Flashback and Foodie Friday ~Happy Anniversary

Randy and I celebrated a wedding anniversary...6 years..this past weekend. We were both under the weather, so we waited until Monday to go out for a nice Italian dinner. So this week for Flashback Friday I'm flashing back to September 25, 2004. My kitchen was transformed into catering headquarters.


And the backyard a wedding chapel with refreshments in the rear


We tied the knot under what I now call the wedding arbor. That's my pal Reverend Carolyn...a coworker that became ordained for the occasion and has gone on to marry quite a few other couples. She was great and had us in stitches the whole time. Although we look pretty serious at this moment.



I moved the wedding arbor to our back gate and this is what it looked like this summer.


We had plenty of good food



We even had shish kabobs grilling around the corner from the "chapel"


Some of my family came from Louisiana..my sister wouldn't have missed it. She's always there for me!


Here is my godmother..my mom's baby sister that I call Nanny and my pal Alice from work. I bet you can tell which one I'm related to!


We had two cakes...one store bought which was very forgettable and one unforgettable Shrek cake made my Alice's sister and my friend Susie. I keep the figurines in the kitchen window to remind me of the day.


And the thing that made me cry first that day...my beautiful bouquet made by a friend, Mary from work. I couldn't have imagined anything so pretty! I'm not sure where she found those hydrangeas in late September. I have a few stragglers on my bushes, but for the most part they are way over ripe!


So 6 years later...my sweet hubby is still making me smile and this year he got me an anniversary gift that shows he really knows me well. Wahoooooo!


I am now a slicing dicing chopping fool!



Happy Anniversary Honey! I'll have to whip you up something good *wink*

I you have a flashback you'd like to share add your link below!




I'm joining in for Foodie Friday this week over at Designs by Gollum. Hopefully my wedding food and new processor qualifies! Check it out HERE.

Flashback Friday ~Dahlia

Just a quickie Flashback this Friday since I'm just home from a work trip. Here's a fall dahlia from a couple of years ago to celebrate the Autumnal Equinox!


Join me with your own Flashback by adding your link below.

Mosaic Monday ~Finally a Trip to the Fair!

Finally my Fair Fever was quenched :-) Earlier this week we made a trip after work to the Western Washington Puyallup State Fair which is billed as the 8th largest in the country. Their advertising jingle is "Do the Puyallup" and we did!! The gate we enter into is close to the floral displays so I always make a beeline there first. Outside the building landscape companies have displays like this


And inside the ribbon winning floral entries. One day if I ever get myself organized I'll enter a few.


The floral arrangements were really nice this year


There is normally a display from a local but nationally known dahlia company, Connells but alas they have gone out of the tuber business so no display from this year but there was another great dahlia supplier who took their spot over. Not the same, but beautiful still!


There are more landscaping displays indoors as well. I loved this little scene.


After I had my fill of flowers I could stand it no longer and had to go directly to the Home Arts displays to see how my entries did. I jumped for joy to see a 3rd place ribbon on my Hot Ziggerty Nut bars! Yahooo! My first fair ribbon! Funny though how two people can see things differently. Randy's response was...You were robbed! lol I was thrilled though. Something called Macaroons won 1st in the category. The look good.


There were lots of other goodies on display including this case of homemade pies


And these gorgeous quilts


I loved this one


And this winner


I thought of my friend Kathleen with this Irish tablescape. One because she's Irish, two because she does great tablescapes and three because I think she could blow this one away!


I was just mesmerized by these felted wool sculptures


Amazing aren't they?


From the Home Arts hall we moved on to the Hobby Hall. I love the "collections" displays. Pink Pyrex anyone?


Or maybe some Humpty Dumpty?


Look at this amazing "doll house"


Now on to the veggie displays. Love the giant pumpkins!


There's always some freshly carved too


Could I "bee" any happier??? :-)


One of my favorite displays at the fair are the ones done by the farmer's granges. All of the displays are made up of foods harvested in Washington.


I think this one might have been the best.


Who doesn't love a butterfly?


And this one was really fun and keeping with the fair theme. Thanks a giant fair burger!


Moving on to the animals!


These baby pigs always steal my heart


They follow momma pig around and tire her out


This one looks all sweet and innocent but let me tell you it was squealing bloody murder! lol


The cows were mostly settling in for a long nap


So food you say...where is the food??? Well I stopped by this booth for a sec to peruse the menu and thought better of it and moved on....


Funnel Cakes were also calling out to me


But in the end these won out


YUM!


And then there was this which I wish I could take back. I'm not sure how a hamburger is messed up but I'm afraid this one succeeded. The onion rings were the saving grace though.


We don't go in for the rides too much. But I do like watching some of the do-dos...um...I mean nice people that go on rides like this one that pulls them up and drops them like a sack of potatoes.


I snapped at just the right moment (ya..I totally planned it that way) and up they shot.



We got to the fair when there was still daylight and it was (amazingly enough for fall in Wa.) very clear.


The day soon faded into evening though.


And I got some pretty neat fair skyscapes



The lights can be hard to capture


So I just snapped lots and hoped for the best


I found some backlighting was necessary to get decent images of the rides.


My parting shot


Hope y'all enjoyed the trip to the fair as much as I did!

I'm joining in over at Little Red House for Mosaic Monday. Check out all of the cool mosaics HERE.