The Lilacs are blooming

They are blooming so early this year-like everything- its only May 5th- Cinquo de May,. usually its like Memorial Day or almost Memorial Day before they're out. Its going to be great for Mother's Day in the garden bloom end  of things though they say this weekend will be wet and cooler so maybe not.

I must say, lilacs are my FAVORITE and they smell DIVINE!

Ready for another vacation

Not that work is bad, there's just so much I want to do here at home. Like studio time!!!!!!!!!!! Seems like there none lately. And I realized as I went into my 10 year still unfinished addition- the bedroom that I can stand in but will never sleep in because its just so far no finished and is now a giant storage space, that I need to clean out there and put Christmas decoration boxes from there into the attic- which will be Saturdays project I'm sure. Ugh. Not looking forward to that but I need to find my bag of spring/summer work clothes which I can't easily find as its pretty buried under boxes and bags.

So here's a photo of the chocolate bread (http://www.davidlebovitz.com/archives/2010/04/chocolate_bread_recipe.html#more) I made Saturday. Yummy!!!! 

And the sea salt browned butter cookies I made last week-yummy too!!!!!!!! (http://maplesugarlyrics.blogspot.com/2009/07/brown-butter-cookies.html) This recipe I borrowed from the maplesugarlyrics blog.

Definately would like to be home to have more cooking time too!

And here's the book I am going to start since I finished book 9 Sookie Stackhouse last night- I pre-ordered the new one from Amazon and it should be here any day now, but I'm not sure I want to rush to read it as then there is no more in the series to read until maybe next year another one gets published. (Kind of like waiting 2 years for the next Harry Potter afetr reading book 6). Definately been in a reading mood lately.

Plus I have some metal clay to fire, some jewelry to put up on Etsy, some projects to send out in hopes of publication, some more studio cleaning...

Thanks goodness sumemr break isn't too too far down the road- I'm already filling out my summer dance card- or should I say summer project/chore list.

Back to work

And its hot and humid. Right now the winds are a changing, and that should hopefully make it cooler tonight and maybe better sleeping.
I've been dragging all day, tough to wake up at 4:45 a.m. again and Harley was about at 3 in the morning, so when I fell back to sleep it was close to waking up. Groggy hasn't totally seemed to go away- YET!

And I'm starving-came home and put on my shorts and a t shirt and made myself a big bowl of popcorn- yummy.

And here's cruise photos from yesterday. We put in at Alton Bay, went over to Wolfeboro and had frappes for lunch and then came back. Was overcast and hazy so the mountain shots aren't the most goregous, but got to love New Hampshire.

Dave at the Wolfeboro Docks.

Poor Harley

My poor baby blew out his knee yesterday. We spent the evening at the mergency vet clinic not sure if he broke a bone or did something more. Ouch- poor baby and poor our wallet.

Tomorrow he has to go to his vet and we'll have to have surgery on his knee I'm sure.  The pain killer they gave him last night he didn't like, he was complaining all night...poor guy. He wants to run and move around...he is a dog after all. he managed to get upstairs last night and sleep in our room-or should I say whine in our room...poor guy.

Didn't make it out in the boat yesterday but dave says today is the shakedown cruise- leave Harley home to sleep and rest. We'll see, its cloudy right now but nice and warm!

Its May!!!

I can't believe its already May 1! Wow, that means that spring/summer is basically here...green leaves, green grass, flowers...warmer temperatures...Time to celebrate!

Think we might actually put Dave's boat out on Winnepesaukee today and go for a shake down cruise.

Want to walk but poor Harley did something to his leg today- hopefully didn't tear another ligament...but he's hopping like that. He's just made his weekend very quiet.

A couple of pages from my Paris journal.

How about a couple more...hardly scrapped all week...yesterday I did some clay which I want to fire this weekend...

I'm baking some chocolate bread right now. Got the recipe off of David Lebovitz's blog: http://www.davidlebovitz.com/archives/2010/04/chocolate_bread_recipe.html#more

Here'e the link. Smells yummy.

Anyhow, think the bread's about to come out of the oven and I need to sweep out the back of the truck- finished my bark mulching yesterday, but was so tired after doing a yard of bark mulch that I never cleaned out the truck.

Enjoy your Saturday- National Scrapbooking day I believe! Its a beautiful day here!

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.

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!

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.

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!

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.

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.

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!)