I love my mom because we rappelled out of a tree this Thanksgiving and she liked it. And did it again. :)

i won!

I am very excited to report that I won! So, true confession here, I love to hop around the internet looking at sewing and craft blogs and websites. It's especially fun to find all these young LDS mothers working hard to raise their kids yet still being successful businesswomen using all their talents. I've been admiring one, Toni from Australia, for some time now. She puts up fun patterns online that I've always wanted to try, but can't find them for sale outside of Australia. Long story short, I entered one of her online giveaways, and I WON!


You can look for this finished project on me soon. I will even stand in front of the beach to model it. I'm pretty excited. I hope Toni will mail to America... :)

UPDATE: Toni is mailing the pattern to me! And, should you care to see more of her patterns, they are available for sale in the U.S.

i miss musicfest...

... a lot.

For those of you who did not know me during those years, MusicFest was something I looked forward to all week. A small but dedicated core of individuals came together, each with one song to share, every week. I loved being introduced to new artists and genres. I took pleasure in the fact that I had a coveted job: disco ball spinner. (It's harder than it sounds.) One week, it was quite an honor to be the official MusicFest secretary when Amanda was absent. (p.s. Amanda, I want to read your blog still, but I can't.)

The longing has been growing in my heart. Andrew has always appreciated my eclectic taste in music, though I'm not sure he shares it completely. Though I have worn him down so that Sam Cooke and the Soul Stirrers counts as Sunday music.

As it is Thursday night, I would like to host my own personal MusicFest. I will be highlighting TWO groups as this is my own personal MusicFest and I can do whatever I want.

1. The Devil Makes Three
I am particularly smitten with two numbers, "Black Irish" and "Sweeping", neither of which can be found for free on the internet, apparently. However, I do have a video of them doing "Old Number 7" below.

Ironically, they played in Santa Barbara last month, but I had no idea, as I only discovered them tonight.

2. The Wailin' Jennys
They are Canadian. Andrew and I constantly play the "will you live there?" game and I am trying Canada on for size. If everyone sounds like this, the cold may be worth it. "Starlight" is below, but I have also been enjoying "Glory Bound". Rather similar to an old time love of mine, Alison Krauss and Union Station. (Alison and Robert Plant turned out remarkably well; I was very impressed with the whole CD Raising Sand, in particular, "Let Your Loss Be Your Lesson".)

Special thanks to my spouse who put up with me listening to lots of scratchy utube banjoing in the making of this post.