Per Perkins Perhe: Small Town Utah

Its Monday and here we are ready to leave Kanab and drive north. Surprisingly both sets of flowers made it home over a six hour drive in the trunk.

We drove over to Hurrican to the Gypsy Emporium, where this booth was full of symbols of middle eastern religions.

Like this carving. Next, we moved on to St. George where I spent an hour at the DI there.

We stopped in Cedar City for another DI visit and lunch at Applebee's.

On Tuesday I spent the day working on the garage with Dad, trying to organize things we needed to keep, and loading up things we wanted to pass on into the van, which Dad took to DI Springville later in the week.

Then he had a shift at the temple, part of the trades he's making to ready our schedule for summer vacations.

Here are some of the items that I took into Treasures, also in Springville, on Wednesday. I seem to be doing a lot with tea items and books., but then lately they seem to be my best sellers.

On Thursday I met Tina and we walked at the cemetery, noticing the cows in the adjoining field looking toward Salem. I thought the scene was very pastural.

I thought this was a happy way to decorate a grave.

At work on Thursday this gal came in to find pink items for a display she was doing. I thought she found some pretty unusual things.

Another gal bought these, 3 chairs, it made me think of the three bears...

On Friday Dad went to Ashley's in Orem and finished up getting her shower tiled.

Then was notified on his Facebook account that this is what he was doing on this day last year ... hhmmm that stuck us both as funny.

I worked on the garage a bit more, then loaded up goodies and headed to The Grove in Pleasant Grove for my one day a month. This little gal was one of the most persistent little beggars I've ever seen, but she had a patient, Dad. Can you tell she is saying PPPLLLEEEAAASSSEEEE?

I brought in this little red table, the pendants and the blue calico pot.

Also, this little witch picture and cement column base.

After work I headed home as soon as possible and picked up Dad so we could head to Genola to Gabe Moyar's wedding reception, we got there at 6:55, which went to 7:00, and the bride had left to change. We talked to the few people we knew and got to wave sparklers at the end.

I thought the boutonnieres were the nicest I'd ever seen.

On Saturday we headed down to Spring City via Nephi and Fountain Green, for the annual historic home tours there. Most of the houses would be considered cottages, and the amenities and decor made them very comfortable.

Here Dad met up with Craig Paulsen, who grew up with him in the same ward in Cottonwood, though Craig was 6 years older than Dad.

His brother Fred is the same age as Dad. When Fred decided that he was not going on a mission their Dad, Cy, took Dad to Salt Lake to be fitted for Fred's suit and donated it to him for his mission.

He has a lovely, larger home in Spring City, and also several smaller structures, including this carriage house which was rebuilt after having fallen down for the most part.

Craig donated this old yellow rock that had once been part of the barn, shown behind, to our memory wall.

Here's a house nearby made with the same stone. All of the little towns in a row, from Fairview to Manti have houses of this color, and likely from the same quarry, including the Manti Temple. It's so charming.

Many of the homes are owned by artists. When I asked this gal about this painting, she said she was a student of Randall Lake's. He suggested they go out in an apple orchard and look up to paint what they saw. We were at the University of Utah, in University Village with Randall Lake and his wife back in 1975. He is one of the main artists here in this colony. I am hoping I can copy it. She gave me permission.

We went over to the art auction at the old school, and here are a few that I liked.

This portrait reminded me of my niece Alicia.

Several houses had slanty ceilings in bedrooms upstairs.

I enjoyed these very pretty poppies against the white picket fence, though they were a bit past their prime.

We ran into Jill and Doug Wilson at this house, they have plans to build a charming old-style home here in the near future. They have been divided out of our ward, so we rarely see them.

I just loved this house with its Dutch tiles.

Here's the full effect. We were ready to head home, by then and decided to drive by the following three in case one looked interesting.

The aprons hanging on lines around the house looks very interesting.

How pretty is the woodwork here.

How charming is this little reading corner.

This gentleman is a tramp art collector, and he had some fun items.

Bright 50's table clothes.

One of several tramp art wall shelves.

More table clothes, and I think he bought the cute cherry fabric lined bushel basket from me.

Another tramp art piece. No, I don't mean Dad.

Then we headed over to the Grainery, that has been made into one room home, including a kitchen corner, and bathroom. So charming.

Another tramp art shelf.

Adorable table, can you tell it was my favorite home?

A scrap made union jack pillow.

Dad even ran into a couple of old friends. They didn't have much to say...

My favorite shelf.

Last of all we dropped by the local antique store. I loved this painted chest. I ran into Robbi Lamb a dealer that works at Treasures North, and also, evidently with the owner of this antique store and an estate sale company too.

and a cheerful hollyhock painting.

And the 'piece de resistance', an old thread cabinet is adorable ... I thought it would be perfect for displaying my favorite buttons.

Here is one of the trays. It was begging me to take it home.

On the way home we drove though Mount Pleasant and picked up subs from Subway. Then north through Fairview, where my early Larsen ancestors lived. What a pretty town. Then it was through the former town of Thistle, before gassing up in Spanish Fork.

Some people have managed to break free of small-town Utah, as we view Randy, Barb, Zac, Kelsey, and her in-laws in Tokyo.

And a little closer to home is Brittany in Meridian with a few of her colleagues from 12 years of PTA. With Charlie moving on to Junior High this fall, its looks like Brittany's days of hosting the best ever Teacher Appreciation Events ever!! I've been there, they were amazing.

As you know Kai is still hiking the Appalachian trail, where he is finding some charming towns as well. Here he is showing his shoes that have walked 1,000 miles, next to his newly purchased shoes of the same style.