Finnish Food and Football Fun

And it begins again ... this time with us tidying the house and switching things up a bit.

Like adding more carved wood to balance out all the white frames on this wall.

As we were getting ready to host another Finnish connections dinner.

On the left is a the Bairds and their son Mitchel, who served in Finland in the 90's.  On the right is Randy and Janet Williams, he served right after Dad came home, and they are headed to Finland to do a MLS mission after the first of the year.  Of course we had rye bread, salad with cucumbers and salmon soup. 

On Tuesday we headed out to Mosida where the guys work on getting working batteries into all three trucks. (Elder Child and Dad)

And the gals worked on raking up leaves on the grass around the lodge. (Lavern Crump, Patricia Child and Julie Smith)  Of course we finished up with a great lunch together.

On the way home we stopped to see if there was any art at Peteetneet, that we were interested in.

I liked this one and 

this one, but have decided to wait until after the 100 dollar show next week.

On Wednesday at work, my friend Mary brought in this doorway arch that we worked a trade on last week.  I just love it, but we thought it was too much here ....

and here.  We have a couple of other spots in mind, so when you come for Thanksgiving you will see where we decided to place it.

At work on Thursday I worked hard to get out more goodies, including this cute book shelf I picked up in Texas ... there is still a lot more, though.

Trevor's work is sponsoring help for a local food bank, and its fun to see ....

him so happy serving others.  Of course his family's big service project is next month, and we hope to be able to help them with that.

Friday was a great day, but no pictures.  Dad spent a lot of it mowing up leaves, but he gets lots of steps in when he does that, in fact he ended up with 23,025 steps that day...  which is about 8 and a half miles, so way to go.

I took one of my ministering sisters out to Olive Garden for lunch, then we headed to the Grove, where I put some new product on the shelves.  We had a good time.  The new store is doing soooo well.

Next it was a temple date, and the first time we have used the find a name app.  I was so excited that the only one available for me was my 8th great grandmother.  How cool is this. 

Then Saturday morning we headed over to the Springville Art Museum.to see Eva and Lu receiving awards for a student art show they had entered.

It was so great to see them all.

and of course wandering around an art exhibit is always a favorite activity for me.

Love these peeps.

Then Dad and I headed to Treasures, where he helped me put together a display, then he headed off to BYU for the final game of the season.

While I headed to the Provo library for their book sale.

I sorted the books and videos I had bought, into gift baskets finds, keepers, and stuff for the store.  This is my stack, and I have decided to just read through them in the chance order in which they fell.

Dad was with Trevor, Lu and Penny, but here he is shown with Spencer as well.

Penny and her cougar tail.

And Van with his two grandpas, since this is who Spencer was with. 

We also celebrated Mac's birthday.

We headed to Orem this evening for a senior missionary fireside.  I was faked out by this horse in the back of an open truck ... yikes, then figured out it was a statue.  Hahaha. 

When we got there we ran into the Damerons from our Orem ward.  They are serving a mission working with Military Relations missionaries. 

We laughed at this quote from Neil A. Maxwell. 

And here we are with Dana DeWitt's sister, on the far right.  Since the Crumps went to school with her and her husband we got a picture of us all.

And here's Dad manning our booth.   There was a fireside first, with inspirational talks about the different types of service missions available in Utah County.  It was pretty interesting.  

We hope that you all had fun too. 

 

Changing Seasons

Goodbye Talleys ... Monday morning we left Emily's home about 7:30 A.M. and headed home.

Emily later sent this picture to say that our stay had put her in the mood for Japanese food.  Us too.

On the way home Dad stopped at one antique store in a town called Quanah.  The shop was called Rustic Relics and had this wonderful old 8 foot tall English China Cabinet, even taller than mine.  I loved it and you just don't see these, other than in restaurants.  It was only $750, amazingly.  I keep thinking about that. 

We stayed in Albuquerque that night, in a hotel in such a seedy neighborhood, that they lock the parking lot.  Yikes, we skipped going to dinner that night, as we were nervous to leave.  The hotel did have a great breakfast though, and heck, who needed dinner after snacking in the car all day.

Back at work on Wednesday, and I redid this dresser top, using some of the stuff that had been in the Halloween display.  Then boxed up the other Halloween stuff for next year.  I also put out all the various items I had gotten from a gal before I left.  So much stock in the supply line at the moment.

That night Dad and I started watching the Castle Make-over episodes of the castle we had just seen.  I can't tell you how much we loved it.  Having a solid frame of reference for the castle, so enriched the experience.  It was also fun to see the man who had been on our tour in the first episode.  We went on to watch the other three by the end of the week.  So all Castle All The Time. 

I brought in the Christmas stuff I had gathered over the year on Thursday, not as much as I thought.  I loved the Christmas corsage in a sort of funky fifties style.  The gray dress was the perfect place to display it.

My Friend Mary came in and bought this cute little gumball machine as a Christmas scene that Kathy A, had made.  She and I also managed a trade with some of the Texas stuff I had brought in to sell.

I got home to see this cute harvest site.  Dad had taken down the jacks off the fence posts.  We enjoyed them so much this year.  He said the big one, which was over a ball instead of a spike, and is thicker, because of its size, was a real wrestling match to get off.

He also wanted me to include this picture of the snow on his car that fell when he was doing his Wednesday temple shift, he also worked at the temple on Thursday.

Emily sent this fun smily picture of Johnny.  It made us smile too.

Becca got to meet him in person on Thursday as she spends a few days helping Emily celebrate this wonderful addition to their family.

Thursday night we had a game and card making night.  Mostly people played yahtzee, like me,

Or brought their own handiwork.

or just visited.  It was nice and low key.

When I got home, Dad and I decided to watch this movie that your cousin Rachel had recommended on Insta last week.  It was perfect for our castle frame of mind.

On Friday I went to the Grove to replenish my stock, which meant more display building.  This bucket is in the window in the restroom.  It is also the bucket I found at DI several weeks ago, on a day when Jenn's mom was shopping there.  I took it over to her, and she bought it and put it to use. 

Loved this sweet and funny sock that my friend Marci had on display.  I found several things to take home.  

And as it turns out, we were not the only ones visiting the American South last week!!

Dad posted this picture of his platoon from when he finished basic training back in 1972 for Veterin's Day.

On Saturday, after building displays for 3 days in a row, I finally got out the little tea set I got at First Monday Trade Days.  I thought it was a cute addition to my turquoisish transferware collection.  

Isn't it the cutest?  Circa 1880s.  This room will soon be getting a bit of a makeover.  I can't wait.

and in the mood for changing out, I moved this 1880 aesthetic transferware full size tea set from the angel desk where I had put it before our trip to Texas.  Yep, the rest of my china from this period is in my dining room hutch, so it makes sense to move it in here.

and I changed out some things to put a Thanksgiving display on the hutch. 

Yep, I resisted the urge to put up Christmas, though I may weaken and put up a tree in the family room before Thanksgiving, but definitely not the main tree.  The little plaque in the middle is a carved wood look with pilgrims I found at Treasures about a month ago.

Here is the pastel pot collection in the angel desk top, where I had had the brown tea set for all of two weeks.  Hmmm, not sure I like it here at all, though.  alas...

Alex posted this picture that day as he is now an officer in a one of his high school clubs.  Way to be involved Alex!!

That evening Dad and I headed over to Woodland Hills to an art show.  Rose Datoc Dall is definitely my favorite contemporary artist.  I was so thrilled to go and see her house, if nothing else.  And of course was very excited to meet her.

Here we are at Rose's house.

Dad liked this one of Samuel the Lamanite.

This painting is done on the back of an antique child's school desk seat by an artist who loves old patina.  I was at Treasures the day she bought the desk.  She asked me to take the back piece off then gave me the rest of the desk.  This is the first time I have seen the painting.

This gal was so tickled when I bought a small painting from her.  Her name is Haily South ...

Her little oval painting of Ofilia is behind another little portrait I got last year when we went with the Kews to Kirk Richards Business card size art show. I think they make a lovely pair.  And speaking of artists, the doll is also a lovely piece from a favorite artist.  Netty's Gnomes have almost become an accidental collection.  I traded her, when she was alive and shopping at Treasures for one doll, paid her a hundred and a half for a second, then Dad surprised me by commissioning  an Elfaba doll from her.  Now when I see them at estate sales or other places, I can't pass them up.  I now have a collection of around 20.  Yikes, this little gal, that matched my bedroom pallet was found a couple of months ago at DI for $4. 

Here is some of Rose's work.

Here she is selling this painting she did for the show.  I really love it.

and here she is with me, with a painting of Eve behind.  The work is a bit more that 5,000, and I know I want an original of hers.  I told Dad maybe I would save up for a year and buy one next year.  I know ...

I also really loved this painting, and Dad encouraged me to buy it.  It was 650, and I was very tempted, but figured I can't buy it if I am saving for a real Rose Dall. 

She is so amazing.

Today we had a lovely sabbath, though it was weird being at church and knowing the Kews are gone.  We also got to see this Young Adult Fireside in Finland where Elder Holland spoke.  To the right of him, in the photo, is Sister Kervinen, and it was so fun to watch her, and her reactions, it was sort of like watching it with an old friend.  After they are released we'd like to go back to Finland and visit them.  Such wonderful people.