My New Bag?

I'm always on a never ending search for a good purse/bag. I used to pride myself on only carrying a wallet and never needing those huge bags I would see women hauling around. Then, I had kids. Now, I have all sorts of stuff to carry but at least I am organized about it. I actually clean out my purse almost every night. No surprises at the bottom of the bag for me. Somehow, that makes me feel better.

This is what I have been carrying around for a few months and it is just not working. I think I was more attracted to the L.L. Bean discount I got than the actual bag itself. I look like a preschool teacher with this.

To top it off, I'm keeping another old purse inside. The Bean bag has no pockets or anything inside so I added this. It basically turns it into a big black hole. The trouble is, I can't find anything to replace it.

And then I came across this on the Kohls website. This is exactly what I am looking for. It's big enough to hold all my junk plus a book. It's very simple and not fussy. It's fake leather but passable enough.
It has a zippered compartment so nothing important will tumble out. I can use the open side pockets for books and candy-important stuff like that.
There is just a small problem with it-its red and a little too glossy for me. In the listing online, it clearly said red but it photographed very brown. I was hoping the photograph was true but it wasn't. It's not a bright red but it's definitely a very red-brown color. It also came in black but I saw that in the store and it was way too glossy goth black for me. I have been going back and forth about returning it for a few days now and I can't make up my mind. What do you think?

Slowly But Surely

We have been working on Grace's new room since July and I think we are all thoroughly sick of it except Grace. I don't know why one room takes so long but probably my inability to get off the couch at night has a lot to do with it. Tim did 95% of the work and it was mostly all hard work so I have nothing to complain about. I just have to get on with the painting and we can move her in.

The walls and trim are painted finally. Grace picked out this purple color herself. It's called Silverberry. I love paint names. Sometimes I find myself wanting to pick colors just based on their names. The porch is there beyond her two new windows. In the left hand bottom corner of the window you can sort of see some furniture. This is the unfinished furniture I bought for them that is waiting to be sanded and painted. I have to do a bookcase, two toy boxes, and two night stands. They have been sitting there so long the kids have started to pile things on top of them. Have I mentioned before that painting is not my favorite thing?
I got the blinds up and now we have to figure out curtains. The blinds are important because the annoying neighbor boys window is directly across from hers. I'm leaving curtains until after she is moved in. I wish I was clever enough to sew some because I am never happy with what I end up choosing.
The special girly switch plate is in place. Declan says this can never become his room unless this is taken off.
This is the last big project to do. These 3 closets have to be painted by me. Tim and Grace took them apart and primed them for me. Hopefully, I can get going on this tomorrow night. These closets have 3 sets of louvered doors. I can't even think about painting those. I think we will be renting a paint spray gun to do it. I foreseeing a lot of drips though.
Our goal is to have this done by Labor day weekend so she is in before school starts. The one other person who will be happy when it's done is Carly. Her crate is in there right now and it's become a very convenient shelf.

You'll Never Get Lost Jewelry

I am the first to admit this-I have been ignoring my Etsy shop. I posted over 100 things for sale last Spring and they did not miraculously just all sell on their own. You have to actually put some effort into it. I have a new "line" coming out. It's like I'm on Project Runway. To be successful on Etsy, you have to find a niche. I have been looking at all sorts of map jewelry on there but no one seems to focus on Maine. I dug an old map out of my glove compartment and I am experimenting.

Here are some glass tiles drying and waiting to be cut out. I'm focusing mostly on the coastal touristy towns and the mountains.
I figure those areas are the most heavily traveled and would sell the best. The great thing about this is that I can take special requests. It might not occur to me to make one for say, Mechanic Falls, but someone might want one. I'm going to post these hopefully this week and then I might expand. I went to Goodwill and bought an old world atlas. I think I'll move on to Europe next.
This was my test necklace. I love it. I wore it to work today and I already sold a custom request. I just wish they didn't take so long to dry!

Saturday Pictures

I spent another Saturday determined not to spend the day running errands or at least doing something fun in between the errands.

Declan and I headed out in the morning to the Cumberland Craft Fair. Like an idiot, I didn't think ahead. If I had brought more money I could have gotten a start on Christmas shopping because there was so much to choose from.
Typical Maine fair-everyone parks in a field next to a big red barn with cows wandering around. I love Cumberland. It's where we are going to move once we win the lottery. I have it all planned out.
There is nothing a 7 year old boy wants to do more than go to a craft fair with his mother.
Luckily, there was some harness racing training going on to distract him. It distracted him so much that he didn't notice the kettle corn and fried dough concession stands.
In the afternoon, I took both kids to Two Lights State Park. Declan has been begging to go to the ocean and find some shells. I have actually never been to Two Light and didn't realize there was no beach there. Just lots of high cliffs.
This is my son standing on a high cliff....
...and then another high cliff. I promised him another trip to the beach during the week when the tourists aren't so thick.
Grace was with us but I wasn't allowed to take her picture. I managed this blurry one. Now, I have to figure out what to do tomorrow to avoid more errands.

One Morning In Maine Meets Blueberries For Sal

I spent another weekend thinking about what errands we needed to run. Once I realized I was doing it again, I decided that we needed to make another field trip to the country. I decided we were going to go blueberry picking and we even left our own county to do it. Maine is known for our blueberries but we don't exactly live in the right part of that state. I didn't feel like heading 5 hours towards the blueberry flats so I found this place instead.

I'm a huge fan of blueberry picking but not so much of blueberry eating. When I was little, my mother used to hand me a bowl whenever we went up to camp and I would go out by the lake and pick blueberries. Of course, this would not be allowed today because that would mean a kid being alone next to a lake and you can get arrested for that. Sometimes I miss the 70's but, I digress. Grace was not very keen on the plan at all so Declan saw his chance to suck up and he told me how excited he was to go.
Of course, he is the biggest blueberry fan in the house. He loves his blueberry muffins.
I will admit we got a little lost finding the place. Apparently Google Maps don't understand that seasonal dirt roads exist in Maine and you shouldn't direct people onto them especially when they are underwater. I knew we were almost in the right area so I just tried a few roads until we found the right one. Once we got there, they were very nice at the farm. They even took you out to the field in a golf cart. This was thrilling to the kids but Grace wanted to know if we could hail one for a ride back when we were done. I told her she could try but we were in Limerick not Manhattan.

These high bush berries are a little bigger that the usual Maine berry. It still took a long time to pick though. Declan told me he wanted me to leave him out there so he could spend the night. He found a bush he declared was for Boys Only and he happily picked. Grace came around eventually too but I wasn't allowed to take any pictures of her to prove it.

We picked about 3 quarts and I had to stop us because we could easily have filled the box. I knew I was just giving myself extra work to bake these into something so I didn't want to get too many. Thankfully, they freeze well.
One other major event happened at the farm. After we were done, I bought Declan a blueberry donut. We were sitting at a picnic table when suddenly Declan started screaming about his loose tooth hurting and then he yanked it out of his mouth. We realized afterwards that we had experienced things that day from two of his favorite books, One Morning In Maine and Blueberries for Sal. Needless to say, he was very relieved that he didn't swallow his tooth or run into any bears.

Carly Took Us For A Walk

Carly has been with us for 2 months now and I have never taken her for a walk. I send Grace out to walk her all the time and Tim takes her out everyday. Yesterday, I decided it was about time so I gathered up my protesting children and we took her out on the trails.

First, I learned that Carly needs major leash training. I have no idea what breeds she is made up of but Bloodhound must be one of them because she did not take her nose off the ground at all.
The kids played King/Queen of the Mountain....
.....and Declan collected some acorns that I'll find in his bed later.
I was happy to see the Queen Anne's Lace were out but I knew I would never get a bouquet home in one piece and also hang onto Carly.
Grace had some new flip-flops to break in.
Carly had to eat every fly she found and attack the underbrush in case she missed any.
The most fun for me was Carly's reaction to walking across this metal grate. It was the only time on the whole walk that she slowed down and gave my arm a break.
I think I need to find a trail made just of metal grates.