oh my gosh...i am absolutely in love with an app i

purchased for my i-phone today. you snap a photo and

then process it with this app- (there are a bunch of ways to edit each one

and choices you can use) and your photo suddenly-

right before your very eyes- looks like a 

gorgeous watercolor painting!

here are some of my favorites that i shot, and edited~tonight

learning to paint with watercolors has always been on my

list of things to do "someday",

but with the discovery of this easy- fabulous app

i may not need to. i'm pretty sure i could never paint like this

and i think these are just fun and beautiful...do you?

heading north in the morning...me and about 10,000 other people- haha

(one of us for each lake in MN.) :  )

just heard this trivia question on t.v. being broadcast from the

great minnesota get together- the state fair:

"what is the largest body of water in mn. that is completely inside the

state's borders?

hey rain ---rain, go away, come again around monday night, when our

holiday weekend is wrapping up will you?

it's the final horray of summer vacation before all the littles

will be heading for the bus stops and i hope you have some

fun plans for the weekend. i'm excited to go to a rodeo and see

some bull riding action!

b.

answer to trivia?  the upper and lower red lakes 

my gardens are in their glory right now~

i walk around every day dead heading spent blossoms, 

pulling weeds here and there and watering and it

is such a feeling of contentment to me.

since i was a little girl and lived with my gram- who always

had about an acre of flowers blooming on any given summer day-

tending to flower beds and bringing a handful of them in to put in

just the right vase, has been one of my favorite things.

thanks to my neighbor shelly i have morning glories everywhere!

it never ceases to delight me how they tendril and trail off and 

twist and turn themselves around. they just make themselves at home
and crawl up anything near them. i have them in a window box in the front of
my kitchen and they have nearly cut off my view outside completely.
it's cool and kind of like a secret garden. kind of makes up for the lack of
shade there after having our big front yard tree cut down.

there was an abundance of these butterflies on the zinnias last week.

and i know we need bees- like really neeeeeed them to pollinate all of our food sources, but heavens to betsy they are aggressive this year. it's more than a little disconcerting to 

hear from several sources about multiple stings and allergic reactions that nearly 

turned deadly this summer. i had a reaction a few years ago, but got stung last year and this year again and didn't swell up or get hives but, our oldest is very allergic and he got multiple

stings two weeks ago that blew his face up and caused quite a scare, so we just got epi pens for up north and i hope we never need to use them- but if we do- i'll sleep better knowing that

they're there. for now though little bee friends- just leave us alone and

keep enjoying my pretty posies, ok?

thanks.

xo, b

or bee,

 or aunt bee to some- : )

the things we do for love~

our cottage home sale was a big event for us girls.
i really had no idea how much we had to sell!

the double garage was full, we had two tents outside, a big trailer full
and more spilling out on the yard and driveway.

it was a lot more work than i was anticipating too and without all the

stellar help from good friends i would have literally had

my patooty handed to me.

there would have had to be a self check out lane with a sign that said, pay what

you can or what you want~ heck just take whatever you want and bag it yourself ...
and~ guess what? there are no

carry out boys to help you get the stuff to your car either.

none of that happened though cause i have amazing friends that were here
 to help christa and i-
*special thanks to susie, maggie, leslie and laurie- (who added such amazing loot to our sale!)   

this is what the garage looked like when we opened it up on friday morning. we still had

a lot of work to do!

we lucked out with weather- it was pretty flipping hot- but at least it didn't rain.

it was also so dry that there wasn't even any dew on all the things we left outside overnite. yes!

friend cindy let me borrow her yellow bug to have in the driveway by our

lemonade stand. it just looked so cute, cottagy and like a big lemon don't you think?

another view inside the garage

and more from outside

we even had baskets lined up for the serious shoppers as a holding area

leslie, christa, muwaa, maggie and sue.
suz- we loved having your generous help and getting to hang with you all day was
such fun.

i'm not as short as you might think- maggie is 6'1" !

cousins nancy, maddy and barb- hi girls!

*so sad i didn't get a picture of cousin kelly (a brand new dr.)  and her son who came

all the way from spicer.

friends sue and leslie k.
leslie was our resident flower girl. she brought beautiful flowers 
from alexandria and then made numerous trips around my yard, gleaning
all kinds of flowers and berries and even a tomato to arrange in vases and 
made our displays look pretty.

one of my lifelong besties laurie, drove a long ways to surprise me

with her darling daughter and 2 grandbabies i'd been dying to meet~

this is my real life ballerina friend lexi. 

lexi lives in new york and dances with the new york city ballet!

she was home visiting her family

i found this cool old schwin bike while out junkin. 

it was one of the few things i could not sell- i added the basket and then

leslie filled it with flowers. these black eyed susans still look pretty out there today. :  )

when i saw this picture i laughed... i think i look tired.

aren't the morning glories glorious though?

this last picture pretty much wraps up our feelings by the end of day two.

it was all really great and i was thrilled with all the people and all the

fun our shoppers seemed to be having. lots of shoppers referred to it as 

our "first annual" event...but when it was over

i said '-ummm yeah- probably not....hahaha not unless it's in someone else's yard k.?

i really was on a mission from mars to find great stuff to put together and

resell..... i spent hours and hours getting it all cleaned, painted and priced.

 the sale kept christa and i busy all summer (and was my job). 
i sold a lot and have some hard earned proceeds and 
if you were kind enough to come to

hang out and shop- i hope you had a lovely time. 

we appreciate you and loved seeing ya'll!
thank you for supporting us.

it was all pretty great here on canyon curve for the week of august 15th. 
i still have my tent up in the front yard. just kind of still enjoying 
the ambiance and feeling it brings, like there's about to
be a fun party or event of some sort here-
come by and sit with me in my rocking chairs out there if you have time.
it's lovely now, just quiet and lovely.

beth

xo

i'm doing more of this right now~ (just sitting in my big chair- trying to catch up

and rest)~ than i've done all summer.... it feels so good.

that sale i had? it pretty much took over my life and kicked my butt. i think the wedding may

be easier. we can only hope!  :  ) every part of my life needs attention now

and i'm chipping away at all of it day by day.

 i do want to tell you about this though. this mop may change my life. not even kidding!

i saw it on tv and yesterday i picked one up at kohls. i don't know when mopping

my floors has brought me more pleasure.... it's called the hurricane spin mop

and it ROCKS! i was so excited while using it that i stopped and did a little

happy dance and then took a video and texted it to my big sweetie and

 told him that he's probably going

to want to start taking a turn to scrub the floor now and then.

again...a girl can hope. 

if you have floors to scrub, get thyself one, asap.

in other news, i bought a hot spot/jet pack to use at the lodge so there may be 

chances for me to blog when i'm up there. 

i haven't been there in almost 2 months because i was wedding dress shopping

with my girl and then doing yard sale prep. i cannot wait to see

how that big garden i planted is doing. i just started calling it

"dale's garden" cause in my absence he's the one who's been taking care of the

weeding and watering. i mostly just hope there are flowers blooming! 

the flowers in my twin cities yard are fantastic right now.

 i took a bunch of pictures of them this

week and can't wait to share them with you. 

i'm going to post from up north if i can, so maybe there will be a weekend

update even.  :  )

oh and one more really great tidbit. our oldest got a job working for

a concrete company near our cabin, so he will be moving up there

in a week. and my sweetie is taking a sabbatical this fall so he too

will be spending most of his time in the woods.

they are going to be 2 happy guys. 
together, 2 boys and 2 dogs

and one very big woods.

*we do not take this for granted.

we are blessed. life is good.

God bless you,

xo, beth

"i went to the woods, to suck the marrow out of life~ 

to see what it had to teach 

and not when i came to die, discover that i had not lived".
                                                                         Thoreau

the weather man says the heat index here in the twin cities 

will be over 100 degrees by tomorrow. 

that's hot.

but it's summer right? and summer is hot.

it's mid august now and the summer of 2014 is wrapping up.

if you have kids you're no doubt stumbling through office max or target

with a mile long list of required school supplies. (including several boxes

of kleenex. there must be a lot of runny noses in classrooms across america.)

i am still in recovery from the sale of the decade on canyon curve that

we held in my yard last week. until i get some photos edited and have the

energy to show you some of the fun, i'm going to revisit some

favorite images of summers past.

a little "salute" to summer!

 my dear friend cheri

this is my darling daughter- now known as the BTB

(bride to be)- have i told you a dress has been ordered?

ohhhhh- the dress! wait till you see it~ she emailed me last night and said that she loves

it so much she cannot imagine only wearing it once, so she plans to do

date nights with her hubby and  just keep on wearing it.

:  )

 sweet-sweet niece ashley-growing us a baby boy last summer

 surprise! my youngest "on" the lake, not in it
(he and his friends have to show off for each other- they are young hotdogs still)

 love this boy so much- my grandson snoozing in the truck with duke,

on the way to the lodge last summer.

 my handful of beach glass, treasures given up by lake superior

 adria and i in front of that same big water

 another precious niece and her little one sammy- so adorable!

 just a reminder- you never know what's in the water people

 love this

 me in a quarry at one of minnesota's beautiful state parks

have a wonderful day...and if you're anywhere near water,

GO AHEAD~ ride your bike into the lake. life is short.

i double dog dare ya.

xo, beth

*remembering with love, my lifelong friend char's wonderful mom, tootie.

she went to heaven yesterday. she and her husband russ

hold a very special place in my heart and always will.

**i am sooo not ready for this generation of beloved people

to slip away from us...if you haven't thought about this, i don't mean

to be a major depressant here, but if you're my age, we'll be the oldest generation.

life is short my dears, run barefoot in the rain!

if you want to skydive, go skydiving.

if you want to quit your job, quit your job and find a new one.

if you want to eat dessert for breakfast-why not?

take some time for you- take the time to get quiet and search the

truest part of who you are and make sure you are living the life you want to live.