cottage home sale

*i'm excited to announce a sale at my home*

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

one month from today~

AUGUST 15th and 16th

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

this sale has been my spring/summer project.
it's been the project i've been excited to share with y'all.

truth be told, it's pretty much taken over my life...

(in a good way).

there's been a load of junking, shopping, digging and

screeching to a stop when i see garage sale signs.

my friend christa and i have

sewed and framed and made jewlery. we've also

gleened the best, coolest stuff from

alexandria to northfield and we've cleaned it,

painted it, arranged it and admired it. we've weighed the

pros and cons of keeping it all-v.s. sharing it

with YOU at our sale.
&
we've decided to share.
: )

i hope you'll put it on your calendar- it's going to be really awesome-
(really)
:  )

I will be posting photos here from time to time to

show you some of the great merchandise and 

peak your curiosity~

well- there now you know what i'll be doing for the next month straight~

 continuing to get ready for the sale!

oh yeah but guess what?

 first i'm going on a road trip to NORTH DAKOTA.

williston ND to be exact.

why? you ask~

well my seester and her hubby have been there for the past year

living and working in the oil fields.

two of my cousins and i are going to make the

1300 mile drive to see their new way of life, 

 bring her bed prizes, eat yummy food she's cooking us

and see some country we've never seen before.

can't wait to give her a hug!

Giddy Up!

xo, beth

i think every mom waits for this day~

and the day was here~

adria, her friend anita and i went wedding dress shopping last saturday.

it was hot and sticky outside- but nice and cool in the boutiques we

went to. (well nita and i were cool- the BTB got hot trying on all those

yards and yards of satin and lace- haha)

adria tried on a whole bunch of dresses and i surprised myself by

not crying off my waterproof mascara! i got teary eyed right away when

she started looking thru the racks and deciding which ones to try on first-

but then i was o.k. and it was fun- just pure and simple fun.

i've thought about this day since she was a little girl playing "dress up bride".

we started out at flutter. 

the fun bridal consultant ruthie, looked so much like

christina from the show parenthood, that i just

pretended that she was.

*she told us she gets this a lot.

this shop lets you take photos and drink mimosas.

: )

anita and i had fun gabbing while adria would be in changing into the 

next creation.

i may be a bit biased, but my girl looked so beautiful that I could hardly WAIT to see

her come out in each one.

no sillies- this is not the dress...in fact she didn't make any decisions that

day- other than that she wants to look a little bit more.

now it was off to lunch and then we went to 

heartstrings bridal.

this joint had more rules and we had to take our shoes off. there were no beverages 

allowed...not even water, (but you-know-who snuck a couple sips from the 

bottle of water in her purse) and they don't allow photos.

what???

their loss...haha

see? i'm advertising for them anyway- but i was sad that

i couldn't snap a photo of my daughter in the dress

that was her favorite of the day.

i think adria has a better idea now of what she likes and what to look for,

so we get to have this fun again!

with just one daughter to help plan a wedding with,

i'll go however many times she wants to~

xo, beth

  eric had a birthday on wednesday.

here he is -  one day old

and again at 5 weeks~ (love that little face!)

he's an unbelievable 34 now and that sweet little face is

so tan he doesn't even look caucasian, and it's

no longer soft to the touch~ but it's so dear to me just the same.

there's a few scars and reminders that tell the story of his life,

and it's a good story.

his "fazahh" has made many birthday cake for me and i think he

made adria one once, but he'd never made eric one before.

eric and dale shoot trap (that's shooting clay pigeons- which are not real birds if you 

don't know what trap shooting is) together on wednesdays, and lars got the

fun idea to make him a cake, in the shape of a bullet, and bring it along

for the team on wednesday.

lars thought carefully about the plan and went to byerly's with his list.

he made a white cake and then inverted it out on a cookie sheet.

next he cut hersey bars and lined them up at one end.

he asked me to make this caramel frosting that is a family

favorite and that was spread on part of the "bullet".

*now the real hilarious part comes in. he wanted there to

be what would simulate bb's inside the bullet so he spread 

m and m's on 3/4 of it and then slathered on layers of red frosting over 

them. it was an excessive, sugary concoction of monstrous 

proportions.  a group of 9 year old boys would have

gone completely nuts over it.

the group of 6 men, ages 26- 59 were pretty excited about it

too i guess.  

:  )

isn't it just the best?

i think he was pretty happy with his results and i thought it was 

really adorable.

*i did take a photo of eric with it, but it hasn't been uploaded yet.

b




oh and p.s.  today's my brother's birthday --- wishing him a
wonderful day.
&
(what does p.s. stand for anywhoo)?

celebrating the 4th~

i love holiday weekends, don't you?

we had some company at the lodge (my brother and his wife and their

daughter-her hubbie and 8 mo. old baby) and two of our three kiddos were there 

to sit and b.s., swat sqeets, eat meal after yummy meal, watch bonfires, bottle rockets and 

the new baby in our family. 

by the time everyone was there, the dog count was up to 4. one more

black lab joined the pack (and there were actually 2 more family pups that

didn't make the cut and get to come). 

4 was plenty- but i will say that after the first night of wildness and out of control

 jumping, biting and horseplay they settled down and were

really well behaved for the remaining 3 days!

"good dogs"!

eric told ashley that babies are always scared of him but she said "i'll bet barrett won't be",

and lookie here~ he couldn't have cared less who held him~ he and eric bonded and shared some

quality time getting to know each other.

this little dude is chill.... momma makes a bottle and gives it to him

and he feeds himself.

bear and his daddy matt are so stinking cute together...matt could hardly pass 

through a room where his son was without stopping to snuzzle in his little neck a bit.

sat. afternoon was hot. we all sat outside and the babe was just plain sweaty.

he's cutting his first teeth and he was so good, but after a thousand pictures and trying hats on him etc....someone (me) had the brilliant

idea to get my old enamel tub and plunk him in some water and he LOVED it.

we -of course- pushed him to the limits of what a guy should have to take... haha

(sorry bear). :  )

his rolls and squishy goodness delighted us all..... love me a healthy, happy baby.

ninja baby!

grampa todd and his little cub

"auntie" adria asked if she could wake him up from his nap on sunday to say goodbye.

three generations. g'ma mary on left and momma ashley on the right

these two have birthdays two days apart so we had a party for them on sat.

we have a pic on the bulletin board of todd holding eric when he was about

2 months old, so one of them suggested we take a new version.

being uncle todd weighs considerably less, he got to be the one who 

was held.  these two love to be together. two peas in a pod.

mary brought the fresh eggs -some blue- that she usually shares.

i have a hard time cooking them cause they're just too pretty.

T. and M. drove up and camped in their new camper.

i started out calling todd cousin eddie (from christmas vacation) but

he quickly put the k-bosh on that and said i could call him clark griswold,

but not eddie...so here they are as they prepared to drive off into the sunset,

clark and ellen.

 loved their new wheels!

well~that's a wrap. some of the highlights of the weekend's fun.

i tell you, having a baby to entertain us was the best!

poor lad had my camera in front of his cute little face pretty much

the whole time- but heeeeeeey- it was worth it wasn't it?

what a little sweetheart!

how was your weekend folks?

xox, b

red white and blue~

this is kelsey.

oh my goodness she was fun to photograph.

i've watched her grow up in our neighborhood and

many times have thought to myself how beautiful she is.

she's feminine, yet drives a bad-ass old chevy pickup truck

and something tells me she's not afraid to get dirty.

she needed very little direction when we were doing this shoot-

she's just a natural in front of the camera- kind of shy with a great smile, yet i just knew

she was going to blow me away if i could

capture her wistful look.

thanks kels for being so easy and so natural, 

the camera loved you and capturing you 

looking this lovely required just a click of my shutter.

this is my red (her fabulous hair!)

white (her clothes)

and blue (her jeans and chevy truck)

salute to the 4th of July for you!!!

Have fun celebrating~ and

remember, it's all fun and games until someone looses

an eye lighting off fireworks.

be careful.

: )

xo, beth

*oh and p.s. i had an idea in the shower this morning that 

might be one of my best yet~

how about i open a salon where women can go to get their legs shaved?

do you hate that chore as much as i do? so tedious, so never ending,

so....well just so dreadful. to heck with getting my nails polished- i'll do that myself.

and the same with spray tans- yada yada. i'll use that lotion that tans me if i need

a little color.

there are barber shops for men where they can go to get a shave~

wouldn't it be the best if there was this service?

if i build it will you come?

(i don't plan to work there, but i will be a customer).