Various & Sundry Monday: Vol. 29

How incredible it is that in this fragile existence we should hate and destroy one another. There are possibilities enough for all who will abandon mastery over others to pursue mastery over nature. There is world enough for all to seek their happiness in their own way. –Lyndon B. Johnson

Batiks, Baby!
One of my goals for this year is to start collecting a nice stash of batiks, and I think I'm well on my way now. I ordered these from Connecting Threads. They have a great selection that is very reasonably priced. I wanted batiks that look like they've been watercolored, but they have some amazing prints too and the best part is they sell fat quarters at linear yardage prices. They had a sale on a few of their batikss when I ordered my FQ's, so I practically stole a couple of these pieces.

The Last of the Peonies
Peonies definitely have the "less is more" thing down. At the very most, they started blooming in my yard 3 weeks ago, and they're all pretty much done. I missed showing you a few the later blooming ones and I very nearly missed showing you Bartzella. There was only one bedraggled bloom left when I finally made it out to take pictures. I tried to knock an ant off, and also got the petal it was sitting on. Bart is supposed to be yellow. He looks very pink in this photo, but he bloomed more coral and less pink than it looks here, with a hint of yellow in there. I suspect the color has to do with the acidity content {or lack thereof} in the soil. In any case, Bartzella made a beautiful showing this year and I'm looking forward to tinkering around to see if I can get the flower color to the yellow it is supposed to be.

Monday Music Spot: Rockebel's Cannon

Avilable for purchase from The Piano Guys or in iTunes.

Story behind the song:
Ask any cellist. They'll tell you about what's it's like to play the cello part of Pachebel's Canon in D. It's the same 8 notes over and over and over again. The good news is, it's easy to memorize. The bad news is you don't know when to stop. There's a rumor floating around that says Pachelbel either died while writing it, never finishing the cello part, or that he dated a cellist and it did NOT go well . This arrangement is dedicated to all the cellists that have fallen asleep while playing this song...or at least wanted to fall asleep. Steven Sharp Nelson actually began writing this arrangment while bored at a wedding >.

Ahem ... all the bitter cello-malice aside, Pachelbel's Canon in D (written in the 1600's) has stood the test of time — celebrated as the most recognizable piece of classical music. We like to call it the "one-hit wonder of the 1600's" . It really is an amazingly-catchy piece of music. It demonstrates the musical form of the "canon," when a melody is played and then repeated in a round by other voices (watch how the melodies are passed from one cello to the next — right to left).

ALL THE SOUNDS YOU HEAR WERE CREATED BY THE CELLO — bowing, plucking, strumming, and beating the cello any way possible.

This arrangement was actually written before ThePianoGuys posted our first video, "Michael Meets Mozart" — but we hesitated filming it because of how involved the idea was. We've never used "extras" before! And the thought of staging a wedding, directing extras, and cloning Steve 4 times all in one video-shoot made us justifiably anxious. So we put it off. And put it off. And then put if off some more. One day Al van der Beek was skimming through our thousands of messages on Facebook and happened to see one with the title "wedding" in the subject line. A woman had emailed us about an opportunity to film at a big magazine-spread wedding photo shoot. It was perfect — they would have the location, flowers, actors, and even a cake. Everything we'd need. To make a long story short, we excitedly scheduled our video shoot for the same day as their photo shoot, but a few days prior to the day it fell apart. After much discussion we determined to move forward on faith that we could still work it out. Paul Anderson marshaled all sorts of connections and called on whomever he could and by nothing short of a miracle in a matter of days the wedding was all planned — complete with a beautiful location, stunning decor, sharp tuxedos, fancy flowers, a photogenic bride and groom, 60 energetic guests, and an iced cake!

The piece at the beginning that is just ending is Steven Sharp Nelson's 4-cello arrangement of "Thanks Be To Thee" (att. to Handel). Available for purchase (track 7 on the album "Tender Mercies") from The Piano Guys. Sheet music also available for purchase.

Thanks to our many "cameos" we're reluctantly-proud to admit that this is the first video where you can SEE ALL FIVE PIANO GUYS! Everyone appeared as themselves, except for Jon who got a little carried away with his characters .

A HUGE thank you goes out to our vendors that made this wedding look so amazing. Please visit their sites and use them if you're planning a wedding!

Bell Tower
Forever More Events
Bloomers

Another huge thank you goes out to all our extras — family and friends that sacrificed an afternoon to make our little wedding look the part! You were all fantastic!

And another thank you goes to Robin Saville of Bride Access who helped Steven Sharp Nelson conceptualize this video.

Credits
Canon in D written by Johann Pachelbel (1600's)
Arrangement written and produced by Al van der Beek & Steven Sharp Nelson
Recorded, mixed, and mastered by Al van der Beek at TPG Studios
Video produced by Paul Anderson & Tel Stewart
Starring
Steven Sharp Nelson, cellists
Paul Anderson, himself
Al van der Beek, himself
Tel Stewart, himself
Jon Schmidt, minister and hip old lady
Shalley Sorenson, bride
Zach Sorenson, groom
Nicole Alfano, Wedding Coordinator

Various & Sundry Monday: Vol. 28

I believe all suffering is caused by ignorance. People inflict pain on others in the selfish pursuit of their happiness or satisfaction. Yet true happiness comes from a sense of peace and contentment, which in turn must be achieved through the cultivation of altruism, of love and compassion, and elimination of ignorance, selfishness, and greed. –Dalai Lama, 1989 Nobel Peace-Prize Speech

Eclipse

Yesterday there was a partial eclipse of the sun here. What a cool event to witness! Mr. Bug rigged us up a shadow viewer and we watched as it progressed. I fiddled with my camera settings, hoping to increase the pixel area/photo size. Instead I decreased it and ended up with teeny tiny photos with even teenier tinier images of the shadow of the eclipse. My little photo is almost not worth sharing, except the next time an eclipse will be visible in Utah is in 60 years.

The eclipse, which was annular {meaning the moon appears too small to cover the sun completely and leaves a ring of light around the moon} was fully visible in California. This is a photo of the actual eclipse.

{Photo: AP Photo/Shuji Kajiyama}

Dog Ear Confetti
These little bits of fabric and paper are the dog ears of 936 half-square triangles. Each square has two triangles and each triangle has two dog ears, that makes a total of 3,744 dog ears {give or take} in this little pile.

I'm doing a half-square triangle swap. I figured out how many 2" HST's I'd need to make a nice lap-sized quilt and then pulled fabrics from my stash. Our swap group used triangle papers that let you sew 12 HST's all at once. It is almost like paper piecing, but not quite. You put your two fabrics right sides together, put the paper on top and use it as a template for sewing and trimming. When you finish, the half-square triangle still needs to be pressed open and you have paper to remove from one side. I did 78 sheets and used a different print fabric for each one. It took me a week, but I am done! I kept four of each of my color combinations {312 HST's} and sent the rest {624 HST's} to be swapped out for HST's made by other members of the swap. Let the record show that I was finished and had my swaps in the mail a full 10 days before the deadline.

I won't be so on top of things with the Sesame Street quilt. Cookie Monster has been giving me the old stink eye for about a week-and-a-half now. I'm going to be right on top of the deadline for the first of three quilt shows, if I don't miss it completely. Besides Cookie Monster's other eye and the rest of his face, I have six other blocks to finish, and then there's assembly, quilting and binding all to get done by June 8^th. It is such a fun quilt to work on and I'm still really excited about it, so I hope that enthusiasm will help me get it finished in time.

Peony of the Day
I have 17 peony plants in my gardens. 13 of them are blooming this year and I intend to show you them all. I still had my camera set to stupid a smaller pixel/photo size, so pretty much what you see here is what you get.

This is Bowl of Beauty. It is kind of the teacher's pet, because I bought this as a dry root start {I know there is a name for it, but I've been trying to remember for days and can't} and usually it takes three years for those kinds of starts to actually produce flowers. This one bloomed right out of the bag {literally} the first year I planted it. I love that kind of self-motivation.

This is Félix Crousse. He's not quite completely open, but look at that beautiful color! Félix & Beauty are right next to each other and they look so pretty together.

And to wrap up, this is my second Karl Rosenfield plant. The first one bloomed last week and now this one has buds starting to open. I has been really fun to see the peonies bloom this year.

Favourite Things Friday: Peonies

The flowers of late winter and early spring occupy places in our hearts well out of proportion to their size. –Gertrude S. Wister

Spring flowers are my favorite. It is probably because they have the less is more thing down pat. They bloom for two weeks and then you have to wait another 50 weeks to see them again. After a long, dreary winter, those first beautiful colors of spring are miracles to me. I have a serious thing for tulips and peonies.

I have 17 peony plants, of which only three are repeats. All but four have buds on them this year {and those four are going to be relocated to see if they'll buck up and grow already} and I am so excited, because three of those 13 with buds on them are new bloomers this year. A couple of the plants in sunnier spots have started to bloom already and that's my favorite thing today.

{As a side note, my dad told me the other day that his grandma was a member of the Ogden Garden Club. Her specialty was roses and she would go out and use rolls and rolls of film taking pictures of her gardens. It must be hereditary.}

This peony is called Karl Rosenfield. I have two Karl Rosenfield plants. This one is on the south side of the house, so it is a little ahead of the other plant, which will be blooming any day now. Their color is so eye-catching.

This is Top Brass. There are six different bloom types for peonies. This one is called a double bomb and it is a good 7" across. I love the yellow in the center of this pretty white peony.

This peony was named after the man who discovered penicillin, Dr. Alexander Fleming. This is one of my oldest peonies as well as one of my favorites because of its beautiful pink color.

I'm sure you're wondering what is so interesting about this peony that hasn't even bloomed yet. I was going to wait to post about it until it did actually bloom, but I'm so excited about this bud that I'm giving you a sneak preview of something amazing to come.

This is a hybrid of a tree peony and an herbaceous peony {all of the other peonies I have are of the herbaceous variety and they are the most common}. What that means is that this looks like a regular garden variety peony, blooms like one and you take care of it the same way you would a regular peony. What it gets from the tree peony side of its family tree is stems strong enough to support the giant blooms that appear in mid-spring, which is a definitely plus for a peony. All of my other peonies have support rings around them, but they still bow over with the weight of the giant flowers they produce. Ironic, isn't it?

This hybrid is called Bartzella and its blooms are a beautiful lemon yellow. They are so beautiful that there was quite a to-do when it was first introduced 10ish years ago. Cuttings were selling for $200 a pop. I bought my start five years ago for the much more reasonable sum of $49 {plus shipping}. I've never paid that much for a plant {that wasn't a tree} and never will again because $49 {plus shipping} for a hybrid shrub it is just too sad for words. Generally speaking, if a perennial plant doesn't bloom by its third year, it probably sterile and won't bloom. You can move it and see if it likes a different spot better, but most of the time that doesn't help. I'd pretty much given up on old Bart here because he was supposed to bloom two years ago. But I suppose that good things come to those to wait. I counted nine buds on Bartzella this afternoon! I can't wait to see if the yellow bloom color lives up to all the hype.

Today's post brought to you by:

Various and Sundry Monday: Vol 11

Continuous effort is the key to unlocking our potential.
–Winston Churchill

Monday = Rain = Music Spot
Okay, so it wasn't as rainy as the other rainy Mondays. It was just a 10-minute shower and the sun came right out after. This is was more in line with what we expect as far as rain goes in Utah. But it is Monday and it did rain today. So I thought I'd mention it and post a song that is vaguely related.


Snowball Night: Week 54½

The ditch work is done; let the fun begin!

The water soluble thread I ordered is on back-order. I was going to use that for stitching in the ditch because I really like the stability that it provides. But with a little encouragement from Lane {and because I didn't want to wait any longer}, I decided to get to it with the quilting thread. I even did the 192 starts and stops on the diagonals on the snowballs. It took forever. But if it's worth doing, it's worth doing right. Right? Here's a peek at one of the blocks from the front.

Peony L♥ve

{First-time bloomer: Barrington Belle}

{Long-time favorite: Félix Crousse}

{First-time bloomer: Gay Paree}

500^th Post
This is my 500^th post. That's a lot of writing. A really lot. I'd planned to have a little something in the way of a giveaway to commemorate, but I only got to the planning stages. 500 is kind of a huge milestone, so maybe we'll commemorate after Grandma Week {which starts tomorrow} is over. Thanks for hanging in there with me, for reading and commenting and being a witness to my life.

I Must Ask . . . What Is Your Favorite Season?

Live each season as it passes; breathe the air, drink the drink, taste the fruit, and resign yourself to the influences of each. –Henry David Thoreau

Where I live, we enjoy the four seasons, each in its extreme. Winter brings cold and snow; spring, a renewal of life; summer, the need for air conditioning to keep from melting to the sidewalks; and fall, the turning of the leaves and the earth quietly going to sleep for another winter. Of those four seasons, winter is my least favorite and I could skip it every year. Some people who live around here do. They're called 'snow birds' and they have winter homes in the southern part of the state, where it stays pretty mild. I love the fun that summer brings and autumn is definitely beautiful as all the leaves change color as they burn out their last bit of life.

For me, spring is my favorite season. I love spring. The weather is mild, the days get longer and the earth is comes to life. Long-forgotten plants push up through the ground and bloom anew. Spring is really a miracle.

And not to miss an opportunity to show off my peonies, here's what is blooming today. This is called Bowl of Beauty, and it really lives up to its name. Not only is it nice to look at, it smells beautiful as well.

There are three different peony plants here. In the bottom right corner is Karl Rosenfield. The pretty pink blooms in the center are Alexander Fleming {named after the man who invented penicillin} and the dark pink bud in the back that is just starting to open is one that I picked up from a neighbor. She didn't know the name of it and I haven't been able to tell for sure what kind it is {there are about a zillion different peonies, and unless you write down what they are when you get them, you'll never remember which is which}. Behind them are some pretty peachy irises.

Now that I've shown you why spring is my favorite, I must ask . . what is your favorite season?

Last week, we did eye color. Hazel and blue tied for the lead. I have to say, I really like having blue eyes. Thanks to everyone who voted!

Various and Sundry Monday: Vol 10

Hide not your talents. They for use were made. What's a sundial in the shade? –Benjamin Franklin

Summer Is Officially Here

OK, so technically, summer doesn't start for 15 more days. But the Summer Fun has officially started at Bug Cottage. The Little Bugs have been out of school for a week and we kicked off the holidays by taking them to see Pirates last Monday. We've had an unusually cool spring, but it finally warmed up enough that we could break in our season passes at the water park on Saturday. This is one of their favorite summer-time things to do. I *think* this is our fourth summer as season pass holders. We go once a week and spend a few hours there splashing about and having a wonderful time. I like it because we get our money's worth {and then some} out of our passes, but only have to spend a few hours there each time we go {which is about all I can take anyway}. Our passes are also good at a fun center, so our summer will include at least one round of mini-golf and maybe some go-karts, bumper boats and rock climbing.

Besides all of the water sliding you care to do, we have lots of other fun things planned for the summer. Like daily math and spelling worksheets and summer reading logs. What? That doesn't sound fun to you? It doesn't sound fun to the Little Bugs either. But they have to do it anyway. And after the school work and chores are done, we're going to have a lot of 'stay-cation' kind of fun. Next week is our city's Festival Days and we have the Fireman's Breakfast, the Children's Art Festival, the Hot Air Balloon Launch, the Parade, the Car Show and Fireworks on the agenda. Following that is Grandma Week, which promises to be full of cousins, places to go and things to see, lots of sunblock and hilarious kid quotes {my favorite part}. And I heard a rumor that there will be a bouncy house at Grandma's this year.

Later in the summer, we're going to Lagoon. It has been so long since we last went that the Little Bugs hardly remember going at all. In August, we're going to take advantage of $2 Tuesdays {crossing our fingers they have it again} at Thanksgiving Point. We'll definitely visit the Dinosaur Museum and Farm Country and if I can talk them into it, the Gardens as well. It promises to be a really fun summer.

I ♥ Peonies
Another peony has started to bloom. This one is called Karl Rosenfield and it is in the front yard. This is the first year this plant has flowered. I love the color. The little purple flowers are a hardy geranium. I think they look so beautiful next to each other. There are two other peonies to the left of this one, and I hope they hurry up and bloom so I can see them all at once.

I went around counting peonies again, you know, just to make sure they are all there. And guess what? I found a peony that I thought I had lost. I'm really happy about that. It is not going to bloom this year, but the fact that it came up at all is a miracle because I haven't seen it for the last two years, and suddenly there it was. Of the 16 17 plants I have, 12 will bloom this year and that is really exciting to me. And don't worry. I'll make sure you get to see each one as it blooms.

Snowball Night: Week 53½

The snowball quilt is coming along. I finished the label, got all the baby snowballs sewn into a row and the back is all put together.

The snowballs for the top are also all together and the borders are in progress.

I'm not sure if I'll finish this quilt in time for the quilt show entry deadline, but I'm going to give it my best shot. I need to have it finished by Friday night so I can submit it for entry on Saturday. I'm going to do some pretty detailed quilting, so we'll see how it goes.

Various and Sundry Monday: Vol. 9

Fear is the lengthened shadow of ignorance. –Arnold Glasow

You'll Never Guess: Rainy Monday Music Spot
It is Monday—and it is raining again! Seriously. It has rained four of the last six Mondays {4/25, 5/9, 5/23 and 5/30}. What are the odds? Where you live, it might not be a big deal. But in Utah? It's not very likely. We've had the wettest May on record. I haven't turned the sprinklers on yet, which is astounding and the weather has been lovely and cool. And so we must have a little music about rain. I am running out of songs I know and like {Rainy Days and Mondays will not be a feature on my blog. Ever.} about rain. If it rains next Monday, I'm going to have to enlist the help of Google. Today, I'm going with a little Queensrÿche. I had the cassette {do they still make those ?} when it came out in the 90's.


T-Shirt Quilt Teaser
Mr. Bug's T-Shirt Quilt is almost finished. The quilting is done. The binding is on. I am just going to put on the final details and then throw it in the wash. And hopefully the weather will cooperate for a bit this evening so I can get some photos of the whole thing. It would be awesome to post a finish before I go to bed tonight. In the meantime, here's a little teaser.

Pretty Peonies
I love Peonies almost as much as I love Tulips. I have 16 peony plants in my yard and every spring, I go around counting to make sure they've all come back. When they start to bud, I go around and count how many plants are going to bloom and how many buds are on each plant. They are all old enough that they should bloom this year, but there are three plants that don't have buds on them . . . yet. I still have hope. Of the 16 plants, I have 14 different varieties of peonies. Only two plants are repeats. It just so happens that my two Sarah Bernhardt peonies are the first and last to bloom each spring. One of them sits in deep shade right outside the front door and is the last to bloom each spring. The Sarah Bernhardt that is planted in full sun right outside my back door is the first. The buds are just starting to burst open. The flowers are the palest of pale pinks and the magenta veining on them is just gorgeous.

My Next Washer May Be a Maytag Maxima
We have a DVR so although I usually have the TV on while I'm sewing, I don't watch many commercials. I love technology. The other day while I was skipping through the ads, I had to stop and go back because I'd seen the flash of a quilt in a commercial and it piqued my curiosity. The colors in the quilt are so pretty and the way they used it in the commercial tied their product to an emotional response. Way to go, Maytag!

National Pink Day: A Giveaway

Today is National Pink Day. I'm not sure of the details behind it or how it came to be, but I'm totally on board with it because

I ♥ pink!

Growing up my sister and I shared a room. We wanted our room to be really pink. Our parents objected to the amazingly, shockingly, beautiful pink we wanted. In the end the walls were pink, but the paint was the palest shade of barely there pink. At age eight, my dream car was a pink Volkswagen Bug.

As I got older, I kind of grew out of pink and into blue. When we moved and I got my own room, I painted it blue. And blue kind of stuck with me. About eight years ago, I had a baby girl and pink made a comeback! As my little girl grew she formed her own opinions about color and pink is not it for her right now. But pink stuck with me. Pink, I'm sorry I abandoned you! I'll never leave you again!

In honor of National Pink Day, I have a giveaway, but first I want to share with you some of the pretty pink things growing in my gardens.

Apple Blossom Tulips

Félix Crousse Peony
(and in the bottom right corner, Desmond Carnation)

Sarah Bernhardt Peony

Pearly Gates Climbing Roses

You can just see a bit of the bricks on my house in the picture on the right (click on it for a closer view). They are pink! I think of my house as Barbie's Pink Dream House (and not because it is about the size of a Barbie house, but because I totally love it and it is pink on the outside). When I go out to garden, I put on my pink garden clogs and listen to music from my pink iPod (it's got a skin on it with pink in it to keep it from getting scratched, but underneath it is all pink!)

While I'm sharing about pink, I have another story to tell. For the last few months every time I would go to JoAnn's this pretty, silky pink polka-dot fabric would greet me. It was just inside the door and was the first thing I would see each time I went in. I would admire it as I walked by, run my fingers across it, sigh because I had no project for this beautiful fabric, and move on.

Then one night I had an idea. Mr. Bug likes to read. A lot. And sometimes he likes to read past when I'm ready to go to sleep. So I wear a sleep mask so he can keep reading and I can go to sleep. Up to now I haven't found one that wears nicely, is comfortable and is pretty, so I decided that this pink fabric that has been calling to me for months needed to become the softest, prettiest most pink-a-licious sleep mask ever.

Pretty, no? And completely machine washable. Wanna know the best part? I got the fabric on sale. We all know how much I love a great deal right? This fabric wasn't 50% off, though. It was 60% off! And if there's anything I like better than 50% off, it is 60% off!

Actually, that's not the best part. The best part is that with the half-yard piece I bought, I had enough fabric to make not one pretty pink sleep mask, but four! And I've decided to give the three extras away! Because I'm the queen of technical difficulties lately and everything always takes way longer than I think, I only got one mask finished in time for posting today. But the other three are almost there and I'll definitely have them ready to send out by the time my giveaway is over.

Here's how my giveaway works.
• I love my followers. So, everyone who is a follower as of this post has one entry into the drawing. I've already printed your names out and all you have to do is make sure that your e-mail is available in your profile so I can contact you if you win. For those of you who are not followers and would like to follow my blog, that is terrific, but it won't get you an entry for this drawing. Here is my reasoning behind this. I followed more than a few blogs just to get an extra entry in to a drawing. Each day when I make my blog rounds, I wonder why I'm following certain blogs. Then I remember it is because I wanted to win something cool. I don't dare stop following them because I'm worried they'll notice I'm gone and feel bad. So, I keep reading their blogs and hoping it'll get more interesting. I don't want this to happen to you. If you're here because someone directed you to my giveaway, please have a look around, read some of my other posts, know that I'm a little weird, I tend to ramble on, I'm not always super funny and although I try to keep religion contained to my Sunday posts sometimes it leaks out on other days. It is just who I am. And sharing who I am is part of my blogging process.

• Leave a comment on this post about something you love that is pink. I'll be reading them all, so pink must be involved in your comment. You'll get one entry in my giveaway for that.

• Post on your blog about my pink giveaway, leave me a link in the comments and you get a second entry. You have permission to use the photos from this post.

• Please, please, please make sure your contact information is available. If your e-mail is not in your profile or you are commenting via the 'anonymous' option, then leave it on your comment in this form: address @ domain name (dot) com. If I can't contact you, you can't win. I will delete comments that have do not have contact information. Also, you don't have to have a blogger profile to enter. You can use the anonymous option to comment, just make sure to leave your e-mail so I can contact you!

• I'll close the comments at noon (MST) on Wednesday, June 30 and select three winners. I'll be doing it the old-fashioned way. I'll print out all the comments, put them in a bowl, mix them up and pull out a winner. There's something about a hands-on drawing that makes it fun for me.

• Questions? Use my handy dandy e-mail button on the sidebar.

Good luck and have a totally PINK day!

P.S. If you love pink too, check out Pink Suede Shoes. She's having a really awesome pink giveaway this week!

I've linked up at a few fun places. Check them out for some really neat finishes.