The Most Beautiful Shabby Chic Wedding reception

My friend Cynthia's daughter Roxanne got married today. They were married in the Mesa Arizona Temple. This evening they had a beautiful reception in her aunt and uncle's backyard. Her Aunt Debbie does weddings and catering and planned and designed most of the decorations. It was so beautiful, so many details, every where you looked. Here are the Happy couple, Jonny and Roxanne.

Cindy painted this fun backdrop with chalkboard paint. It's adorable.

The gifts were placed on this couches.

Each table was a little different but all with the same theme.

Guests took their dishes out of this cupboard and then there was a beautiful serving line, build your own pasta salad and then panini sandwhiches,

 The cake was made by a friend of the family.

Different desserts wwere in drawers of this cupboard.

There was a special seating area for the bride and groom.

Fun sodas and drinks.

Bride, groom and parents.

Cute little signs, told their story.

Guest were asked to sign these initials instead of a guestbook.

 Cards went into the birdcage.

The lights were beautiful, especially as it got dark.

Proud Daddy.

 

 

 Happy Mom!

Chiminea

Today, my niece and I, went to a mexican import store to look for a pot for her mother. While we were there I saw a few things I liked. I have often thought I would like a chiminea in my backyard. The ones I liked were rather expensive and so I haven't gotten one. In the store today, I saw this one above. I thought it was really pretty and the guy in the store was really wanted to make a deal. He kept coming down in price.

We also saw this paper mache macaw that was fun. I didn't want to pay for him though. In the end, he offered me a great deal on the chiminea and threw the macaw in for free. He has a small ding on his back, so I guess that is why. My niece is going to make him a perch and hamg him under the eve in the backyard.

After I left for work, she went to another store and found the pots for her mom. I am not allowed to post photos because they are a surprise. But she got this roadrunner made out of rocks for our backyard.

 And while I am at work, she is breaking in the chiminea and making s'mores!

The slits on the sun are cool!

It's my turn tomorrow night! Maybe we can have book club in my back yard.

Kachina Kennel Dog Show Sprin 2013

We went to a dog show today. I love going and seeing all the different breeds, They are all beautiful, or almost all. And the owners love talking about them. It's especially fun seeing some of the ones I will never own. Like the different mastiff breeds. This is a picture of my niece's hand holding a mastiff's paw. His paw is bigger than her hand. He weighs 230lbs. He isn't quite to full size yet.

This beagle is pretty cute. He looks a little long suffering on the grooming table.

Manchester Terrier.

Fun black miniature poodle. We saw a man go by carrying a white one. It was so white and fluffy, Penny thought it was cotten candy.

The big guys are fun. Here is another English Mastiff male.

These are 6 month old English Mastiff puppies.

Corgi puppy.

My niece was really excited to see this dog. It's a Xolo. A primitive breed from Mexico. They were thought to be extinct, but a few were found and now they are breeding them. It only has a patch of hair on top of it's head and at the tip of it's tail. It has a "hide" rather than skin. I didn't like the way it felt. My niece thought it was cool. It was the only one of it's kind at the show.

This guys was a lot of fun and huge.

 My niece's hand gives you an idea how big his head is.

Irish Wolfhound. You can see how tall he is by where the waist is of the lady holding him. These are the tallest dogs.

I think the french bulldogs are adorable.

This Shibu Inu had it's own umbrella and cot to lay out of the sun. It's fur was really thick. They are from Japan.

 Loved this guy. He was a hoot. He won his class. One very thick big bulldog. He was afraid of the camara.

 Great Danes.

A Douge De Bordeaux, scratching an itch. I almost ended up with one of these once.

My niece was excited to see these Pharoh hounds. Her dog, Tanner, is an 1/8 Pharoah Hound. We found out when we did a DNA test on him last year. He looks like a minature Pharoah hound. He is also half Chihuahua and 1/4 poodle.

 It was fun to watch the obedience classes. This is the long down, off leash, with the owner's out of sight for 5 minutes. They also jumped, fetched, heeled, retrieved by scentj.

 Japanese Chins!

Another cute bulldog.

More Great Dane's

Garden Spring 2013

Last year, my garden didn't do as well as in years past. I think it was many things, but the biggest was the early brutal heat. This year, my niece, fenced my garden off for me, to keep the cat and dogs out. It's pretty awesome. I have a small area but I plant a lot of things. Above is an overview of what it looked like 3 days ago. Everything is suddenly really taking off. It seems to be loving this Spring weather.

I planted mostly from seed this year. That was always hard with the animals. When the delicate seedlings came up, they would eat them, walk on them, roll on them. It's definately a slower start doing it almost completely from seed.

Here is my lettuce patch. Behind in the ground, you can see the top of my giant swiss chard. I planted that in the fall. It's going crazy now and needs to be eaten. Next to the lettuce is a basil, cilantro and a few carrots. I pulled out all the radishes right before this photo was taken. I just planted some cucumber seeds where the radishes were.

This is the plum tree my niece planted for me. I like it, but it doesn't look like we will get any plums this year.

I am trying potatoes for the first time. I got some organic seed potatoes from Maine. I didn't have much room, so they are planted in these two containers. As they grow, you add more dirt, or mound it, so that there is more room for more potatoes under ground.

Chard again. In front of the chard, I planted some aspargus in rows. They won't produce anything this year. They are a long term investment though. They should produce for about 20 years. I have never grown them either. ig you look closely in the front of the chard, you can see the aspargus just sending up some shoots. Behind, in the bed, is some of my many kinds of tomatoes.

Lettuce and carrots again. An eggplant, behind the lettuce.

Several kinds of tomatoes. And a tomatillo.

I have 3 kinds of peppers, Ancho, Bell and Pepperocini.

I am trying a little bit of corn again. I don't really have enough room to do much with corn, but I love it even when I get a little. This variety was designed for patio's, containers and small spaces. I also have some Okra and zucchini coming up around the corn.

I have some peas and sweet peas (flowers) growing up together. Not a lot of peas, but very tasty. They get eaten standing in the backyard. They never make it in the house. In front of the peas are some onions.

 I have one pot of flowers. I also have some nasturtiums and sweet peas scattered in among the veggies.

For some reason my niece planted an entire forest of parsley. I also have some spring chard and a little bit of spinach, beets, black eyed peas, dill and summer squash.

A lot in a small space!!