Fall Flowers

All good things have to come to an end, right? Even my dahlias which have been blooming since August! I'm so grateful for them especially since where I grew up we never had flowers into October. I picked these on Tuesday, October 26th. Here's my last delphinium of the season, as well.I'm linking up with My Romantic Home's Show and Tell Friday.
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Ruffles and Rust (a vintage market to inspire)

I've been looking forward to this show
since July! My hubby called it Bednobs and Broomsticks. :) Even though I wasn't feeling all that great on Saturday morning, there was NO WAY I was going to miss it. My hubby said that he thought I'd crawl over broken glass to get there. OK, that is a little extreme. :) At least he knows what I like!

Unfortunately, I didn't get a friend to go with me, again. Oh well, I kinda like shopping alone but it would've been fun to have someone with me to share my excitement. I did run into some "old" friends of mine - Tiffany and Colleen - from "down south." :)

I *really* wanted to take this home with me but it was over my budget. :(
This was an interesting repurposing/craft idea - decoupaged (using vintage paper) metal cookie sheets as magnet boards. Click on the photo for a closer look.
Another interesting idea was this decoupaged (with vintage book pages) framed mirror:
I loved this display of vintage sheet music (Hayley's Cottage):
Fun Junk had tables full of stuff to dig through.
At this booth I found some antique roses postcards (photo below).

I love glittery stuff, especially Christmas decorations like this church from Glitter & Ivy's booth.

There were over 50 vendors but these were my favourites:
- greatfindz (Dawn)
- My Sweet Savannah (Melaine)
- The Vintage Nest (Tamara)
- Unexpected Necessities - a new to me vendor
- Joyworks
- Garden Party & Luluz
- JohnBob Cool Junk - they have the best displays.

Show & Tell Time - fun stuff that I bought:1. an antique kitchen scale - $10 (these usually go for much more!)
2. authentic, no-filler autumn potpourri from Garden Party
3. cute antique white frame
4. paper birdcage (I collect them)
5. chippy & rusty cast iron stand (with pumpkin on top!) - from My Sweet Savannah
6. photo card (purple rose)
7. floral paper covered Bible - free from Joyworks!
8. antique floral postcards
9. mini paper roses from Unexpected Necessities which deserve a close up:
Aren't they adorable?

I found some more great photos of the show at the blog Create Beauty. Enjoy!Pin It

It's never too late for a party

My oldest son's birthday is in late August. Not the best time for planning birthday parties. Lots of people on vacation and who to invite? His class from the previous year? Plus, this year, his birthday was the day before the first day of school. Kinda busy, no? I have planned and executed 11, count 'em 11 birthday parties!! Can you say burnt out? :) So, I wimped out and didn't have a party for him. He was OK with that. For a while. But then hee started asking, when is my party going to be? OK, ok. Can it be small? Please?

We had a *very* small party for him last weekend. (If you're counting, that's almost two months after his birthday.) Three friends were invited. Two were able to come. I made cupcakes and decorated them to look like a mini golf course since A loves to play mini golf.

(I found printable cupcake flags here and the cupcake inspiration here.)

The main activity was playing hockey outside which warmed the hearts of his Canadian parents. It turns out that my youngest is a tough goalie!
Silly string was sprayed.
Some gifts were opened. Pizza was eaten.

Pictures were taken.
A good time was had by all and I didn't completely wear myself out in the process!Pin It

Picking pumpkins and apples

So, I'm back. You missed me, right? :) I have a working hard drive now so I can share photos again.

The boys recently had a day off from school so, as we did last year, we went an orchard to pick apples. This year I didn't go to the same orchard. Instead we drove to Sedro Woolley. Yes, that is a crazy name for a town. I wonder where the name came from? Anyway, at the orchard we were given free range to try as many apples as we liked. I appreciated how friendly and welcoming the farm was. A big shout out to Jones Creek Farms! There were so many varieties of apples. Many that I hadn't heard of before. One thing that surprised me was the number of apples on the ground. What happens to these apples? I hope they're made into cider or something.
Here is one of my happy apple pickers and tasters.We ended up picking 14 pounds which sounds like a lot but wasn't overwhelming. Yes, we made a pie. I should say my hubby made a pie with the boys' help. How sweet, eh?

We also made our yearly pilgrimage to the pumpkin patch. This year I decided to take the boys to Craven Farm (in Snohomish) after school in the afternoon so we could avoid the crowds. It was a good strategy. We practically had the place to ourselves. The only drawback was the traffic going home since it was 4:30 pm by then.

I love family traditions!Pin It