Welcome Weekend!

Happy Friday! We snapped these family photos last weekend during our mini vacation to Leavenworth, WA. Leavenworth is a darling Bavarian village nestled in the Cascade Mountains. Those Bavarian's sure know how to put on a great Oktoberfest! The drive up was so gorgeous with all the fall colors out in full glory.

This weekend we are looking forward to going to an Apple Squeeze to press our own apple cider and our little town is holding its annual Pumpkin Festival where we get to see and taste all things pumpkin! Yum. I hope you all get the chance to get out and enjoy some Autumnal activities. Its apple season, so if pressing your own cider sounds right up your alley, go check out PickYourOwn.org. PYO is an awesome site that lists pick-your-own farms and pumpkin farms and is searchable by State and County. If you are looking to pick out a pumpkin for the porch, gather cornstalks, or snatch up a haybale check the PYO website and make your way to the nearest farm for some harvest time fun!

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Pick Your Own...'cause these are MINE!

One of my husband and I's favorite family pastimes is to go to U-pick farms and harvest berries, produce, flowers, you name it. We were planning on going this weekend to pick blueberries, blackberries, and lavender but we have decided to go on an impromptu camping trip to the Whidbey/Camano Islands instead. Just because we cant go berry picking this weekend doesn't mean you cant, so I still wanted to share this awesome website with you! To find a pick-your-own farm near you check out this site, PickYourOwn.org.  Late July and August are the best for finding a wide array of ripe fruits and veggies. This is an awesome site that I have been using for years. You click on the country and state of your choice and it organizes all the farms based on counties. Before you grab your berry buckets, make a quick call to the farms. The website tries to stay as up-to-date as possible with hours and closures but you don't want to show up at the farm, drooling with anticipation only to find they are closed that day or worse yet closed up shop for good.

Blueberry photo credit, Blackberry photo credit

I wish you all a berry-stained-fingers-and-faces kind of weekend! When I return from our camping trip I hope to have some good pictures of a special campfire treat I have been waiting to share with you!


Linked to Friday Fun Finds @ Kojo Designs, A Few Of My Favorite Things,

Pikes Place Market

Summer has finally arrived here in the Pacific Northwest! We have out-of-town family visiting right now and we tease that she brought the sunny warm weather with her from Colorado. With family in town, this week/weekend has been a whirlwind, so I have a slew of fun posts I have pushed off to next week. I hope you are all enjoying your weekend. I thought you might enjoy some photos of our day at Pikes Place Market. It's a place that if you haven't seen it, you need to! :) 


After our trip to the Market we made a stop at Anthropologie so I could drool...I found some clearance treasures for a special project I will let you in on next week ;)

Order up! Pie a la mode

The farm across the street posts signs on the road letting passerbys know whats fresh and in season. I impatiently waited until I saw signs for both strawberries and rhubarb yesterday. I made this pie from scratch. You can imagine how yummy my house must have smelled! :) Rhubarb is in season and fresh is always better than frozen or hot house. Nothing says summer like a strawberry-rhubarb pie, so here's my recipe...get cookin' ;)

My favorite greek salad

A few years ago, while accompanying my husband during one of his training sessions in southern Oklahoma, I had a delicious Greek chicken salad at a darling little café. I have been craving it ever since, and it inspired me to experiment and create my own recipe. It's a family favorite, and now I'm sharing it with you! Enjoy! :)

Garden Stones

I have seen a few different types of plant labels for the garden, usually made out of tin or wood. I really liked the idea but I could never find them labeled with the same veggies and herbs I have in my garden. So, I had an idea to paint river stones. I love it! So natural looking and I can label any and everything! Here's how I did it...

Supplies:
Stones
Acrylic Paint Pen (Elmer's Painters, black fine point. Mine is from JoAnn Fabrics- $3.99.)

Little Sapling Toys

I just LOVE these toys from Little Sapling Toys, dont you? These organic wooden toys are made by Nick and Kimber Christensen in their home in Boise, Idaho. I love how beautiful, timeless, and natural their creations are. They are made with certified hardwood and finished with local beeswax and organic jojoba oil to bring out the natural beauty of the woods. What's even cooler? For every toy they sell, they donate enough to plant a tree through Trees for the Future. I cant wait to get some of these for my son!  Check out their etsy shop and follow them on facebook!