Friday, April 30, 2010

Vacation Friday

One thing to say, it can't be Friday ALREADY,can it?
And here's a few photos I shot on our Maine roadtrip yesterday.
This guy is for Dave who yelled at an antelope in South Dakota years ago to try to get its attention (it didn't work), but we constantly have to remind him about this moment in time.
And of course one must go to LLBeans.
A favorite from college at the University of Maine many moons ago, Pat's pizza- double dough with pepperoni and onions for me. We didn't go all the way to Orono, but there's a few Pat's Pizzas around the state. Orono is the original however.
The family at Pat's Pizza.
Was a very fun afternoon out. Didn't buy much, but enjoyed the change of pace and scenery. I love roadtrips!!! Adventures!!!!
So today is my last day of vacation before the weekend- not sure of the agenda but am heading out to see if I can get another yard of barkmulch to finish my big garden. Also should clean the studio, play in the studio... make a bit moer metal clay so I can do some firing later this weekend..
We'll see.

Thursday, April 29, 2010

Vacation Thursday

So its early today- like just past 6 a.m.- needed to get up since Katie has an early drs. appointment but didn't need to get up this early- Thanks Harley. Looks like its gonna be a great day- and after the drs. we're on a roadtrip to Maine. I'd love to walk right now but I'm not that ambitious...still waking up.
So rented and watched this movie yesterday- really loved it. Its was a great afternoon for a movie- rainy and gray. I ended up going out for a last minute -they could squeeze me in -drs. appointment and that was good.
I also tried some of these brown butter sea salt cookies yesterday- dicovered them Tuesday night while surfing through blogs and was really curious.Here's a link to the recipe I used: http://maplesugarlyrics.blogspot.com/2009/07/brown-butter-cookies.html
Mine look a bit crumblier but they taste yummy! I think I should have added a bit more salt, but wasn't sure how that would be.

My next read- almost finished with the Parrot in the Pepper Tree (also a great easy read)-am excited after reading book 8 of this series.

And here's some more Paris pages!

Wednesday, April 28, 2010

Vacation Wednesday

More Paris Journal! Our Thursday  vacation day in Paris (last Feb-2009)was a day of highest and lowest!
These 2 pages above here work together- the great face on Katie-though probably more because she was annoyed with me, and then the bones underneath.
Entrance to the Catacombs in Paris.
So today is lazy morning. Woke up early, read and thenw ent back to bed until 9. EEKS. But its cloudy and grey and last night we even had some snow flurries. SNOW is a 4 letter bad word right now.
Not sure what's on the agenda right today...want to try some brown butter cookies (what's all the fuss about?), want to make some silver clay jewelry so it can dry and get fired this weekend, want to scrap, should do another chore on my list...WHO knows what the day will bring. Just want to have a LOW key day.


Tuesday, April 27, 2010

Vacation Tuesday!

Another quiet morning at home- oh I love it! Its cloudy today but rain hasn't started yet, so I got a another walk in and now I'm being lazy with a cup of tea and my computer. I'm off to have my hair done this afternoon- refresh my highlight and get a trim...and Katie is off to visit her cousin at UNH so she can check into the dorm situation and then she's staying for dinner. Think she's going to follow me there since she doesn't quite know where to go- she can get to UNH but not the right parking spot.
So yesterday I did go to Absolutely Everything after a great 2+ hour lunch with my friend and didn't buy tons, but they had some Darkroom Door stamps I liked- though I think they're very pricey for unmounted stamps, but got the following 2-



They were cheaper than buying them online and I did have a $20 coupon so basically I got one set really cheap and and 1 set for the store price. OK, my splurge. I also got some Viva Inka metallic paste-
I've seen these on-line and have wanted to try them- a woman at the store (Thanks Claudia) showed me how they work and they look as great in eprson as they did on-line. It was a tough call because they are not cheap either, and I wanted gold, but then should I get silver or copper since I could only afford 2. Went with the silver, but hopefully can get the copper sometime soon. Can't wait to try them out.
So yesterday I did clean my closet- feels good to get those nasty little chores done, and today- although not feeling very ambitous- think I will take down my livingroom curtains and wash out the dust- they are white and I think a cleaning will not only freshen them up and but the house feel cleaner. One chore a day and I am getting lots crossed off my list- which means I accomplished something. Will have time tonight to bake some parmesian potatoes au gratin which I made on Christmas day and they were soooooo good...but they take forever to bake so its a good day to make them. Especially since they're saying rain later. And my friend yesterday had a great suggestion about reteaching and refreshing myself in French, put on some French films and turn off the sub-titles...I actually own a couple (Amelie-oh what afantastic movie that is) and think I will do that later when I go to rehang my curtains.
Not sure today if I sound like a 1950's housewife or an artist or just some flippy woman on vacation.
No answer needed on that.
And I will end this by showing you a few more Paris journal pages...am quite pleased with these, especially this first one.
Postscript:
So my day went unexpectantly different from how I saw it at 9 this morning- as I was cleaning around my windows my mother-in-law called and asked me to join her and my sister-in-law shopping-so I went- ready to be bombared with something- but it was nice- and finally got to eat at the Thai restaurant in Rochester which was really really good...never did the rest of the shopping with them as I had my hair appointment but so much for art or chilling in front of the tv. Still, spontaneous is good!

Monday, April 26, 2010

Vacation Monday

Not to rub it in or anything- but this is one of my 2 days that I am home by myself-love this right now. And its way nicer this morning than I expected- I thought we would have clouds  but we have some sun-actually a lot of sun, and I just took a fantastic walk. Needing to decide if I feel ambitous enough to start cleaning my closet- or clean the whole thing- its my bedroom closet so its only clothes/shoes- need to do the seasonal change over and since I've been digging out spring clothes for a few weeks the closet is a mess- but only a clothes mess, not like the spare room closet which is an everything mess. Or, since its only Monday, I could go play with some crafts....hmmm... anyhow, the day should be fun- meeting my friend Vicky for lunch at noon and then since Katie will be home and then back out and no one will really be around until like 7 or 8 tonight I am going to go visit my favorite craft store down in northern MA. Bad, bad me, but hey, its my vacation and its Monday.

So here's some cards I made Saturday afternoon- they all shar the bird background. I got this some time ago on eBay and never used it, Its an old Stampers Anonymous which musr be discontinued since I don't see it on their site now. Anyhow, it has an oceany theme sine I think their terns and seagulls. Anyhow, all 3 cards are very different and I'm not sure I LOVE any of them, but I like them all- I added a few waves to this by the sea one and it looks better (waves are along the bottom of the light blue)-probably like the top one the best-since I love B Line stamps and the 2 people with the binoculars is my newest stamp of that line. the glar on the faces is because I used some shiny plastic over the faces to really make the porthole seem real.
 
So last night I finished the Sookie book #8-(Love those books) and started reading this book, which is a sequal to a book called Driving Over Lemons- living in Spain, and then when I went on Amazon to get this photo to post I found out there is a third book in the series, which I got from a used bookseller- which is exciting, and I found out that this Christ Stewart is the former Genesis drummer, and I loved Genesis when I was younger- well I still do now actually- and that song Abacab gets in my head...assuming he was with the band then...oh my, now I'm sounding old and daft. Which I am not, neither of those things. But, so far, am enjoying this book a lot like I did the first one.

Sunday, April 25, 2010

Great weekend

I have been having a great weekend- doing lots of domestic and artsy and gardener things. Its nice to be home and chill, I feel so relaxed, and knowing I don't have to go to work tomorrow- its such a good feeling.
I swear these budding leaves are even bigger than they were yesterday. I'll have to check back in yesterday's post, but...and yesterday, I did a whole yard of bark mulch-still need to buy another yard to do my big flower garden- sore this morning but feeling better now...

And today I did a bit of culinary fun...made blondies/butterscotch brownies with chocolate chips...yummy... have this great recipe from this old cookbook I've had forever- the Fannie Farmer Baking book. And I made some pizza dough which we will use for homemade pizza for supper tonight. Haven't had that for a very long time...

And baked some jewelry pieces. Yesterday I fired some bronze clay and it CRUMBLED on me. I think it might not have been fired long enough (?- anyone know) but it had the most fantastic colors. So instead of throwing it all away, I made some pieces and put the bronze down on some polymer clay, as you can see above.  That was today's BIg art project, though I'm doing some scrapping and yesterday I made a few cards...will show you those another day.
And on my spring cleaning list...today's project was to strip my bed and wash blanlets, sheets, dust ruffle, quilt...it'll be sooo nice sleeping there tonight. Got to love clean sheets.
And on my list for this week:
-vaccuum my car
-wash my downstairs curtains to get rid of the dust
-clean my bedroom closet and finish the clothes change over
-watch True Blood-the whole first season
-do more art projects
-do some more cooking
-walk as many mornings as possible
-finish painting my cubbies that I started last fall
Let's see what actually gets done on this list. Especially since it looks like this week might be on the cloudy and damp (not wet please) side. Need to stop now so this list doesn't get any longer!
But I have to mention, I think Katie made her college decision- she'll be a Wildcat at UNH!
And I'm glad she'll be fairly close to home too.

Saturday, April 24, 2010

So springy!!!!

Spring is here!!! Today is gorgeous...not warm but the sky is so blue and no clouds...still a bit chilly but had a great morning walk and today is yardwork day!!!! Going to hopefully get my bark mulch and get my gardens looking good.
So its a BIG day- a favorite for me- opening up the screen porch for another season. I love my screen porch!

Still need to remove plastic and take out some lawn furniture we store in there all winter, but at least we can get into it now. Makes the cats happy too!

And you can see the leaves popping out of their buds.

Took all these photos this morning!
And, should I also mention-
my VACATION has started!
I'm so excited about having a week off from work.
Hopefully, will have lots of art to show you this week coming up too. (and need I say I need to clean my house a bit too-especially my closet-and I need to vac my car! Its awful!)

Thursday, April 22, 2010

Earth Day

The some New Hampshire photos from my blog in past posts: seeing NH is my neighborhood, my home, a beautiful place to celebrate the earth.

Wednesday, April 21, 2010

Vacation is in 2 days

Even though I have no big plans, vacation starts in 2 days and I am soooooooooooooooo excited. I just HOPE the weather will cooperate and be somewhat sunny and warm...so I can walk in the morning and not be rained in. We'll see. I'm hoping to do some cooking and baking next week...hoping to do a bunch of art...a bunch of reading...some relaxing...some cleaning...just a good recharge of my head and soul...then its the last stretch until summer vacation...so exciting no matter how you look at it.

Tuesday, April 20, 2010

A really nice spring day

With some really nice daffodils blooming up a storm in the my garden. Everything is getting so green- I even went out after work for a bit (until the black flies appeared) and pulled a few weeds. Weeding is a good way to get rid of some frustrations. Also running the kiln with a load of copper, curious how this batch will come out since the last batch was heated a bit too high a temperature.
Another Paris journal page...its a street ad for the movie Marley and Me which was premiering shortly after we left...the photo on the page is good but didn't photograph well when I snapped this page. But I love the background, which I stamped...not sure who made the dog walking set these stamps came from...but love them!

Monday, April 19, 2010

Making Soup

Feeling domestic and have a bunch of recipes I am dying to try out, so tonight I am making Julia Child's French Onion soup. Haven't had French onion soup in forvever, and am looking forward to see how it comes out since I have never made it before. Been fun to pull out some cooking equipment that I haven't used much in the last month or so. (And some things, like my food processer, I haven't used much since winter).According to Julia Child, the trick to good onion soup is the slow and long cooking of the onions, which is what I'm up to right now. Am blogging between stirs.
So here's a few more Paris journal pages- A famous fountain- though shut off in Feb when we were there- and of course right this second I can't think of the name of it...

Anyhow, still no name, must be all the onions in my nasal cavity right now, but its at the Pompidou Center, and I want to call it the St. Egeltine fountain but that is NOT even in the ballpark (where the heck did that come from?) and its not the Clemenceau fountain either...oh yes, right on the middle page, The Stravinsky Fountain.
Just added my stock and tasted the soup- yummy. Now I want to eat!!!!! Needs to simemr about 30 minutes and then whenever Dave makes it home...wish it would be now...will broil the bread and cheese on it...oh delicious.

Sunday, April 18, 2010

Crafty girls

So yesterday Katie and I both spent the afternoon playing with crafts. It was fun since we were both in the same room and could caht while we worked. Above, I made a bunch of bronze and copper clay pieces which you can see here drying on my counter. Think the copper is ready to fire today, which if I get ambitous I will do, got to watch my termpature though because the last copper firing I did-the only actually- I went  abit too hot for my kiln- good thing I found out quickly my kiln heats up a bit on the hot side.
Here's some other pieces I have recently fired and need to do something with. There's some silver at the bottom, towards the middle right is my over cooked copper and then some bronze in the back, fired with some charcoal and some fired with coconut-it makes such a big difference.
And this is the quilt Katie's making with all my spare fabric (so much for my stash)! Love it though- the colors are great. She's still making squares and then she'll need to put it all together.
And here's Mr. I Love to be IN the MIDDLE of Evereything. Of course. That's Leo.
So its another grey day here in New Hampshire- I need to grade some labs and probably do some paper arts, or watch tv and read...it was GREAT having a 3 day weekend to get back into the groove and away from the work stress, and its only 5 more days of work until our April vacation which I must say I am excited for even though I have no big plans- and wish I did- but glad I don't have tickets to fly to Europe with all the cancellations due to the volcano erupting in Iceland and sending plumes of particles into Europe. It would be a bummer to have to cancel a long planend trip, that's for sure.
And starting to think about next Feb./March vacation trip though- it willbe just Dave and I but I have 3 ideas since my birthday for once will fall over our late winter break-of course you know me, I'm always looking for a cheap flight...(my 3 ideas: London to visit the Victoria and Albert Museum on my birthday since I have always wanted to do that-maybe go to Stonehedge or someplace else outside of the city for a few days first, or fly to Miami and drive to the keys or go to Vegas and spend my birthday in Death Valley) Lets see what else I can brew up befor then since its still 10 months away. And lets see if I have any money and can pay off my credit cards bills by then- a major goal since I still haven't paid off most of my last trip.