Funk Uncle

These pictures and a video is a sample of our son's performance during Naples Grape Festival; they played on Saturday and Sunday. These boys are only 15 & 16 years old. They had an open guitar case in front of them to raise funds for their Robotics team ... it was surprising to see how generous people were. The soloist is Bryan, lead guitarist is my son, on bass guitar is Sawyer and on drum is Alex. The guy playing the conga was having a good time listening at first then decided to join them. Oh yes, the name of their band is, Funk Uncle. :)

Funk Uncle

Naples Grape Festival

What a busy weekend! Our town is known for it's grapes and so every year we have our Naples Grape Festival This year it was held on September 27-28. This is a big fundraising for our town and helps boost our economy. To take advantage of the big crowd, our church held a bake and yard sale. Boy, my house never smelled so delicious; I baked about 6 dozen blueberry muffins and about two dozen pumpkin muffins. Other members baked dozens of banana breads, cookies, waffle cookies and brownies. If so desired, all photos can be enlarged.



Our town is quaint, quiet and charming. I took pictures of some of the buildings to give you an idea what our little town looks like. Below is the only pharmacy we have. My husband's studio is on the second floor.



Our town is into arts big time! The picture below called Artizanns houses works of various artisans. It offers original and affordable creations like pottery, wood, paintings, glass, sculptures and so much more.



Business owners still take care of their own sidewalks; below is a guy sweeping in front of his office. I conversed with him a little bit, I said, "Getting ready for tomorrow's festival?" and he answered, "yes, for a little curb appeal" lol



All over downtown, you'll see electric poles decorated like this.




This is our church bake sale display. We offered free coffee to go with our goodies.




The vendor beside our display is selling these pitchforks and spades. Aren't they creative? I bought one for my garden ... specially since he gave me a $5 discount! Notice the fire hydrant... all of our fire hydrants are painted ... you guessed it, purple! lol




Pictures of some of the entertainment. There was also live music, in fact our son's band called Funk Uncle played in front of their school, raising funds for their Robotics team where he is a member.



View of the busy street. Our festival is always very well attended, bumper to bumper traffic. About two years ago, the Food TV Network filmed our festival and it was aired on TV several times.



The festival includes juried arts and crafts displays from artisans who live around our region. There were all kinds of jewelry ... glass, sculptures, inspirationals etc.



The lady creating these delicate egg shells is just amazing. Look at the delicate designs. She said it takes her about 6 hours to complete a regular size egg. She also has a brooch made of an ostrich egg shell. I was tempted to buy one but they are too much for my budget.



These paintings are very good! He uses mixed media, clay and acrylic to make his works look dimensional.




Kettle popcorn! Hmmm ... smells so good!




And of course, there is always the World's Greatest Grape Pie contest it was the highlight of our festival. One of these days, I will attempt to enter the grape pie contest. lol
There are a lot of grape pie stands on almost every corner of our town, but my favorite is Monica's Pies. My daughter's first job was at Monica's.
And so my dear friends, you have it! Have a grape day!

Fall vegetables treat!

For Thankful Thursday that Rhondi of Rose Colored Glasses is hosting, I am really thankful for fall fruits and vegetables that are grown locally. Last Monday afternoon a friend and I took a trip to the Blueberry Farm and picked veggies that you can only find at an Asian stores. The above photo is just a sample of what we harvested. As soon as I got home, I cooked a veggie stew right away ... you can't get any fresher than that! yummy!

Lance's 65th B'day

September Birthdays

I promised my friends to post their birthdays on my blog so here it is. Pictured below is Lance's arrival at a Chinese Buffet restaurant. It was a surprise party given by his sweet and beautiful Vietnamese wife, Nui.



... and here is the happy couple, Lance and Nui



Another good friend of ours, had her 90th birthday. This too was a surprise. We sent out birthday invitations to all her children and grandchildren. We held the party at the basement of our church last Sunday. When she walked in the church for the Sunday service she was surprised to see most of her loved ones; but she did not expect that a delicious dinner was also prepared for her, downstairs, complete with a clown and a musical couple serenading her. Bobo, the clown made several animal balloons for her.







Marion loves life and she's still a kid at heart. Gail and Russ, her caring and loving neighbors who call her "mom" did most of the decorating and cooking; and where in Sam Hill did they find this crow? It was a nice piece of decor, since she always calls herself an old crow! lol I have a video of Marion's party but it's too large for blogspot. It only allows me to upload up to 100mb. Darn! I'll try to edit it and see how that go.




... and of course, birthdays are not birthdays without a cake, so here is a picture of her cake ... my contribution. :) The idea of combining cake and cupcakes came from my friend, Gail and it's from Betty Crocker.
... neat.

Praise and Prayer Time

Although the devastation of hurricane Ike will probably cost millions of dollars in Galveston, TX, I give praise that the more than 2,000 residents who elected to stay were rescued and transported to a safer place.

We still need prayers for the extensive damage done by the hurricane especially Houston, Galveston and south of Galveston, TX. It is being predicted that it will take months to rebuild, and weeks for the power to come back. Some oil pipelines and platforms were also damaged in the gulf. My sympathy and support goes to the residents who live in those regions.

We should also remember the train wreck near Los Angeles, California.

I FEEL SO BLESSED ...

The month of September will surely go so fast for me. I've been busy at work and every weekend, and the remaining weekends are already booked. It started when one of my friends invited me to a supposed-to-be small birthday party for a few friends at the Blueberry Farm. This friend asked me to bring Pichi-Pichi and Kutsinta (these are Philippine delicacies) It was my first time to make them and I was glad they turned out good. (Pictured below)


However, when we got there, I was surprised when I saw all the preparations and the amount of food on the table including a lechon (pig roast). Pictured below is my friend trying to carve the roasted pig.



People started arriving and having fun. Here's a friend who loves to sing with the karaoke while the rest are dancing. Would you believe that the lady in a light brown top is in her 80's? She loves life ... and she loves to dance!


A few friends enjoying dancing with their spouses.


Picture of just a few who attended the party.


And this was my surprise ... my name was on the birthday cake along with the September birthday celebrants! My friends wanted to surprise me so mum was the word!


After all those delicious food, we went and picked blueberries just to burn some calories! lol


The following weekend, another friend invited me to her house to celebrate (again) my and a friend's birthday and a wedding anniversary of another friend. Needless to say, I need a lot of exercise to get rid of all these calories! There were just four of us but look at all these yummy desserts! I felt bad because I didn't take a picture of the meals. My friend prepared a feast fit for a queen! So for this Thankful Thursday that Rhondi of Rose Colored Glasses is hosting, I am very thankful for friends. What's a girl to do without them!

My Labor Day Projects

Last Sunday after church hubby and I went and checked out the newly opened Michaels Arts and Crafts Store at a neighboring city. It was their first weekend, so they were having a grand opening and they were giving away tote bags. I grabbed one and hubby did the same. I like bringing tote bags with me when I go grocery shopping nowadays so we don't end up with so many plastic grocery bags at home. Think green, right? (all photos can be enlarged by clicking)


Once inside, they were also having raffles and games. We participated in a sort of "Wheel of Fortune". My hubby who is a fan of Vanna White, jokingly asked where she was, believe it or not! lol! I won a tape measure and he won some kind of crayons... yipee! That tape measure will come in handy because it's small enough to go in my purse.


They had so many fall decorations that it inspired me to pick up a bit of stuff. I thought maybe I could make something for our front door since I was getting tired of the one that we have. And so, on Monday, Labor Day, I was laboring to do some crafts.
My first project was to fix a broken birdhouse that I picked up from a yard sale it was a leftover so it was free! I nailed a dowel at the bottom and hot glued the roof. Since it was a beautiful day, I was working at our deck.



The electrical outlet is by the wall so I did the hot gluing on top of our deck railing ... it felt awkward but what ever works, I guess. :) One of my dreams is to have my own sewing and arts and crafts room. That would be really neat.


And, tadaaaaa! Here it is! Ready to welcome guests! I will spray paint the dowel green to blend with the surrounding a little.

Now back to my door decor, my second project. Connie of Casa Maria Living inspired me to make this. I used the fall color silk foliage I bought at Michaels to decorate a cornucopia that I found in our store room. I attached ribbons, a bow, and plastic grapes, tweaked here and there and voila! ... my home made front door decor!



Here's a close up. Mr. Turkey looks a little "nekkid" so I think I will dress him up a little bit. I'll give him a bow tie and beads.


Here's how it looks like from the road ... personally, I like it since it's different from those traditional wreath.