Food, Family, Festivals, Friendly People and Fun . . . and then more food.

Let's not forget Farmers Markets, Fallish weather and Finding time For Fun. That's a lot of "F" words, huh? These last couple weeks have been very busy and with the weather being cooler I'm reminded that the holidays are really just around the corner. Last week we had our town festival Bremenfest, which always seems like the end of the summer to me. But while we're still on this side of Labor Day let's discuss summer things.

First off, I have two Columbus haunts to rave about. Adam and I were in C-bus to make deliveries and run other Sara Paper related errands. I had also promised to treat Adam to a nice steak dinner since he sacrificed a big chunk of study time to help me make a couple of deadlines. One of my best clients (hey Miss Alana!) suggested we go to j.gilbert's and enjoy a dinner. It was fabulous!!! A bit more pricey than our normal favorites but definately a treat and probably the best steak ever. After that you'd think we'd be full (and we were) but we couldn't pass up ice cream at jenis. Adam went for the Dark Chocolate Mouth-filling, palate-gripping, intense chocolate flavor with a fudge-like texture. Pleasingly dry finish while I opted for a lighter sorbet Riesling Poached Pear - A surprisingly rich sorbet; pure pear flavor with unique pear texture; sweet Riesling notes shine on the finish. Both excellent. The flavor combos are amazing.

Saturday was a fun day. I traveled to Troy to meet with a new bride (hello Miss Rebecca) who was as sweet as could be. Then I decided to go on to Tipp City to do a little antiquing. I was pleased to see that I was able to catch the last of the Farmers Market. I bought two great products - homemade soap by Living Simply Soap . I bought the pink vanilla scent. I used it this morning and really loved it. There were tons of choices, each packaged as cute as could be. The website is great, I have plans to try out the candles and lotions. Then I bought a great loaf of sour dough bread from the Woodland Gardens Booth. Very yummy!

And then the antiquing!!! I limited myself to a couple hours as I had to get back to my office to work. It's so much fun to find treasures.

Got this cute little creamer pitcher. Reminded me of our garden
and of the cute notecards I made last spring.

Check out the bounty from one day in the garden. Proof that you can plant something, never weed it, and still run a successful garden. The tomatoes on the scale are in the colander I picked up in another shop.

This is a shot of a fan program I did recently for an outdoors wedding.
Seemed to fit in with the tomatoes.

I finished my weekend with a visit with my Great-Aunt Madonna. My mom and my aunt and I went to see her and put some names with some faces. Mom wants to hang some old photos but would really like to be able to say who they are and how they fall in the family tree. Donna was helpful and fun. She told us about the wedding days from long ago. Her wedding day consisted of an 8:30 am wedding mass, then home for a breakfast celebration with the family after which the wedding party would trek to Celina to get their wedding photographs taken. They would then return home and have lunch with more family members before setting up for the barn dance. They would dance all afternoon working up an appetite for dinner with even more family and friends. Then still they would have to attend the public dance in their honor at Kempers Grove, which was a popular reception spot at that time. The parties would last to the wee hours. I couldn't believe it. I asked if everyone did that for their wedding and she nodded and said, "everyone". And the wedding night . . . a trip to the hotel in Greenville only to return the next day to help clean up after the party.

Below, fun picture of Grandpa Willy, Madonna and Anna (with dog Coalie)