Art in the Park

My oldest son Sean and I went to an Art in the Park event today. It was on the grounds where Fort Defiance once stood during the revolutionary war. Today, this is the grounds of the library and I think it is considered a park too. Its at the confluence of the Maumee and Auglaize rivers.

The Maumee is shown above, and the Auglaize is shown below. I live about a mile downstream on the Auglaize.
There were a lot of vendor tents! Let's see what they have for sale. Click on any pic to see it bigger.

The artist below makes fanciful statues out of junk metal and odd bits and pieces. I would call this whimsical art. I think the second picture of the bird made out of a bedpan is hilarious.

Here someone made paintings on the back of old windows. Very colorful.
And the rocks and benches below were very cool. I wish I had money to buy several. You could put candles or small potted plants in the carved out hollows in the sandstone rocks. I thought the benches would look great in my yard so that I could gaze out over the river. Maybe next year.

Here is another view of the festival.
Some very cool pottery in the booth below. I almost bought this adorable pottery bowl for monkey bread, but it was too small for my household! I hope its not considered mean for me to post this pic with people's butts, but dang it, they saw I had a camera and still walked in front of me!

You can get a glimpse of the old library in the background.

They had a band perform called Siberian Solstice. They did cover songs from Trans-Siberian Orchestra and they were pretty good. I have actually seen Trans-Siberian Orchestra and if you ever get the chance to go, you should definitely do it because they give the best show EVER! This cover band was still pretty enjoyable and they were free, lol. My son enjoyed this a lot. The sunshine in this pic is deceiving. Within a half hour it was pouring, then it cleared right up and the sun came out again!

I put money down for a raffle on this beautiful quilt. Even if I don't win, the money goes to something really good...the Susan Komen Foundation for breast cancer research and help for women with breast cancer.

I loved this booth below. I had remembered this from last year and was determined to get one of these adorable bird feeders.
Here is a close up. They were only $8 a piece. My son teased me about my cup-on-a-stick and said I could make one cheaper. I told him that by the time I bought the cup, even on sale, and the glue gun and the glue, and the tools to put the rod that stands it in the ground, plus the rod, plus the post, that I would be well out more than just the $8 I spent, lol.

Here is a pic of Sean. He is happy because we are in the food tent and he has just had two hot dogs fresh off the grill. He is also happy because they were selling their unopened packages of Dinner Bell hot dogs for only $1.25 and I bought some and he can roast them over the fire pit this week.
And here he is, happy because we are leaving. Hurry up, Mom!
The town had a flood this past January. Hard to believe now, the the river was up to the top of that railing and they had to sandbag around the library. Still, over 80 homes and businesses in the area had flood damage.

And here I am, next to the river, smiling because I had fun and I got my cup-on-a-stick bird feeder.

Here I am goofing off because my son told me to pretend I was drinking out of the cup. People were watching and I looked silly so I told him to hurry up.

This is a close up of the cup. They even included a little teaspoon. Too cute!

I like the way it looks in my garden on the back of the house. Love the chippy paint on the post. So shabby chic!
Wow, I need to weed and clean up that flowerbed.

I also found some pretty jewelry at the art fair for $33 for the whole set. I wear lots of browns and these will work with several outfits. Plus you can use the stone on either necklace and even intertwine them if you like. I limited myself to spening $40 and I almost did that...well if you don't count the four raffles I entered and the food tent, lol. Oh well, it was all for very good causes. Oh, and I got invited to join the Historic Homes club, even though I don't have an old house. Sounds like fun, but they have meetings on the one night a week that I work really late.

Well I had a fun day, and I am not missing my youngest boy too much yet. He has been calling daily. He's having a good time and enjoying his visit so far.

I'm off to enjoy what sunshine is left for the day!

Wedding gown hunt and winery visit

Last Saturday my daughter Tara and I went wedding dress shopping! Yay! She only tried on two dresses and she loved the second dress so much that she knew this was The Dress. Just click on any picture if you want to see a larger view.

I have to agree, I think it's The Dress too! She looks so beautiful in it. It made my little mommy heart go pitter pat to see her all dressed up like a princess!

Here is a picture of the dress taken in the dark so it would maybe show off some of the beading.
When I took a close up of the bodice detail, I noticed how it hugged her curves in all the right places. It gives her the most beautiful hourglass shape. She's a bigger, curvy gal like me, and this flatters her in every way!

I adore this picture of her looking back at herself in the mirror.
She found bridesmaid dresses too. She loved this style and she is going to get it with the white sash, but will have the dress in blue. In the lower left corner is the hem of a dress in the same powder blue.
She loved the beading in the bodice. She thought it echoed the beading in her gown.
It might not be possible for me to find the mother-of-the-bride dress that was my first choice, but I found something else online that I really like, and it will probably be one-half to one-third the cost of my first choice gown. It has some really pretty beading and a jacket with beading as well.
After all the fun of shopping for the wedding gown, my daughter wanted me to go to Stoney Ridge Winery with her. She and her boyfriend had gone there a few days before to sample some wines that they might like at their wedding. I have been here before and it is such a nice place and the wine is wonderful.

I love the stone gates. It was raining, so I didn't get out to take a picture of the pair of gates, but thought just one would give you an idea of how pretty it was. There are several acres of grapes and a long gravel driveway.
And here is the winery! They added on to the left side since I had last been there.
The entrance was so welcoming. Love the grape purple door, grapevines, and wine barrels.
And I love this pretty window box. This is the same kind of window box I want for my front porch. A welcoming candle is lit in the window. (Ok, I confess, it's electric.)
Here are some grapevines growing next to the dining patio. I remember sitting at that same patio on a date a few years ago and feeling very tipsy from a bottle of their strawberry patch wine! I didn't realize it would pack such a punch.

It's probably hard to believe that grapes grow so well in Ohio, but there are a lot of wineries in the region. The best grapes are grown in the lake regions, and there are several wineries on the Lake Erie Islands and shores.

Below are three pictures taken from the winery's website. http://www.stoneyridgewinery.com/ It's so cozy inside, and you can sample wines at the bar. I abstained. My rule of thumb is to never ever have even a sip of alcohol if I am driving. Ohio is moving toward No Tolerance of alcohol and driving. I did however buy a bottle of their strawberry patch wine. It's great with chocolate. Yummm!


Even though it was such a rainy day and we had so much fun visiting the winery and finding a wedding gown, the best part of the day is what you see below...
...a very happy girl!

Have a merry weekend everyone!

My youngest son

I'm sorry I haven't been on much this week. I haven't even been leaving comments. Here's why: My youngest son left for Texas this week with his dad. He'll be gone for6 weeks.
He may be almost 16, but he's still my baby. I've never been away from him longer than a week! Anyhow, we spent family time together on Sunday when his sister and her boyfriend came to visit. On Monday, I let him have the computer since he would be leaving. On Tuesday I got home very late from work and fell asleep early. Yesterday, I was trying to figure out what to post about my son.
Here is my boy this spring next to the driveway garden. Below is a picture of him from last summer with the neighbor's cat Fat Boy who is now missing. For more about that read this old post: http://bonnielane.blogspot.com/2008/05/furchild-jake-tribute-to-fat-boy.html

People have told me he looks like magician Criss Angel in the above pic. Below is a picture of him being silly while mowing. I call it his Rock Star mowing.
My son is quite the artist. I can't find any of his drawings, but here is a stained glass picture of a dragon he did in school.
And here is a woodburning he did. I don't know if he drew this free hand or copied it from a picture, but it's pretty cool.
Here he is asleep with Dino. When we were clothes shopping last fall, he begged for this stuffed toy. I thought he was teasing, but he really did want it. He has had so much fun taking pictures of the dinosaur in different situations like talking on the phone, wearing shoes, holding a toy gun. My favorite is a little movie he made of the dinosaur dancing.
I tried to add it from You Tube, but I couldnt' figure it out, but if you'd like to see it, it's only 11 seconds long and titled "Dinosaur Dancing." http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QcPDFDbl3mo&feature=related

Anyhow, I got a call tonight that he and his dad had made it safely to Texas. His dad just moved there, and he wanted my son to spend a good part of the summer. I'm enjoying my quiet time now, but ask me in a couple weeks how I feel about it all!

I'll try to catch up on all my blog visits this weekend!

Garden Party

In celebration of the first day summer, Cielo at The House in the Roses is hosting a garden party! If you'd like to see all the pretty gardens, you can click on the picture or go to http://www.houseinroses.blogspot.com/


Here is my garden. Please sit down and have a refreshing snack before we take a tour of my yard and flowers.
See where the sun is shining through? I can watch the sun set over the river from that spot. The whole line of trees is the top of my riverbank.

I wanted to set an especially pretty table for you! Here I have a depression glass collection with a sandwich plate and sugar and creamer set in the Mayfair open rose pattern. I love depression glass! The vase is by Lenox and was a gift from my father's cousin and his wife for my wedding. (Ha, I just realized that was 21 years ago yesterday! The marriage ended 8 years ago, but I still have the pretty vase!)

Here is another view of my yard looking toward the river bank.

Before we begin, I'd like to mention that I did not plant these beautiful flowers. The woman who lived in the house before me must be given full credit. She did a beautiful job and planned it so that there would be flowers blooming from earliest spring until late fall. I thank her in my heart every time I look at my yard and gardens!

My son took this picture of luscious berries growing on the banks. Alas, he could get a zoom pic, but I couldn't reach the berries because of poison ivy! All of the rest are pictures that I took of flowers in my garden. A few are reposts. Enjoy!

The picture above is one of the gardens in early spring when everything was blooming. It's my favorite pic of my gardens.
I don't know what the purple flowers shown above are, but the butterflies and hummingbirds love them! They bloom in late summer.

My duck and ducklings statuary! It's from Home and Garden parties.


Hope you enjoyed your tour of my gardens! I'd love to have you stop by again.

P.S. The statuaries of Pan and the fairy in my sidebar are not from my garden. They were taken at the grounds of Ravenwood Castle in the Hocking Hills of Ohio. They were featured in an older post.