May Day Giveaway Carnival

The New England Bloggers are having a May Day Giveaway Carnival. Thirteen blogs are participating and giving away all sorts of cool things. You DO NOT have to be a New England Blogger to enter our giveaways and win, this is a way for us to expand our individual readerships by getting visitors from each other. So, please visit as many possible by Friday evening EST so you can enter. Each blogger will have different guidelines for entering, but be sure to check them all out!

Participating Blogs:
Basia-Spirit Space - Barbara in MA
The Book Kitten - Kitten in CT
Fabric 'N Fiber Fanatic - Sara in NH
Life, as it is... - Tara in MA
Living the Local Life - Virginia in NH
Loving Mom 2 Boys - Liz in RI
My Secret Garden - Sue in MA
Penny's Art Room - Penny in ME
Penny-Wise People - Colleen in NH
Raise Your Hand If... - Carol in MA
Seriously, No Seriously - Michelle
Thoughts from an Evil Overlord - Elizabeth in MA

I'll be participating in this frenzy of giveaways by giving away a small jar of Maine sea glass, shells and smooth rocks. All you have to do is comment on this post to be eligible to win. Comments close Friday Morninag, May 1st at 6am!! One comment per person please!

Note: Actual shells, rocks and glass will vary from photo!

Good Luck and thanks for visiting!

Mini-Art Retreat.....on a Monday!!

My friend Karen came over first thing this morning for a little art retreat. Karen is a very talented stamper, collage artist, scrapbooker and all around great person - but she's even more talented when it comes to stained glass. She makes the prettiest things, and I'm proud to say I have quite a few hanging in my home. She brought over some pieces of glass that she'd already cut into bird and house shapes and we stood around the counter in my kitchen making art to be sandwiched between the glass.

I've always drooled over perfectly soldered pieces of art, but any soldering attempt I made failed miserably. Even after taking a class here and there my attempts looked like a kindergartner had done the job. I'm not quite sure what Karen's secret is, but I was able to solder my birdie perfectly with her instruction. THANKS Karen, I had a great time. I will admit that she soldered the jump rings on for me, I haven't quite mastered that technique quite yet.

Here you can see the MESS we made of the counter, the table was full of laptops and the studio is already a complete mess so this was the only place we could work.

My birdie before any legs or soldering was added.

That's actually a Maine sticker I'm holding, but we got a kick out of it. I was having a bad hair day today!

Here's my finished bird with the twig legs attached. I originally wanted to drill through the twigs but they split so I wound red wire around them instead to form a loop and attached them with jump rings. I love how it came out! Can you see my litte princess sunning herself in the background of the second picture?? She's absolutely loving that the weather has changed and she can be outside all day. Seems like she's always on the wrong side of the door though!

My bird was so happy she's already flown the coop to her new home! Hope you like it Loretta, you weren't home when I dropped it off so it's hanging on the doorknob of your front door!! :-) Thanks for the raspberry bushes! Well, that's all for today. Cross Country started this afternoon and they were one coach short - so I was the acting assistant coach escorting the bigger kids around the course a couple of times. That meant I was running along with them, though I was happy for the exercise! Thanks for visiting, ta ta for now.

Back to school....tomorrow!!

School vacation is over and it's back to the same old grind tomorrow, yahoo! We had a pretty busy week, Thursday somehow I managed to get my husband to the mall - not quite sure how it happened - and we decided on a sectional that we want. Now I STILL need to get rid of our humungous entertainment center and we're good to go!! Friday my boy and I went to the local garden center and to Lowe's checking out plants, tools and dreaming of this summer and working in our garden. (We'll see how much much he really wants to help out when it's time to weed!!) Saturday i spent in the yard while my boys went to North Conway to pick up a canoe and spend the rest of the day fishing. I didn't get as much done as I had planned because I spend a couple of visiting with my friend Loretta, but that's ok because it was a nice relaxing chat. We also dug up some raspberry bushes that she was giving away and gave them to me. Her husband is in the process of building stairs down to the river and a float - so we enjoyed the cool breeze on the steps thinking that it will be a great respit on hot, sultry days this summer! Today was spent building the skeleton of my raised beds, planting those raspberry bushes and having Sunday dinner with my parents. Overall, I think it was a great vacation!
My boy at the ice cream shop in Bar Harbor. It was great ice cream!

His picture of me taking a picture.

Cute kid being silly!
When we first pulled into Bar Harbor we went down to the harbor and sat in the car eating a picnic that we brought. We had intended on stopping somewhere to eat at a rest stop but never did. So this was the next best thing. After sitting for a few minutes this scanvenger climbed up on my car looking for a snack. Even tooting my horn didn't scare him away. I'm glad he didn't poop on it!

That's all for today....hope you had beeautiful weather where you are this weekend and enjoyed every last minute of it like we did! Right now I'm waiting for the Tudors to come on so I can turn the computer off and stare at that. Hopefully I won't fall asleep on the couch like I did last night! Thanks for visiting and Ta Ta For Now!

Acadia National Park

We had beautiful weather for our weekend at Acadia National Park up near Ellsworth. The hotel we stayed at, the Bar Harbor Grand Hotel was lovely and very comfortable - though the continental breakfast wasn't that great. All the other things about our weekend made up for the crummy breakfast.

One of the many highlights of the weekend was seeing my boy thoroughly enjoy himself at a fancy schmancy restaurant. We didn't know any better and walked in wearing denim and sneakers - but should really have dressed up a bit to fit in with the decor of the place. That didn't damper our meal though, and we left very happy, and full! We saw Thunder Hole, though it was pretty quiet, went to Sand Beach looking for sea glass but didn't find any. We also went to a couple other beaches where we found lots of great treasures. One of them being my dear friend Hannah! I couldn't believe it, we were headed to Bass Harbor Head Light and saw a very familiar car. I looked at the license plate and realized that it was my friend and her family searching for treasures from the sea just like we were.

We drove up to Cadillac Mountain, though driving up wasn't half as hard as driving back down. Geez, I white knuckled it most of way back down. On the drive home on Monday we stopped at the Big Chicken Barn Antiques. It was huge, and filled with lots of cool stuff. We only looked at things on the first floor because we needed to get back on the road! I can see a trip to Acadia with the whole family this fall some time!


I wonder why they have this sign up?? Do you think it applies to everyone ?? Thanks for visiting, ta Ta for now!

We Made the local news...

I took my boy and his friend to the elementary school today to volunteer for an Earth Day clean up. While we there the local news station interviewed us, here's a link to the clip:

http://www.wcsh6.com/news/local/story.aspx?storyid=103758&catid=2

My boy is the one in the red jacket talking about having fun and having a pine cone war with his friend .....that's me holding the bag while they put the garbage in it. Our brush with fame, he he he. ta ta for now!

Sneak Peak...

Coming to stores near you! I actually have two articles in this issue of Sew Somerset! Thanks Amanda!

It's school vacation week and we've been busy busy busy. We had three beautiful but not really relaxing days in Acadia National Park over the weekend and today spent time at my boys elementary school for an Earth Day clean up - then we went to see Earth at the movies. (the cinamatography was beautiful but the reality of life as an animal made me sad, it wasn't gory at all just living as an animal can be harsh at times.) Tomorrow it's off to the running store to get the clan fitted for running sneakers as Cross Country starts on Monday. Friday through Sunday is supposed to be gorgeous so I'm thinking it'll be time to get my raised beds off the ground...he he I mean started!

I'll share some Acadia pictures just as soon as I get a minute to edit them!

Field Trip...

Yesterday my friend Loretta and I went on a field trip to Rockland, about an hour or a little bit more up the coast. The weather was perfect for rock and sea glass hounding, checking out lighthouses and a picnic on a deck on a lovely island near Rockland. We left as soon as the boy had gotten on the bus and got home about 8:30 ish. It was certainly a long day, but we really enjoyed everything that the day blessed us with. In the evening we met several of Loretta's friends at a restaurant in Rockland called Rustica. It was lovely, and so was the Italian wine I had. I think it was Italian...now I can't remember.

What a great sign post.....lobster buoys on Lobster Lane.....

This is Loretta looking for cool rocks to bring home. We had a lot of fun searching for rocks on this little beach at Owl's Head Lighthouse. The rocks had been sitting in the sun all morning/afternoon so they were warm on our bottoms, so the cool breeze didn't feel so cool.

I made stacks of flat rocks seeing how many I could stack before they fell over. I could do that all day long! The stacks of rocks are called Inukshuks the description I found on them is this: Ancient symbols of Inuit culture traditionally used as landmarks and navigation aids, these stone statues represent a human form with outstretched arms and serves as a well-known symbol of northern hospitality and friendship. I think mine stray a bit from the traditional form, but it's still calming and fun to stack and stack and stack!
Owl's Head Light.
A scene from Rackliff Island where we found lots of sea glass.

A cemetary that we visited that had lots of cools head stones, and the bare trees framed the paths beautifully!

A remnant from last fall....

Another lighthouse, can't remember what it was called, but we found a ton of cool, round flat stones here!

A lovely heart shaped rock....It's going to look great in my garden!

Lobster boats in Port Clyde.

It was a lovely day - can't wait until the next one! Thanks for visiting, and have a great weekend...i'll be back on Tuesday!

The river was RAGING!

With the snow melting and all the rain we had last week the river was really high - and I was worried about our basement and my river down the road. Thankfully the rain stopped, the sun came out and we didn't have any flooding...but the snow is still melting and spring isn't over yet! These pictures show the river in town, the big brick building is where the Farmer's Market, Jai yoga, the flea market and the Frontier Cafe is.

It was raging!! that's all for now....till next time! DON'T forget, today is TAX day!

Scrapbooking & Beyond Project Ideas

Just a quick post to share this page, it is on the Scrapbooking & Beyond website under the On-line Project Ideas page.

A few cards.....a few days late!

My friend Vic sent me these lovely image sheets from Crafty Secrets a couple of weeks ago and I finally have a chance to share them. They are the loveliest Easter images - I was so happy to give out hand made cards. Two of the pictures aren't the greatest - I needed to send them out to family in Idaho and didn't bother to check the pictures before I put them in the box and sealed it...but you get the picture. I think my favorite card/image is the first one with the pink and the Easter bunny. I gave it to my Mom, but really thought seriously about putting it in a frame for a deco for next year! Which one is your favorite?

I think the eyelet ribbon or border is something that Vic sent me a long while ago. It looks so pretty on these cards, I wish this picture was better!

This was another of my favorite cards, the yellow cardstock looks so pretty with the little bunny....I gave this one to my brother and his wife, I think my SIL liked it! In addition to all these pretty pictures - and more - the Crafty Secrets image sheet had several little images that made perfect tags for the Easter Treasure hunt we had on Sunday morning.

This isn't an Easter card, but one that's been on my desk patiently waiting for 10 minutes to stitch and finish it so I could send it out. I quickly painted a vintage photo with my EK Success brushables markers and sprayed it with a fixative then collaged it into this card. This was a fun card to make.

I've decided that since it cost about 3.95 or more to buy a pretty card that I'm going to be making all my cards from now on....I've got so much stuff in my studio that it's silly not to make cards.

Thanks for visiting and Ta Ta for now!

Easter Weekend Re-Cap

I don't know where last week went, I thought I had blogged but I guess I didn't. I thought about blogging, does that count?

Friday night we took the boy to an Easter Egg Hunt - in the dark. He had to use his head lamp to run around the field to find the eggs. He brought his best buddy and they had a great time. They were both a little disappointed that they were only allowed to pick 4 eggs each.

Saturday we went to a family yoga class at Jai yoga. He was the only boy, but I don't think he noticed. It was a great hour, I loved seeing him love it as much as I do. He asked to go back next month, so I think we will put it in our schedule!

Sunday brought an Easter Treasure Hunt at my Mom's house. The Grandkids got together and ran around with a sheet of clues that they used to find their treasures. It was great seeing them using their heads to figure out where the treasure would be.

My Mom and I cooked dinner as usual. I made a recipe that I saw Martha make on TV last week, a turkey roulade. The stuffing was the best part...but the turkey got a little bit dry. I also made some roasted baby potatoes. I had picked up the pink on the inside baby potatoes at the local farmer's market on Saturday...they were delicious with a few beets tossed into the mix. She cooked a ham, salad and asparagas with carrot cake for dessert. It was a yummy meal that I'm still working to burn off, though I did pass on the ham!