here's a little peek at our last weekend up north~

when we arrived it was raining cats and dogs (why do we say that?)...

but we threw open the big garage door anyway and watched it.

have i mentioned yet this week how much i love that screen panel 

lars built? i tell him that all the time.

 as we were leaving our yard in the cities, i noticed the first of my peonies were

blooming and i asked if we could stop for just a minute while i picked

a couple to take along~so glad i did as they brought me so much joy

all weekend in the kitchen window.

these little beauties were there waiting for me though and i was

excited! the yellow button flowers are new- from my aunt dar and i've

never had them before. aren't they sweet? they remind me of baby ranunculous.

we have these, huge bleeding heart plants at the cabin, but i haven't been there

for over a month and i almost missed them blooming- these were the very last few blossoms on the plants.

 pretty wild columbine grows in our woods

i nabbed this original oil painting ($5) at a yard sale and man do i love it~ i walked

around the cabin trying it here and there, before finally deciding this was the perfect spot for it 

since there are other red things on this kitchen shelf.

i was the last one to go to bed both nights, and i loved the peaceful quiet. there is a small

pond right outside the kitchen door and it's full of frogs. they serenaded me loudly while i had

a cup of chamomile tea and read midwest living magazine.

 i picked and froze some rhubarb and while cutting off the leaves i had this goofy idea

to make a hat for seth. he was about to go out and start mowing our big

lawn and i brought the rhubarb bonnet in (see the string tied under his chin)  and told him i didn't want his head to get sunburned. he's such a good sport  :  )   - he let me put it on him for a couple pictures...

*it's a genius idea don't you agree?

there's a magnetic pull from any body of water-no matter how small- to a dog and his boy.

the dogs were in here and wet about every 10 minutes.

duke loves to retrieve and would go after a ball -allll day long if you'd throw one.

mother nature was really showing off sat. afternoon and the combination of these extra-white clouds against the blue,blue sky was stunning.

after weeding the garden for hours..... i rested and made some tags.

there was such thick fog in the mornings it was like a rain 

forest outside... (and the mosquitos practically knocked on the 

door and asked to come in they were so eager to

greet us....   ugh~gross).

and then before i left sunday i did a little decorating for the

4th of july. it's weird to have it fall on a friday this year- like a celebration

followed by a weekend-a WIN WIN situation!

have weekend plans?

stay cool- cause you know i think you are right?

cool that is.

xo

maddy and nick~

we had a family wedding on the 14th of june.

my cousin's daughter maddy, married this handsome guy nick.

here's nick escorting maddy's darling mom down the aisle.

this is my cousin randy. i love this guy. we got to spend a whole bunch of time

together growing up and he feels more like a brother to me.

when i turned around to see if he was ready to walk his only daughter 

down the aisle, he looked like he was all choked up. i guess that

these two said to each other," let's just walk real fast and not look at anyone and

maybe we can keep it together till we get up front".

the priest commented that he'd never seen a bride and her dad make it down the

aisle as fast. ( wait until our daughter's wedding though- she's a speedy gonzales- 

we've always teased her that she'll probably skip down the aisle). : )

meeting at the alter

fast forward~ they're married now! don't their smiles just

make you happy? nick had this ear to ear grin all day.

the fam asked me to make the centerpieces for their reception- there were lots and lots

of these and then some much bigger ones for the two fireplace mantles.

*my seester pretty much saved the day for me by driving 1200 miles to be

at the wedding and she helped me set up the reception site.

(thanks sis~ couldn't have done it without you!)

i just have to tell you a little bit about these two newlyweds. 

they are soft spoken and kind. maddy is a high school teacher and

nick is almost done with chiropractic school.

they met in college, when she needed a ride to the twin cities from iowa state and

found out this guy (they'd never met) was going her way. i guess after that first ride maddy decided she'd 

never buy her own car, because then she'd have no excuse to be with him.

 (o.k.i made that up- but seriously, i guess she had a MAJOR crush from the second ride home, on.

------------------->

but...

they became good friends before nick ever made any move to be more than just that, but when

he finally did, he was ready and they seem so perfectly suited for each other and so in love that

it was a real joy to share in their day.

oh yeah, and then there's the skiing part.

miss maddy is a competitive water skier who's competed and won awards all over the USA.

 and nick ski's too. really well i've heard. 

i believe they both skied on the collage water ski team and they have the

coolest group of friends. these kids know how to party like the

rock stars they are! these people are athletes. they have "game".

maddy is not overly girly girlish. she will get down with the best of them and 

that dirty dance floor? it did not stop her from doing all the dance moves that

the rest of these funsters were doing.

* the green light on brides face is from a spotlight*

this dance went on and on and ON..... maddy rolled around on the floor and jumped back up...over and over and the floor was just so sticky and i kept thinking, "now she'll probably never be able

to wear that beautiful dress again".

hahahahaha

************

so around midnight, being the girl scouts we are, some of us started helping clean up.

all the things the family brought to decorate the banquet room had to be out of there

at the end of the evening.

we decided that guests should take the centerpieces home so we pulled them out of the

vases and then one thing led to another and before you knew it, we had

declared ourselves "the real bridesmaids" and decided to have a group picture taken.

the seven of us in this picture (minus one-who cashed it in early and missed what we think was the

best part of the evening- sorry kim) do a girl's weekend in redwood falls every october and

i've dubbed us the great 8. well without kim we were merely the sassy 7.

pretty sure sweet caroline was the song the DJ was playing and we danced our little hearts out

out there in the hall.

these two are cousins and i just love them both to the moon.
(look mom, no hands!) 

and here are the dads. 

the moms probably did 99.9 % of the planning and organizing for this

fun event, but were would we be without the dads? 

they needed some time in the spotlight too~

handsome devils aren't they?

this was one of the last photos i took and i just like it.

maddy in the middle, her new husband on the right and her dad on the left.
~wrapped in love.

it was just a very special day for the baldwins and the wegleitners and

lars and i were so happy to be a part of it.

nick and maddy~

i hope you're always as happy together as you looked that night!

xo, beth

pillow talk~

i found these pillows on etsy.

i saved the pictures and now do you think i can find the site back?

nooooooooooooo.

it's makin me sad because i am in love with just about all of the

dozens and dozens of styles.

so whimsical.

they are linen.

*and not even that spendy!

adria and chris have set a wedding date (may 2015).

 it's at a perfect venue that suits them to a T.

it'll be an outdoor, sportsman/woman, hunter- huntress themed day and now

she and i can start planning like ca-razy women!

the guests will most likely see at least one set of antlers.

:  )

next week i'll be ready to show you some of the wedding fun from last

weekend. i'm heading north now to weed the garden i planted a month ago and

haven't seen since. i hope i can find the plants though the weeds!

if there's anything more wonderful than one garden, 

it's one here and one there- different growing conditions, 

different things growing. i am so lucky!

xo, beth

i have fun with flowers.

can't get enough of them in fact. 

i have so many favorites~

roses, ranunculus, lisianthus, poppies, lavender,

morning glories, sweet peas, peonys, begonias,

mini carnations (love their smell), stock, hydrangeas.... oh the list could go on and on...

this exquisite old, chipped up chair is a recent find~ perfect for

photos of a child.

i'm trying something new on the patio door~

another layer of curtain. with all the new sun from our front

yard tree being gone, it seems to soften the dining room.

well, i'm off to see the wizard, ta ta

b


p.s. i have a fun event that's going to take place here in august that i've started
getting ready for...not quite ready to announce it~yet- but soon  :  )

the last of my spring tulips has faded and gone,

but i have this to remember them by.

don't you just love when it all starts in the garden?

first the tulips and squil bloom here~

then it's my bleeding heart and columbine.

oh yes! let's not forget the flowering crab...

all around the city things are in bloom now and this is a peak at our yard.

one of those tulips~ still beautiful in my eyes

so the deck is ready for summer. on the days i take time to

rest outside, there's no better spot than our lower deck. it's 

wrapped in vines of a couple different sorts and there's a swing and a fountain i put

together many years ago that still serves us well .

if the bugs aren't bad~ it's my little slice of heaven here in the city.

these fabulous citrus green planters were snagged at a yard sale.

************

a big change in our front yard happened a couple weeks ago. see this huge ash tree? it

used to bring me joy. it wasn't very big when we bought our house many years ago,

but it grew fast and provided lots of shade. over they years though it started to shed

these awful, messy seeds twice a year. those dirty seeds became my nemesis and

this spring i started yimmeling about having it cut down.

it took some convincing, but truly- i swear every single one of the billions and billions

of seeds that fluttered to the ground took up residence in my gardens and the landscaping

and heck~why stop there- even the lawn! they also tracked in the house.

 it's gone now

 and in it's place is the mulch they made out of it and left for me.

*do i miss the shade? you betcha. BUT...i think the grass will finally grow

around this garden now and maybe in about another year i won't have to

weed another million or so trees coming up everywhere.

we've still got the stump and i'm actually having fun using it as a bit of 

garden art. there's a big planter on it and it's kind of a cool riser.

martha stewart calls cement replicas of these "du bois" i believe.

we needed to mulch anywhoo so for our money- we got our own back. haha

here's the planter that's on that big stump now.

sweet woodruff, one of my favorite ground covers.

i have a busy week to look forward to.

yesterday i had the pleasure of having a family i'd never met hire

me to take family photos for them and so i have a lot of retouching to do.

then later in the week we have two weddings and i'm doing reception flowers for 

both of them and my sister is coming to stay for a few days!

it's going to be such fun!

hope yours is too,

xo, beth