"The Craft Extravaganza" and More.....

Carol in front of Zingerman's Deli - our trip to Ann Arbor


The "Craft Extravaganza" - don't worry, you can all join in on the fun when we go up north!


Well, it's been quite some time since I've posted to the blog, but with sister Carol in town, I've been extra busy! We've really enjoyed spending time together - going to Colon to visit Jen and the girls, then to Ann Arbor one day, and of course the big "craft extravaganza" that took place for a full 2-1/2 days at my house over the weekend! We were crafting fools - Carol spent most of her time working on "altered art" objects - things that can be hung on the wall, journals, etc. I made mostly gift tags, journals and jewelry - charm bracelets and necklaces. What fun! Brenda joined us for awhile on Saturday, which of course we enjoyed immensely. She has got the crafting thing down pat, and left the house with some adorable magnets that she made. (Bren - I'll take the journal you made with me up north.) Don't have any pictures to show you at the moment, other than one of the three of us working at the table (above). As Carol would say, "suffice to say" the days flew by, and even Scott helped out by cutting up matboard and helping us drill holes in scrabble tiles. He is quite the artist himself, of course. Hey, Carol - did you know there are two kinds of art?......inside joke....)

Well, I'll bring some supplies and samples of what we made up north - that way, anyone who wants to can work on some simple crafts during our vacation, too. Can't wait - Rachel N., Carol and I will be leaving tomorrow morning - we'll get the cottage all set up and ready for when the rest of you arrive! See you soon - we will have great fun, I'm sure! (Little Kels, please get better soon, doodlebug!)

Great Fun in Colon!

Jen, Mace and Kels were most gracious hostesses as the "Nykerk" clan invaded Colon yesterday! Bren & Jen's friend "Sis" joined us, too - what a lovely young lady she is! We all enjoyed seeing "my cottage" as Macey put it, and then seeing Colon itself and a couple of the houses that Jen and Jason are considering buying. We went past Jason's school (we saw his yellow locker) and drove to an Amish general store - you see all of us sitting in front of it in the picture above. It was so nice to see everyone and we all enjoyed the day so much - the weather was great and the girls were absolutely adorable, "per normal." Too bad we missed Kels starting to crawl by only one day, but we could tell it would be any day - go Kels!

Having breakfast at "Remember When Cafe" - to start out our day with full (and I do mean FULL tummies!)

"Hi From Colon!"

Just a Few Quick Pics.....

Had a nice time at Megan's wedding last night, and wanted to post a few pictures of that, as well as my fun lunch with Bren, Jen and M&K this past week! Sorry not much time for news, but we'll be leaving for Chicago shortly...can't wait to see Carol! Love to all.....


Try as we might, we couldn't get little Kels to look up! Aren't these little ones just darling?

Poor Kelseroo! Aunt Jean just HAD to hold her and make her pose for a picture!

All the rest of the pictures are from Megan's wedding last night.....

Can't Wait Til Brenda Gets Back On-Line!

These journals are kind of like one of the things that we'll be making at the "Craft Extravaganza" - cool, huh? I know, it's pretty exciting (at least for Carol and me, ha ha!)....

I don't know about the rest of you, but I really miss Brenda's blogs! (She has not been able to access the internet since last week - thanks, Comcast!) Hopefully she'll get back online soon, because that girl keeps all of us clued in on what's happening - I think Comcast is supposed to get to K/B's house today to correct the problem.

Well, I can't wait for the weekend - CAROL'S COMING! First, our kids come home (yay!) on Friday night to attend Megan's wedding on Saturday. Then, on Sunday we drive back to Chicago, where Carol will already be waiting. We girls will attend the Renegade Craft Fair Sunday afternoon and evening, and Carol & I will be staying overnight. She and I will then return to Michigan on Monday (after checking out Crate & Barrel, Dick Blik and the Paper Source first of course!). We have a few more supplies to pick up for the "craft extravaganza" that will be taking place on Pine Drive throughout the next month or so. To whet your appetites, here are a few of the things we'll be making (hope you can join us for part of the time)!

1. Halloween tags and other goodies

2. Charm bracelets

3. Necklaces made from scrabble tiles and bamboo tiles

4. Journals

5. Collage and altered art

6. Much more.....

I know, pretty amazing (ha ha). We figure we've spent about 20 hours on the phone over the last two weeks figuring things out and finding sites on etsy.com to order supplies from. What a blast. I'm going to try to sell some of the things we make at our booth when Scott and I have one more art fair to attend in October. Other stuff we'll sell on Etsy and other stuff will be just for fun.

Katie went to a really fun event over the weekend in Chicago. It's held throughout the country and it's called "Flutag." She told me that different teams of people try out for this - they make these wild flying contraptions and then see who can fly the farthest - Katie's boss Chris was on one of the teams - their flying machine looked like a pizza - and they actually flew over 100 feet! See below for a crazy "duck" that took a nosedive into Lake Michigan (like I guess most of the machines did). Too fun!

Keep going - Katie sent me some pictures of her boss' team and their pizza contraption!

Just General News.....

Halloween is just around the corner! How about these darling cards from www.etsy.com? Carol and I are nuts about this site. See more below...

Well, Jen's blog postings have been so great to see; so glad all is going well for Jason at his teaching job. The pictures of the girls have been unbelievably cute lately. That little Kelsey is keeping right up with her big sister. How about the pic of Macey feeding her? Those two are going to be great pals growing up, just like the other sets of girls in our family!

Not too much news to share these days. Everyone is doing fine and keeping busy. Katie is enjoying her new apartment and it's so nice that she lives close to Dave & Rachel. Carol will be spending the night there in a couple of weeks - thanks, Katie Kat! Ally got to go the dog beach again on Labor Day. What a lucky pup she is! I don't think there's another dog alive who gets so much love (except for maybe Dolly!).

We'll all be attending my niece Megan's wedding in a couple of weeks (Sat. 9/13) and then I drive to Chicago to attend the Renegade Craft Fair with the girls and Carol. Our "craft extravaganza" will be starting later that week at our house! Ha Ha - we're having tons of fun ordering supplies and thinking of novel things to make. Etsy.com is our favorite website and we've spent hours on the phone telling each other about our favorite new sites that we find there!

I'm sure we'll be planning for our trip, meals, etc. soon, too. Stay tuned for more on that.

Hope the boys are enjoying college and that eveyone's doing well....love to all!

I Guess It's Official....

I guess it's official, because it will be going in the paper!

"Rachel Marie Hamberg and David Andrew Schwartz were united in marriage on May 31st, 2008 by the Rev. Dr. Daniel Gillette, at Dimnent Memorial Chapel in Holland, MI. Parents of the couple are Scott and Jean Hamberg of Holland and Alec and Joanne McC. Schwartz of Conifer, Colorado. Katie Hamberg was the Maid of Honor and Christopher Sisco served as Best Man. Also attending the couple were bridesmaids Mealea Chhong, Dana Taylor and Jamie Vandenbrink and groomsmen Christopher Gall, Michael Powell and Christopher Waco. The flower girl was Macey Burgess, and the ring bearer was Jacob Adrian. Assisting as ushers were Keith Hollenkamp and Dan Nykerk. Also assisting the couple as mistresses of ceremony were Brenda Hollenkamp and Rachel Nykerk. Music was provided by Deb Koopmans. Following the ceremony, a reception was held at AlpenRose in Holland. The couple honeymooned in Spain. The bride is a graduate of Holland High School and Western Michigan University and is employed at Avenue A/Razorfish marketing agency in Chicago. The groom is a graduate of Oak Park & River Forest High School, the University of Minnesota and the University of St. Thomas in Minnesota, and is employed at Orbitz Worldwide in Chicago."

By the way, to now reach Rachel at work, her "new" email address is:

rachel.schwartz@avenuea-razorfish.com

Time To Catch Up....

This is my dear friend, Lynne - We went for manicures (at "Smooch" in Holland) - for her birthday. Girls! It's a fun place - we should all go! In this pic, we're having dinner at Alpen Rose - that brought back wonderful memories for both of us, as our Rachel and her Katie both had their wedding receptions there within three weeks of each other!

How's everyone? Summer is flying by - I've been negligent in posting lately, so really can't even remember what I've told you recently. A couple of weeks ago I had a bridal shower at our house for my niece Megan, who is getting married in a couple of weeks. (Ahhhh, I think a few of you heard the stories about that one....) Anyway, it turned out really well, and Megan seemed pleased. Below are a couple of pictures.

Last weekend we were in Chicago for an art fair in Oak Park (Dave's hometown), while he was actually up north with some of his friends at a cottage. So it was us and the girls - as "per normal" we totally enjoyed the weekend and spending some time with them. Scott sold one of his original paintings (the one he called "Cottage Row" - based on a picture he had taken when we were at cousin Dave & Mary's cottage for one of our Nykerk reunions). So that was very nice! Speaking of Dave, he is in town again - he called me last night and is going to try to arrange another get together at the cottage for a week night sometime in the next couple of weeks. I think they have use of the cottage until the end of August. So stay tuned on that one....

He is interested in having Scott paint a picture of their cottage, so we'll see how that goes.

When we were in Chicago we were delighted to see Katie's new apartment! The Katie Kat has done well for herself - her place is beautiful! She is now in the process of decorating, unpacking, etc. Scott left for home on Sunday morning (we took two vehicles), and Rachel had work to do, so Katie and I had a fun day together going to IKEA to pick up a few things for her apartment. She called me later that night to let me know that she had already put together a red metal stand that we bought for her kitchen. Carol - she called to get your address last night and will be mailing you a key to her apartment in the next day or two (Carol will be spending the night there when she arrives in Chicago in Sept - meanwhile, we'll all be in Holland at Megan's wedding).

We've been lucky lately to see the kids quite a lot. In fact, the girls and Ally are driving home tonight because they are both standing up for Jamie (remember her as one of Rachel's bridesmaids?) at her wedding this weekend. It's in Ludington, but they'll be spending the night here tonight and driving up there tomorrow (and Dave will join them on Saturday).

OK, that's enough for now. I'm thinking of all of you - REALLY looking forward to our trip up North!

See below for a few pics of "this and that" from the last few weeks.....(I CAN'T believe I forgot to take pics of Katie's new apartment! Kate - you'll have to post some...)

At the bridal shower - Megan and her mom, Shelley (Scott's sister)

My sister-in-law, Julie, her daughter Amanda, Megan and Me

A couple of pics from the Block Party at First Church - look at these beauties!

Look at this little doll. She's saying, "where's all the candy?" (Cool shoes, Mace!)

How about this get-up that we saw at Art in the Park? Check out the doggies and their matching sweaters. Ha Ha.