Here's What I'm Thinking

Free Samples

2012-01-24T18:14:00.006-05:00

The extreme couponing I'm doing has a side effect. Actually, I'm not really extreme couponing. I don't really have the storage space to do that. The coupon websites though also push the free samples and I sign up for them all. Even that pink makeup bag was free and came stuffed with samples. The problem is they arrive 4-6 weeks later and my clutter OCD kicks into high gear.

I love free things but I can't stand having all these little packets around. I try to remember to use them but I also try to keep them out of sight which means I forget about them. I'll have plenty of anti-frizz serum once summer hits. If I remember I have them.

In Bloom

2012-01-22T16:30:00.013-05:00

This is what my lilac tree looks like right now. Yes, its so cold out that I took the picture through the window. We haven't had winter around here until last week. I was actually starting to believe that we would skip Winter and go straight into Spring. I guess not. A few weeks ago, I was at The Christmas Tree Shop looking at things that I don't need at all but just had to have. I bought 2 colored glass bottles that I thought would be great for when my lilacs bloom. I came home and put them away until I would need them in a few months.

Then I had a bad day at work last week and it was snowing and I had to go to the store after work to do a full weeks shopping. I walked past the supermarket flowers and really started looking at them. They were only $4 a bunch and they weren't so awful. I mean, Martha probably wouldn't approve but so what? Before Christmas, I had mentioned to Tim that a good present for me would be to buy me a bouquet every month. I got that idea from Young House Love but I usually want to copy every idea they have.

I decided that I'm going to do it for myself and buy flowers as much as I can until Spring. I figure they will last a week or so and we need the brightness in the house. I spend more than $4 a week in the vending machine at work so maybe I can stop that and put the money towards flowers instead. They cheered me up at least.

Recycle Boy

2012-01-18T21:42:00.005-05:00

Someone took a Boy Scout field trip to the recycling plant. He came home with all sorts of swag but he mostly loves his new hard hat.

He refuses to take it off. He even asked me to punch him in the head so he could see how much it protected him. I told him no. I expect to find him bashing his head into the wall instead.

City Sledding

2012-01-14T21:32:00.007-05:00

When winter hits, we spend entirely too much time inside the house. That's not to say that we are really outdoorsy people to begin with. Weekends just seem to be devoted to running errands and laundry. When Declan declared on Sunday that he wanted to go sledding, I stood up and started grabbing their winter clothes. 20 minutes later we managed to make it out of the house and we headed to the hill at Payson Park.

It's always crowded there but it's not too bad. Grace doesn't like her sled so they mostly took turns on Declans. They tried the main hill a few times but eventually wandered off to the side where the trails weren't broken and made some of their own. The ice crust on top of the snow made for some fast sledding.

I even managed to to get a picture of Grace sort of.

We only lasted about half an hour because it was really cold. It was a quick ride home to have some hot chocolate.

Once Upon A Time

2012-01-09T21:12:00.049-05:00

Once upon a time, a beautiful girl fell in love with a Prince and they got married and lived happily ever after. Okay, we all know that turned out to be a big lie but it happened during my impressionable childhood and I've never been able to shake her.

So yesterday, I had someplace to be. I read months ago that an exhibit for Princess Diana was coming to Foxwoods Casino in Connecticut. I read about it, told myself I had to go to it and then promptly forgot about it. Then my friend Lisa went and thankfully blogged about it and I remembered that I had to go. The only problem was that it closed in 2 weeks. Its not exactly easy for me to go 3 states away alone on short notice and I wasn't bringing my children to a casino.

By some miracle, Tim happened to be on vacation. He hardly ever gets a normal vacation and he had the whole week off. He told me I needed to take a day to myself and get down there. It's when he does things like that that my mother tells me what a good man I married and I have to agree with her. I got online and bought my ticket. I just had to figure out how to get there.

Embarrassing admission-I never drive myself anywhere far away and unfamiliar by myself and I have hardly ever driven a car outside of the state of Maine. You see, I could never pass my driving test in high school because I can't parallel park so I didn't even get my drivers license until I was 21. It just wasn't important to me and by 21, Tim was already driving us everywhere. He secretly prefers to drive because I can see how nervous he gets in the passenger seat. I never know the roads we are on or really pay attention on how we get from place to place on the interstate. This was important enough to me that I was willing to figure it out and drive myself.

Until I compared bus prices to gas prices. It would have cost me over $100 in gas vs. $37 for a bus ticket. So my non-driving streak continues and I bought myself a bus ticket. I got up at 5am on a Sunday to get on the 7:15am casino bus from Portland to Foxwoods. It was me and a lot of old couples who make trip weekly. The bus was pretty empty so I didn't have to sit next to anyone and I just sat back for the 3 1/2 hour bus ride.

I brought along a book so I could take advantage of some uninterrupted reading. I grabbed Betsy and The Great World because it was light to carry. In the book, Betsy takes a ocean liner alone in 1914 to tour Europe for a year. I was taking a bus to a casino. Travel has gotten a lot less glamorous in the last 100 years.

The bus pulled up right in front of the exhibit. Once I got off the bus, I was handed a free ticket to the all you can eat buffet and a $20 slots voucher. I decided to do both of those things to get them out of the way and then I would go see Diana. I didn't realize you can still smoke inside a casino and it was disgusting. I held onto $10 of the slots money and cashed out and got out of there. I made it to the buffet before the lines got too long. When I was younger, I never could have sat alone and eaten. Now I'm old and I just don't care and I would never see any of these people again anyway. I only filled my plate once and I would recommend the coconut cake.

The rest of the place was like a mall. I don't like the mall. I also felt sort of sad that her things were being shown at a casino. Sort of very tacky. I found this huge mural and realized I had found where I needed to be. So I took the escalator down...

...and discovered this line. This was the line for people who already had tickets like me. It looks short in this picture but just multiply it by 100. I stood in line to get in for over 2 hours. I couldn't believe there were this many people there and neither could the complaining husbands in line. That morning I thought I might make an effort with my appearance and I put on high heeled boots. I knew as I was putting them on that it was a bad idea but I did it anyway. My feet hurt so much I was hoping they would just go numb from the pain but no such luck. At least the exhibit was inside one of the hotels and it seemed a lot more museum like then if it was over by the slot machines. I felt better about the tackiness.

We were warned on our tickets, and again when we went in, that pictures were not allowed. But when I went in, I noticed there was no security around. Plus, they offered an audio tour as you walked along and people were listening to these phone things and were all off in their own worlds. I didn't need the audio tour. I could have given the audio tour. I decided I was using my IPhone to take some pictures. I hid it under some papers and I just slid it out when I needed it. I didn't care. I had waited too long for this not to document it somehow. I took a few pictures and now I regret not taking more when I had the chance. I was glad to get a good one of the wedding dress. They had the whole train laid out in full behind it and you could walk around the whole thing. I actually knelt down to get a closer look at it. I was struck by how small the dress seemed in person. In the videos of the wedding, the dress seemed huge and fluffy. Maybe it needed Diana inside it to fill it out. Her shoes were there too. I have always loved the shoes. She was smart enough to know she was going to have a long day and she wore flats.

Another room had her evening gowns and suits. They were all so familiar to me. It was a little more crowded in there and harder to sneak pictures. This black blur is the dress from her last public appearance.

You can make it out better in this picture of her wearing it. All the dresses were fabulous and you could really see her evolution from her early 80's fluffy lacy dresses to her 1990's Versace gowns and Chanel suits.

I was really moved by this one. It was just tan pants and a button down shirt she wore when she was drawing attention to the problem of land mines and it was on display right next to her gowns.

My long wait in line got me out right before my bus back to Maine was due. I finally was able to sit down. These are the offending boots. They are going back into my closet. Forever.

You don't think I left without hitting up the gift shop? The gift shop is my favorite part of most trips. The exhibit was put on by Dianas brother and Althrop House, their family estate. The selection of gifts was boring. It was probably the worst gift shop I've ever been in. That doesn't mean I didn't buy anything. I needed to have one of these Diana bags of course.

I got the exhibit guidebook, a tea towel and some breakfast tea plus the bag.

The book has pictures of everything that I had just seen so I wanted it. It was an overpriced $30 but I still wanted it so I could remember. See that purple dress third in from the left? She never wore it in public.

So now I am someone who has stood in the same room with Princess Dianas things. I could hardly take in that these were things I had seen in pictures all my life and they were right in front of me. The room dedicated to her funeral actually made me cry along with everyone else in there. Diana died a few weeks after my grandmother and their deaths have always been mixed in together for me. I didn't get to go to my grandmothers funeral because I was living in London and I didn't get to be a part of Dianas funeral crowds because I had returned home a few days before her death.

Now, I think the next step in my craziness is to somehow get back to England and visit Althorp for the full tour. Anyone want to come with me? I will be wearing slippers.

Keeping My Marbles

2011-12-31T16:41:00.014-05:00

One of the few childhood toys I've held onto is my marble collection. When I was little, I was always happy getting a new bag of marbles. We would play on the school playground though I don't think anyone ever really knew the actual rules. I just remember digging small pits or drawing circles in the dirt and then something to do with keeping the marble if you hit it. I think a lot of cheating went on. Anyway, I liked the colors and wanted to keep them out instead of buried in a box in the basement.

For a long time I've had them out in this basket but you can't really see them and one was always falling out and rolling away. We are past the point where I worry about the kids putting them in their mouths but the dog was another story.

I finally went out this week and bought this big mason jar. At first I just wanted some sort of small trifle bowl but I realized I would have the same problem with marbles falling out of it. Looking at it now, I realize I should have gone with the smaller size but maybe its now a good excuse to buy myself some new ones so I can fill it to the top.

The Impossible Renovation

2011-12-30T09:02:00.011-05:00

How do you gut and renovate a bathroom when its the only bathroom in your house. Do you see the problem we have? We can't rip apart a bathroom down to the studs without moving out. Our house is from the 1920's and I guess back then they considered themselves lucky to just have one indoor bathroom. We are considerably more spoiled nowadays but we've managed to make it work for us. So far. At least until Grace becomes a teenage girl. Did I also mention the room is smaller than most peoples walk-in closets? Which we also don't have in this house.

This house saw a big renovation sometime in the 60's or 70's and we've had to undo a lot of stuff. We actually gave this room a cosmetic upgrade back when Grace was a baby. When we moved in, the bathroom and kitchen were the worst rooms in the house. I wish I had pictures. The bathroom then had dark blood red textured Formica going halfway up the walls. The rest of the wall had rough textured green and yellow striped wallpaper. I actually saw this exact wallpaper on a rerun of the Brady Bruch when they were repapering the parents bedroom. It was even too much for the Bradys and they went with something else. One day I couldn't take it anymore and I started ripping it off the walls and we repainted and papered. The walls were in rough shape because of the Formica being glued onto them so we papered the bottom half and painted the top. This isn't bathroom wallpaper at all but I was inexplicably attracted to the hot air balloons. Afterwards I put my Titanic poster up and the theme of the bathroom became early 20th century transportation. See how the wallpaper is peeling? Its worse near the shower. I want subway tile now.

We also have this huge mirror with no storage behind. I like the mirror but I want to frame it out or something. Maybe get a real medicine cabinet and move the mirror someplace else.

I wish I had a picture of the lights that were in here before. They were the worst thing in the room/house. I can't even find a picture of them online. They were antique brass and glass hanging globes. The electrical box was above the mirror like it is now and 2 heavy chains came out from that. They went to two hooks hanging from the ceiling on either side of the mirror. Then they hung down on each side of the mirror with the globe lights hanging from the ends. The glass globes were made from a bumpy yellow glass and I was constantly banging them but they would never break. This silver fixture was a vast improvement at the time but I want something different now.

Even our toothpaste cups need replacing. And see that bad tile job on the sink? The blood red Formica extended to the top of the sink. Its still there-I just covered it with my first tiling attempt. I didn't use the proper equipment to do it and some of the tiles are sort of jagged and sharp. I can do better now.

The shower is a showpiece too. For some reason, there is a different colored upside down tub as the top of it. I'm too ashamed to show you the actual tub where the silicone caulking turns black no matter what I do. I want a tiled shower. A tiled floor too. We put down peel and stick tiles over the red linoleum floor that was there and they are awful.

I saved the best for last. Whoever redid this bathroom in the 70's didn't add real heat. I guess the Formica budget went over so they had to lose heat. A simple baseboard would have been so easy and reliable to have. They figured these heat lamps overhead were enough. They are not.

When we gutted our kitchen we were without it for over 6 months. We can't do that with a bathroom for obvious reasons. Maybe we could rent an RV and park it in the driveway for 6 months?

Christmas Morn

2011-12-29T12:47:00.020-05:00

Christmas snuck up on us again. I was actually ahead of the game in everything but wrapping. Declan was bouncing off the walls on Christmas Eve but I got him to stand still long enough to get him to hang his stocking. We really need some sort of mantle because hanging them off the table is sort of ridiculous. Grace let me take her picture too as long as I promised "not to splash it around the Internet". It looked a

lot like Declans picture only with Grace in it.

We put out milk and cookies for Santa. We were lucky to have these for him. I had major Christmas cookie failure this year. This was the only batch out of the three to survive. I honestly think I forgot to add flour to my gingerbread cookie mix. I remember thinking it looked awful runny when I out it into the refrigerator to chill. Not sure what my problem was.

The tree after Santa came. I used 15 different setting on my camera to get a good tree picture and this was the best I could do. I don't know why my camera has a special fireworks setting but not a Christmas tree one? Something to think about Nikon.

In the morning, there was no way I could get them to pose under the tree so I just made them hold back for one minute so I could get some sort of picture. They woke up around 5am but we made them stay in bed until 6am.

Carly was very confused about why we were all up so early and being so loud. She got a new toy and some bones. Owen the cat got presents too but we had to bring them upstairs to him. He was happy with them. He might be 14 years old but he can still chase catnip toys around like a kitten.

Grace was very methodical about her pile. She moving away from toys except for stuffed animals. She got things like clothes, perfume and locker organizers. Its scaring me.

Declan had another Lego Christmas but he also got this weather forecasting system. He loves to watch the weather from the set at work. The green weather wall freaks him out. He actually asked if he could be a weather watcher for our meteorologists now that he has this. I asked one of them and she said fine but he would have to get up at 4am to figure out the bus stop forecast. Declan had no problem with this but I did.

Even Tim got something he wanted. We have a hard time buying presents for each other because I don't understand his computer world and he doesn't understand my girl world. Gift certificates seem to be the way to go for us but I did get him/us an electric blanket which he will love once we get it out of the box. He's always cold.

Christmas Lights

2011-12-19T19:57:00.013-05:00

I'm someone who secretly hates the Christmas tree. I think I like the idea of the tree more than dealing with the actual tree itself. We finally got ours up this weekend. It is about a foot smaller than any other tree we have had. The tree lot only seemed to have short trees that day.

We have used the same ornaments for years and I bought most of them at the dollar store when I was in college. Last year, I seem to have hit up the after Christmas ornament sale because this year, I had boxes of new ones that I don't remember really buying. They're nice and glittery though.

Our memorial ornament for Peter the cat. He was about 5 or 6 weeks old in this picture and weighed maybe a pound. I don't know how we kept him alive but he grew into a 16 pound monster that we miss very much.

The new glitter ornaments I made this year with floor wax and Martha glitter. All the evil glitter is contained inside so no mess to deal with.

Preschool ornaments from Grace and Declan. Where did these tiny children go?

Of course the dog has an ornament too. We gave this one to Tim last year. He and the dog sure do love one another.

Sick Boy Freaking Me Out

2011-12-03T19:39:00.008-05:00

I had to work today and Declan was healthy when I left and sick when I came home. He was laid out on the couch and boiling hot to the touch. He asked to use my laptop and I let him after he washed his hands very well. He immediately went to PhotoBooth and started taking freaky pictures.

"Alien"

"Fathead"

"Twins"

He does know how to freak his mother out. I made him stop after these.

The End

2011-11-30T18:17:00.007-05:00

I did it. 30 days of posts. They weren't always pretty and I'll admit to stacking a few of them so you didn't exactly get a new one every day. More like 3 or 4 new ones all at once. At least the dates all say 30 days in a row so that's what I'm counting. I think I'll take a little break now but hopefully not too long. I think Carly has the right idea.

Scarf Work

2011-11-29T17:59:00.006-05:00

So last year, I made a bunch of these Infinity Scarves. I liked them but it seems I could have cut my fabric use in half because they are just too big and bulky. I need to remake them and cut them in half.

I decided to do this a month ago. I took them out of my closet and brought them downstairs. They have hung here off the back of desk chair since then.

I even brought the sewing machine out and put one of the scarfs on top of it like this was going to get me moving. I hope I can get myself moving on this before it's summer.

EtsyBusy

2011-11-28T13:32:00.007-05:00

Now, I am no way complaining about being busy with my Etsy shop. I am complaining about having to go to that other job that affords me a house and health insurance. It is getting in the way of stuff I need to do. My Etsy shop has been consistently but not overwhelming busy in the last few weeks. Most of the orders are for custom items so they all need to be made which happens in steps. I find myself starting them before bed and then doing the next step right before I leave for work the next morning. Then I find myself using my lunch break to take orders to the post office where I am always stuck behind someone shipping something to China. If I do get home for lunch, then I find myself glazing something or cutting something. If I didn't have to be at the other place 40 hours a week, I could do all this stuff in one day. Pipe dreams.

This Is What We Call The Muppet Show

2011-11-27T23:02:00.007-05:00

You need to drop everything and run out to see this movie especially if you remember the original. There's even a Toy Story short before the movie. I counted more adults in the theater than kids.

Love The Library

2011-11-26T10:05:00.012-05:00

I grew up going to a small library inside an old home. I also went to the Rangeley library which wasn't in a house but it might as well have been. I went to the library a lot. When I moved to Portland (20 years ago almost!) I headed right to the intown branch and got my library card. Something about that building just overwhelmed me and it was hard to look at books. Too many people in the aisles and too many mentally ill people wandering in to do I don't know what. I know that makes me a horrible person but its hard to pick out books while someone is barking or having a conversation with with one of their other personalities. I get this enough at work. I never gave much thought to the neighborhood branches they have but I finally smartened up when Grace was first born. Now we go to the Burbank branch every Saturday and we have for years. Its located inside an old house. There are no mentally ill people inside. Its mostly all little kids which is sort of the same thing. They have completely renovated the old downtown library and its beautiful but I will always choose this one over it. You'll just have to excuse my crappy IPhone picture of it.

Etsy Updates

2011-11-25T18:09:00.009-05:00

When I started my Etsy shop, I used glass tiles to make my map pendants. I liked them but I wanted something more polished and finished looking. I found these silver tray pendants from Etsy supply shops and I was all set.

For about a year. A few weeks ago I needed to stock up for the Christmas orders so I tried to order some more. Not sure what happened but no one was offering them for sale anymore. I was not happy because all the other supplies I use are geared towards this exact size. Did the factory in China burn down?

Suddenly all they had were these slightly different ones. The hanging hook thingy at the stop was shorter and wider and the edges looked thicker. The back of the pendant was also covered in this star burst design instead of the plain silver that the other one had. I had no other options than to order them. I couldn't be happier I did because I like these so much better. The paper map squares fit much easier inside. The greatest thing is that the resin top that I put on over it fits perfectly. I always had issues with those with the other one. They were either 1 cm too small or 1 cm too big. There was always a lot or prying and pounding to make them right. These are so much simpler and I have placed another bigger order so I can make sure I have enough for a while. Until they pull these from the market too.

Thanksgiving Day

2011-11-24T00:13:00.009-05:00

Thanksgiving morning I woke up to Declan's Thanksgiving turkey picture. This is my un-white balanced picture of it. Tim was already up cooking with Declan as his helper. One day, I might try to tackle the dinner when Tim gets sick of doing it but for now, I am so glad that he does it. He cooks it and I clean it up. We both know our strengths. I have started a new tradition of going to LL Bean in the morning because its so much easier to shop with Tim's discount then.

I am also thankful that we finally have a dining room table where we can all sit comfortably. I pulled it out and added both leaf's(leaves?). Carly Dog likes to sit under the table and couldn't figure out why it got so big all of a sudden. Of course, the problem is when I pull out the table, it practically touches the four walls of the dining room. One day we will have a bigger dining room too. Baby steps.

We also realized that, last year, we put the wishbone up to dry and we had never had the kids do it. Sort of gross. Declan made his wish and won. I think this years is hanging up again and I hope we remember to do it before next Thanksgiving.

Tim went for a smaller bird this year but it was still plenty big enough. He also makes his grandmothers sausage stuffing which is my favorite.

Declan was ready to eat. They are usually more excited for the thought of the meal and they actually don't eat very much.

Carly also got to eat in the dining room with us. She didn't get any turkey though.

A Pie Confession

2011-11-23T19:11:00.008-05:00

My name is Kate and I have never learned how to crimp a pie crust.

My pie crusts always end up looking ragged like this. I have read how to do it and I might even have watched a video on YouTube. It's no use though-I can't reproduce it. I know it involves using your knuckles or something.

In my defense though, the pie crust recipe I used this year turned out extra gooey. I might have accidentally used 2 eggs instead of 1. I'm hoping that's what will make it flaky but it wasn't going to hold any sort of shape. I was lucky I could even get it into the plate in one piece.

Never the less, we have 2 pies ready to go for Thanksgiving and I will just ignore the fact that they are not pretty.

It Only Took A Year

2011-11-22T20:05:00.011-05:00

For over a year I have been using this LL Bean bag as my purse. Not the most attractive thing. I looked like a preschool teacher toting this around. I wanted a purse that was big enough to hold a book but wouldn't put my back out. I didn't want anything with fake fur on it or shiny patent leather. I didn't want anything in silver lame, animal print, or designed by Jennifer Lopez. I didn't want anything quilted, in snakeskin or crocodile, or studded with rhinestones. Apparently this is too much to ask. What I really wanted was a simple brown leather messenger bag. Something a public defender or Indiana Jones would carry. These cost about $200 so that was not an option.

A year was long enough for me so I went with this plaid wool bag. It's smaller but I'm getting used to it. I think I have been having Grunge flashbacks since I saw the Pearl Jam documentary. I think I might need to get a new pair of Doc Martens to go with it.

Grandma Is Shrinking

2011-11-21T18:34:00.006-05:00

I'm making a rare appearance in my own blog. My mother has always been short but she has actively started shrinking in the past few years. I am now a head taller than she is.

For the first time, Grace is now taller than her grandmother. In our family, it is a milestone of growing up when you get to be taller than her. I wasn't ready for Grace to be there yet.

At least Declan is still shorter than her. He is the youngest grandchild and the only one she can still look down on. For now.

Where Is The Snow?

2011-11-20T14:29:00.011-05:00

The kids and I went off to Rangeley this weekend to check in on my parents. Safe to say, my father is still recovering and is completely dependent on my mother. It's scary to think of them alone up there but they have a support system in place and have no interest in leaving. We really have no other options for them so we worry but leave them be until they need help. I'm not sure how this winter will go for them but I know I would rather see them there then have my father back in that nursing home.

Declan wanted to play outside which is normally not easy to do in November up there. Surprisingly there was only a trace amount of snow and the lake wasn't frozen yet. It wasn't exactly swimming weather though.

Declans goal was to throw 100 rocks in the lake because Tim told him he would give him a dollar if he did it. I think the lake is full of enough rocks but Declan doesn't agree.

We lasted less than an hour outside though. The sun sets very early these days. Declan did say he had thrown all 100 but I think he was just saying that to get that dollar.

Good Kids

2011-11-19T10:13:00.006-05:00

It was parent teacher conference time for us this week. We went to Graces first middle school one and it was very different. She presented the whole thing to us on her laptop and the teachers only became involved if we had questions. I didn't quite understand at the time that this was how it worked or I would have asked some questions. I'll know next time but she has all A's so she's doing something right. Declans conference went like all his others. The teacher told us how well he is doing and how great he was in class. We never really have concerns and neither do they. We wonder when they are going to rebel though.

The Pile Keeps Growing

2011-11-18T17:09:00.016-05:00

This is my pile of books. I used to read a book a day almost. Now, my weekly average is about 20 pages. If I'm lucky. At that rate, it's going to take me a long way to work my way through this pile and I'm going to have huge library fines. Starting from the bottom we have:

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hollows : After I saw the last film over the summer, I dragged this off my shelf. I've made it about 1/4 of a way through it.

Faith: I read a review of this in the New York Times several months ago and put it on hold at the library. It was on hold so long that I forget what its about.

The Night Strangers: This is written by Chris Bohjalain and I forget what its about too but I love all his books so I will start reading this.

Ivanhoe: This is the sort of book that people don't usually read unless they are forced to in school. Sometimes I miss my English classes so I pick out a book like this.

Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children: A strange book full of creepy Victorian photos. This is right up my alley.

By The Shores of Silver Lake: Teenage Laura Ingalls-my favorite books in the series start from this one. This copy is my original one from 3rd grade.

I Don't Know How She Does It: This was my introduction to British mommy lit. I read this when the kids were babies and it was like the author was reading my mind. I didn't feel so alone after this book because I realized there were other mothers out there who were overwhelmed with work, kids, husband and the house all while putting on a fake smile in front of the other moms.

The Betsy-Tacy Treasury: Enough said on this one. This is the final release for all the new editions. I've read these books over and over for years so I don't think this one counts as something I need to read. This is just a book I need to own for the rest of my life.

Lotions And Potions

2011-11-17T18:10:00.013-05:00

I am not really interested in makeup other than under eye concealer which I'm finding I need more and more as I age. I am, however, a sucker for any sort of lotion or cream and I cannot recommend GCDSpa.com more highly. Emily works out of her home making it all by herself. Her home must smell like a candle shop all the time. I've ordered from her in the past and was running out. My new order arrived this week.

Raise your hand if you have never had a professional pedicure. Am I the only one raising my hand? It feels that way to me because somehow mani/pedi's have become a necessity to women. I can't see paying $30 for nail polish that just starts chipping off right away-at least it does on me. I've bought this pedicure set in the past but in peppermint. This year, I got candy cane and I love it. It comes with candy cane scented sugar scrub, lotion, balm and a bonus pumice stone that works wonders. The dog ate my last pumice stone so I needed a new one.

I also love her hand cream especially in cupcake. It sort of smells like cotton candy. I bought myself the biggest size she has. I also have this scent now in one of her perfume potions. She also threw in a bonus lip balm in pumpkin pie which smells exactly like it. If you pay her a visit I also suggest the Maine Woodland Berry or Rose or Sweet Pea.

***I wasn't paid or compensated in any way for this-just a fan. I also apologize for my photography. Emily's is so much better.

Declan Promotion

2011-11-16T00:02:00.008-05:00

A very proud boy came home from Boy Scouts. For the first time, they voted for dener of his troop. "Dener" is not a typo. A dener is like the leader of the boys in the troop. I thought he was trying to tell me about "dinner". Declan was the first one voted into the position. He gets to wear this yellow braid on his shoulder during his month long reign. He has to pass it along to the next dener. I think its going to be very hard for him to give it up though. Maybe I can craft him one of his own to keep.

What To Do...

2011-11-15T17:39:00.014-05:00

So, I was at the store with a 30% off your total purchase coupon in my wallet. I found this bag of buttons that I had to have. The problem is, I have no idea what to do with them. I think I was just attracted to the colors. My reasoning was that I was getting 30% off anyway so these were pretty much free. Maybe if I ever get get some time to myself, I'll turn them into something like this...

Nursery Letter Art

BBC Love

2011-11-14T13:55:00.006-05:00

My new favorite BBC show. Its called Outnumbered and thank God for public television so I can actually see it. Enjoy.

Sparkly Christmas

2011-11-13T10:21:00.016-05:00

A couple of Christmas's ago, we had a tree stand failure and I lost a lot of my glass bulbs when the tree crashed over. I always see these clear empty bulbs in the store this time of year. I've bought them before and filled them with tinsel and Christmassy stuff like that. This year, I found a new idea for them on Pinterest and it was so simple but weird that I decided to try it.

I bought a box of ornaments...

and some of Martha's extra fine glitter. The "extra fine" part is key.

And of course I bought a big bottle of Pledge floor wax with the blue cap from the Super crazy Wal-Mart. I hate the Super crazy Wal-Mart. Especially on a Sunday morning.

They're very easy to make once you have everything gathered. You'll want a lot of paper towels too. You pour some of the wax inside the bulb and swish it around so the whole inside gets coated and you pour out the excess wax. Then you pour in some glitter and swirl that all around until the whole inside is coated. Pour out the excess glitter and pop the top back on the bulb and you have yourself a pretty ornamanet.

Now, I've never been quiet about my hatred of glitter. I firmly believe it a product of the devil. The extra fine stuff though is more like dust and easy to clean up. I can handle having it in the house. Doesn't mean I'm letting the kids anywhere near it.

Now I have a whole new set of sparkly ornaments and all that evil glitter is trapped inside. All 6 of these took me 10 minutes to make so I will be making more.

Lawn Boy

2011-11-12T09:00:00.011-05:00

Today, the stars aligned and Tim had last night off which meant he woke up on Saturday morning sort of rested. The weather was also cooperating so we headed out to rake up all of our leaves. Declan was a superstar and wanted to come help too. For 2 hours he helped rake and stuff leaf bags without complaining. He was awesome-such a Boy Scout about it.

Of course, we had to let him get a little jumping in.

He made $2 off me too for being such a good helper too. It was a big job and we have 11 leaf bags waiting out on the curb to prove it.

Someone else loved it too. With the leaves gone, the squirrels were easier to see .

Veteran Boy

2011-11-11T13:18:00.007-05:00

Today was Veterans Day and in our house, that means that Declan and Tim march in the Portland parade. They have always marched for the past few years and I have never seen this in person because I always have to work. The way I solve this is to make sure that the crew covering the parade knows to look for the Boy Scouts and get plenty of video of them. This way, I get to see them in the parade and Declan gets to see himself on TV. If I have to work all these holidays at least I can use them to my advantage.

College Sales

2011-11-10T18:47:00.008-05:00

A few weeks ago my college friend Beth contacted me about my Etsy shop. She was coming to Maine for a mini college reunion with several of her best friends from school and she wanted to give them all a gift. She wanted 12 of my Sebago Lake glass tile pendants because they show St. Joseph's College right on them. It was my biggest order ever and I quickly made them and sent them off to her in Chicago. She gave them out and from what I heard back, they loved them. Beth is also a former marketing major and very kindly emailed the Alumni Office to let them know I make these. Now, the very nice woman from the Alumni Office wants to post my shop information so that other former St. Joes students can buy them from me. She also suggested I contact the school bookstore about carrying them. These are things I sort of thought about doing but didn't really know how to go about doing it. Thanks to Beth-I'm expanding.

Grace's Poem

2011-11-09T18:07:00.009-05:00

We went to Grace's parent/teacher conference today. She had to write a poem about where she came from. Poetry has never been my thing but I loved her poem. It's not like I'm biased because I'm her mother or anything. I also want to have it written down somewhere before she takes it away from me.

Where I'm From

By Grace McMahon

I am from antiques

from modern days and old days.

I am from my bedroom.

New, sweet,

as a fresh painted car.

I am from maple trees,

the tulips whose stems are as sticky as honey from my dogs slobber.

I'm from secret recipes and the ocean,

from Anna and Noreen.

I'm from Thanksgiving at my Aunt's house

with the turkey that I die to have once a year that makes my mouth water as I take that

first bite of fresh cooked turkey.

from Easter, also at her house with the egg hunts for the kids,

from Clean your room! and Time for dinner!

I'm from take out your homework,

Oceanography

and I had a good day at school.

I'm from Kate and Tim's Branch,

pizza and soda,

From grandpa fighting fire,

from my moms old, wild, dog Tara.

In photo book's in my mom and dad's bedroom that has old pictures

with pictures of my mom and dad from when they were kids

and when my brother and I were little.

I am from those moments when we went to a dinner at the ocean

from after we go to the beach and look for sea shells.

Election Day

2011-11-08T17:31:00.009-05:00

Guess who voted today? Grace has been learning about the election process at school and was very into it. She got a voting sticker for voting in the mock school election then she took Tim's sticker and then got another one when she went to the polls with me. She proudly wore them on her face all day.

It's Starting

2011-11-07T17:37:00.008-05:00

When I got my smartphone, I decided to keep up my old Tracfone as a back up. I thought it would come in handy if the kids went somewhere with their friends and I wanted to be able to keep in touch with them. They are not getting their own phones for a long time. Some of their friends do have their own phones and I have to hear about it all the time. This weekend, Declan finally noticed my old phone was still around and he has barely put it down since. I think I'm going to have to hide it.

Remember My Porch?

2011-11-06T00:16:00.015-04:00

So back in July, I started talking about a small redo of our porch. I think it was around the same time I started reading Young House Love and I got ambitious. I know I'm supposed to do before and after pictures but I can't find the the before pictures so you'll just have to refer back to the July post.

The first major problem to tackle was repainting the porch floor. I still had the paint in the basement so all I had to buy was some painters tape and I was good to go. It took a minor miracle to keep the kids and the dog off the porch so I could do it but it happened. I could have also tackled painting the walls again but I had no interest in doing that. I Magic Erased them instead and they looked much better after. I don't know whats in Magic Erasers and I'm sure I'll get cancer from them, but I love whoever invented them. The front door was the other major paint project. I've hated having a green door with the yellow paint so I painted it to match the trim. It took 4 coats and I was definitely done painting after that. That's why the table by the door is covered with some black toile fabric. As the daughter of an antique store owner, I couldn't bring myself to paint an antique so I didn't. The wooden sign over the door is actually the street sign for my fathers old store. It used to hang on Main St. in Topsham for years but somehow ended up in his shops attic. I rescued it, sealed it and hung it up. It's only fallen on our heads a few times.

On the other end of the porch, I put back our college futon. I bought a new mattress and a blue cover. I also had pillows to dress it up. I say "had" because this area has just turned into Carlys new dog bed. I'm the only one interested in keeping her off it so its a losing battle. I haven't even been able to sit out here because the futon is usually covered with hair and dirt. Apparently I spent $200 on a giant dog bed. The wheelchair is still out there too because I have no room for it in the house.

I replaced the paper lantern with this clip on shade. It's not my favorite or my first choice but it works. I wanted a small round paper lantern but the kind I need does not seem to exist. If I come across anything I like better then I'll trade this out.

My other big project was to figure out the curtains. I never liked the dark blue color of them but replacing them would be expensive because I have 8 windows out here. I decided to try to bleach them. I put them through the machine with bleach but nothing happened. They were still the same color only cleaner. I then thought about dying them a different color so off I went to look at the Rit dye section of the supermarket. I've never really used dye on fabric but I found this stuff. I bought a few packets of the color remover and tossed it all in the machine. They came out a light blue and the pattern in them stood out more. It was good enough for me so I put them back up.

Now that the porch is done, I need to find a new room to do. The bathroom needs to be totally demoed but how do you do that when its your only bathroom?

If I Can't Live There...

2011-11-05T14:13:00.013-04:00

The other night I was sitting at the dining room table and trying to finish up an Esty order. I had the overhead light on but I was still having trouble seeing. This was most likely due to my old damaged eyes but it suddenly struck me that I should have a lamp on the table.

I had no idea what I wanted other than something smallish. Any excuse for a trip to Target!

This one jumped right out at me. Usually I just pick out a plain white lampshade so this was a leap for me. It's hard to make out but,up close, the black skyline is made up of the names of NYC streets spelled out. I figure if I can't live there, I can at least have this in my house.

My favorite little thing about it is the chain on/off switch. The kids love it too. They keep turning it on and off. Over and over.

Betsy Tacy World

2011-11-04T17:48:00.010-04:00

" When you read a book as a child, it becomes a part of your identity in a way that no other reading in your whole life does. " You've Got Mail.

It's that time year again when I reread all my Betsy Tacy books. I have been reading them since the 5th grade and I will be reading them until I'm too old to see. Last year, new editions were released and I love these versions.

It's sort of weird that they put two books into one but at least publishers are still paying attention to them. I would love to have copies of the original hardcovers like I used to check out of the library.
I think they should sell the illustrations as prints because I would put them all up on my walls.
Anyway, this week I discovered this new Betsy Tacy blog and I've even gotten a shout out on it. In addition to the Laura Ingalls trip I need to take, I also need to take a trip to Minnesota so I can finally sit on Betsy amd Tacys bench on the Big Hill.

The New Reality

2011-11-03T18:22:00.007-04:00

I went in for my yearly physical this week. I was expecting the usual stuff with stethoscopes, blood pressure and ignoring the number on the scale. This year though, they handed me this...

My living will or advanced directive or whatever they are calling it this year.

I can't believe I really have to fill this out. I haven't even gotten around yet to having a regular will or naming guardians for the kids. We should probably do that shouldn't we?

Halloween 2011

2011-11-02T17:45:00.011-04:00

We had a very low key Halloween around here. It somehow snuck up on us right after a snowstorm and long power outage. By the time we made it to the store, only the tiny pumpkins were left. I decided to simplify things and just paint them instead of carving them. This also meant I didn't feel obligated to roast the seeds and have them hang around uneaten.

I might go with painting them from now on. So much easier to deal with.

I wasn't allowed to take a picture of Grace but here are her hands and the cute blue face she was painting on her pumpkin. See the lantern on the table? The lights had only just come back on.

Declan saw this costume on a commercial and had to have it. I'm not even sure what this is called. It's the Scream mask but it has a clear plastic mask mounted on top of it and you pump fake blood through it. The black Death cloak just adds to the effect. Whatever happened to the little boy I dressed as a puppy and a cow?

Grace was much more straightforward as an evil witch. She decided to humor her mother and stood still for a picture. What I love about this picture is that she looks younger than 11 in it. She wanted to go around with me this year but who knows what next year holds. This might have been my last Halloween with her. She'll probably go out with friends next year.

Every Day?

2011-11-01T13:28:00.007-04:00

I'm on a sugar high from stealing my kids Halloween candy and I'm sick so I've decided to do something that will probably drive me crazy. About once a year, I decide to try to post every day for a month and since today is the first of November, I'm going to try to post every day this month. Don't judge me by this post because I know it's boring but like I said, I'm sick. Hopefully, I'll see you tomorrow. I think I'm going to have to start carrying my camera with me everywhere so I can make sure I have something to talk about. Meanwhile, enjoy my nightly view of Carly. She has an exhausting life and has to sleep for hours to recover.

Movie Day

2011-10-02T15:14:00.010-04:00

Declan was supposed to have his first away soccer game today. Three days of rain cancelled that. He was more than bummed out about it. I tried to think of something else fun we could do on a rainy day to cheer him up. All I could really come up with was going to the movies. Surprisingly, no one seemed that excited about when I told them which is the exact opposite of what usually happens. I have to admit I wasn't that excited about it because I knew it would be crowded with other people also trying to escape the rain.

I also thought about the price of 3 tickets and popcorn and then I decided we were doing a movie day at home. Redbox to the rescue! We never go to the Redbox so the kids were excited about that. They picked out 2 movies and settled in for the afternoon.

We also picked up drinks and candy and I popped some popcorn.

I brought our little TV into Grace's room and they settled in for an afternoon of movie watching. I settled in for a quiet afternoon where I could get some things done including this post. I didn't hear a peep from them for a few hours.

Even Carly wanted in on it. She mostly wanted in on the popcorn. Eventually she gave up on that and settled down on Grace's floor for a nap. I can see us doing this more as winter approaches.

If Only I Could Do This At Every Store...

2011-10-01T21:07:00.015-04:00

I have been doing the crazy couponing things for a few months now. I mostly use them at the grocery store and I usually save $20-$40 off my bill. It's never been insane savings but I'll take it. Tonight though, I had one of those extreme couponing moments at AC Moore.

I got everything you see here before you for 84 cents! I didn't even mean to do it but that's how it rang up. I had earned a $10 coupon using their rewards card plus I had some of their weekly coupons. In all, I got a new candle to combat the doggy smell, some blue beads that I will make into a necklace, 2 magnetic backed pads of paper that I put on my fridge and 2 bags of hard candy.

I've never had a receipt that looks like this. I would love to duplicate it at the grocery store since that's where most of my money goes these days.

Doggy Chew Toy

2011-09-27T11:19:00.012-04:00

Does anyone else have a weird dog? Carly is a good girl but she sure does some weird stuff.

I love this picture though. Grace took it. Carly is a eye booger factory. TMI?

Anyway, everytime the girl comes in from outside she gets chewing on her feet. Especially her back ones. And God forbid you touch her back legs or tail while she is laying down. Snarling and snapping noises start although she has never actually bitten us.

However, when she standing up, its just fine to touch her legs and tail. I find myself doing it just because I can. She will sit there and chew on her toes for 10 minutes straight. They're not especially dirty and she's not hurt that we can tell. She isn't compulsive about things. She's not doing it to excess and hurting herself. We used to have a cat that licked all her fur off so maybe it's us. I think she just has too many dog breeds mixed in. I would love to buy one of those doggie DNA kits to see exactly what shes made of.

Peaks Pictures

2011-09-26T19:48:00.015-04:00

Declan had a soccer game out on Peaks Island yesterday. Our trip out there just reinforces the fact that we should be living out there. I suppose that is up to the Powerball Gods.

Declan loved the ferry ride and being with his team. Everyone was looking at the adorable soccer team. He threw a dime off the side and said it was his buried treasure.

Views like this no matter where you looked. Its like being in a Robert McCloskey book.

Fort Gorges. One day I will take a boat out and explore it. Or maybe I won't and have it just remain a mystery.

My house is in there somewhere. I just haven't picked it yet. I like the ones that have been there forever and haven't had the Martha makeover.

The ferry ride is much too short. I have no idea what the big green towers do but its something to do with the ferry. I just think they're cool.

We did actually have a purpose out there and they finally won a game this year. We had to walk a little to get to the field and it was 1000 degrees and high humidity but it was worth it.

There was a man down though. He twisted his knee and a bigger kid rolled over him. I was off in the woods at the time helping Grace and missed the whole thing. I just heard the whole game go quiet and looked up to see everyone gathered around Declan. Not a good feeling but he turned out to be fine.

We got some ice cream and we finally had to come back to the city.

I've decided that it's best for my sanity if I just ride the ferry endlessly whenever I feel like it.

Heart Strings

2011-09-15T23:49:00.011-04:00

I finally successfully made something I found on Pinterest. There was a pin there for a heart strung banner that looked hard to screw up. I still tweaked it a little.

It caught my eye because it involved using my favorite stolen free materials-paint chip samples. I remember when I first realized that you can just go to the store and grab a pile of these instead of paying for expensive paper. I thought I had discovered a huge secret but apparently other people had thought of this already. I'm ashamed to say I involved my children in getting so many. There is more than you see in this picture. I did pay for the heart paper punch though-with a 50% off coupon of course. What I really wanted was a big star punch but I couldn't find one.

Anyway, the project I saw used a needle and thread to poke through the heart. I decided I didn't like that as much as the idea of gluing 2 hearts together with the string inside them.

This is where my new found love of glue dots came in. I can't believe I never used these before. Basically I just tied a knot on one end of my embroidery thread and then spaced out the hearts and glued them in place. I have a lot of this thread laying around. I would go for using a colored one next time.

It took me only about 20 minutes to finish it. Those glue dots are like super glue but I'm glad I used them. If I just used regular glue, I would have had to wait for them to dry and they might have moved around. They are addictive to make but I don't really have a spot to put it. Graces room is the obvious choice but her walls are full. I've hung it on the staircase for now. I'm still on the look out for a star stamp too.

My Favorite Things

2011-09-04T17:30:00.014-04:00

Time for more favorite things around here.....

This is bridal confetti. I bought it a few months ago but I have no idea what to do with it. I just know I'm going to do something with these little paper flower things. In a few years probably.

My old Little House books. My friend Heather is rereading hers and that inspired me to drag out mine. These are my original copies from 1980? I think. You can see that I read them over and over. Happy Golden Years lost its cover years ago and I seem to have made a new cover myself for Farmer Boy. I've started rereading By The Shores of Silver Lake.

My new ceiling fan. It has an oil rubbed bronze finish. We have had a huge brass finish fan in here that came with the house. I hated it. We always meant to replace it but it worked and there are a lot more pressing things around here to replace. The fan chain breaking was a good excuse to finally change it out. Our simple change out lead to an expensive visit from an electrician when our 1920's wiring was too much for us. I like it regardless.
I needed a holder for my new IPhone. I didn't like anything I saw in the stores. I went on Etsy and found the perfect one for me. I love that I carry my Jetsons phone in a British telephone booth. I also love that apple green bowl that its propped against. When Dr. Oz was visiting the station, they put out those Edible Bouquets as part of the spread. The bowl was used to hold it so I took it after it hung around the kitchen for a few days afterwards.
A few months ago, The Pioneer Woman posted something about making paper flowers. The thing I liked is that you can mount them on actual twigs and make a little bouquet. You can't actually see the twigs here but they are there. My flowers are drooping a bit so I think it's time to make some new ones.
My last favorite thing is that Grace is finally keeping her room clean. I know its very full of stuff but the floor is clear and has been for almost 2 months. One day this summer, I spent 3 full hours cleaning, sorting and throwing things out in this room which made Grace very, very grumpy. I think once she saw how much easier it was in there without so much stuff, she decided to keep it up. I hope this lasts long into her teenage years. Fingers crossed.

Pinterest Fail

2011-09-01T21:42:00.010-04:00

I have been spending/wasting a lot of my time on Pinterest. There are so many pretty and interesting things to look at and think about making. Hurricane Irene gave me a full Sunday with nothing to do so I thought I would finally try two of the things I saw on there. I would say that both of them were failures but it was a nice change to sit still and give my full attention to something.

These paint chip coasters were a no brainer to try because I already owned all the supplies. Regular wall tiles, some glaze and some free paint samples. All you have to do is decoupage them onto each other. I don't even have a final pictures of them. This is them waiting for the glaze to dry but you get the picture. They weren't so bad but the brush marks were very very obvious on them. I'll either use them underneath plants or give them to Grace because she loves them.
I can't find the link for these pictures but there is a shop on Etsy that sells them. I looked at them and thought they didn't look too hard to make. They are unless you have some sort of laser plumb level so you can get all the lines and spaces straight. This is not my strong point. I still like the idea of them though so I might try again after I have more time to think about how to arrange them. Grace also wants this for her room. I can always count on her to like all my stuff instead of thinking they're failures.

The Boy Who Lived

2011-08-25T21:07:00.010-04:00

Does he look like Harry Potter to you? I think he desperately wants to but he won't admit it. Declan has joined his parents in needing glasses. We suspected it for the past few months but he was very adamant that he could see just fine. We knew better but were sort of in denial about it. Once he failed his eye exam at the pediatricians then we had to face facts. I got my glasses in the 3rd grade too so I should have known. Grace was actually jealous that he got them and we had to make her an eye appointment too. She cried when she found out she didn't need them! I liked a pair that had a rounder frame but he liked these. I don't like how old they make him look. We need to grow the hair in shaggier to make him look younger. He is being very careful with them so far and loves to polish them. I'm glad he has such a good attitude about having them. I think he is surprised at what he has been missing.

If You Give A Boy A Camera

2011-08-21T20:39:00.011-04:00

Grace was spending her days at Art Camp last week leaving Tim and Declan alone to do their boy things. Tim decided to take Declan downtown with our cameras to get Declans perspective on Portland.

Here is Dad taking his pictures. He has the much bigger and nicer camera. I have no idea how to even turn it on.

Houseboats on a wharf off Commercial St. These are real houseboats, not like Sleepless In Seattle houseboats. I don't think Tom Hanks is on any of them.
I don't know what The Purple Caterpillar is but I'm picturing a 1960's club where people are dancing the Frug while the Monkees perform. It's probably just a regular old store though.
Cobblestone streets. Nice idea in theory but bumpy as hell in real life. Plus the dangerous wavy guillotine style public art in the grassy square has cost the city thousands but was just sold for $1. This is my favorite one. It looks like a regular parking meter but if you look closely, it has googly eyes. Someone crafted onto a parking meter!

The Great And Powerful Oz

2011-08-15T15:28:00.010-04:00

Another brush with greatness at work. I can now say I have less than 1 degree of separation from Oprah Winfrey. The great and powerful Dr. Oz came to visit us because we are gong to start airing his show in September. He will actually take over Oprah's old slot. He held court in our front lobby. The promotions department laid out a table of fruits and vegetables and cookies? I noticed everyone ate the veggies while he was there and ate the cookies after he left.

He was as adorable, enthusiastic and intelligent as he seems on TV. He didn't make us look at trays of gross body parts so that was a plus. His wife is from Maine and he's up here all the time so he is sort of one of us. I don't get a lot of perks at my job but they were passing out free books so I took one.
Then the line formed to have him autograph it. He has that professional signature down pat. I can make out the Kate and the Enjoy but I'm not seeing the Oz. Then came the inevitable...
Posing for the picture with Dr. Oz. I couldn't refuse. I do not have the smiling gene and this picture with a celeb was my worst one yet. Dr. Oz looks good though and that's the top of my head.

My Store Is Closing

2011-07-30T15:48:00.022-04:00

" People are always saying that change is a good thing. But all they're really saying is that something you didn't want to happen at all.... has happened. My store is closing this week. I own a store, did I ever tell you that? It's a lovely store, and in a week it'll be something really depressing, like a Baby Gap. Soon, it'll be just a memory. In fact, someone, some foolish person, will probably think it's a tribute to this city, the way it keeps changing on you, the way you can never count on it, or something. I know because that's the sort of thing I'm always saying. But the truth is.... I'm heartbroken. I feel as if a part of me has died, and my mother has died all over again, and no one can ever make it right."

Kathleen Kelly-You've Got Mail

Yes, I know. You've Got Mail is about the small bookstore driven out the the big bad box store but I've had the exact opposite experience. During and after college, I worked for a small Maine owned book store chain and to tell the blunt truth-they were a**holes. I don't have many good memories of my time there. I was actually driven to quit one day out of the blue with no other backup plan in sight. Somehow that's okay when you're 22. I took off for a 2 week trip to England and then came home unemployed and had to figure that out. Out of the blue, it was announced that a Border Books was opening their first Maine store. Myself and some other Bookland refugees, went to their job fair and we were all hired on the spot. For some reason, the general manager zeroed in on me and offered my the job of Special Orders Clerk. I would get to work at my own desk in the back office and I really wouldn't have to deal with the customers. Score for me! Have you ever watched Clerks? It's very true to life. This was before Amazon and EBay and people still ordered books they couldn't find on our shelves. I started working right away while the store was still being built around us. They sent me away on my first and only business trip to beautiful Pittsburgh! I went through training there for a week and came back to finish helping setting up the store. We opened to huge crowds and I enjoyed my job there for 2 years. I only quit because Tim and I got married and were moving.

Fast forward 14 years and now Borders is going out of business mostly due to their bad business choices. I thought I was ready to go in to the store for the liquidation sale. We had been reporting the story at work and I had even called the store a few times about the story. Declan was dying to go to the sale. I think he thought all the Lego sets were going to be a dollar which was far from the reality. We got out of the car and I was crying by the time we made it to the sidewalk.
Borders remains my favorite job. I loved the people and the job. I loved all the free books and the $200 free credit account they gave all the employees. I loved the cafe and my free Cherry Cokes in the largest glass I could find. I loved my newspapers from around the world. I loved all the stuffed animals in the children's department. I loved the Lindt chocolates at the register that I would sneak off with. I loved to volunteer at the free gift wrapping table at Christmas. I loved hiding at my desk.

The death of books scares me but I'm as much a part of the problem as anyone. I mostly buy books off Amazon or get them at the library. Even when I went into the sale, I mostly used my phone to take pictures of the books I wanted and then I looked them up at the library. I will say one thing I am very firm on. I will never own a Kindle or whatever else they come up with. I don't care if it means getting books at an antique store.

If You Give A Girl A Camera

2011-07-23T16:29:00.018-04:00

Declan spent his days last week at Boy Scout Camp which left Grace and Tim to find new ways to pass the day. He took her downtown to walk around and she took my camera along with her. She came back with 58 pictures. As I was downloading them, I realized they reminded me of something. My high school photography class took a field trip to Portland and we just wandered around downtown too. The pictures were very similar in tone. I won't subject you to all 58 of them but here are some I liked.

Free newspaper with scary Governor on it.
A Middle St. landmark-a store that actually sells music and books and is managing to stay in business.
Very elegant garbage can. I wonder how much of my tax money this took?
Many shots of bicycles. I like the convertible Mini and the sign in the back about Tiger Blood.
Perfectly framed Doritos delivery truck.
Post Office Park-Can you guess where it got its name.
An actual pay phone. I always point these out to the kids. I should make them use one. Declan knows enough to always check them for change.
Police car with a Dunkin Donuts in the background. Tired old joke but I thought it was funny because Grace doesn't know it.
Monument Square Farmers Market-I love this old truck. I think we used to have a truck like this.
The Lobsterman statue. Tourists love to take pictures of this guy.
Grace's pictures also reminded me of this Facebook page. When it was published last year, we wasted a whole day at work looking at it. Or at least, I did. I'm going to send Grace out with my camera more often and hopefully I can go along with them.

Alexander Graham Bell 2011 Style

2011-07-21T21:25:00.011-04:00

See this very dark picture? Wow, that is too dark isn't it? Anyway, I'm announcing that my family has come kicking and screaming into the 21st century. Tim got me at a weak moment and we are now IPhone users. I've gone from a Tracfone to an IPhone which is like going from a Pinto to a Porsche. We are also going to cut off our land line which makes me slightly nervous. The fact is, I've had this phone for a week and I haven't been without it once. Grace has used up most of my Internet time for the month so I haven't really explored that part of it yet. I have mostly been texting and checking the weather. Is it geeky that as soon as I got it, I couldn't wait to get on Etsy and buy a case for it? I totally bought this one! Tim has never had a cell before and it is so nice to be able to contact him whenever I want. I'm not sure how he feels about that. I'm getting a little addicted to the texting. With our opposite schedules, I haven't talked this much to my husband in years.

Going To Clam Fest

2011-07-16T19:51:00.018-04:00

The kids and I made our first trip to the Yarmouth Clam Festival this year. It's one of those things I mean to go to every year but then the thought of the traffic and all the people keeps me home. I got braver this year.
The whole point of the festival is to celebrate clams I guess but I had no interest in buying seafood on a 90 degree day. I meant to buy myself from fried dough but I forgot. Now I'll have to go to the Topsham Fair to get that. We headed immediately for the midway. $20 in tickets bought the kids two rides each. Such a bargain! Who says the carnies rip off people? I used to love this swinging chair ride when I was little and it seemed safer to me then the gigantic Ferris Wheel. I got them both on it and would have gone myself if the chairs weren't kiddie sized.

The Tilt-A-Whirl had me concerned. The kids would flash past me and they would be laughing and on the next pass, they would look like they were going to puke. I was glad I waited to feed them lunch until after the rides.

This was a first for me and the kids. There was a Titanic slide there. It even had different sections for First, Second and Third Class passengers to slide down. Declan was fascinated by it but didn't want to go on it for some reason. I wanted to go on it. I guess there's always next year.

Don't Leave Your Camera Hanging Around

2011-07-15T22:14:00.011-04:00

I hadn't downloaded my camera in over a week. I emptied it today but there were all sorts of pictures on it that I didn't take. It seems that Declan helped himself to my camera and left me some pictures to enjoy.

He loves to take pictures of himself. He gets this from his father. He starts out okay in this one..

...then the silliness starts to take over...
...and then it hits its peak.

He also took one of what our summer is looking like around here. There is Grace on the other couch playing video games. You can also see how everything from the porch project is piled into the dining room. I purposly put it all in there so it would drive me crazy and I would get the floor done. Right now, we just look like a Hoarders house.

Birthday Tween

2011-07-11T23:24:00.015-04:00

I forbid her from doing it but Grace went ahead and turned 11 years old. I officially have a Tween living in my house and don't we know it.
She had such a good time at her brothers birthday party at the USM Planetarium that we went there again for her party. As you can see, she was very excited about it.

Lately, she has been working on developing a "glare". She will let us take her picture as she practices it. She's smiling a little in this one. Usually, it's much more of a stern glare. As you can see behind her on the table, the theme to her party was space and puppies.

It's a 2 hour party and 1 hour of it is spent learning about the stars and watching a film. I love this part because it's dark in there and I can take a little nap.
I went with the store bought cake for the party. I made cupcakes for her actual birthday at home. She thinks a store bought cake is very fancy so I'm going with that.

One problem for her was her brother was the only boy there and he was bouncing off the walls because of it. He was a little over involved in opening her presents.

My favorite present? Someone gave her a headband which she put on immediately. We saw her face for the first time in 2 years. We can't let her know that we like it or she will never wear it again. So, now that she's 11, she officially forbidden from turning 12. I think I said the same thing last year though.

Extreme Porch Makeover

2011-07-08T18:48:00.016-04:00

It seems like every year we tackle in a room in this old house. Now we have been here so long, we are revisiting rooms we already did. This year, I had to do something about the front porch. We originally did it back when Declan was a baby so it's time. It might have something to do with my obsession with this website- Young House Love.

Now, I know it looks rough in these pictures. You have to realize that when we moved in, this porch had green AstroTurf on the floor and I think the walls were pink. I know some people like the worn floor paint look but I'm not one of them. Frankly, the whole porch needs to be ripped off the house and rebuilt. Since that won't be happening, I just need to attack it with paint and organization. And new curtains.
The wooden floor was beyond saving at the time so I painted it this cream and blue. I had big plans to paint it in squares or diamonds like Martha would but then I realized the amount of work and taping that would take and so I went with the big rectangle in the middle. I'm just going to repaint it with the same pattern and colors because I still have a lot of the very expensive porch paint in the basement. Our wheelchair also ended up out here because we ran out of room for it in the house. I'm going to replace it with our old futon so I'll have to figure out where it's going to end up next. The floor isn't exactly level so the wheelchair moves around on its own a lot.

I also need to see about replacing this light fixture. It's just a paper lantern I got at Pier One. I was never in love with it but the fixture is weird and we can't put up a regular one. This was the best option for disguising it. I think I'm going to look for a round white one. I also don't love the curtains. The curtains themselves aren't so bad but the color is. I want something more neutral. Frankly, I want Roman shades but for some reason, they are way too expensive. I'm thinking about dyeing them if I can't find ones I like.

The shoes also need to be brought under control. Another shoe rack is in order. Plus, I need to do something to that little table and maybe paint the front door. Have I mentioned that painting is not my favorite thing? The floor is the major project so once that's done, the rest should come together much easier.

4th Of The July On The Off Ramp

2011-07-07T22:23:00.014-04:00

Our Fourth of July plans always are to go to Rangeley for the fireworks. The Rangeley fireworks are really the only ones I ever remember. I've been going to them since birth. My fathers hospital stay understandably changed our plans for the 4th. We decided to go to the Portland fireworks. I did go to them once when I first moved to Portland and I made a vow to never go back. Too many people and too much walking through not great neighborhoods. We might have skipped the whole holiday but Declan was too excited about them to disappoint him.

About 50,ooo people cram onto Munjoy Hill where they can sit right underneath them. I couldn't see dragging 2 kids up the Hill especially since Grace wanted nothing to do with them. There is an area called Martins Point where you can go and still get a pretty good view. It sounded like the best option so off we went. It was crowded too and that is why we ended up spending our Fourth on the Off Ramp. We were actually sitting on the small strip of grass that is the 295 Falmouth off ramp. This was not the fireworks I expected.

Declan didn't care but we did have to keep him from running off into the middle of Route 1. Sparklers kept him busy. See the approaching cars in the background? I kept waiting for one of them to hit us.
Grace declared that she was scared of fireworks and spent most of her time under her blanket. I did see her peeking out during them and smiling but I didn't let her know I saw.

Tim could tell I was unhappy but there really wasn't anything we could do about it. The drunk teenagers right next to us just made the evening better. I found myself hoping that one of them would get hit by a car so they would leave.

I did discover that my camera had a fireworks setting. This is the best I got so I was obviously doing something wrong. We ended up leaving before they were done so we could avoid the traffic and Tim could get to work on time. I know I'm coming off as whiny but I think I'm only supposed to go to the Rangeley fireworks so were going next year no matter what.

Where Have I Been?

2011-07-06T10:17:00.006-04:00

I was doing so good keeping up with posts on here but life got in the way again. My 82 year old father went out for a walk alone and without the cane that he is supposed to have but refuses to use. I guess only old people use canes. Anyway, he is shakier than he used to be and while he was out, he fell over backwards and hit his head. You might remember that he did the exact same thing 2 years ago only it was winter and he hit his head on solid ice. This time, he did less damage but he was taken on a 100 mile ambulance ride down to Maine Medical Center so they could check him out. Turns out, he needed surgery again to drain the accumulated blood. My mother has been down here the whole time too. She got a hotel room and has spent every day with him in his room. I hate and feel guilty that we don't have a room at my house for her. So now, he will be going to a nursing home closer to home for a month or so of rehab work to help him recover and get steadier on his feet. Like I said, we'll all been through this before but it is still scary.

A Must Read For Girls Of The 1970's

2011-06-26T14:33:00.009-04:00

(Please ignore my poor photo. It's too late at night to take a nicer one with no glare from the flash.)

I urge anyone who grew up reading the Little House on the Prairie series or even watched the almost totally unrelated 1070's TV show, to run out and buy this book-The Wilder Life. On a side note, please actually run out to a bookstore and buy a copy. Don't download it onto one of those awful Kindles.

The author goes on a journey to trace Laura Ingalls Wilder's life. I'm actually only a few chapters in but I can't put it down. The book is making me jealous because she is doing things I want to do and going places I've always wanted to go. As a side geek note-notice my bookmark an official Laura Ingalls Wilder bookmark. I dug around for it especially to use in this book. My parents were in upstate New York a few years ago and my mother realized they were very close to Almanzo's Farmer Boy farm which is now a museum. They stopped there for me and bought me a few souvenirs back including this bookmark. Now, if you'll excuse me, I have to go figure out how to make Vanity Cakes.

The Sleeper

2011-06-25T23:27:00.008-04:00

Every night, I tuck him in with his head on the pillow and that's how he falls asleep. Every night, when I go to check on him, he's moved-sideways. It's been like this for months now. His feet hang off the bed and it looks very uncomfortable. I'll move him back to the pillow and when I come back to check on him again, he's back sideways. Is he trying to tell me we should move his bed against the wall?

Lego Organizing

2011-06-24T21:56:00.007-04:00

Declan has an out of control Lego collection. I won't place blame on my husband but he does love to buy him huge kits. They works for hours putting them together and then Declan takes them apart and all the pieces go in several different boxes. It was starting to take over a section of his room and then Tim had a brainstorm. Declan already has these canvas cubby organizers but they are full of tiny little toys he never plays with. He's also easy to talk into donating toys to Goodwill. We had a few rainy days this week so the boys got to work cleaning things out and making room for Legos. Yes, I know Declan is wearing holey pants and I know he has girly wallpaper and no floor molding. It's been on our list to do and we will get around to it once they move out. The pants I will fix in August when I buy him new school clothes.

They consolidated everything into a big tote and now it needs to be organized. Declan has long dreamed of sorting them by color so that's what he's doing. Every color will get their own cubby box. We had to go out and buy a few more and we still will probably have to get a few more.

This is the pile of mini-figures. I guess they will get their own separate box too. I am tired of stepping on them. They're sort of creepy. He has a lot of work to do but he is being smart about it. He has "hired" his sister to help and she is getting paid in old toys he doesn't want anymore.

Crazy Coupon Lady

2011-06-23T22:00:00.008-04:00

Declan has taken to calling me the crazy coupon lady and I'm starting to earn the title. I'm not one of those extreme couponers with a years worth of toilet paper in their basement. It's a nice idea but I do not have the room or the energy to do that. I live in Maine and New Englanders are known as thrifty. That's a nice way of saying we are cheap and we are proud of it. In Maine, if someone admired what you were wearing, you wouldn't just say thank you. You would blurt out excitedly how cheap you got it at Mardens. I have discovered online coupons and it's fun and addictive. I went to the store tonight and saved over $40 and I save almost that much last week. It probably adds up to around $100 saved every month which won't let us move to Beverly Hills anytime soon but it counts for something. I'm still very much a beginner but here are some good sites.

http://ilovetogossip.com/

http://www.coupons.com/Couponweb/Offers.aspx?pid=14505&zid=py13&nid=10

http://thekrazycouponlady.com/

Target also has some great coupons right on their site. You do have to download some coupon program to print out coupons but it just takes a few minutes. There are all sorts of tricks for combining coupons that I haven't quite figured out yet but I'm working on it.

Where Is My Little Boy?

2011-06-22T18:00:00.012-04:00

When I left the house this morning, Declan looked like this. Only he had a shirt on and he didn't have a band-aid on his shoulder. We decided to try to save $20 and give Declan his first buzz cut by ourselves. Or rather, Tim was going to do it. Declan has always had long shaggy hair and that's the way I liked it. He didn't seem to care one way or another so we decided to see what happened.

Here he is now. Do you like it? He's much happier with it than he is letting on in these pictures. He's mostly embarrassed that we keep looking at him and talking about it. He did not want me to take his picture because of it. This was the best I got.
Tim took his picture earlier though so here he is. It's a little uneven but we as a family are a little uneven so it's fine. We're just going to let it grow in and get a trim before school. I think he looks cute but the first thing that struck me was how much older he looked now. I looked at him and he looked like he was about to go off to boot camp. He didn't look like a little boy anymore. He's going to have to grow it back out for his mother's sanity.

We Left The City

2011-06-21T20:21:00.022-04:00

How many of these posts have I done about going to Rangeley? Well, here's another one. We haven't been up to see my parents since last fall. It's only 3 hours away but it's a very long ride in the winter. The kids and I finally made it up there last weekend.

Nothing much has changed since we left it. Still a big lake and some mountains. Also, no Internet, strip malls, stop lights, bookstores, people etc. You get the picture. I still can't figure out a way to live there full time and still have a paying job.

The camp in the birches. At least now it has cable and a phone which is more than it had when I came here every weekend growing up. I sort of miss the TV with rabbit ears that only got PBS and some Canadian shows in French. Dallas reruns in French were awesome.

First dip of the year in the lake. They got braver later and put on suits and went up to their waists. Then their lips turned blue and I made them get out.
I even put my cankles into the water. So cold it took my breath away but then my feet went numb and it was fine.

Plenty of rock throwing. I hope he didn't hit any fish. He definitely almost hit a few ducks.

The lupine were out early and I take their pictures in a lupine field every year. One day, I'll print them out and frame them. This year, I had to bribe one of them with ice cream to get them to do it.

It wasn't this one....

.....it was this one. I didn't mind because what she didn't know is we were going to get ice cream anyway plus I only got them kiddie sizes.

After that, it was time to go home. I took my stolen lupines and we headed back to civilization. We'll be back in a couple of weeks for the 4th so expect another Rangeley entry soon. I can tell you right now it will include pictures of the lake.

The Graduate

2011-06-20T18:24:00.016-04:00

Grace officially graduated from the 5th grade last week and is no longer an elementary schooler. I am now the mother of a middle schooler-not sure how that happened because I'm pretty sure we just brought her home from the hospital.

I won't bore you with details on the ceremony but she did great. She never made it through any ceremonies in preschool so this was a big improvement. That's her in the middle. We had to buy a new dress. A lot of the girls wore really high heels and that really freaked me out. Grace was in flip-flops.
I was mostly struck by how similar we are in situations where there are a lot of cameras. Neither one of us have the smiling gene. The sight of a camera just brings out an automatic frown on both of us. Here she has spotted us taking pictures of her and you can see how happy she is about it.

Another shot of her noticing us taking her picture. We lie to her a lot and tell her we are just taking pictures of the things around her.
Ceremony got a little long and it was hot in the gym. I think this picture captures that exactly. We didn't get a picture of the huge yawn and stretch she did though.
Something strange happened afterwards though. She was suddenly all smiles with her friends and wanted her picture taken. We take it when we can so here she is with Hailey-her friend since kindergarten.
And here she is with Emily. She has a very pretty smile but we are not allowed to mention that.

Wet Weekend

2011-06-12T15:47:00.018-04:00

This is my blog right? It's been so long since I've been here that it's hard to remember . I blame the laptop. It couldn't possibly be my fault. The laptop has decided to only occasionally turn on but it works perfectly for the nice people at the Apple store. They said they can't find a problem but they will take it apart for $300 if we wanted. So we took it home and it won't turn on for us. I have a hard time dealing with the big old desk computer so my computer time has been cut in half. So those are all my excuses.

Tim had a lot of time off this week so we did all sorts of stuff like normal families that don't work vampire hours. The Portland Jetport had a free air show so off we went even though it was starting to rain.

These crazy people were playing tug of war with a 747 raising money for some charity. Just the sight of the planes made me slightly anxious. I went on board some WW2 plane and I had to get off it as fast as possible. Have I ever mentioned that I haven't flown since 1997?
Of course, everyone wants to take pictures of their kids in front of the planes. It works with just one kid...
This is what happens when you try to do two kids at once. I think this will be our Christmas card this year.
Grace behind the controls of a Blackhawk helicopter. I told her she was never to fly one of these over Somalia. She was freezing-can you tell?
Look-someone painted my picture on the side of their plane!
The other big plans for the weekend were the Boy Scouts and Girl Scouts sleepovers. On the same night-with Tim going too-leaving the house empty for me for a whole night. It is an understatement to say I had been looking forward to this. I love my family but I haven't been really alone in this house since the kids were born. There is always someone here-whether they are asleep or not-who needs something from me. I was going to have one night where I wouldn't have to do anything for anyone. Of course it rained like hell and the boys had to come home. Declan was very disappointed of course and I knew just how he felt. Tim set up the tent in our playroom and he spent the night in there instead. I took some sleeping drugs and went off to bed early to cry a little. And that was my weekend.

Space Day Birthday Boy

2011-05-15T21:02:00.010-04:00

We have always had the kids birthday parties at home but this year, for the first time, we had it someplace else...

We reserved the Southworth Planetarium at USM for Declan's 8th birthday party. They provide the tables and you just have to bring the cake and plates. The walls are already decorated too. The 2 hour party included a 1 hour show inside the planetarium. I will confess to falling asleep during it.
This weight machine told you your weight on different planets. The kids couldn't get enough of it but I stayed far away from it.
I figured if we weren't having the party at home then I shouldn't make the cake either. The store bought cake turned out to be pretty good and one less thing I had to worry about. His actual birthday is this Tuesday so I'll make him a cake for that.
We opened presents after cake and almost everything was Lego. It makes him happy. Soon, he will have enough of them to build us a bigger house.
In the end, they all had a good time and Declan was very happy which is all that matters. I was very happy because I got to leave the mess behind and come home to a clean house. He wants to have his party there again next year but I told him I forbid him to get any older.

The Addiction Rages On

2011-05-14T23:15:00.009-04:00

The wedding magazines have hit the stands and I have found myself buying them. I've managed to hold off on the cheesiest of them. Of course, that is all relative depending on how you view the royal family.

My friend Chelsea at work is lucky enough to have English parents and they understood the importance of being there in the crowd for the wedding. They took Chelsea along with them and she brought me back some souvenirs. I now own a William and Kate shopping bag, tea towel and one of the flags the crowd waved. I don't know what to do with them but I am very glad to have them.

The Courtship Of Declan's Mom

2011-05-07T22:57:00.016-04:00

Today, Tim and Grace left for an overnight Girl Scouts trip to Boston. This left Declan and I all alone. This never happens and I turned into a divorced parent trying to cram in as many activities as possible into their custody weekend. You could practically hear Harry Nilsson singing in the background.

We got Free Comic Book Day and the weekly library visit out of the way early. We then drove up the Gray Animal Farm. We got there just in time for the thunderstorm. Now I know they had said there would be rain this afternoon but somehow I just thought that didn't apply to me. I had spent the gas money to drive 20 miles from home and we were going to go inside. I just decided to wait out the rain.
Declan was not happy with me because he thought we were going to float away.
The rain finally let up and so we finally went in to see some lions and tigers and bears. Okay, they don't have lions or tigers but they do have bears. And moose.

This raccoon did not seem to like the weather either. It did seem to like to pee judging by the smell of his cage.
We spotted a Canadian Goose. You can also spot that Declan wasn't happy and wanted to get through the park before we were struck by lightning.
He perked up at the bear cage. He yelled at them to do circus tricks but they just kept staring at him.
Here is a gang of bully wild turkeys trying to intimidate the peacocks. Declan was more interested in looking for Harry Potter's owl.
I think every kid in Maine has taken a picture at this bear cutout. Declan did his best to cooperate. It's a good picture of his eye. After this we got ice cream. I discovered they make an Andes Candies mint ice cream bar. How did I not know these existed? Then it started to pour so we finally left.
After that, we came back to to civilization and we went shopping for some summer clothes and new sandals. We ended our day with a high class dinner at Denny's. Hey-kids eat free on Saturdays. Declan spent some time reading the paper while we waited for our bacon and french toast. Then we went home and Declan got to watch a movie in his room. Now I have to come up with something else for tomorrow before we have to pick up Tim and Grace at the train station.

Nutty

2011-05-06T22:38:00.010-04:00

This is Nutty the baby squirrel. Friday night, she or he, was found barely moving in the road by Grace. I'm going with her being a she. We think she fell out of a tree and smashed into the tar. She was barely moving when we found her and we thought she was all broken. Turns out-she just stunned herself. I guess baby squirrels are bouncy. A little time to herself inside Tim's shoe inside a box and she was ready to go.
Trouble is, she had become very attached to us. I Googled her after she tried to nurse on Tim's leg and it said the best thing to do for her is put her back where we found her. That way, hopefully, her mother could find her. We tried at first to just leave her on the lawn but she would just come running over to us whenever we went outside to check her. Tim finally had to take her over to the tree and she scooted back up it. It got dark after that and we haven't seen her again. I don't know what became of her but I just keep telling myself she's curled up back in her mothers nest.

My Secret Addiction

2011-05-01T13:55:00.018-04:00

Whenever I see people that collect Elvis memorabilia or china dolls off QVC, I think to myself that they are nutters. Who in the world would want all that junk in their house? Then, I have to admit to myself that I have my own secret collection. I don't like to talk about it too much or I'll be looked at like those doll women. But, here goes-I am obsessed with the British Royal Family and I have been for about 30 years.

From far away, these just look like normal bookcases. If you get up close you will see that there are approximately 40 books on Princess Diana and or the Royal Family. After her death, I discovered EBay and it was flooded with books and I bought them all.
There are more books on top of the bookcase because they are just too tall. My favorite one is the one on top-Princess by Robert Lacey. I used to check this one out of the library over and over when I was little.
Once, on EBay, someone was selling their 1980's Diana People collection. Of course I bought all of them. Except they didn't have the wedding issue which I still need.
There's jewelry too. A silver heart pin belongs to that cardboard backing but I can't find it at the moment. I know I put it someplace though because I come across it every once in a while. I just can't remember where that is right now. I also have a Diana scrabble tile necklace. I never wear it but I just like having it.
Here's where things get sort of creepy but I know it at least. I have the BBC recordings of her funeral and I sometimes like to listen to it in the car. I know it is strange but I love to hear her brothers eulogy where he tells the Queen to stuff it.
My friend Heather understands this obsession because she shares it. We agreed it was a crime that she lives all the way in Idaho and we couldn't watch Williams wedding together-Facebook had to do for us that morning. She heard there that TJ Maxx had a stash of William and Kate stuff but mine didn't. I did manage to score these little tea tins and some shortbread cookies.

So there you have it-My name is Kate and I'm a Royal Family addict. I like the way I handle it though. Other than the books, nothing is out on display. It's not like I have giant posters on my walls or I walk around the house wearing a tiara. Now, excuse me while I go off to find the ingredients to make Prince Williams cookie groom cake. Here, watch this-because God knows I can't stop watching it.

Wedding Preps

2011-04-28T19:43:00.009-04:00

One trip to the British Store in Freeport and I am all set for my Royal Wedding viewing. I could have bought a lot more there but I didn't want to go into debt. The wedding souvenirs were priced off the charts. I've just resigned myself to staying up all night. I'm scared if I fall asleep then I will miss the whole thing. I took tomorrow off from work so I can watch this in peace. I got a lot of crap for that from my male co-workers. These are the same people that paint their faces red, white and blue when the Patriots play and I pointed this out endlessly but they don't see the correlation. Anyway, it will be so nice to have a little bit of Diana back through this wedding.

This Is Not Rangeley

2011-04-16T21:52:00.018-04:00

Today, we were supposed to head off to Rangeley for the weekend to visit my parents. I was really looking forward to some new scenery after this long winter. Unfortunately, my father wasn't feeling well so we postponed it. I figured if we couldn't get to the lake then we would go to the ocean. It was a better plan in theory because there was a storm a brewing.

Any beach visit in Maine in April involves wearing your winter coat. Your winter gloves too. I still like it better now than in July though. The kids are another story. They made me promise to bring them back in the summer. I don't own beach clothes so I'm hoping they forget about it.
I managed to think ahead and wore my Wellies and I was able to wade out a bit so I'm counting this as swimming. I love my plaid Wellies. Then I collected a bunch of beach rocks as usual. I even scored some sea glass. The gale blowing made it hard to see what I was doing.
If we were all this cold, I can't even imagine what the lobster men, on these boats that you can barely see, were feeling like. I guess they have survival suits for a reason.
Declan had to get some rock throwing out of his system so he came down to the water with me. Grace hung out at the top of the beach waiting for us to be ready to leave.
Of course, when you are thoroughly chilled through to the bone, you'll want to go get ice cream. They indulged me for the trip to the beach so I figured I would indulge them with some Arctic Blasts. Plus, it meant I could get a Peanut Buster Parfait. I decided the hot fudge would warm me up.

Dryer Balls!

2011-04-12T22:41:00.014-04:00

Hi, remember me? I've been ignoring this place for weeks but I'm back now with some very exciting info about dryer balls! Sounds dirty doesn't it? Actually, they're just replacements for your dryer sheets.

I've been seeing dryer balls on Etsy and they appealed to my cheap little heart. I wasn't willing to pay the $20 they wanted for them so I made them myself. A lot of the sites I looked up were really crunchy-granola and basically blamed dryer sheets for the downfall of civilization. I have a much nicer view of them but I saw it as a way to save money. I already make my own laundry detergent so why not go all the way?
I decided to just make light colored ones because I didn't think it would be a good idea to have bright red yarn going into a load of whites. I bought 2 things of wool yarn-you have to make sure it's not machine washable because they need to felt in the dryer.
I made four and my hands really hurt afterwards. Maybe it would have been easier to just buy the wool that already comes in balls? A lesson for next time.
Once the balls are made, then you need to wash them in really hot water and then dry them to make them felt. I wrapped them up in old pantyhose and tossed them in the wash.
They don't look much different now except they aren't going to fall apart now. I have to confess that I haven't actually tried them yet because I've done all the laundry this week. That's okay though because I still need to find a cute little bowl to put on the dryer for them.

Snap!

2011-03-26T17:36:00.017-04:00

I've become obsessed with those old snap closure coin purses that no one seems to have anymore. Nowadays, most purses are the size of small cars and no one carries cash. I find myself searching through the old vintage ones posted on Etsy but I always hold off on buying them. I always worry they will smell. I bought these instead...

I bought this one from LL Bean first. I was shocked to see them displayed in the store right next to their tote bags. This color and design were not my first choice but it's what was left. When I got it, the kids were confused about how to open it. It took them some practice.
Then, I saw this one on Esty and I had to have it. I bought it for myself on my birthday. It's so cute and retro and I love it.
The other side is just as cute. I don't know which side I like more.
Even the lining is cute. I probably won't use it very much because I don't want it to get messed up. Actually, what I want is a bolt of the fabric and the talent to make other things out of it.

First Day Of Spring In Maine

2011-03-21T22:19:00.010-04:00

Today is the first full day of Spring in Maine. We celebrated with 3-4 inches of new snow. No one gave this message to the flowers.
I planted bulbs last fall that I forgot about. Yesterday I dug them out of the dead leaves that were smothering them. I think that explains the yellow color of a couple of them. The snow isn't going to help. I wish I could remember what I planted. I guess I'll find out soon. As long as we don't have an ice storm.
Someone was happy though. She had a bad day. I took her for a bath and then she was without her bed while I washed the stink and hair off that too. The snow was the thing that cheered her up. She smelled like wet dog all day long. She's still cute though. We hope to see green grass or any grass for that matter by April.

My 29th Birthday

2011-03-20T20:13:00.013-04:00

My birthday was a week ago but I'm just getting around to writing about it. I don't know how the days pass so quickly. It was a good day but it was the day I discovered my phones camera is not up to par.

Tim told me we were getting a babysitter and going out to dinner but he wouldn't tell me anything else. He actually did mention bringing my camera along but I thought he was kidding. He wasn't. He was taking us out to Peaks Island on the ferry and I was kicking myself for not bringing it.
He had made reservations at the Inn on Peaks Island and I had taken off my Uggs for the first time this winter and put on heels so it was a big night for us.
Turns out, the reservation wasn't necessary because we were the only ones in the place. I guess the island isn't as busy in March as it is in July. It was the first day of Daylight Savings Time so we sat by the window and enjoyed the sun.
I enjoyed this Long Island Ice Tea too. I should have enjoyed a few more but I am a real lightweight in my old age. I had shrimp and Tim had steak and we both had Irish creme cheesecake for desert.
It was weird to be out after dark so far away from the kids. The ferry ride back was a little colder than on the way over but no less cool. Tim and I decided we could easily live on an island. We're going to bring the kids back over for dinner before the tourists hit in full force.

The Wearing Of The Green

2011-03-14T19:12:00.019-04:00

***All photos of the parade courtesy of Declan Patrick Charles McMahon-age 7.

Declan and I made our annual trip to the Portland St. Patrick's Day Parade. He and I are the only ones usually interested in going so it's become our thing. They held it on Sunday since the actual day isn't until Thursday and it's hard to get people out for a parade on a Thursday. Well, Declan and I would have shown up at least.

There was a bit of a wait while the parade made it to our end of Commercial St. I gave Declan the camera to keep him occupied and he did such a good job that I let him take most of the pictures.
Here are the Portland firefighters. I told him it was important to take their pictures because of our family history of Irish firefighters. Maybe I should have been a firefighter? I did like to set fires when I was little. Luckily, the firefighters living in my house knew how to put them out quickly.
The first bagpipers. I love a good bagpipe.... and I love the outfits.
The second bagpipe band. It was really cold out so I hope the men were wearing something under their kilts.
The Portland Hurling team. I know nothing about it except its sort of like lacrosse or Quidditch. It mostly looks like an excuse to beat the hell out of each other and then go to the pub. I'll still look into it for Declan.
All good parades end with a fire truck... with a cute firefighter waving to us.
Roscommon is the county in Ireland that most of my family came from. This street sign was in the window of an Irish bar but I need to get one for myself. I found one on Ebay but it was $50. I think I'll just go to Ireland myself and steal one.
It was a short parade but we liked it. Declan and I even went to the ceremony afterwards on the Maine State Pier where we watched the Riverdancers and heard some Irish accents. Declan didn't want to go get a Guinness so we packed it up and went home.

Bookmark Sale

2011-03-07T22:50:00.009-05:00

If anyone is in need of some bookmarks, then Declan's Bookmark Shop is having a sale all this week. He rearranged his room this weekend and set up this shop space in the corner.

Please ignore the flowery wallpaper-it went up went Grace was born and this was her room. Declan hasn't complained about it yet and I'm not doing anything about it until he does.
This is his bookmark counter. They are all different prices and Declan keeps all that info to himself. He did have a special pile that was only 1 cent apiece (if you knew to ask about it).
In the end, I got these six bookmarks for only 10 cents. They have an Easter theme.
So, like I said, the sale goes on all week so just let me know if anyone wants any. Declan is waiting patiently behind his counter. This kid is going to be a millionaire by age 25 (I hope).

Waiting For Lilacs

2011-03-05T22:37:00.008-05:00

The other day, I was at the store buying groceries and I walked past a new display of milk in glass bottles. I stopped dead because I didn't just see the milk-I saw a new vase so I put out the $3.00 for it which is a lot for milk but not for a new vase. It was blueberry milk too and really good. Who knew? I've had a Smiling Hill Farm bottle for years but this one was bigger and I could see it holding much bigger lilac bouquets.
Problem is, this is my lilac tree right now. It's hard to see but there are tiny little buds growing on the ends of those dead bare branches.
It's also trapped in about 2 feet of snow. Hopefully, this will disappear in the next 6 weeks or so. Whatever happened to the Groundhogs early spring?
I know this is still ahead of us and now I have more vases so I can bring it inside. Until then, I'll just try to remember that there are things growing under all that snow and ice.

How I Pass Time Waiting For Winter To End

2011-02-27T20:24:00.011-05:00

We are in the tail end of a long winter so I have to find ways to pass the weekend afternoons since I'm not outdoorsy. Thankfully the kids are old enough to go play outside mostly unsupervised leaving me time alone in the house. I spend a lot of time on Etsy looking for ideas to steal and the supplies I need to do them. I just started making these glass pendant necklaces...

First you need some pretty paper. These were not my first choices but I wasn't up to going out in the snow so I went with them.
I ordered these round silver trays and the domed glass inserts that fit inside. I also found I needed the corresponding circle punch. On my first attempt, I tried to trace and cut out a circle myself and ended up with more of an oval. Thanks to the AC Moore $10 coupon I earned from shopping there, I got this punch and a blackberry candle for only 61 cents.
These circles are what you want-perfectly round. I wanted something bright but I couldn't decide if I liked these or not.
Now it's just a case of doing some gluing. I learned how to do this in kindergarten. I glued the circles into the trays and let them dry a little.
Then, I glued the glass tops in place and now I have 3 new necklaces. I only like 2 of them so I'm going to have to take another trip to the store for some new paper...

It's Time

2011-02-21T22:16:00.007-05:00

It's time for Spring to come around here. I know this is Maine and it's still only February but it is still time.

See that long white twisted piece of metal on the ground next to my ugly house? It looks a little out of place doesn't it?
That's because it's our gutter and it belongs up next to the brand new roof. Right next to that unpainted ignored looking area.
See all the ice just underneath the twisted gutter? That's the ice dam that was up on my roof before it let go and took the gutter out with it. Why can't something damaging happen to my 1970's ugly mint green aluminum siding instead? Or our even uglier chain link fence? Then our insurance could pay to replace them and I would be less ashamed of our house. It's not the poor houses fault. It's the people with bad taste who lived in it in the 60's and 70's and did terrible things to her. Now we have to wait until Spring until we can fix this. So, it's time for Spring.

Time To Upgrade

2011-02-20T15:49:00.010-05:00

Somehow, I've gotten old enough that my things are becoming outdated even though it seems like I just bought them. Remember going to your grandparents house and they had the oldest craziest things in it? Or when your parents tried to figure out the microwave or VCR when they first came out? I either need to replace some things or just accept that the world is passing me by.

Not a major thing but I only own 2 wine glasses and this is one of them. I bought them at the Dollar Store in the early 90's and they look it. I drink about 1 glass of wine a year but maybe I would drink more if I liked the glasses. A trip to Target will solve this.
This has been my tea kettle for 10 years. I bought it to boil water so I could make Grace's formula. Sadly, I bought it even though the handle was broken-I think it was discounted because of it. It stayed glued for several years but has been like this for a long time. It's sort of dangerous to carry boiling hot water in a kettle with very loose handles.
This I'm not so sure what to do about. I have an actual telephone mounted on my kitchen wall with a cord on it. I pay for a land line and that is becoming as outdated as VCR's. I'm just not ready to give up on phones. Plus, if I took it down, I would have a big ugly phone jack on the wall.
Here is the biggest laugh for last. This is my cell phone. It was very advanced in 2005. I never use it because there is no one I need to talk to that badly. I never even have it turned on. I have it for emergencies. I hate it when those women have long, overly personal conversations right next to you in the store and I will never be one of them. I don't even text. I know how to text(things haven't gotten that bad for me). I just don't feel the need to. I don't even have a cell phone contract. This is a prepaid one. Every 2 months I spend $20 to keep it going.

Don't even get me started on MP3 players and downloading music. Because I don't know how to do that...

The Budding Author

2011-02-16T21:26:00.011-05:00

Declan came to me last night with his newest project. He has become obsessed with the Titanic and is learning all he can about it. Luckily for him, his mother had the same obsession and has many books for him to read.
After reading about 10 books, he decided it was time to write his own. He got a binder and filled it with paper and has started work on it. This is the cover....
...and this is the title page. No one is allowed to look at the rest of it until he is finished writing it. After that, he want to send it to a publisher to have it published. I think the ultimate goal is to make enough money off his book so that he can pay to go down on a submarine to check out the wreck. I'm not pressuring him or anything but he better make enough money to bring me along with him.

The End Of The Road

2011-02-09T19:34:00.010-05:00

It's the end of the road for our washing machine. Tomorrow, she will be carted off and replaced with a new model. I'm sort of sad about this. Tim and I were 26 and stupid when we bought this house and I was mostly excited that it came with a washer and dryer even if they were old back then. The thought of never going to the laundromat was almost too much to take in. She has done more loads of laundry than I care to add up. I think we only had to have 1 small part replaced in the 13 years we've had her.

She's had a rough couple of years. I realized a while ago, that we most likely would have to replace her soon so it seemed like a waste of money to fix the small things that broke on her. I figured out ways around them. She moves around a lot when she's going and always ends up sort of twisted to the side so I just leave her like this.
Her handle broke right off about 2 years ago. The important parts were left behind so I have been using a pair of pliers to start each load.
There is a little plastic thingy on the lid that tells her the lid is closed. I think what happened is it wore down over time and wasn't telling her the lid was closed so she wouldn't start. I solved this problem by sticking a plastic wall anchor onto the end before I shut the lid. This has fooled her for about 2 years too.
Last year, I thought the end had really come. I washed something big and it caused the inside drum to sort of disconnect with the outer frame of the machine. I didn't think she would make it past this but she still worked fine as long as I didn't try to move her. That's why she stays at an angle.
There is a little heart sticker that Grace stuck on her when she was little. She went through a phase of putting stickers on things that she liked and wanted to mark for her own.

Now, some men from Home Depot are going to bring us a new machine. Truthfully and a little scarily, I haven't seen this machine yet. I saw it in the flier but wouldn't be able to make it there with Tim before the sale ended so he went by himself. It's really just an updated version of the machine we have now. It's not my dream machine which is one of those huge bright red front loaders with the extra drawers below. I'm sure it will do just fine. Now that we'll have a new washing machine, it's about time for the dryer will start acting up.

Weekend On The Ranch

2011-02-04T22:01:00.013-05:00

Even though I'm going to the library tomorrow to pick up more books, I already have my weekend reading...

I've read most of it online but there is much more in the book....
It's the only thing to keep my mind off the fact that it is going to snow 3 more times in the next 5 days.

SnOMG!

2011-02-03T18:39:00.010-05:00

I would have updated sooner but we've been buried in snow. We lived through the big storm that wasn't. It was big as it approached us but then just sputtered out and we only got a foot. Only a foot. That tells you about our winter. It's our 5th Wednesday in a row with a storm and it's safe to say that we are all sick of it.

Except Carly. She loves it and doesn't understand that she needs to come inside when she starts shivering uncontrollably.
One good thing, all the snow is starting to hide the hated fence.
My lilac trees are in there somewhere. So is my house's foundation.
Here there appears to be some sort of ghost around the icicles hanging off the ice dams on our brand new roof. Here is also the siding that we never get around to repainting.
Carly doesn't care. There are still squirrels to be on guard for no matter how deep the snow gets.
There is no more room in the driveway to put the snow. We could end up buried to the eaves like on Little House On The Prairie. We are supposed to get 2 more storms in the next 5 days. Can't wait for that.

Girl's Crafts?

2011-01-23T16:50:00.019-05:00

Grace got the Bead Weaving Loom Set for Christmas. I think all kids, especially girls, get these sort of sets as gifts. It looks good in principle but it's evil. I thought my potholder loom was complicated back in 1977 but it had nothing on this. Once month after Christmas and she finally decided she wanted to use it.

The box looks innocent enough and she could make all sorts of things from key chains to bracelets to rings.
The problem happens when you open it up. It took me a few days to get through the instructions. I needed a consult from MIT for them. Seriously, enlarge this picture and read them for yourself. The tough part is getting it set up for her. It took a little while and some bad language to get all the fiddily twisty threads in place.
I told her we had to start out with something simple as the first project. It actually got easy at this point as long as the strings didn't get tangled.
She even got to use a sharp needle to thread the beads on. The needles came in a cover saying not to let children use them. Of course the kit said it was good for kids 8 and up and you can't make it without the needle.
Grace is going along pretty good now but soon she'll come to the end and I'll have to figure out how to get it off the loom. Maybe I can convince her to just leave it on and we can hang the whole thing on her wall?

More Favorites

2011-01-22T19:36:00.020-05:00

I know I just did a favorites entry a little while ago but I have some new things to add. Plus, I can't think of anything else to write about. We aren't up to much these days because we are snowed in.

I have to thank my friend Heather for helping me discover peppermint candy cane brownies. She sent me the best mix at Christmas time and I loved them. I had a bunch of candy canes left over from Christmas so I decided to try to recreate them. I made some frosted brownies, crushed up the candy and sprinkled it on top. They are not exactly the same but are damn close.
The other day, I decided I really needed a pair of winter boots. I haven't had a real pair since high school. Usually I steal Tim's or wear my old Doc Martens. I headed up to LL Bean with my 30-40% discount in mind. Problem is, by January, most people own boots and the Spring shoes are out. They didn't have anything I liked. On the other hand, I have always wanted a real pair of Wellies. After all, it's not like I go out tramping through the woods in the winter. I basically need them to go to the car and back. I tried on the traditional green ones but didn't like them at all. I ended up with the plaid ones with cable knit fleece liners. I know they are a bit much but they look cute with jeans and now I can slosh through puddles.
My last favorite thing is how much Declan loves Carly. Carly refuses to look at the camera because she hates the flash so I have a hard time getting a good picture. Declan spent the first few weeks we got her terrified and demanding she be sent back. Now, he hugs and kisses her and rolls around on the floor with her. He told me today they are BFF's.

Too Many Scarfs Or Is It Scarves?

2011-01-13T23:30:00.026-05:00

So...I had promised a while ago to tell you what I was going to do with this pile of fabric. I made what I was going to make with it last weekend and I really thought I had done an entry about it. I actually remembered writing it but it turns out all I did was take pictures and download them. Anyway, enough about my early onset dementia, I was using the fabric to make infinity scarfs(scarves?).

Two things prompted this. I discovered an Etsy site that sells them and I thought they looked very simple to make. Then, I discovered the after Christmas sale at Joannes Fabric which turned me into a fabric addict. I had a lot of fun in the flannel and fleece sections. I bought too much.
The pile sort of overwhelmed me so it sat on my table for a couple of weeks. Finally, I dragged out my sewing machine, put Jam & Jerusalem season 2 on my laptop and got to work. Basically, you just have to sew a twisted loop together. I folded it in half lengthwise wrong side out and pinned it.
Then you just sew a straight line up the edge. Cut off any extra fabric and turn it right side out.
Here is the part when you twist it. I spread it out on the floor in v shape and flipped one side up.
Last step, just tuck the ends together, pin it and sew it shut. After the first one, I got it down to a rhythm and it only took 20 minutes to make each one.
Declan was my very reluctant model for them. I had to give him a dime to let me take the picture.
He was much happier to show off the necklaces he made from the scraps. He's going to sell them for a lot of money.
Now, I have about 10 new scarfs(scarves?). The sad thing is, I've already been back to the fabric store and now have to make 3 more. I think my next batch will be skinnier ones. I could probably make 2 skinny ones from each piece of fabric. I think I'll find out this weekend.

It Snowed

2011-01-12T21:25:00.015-05:00

It snowed today. If you live in New England then you probably know about it.

It snowed so much that I had to get up at 3AM this morning to go into work so we could tell people all about the snow. Like they hadn't noticed it. I exerted my power and closed every school, business, daycare, bingo parlor and bank in the state. I even closed down state government.
They finally let me leave around 2PM after I had closed everything I could. I hadn't been outside since 3AM (when it hadn't started snowing yet). My car was buried by the snow and the snowplow. Luckily, we have a lot of work cars that were being dug out and I pulled the "weak little woman without a shovel" trick and two of our photographers got my car free for me. I came home to a cleared driveway but not a cleared street. Tim and I shoveled some more and I finally made it inside the house.
I wanted to take some pictures of the snow but I didn't want to go outside again so I took pictures through the window. We had almost a foot and a half but the wind was blowing sideways so it's all over the place.
The plows finally started coming and the snow seems to have stopped for the night.
Carly couldn't decide if she liked it or not. She went outside several times and didn't seem to understand that the grass has disappeared until at least March and she was going to have to find some new "special" spots. Plus, she kept snorting snow up her nose. She seemed to like that.

Child Labor

2011-01-08T18:03:00.026-05:00

My father gave us this antique sewing machine about 15 years ago. He had an antique store that I used to use to furnish my house. When I was growing up, we had an old sewing machine and I used to play with it all the time.

Ours mostly stays closed with stuff all over the top. I was putting things back in place after the Christmas tree went outside and I noticed how dusty it was. I decided to take it apart and clean it. I guess it's been a long time since I've done that because Declan was amazed to see a sewing machine appear from inside the cabinet.
He examined all of it and figured out how it worked. The machine isn't connected to the foot pedal anymore so he had to manually work it. He has had a bookmark business for a few years and he decided he could use the needle to make some new ones.
He ran some paper through it to make punch hole designs. He was very excited because he's going to charge extra for these. He says they are Braille bookmarks.
Meanwhile, I dug through the drawers to see what was in there. My father gave it to us fully stocked with vintage sewing stuff. I love stuff like this and wish I could find more of it.
I love these "stylish dress buttons" and the fact that these snaps only cost 10 cents. The green book is the instructions to the sewing machine. I have no idea why they call it an "electric sewing machine" when there isn't a plug to be found on it. I once used the directions to try to thread the machine and I will never try that again. This machine from 1905 was more complicated than my laptop.
Declan claimed it was slow and boring to do but he played with that machine for a couple of hours and he only hurt himself once. I told him that 100 years ago using this machine could have been a full time job for the average 7 year old and I doubted they thought it was fun.
Carly also was interested in what was going on. I think she liked the noise of the machine. Maybe we can make her something with it..something small.

Christmas 2011

2011-01-05T20:17:00.020-05:00

The Christmas tree has barely been thrown outside and Declan is making plans for Christmas 2011. He asked for some pipe cleaners a few weeks ago and I finally bought them for him yesterday. Problem was, neither of us could remember what he wanted them for in the first place.

There were 100 in the package though so he figured he could come up with something else.
He finally remembered that he wanted them to make candy cane decorations. Since Christmas had passed, he decided to make them to sell for next year. He very industrially sat on the couch and twisted them together.
This is his pile so far. He thinks they will be perfect hung on a tree. He hasn't decided on a price yet but I'll let you know.

Growing Into Her Skin

2011-01-04T19:19:00.015-05:00

Carly Dog is now 9 months old. We didn't know what she was going to turn into because she was a mutt but we think she is almost done growing. She's not too big and not too small. She's great with the kids especially Declan who was so scared of dogs before her. The one strange thing is that she has a lot of extra skin still to grow into.

Here she is laying down and she has an extra fold of skin coming out of her back.
She has a lot of skin going on around her face too. She's very stretchy like Elastic-Man.
There's quite a lot going on around her neck too. It's sort of cute because you really only see it when she lies down. She looks perfectly fine standing up. It's just that she spends a lot of time on her side on her bed. I think that's when her latent Shar Pei genes come out.

Post Christmas Shopping

2011-01-02T20:54:00.027-05:00

**Here you go Heather....

This year, I managed to avoid the Mall area for the months of November and December. I finally figured out it was a good idea to start a Christmas Club and, coupled with Amazons free shipping, I did most of my shopping online. The after Christmas sales are a whole different story for me. It's a chance for me to buy things that we don't need but at really good prices.

I got all these bulbs for about $2. Of course, our tree is already full of ornaments and we don't need anymore. We don't really use bulbs though so I bought these plus they are shatterproof. Maybe by next Christmas, we'll have finally won the lottery and moved to a new house with huge soaring ceilings and we'll have a taller tree which will fit all these.
An after Christmas must-the 50 cent rolls of paper. I am addicted to buying these. We never have any birthday or baby shower paper but we have plenty of Christmas. I'm going to be getting more this week plus labels.
Some late night online shopping led me to EBay and I ended up buying these topographic maps of Rangeley for myself. They needed frames though and I got these two for 70% off thanks to after Christmas coupons. Now, I just need to get them on the wall. Baby steps.
I bought these pictures last summer but finally got the frames in the same 70% off sale. Now, I just need to find a place for them and get them on the wall. Baby steps again.
I haven't forgotten that I promised to tell what I am making with this fabric. The problem is that I have been having more fun buying the fabric then actually getting around to making them. I discovered that the fabric stores have after Christmas sales too.

A Christmas Coincidence

2010-12-23T16:06:00.009-05:00

Like I mentioned before, I have been on vacation this week but I still can't get away from work. I'm always determined to not watch the news while I'm off but it's hard, especially when you want to see the weather forecast. Last night, the kids and I were sitting in the living room with the news on when they started showing a story about elves at the Portland post office who help answer the letters to Santa. The kids were immediately paying attention because we had mailed in their letters and Declan had already gotten his answer back but Grace was still waiting. Turns out, Grace's letter was being opened that very day and made it into the story. Anne, the reporter, had no idea that it was Grace's letter, She just thought it was a good sound bite. So, here is the story...Grace's letter is the one asking for bacon.

http://www.wgme.com/newsroom/top_stories/videos/wgme_vid_6241.shtml

Christmas Ribbons

2010-12-22T15:21:00.036-05:00

I'm on vacation this week and I mostly plan to not plan to do things. That being said, the craft stores are sending me crazy coupon deals so I feel like I have to use them. I saw this Christmas Ribbon Tree somewhere and it looked simple enough so I went out and bought the supplies.

You need a Styrofoam cone to start with . I hate Styrofoam and might buy the floral foam kind next time. I painted mine green so that the gaps between my ribbon wouldn't stand out as much.

So, guess what genius? There's not a lot of red and green ribbon left on the shelves when it's 3 days before Christmas. I wanted mine to all be the same width so this is what I ended up with.

Then, you cut the ribbons into the same size small strips and fold and pin them all the way around the bottom.

You just keep adding new rows until you've made it to the top. Once I got to the top, I wrapped and hot glued a ribbon to cover the last row of pins. I suppose you could have hot glued the ribbons on in the first place but I always end up with messy gluey strands everywhere.

I didn't like the unfinished look of the top so I got out some wooden star pieces and painted those red and green.

I put the big one on the bottom to act as a sort of stand.

I glued the other two together (sort of crookedly) and then glued that to the top.

Here is the finished piece. All in all, I like it. I think I might use narrower ribbon next time or maybe a bigger cone. I have a second one to make but I think I will use some of the everyday ribbon that I compulsively buy and never use.

My next project involves this pile of flannel and fleece material and my sewing machine....stay tuned....

O' Christmas Tree

2010-12-12T15:44:00.025-05:00

I put off the tree for as long as I could but we finally got one this weekend. I don't want to be a Grinch about the tree but I don't like the disruption it brings to the house. We have small rooms in this house so it's a trick to fit in a tree. To make it happen, random furniture always ends up on the porch.

Tim and Grace picked it out this year because I had to stay home with a sick Declan. They did a really good job and our brand new tree stand is as sturdy as they promised. We had a bit of a problem last year when our stand broke. I thought the tree looked a little crooked but it might just be that the top is a little wonky.
We let it sit for a day to adjust itself and Tim had already put the lights on it while I was asleep this morning. It was all ready for decorating when I woke up. Carly got involved to because she still can't figure out why we brought the woods into her house.
Declan took his time deciding where to put things. He made sure the bottom of the tree wasn't bare because he is the shortest one in the house.
Carly is behaving so far. We'll see what happens. I think the lights are freaking her out so I don't think she'll mistake it for the bathroom. She was very interested in the tree skirt so I hope she doesn't try to get under it for a nap.
When I was growing up, we had a star for the top of the tree and I always said I would have an angel on mine when I grew up. Grace is now asking why we have to have an angel and she is going to have a star on hers when she grows up. I told her to go talk to her Grandmother about it.
Our memorial ornaments for Peter and Wendy. I actually put these together when they were kittens. This is Peter when he was a tiny baby. This is our first Christmas without him. He always loved to take a nap under the tree and pretend he was an outside cat.
And this is Wendy when she was a baby. She's been gone several years now but we still put up her ornament. I guess I should get going on making ones for Owen and Carly. Owen has been with us for 13 years with no ornament so I'm just a bad mom.
The finished product. I tried to take a picture that showed the lights but I couldn't figure it out. I've had that camera for a year and I just figured out today that you can take black and white pictures with it.

I Allowed Glitter In The House

2010-12-05T22:53:00.016-05:00

We still had not decorated the Christmas ornaments I made last week so I finally went out and bought some supplies. I couldn't really argue against buying glitter since Christmas is sort of glittery but I kept it under control by buying glitter glue. I figured the glue keeps the glitter under control and not drifting all over my house.

We also bought a whole bunch of sequins and paint. I layered the dining room table in newspapers and let them go to town.
I even remembered to put their paint shirts on them. Declan chose a tree and started painting. He went for the traditional green.
Grace also started with a tree and in the end, she decorated most of them. Declan was good after about 5 of them but Grace kept going until they were all done.
She had endless ideas for decorating and was sort of disappointed when she had done them all.
Now they just have to dry and I will add the ribbons. I also made some cinnamon applesauce ornaments this weekend and they smell great(I used recipe 3). Now all we are missing is a Christmas tree to put them up on. That won't be coming until next weekend.