Swiss Days 2015 in Heber Valley Utah

Swiss Days in Heber Utah is always a fun weekend for our family. We love going there every year in the fall. 

Heber itself is such a pretty little valley town. It is picturesque and quaint. It has this cool Cheese Barn where you can go get cheese curds. They have free samples of fudge too. yum. 

I took a few close ups of the cows next to the cheese factory store. 

They had a cool tractor too. 

And a new baby calf to pet. 

Cheese tasting was lots of fun. They had fudge, all kinds of jams and cheese on crackers. 

More cheese. This line was long but it went fast. Took about 20 minutes to get inside for tasting. 

On the way to Swiss Days we snapped some landscapes of the beautiful Heber Valley. 

I snapped a few pictures of my favorite booths. The quilting lady had some cool wares. 

This booth had miniature towns with tiny plantings. 

Gotta love a toad stool. 

Or a handmade birdhouse. Lots of the crafts are rustic like this. 

This was art made from dried out gourds. We used to see these lying around the deserts in California. 

I almost bought one of these pretty glass pumpkins blown by hand. 

 Lots of pretty things here made from ceramics at Swiss Days.

More cool handblown glass objects. 

At Swiss Days there are even antiques. There are crafts of all kinds. 

Cute wooden coin banks. The artists are good about posing for pics. They are always so nice. 

Carved wood walking sticks were really a work of art. 

Swiss Days princesses 2015. 

Cute wooden toys at Swiss Days. 

I always go visit the barn at Swiss Days where they have crafts of all kinds at great prices. 

There are bouncy houses and climbing walls for the kids. And lots of food booths. 

Lots of pretty paintings. 

And metal workings crafts. 

Swiss Days had these cool license plates reworked into cool words. 

Another artist I took a picture of at Swiss Days in Heber Valley. 

I loved this LOVE sign. I want to make one. 

I've bought a lot of cards and handmade flats from this artisan, my friend Aimee Ferre. 

The Swiss Days Princesses 2015 were so pretty with all their ringlets. We had some scones as usual and watched the oompa bands while we enjoyed our snack. Swiss Days is a blast always. 

First Day of Spring Gardening

Well, I have been ignoring my gardening for months now. I have to repent now that it is the first day of Spring! In Utah we have the seasons, so there is really nothing growing in the garden during the long Winter. I can see a few of my bulbs peeking through, and a few of them have actually erupted! It is finally really and truly Spring. I am getting excited to see some flowers in my garden again.

Today I planted some paperwhite bulbs inside in a light blue pot for my newly remodeled bathroom. It is coming together nicely. All except for the too blue paint I did the walls with. It looks kind of cave-like. I need to re-pick that color. I should have trusted the hubs who is good at paint picking. I will never learn.

I hope I get a TON of tomatoes this year. I'm going to try my hand at making CATSUP! Everybody tells me how easy it is. And I know homemade is so much better than bottled. 

Got to get out all my garden gloves and shears today. It's time to start getting the beds ready. 

Save your seeds in mason jars from year to year so they stay fresh. 

Anyhoo, I also bought some little pots for my kindergarteners to plant seeds with. They were only $2.48 for 32 little prism shaped biodegradable pots at Walmart. I just have to cut them apart and buy some radish seeds. They seem to germinate faster than any others. And little kids' attention spans won't last more than a few weeks waiting to see something sprouting in their collective pots.

Every year I give them choices and every year the kids with the radishes get to be joyful watching their little flowery stalks grow green and cute. But the other kids wait and wait and watch their dirt get moldy from overwatering. It is quite a downer. So this year everybody does radish seeds. Or maybe even grass seeds; something that is fool proof!

I need to put some pre-emergent on the grass too so it will look green and pretty this summer. 

And Home Depot has really nice mulch for $2.50 a giant bag. I have to go get some of that and spread it around the beds. It always makes everything look new and wonderful. And hopefully it will help the plants grow lush and full this year. I'm going to have a really BIG garden this year. Last year we had the whole house stuccoed and there were scaffolds all over the backyard for weeks and weeks. We never did get to the garden.  There was just too much going on. So this year I will have to make up for it.

 I'm planting some bulbs around the pond where the deer won't get to them. And I'm planting some raspberry bushes up at the cabin. Bear Lake is known for its raspberries up there. And I'm jealous of neighbors who planted 3 years ago and have gobs of raspberries now. They make everything from pie to jam with their stash!

Jams and Jellies and Spinach Artichoke dip. Yummy stuff from the garden. 

Happy planting everyone. I hope you are as excited about this spring season as I am.