Happy Saint Patricks Day!

Facts about St. Patrick's Day Holiday

St. Patrick’s Day is observed on March 17 because that is the feast day of St. Patrick, the patron saint of Ireland. It is believed that he died on March 17 in the year 461 AD. It is also a worldwide celebration of Irish culture and history. St. Patrick’s Day is a national holiday in Ireland, and a provincial holiday in the Canadian province of Newfoundland and Labrador.

In Ireland on St. Patrick’s Day, people traditionally wear a small bunch of shamrocks on their jackets or caps. Children wear orange, white and green badges, and women and girls wear green ribbons in their hair.

Many cities have a St. Patrick’s Day parade. Dublin, the capital of Ireland, has a huge St. Patrick’s Day festival from March 15-19, that features a parade, family carnivals, treasure hunt, dance, theatre and more. In North American, parades are often held on the Sunday before March 17. Some paint the yellow street lines green for the day! In Chicago, the Chicago River is dyed green with a special dye that only lasts a few hours. There has been a St. Patrick’s Day parade in Boston, Massachusetts since 1737. Montreal is home to Canada’s longest running St. Patrick’s Day parade, which began in 1824.

Facts about Saint Patrick

St. Patrick was born in 385 AD somewhere along the west coast of Britain, possibly in the Welsh town of Banwen. At age 16, he was captured and sold into slavery to a sheep farmer. He escaped when he was 22 and spent the next 12 years in a monastery. In his 30s he returned to Ireland as a Christian missionary. He died at Saul in 461 AD and is buried at Downpatrick.

Facts about the Irish

34 million Americans have Irish ancestry, according to the 2003 US Census. That’s almost nine times the population of Ireland, which has 4.1 million people.

Some American towns have “Irish” names. You could visit: Mount Gay-Shamrock, West Virginia; Shamrock Lakes, Indiana; Shamrock, Oklahoma; Shamrock, Texas; Dublin, California and Dublin, Ohio.

The harp is the symbol of Ireland. The color green is also commonly associated with Ireland, also known as “the Emerald Isle.”

The Irish flag is green, white and orange. The green symbolizes the people of the south, and orange, the people of the north. White represents the peace that brings them together as a nation.

The name “lephrechaun” has several origins. It could be from the Irish Gaelic word “leipreachan,” which means “a kind of aqueous sprite.” Or, it could be from “leath bhrogan,” which means “shoemaker.”


Facts about Clovers


According to the Guinness Book of World Records, the highest number of leaves found on a clover is 14!

One estimate suggests that there are about 10 000 regular three-leaf clovers for every lucky four-leaf clover.

Legend says that each leaf of the clover means something: the first is for hope, the second for faith, the third for love and the fourth for luck.

Randomness

Just some Ransom fun pictures from Cheyenne's Birthday. Not really birthday related though.

It's all about Cheyenne

My sweet niece Cheyenne turned 14 on the 10th of February. She invited us all over to her house to celebrate with cake and ice cream. Of course we brought her presents. I can hardy believe 14 years have passed since she came into this world and made it a better place.
Here is her present from Jared and I. She likes monkeys so I always try to make her a monkey card. Since she has turned into a teenager she has her cell phone on her all the time texting her friends so I added the cell phone to the monkey's hand.

She really loved her present. We had gotten her a previous addition of this book a few Christmas' go so we figured we couldn't go wrong.

She told Grandma she wanted a puppy so she got a puppy

New bedding

Money

a watch necklace made by her dad

Make a wish

Her mom made her a really cute cell phone cake

Happy Birthday Annigator. Hope it was a great day for you. We love you and have really enjoyed watching you grow up,

~Beating the Winter blahs~

To those that really know me, it is no secret that I have always hated the month of January. It seems to be the bleakest most depressing month on the year. This year was no exception. It seemed that at least once a week someone close to me was loosing someone close to them. The there were other things going on with Jared's work and my work that added to darkness that is January. This year there was one bright spot. Last summer I joined the Cricut Circle. I am not certain if I have mentioned this in previous post (it has been on my list of catch up posts for sometime) You may wonder what the Cricut Circle is all about and I will do my best to explain. It is a large group of Cricut enthusiasts who pay an annual fee. We get an exclusive cartridges every 3 months and the opportunity to meet other enthusiasts in our area. To me that last benefit has been more valuable than gold. Especially during January. We planned a crop, and if you are not sure what that is, it where a group people get together to scrap/make cards and talk. We planned it for January specifically because we all knew how bleak the month really was. We went to a hotel in downtown Salt Lake and cropped and fun from 12 pm to 12 am. and it was a blast. We also toured a Chocolate Factory, went to eat at the Olive Garden and got lost in a parking garage. There are lots of pictures but I couldn't pick only a few to describe the day.

Tables were set up and lots of people brought their Cricuts

We had a challenge where we had to make three things with three specific items

I made three Valentines cards. The had to be for a man using pink and Tulle. It was quite a challenge but I think I got all the necessary ingredients in there. I did not win though, but it was fun.

Touring V-Chocolates

We left the hotel and all our stuff so that we could go tour the chocolate factory.

Mmmm. Chocolate

Chocolate Frogs

Chocolate covered caramels

Getting ready for Valentine's Day

Heart shaped Chocolates

Learning about how the process is done

More Chocolates. These are caramels with Sea Salt on top. So good!

Time for Dinner!

We kept the waiter pretty entertained the entire night.

Mmm... Food!

Back at the hotel, we had another Challenge. We were given plain wooden picture frames and we had a certain time to have them done. I quickly got my done then with the tour and dinner the time was extended so other were able to get some done

Mine is the bottom one with the pinwheel. The one above it with the sleeping baby is the one that won but I got a prize as well. A new Cricut Cartridge it was great.

Back to cropping, only a few hours left

Busy scrappers

Provo Craft brought door prizes

More crafting

More picture frames

Winners!

The end. It was such a fabulous night that we made plans to do it again in April. I can't wait. We are having a meet up at the Scrapbook Expo in March as well. This has been something outside of the normal for me. As I have always been a quiet stick to myself kind of person. I am loving every minute of it though with the exception of hauling my stuff around. I need to get me a good Cop in Style wheeled tote before the scrapbook show in March.