Elena's Rose Cottage

Finally am posting a picture of the victorian swim suits that we made for Zoe and Liz. Zoe's turned out to be a little large for her. Either she has to grow or we have to shrink the swim suit.



Here are some cute pics of Charlotte at Christmas time.

I am so pleased with the Cutco Cutlery. I am using it and it is wonderful!!

Time to do a little catching up.

Garret Robert Mihu was blessed at his home a week ago. I took a bunch of pictures after Tina said I could post them and they all turned out blurry. Continued to be blurry until Randy or Aaron fixed the camera when they were over. So, here is a headless one but at least sort of clear, and you can see the outfit we stayed up late the night before making---Tina, Laurene and I.



We were pleased when Donna, Randy and children stopped by for a brief visit along with Aaron Carmack, who took this photo.



We opened our gifts to each other last night. Several have asked what I received so here goes. Wayne had fun looking through a Tuscanos Catalog and ordered a small statue of a cherub sleeping. It goes on a shelf with an arm and a wing hanging over. He also ordered a vintage looking necklace and earrings--very pretty. I may have to buy something blue to wear with them. Also, a lovely manicure set--four-sided file, cuticle oil, cutter, and lotion. Three CDs of his making, AND a cordless mouse with no attachment to stick out of my computer! I think that the mouse is my favorite.

I found this recipe in the newspaper and decided to try it. It turned out surprisingly good--something about the salt and crunchiness and the chocolate. It took about ten minutes to make. Then it has to chill to set the chocolate.

Soda Cracker Candy
Line a cookie sheet with aluminum foil and oil it with salad oil. Cover it with soda crackers. Boil one cup of butter and one cup of brown sugar for two minutes. Pour over the crackers--spread with a spatula if necessary. Cover them all. Bake in preheated 350 oven for five minutes. Take out and sprinkle semi sweet chocolate chips over it. Put back into the oven to melt the chips. Take out and spread with a spatula. Add finely chopped nuts (if desired) while still hot. Chill in refrigerator. Break into cracker squares. Enjoy

Our actor friends, the Bairds, asked Wayne to come be Santa in their ward so no one would recognize him. He did a good job and had a great time. Got some pictures for next years Christmas cards. (Maybe this year?)

We watched the game at Kirks along with a lot of Albrechts. There was only one rooter for Utah--rather outnumbered. A few days later I saw a woman with red fingernails with white "U's" painted on each nail.



Chris and her dogs:



Kathy and her dog:

We spent thanksgiving with he Larsens and a very nice celebration it was. Great food, company, games and movies.

Here is the dinner:

I put it on facebook but facebook bumped it over to my photos which even I had never looked at. Any way, I finally got my garden video. The scenes of my garden were very fleeting and if one did not already know that it was my garden, they wouldn't know it from watching the video (which was very well done, by the way) Oh, well.

I read this article in a magazine and decided to set my alarm to get up and watch for a while. Which I did at midnight. I bundled up, took out a blanket and laid on the chaise lounge on the deck. The constellations were bright, and the other stars faint. The house hid the western part of the sky but , one could see very few stars in that part of the sky anyway due to the city lights. I was looking for streaks and was disappointed in that I saw none. Probably too much city light. What I did see was the sky turning blue and the mountains looking like the gold time of the day. Just for a second and then it was dark again. The blue was the biggest surprise to me--seeing that at midnight. It was a different blue than one sees in the daytime--a light blue-- with a glow? I thought that was strange and looked for streaks until I got too chilled. Didn't find out until the next day (thanks to Maren) was it was. A huge meteor entering the atmosphere 100 miles up--the impact causing the brilliant flash brighter than daylight, was was what I observed. That was a fun experience.

This is a picture that I took a few weeks ago at the gold time of the day. It was what the meteor flash looked like only perhaps brighter (the meteor).

Last week, after doing the tables for the funeral luncheon, we had so much left over that I filled the entire front of the stage in front of the curtains. Wayne took a picture of it for me and here it is--at least the center part of it.

I was lucky enough to be under the same roof as Kailin and Julia that night. And, lucky enough to have a picture of Zoe and Liz from that night. And, unlucky enough to not have a pictures of Charlotte.

Sheryl took this photo of Wayne and I at Redfish Lake near Stanley, Idaho.

It looks like a few posts ago, but this is a new rainbow. You can barely see it on the right cause I took too long with the camera, but I was very surprised to see it because I was unaware of the rain.

Latest crop of grandchildren for Laurene and Ron--like three peas in a pod. I've crocheted two green hats for Garret's halloween costume. The first one was too large. Tina made the green pod on a loom.



Garret sleeping



Apron for Tina's birthday