  Some how it came up that I was doing this party and I invited her.  How cool is it that she actually came.  She is really very nice, and lives in Elkridge.

I took her and Barb on an art tour of the house.  That was a lot of fun for me.  Heather knows the gal who painted this tiny (Business card art show) painting.  I mentioned it in an earlier post about how the gal had painted an entry for the Churches Art Competition, and it had been accepted into the show.  This tiny painting is a copy of that, and Heather was familiar with it, and was surprised to see the small copy.

Here I am with Nadine, who actually went out and bought an outfit for the party.  How charming does she look.

Here is Davin with his girls, he spent his time in the library working on his computer.  We loved having him here.

Here I am with Nell and her girls.

Eva, Brittney and Cam

Cousins.

My friend Heather Barkley, Julie Smith's daughter, went all out.  How cute is she?

Time for pictures and Cam wanted to take hers first.  Have you ever seen anything cuter?  It's a real working camera.

Fortunately, Barb loaned me her phone for this one, as it deals with light much better than mine does.

Saint Dad picked up all the dishes in this tote, and then filled it with soapy water, how clever is he?

I was off at work, where I found a handful of tiny feather tree ornaments to augment my pair of trees on the mantel.  I sent this picture to my friend Keith to get a friendlier price. 

On Thursday, I loved this Christmas scene that one of our customers has built into an antique TV set.

Dad stopped by when I got done with work, and he got done with some interviews at the stake center, so we could head to SLC to see Debbie's art group's small art show and sale.

My brother Bruce was there too, along with Dianne.  Did you know that Debbie introduced them after Aunt Jane passsed away?  They've been married for some 30 odd years now.  Next to Bruce is Debbie son Andrew, who is Trevor's age (Debbie and I were at LDS hospital at the same time when we both gave birth to our first sons, how fun is that?)  In the green is Dianne's daughter Debra.

Here's the girls.

And Dad with Debbie and the lovely wild rose still life we took home.

On Friday Dad was off doing singing Christmas greetings.  I meanwhile was at the antique mall again pricing and putting out product.  Our bosses have decided we should not work on doing that when we work.  So, we sit around and play on our phones when its slow, or in my case read books, then we have to come in at other times to bring product. 

And guess who went to the ballet?

Yes, it was the northern contingent of the Perkins family!

How fun is that?

And here is Charlie with her Violin Teacher too! Yeah, recital fun!

On Saturday I drove to SLC with Dad and dropped him at this church so they could practice for this show.  I then headed to my favorite DI nearby and shopped for a couple of hours.  I returned and met with Nadine, as she loves Barbershop.  The show was a lot of fun, but I forgot to get a picture of us. She gave me a ride home on her way to meet up with her son.

The was a late afternoons show ...

That included the Workman family, who are very talented.

Here's the whole group.

Here's a side shot that includes Dad during the warm up.

Another candid shot Dad borrowed that includes himself taking a picture.

Probably this picture which shows the evening groups.

Dad told the kids that all he wanted for Christmas was their attendance at his show.  What great kids we have.

Here's our Dave.

Afterwards Dad and his kids went to the Pizza Pie Cafe.

cousins

I just love cousin time.

Trevor and Nell were having their famous White Elephant Gift exchange ... they really made out ...

But Eva couldn't resister commandeering her Mom's, oh so interesting 'Belly Bag'.

And speaking of interesting,  Thane Teleford, who was famous as a greeter at the Walmart in Payson, for many years, because of his friendly attitude and funny hat collection, passed away this past week.  His grandson Thane Teleford Kennedy, who is the second counselor in our stake presidency (and husband to Chelsea Cooper) let Dad know about it.  An interesting man, who eventually lost his job there, as much as most everyone adored him, because a Karen complained.   Now Dad has a super fun funeral to look forward to. 

Of course its a RED LETTER day when your oldest grandchild turns 27, where oh where has the time gone.  We just love this girl, and we had so much fun getting to know her better on the cruise. 

Church was lovely today with songs, scriptures and talks about the Savior and his birth.  After church we headed to the care center where Aunt Karen has been living for a couple of months.  She was in bed, and thus we didn't take a picture, but had a lovely, lovely visit.  This picture by WW Perkins was hanging over her bed.  When we got home, Dad got a message from her stepdaughter Rosie saying that she had quit eating, and that they would be having hospice come in this week.  I guess that's why she was napping in the daytime.  Bless her heart for being willing to attempt conversation with us.  She is truly a great lady.