This is... My Favorite Band of All Time

This is... (by Three Buttons) is brought to you this week by CurlyPops.

I don't think it is any secret that my favorite band of all time is U2. I don't know that anyone comes close to my next favorite band, those tend to shift a little but U2 is CONSTANT! I remember sitting in the lunch room in high school with Spence Winegar, no maybe Ty, no Spence (they are pretty identical...) and hearing the new single off of Achtung. That is one of my first huge memories. The more subtle ones are just hearing everything that came before that album and loving each and every song. But my first real "this is it" moment was in that lunch room.

I've been to quite a few concerts, always great standing seats - right in front of the stage, except in Vancouver, we had great seats off the floor, just perfect. One time, I held up a sign that said "BLUE-EYED BOY MEETS BROWN-EYED GIRL" with an arrow pointing to me and Bono locked eyes with me (my heart is pitter pattering right now at the re-telling) and smiled while singing some song (it is all tunnel-vision, this memory). I'm sure if he is reading this, he remembers that fateful concert. Ahh. I love how they all play off of each other. I love how Larry Mullen just sits at his drums and plays while everyone else is at the fore-front. I love the way they all play off each other while they perform.

I don't even know what to say about this band. We listen to them in the car (the kids and I) more often than anything else. We have dance moves with our hands. Eli thinks Bono gave him the U218 Singles DVD in his stocking for Christmas. The radio station cannot be changed if U2 is playing, even if it is one of my less favorite songs. I just don't think there will ever be a group as talented or life-changing for me. I still have their Joshue Tree shirt in Hebrew, a couple other ones picked up in Jerusalem. I will have my kids wear them and they will be so vintage and cool.

I also admire the way the band supports Bono in his fight against poverty, AIDS, and other diseases in areas of the world where the people can't get the help they need. He meets with world leaders, educating them about the issues, giving spotlight to the issues so that these people won't be forgotten or overlooked.


here is one group - one.org




and red. There are many more.

I admire the music and the men behind it.

This is...

This week's "This is..." (a meme by the very talented Three Buttons, and one I have hardly participated in, but need to do it) topic was chosen by The Bird Bath (great blog, by the way), it is "This is how I like to spend my weekend".

So many different ways. For instance, this weekend Dave took Eli on our ward Father and Sons campout, so after I stopped holding my breath when they got home, I went and got my hair cut. My gal has been on maternity leave, so it has been about 4 months since I have had a trim. And then some yard work, some badminton with fun people, some Olympic action. Yesterday we spent time up in the mountains before the guys went camping. We four-wheeled, froze while tubing the river, breathed fresh air.

Last weekend, we went boating with Dave's sis and family. Ever since I had kids, I have been a wuss. I have never had kids that fall asleep where ever, whenever, so doing fun things during nap time or bedtime with kids, isn't fun - really. Not convenient equals not much fun. But, I did it. I missed Joey's nap so we could cross counties and wakeboard in some water and mud. It was so fun! I wakeboarded for the first time in 7 years (back not conducive to boarding, risky business) and got up within seconds, stayed up for a while and fell so hard 2 1/2 times. Brain rattling, and it felt so good.

So, I guess, the way I like to spend my weekend (but don't always get to do it) is some recreational activity, reading, being pampered, family time, going out with friends, gardening, lazying about. Whether I get to spend my weekend the way I like is another story. I hope your weekend was good.

This is...

I'm a day late on my "This is..." started by Three Buttons . This week's theme is "This is my creation" and although I am working on a few things, this is tonight's creation. I have had family in town for the past 10 days and for the next 4. I will admit I haven't been the most social on this trip of theirs but I also haven't been holed up in my art room. So in order to be with my family, I started making this pincushion while some of us watched a movie. I have been wanting a certain pincushion for a while but decided I would make one using wool felt, roving and all. We'll see how it turns out.

This is...

This is... is brought to you this week by Pip at Meet Me at Mike's. These are my concept boards.

They run side by side in front of the main part of my desk. They have a few things that I like to look at, patterns that I am using frequently for my plaques...

Mostly just things I like to look at. Eli also adds to my boards. He has been visiting me downstairs so that he can paint and draw me pictures. Notice the painted butterfly and the hand-drawn Valentine below. He wrote Love using a heart for the O. He is a very talented heart = an O artist. He knows I like flowers so I have one in my hair in his picture.

I will admit that I am horrible at tearing things that I find inspiring out of a magazine. I don't want to ruin the whole effect. So I usually keep the whole magazine, along with others, in a file on some cabinets. But then what is the point of that? I never see them again. But if I were to rip them all out, not separating then from the whole article or layout, my walls would begin to look like some obsessed stalker and I might be committed.

I also look at a lot of different blogs to stimulate some creativity. A lot of times they give you a little jump start.

I am including a picture of my "studio". If you remember from here what it used to look like, I have finished a good portion of it and kind of had to just start using it and complete more later. This is what it looks like now...

I have a lot of paper strung up so that I can see what I have to work with. I did my best to just use what I already had, which I am glad I did. I can roll from my work area to my sewing machine and I set up a card table in the corner for the kids to draw and paint on. Then I don't feel quite so guilty if I work on it during Joey's naps.

This is....

This is... is a new game I am working on, originating from Angela, she is quite brilliant. This week's theme is This is Sunday Lunch. I'm not very original today. My mom is out of town and so I invited my dad over to have lunch with us. He is having a colonoscopy on Tuesday, so tomorrow it is jello and water for him, may as well stuff him with a hearty meal. I made Beef Stew again, which I had already blogged about here. I have been craving it ever since. But I didn't want to be working on it all day, so I made it last night, a firm believer that beef stew is better the next day. And it was good. Did I mention that I swore off sweets for Lent and it is getting really hard? I should probably eat an apple, but it isn't as fun.