Thousand Islands Seaway Wine Trail

Saturday we toured two of the wineries along the trail.

This winery is located in Clayton and the tour was good. I'll have lots of photos this week.
We didn't leave with out a few bottles of wine.
I really liked the wines in this Philadelphia winery.

We have more boxes. Otter Creek gave us a free bottle since between us we purchased a case. I'm saving it for an SU football game. OK, Mike & Terri? I think we may need A LOT of wine to get us thru the season.
Good thing we traveled in a truck.

At both wineries the tasting was free. It was a great way to spend the day.

Mommy Haircut

Mau loves to cut hair. Just ask her & it's done!Thankfully, I had hair cut scissors. I bought when Amie was little so I could trim her bangs.
Mickey always receives lots to comments from people on the beautiful color of her hair.

AHHHHHHHHH.

One thing Mau does not like is having her picture taken. Apparently, hair cutting & picture taking is a good combination.

Can't believe this is the LAST weekend in August. May you enjoy every bit of your yours!

Paper Bookmarks

Mau & I made bookmarks. I got the pattern off the Internet from Kaisercraft. We used thick double sided scrapbook paper. They are so cute.

This is not a b&w photo. The book mark is b&w. I made this for my favorite girls b&w bedroom. I'm so glad both my kids ended up being readers. They both always have a book they are reading. Hey, maybe I can find a sheet of camo paper.
Mau made this bookmark for me.
Go here for the directions. A direction help, 150 mm equals 6.9 inches or use any size square you want.

Wordless Wednesday

Antiques in the Park

Saturday we went to an antique sale. Mau got an old violin with all its pieces, except string. Kelsey is going to work on cleaning it up and putting it back together. She bargained down $10.00, it looked like it was serious bargaining.

These are the quilts still left from a year of selling. I didn't spend my day selling at the sale this year but, I heard they did do well. There are very few left.

Amie, look familiar? No, this is not your Butterfield. Must be his twin. They are selling for $3.00. How sad.
I even spotted a tomato pin cushion. It was a nice one also. Only one HUGE issue. It was a display item in the museum. Oh yeah, I did give some thought. Remember this photo. I have two edited versions for Wordless Wednesday. I want to have one verison printed onto a canvas.
I bought one item. I'll have to get some photos. I have NO idea what I'm going to do with my purchase. Mick will not be happy. It was just to good of a deal to pass up.

Crafting Weekend Visitors

Guess who came to town? Mau & her girls. A large chunk of the weekend was devoted to crafting. As I always say, crafting is a messy business.

I gave each girl a blank canvas. They ended up with a great new item to hang in their bedrooms.

Mau & I worked on Christmas ornaments leftover from our Keene family reunion. We also made bookmarks. I'll show you that project on another day! We really needed our missing crafter, Amie.

Disease & Bokeh

You know the saying, "If life give you lemons make lemonade." or "Take the good with the bad." Our new tree is sick. Mick has been spraying it every week, as directed. I have not noticed any less brown leaves. I hope we can save it.

Wondering what the good is? Don't you love the BOKEH???? All my photographer readers can appreciate the difficulty in getting that.

Have a great weekend. It's a three day one for me. Last weekend it was a four day weekend. Hey, it's summer and finally we have the weather to prove it! Enjoy.

"Hello, Firemen"

Eric & I arrived back to the condo at almost 1am on Saturday night. I put a load of wet clothes in the dryer & went right off to sleep. At around 4:30am I awoke to a VERY loud alarm. I bolted out of bed from a very deep sleep. I thought I started a dryer fire. On the way to the dryer I yelled for Eric to get up. He had also heard the alarm. Thankfully, we had no fire. I checked the hall & went out to the balcony, no smoke or smell of smoke. Eric went down the stairs to the lobby & then called me to come down. The fire department had already arrived. I put on a robe, no shoes - big mistake, and took the stairs to the lobby. As I opened the last door to the lobby I was greeted by about 8 firemen & all their gear. I'm not sure how long we were outside but it ended up being a false alarm. When the firemen came down I was wishing all the young single girls I knew were out there with me. There were some great looking & in shape firemen. The chief then told us an apartment that didn't have their air conditioning on could have set off the alarm. While outside I thought about the barn fire of last week and wondered if I cursed myself. I might have to stick to good & positive posts from here on out!

Wordless Wednesday

Ferragosto

Saturday evening I went to a Ferragosto, an "Italian Dinner Party."

Kristen's parents hosted the dinner. I brought for them a cheese & wine pairing book from Pottery Barn.
My gift wrapping is very taste specific, my taste of course. I love how it looked. You can figure out what I cut up to make my tag/card???

Baking with Blueberries

Today I'll be delivering a few blueberry baked goods to Eric. First, a pie. I have never made a blueberry pie before. I did pick out one well, maybe three berries. They tasted so good.

Next, blueberry ginger bread. Not sure why it is called that. It's more like a thin cake. It is served with cinnamon vanilla ice cream. You bring vanilla ice cream to room temperature mix in cinnamon & then freeze again. I CAN'T WAIT to try this!
Finally, the old stand-by, muffins. I've had this recipe for over 20 years, the best muffin recipe around. It was from an issue of County Living.
I've tried these already. For some reason they taste so much better with the blueberries that I picked.
The muffins looked so nice in the purple paper cups.
Eric, forget your diet this weekend!

Barn Fire

Monday evening a beautiful old barn just outside of town burned. Thankfully all the milking cows were saved. The owners three sons went to elementary school with Eric & Amie. Eric loved going to the farm & playing.

I heard the fire chief interviewed on television he said, it was one thing to lose a home but losing your livelihood is another. The cause is thought to be spontaneous combustion. The barn was insured. I'm curious if the family will retire now.

Wordless Wednesday

Blueberries

I'm not sure how long I've had pick your own blueberries less than 4 miles from the house but I hope not to long. I'm so upset I didn't know sooner.

Mike and I went out last Saturday morning and each picked 3 quarts. It was a beautiful bright & sunny morning!
The bushes were full of berries. It took 1 1/2 hours to pick 3 quarts each.

When I got home I froze up 4 quart bags with 4 cups to a bag. I had just over 1 cup left over that I used for pancakes on Sunday morning.

To bad Eric isn't around. Blueberries are his favorite!!

Julie & Julia

This is not a Book Club selection. We take the months of July & August off. It was nice to read something of my choice. I read the book in one day during our vacation.
I liked the book and I would recommend it. I enjoyed all the references to blogging. There is a movie coming out & the tailors that I saw did not represent the book. I hate that! That's one of the reasons why I don't go to or watch movies.

Birthday Scrapbooking

For Mom's 74th birthday, which is today, I made 3 pages for her scrapbook. I'm not sure if this photograph is prom or graduation. When I find out I'll add the info using some kind of tag.

The first time I used my sewing machine on a scrapbook page. It's been all the rage for awhile now. It took some time to figure out the tension, once I did it was very easy. I'll be doing more sewing.
This photograph is from her bridal shower in 1955. I've loved this photo since I was a little girl!

This page I hand sewed the snowflakes.

This is not how I envisioned this page & I'm not sure I even like. Again, once I get a date, I'll add it. I do know she is front of her grandparents home in Detroit, MI.

Since Mom is hard to buy for, she needs nothing, I've been giving her pages to add to her album for her birthday, Christmas and Mother's Day. I gave her an album for her 70th birthday with lots of empty pages.

Antiquing

I've been watching this at my local antique shop for over two years.

The cost was $34.00. A month ago I asked the owner to negotiate a price & he offered $25.00. I told him I was thinking around $10.00. Since it wasn't his item, he couldn't agree. I asked him to speak with the owner, he didn't think the owner would agree. When I went to the shop a month later I asked if he spoke to the owner, he hadn't. But he said he was in a selling mood & agreed to $10.00. I was thrilled.

Can you guess what it is? Also, can you guess what I'm making out of it?

Wordless Wednesday

Pottery Barn

I get a lot of ideas looking thru the Pottery Barn catalogs. A few of my favorites from the recent catalog. I have in my scrapbooking supplies stamps just like the below. I could make a smaller version.

I already have my key frame hanging in the dining room. I think one key item in the house is sufficient.

But, I do love these & the are very reasonably priced.

The next two, I'm going to make a version of.

I bought this old draw at the antique shop & I'm going to put something in it & hang someplace. If it comes out good in the living room, if not in a room upstairs.

I want to take a picture of my old typewriter that Mike & Terri gave me & print onto a canvas.
Many ideas, so little time!