Industrial Chic Wedding Reception

My friend, Cynthia, has had two daughters married within this year. Actually within 7 months of each other. The girls were both married in the LDS Temple in Mesa and then had receptions elsewhere. And of course they didn't want their receptions to be the same. With good cheer, imagination and a lot of hard work, Cynthia pulled off two very beautiful receptions. Rachel and Kyle had a theme of Industrial Chic. The reception was held at the old fruit packing plant at Sahuaro Ranch Park in Glendale.

And it poured the last two days! But they pulled it off anyway. Here are Rachel and Kyle coming in. You can see the luminaria lined pathway behind them.

These photos aren't in order, but it's late and so they are staying in the order they loaded. This is a blurry photo of them feeding each other cake.

And Cynthina and her sister in law Debbie, made Rachel this beautiful boquet using vintage jewelry.

Daddy and Daughter dance.

Besides, Industrial Chic, There was a theme of peacocks and peacock feathers. As I was a helper, Iwas there early while we prepped. See the cool Mr and Mrs sign over the family table? Cynthia made that too. As well as the cool modern light fixture in the left corner. All the centerpieces were different.

Cynthia had this cool sculpture of their last name (Helton) made by an artist from Prescott.

The chandlier they made.

The newlyweds.

Entrance

There was a painting of a tree instead of a guestbook. You pressed your finger or thumb on an ink pad and made a leaf on the tree. Then you signed your name. It was really cute.

"Gift" couch.

 The wedding cake. And you can't have too many photos of the cool bouquet.

 Food tables. Part of my job to work on those.

 My friends, Penny and Sue.

 The boutineers and corsages were all made of gears and feathers.

 Ribbon streamers were waved over the couple as they left! It was a fun evening, and my feet hurt!

When your niece gives you lemons....

My niece is from Idaho. She didn't grow up around citrus trees. She is enjoying them now, however, and knows that I love citrus fruit too. At her work yesterday, someone brought in several bags of lemons. She didn't know that about 6 was the maximum about of lemons one could probably use in a a short space of time.

When I got home from work, she had made a cute pyramid of about 35 lemons at my place on the table. What the heck? And I have just about 4 hours after I have gotten up before I have to turn around and go back to work for a 12 hour shift.

So what you do when your niece gives you lemons? Get out the juicer. I put some juice in the freezer in small containers for recipes. I made homemade "lemonade concentrate". And then I made a lemonade cake. Sheesh. Enough of lemons for now.

Doggie DNA

The last two years, my niece who lives with me, has asked for a DNA test for each of her dogs on for her birthday presents. It's been quite fun. The first year, we found out that her dog, Tanner, was half Chihuahua, as we suspected. He was 1/4 poodle and then then the other 1/4 was quite a few other breeds. In the mix, was Pharoah hound. He looks like a minature Pharoah hound without the big stand up ears.

Then we did Cisco, the little feral dog she captured on Valentine's Day this year. I thought he was all Chihuahua. Again, he came back half Chihuahua, the other half had a lot of different breeds, including 3 different kinds of terriers. It helped explain the wiry hair on his back, his unusual coloring. Way back, he even has a smidgeon of St. Bernard. Pretty funny for a 7 lb dog.

In August, I ended up getting Giselle from the pound. She was billed as a French Bulldog/Chihuahua. I thought she was dang cute. I had always wanted a French Bulldog, but they were way too expensive. So she was my bargain Frenchie.

We just got back results on Giselle's DNA. It is so entertaining. So on one side, she is completely purebred French Bulldog, back four generations. On the other side, she had a great grandparent who was a purebred Shetland Sheepdog. That dog bred to a mixed breed dog. The Sheltie mix bred to another mix and then that dog became one of her parents.

They are calling her a French Bulldog/Shetland Sheepdog mix. . Not a speck of Chihuahua in her. She looks a lot like the fawn puppy above.

But she has way more energy than most French Bulldogs and is quite a runner. I guess maybe she inherited something from her Sheltie ancestery after all. She loves people. Is very outgoing. She loves to hunt, which I think she gets from her Sheltie side too. In the other smaller "dectectable" breeds she has the following in descending order:

Anatolian Shepherd ( Ha! A big dog)

Lakeland Terrier

Shiba Inu

Beagle

Japanese Spitz

 

Here is my little Frenchie/Sheltie. She is my very own designer dog.

She is generally very relaxed unless she is chasing something.

We have really enjoyed doing the tests. They are around 60 to 70$ on Amazon. You should try it!

Petroglyph hike

 I was invited to go along with the Yule's and my friend, Cindy, on a hike to see some petroglyphs today. I hadn't hiked in a while. This turned out to be more of a scramble of some rocks than a hike, but it was all good. It was a beautiful day and great scenery. It was a bit of a drive over increasingly deterioriating dirt roads. I would never have been able to get my car back in this area. It was located inside the Agua Fria National Monument. The Indian ruins are"secret" so no one will vandalize them. And it is an unrestored area. They are right on the edge of a mesa. There is a great view and quite a drop.

The ruins were mostly a series of rock walls and lots and lots of pottery shards. Here are some of the rock walls. We had to scramble down below the top of the mesa bit and then look back up at the cliff they are on to see the petroglyphs. There are quite a few of them. I took tons of pictures. I will spare you most of them, but here are a few of my favorites.

 You can see there is a steep drop down. This is looking back up at the top. You can see the ruins there.

Thanks Wes and Joanne, for a fun day and good company!