Saturday dawned bright and sunny, the perfect weather for a party. Melissa, Laura, and Abigail had been busy all week baking treats and freezing them for the weekend, and Friday had seen them preparing lots of finger foods to be baked on the day of the party...
This particular Saturday found me free as a bird, with Quinn off for most of the day filming with friends. Wanting to be helpful, I asked Mom what I could do to help with all the preparations and she pulled out a huge list! Don't worry, the huge list wasn't just for me, ha!
I spent most of the morning putting together floral arrangements from all the wild flowers we had picked the night before. We had picked enough flowers for over 10 arrangements! And they really brightened up the house and brought the sunshine indoors.
Next, Dad and I got the backyard and deck ready. This was probably my most favorite part! I raided my house for candles, tablecloths, pillows, and an old trunk. We made the backyard seem like an extension of the house!
Next was the food! So many delectable treats just sitting there, waiting to be eaten!
It was hard not to take a little nibble...
The only thing I made were my favorite Molasses Crinkles! Everything else was made by Mom and the girls.
(And this isn't even ALL of it. There was still Cracker Candy and Lemon Bars in the fridge!)
As the time drew near for the guests to start arriving, we put things in the oven and I put together the fruit and veggie trays. Once everything was out, Dad said to Mom, "Do you want me to go through and eat some of it to make sure everything tastes good?" We were all surprised when she let him!
Yes, everything got his stamp of approval. Ha ha!
Now all that was left to do was wait for guests to arrive!
And don't worry, everyone had a marvelous time:
Quinn and his friend Aaron were the champs at badminton.
Greta loved watching everyone play!
The sun set that evening with a warm glow, just like the glow from the candles in the house. Everyone had a wonderful time celebrating Abigail's graduation, though I think we'll have to wait for her to get married before we throw another big party (shh! Don't tell her that!).
This last Thursday, Abigail closed a chapter of her life and opened the pages of a new chapter. To her, high school must have seemed a very long chapter, but I'm sure to our parents it was more like a moment. We are all so proud of her, she has put in countless hours -- especially in math -- and we all know how excited she is to be finished.
She was also excited that Laura gave her a shark balloon as a present, instead of the typical graduation balloon...and doesn't he look like the happiest shark? After we took this picture we may have gone outside and acted out some silly songs with him. After all, how often do you get to play with a shark balloon?
Our parents are throwing a huge soiree in celebration of Abby's accomplishment, and everyone has been in a tizzy trying to prepare! With so many friends and family invited, horderves must be made, the house must be cleaned, and the best part...flowers must be gathered!
But first...We need to lace up Abby's corset.
The whole family gathered together and walked down to the tide flats,
and we were met with the most glorious sights:
I don't know about you, but we were awe-struck by the beauty of the mountains and the wild lupin, we even started singing "The hills are alive, with the sound of music..."!
Greta particularly loves the tide flats now that the thick sea grasses are much taller than her. She can hop around like the little bunny foofoo Dad calls her and burrow in the mini forest.
When we got back to the house, our baskets were overflowing with lupin!
Do you see those chocolate lilies sneakily hiding in my basket? Yes, I know I said I would never ever put them in my bouquets, but mom wanted some in hers.
And don't worry, she'll be putting those bouquets outside the house.
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The flowers down on the flats were lovely, but mom had recently gone on a hike up the mountains, and the heather and other wildflowers up there were also in full bloom!
Thankfully, we didn't have to hike to find the flowers. A quick three minute car ride had us up at our local ski area where pink heather abounded:
The best part part about being in the mountains was the sunset:
By the time we got back to the house, it was past bedtime. Buckets of flowers were set on the front porch, waiting patiently to be made into lovely arrangements. Little did we know what excitement was coming...
As the last rays of light were illuminating the yard, Melissa went out to water her flower beds, meanwhile, Quinn was in our little kitchen doing the last few dishes from the day. As I sat quietly upstairs, I suddenly heard a loud gasp, and a frantic Quinn started banging on the window! He was yelling: "Mom! Get inside! Get inside NOW!" She looked up from her watering confused, but seeing the look on his face understood that something was wrong. She jumped up on the porch and opened the door.
By this time I was running downstairs only to see the biggest black bear standing upright in the driveway! He was standing with his giant paws on the trashcan -- which was still out from a day of cleaning the yard -- and he was taller than the car he was standing next to! Quinn ran outside and grabbed the BB gun from the front porch (kept there for bears and any likely boyfriends who come calling) and started firing at the bear. After a hit in the head, the bear galumphed off (looking quite sad he didn't get his dinner), and Quinn -- the hero of the evening -- put the trashcan inside the house.
A very exciting end to a wonderful day, wouldn't you agree?
Hopefully Mr. Big Black Bear wont be back anytime soon,
especially to Abigail's graduation party!
He was not invited!
"The grass withers, the flower fades, but the Word of our God stands forever."
Oh, give us pleasure in the flowers today;
And give us not to think so far away
As the uncertain harvest; keep us here
All simply in the springing of the year.
Oh, give us pleasure in the orchard white,
Like nothing else by day, like ghosts at night;
And make us happy in the happy bees,
The swarm dilating round the perfect trees.
And make us happy in the darting bird
That suddenly above the trees is heard,
The meteor that thrusts in with needle bill,
And off a blossom in mid air stands still.
For this is love and nothing else is love,
The which it is reserved for God above
To sanctify to what far ends He will,
But which it only needs that we fulfill.
~Robert Frost~
The poem above was sent to me by my friend Jaclyn, and I knew as soon as I read it that I had to share it with all of you! It seemed the perfect poem for this time of year; the wildflowers, the apple trees, all in full bloom!
The dark, almost black, flowers that you see in the tide flat photos are called Chocolate Lilies. Unfortunately, someone must have named them that as a joke, for they smell nothing like chocolate. In fact, I would not recommend smelling them at all -- they stink! They have not made it into any of my Spring bouquets...and they probably never will.
The Lord has blessed me in amazing ways over the years, usually in the form of a new job. I seem to never have to look very far for a job when I need one, He always has something already lined up just for me.
This last week God provided again in an amazing way. I am happy to report that I will be starting a new job in the next few days, a full time job with benefits and good pay. I'm anxious and excited to get started -- after all, new jobs are a bit scary!
Even though I'll be working full time now, I still hope to update this blog very regularly on a schedule. The days I post may have to change a bit, but I'll still be here ready to tell you about the fun things going on at Blueberry Barn when I find a free moment or two.
Thank you so much for reading along on my adventures, and I hope you'll stick around!
When you're stuck in a 40-foot bus for six or seven hours on end (no doubt driving through the fields of some Midwestern state), you find interesting ways to occupy your time. Yes, some of those times were taken up with music practice, other times spent keeping my husband awake while he drove...and still other times I was on Pinterest madly planning my cousin Callie's Bridal Shower!
Of course, she wasn't getting married until June. Oh, what? Yes, I said June!
Why of course I was going to do a Seven Brides for Seven Brothers theme. Callie was getting married in June! When we were younger (on many a sleepover night) we would watch Phantom of the Opera, My Fair Lady, and of course Seven Brides for Seven Brothers!
Of course, months of planning were all well and good until it was three days until the Sunday it was to be held and oh-my-goodness I have to bake how much bread!?
Lets worry about the bread later, the first thing we needed to do was decorate! And by 'we' I mean myself and my dear friend Avery. This is what we started with:
The downstairs of my church has been used for lots of things from parties to potlucks. Unfortunately, it isn't the prettiest spot for a Bridal Shower. Armed with my mother-in-law's linen closet and half the decorations in my house, Avery and I set to work to transform the room into a garden party picnic!
Six hours later (and after so much ironing!), tables and chairs were in place, and all that was left to do was make the food!
The menu I had planned had been carefully thought over for several months. Things tried and true and some new things added as well for a bit of excitement. Some wonderful ladies in the church had also volunteered to bring things like salad, chips, and veggies, so all I had to do was worry about the main course, dessert, and refreshments!
I was inspired by a photo on Pinterest to bake bread for sandwiches in bunt pans. I had never seen anything like it before, and the bread (a Tasha Tudor recipe that is in her cookbook, but you can also find it here!) turned out amazing!
I would be lying if I said it was easy. Saturday, the day before the Shower, I awoke early and started what is now the busiest and -- hottest day -- of my life so far!
My tiny gas oven put off so much heat on an already very hot day that I found myself several times outside on the shady porch for relief!
Tasha Tudor's bread recipe makes four very large loaves of bread, and I made it once in the morning and again later that evening for six bunt-shaped loaves of bread. Phew! In this picture here you can see four of them. Before this endeavor I only owned one tiny bunt pan, but thanks to a trip to a local thrift store I acquired two more -- the perfect number for a batch of bread.
Besides the enormous amount of bread I made, I also achieved making a three tiered wedding cake! For Quinn's birthday party one year I had made him a six tiered rainbow cake, but a wedding cake's tiers are so much bigger (and much easier to accidentally break in half!). I used a recipe for a Victorian Sponge cake from this lovely video here, and it turned out amazing! I also used the same frosting recipe and talk about yum! I chose to frost my whole cake though, mostly because my tiers weren't as golden brown as the ones in the video...oops. The cake I was proud of most of all:
Did I mention the fact that there was so much cake batter that I didn't have a big enough bowl to hold all of it? Thankfully, my biggest soup pot came to the rescue and the cake turned out amazing!
I would not have been able to organize this giant party if it hadn't been for the help of my Love and friend Avery. Here they are in the final minutes before the party started, preparing the sandwiches:
Quinn was nothing but supportive of all my crazy ideas. Ideas like: "What if I hang branches with hearts hung from them?" or "I want to have a photo booth. Can I borrow your nice top hat?"
He must love me so much!
And yes, in case you're worried, the Bridal Shower was a big success!
The sandwiches turned out wonderfully, everyone agreed (and they couldn't believe I had baked it all myself!).
I woke up early Sunday morning and gathered wildflowers from the tide flats to put in all the vases I had brought from home.
I only took this one picture after the Shower was winding down because I was so busy!
The present table in the corner had been full of presents, but they were all opened with much excitement (Callie asked me to make her bow bouquet for her -- she'll use it at the wedding rehearsal).
My Aunt Freddie, Callie --the Bride!-- and her younger sister, Melinda.
All three have the most lovey singing voices, and I love to hear them sing together at church.
I had so much showering love on Callie, and I don't think I would be overstating it to say that everyone who attended the Shower was rather shocked at how much work I had put into it. Haha!
My Aunt Freddie (Her full name is Fredrica! Isn't that lovely?) gave me lots of hugs and kept saying how lovely it was; that was my favorite part. Or maybe it was when Callie passed the record player and heard the songs from Seven Brides for Seven Brothers playing: "Where did you get this!?" she asked. Or again, maybe it was the photo booth...
Here's Callie with the bow bouquet I made
from all of her presents!
Melinda, Callie, and Miranda all being
flirtatious behind their fans.
Regardless of what the best part was, I'm just so joyful I got to plan the Shower and even more joyful that it turned out so beautifully. Callie will make a lovely bride, and I'm so excited for her and her soon-to-be husband Robert!
A string of sunny days in Alaska can cause havoc in everyone's lives. It's quite dangerous! You see, whenever there are several warm sunny days in a row, chores get left undone and everyone spends all day outside. Sunburn is also a major problem, as Madison (of her blog Daily Dose of Madison) shared in this post. I'm not brave enough to post a picture of myself bright red after this last sunny stretch like she did, but know that I was indeed RED.
This post is only getting written now because it's been raining outside! Yep, I shirked my writing duties so I could have fun in the sun (you can't blame me though). And you will notice that there are no good pictures of me in this post - that's because I'm hiding the sunburn.
My husband Quinn is currently in full scale production of his newest movie, 'Adventure Within'. When he asked if I wanted to go on a hike after church last Sunday instead of going home and cleaning (because SUNSHINE), I of course said yes. He was going on the hike because he wanted to get some shots of one of his main characters - a knight - on top of some snowy mountains.
And if there's anything Juneau has a lot of it's snow and mountains!
From this picture above it's easy to see why Juneau is a temperate rain forest. The lush green is unspeakably beautiful, and the snow-encrusted mountain tops gleam white in the afternoon sun.
It was a four mile hike to the filming location, and Greta's first real mountain hike. I am happy to report she did wonderfully, and promptly fell asleep as soon as we reached the top. Quinn had invited lots of friends and family to join us for the hike, and many of them came! We must have seemed a little strange to the other hikers who passed us: a large group of young adults just let out from church, a tiny puppy, and one person dressed in full armor.
Some of the first of us to make it to the top. There were 13 of us all together!
Once everyone got to the top, we took time for a quick lunch and then a group of us hiked further to help Quinn with his filming.
True Alaskans wear shorts and tank tops while hiking through the snow.
The filming went really well and everyone had an amazing time while up in the mountains. We stayed and filmed for so long that the sun was setting and casting a pink and red glow on everything as we started to hike the trail back down. Before we left, everyone refilled their water bottles in lake. Snow and ice melt made the water extra cold - perfect for the hot day - and the water was crystal clear.
Being up amongst the mountains made me feel very small, but it also reminded me of the words to the hymn that says:
"Oh Lord my God, when I in awesome wonder
consider all the worlds Thy hands have made.
I see the stars, I hear the rolling thunder,
Thy power throughout the universe displayed.
Then sings my soul, my Savior God to Thee.
How great Thou art, how Great Thou art."
How wonderful to know that we have a Heavenly Father who loves us so much, that we mean more to Him than the big mountains or even the towering sky.
Saturday dawned bright and sunny, the perfect weather for a party. Melissa, Laura, and Abigail had been busy all week baking treats and freezing them for the weekend, and Friday had seen them preparing lots of finger foods to be baked on the day of the party...
