faith, hope and love~

this is my friend joyce.

she just got a new name.

it's "mrs. joyce".

joyce and i have been in a book club together for

the past 15 years.

in those 15 years i've seen her happy, and sad.

then she shyly admitted being hopeful and now i see happy again.

i       l  o v  e     h a p p y.

earlier this month she got married.

i couldn't wait to meet her guy bob at the wedding.

to say that he clearly adores her is an understatement.

their pastor asks each couple he marries to privately 

write down 3 things they love about each other and he reads 

them during the service.

(this is such a beautiful idea- i think more

clergy should do it).

their letters to each other were tender and loving

and oh so beautiful. they made me cry.

these are two kind people who got a second chance 

at love. it's the best! 

joyce's two children walked her down the aisle.

bob had his turn first and here joyce was saying her vows and

putting his ring on him.

i particularly love the picture below because the whole time

these two had been dating, the girls in book club would check in with her

and ask her how it was going.... she would just smile and

say things like "oh fine, he's a good friend". 

being women, we'd press her for more but nope-

 she wasn't givin' us nothin! 

one night at b.c. we were talking about him and i blurted out

'has he kissed you?"  

everyone laughed and she blushed and i felt really bad

for being so insensitive and nosey. 

so it has been kind of a joke - the whole kissing dealio- and she

only recently admitted to all of us that were in love and getting married.

(and i put two and two together-i'm really good at math-

and figured out that they had indeed been kissing).

they went on a trip to israel with their church last summer and

pastor joel said he saw "it" happening there- 

they were falling in love.

*after the ceremony these 2 kindly picked up rose petals.

cute huh?

i love this picture of joyce with her good friend mary~

and this dear man is joyce's dad. he is one of the good guys- one of the few men i've

met in my life that i'd like to have had for my father.

it was he and his wife's 61st wedding anniversary on the day of

their daughter's wedding!

joyce, i wish you so much happiness with this man.

you deserve it.

*and bob,

  kiss her...     kiss her a lot okay?

xo, beth

are you in?

GLAMPING

have you heard this term? i'm not going to look

up the dictionary description- i'm just going to try explain it to you myself.

it's simply camping- made a bit more glamorous.

 how fun is that????

why just camp. 

why not kick it up a notch~

camping is so yesterday.

so 1990's.

growing up a vacation for us meant a camping

trip to alexandria mn.

yeah- i know- right?

we loved it though! it involved a big and i do mean big

heavy canvas tent. i wouldn't be surprised if the

thing was some precious antique already when

my grandparents acquired it. i don't think it was new, but it

served us well, time and time again.

(i think an aunt and uncle of mine still have it in fact-

now that's an amazing piece of camping equipment).

the most glamorous thing about our tent was that it

had two drop down flaps on the inside that kind of-

sort of, if you used your

imagination- made it into a 3 room abode.

we slept on either side and there was a

 middle section. the grandparents were always on one side

and us kids, my sister and i and 

whatever lucky cousins got to come along,

 lined up across the way. 

little sardines were we- hardly able to 

hear the roar of snoring coming from the other

side of the tent.

haha.

you cooked outside at the picnic table,

the food was in an old cooler.

you had to stumble through the dark tripping over

tree roots and raccoons should you need 

to tinkle during the night.

(headlamps hadn't been invented yet.)

if it rained you huddled in the tent and tried not to

whine overly much.

if you were unfortunate enough to have swimmers itch like

several of us did one hot summer weekend,

you just laid down on your 1.99 cent air mattress

covered by a hot sleeping bag, tried not to cry and itched.

we didn't even have a fan along that year and it was about 100 degrees.

and yes we thought this was a vacation!

when i was a kid i didn't know anyone lucky enough to own a real

camper. i couldn't even fathom it.

now a days camping can be better. the list of friends 

and family members who have campers is growing.

if you haven't jumped on that bandwagon, let me

show you some campers that have been

"glamped" up.

most if not all of these are older, retro models that

someone has lovingly restored. 

they're so darned cute i think i could live in one!

(if i lived in say florida or somewhere warm).

the owners of this one maybe hunt? check out the antlers and the feathers.

it's all about the granny square afghan huh?

they make use of every available square inch of storage

 space in these beauties. 

 aren't these just so stinkin cute?
do you want one? I think it would be a kick
to have one to just leave in the backyard.
kind of like a playhouse for grownups.

so, with summer wrapping up and several people i know still

using their campers on these remaining nice weekends,

i salute you, i'm happy for you, and maybe someday

my camper will be parked right there next to yours and i'll be
 sitting in my lawn chair, sharing your bonfire.

wring out every last drop of summer with me will you!

xo, beth

 oh!  p.s. i almost forgot to tell you what the saving grace about our

camping trips was. we always went to the same resort.

krautkramer's eden acres.

the krautkramers had a son named john.

he was our age and he was ka-ute.

no matter how hot and humid it was, how buggy or how bad our

lake itch itched, it was all worth it to us farm girls. 

 for just a few magical days each year, we'd

saunter around the grounds in our short shorts,

hoping and praying for any and all glimpses of this magnificent 

creature.

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

i don't think he ever knew we existed.

: D


**** just noticed that this is my 500th blog post.
who knew i had so much to say!!!!
(anyone who knows me?  ...haha)


i started this blog almost 3 years ago in October
and over 50 thousand of you have read
my ramblings.
thanks you guys--- even though lots of
you haven't officially become followers,
you are out there and i am here at my studio table
and i love ya for being one of my readers!

a love letter to fall~

in case you've missed a few posts, you may not know

that my hubbie is on sabbatical (what we're reverently

calling this time off) this fall and he's been up north.

i've been mostly home in the city.

it may seem weird to some people, but it works for us.

he loves to be at the lodge.... so much so that he would

sell this city house in the blink of an eye and have us living there. 

we grew up in the same teeny tiny town in western minnesota.

he was always on a farm and i was for a good part of my

growing up years as well. what i'm trying to say is that i don't consider

myself to be a snob about county living- far from it really.

i do however have almost no desire to live sooo far out in the wilderness

that you have to drive for miles and miles to buy a bath towel or

a new pair of underwear. that's what it's like to be at our cabin.

we are 45 minutes from any town big enough for anything but the

bare essentials and i just can't wrap my head around being 

that isolated from society every single day. i'm more of a people person than lars

(even though i require a lot of alone time to be content too).

so for now- this works for us. he's there, i'm here, we talk or text

daily and then every couple of weeks we see each other.

last weekend i was up north.

he lured me with apple pies.

really! he did.

he made two of them and made them

so pretty they begged to have their picture taken. 

: )

these two pictures show how beautiful the driveway in is~

the growing season is wrapping up, but the squash and pumpkins didn't seem

quite ready to be picked. i did a little research and found out you should

pick them when the stems are brown and the curly q's are dried up.

not there yet.

this old "thing-a-majig" is growing in a tree

lars had brought these sweet little acorns in for me cause he knows i like them.

we worked together and dug the potatoes and carrots.

we didn't get very many potatoes- but wow are they ever cool.

i bought an heirloom or organic brand of potato sets and have you ever seen

or grown this burgundy kind? i haven't. they are still white inside.

i guess we planted everbearing strawberries because they are still

blooming and setting on fruit.

all the kids were there for the weekend too and so i ran out to pick some flowers

for the cabin before adria got there. i decided to bring my vases outside- something i've never

done in all my years of growing flowers- and arranged them at the game cleaning table.

the morning glories were all twisted around some of the cosmos i was

using and i loved how they just draped down from the vase.

we celebrated chris and adria's birthdays and cole surprised his sister by

picking out and buying her a present all by himself. (an itunes card and

a candle.) i heard her tell him she had goosebumps she thought

 it was so nice. 

*man it's fun to see your kids grow up and be people who care

about each other.

birthday supper for the engaged kiddos. they'd all been out hunting most of the

day. chris got the lone game for the weekend. a grouse.

here are those potatoes fresh from the garden, ready to bake in the oven.

i tried a new recipe that was olive oil, thyme, parsley, garlic, fresh parmesan, salt

and pepper. you just tossed it all together and then baked them on a shallow pan in the oven.

yumm. (and just so pretty too.)

as far as i'm concerned fall can come as early as it wants and stay as long as

she wants. i never want it to end and when it gets cool i immediately start

thinking of soup and fresh bread.

made my first kettle of it this week.

(before it turned back to warm summer like temps).

the weatherman said it's peak leaf season in many parts of the state right now

 and

i think i'll head out with my camera and just soak

up as much of it as i possibly can this weekend.

i'm also going to finish scraping and repainting the

white wood rocking chairs from the front yard, and start putting away

some of my garden art and replacing it with pumpkins etc. 
maybe dig out some yarn and plan a project.
maybe bake pumpkin muffins?
keep harvesting seeds from my zinnias, cosmos and
prairie coneflowers.
start editing a newborn baby session i'm shooting tomorrow.
 get a photo order in.
listen to good music.
drink iced vanilla coffee.
put some summer clothes in storage,
and sit on the swing and read-
and watch the leaves fall.

fall,

i dig you. 

a lot.

xo, beth