A GOOD OL' FASHIONED TIME!

This past Saturday, my mom and I attended the Kathleen Area Historical Society's 21st Annual Heritage Day Festival.  My husband, son and the 4 boys (our 4 male dogs) were also to attend, but when we got there, we were very nicely told that dogs weren't allowed on the grounds due to liability.  It's understandable.  And maybe if we would have just had one of them and not four gigantic beasts we would have been a little less conspicuous!  Anywho, my husband and son left with the dogs and my mom and I stayed.

It was probably my 3rd or 4th time attending, and my mom usually volunteers at it.  This year she didn't because she wanted to enjoy it from the other side of the counter for once.  Every time I go I have a great time.  I love the small community feel that Kathleen has.  The people are super nice and the food is always super good.  It truly does make me feel like I'm in the country.

As always, there were many vendors selling all sorts of products.  I normally don't buy anything (Come to think of it, neither does my mom.) from festivals besides food, but this must have been the exception!  As I show you each picture, I'll tell you what treasures we got from each location and give you the info to the owners!  Here are some pictures from just a few of the vendors:

At this quilt display, be bought...COOKIES!  Yum!

Now, I didn't have my camera (only my phone) for this next shot.  Because I thought we'd be walking dogs around, I didn't bring it.  My son was able to drop it off to me on his way to work, but I took this picture before he got there.  I wish I would have remembered to take another one with my camera once I got it.  If anyone knows who these people are and can get me in contact with them, I'd love to put their info on here.  Anyway, everything at this display is made up of duct tape!  I always call our younger son "the duct tape king" because you'll find duct tape on almost everything he owns.  I took this pic for him, but wish I would have taken some close-ups.  They had a lot of neat stuff:

Loved, loved, loved this next booth!  I love the smell of wood and love things made out of it.  They had all sorts of cute puzzles, and many many other items.  My mom bought a puzzle of a family of three giraffs for my triplet nieces that will be born next month.  This booth was run by a great couple (who even brought doggie treats in case any came) Bev & George Markel, PO Box 609, Davenport, FL  33836, Tel: 863-422-2201, or you can email them.

I have no idea why I was so drawn to him, but I really liked this little boy:

Don't lose the info to this next woman!  Cane Weavers are hard to come by if you have cane furniture that needs to be restored.  This very talented woman is Kathleen Barnes, and is out of Brooksville, FL, Tel: 352-796-2871, or you can email Kathleen:

More cool things!  Terry Regennitter makes this neat stuff below.  You can reach him by email :

The Swing Man does more than just make swings and bird houses that he had at the festival.  He also does home repairs.  My mom bought one of the hangy things for her friend for Christmas.  For more info, you can contact Lee Lovering, Tel: 863-665-2159

This woman had pretty neat stuff.  Besides the Sneaky Snakes you'll see below, she also made magnets for your dishwasher, children's aprons, tooth fairy bags, etc.  The company is Two Sisters Sewing and it's owned by Liz and Erika.  You can email them or call them at 863-686-4414:

For lunch we got homemade Chicken & Dumplings.  Nice size portions and very tasty:

And who could leave without having Strawberry Shortcake?  They were generous servings.  Too bad I ate it too quickly before I thought of taking a picture of it!

After we ate we went into the General Store which is more like a flea market.  Here I bought some photo props - 2 cowboy hats for little boys and 2 knit hats for little girls.  I also bought 4 skirt hangers.  My mom bought a cute little pillow for my niece to use when she wants to take a nap in her car seat.

Oh yeah, and I saw this guy...(!):

We sat and listened to the talented trio of The Lakeland Country and Gospel Band for a spell, under the beautiful shade trees of the historic society (Sorry - no contact info - if you know any, please let me know.):

The young one's really enjoyed going on a ride around the grounds.  One local school teacher noticed this and is going to look into their school making something like this:

Cleaning up after they squeezed the liquid out o the sugar cane:

Making syrup.  That was HOT!

This young girl was sitting next to me.  I love taking photo journalistic pictures and she was just so cute!  I looked around and found her mom to make sure that it was OK.  After taking a few, I decided I really like this one.  Her sister was showing her what she got.  They both had gotten their faces beautifully painted at the fest:

How stinkin' sweet!

And I hope to be like this when I'm at that stage in my life!

I'll wrap this up by sharing a picture that I had a girl take of me and my mom:

Don't forget that this is an annual event!  Check out the papers next year around this time.  I think it was held a little earlier this year.  The weather was absolutely gorgeous!

If you "belong" to any of these pictures above and would like to use them, please leave my copyright logo in tact.

Veronica's BABIES Shower

Yesterday was Veronica's baby shower.  She's expecting triplets!  It was held at her old employer's home (Old as in previous, not ancient! lol).  What a gorgeous home and a wonderful hostess.
When I arrived I was all excited to start taking pictures!  After I took a couple, I'm not sure what happened next, but my 580EXii flash was lying on the floor broken.  Boy did I feel sick!  I couldn't even remember if my camera went down with it, and if it did, the flash had taken the brunt of the impact.  I very calmly went into the hostesses office and did a little inspection.  It still worked.  The only thing that appeared damaged was the red, plastic, protective cover that goes over the sensor area on the front.  PHEW!  I went back out and started taking pictures again.
The cake was made by Cakes by Marie in Tampa, FL.   I will give you more info on her once I speak to her.  And just an FYI ahead of time - it was delish.  Very moist.  Very good.  Beautifully decorated!  This is the same person that made their wedding cake.

To the left of the cake are little baggies of cute, homemade sugar cookies.  They're in the shapes of little hands and feet:

The woman who made the cake also knew someone who makes cake toppers, and I will get that info too.  Isn't the stork just beautiful??!

Here are little "diapers" made out of napkins, pinned with a diaper pin, and filled with mints:

And then, I finally start to relax again (after the flash incident), and I am able to take a deep breath and smile at the handsome, 10 month old little boy who lives there.  BIG SMILE!  And what do I do?  Stick a camera in his sweet little face, of course!




OMG what a cutie!  I could have photographed him ALL DAY LONG.  He was so easy going!  Look at that face!! 

Now it's nap time (for him - not me) and time to get the party started.  First thing first.  Food!  Yum, Yum, Yum (sick of the exclamation marks?)!  But it was all so, so good.  Then it was time to open the gifts.

Of course she received many beautiful gifts.  Doesn't she look great for being 7 months pregnant with triplets??  Now it's cake time and my eyes wander to these beautiful colors.  I took a few fun pictures that I like to do:

What a beautiful day it turned out to be!  I had a great time.  Met a bunch of great people.  Had some wonderful food.  And in the end, Canon says that I can get a replacement piece for my flash.  They can even ship it to me and I can just pop it in.  Yea!

ANOTHER MORNING OF MAYHEM!

I had the priviledge of sitting in on another broadcast of Mayhem in the AM on Talk Radio WLKF.  Here are some shots from that morning:

Seth Mela - Host

Ashley (official Mayhem photographer) and Nathan  (Master T)

Lynn



Nathan



Ashley



They're a great group of people!  I sure hope that they can get live streaming one of these days so, that when we move, I can listen to their show!  Hint...hint!