A Scientific Marvel!

Forget those fancy boat encased in a glass bottle. After Adam cleared out the last relics of the garden he showed me the results of our last garden experiment.

Presenting . . . the tomato grown inside a bottle!!!!!! (ahhhhhh)

Then I filled the bottle with water to further illustrate how impressive this feat is. Yeah . . . not quite sure what I'm going to do with it now.
I really liked using that bottle for flower arrangements. hmmm.

Well, in the meantime
I'll show you some of my newest custom designs.

This is a pretty (and simply elegant) look for a fall wedding.

Next, a very cute Baby Shower invite.
Invite and envelope customized for the little pumpkin theme.

A close up of the top. Super cute and retro.

This was one proof for a wedding invite. The bride ended up choosing a different look but this one grabs attention so I thought I'd post. Rich green cardstock and a deep purple equals a dramatic look.

A close up of the graphics. All my invites are laser printed but this one echos the look of a letterpressed invite. I know, I know, nothing beats the ultimate elegance of expensive letterpressing but the cost of this invite is far more preferable. (believe me)
Rounded corners give it a special touch!

October 5, 1943 - Monday Evening, "Late"

Dear Harry,
I wrote you one letter earlier tonight but I thought I would start tomorrow's letter now. I drove by the post office to mail the other letter and then drove on home and put the car in the garage, all by myself. I did real good I thought.

Wilma and Elmer were home - and up when I finished putting the car in the garage, they were up in their room and never said "boo". Well, Wilma can go to grass as far as I'm concerned. Tonight I took a bath and had to heat water to wash my face. I went to get a drink and searched in the dark for the glass, and here in it's place was a broken one. I don't know which one broke it. Then also, sitting there was an empty olive bottle!! Ours. I'm just marking time sweetheart, so don't worry about it as I can stand it as long as I have to and then when something better comes along, I'll take it.

This morning I made my first fire. At first I didn't think it was going to catch, but it did and I still have it nice and warm in here. Surprised? I am. I have an appointment for a permanent Oct. 21. We received a letter today from Lr. and Lila Oser, and $1.00 for our anniversary. I'll send you their letter and you can return it with the next one. Also, I'll send you the one from your Grandma. I think I will get the top to my - - enclosing $1.00 for my birthdayyou know what - - tomorrow night. (note: hmmm, sounds like a little inside joke here)

Today is Tuesday. I have been very, very busy today and I don't know exactly what I've been doing. Howard and Debby were in the store yesterday and asked to be remembered to you. They want your address. I must plan to have that shower on Debby. They always seem so nice.

Do you know that Dot has only called once since you've gone and that was to tell me about Jean's baby. It kinda gets my goat. I called Jean and inquired about the baby's health. It is in isolation and whenever they go in or out of the room they must wash their hands in something and wear robes. the baby's stomach fills up with flem and chokes on it. I guess it sorta has the doctors stumped.

Well, honey, I'll clsoe now saying I love you, I love you! xxxx Helen

Hello

A popular style of invite. I just love any invite that has ribbon.


Now a super yummy recipe from my sister-in-law, Stacy.
It's so good, you can't even tell it's zucchini

Zucchini Cobbler
8 Cups - zucchini, peeled, chopped and seeded
2/3 Cup - Lemon Juice
1 Cup - Sugar
1 Tsp. - Cinnamon
1/2 Tsp. - Nutmeg

In a large saucepan over medium heat cook and stir zucchini and lemon juice for 15 to 20 minutes or until zucchini is tender. Add sugar, cinnamon and nutmeg. Stir one minute longer. Remove from heat and set aside.

Crust
4 Cups - flour
2 Cups - sugar
1 1/2 Cups - cold butter or margarine
1 Tsp. - Cinnamon

Combine flour and sugar in a large bowl; Cut it butter until mixture resembles coarse crumbs. Stir in 1/2 Cup into the zucchini mixture. Press 1/2 of the remaining crust mixture into a greased 15x10x1 inch baking pan. Spread zucchini over top. Crumble remaining crust mixture over zucchini. Sprinkle with cinnamon. Bake at 375* for 35 to 40 minutes or until golden and bubbly.

Local Haunts and lots of pizza

It's been such a busy weekend I sort of feel like Thursday was Friday and Monday was Sunday and today is almost the weekend already. Friday I was excited to try out a new restaurant with my friend Chiara. The Calico Cafe in Coldwater is excellent. I enjoyed the BLT salad which almost had too much bacon (is there such a thing?) Then to finish off the excellent meal Chiara and I shared an excellent slice of Carrot Cake. Here's the link to Chiara review of them.

Friday evening we enjoyed 9 holes of golf with friends. Well, the guys enjoyed 9 holes; Angie and I stopped at hole 8 because it was so late we couldn't even see the flag for hole 9. I missed the most exciting part of all - Adam actually had sparks from his club when he made contact with the last ball. We ended the night with tasty pizza and beer at Buds in Minster.

Saturday I worked all day then we went out with our friends Justin and Denise. We goofed off at Lowe's and then had dinner at The Beer Barrel. www.beerbarrelpizza.com/. Again more pizza and beer. While Denise and I insisted on onions on our half the guys decided to try one of their more unusual toppings, dill pickles. (Gross)

Sunday was more work and finally cake (yeah cake) at a birthday party. Grabbed a gift at Topsy Turvy Toys in New Bremen which is an excellent place to find unique childrens gifts. Adam and I love going there because all we have to do is say, "birthday gift, girl, 5 years old, $15 or less" and Cathi or Lisa just magically pull out a wealth of gifts sure to please.

Monday began the new week with breakfast at Haus Der Eleganz in Minster, which is a great place to enjoy coffee or a meal. Today is less exciting. Adam is taking advantage of the awesome weather and is doing all sorts of work outside. Since I can never have too much pizza today I found a new recipe for chicken, pesto and purple grape pizza. I thought it was great and Adam - well Adam ate it. When I asked him if it was a "do again" he was honest and said no. Smart guy. I would have served it again and again.

Took advantage of the zinnia bushes and took some shots of a few recent invites.

A cute little shower invite

This was just a practice invite.
Looks a little sloppy but I really like the look of it.

These stripes are so fun and they can be customized to any color scheme.

A super cute baby shower invite. So pretty and elegant.

Men are like a fine wine.

“Men are like a fine wine. They all start out like grapes, and it's our job to stomp on them and keep them in the dark until they mature into something you'd like to have dinner with.” Kathleen Mifsud

Okay, not trying to be a jerk. Men are great!! I just thought it was a funny quote and for some women, probably a way of life.

With all my lamenting about my overgrown garden I sort of forgot that we have our own "vineyard". Three sets of overgrown grapevines which sit outside the fencing and thus seem to be in another world entirely. Adam and I were walking around the house today and you could smell the purple grapes basking in the sun. We're going to try our hand at making grape juice. Also I seem to remember an old recipe for Grape Pie. My friends mother used to make it and it was delish.

Took the opportunity to snap a few pictures of some purple invites.

Popular Damask look with a border and names highlighted in purple.


It's hard to tell in the photo but this invite (below) has a subtle lilac rose pattern in the background.
Very pretty with a soft charcoal print and fleur de lies symbol on top.

The envelope is really pretty too with the pattern printed on the front.

The matching RSVP postcard. Very popular. You just apply the postcard stamp and your guest (hopefully) only has to sign their name, put a check mark and drop in the mailbox.


And finally a nicer quote to end this message
"We should all do what, in the long run, gives us joy,
even if it is only picking grapes or sorting the laundry."
E.B. White, American Writer 1899-1985

Choosy Moms choose Jif

Started my day out with a peanut butter and jam (plum jam) sandwich. I knew it was going to be a good day for at least one of the dogs because I was scraping the bottom of the jar to get enough PB to finish my sandwich. This means that before that plastic jar hits the recycling box it gets thrown outside and the fastest dog gets to lick it clean.
Magnet (Adams dog) is normally the fastest and true to form she won the prize. However, Magnet is a more dainty dog and she finished what she wanted fairly quickly. That's okay, because big bruiser Jr. (my dog) is more than happy to finish the job. It's not easy for a large-sized dog to shove her snout into a 28 oz. jar of creamy peanut butter, and lick it clean but she did it!

Some Fun Facts from Jif website http://www.jif.com/home.asp
- Peanut butter was first introduced to the general public at the 1904 World's Fair.
- We began marketing Creamy Jif in 1958. Extra Crunchy Jif made its debut in 1974.
- The name 'Jif' was chosen because it was easy to say, spell and remember.
- People in the U.S. eat, on average, 7 pounds of peanuts and peanut products per person, per year.
- 270 million pounds of Jif are consumed in the U.S. each year. That's enough to make 2 billion peanut butter sandwiches, or to spread a football field with a layer 55 feet thick! (Now, there's a thought that'll stick to the roof of your mouth!)
- There are about 1,218 peanuts in a 28-ounce jar of Jif. The Jif plant in Lexington, Kentucky is the largest peanut butter producing facility in the world.

Peanut Butter reminds me of fall, back to school, football. Here is an invite that I did recently for a chic August wedding. It would also work well for an autumn wedding. It's a very rich looking shimmery bronze color with a wide brown satin ribbon. Very Pretty!

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)