Deck

I'm finally back! After a two-week period of being without my laptop (it was being repaired), I got out of the habit of blogging. The most excicitng thing that happened over the last month was that I had our deck redone. He power-washed all the brown paint off, took out the shower, painted the railings white and stained the floor a nice redwood color. I got an End of Summer deal on my new red umbrellas (ellas).

Tin Can Sally

Check out my new kitchen switch plate from local artist Tin Can Sally. She takes vintage tins and creates these switch plates and outlet covers. What a great idea!

Here Moosie, Moosie!

I have yet to see a moose, but I keep hoping. My friend e-mailed me this story and it only happened an hour away from here! I'm not sure where the story and photos originated, but I'm so glad they shared the experience. Read on:

I have never seen a newborn moose. This one was not even a half a mile from our house. The mother picked a small quiet neighborhood and had her baby in the front yard at 5:30 am. We were out bike riding when we came upon the pair. The lady across the street from this house told us she saw it being born. We saw them at 5:30 pm. So the little one was 12 hours old. What an awesome place we live in to see such a site!

Mail Bag

The antique store I mentioned yesterday had a whole drawer full of old postcards that were so fun to paw through. I ended up with a dance card where Arthur is clearly the favorite, a postcard from 1921 encouraging Ethel to "keep those needles as long as she needs to", and a multiple-choice postcard with a sense of humor reminiscent of today's Knock Knock products.

Who's cool now?

I've wanted one of these old fans forever, and I've unsuccessfully bid on a couple on eBay. We stopped a great antique shop this weekend, and this one was there waiting for me in all its turquoise cuteness!

Tall Ships

There were four Tall Ships in town this past weekend. I have not stood in line to tour one yet, but I did go down to watch them leave the harbor. They met up with four more ships at the mouth of the river for the Tall Ships Challenge up to Halifax, Nova Scotia. These photos were submitted to the local newspaper. I took some, but they were much further away and foggy! If you're interested, there are more photos here.

Listen Up!

Tonight one of my favorite bands, Over the Rhine, had a live webcast of their new cd, The Trumpet Child. I say cd, but it will also be availble in VINYL. I want an old record player just for that! So cool if you know their sound. It won't be released until August 21, so it was great to get a sneak preview of another great album. Afterwards, there was a live chat with band members/songwriters Karin and Linford. There were so many people firing off questions that it was hard to get noticed. We did manage to get a couple questions answered and right at the end I asked Linford if it was OK that I had named my cat after him. He said "Naming cats after me is fine." I wasn't sure if I should take that like there were multiple cats named Linford and he'd been asked this before and it was getting old OR if it was a "sure, not a problem." Alas, the problem of internet communication. Oh well, I feel better having asked permission. Check out their nifty website.

South Addison

We spent the 4th of July and the weekend up in South Addison, Maine with friends, friends of friends, and three dogs. You can see that it is quite far up the coast and I overheard someone saying on the phone, "Imagine a place as remote as you can, and we are about 4 hours more remote than that." There were 18 people in total and we had a great time, despite the rain and fog. There were beach fires, lobster, and hilarious games of catch phrase. The house and barn are really old and it was fun just taking pictures of all the items still hanging around like they might get used at any moment. Thanks to Leanne for some of the photos!

Color Week : Friday : Blue & Purple

Our foggy weekend in Maine:
Sunset in Mexico. I put off taking this shot until the last night we were there. Of course, people propped themselves up against those pillars and didn't leave until the sun went down. I like the way this guy looks, but others were not ideal models.
Mexico again.

Color Week : Thursday : Orange

I took this last October and there seemed to be butterflies everywhere.
When people have hair this color, it's called red, but with cats it's orange.
Another shot from Mexico. I love all the colors, but I had to do some stratigic cropping to get the Hooters logo out of the background.

Color Week : Wednesday : Yellow

I was away for a few days and I thought I'd have time to post the rest of my color week pictures before I left, but I forgot how long it takes to get out the door for a trip!

This was outside our hotel in Mexico in February:

And this was from my hibiscus plant last year:

Color Week : Tuesday : Green

I love green and always have! Lime green and sage green are my favorites.

Color Week : Monday : Red & Pink

Kayte at love forever has invited other bloggers to join her for "Color Week." Each day has an assigned color the idea is to post photos with the theme of the day. Today is red & pink.

Nubble Light

Nubble Light is always on the list of places to take our out-of-town guests. It has a rich history, but my favorite story is that one of the keepers used to reel his children across to the mainland IN THE SUPPLY BUCKET every morning for school. A photo of the boy was published in the paper and the district commander soon put a stop to that. You can see the photo if you click here and scroll down a bit.

Drumroll Please

And the winner is....


We have friends in town, so my posts are limited, but I'll be back soon!

Nice-etc—Congratulations! Send me your address at rachelkswansonATyahooDOTcom

My version of time-lapse photography

Don't forget to enter The Contest in yesterday's post. Looks like your chances are pretty good right now. Trust me, the prizes will be fabulous.

Contest!

I've noticed that many bloggers have contests and I want to join in the fun! All you have to do is leave a comment with a link (or just the url) to a blog, website, video, quiz, or other item you find personally interesting on the web. I will draw 1 winner randomly on Saturday and post it by noon EST. That person will receive a package of über goodies hand-picked for them. If I don't know the winner personally, I will leave an e-mail where you can send me your address, and I might ask you a few questions to help me out—if you're game.

I'll go first. I really like personality tests because it helps me relate better with others and understand myself more. Here's one I've taken recently:
personal DNA. I am a "faithful visionary" and I found the description to be pretty accurate.

IKEA

These are my new cabinets from IKEA, Herman (left) and Alex. They are perfect for storing paper and art supplies and I'm feeling quite organized after staying up til 3 on Saturday. Well, organized in that room at least. Alex seems to be quite popular lately and I've seen him make appearances on decor8 and Treefall Design.

Cookie Sandwich

Yesterday I saw gingersnap & lemon icing sandwiches at the bakery. I'd never seen that combination before and it sounded great, so I made my own cheater version! I used store-bought cookies and added lemon extract and yellow food coloring to plain frosting, and they were as good as I'd imagined.

Lemon & Lime Savers

I am always finding little bags of half used lemons and limes in my refrigerator. This morning I thought I had come up with a great new product, but it already exists at Gourmac. I would have made them a little more fun, but I didn't think of it first. I was also wondering about a tomato keeper. Yep, those are at Kitchen Krafts along with the onion keeper. A quick search did not turn up any cucumber keepers!

Let's Play Before & After

This makeover of the office in Nate's office took place a few months ago, but that was before my blog! I thought it was appropriate for several reasons.

1. I was working there today and I really enjoyed the sun coming in the open window and the equally sunny "hibiscus" color on the walls.
2. We sort of stopped half-way in painting the other rooms after it ate up several weekends, but today we had a professional start and I'm sure he will be done in no time. Then we can get new carpet, a new reception desk, move the bathroom.......ugh.
3. All of the furniture and storage containers are from my 1st and only IKEA trip, but I just made a date to go again tomorrow night with my friend, Cathryn, after a mango fried rice dinner.

You can click to enlarge the photos if you want to make sure it was "really that gross". Yes, that IS a shower and a washer—but it's nothing a giant curtain won't hide!