Here's the Change

As I'm sure you've heard, variety is the spice of life. I'm all for spice! Let's spice it up I always say! Well, I've never actually said it, but I think it a lot. This year on Dave's birthday which is the end of October, marks our 10th year in business!!! Wow! 10 years!! We've had lots of spice over the years and lots of fun.

We had our first open house/grand opening to coincide with Dave's 50th birthday, now a decade later...Time to celebrate!! Instead of the annual Christmas Open House the weekend after Thanksgiving, we are celebrating October 10th and 11th in honor of our milestones. Hope you can join us.

Here is a little flash from the past, Dave's birth announcement. His mom must of thought she was getting a baby girl and that is why she had the pink blanket on the announcement?? Or just maybe 60 years ago there wasn't the gazzillion choices for birth announcements that we now have?

Sweet baby in a vintage bassinet, oh wait that was a new bassinet! Now it would be considered vintage...
Do you suppose I could find that wallpaper somewhere???
What a sweet baby boy!!

I KNOW he would want me to show you this picture of him and Sam when Sam was the baby!! (I'm pretty glad I'm the one with the blog and the pictures and not him...)
That expression on his face makes me laugh out loud (lol) he seems to be thinking, what are you doing now?? Sam on the other hand is having a little drink I think... How funny!! Still glad I have blog control..

Before I go on and on about the Harvest Sale/Open House I wanted to let everyone know about next Sunday, when I will be at Deepwood Estate for an Antique Faire. This is such a great venue, it is in the gardens of a beautiful historic estate in Salem. I hope if you are anywhere close you will come by and see us. I will be with Diane of Molly Mo's in the shade garden.

Not to change the subject abruptly but.....I have a friend Nikki who has a daughter Stacy,who has a blog, and as I was checking what was new there, I read this... about the queen herself,you might want to check this out for yourself!!

Are You Bored Yet?

When I am thinking about doing a post, I try and think of something I find amusing, inspiring or in some other way "blog worthy". It is starting to feel like it's either, look at the show I did... listen to what Sam said, and here are a few pictures of my friends.. I realize that this might seem ever so exciting and gee I can't wait to see what today's post is about... but on the other hand I could copy last years post on the same date and who would know the difference? Yes, you guessed it's time for a little change! Bored with all the same ole, same ole?? I have a great idea, but before I spill the beans on that.. I will tell you all about it on the next post.
I realize you are beyond excited to know how the shows in Albany and Coburg were this weekend. You can't wait to see the pictures of my friends and naturally what funny thing did Sam say?
I would love to be able to report, I was rested, ready, and organized when Dave got home from work early on Friday, so we could hop in Dumbo and meander our way to Albany. It's only about an hour so we didn't have to leave too early and there were just a few things I wanted to finish... We left about 12 midnight, and there were still just a few things I wanted to finish but... We got there about 1 am, did a real quick sleep and started unloading at 4am.. does all this have a familiar ring??
The crazy part is it really is fun and I meet the greatest people, here is a perfect example

An adorable little guy with money to spend! He was shopping Saturday in Albany. I never did wrestle that dollar from him..I need to work on my marketing skills I guess.

It was a pretty warm day in Albany and even though I have a canopy, I have it so full I need to stand in front so there is room for people to look. This also allows me to make sure none of my 'friends' walk by without saying hi! This is a smaller show but it is amazing how many people come on their way to Coburg for the REALLY BIG show the following day.
Here are a few of the things I took.

I had 30 pieces of this cast iron trim, luckily lots of them sold because that was a very heavy basket to carry!

The party, I mean the show was over at 4pm so Dave the driver came to help me get it all packed up to load. He had spent the day sleeping in Dumbo and keeping one eye on Sam. He was parked less than a block from my booth, so occasionally Sam would escape and show up bringing his mom a diet coke..Whadda kid!!

Because Dumbo with the trailer is soooo long, we pretty much need to wait for all the other vendors to be gone before Dave can pull in to load. That works for me because when all my friends are gone I sneak off for my turn to have a little nap. The crazy part is even though I have sold all kinds of things big and small, when it is time to pack it all back, the trailer is still full! We have a pretty decent system and even though Dave is big and strong we carry the big things together or use the hand truck. I carry the smaller boxes and totes to the door of the trailer and he packs them in, that way if it doesn't fit I blame him! It works for me!

Now would be the perfect time to tell you that we sat down in Dumbo for that delicious meal that I had prepared the week before knowing that we would be tired and hungry... Well, I guess not! We grabbed some fast food, but didn't have it to go, since Dave can't seem to get the hang of eating his meal while pulling the circus train!!

I have another little nap while Dave does his driving thing and we FINALLY get to Coburg, which is only about 40 miles from Albany, about 8pm! Yikes we only have an hour to set up the tent and unload, and I need to say hi to all my friends, who were by this time nearly finished with their set up! That hour between 8pm and 9pm flew by and we got next to nothing done in the dark.

"Bye everyone, we will see you in the morning!"

A quick 15 minutes to Grandma and Grandpa's house a shower and another fast sleep and we are back in Coburg by 4am.

It was still dark but we have headlights, so we got it unpacked and set up before we killed each other, I mean before we knew it!

People were coming by on their bikes,

Buying the cowboy boots

Friends were dropping by to say hi!

Some of my friends were way across the road and I didn't get to visit with them at all! This shopper, and blog friend came all the way from Brookings to see us, well she probably came to shop, but we did have a great time visiting!!

The King of Tarte was there in the booth next to me, sporting his ever so deserving crown!

He was filling in for the Queen

While she was off doing what ever Queen's of Tarte do...

Had a fun visit with my girls, the 2 on the left have worked for me (Anna and Brianna) and Sam says they are his sisters.

Are you wondering why Brianna is wearing her nightie? That's no nightie, that is a wedding dress waiting to happen!
With a little cutting here and a little cool old lace sewn there..

Looks like I did raise these girls right!

Here We Go Again!

Yesterday morning, my dad and I left for Portland about 6:15 for an eye appointment after all can you be too early. The little guy in the photo and his sister were out in front of the house. It looked like they were headed to the vet clinic across the road from us. Hunting season opened so maybe they were looking for "a safe haven" or maybe wanted to pick up a couple of bottles of "no scent"... Anyway I was hoping they didn't get in the road and get ran over, wouldn't that be ironic?

Here is a little blurb of what I posted last year at this time, when Sam had his first day of Kindergarten.

I did kind of hate for it all to begin the 13 years of school, just to get to college... Even though all kids are different I have been down this path three times already, and I know that the time you get to yourself while they are at school doesn't come without a price... homework, schedules, not to mention all the big boy behavior that comes from peers... My sister laughs because he has the personality of a 50 year old woman in a 6 year old boy.. I know its not natural, but he is so sweet! He also has imaginary friends, that will probably be replaced with real ones..no doubt he will blame his bad behavior on them now instead of Pusher and Guester his makebelive buddies.. I guess we all grow up. My playmate was Blummy. Wonder what he's doing these days, now that the boys are gone I might need someone to talk too ??

My mom got Sam off to school yesterday, he had to be on the bus at 7:20 am. I am trying not to make the same mistake I did the first 3 times around by taking him to school everyday...

That turned out to be a good thing yesterday as Grandma doesn't drive and although she is small, she's too big for Sam to carry and it is too far for her to walk!! He totally adores Grandma and visa a versa, he is always touching her hand or her neck and asking about the wrinkles as if they must hurt... One day he said to me, "I wish Grandma didn't have so many wrinkles.." Evidently he hasn't looked close at his mom!
Wrinkled or not she got him off to school like a pro.. I felt kind of sad that I wasn't there and then Dusty met him when the bus brought him home because I was taking Grandma and Grandpa home... Poor mom... Not that I haven't done this first day of school thing about a hundred times, but it is special every time.
That's why I decided today would be the first day and I took pictures like I didn't know the difference. I wonder if the driver thought I was "off".
And yes that is a delicious and nutritious pop tart... It HAS been proven you know that kids who eat a healthy breakfast do better in school... Guess we will have to work on that.. It would be nice if he actually graduates from high school someday.

I like to think he is worried that I will be lonely with him gone all day, in this shot... He's more likely thinking.... Oh, how much longer until the bus comes?

Here he is saying YIPEEE! I'm on my own!

See ya Mom!

Reflections of Labor Day

When I consider Labor Day I immediately think, tomorrow school starts; say goodbye to summer. All the great flowers we have enjoyed.

Sure they will be around for awhile, but soon we forget to water, deadhead, the frost comes and before you know it, they are gone.

Say goodbye to summer fun!
Sam has been busy working (laboring) on a tree house. Why would he want to play in the one his dad bought him and spent 6 months building? He asked to change his name to Bob the Builder...

Luckily he has new school clothes in his drawers.. He will soon be too busy with school work and other activities will take the place of lazy summer fun. He did say, he didn't know how to put up the walls in his tree house, he needed an adult for destructions.. He seems to have nailing down pat.

Does he really have to start school tomorrow? You know they are going to teach him the right words to use and he will talk like everyone else... Just when they get big enough to be your buddy, they leave you at home while off they go to have their own life... Next thing you know, he won't want to marry me anymore some young whippersnapper will take my place in his affections...


Here is a picture of the tree when we moved into the house in 1995. It is the far one in the picture.

See how big the tree has gotten in 13 years.
This was the first group of tree house builders... Ty, Emily and Derek..

The boys with Dusty built the first tree house the summer we moved in, they slept in it most of the summer while Dave was working on the house. Dave and I were sleeping in a friend's RV in the front yard. The boys were in the tree or in a tent all summer... It started out to be a good time, but you can see Emily is the only one smiling, she had a real house to go home to. It was a long summer, one of those years we were glad to see Labor Day arrive.

This was Dave when we first moved to our house. He was a lot younger 13 years ago. Didn't seem to mind working on the house.

Here he is today still working on the house, looks like he doesn't mind working on the house but...it has certainly aged him.

About 6 years ago he put up sheet rock and now out of the blue, all of a sudden, don't have a heart attack!! It's molding!! And you thought it would never happen!


The bad news... it's been so long I have to repaint the walls when I paint the trim. It never stops! The Labor goes on!!

I have discovered something else on the computer in addition to Face Book, I have found Picasa, oh me oh my Danger, Danger, scary things on the little magic box!! Stay tuned for all the creative things I will be sending your way! (Hopefully only once.)

Where Are the Parental Controls?

How fun to have bouquets around as I try and get things put back together.

Leftovers
I have been enjoying the leftover flowers from Mindy's wedding. They have been going strong for a week now but I think they are about on their last leg. I also got 2 of the giant petunia baskets to enjoy for the rest of the summer.

Here is Sam having a little cat nap on the bed that his big brother Derek made into a bench. We left the house before 3am Sunday morning to get to the sale in Oregon City to set up our booth. We were all pretty tired after the way we have been running around like crazy all summer.

If the bench had been longer and wider, I guess that would have been a bed.... I would have joined him!
I told myself we would have a catch up week, before we get started on getting things packed up and ready for the show in Coburg on the Sunday after Labor Day, September 7th.
Early this morning I'm busy minding my own business, taking the week to try and get some kind of control over the house, the yard, the shop, the barn, the five hundred other things I have neglected for way too long. Naturally I am trying to catch up on the blogs I haven't read in forever... So... I read one that is a favorite of someone I know... and it says, "check out my Face Book for more information" so being the curious type, I follow the link and naturally I have to have an account to look... (how annoying is that) but I have a few minutes so I do what I have to do to get an account and then, it asks about friends and up pops my email address book. Hmmm, I think well yes these are certainly my friends. So I check them all, thinking that if these "friends" have Face Book accounts then they will know that I have one and I can look at their "face" and they can look at mine...

Oh yeah, this is so easy check, check, check, next thing I know I have many and I do mean MANY emails!! What? Everyone gets notified that I want them to be my friend and in order to see my "face" they have to have an account??? Then they notify me and I respond... I have to see if they checked yes? Oh my gosh some of the contacts in my address book evidently got several requests, the ones I just couldn't bear if we weren't friends got 3 and some even 4 requests to be my friend?? They are no doubt thinking how pitiful... she needs friends so desperately... gee I hate to see her beg.... okay, alright I'll be her friend... I just hope she isn't going to start bugging me day and night on the computer..

I don't think I even got to the person I was trying to read about!! Now that I have so many friends I guess I don't really need to worry about it..

If this has a familiar sound to it, you are just recalling when I sent several emails to the same people about the sale I was trying to advertise... I patiently explained to them that those people I really, really wanted to be there got more than one notice...
The thing that really baffles me is, why has no one ever asked me to be a Face Book friend? At least once? Evidently I asked many people, several times each??

Apparently I am, over friendly?? The other question I have is where are the controls on this computer? Some one, (like a parent), should be watching that I don't harm myself or someone else on this "magic box". And lastly do you suppose the people at the bank will respond to my Face Book friend plea?

Before today's escapade with Face Book I was going to figure out how to add a slide show to the side bar... Guess I better put that idea on the back burner for awhile... One can only imagine what chaos I could make with a slide show? And I had thought I might add music...

I Know I'm Going to Be Sorry

I am always a little nervous posting pictures of my friends in what they might consider less than flattering shots. It's not that hard to get a picture of me in a less than flattering shot as I'm sure you are aware.
If you know Pam you have to agree this is a look, that is just "her".

I think it is some where between excited and happy but could be a little nervous and scared... You have to wonder just what it is Karen is telling her?? Notice Karen (from the previous post showing her biceps) wearing long sleeves? Yeah she is the only one wearing long sleeves, probably shy about her extraordinary muscles... Looks like she might be working on her finger muscles, which is no doubt a good idea since her daughter Kimmy is getting married next August and she will need strong fingers for addressing the envelopes and writing checks!!

Here is the mother of the bride again, not all that sure, but kind of convinced that it will come together and even though we might not come across as the best wedding helpers, at least we are there and if nothing else we can be amusing, at least we think so..
I have a few pictures of the decorations for the wedding, but same old excuse the battery was dead in my camera and where the heck was the charger? (Turns out it was in the back seat of the truck, of all places!)
No doubt there were lots of pictures and I will be so excited to share them.(When I get them.)

I did take a few photos while we were setting up and a couple during the wedding.

The wedding took place at the old Union Hills Grange. The grange sits in a grass seed field above the little farming town of Sublimity.

Just off the gravel road. Notice the charred field? The farmers have to burn when they can, no waiting for anything! I suppose we should be thankful their day to burn wasn't the day of the wedding... That just might have been worse than the rain we were so worried would ruin the day!
There were lots of helpers, before, during and after... I had the best time being part of the process. It was especially fun getting to work with Laurena. Wish I had a picture of her...(imagine photo of cute, smiling girl here)

Those little pots are filled with basil plants for favors. Any guesses what the couples last name is??? Yes, it's Basil!

It just occurred to me that with the last name of Lamb, and 2 unmarried boys???

Oh my gosh, I guess we better plan on another wedding in a grass seed field!

Here is the tent getting raised. Mindy's uncle came from California with this tent, notice the clear top? It had it's advantages, shade wasn't one of them... It was nice and light, it gave the illusion of being outdoors, but with some cover from the elements. The baskets of petunias, loved the hot house effect. When they were delivered that morning they were only tiny little seedlings. (Just kidding)
Two darling "glitter girls," why would they throw flowers when there was glitter?
The gazebo decorated with hops and flowers.

Cupcakes and cookies..
Table decorations.

The happy couple...

What a beautiful day, for a beautiful bride.

We moms want everything to be perfect for our babies every day, but especially on their wedding day. The only thing we couldn't get was the thing she would have most like to have and that was her dad to be there with them. He was killed in a plane crash about 6 months ago. I know he would have been so proud of Mindy and of Pam, the way she just keeps going, as if her heart hasn't been shattered.

She gets by

with a little help from
her friends...