apple butter frolic

we had a busy weekend. a wedding to attend, 2 cakes to make, friends to visit with, a fall party to attend, a frolic and a birthday party. this post is just of the apple butter frolic we attended. its a yearly event focused on the traditions and everyday life of the mennonites. since it is held in the fall time, the big event is apples. apple fritters, apple butter, apple dumplings. there was also yummy chicken potpie, pulled pork, scrapple, ham and potatoes, etc. demonstrations on farming, keeping house and crafts. here are a few highlights from the day.

CD release party

 last evening i had the pleasure of attending and providing the cakes for a cd release party for some dear friends. they put out a beautiful worship cd, recently. you can check them out at shores music if your interested. shores music label is a sister to shores of grace ministries. shores of grace ministries are doing a great work in brazil, ministering to prostitutes in hopes of setting them free, through restoration. showing the love of God our Father to the broken. it was a great night of worship and celebration with this couple pictured below and other bands on the shores music label.

Aquarium via my phone

i recently went with a friend to the baltimore aquarium. here are a few shots of the many fish we got to see. it was fun to go again, since i can't remember the last time i was there. her kids loved it, since they've never been to an aquarium, their excitement was contagious, so i thought i'd snap a few pictures to share. the manta rays, sharks, dolphins and sea turtles were to hard to capture, but were a very big part of pools there. a perfect way to spend a rainy day!

Birthday Boy!

we love birthdays here! we love having people over, eating yummy food, and celebrating life in general! this past weekend, jason had a birthday! i really wanted to have a little gathering outside this year, so we cleared some space, spruced up our lacking yard a bit and built a fire pit for the occasion. the day turned out lovely, a great way to send the summer off with one last party outdoors. we ate snickerdoodle cake and homemade vanilla bean ice cream, made our first bonfire and played with sparklers and fireworks! a very good day!

Lobsters and Labor Days

 Here is the project of the week! It was a fun one!

Happy holiday weekend!

Jason and I... well we will both be working so we can take off a day next week for his birthday!In the spirit of working hard, here are some things that have gotten done around here of late.

• cleaning out the garage
• cleaning up the storage part of our house ( mostly)
• cleaned and organized my craft space
•  made some knit socks
• seasoned my cast iron pans
• made my own scrubbies for doing dishes out of bags that oranges and lemons come in. fold. sew. done. they work excellent as a non abrasive scrubby
• hung some new artwork
• made panzanella ( summer bread salad)

Cake in a jar!

Wedding Weekend!

here is the most recent cake i've done! it was for this lovely couple pictured below! they are dear friends of ours and we were so happy to be apart of their special day! jason being best man and my cake contribution.

 and it was so great spending a whole weekend with these folks. their company with us was truly the highlight of our summer! oh and possibly a road trip... but we sure do love these two couples a whole lot!

in our yard this summer...

PEACHES! while these are not the prettiest peaches i've ever laid my eyes on, they are, however the most magnificent! you see, they are the first edible peaches we've been able to pick from our peach tree out back. this is only our second summer at this home and we have not been taking preventative measures to ensure some rot free fruit. so imagine my delight at finding a few golden fruits that were ripe and ready.

my small herb patch, right outside the back door

our compost bin! jason built it from pallet wood! we are so excited to get it going.

this beautiful and simple swing from terrain, is my inspiration for a swing out back. good thing i have a carpenter in the family!

Cake of the weekend

 Round two on the murder mystery cake circuit! It was a lot of fun making this mystery manor cake. Good thing I had some extra "blood" from the last one!

a little more love from our trip

most of the national parks we visited were selling these retro looking cards. we instantly loved the  look of them and started a collection to remember our trip. they were reprinted orginal artwork for posters done for the parks in the 1930's. you can read about the full story here. pretty fun stuff.