Meet Me at the Fair

After Harvest Days we visited Grandpa and went to the Lake County Fair in Indiana. It's such a nice county fair...lots bigger than ours.
We all had to play the mouse game...which was grandma's favorite.


We admired the horses and watched the mail races and flag competitions. We admired the livestock. This is my neice the budding photographer.
And my nephew who likes my favoite fair food almost as much as I do.

As we were walking, I spotted a standard poodle and talked to the owner. Later Joe spotted him and this is Joe (in the yellow shirt) moving in to get a poodle fix. We miss Louie. Maybe we'll have another before too long.

LaPorte on Dwellable

Superman, Band Camp and Dinnerware

Yup, those are the subjects of this post. Colleen has been trooping off to band camp every day in this heat. Monday was superhero day....
Apparently the flute section has been kicking butt at camp. Go flutes!
And this is the dinnerware...we are carrying Feed on the Word dinnerware at the shop now. Each piece has a different scripture. I love the idea of having the word before you at each meal.

PS. Our hearts go out to all in Minneapolis...such a tragedy happening there.

New York, New York...

No, I didn't get to go.........but Joe went to attend some classes for work. They tried to fit in as much sight seeing as they could in the evenings.
There he is talking on the phone to me! We're used to Chicago, and love it, but he said New York is a whole different animal.
He made sure he visited some things he knew I'd like...
And some people we love. This is Mary Jo and Steve, Joe's cousins who live in New Jersey. They gave him a whirlwind tour one evening and fed him the best ruben sandwich he's ever eaten. We'll be back guys, I want to come too!
He didn't forget to bring me something he knew I'd like! Raspberry M&M's and New York colored M&M's. You can see which is my favorite!

New York City on Dwellable

Our huge album...

This is something I've wanted to get done for eons. I cut all the mat board a couple of years ago...selected and got prints of the pics 6 months ago......and finally this morning I put it all together. They are all pictures taken up at the lake, and over it hangs a sign my sister gave me with the lake name. Our old house has tiny closets and had no closets downstairs until we built this one in one end of the kit/family room. We decided to use the French doors after seeing a webfriend from Great Impressions do this in her daughter's room (thanks JanH!). We really like it better than a bank of bifold or sliding doors. And let me tell you, having a place to put coats and shoes really does make a difference in how neat you can keep your house! Not that you can tell that today...seems we have shoes all over this house right now.

Playing at the Lake....

A little painting...

cousins goofing off.......
summertime reading (what better than a Luanne Rice story!) ....
And some garden junk.... Lifevests waiting for a ride..
not wanting to get out of the water!
Common lilies in the sun... It was all so nice and relaxing. Joe got to go with us for the whole week and he and Mike and our brother in law Doug and his son Adam mountain biked until they couldn't stand almost every day. I'm going to have to try to get pics of that favorite activity...but I'm a little afraid to even see what they are up to out there!

At the shop...

that's where I've spent much of my time lately. We did a new display for July...love the red, white and blue. Sorry if you read both blogs, but this is what I'm up to this week so it's a bit of a repeat of the shop pic.

Morton Arboretum

I want to thank everyone for their emails and thoughts since I posted about Louie. Your kindness means so much. We miss him every day.

Joe and I visited Morton Arboretum on Saturday. It was a lovely day.

The cicadas were everywhere...and the sound they make is straight out of a sci-fi movie.

View as you come out of the arboretum library.

A quiet little reading garden off of the library reading room.And espaliered Ginko in the reading garden. I have never seen this done with a Ginko before. Very beautiful.
Cute little guys and gals everywhere....they have a great children's garden...with lots of water to play in!


Sculpture by Patrick Dougherty entitled Xanadu. Beautiful.

They have an awesome treehouse! Way up in the pines...with swinging bridges...straight out of a story book. I have a fantasy of someday having a wonderful treehouse.

Alton on Dwellable

Louie 12/1/95-5/26/07

He was the best dog. Happy.

So affectionate. Tolerant.

Loving.

The best traveller.

A mighty swimmer. An awesome retreiver. Even a good babysitter.

A house without a dog is a home without that daily reminder to be affectionate, to greet each other with total enthusiam, to love each other unconditionally. We're going to have to try to remember that without Louie there be a constant reminder.
I'm trying to put his things away, but I'm having a hard time with this. Joe suggested we put his bowl up over the cupboard where we can see it. When we saw this bowl years ago we knew we had to have it...Life is good....because that's the way Louie saw each day.

Mother's Day

Joe cooked dinner for me, my mom and my aunt....and the guys too of course. I set the table...with my pretty "new" pink cloth I found at a garage sale. Five dollars for the table cloth and 12 napkins...gotta love a deal like that!!
The centerpiece is part of the gift for my mom...some flowers for her rock garden.


It was a beautiful day to eat on the porch.
Loading up. Wish I had a shot with all the goodies. It was yummy!

Louie wishing he could have just one of those pork chops!