Vacations are great ...oh, and fabric, too!

I didn't think I'd be putting a lot of pictures into this posting, but I just couldn't stop myself. What better way to start a Maine vacation post than with the sunset on Cadillac Mountain?

Just exquisite! So many people up there to take photos of it. I can see why... We took mom along for the week, made a few stops on the way to the cottage/house we were renting.

It's sad to see the economy is hitting everyone. We happened to see this couple on the streets of Belfast... very picturesque town, but still, not for these two. At least they have each other.

After stopping at the grocery store for the cold things, we finally we get to our destination!! Southwest Harbor, Maine...! (notice the wet roads?)

Most every day it was overcast, but we didn't get the rain until Wed afternoon, then it rained off and on through Sat. (it was looking good at 6:15am when a deer came through our yard, up the driveway, into the back,.... then it poured! We at least had the car packed by then.)

I'm gonna show you a few of our 'jaunts'... mostly hiking, trails and such, nothing TOO strenuous, remember, we have mom with us-- she's 81, and spry, but she has developed a fear of height/edges in years of late.

This is a shot I took (my favorite) of the boats at the dock across the street from our cottage- at the ferry dock. I loved the flowers in the window boxes at the 'Gallery" across the street- the view of the harbor isn't bad either.This purple flower is amazing! I loved it... And the purple iris are some that the neighbor thinned out of her garden to send home with me. (I owe her my Rootbeer colored ones).

This is a section on Park Road, in Bar Harbor (Acadia National Park), close to Thunder Hole ( which wasn't cooperating that day. Sounded more like a truck driving on a wet road, rather than thunder). It was like a field of Easter eggs. Must be the bunny's stash! This is a cute little place (notice the 'for rent' sign on the side of the cottage?) on the water... in Pretty Marsh area.Must show you a lighthouse, of course. This is Bass Harbor Lighthouse. A Coast Guard family lives there and operates it.

Dear hubby and I love rocks! I usually bring large ones home (for my flower garden) and he brings home the little ones that fit in your pocket. This one is relatively small... and it's in the shape of a heart.

We also couldn't have gotten out of Maine without having Lobster (oops, I mean, Lob-stah!). This one is mine (3.5lb-er-- and NO I couldn't finish eating it in one meal!) And I could eat mine, because I didn't name MINE. --can't eat pets! oh yeah....Here is the seagull saga... It all began with this....you know, the innocent feeding of the gulls by the husband...

And the gull likes what little we have so much that he takes my mom (in the car, reading) hostage-- we ran out off crackers.I was a little intimidated by him.... Hey, he's on MY car and my mom isn't even aware of it. But look at that 'evil eye' he's giving me! Would you venture close to this creature?? Why he even started pecking at my XM antennea. I yelled at him (from a distance) and then he REALLY started terrorizing me AND MY MOM!! Just look at her!! She doesn't even know what he's doing up there...(Although she said she could hear him....Actually, she thinks she's a moose- long story, family joke-- I never have seen one, so I think 'they don't exist'.)

This is a monument to the granite cutters in Stonington...

Of course, we were in town for the Memorial day parade.... very nice, but quick! (little town)...

We went up to Arusticou Terraces with my mom (afraid of heights, remember?), notice how she's 'clinging' to her son-in-law?? And of course, the 'trouble-maker is pointing to the bottom of the cliffs...(We made sure we were in the will, first).

This was a little cafe in Stonington and the Fresh Cod sandwich was to die for!!! And the seafood chowder was so thick I almost had no broth!

Acadia National park is our favorite place to go... This is Monument Cove ( I think)... We had to climb the cliffs to make it up from the beach (that had the Easter bunnies 'stash' behind Lee) This was a little boat launch area that we weren't supposed to be in, unless we were 'launching', but we took a few quick photos here.

And this is another little off the beaten path, that we took more rocks home from. (Is it illegal to take them, if the whole island is the National Park?-- I think so)

This is the dock across the street from our cottage... Great place to stay. We plan to come back next year.

Oh, yeah.... the fabric. Well, I went to Marden's and got a yard of this and a yard of that... some for me and some for the quilters at church and even some for the Project Linus crew at church. All in all, I walked out of there with just shy of $200 worth of fabric. NO. If I had to buy it at home, it would have cost me 3-5 times that amount. So it was worth it.( I'll try and post photos of the fabric tomorrow after our church quilter's mtg.) Only problem I saw was that I bought it on Tues and then couldn't 'play' with it all the time I was up there. No scissors, no sewing machine... hmmmm.... maybe next year. ( I know I'd better be REALLY good all year after that trip!)

Two days before vacation!

We are so lucky to get this cottage on the 'quiet side' of Mount Desert Island in Maine ... for $200.00 a week! Yup, that's right. Because it's off-season. We HATE the tourists (gee, aren't WE the tourists...? NOT!) and always try to go in May. oh GOD, I can taste that lob-stah!....Still warm, but not expensive. The only thing you have to make sure is that you don't go too early, since the restaurants aren't always open. We're taking mom, so it should be fun.

Planning to take some quilting (hand-work) with me...

Some quilting, some not

I really am glad I got the chance to go with my friend Marilyn to her weekly group's sewing day. They usually all do hand-work (knitting, quilting, crocheting, etc). I was the only one with a machine today. It was nice they let me join the group. I had to work on making a fourth side to our church's summer altar cloth. Here is the altar cloth with only three sides.

Our priest would like it by June 25th(?). We'll see....

I also got a chenille scarf sewed. I'll take it on vacation next week to 'cut'. Won't be able to have it 'finish' itself until I get home ande wash it.

Some piecing done... Yippee!!

This is the second lasagna quilt our church group, Peace by Piece Quilters has done. (Notice the layers of pasta, sauce, spinach, peppers, cheese, chopped onions are on the layer second from the bottom, etc?) We decided before we left our last mtg to use a black thin border, and a darker sauce fabric (actually it's African huts, but who's looking).

Felt great being in the sewing room, getting something done.

Peter Walsh moment #1

Peter Walsh would be proud.... This is the first in a series of decluttering pictures I'm working on. This is my buffet with my tea pot collection on it... Notice the ugly wallpaper??

Here the walls are painted, just going through some 'papers' to keep/throw out (?). I tell my husband it's a 'process'.... (I'm working on it).

Here is the finished product!! I eliminated a few teapots and the crochet lace (although not sure if it's going back on it when I clean them up, as they were done by my great-aunt Margie).

Mother's Day....Happy?

I should learn not to be opinionated... but that's me. I love spending time with my grandson, Kai, and we always have a blast, but I wish my daughter would play more with him. I don't think I do it because she DOESN'T have energy or time (she works at 4:30am ...and wants to crash WAY earlier than HE does). I really enjoy my grandkids. But once I 'play' (outside or inside), I end up feeling resentment that SHE doesn't do the fun things with him that I do, and I don't get other stuff done for myself!

I love her, but I want her to 'be the mom', not me. And I know it's hard living in the same house... if I don't see her doing something (meals, play, diaper, etc), I tend to do it myself (I think that makes me an enabler- Dammmmm!). I voice my opinion for her to 'do her job and BE A MOM!", and it invariably gets a tad heated. She really needs to start saving money and get her own place (but that doesn't mean I won't worry that she'll never do anything different).

Somehow that put a damper on this Mother's day, as she needed to take the little one with her and drive off to 'cool off' before she said something she'd regret. Oh poop!

Cleaning frenzy!

I thought I'd be soooo bummed if I didn't do more quilting/sewing while on my 2-month layoff.

I'm not.

BECAUSE.... I've gotten all those things I said I 'should be finding time to do", done or I'm still working on. I never knew how much stuff I held onto until I started tossing. And I mean TOSSING! I have a box at the ready, at any given time, that has been carried off to our church for their annual May Fair. I'm only sad because today is the last day they'll take stuff (although the woman in charge has told me to 'keep going' and she'll take it). I just don't think I can do it to her. So I'm gonna either 'pitch it' or post it on Freecycle (a website to recycle things).

I am reorganizing files in my file cabinet and THROWING THINGS AWAY!!! (I need to show my husband this post...) AND I'm rearranging rooms that I didn't plan to. I always thought I needed an emergency visit from Peter Walsh (Oprah's de-clutter man). I think I can do this myself....Well, I have to go. See you on the clean side.... (Just think if I'd posted before and after pictures! Maybe I will.....but I'll put them in a post called Before and after). I just have to remember that it gets worse before it can get better( due to the sorting process).

Graduation Day!

Today my youngest daughter graduates from the Center of Culinary Arts at Lincoln Tech in Cromwell. She will be presented with her Chef hat. This is a big thing for her, since she struggled in high school (it was disclosed three days before graduation, that she WOULD graduate-- does that say "struggle"?). After having a baby a few years later (he's 3 now) and choosing to go back to school on her own, she HAS DONE IT!!!

Getting an Honors Award... how proud does she look??!!

Julie, Lee and I ... VERY proud parents

This is a nice 4-generation photo of Julie's dad, her son, Julie and my mom (Gramma Smiff-pronounced by Malakai...LOL-really Smith).

Congratulations, Julie, .. I'm VERY proud of you!

May mtg

This is one of the quilts that came back done... thanks MaryEllen! I looks GREAT! "Framed Butterlies" is what I want to call it...

This is one of the quilts that will get put together... (the center strings are all black, but the four in the middle, were made with points)... we are gonna add a few more blocks on the top and bottom. Enid made the centers and will finish the second set. Hopefully, we'll have a few more HS blocks to complete the next top. I'm feeling the name coming is "Star Light, Star Bright".

Mary Ellen, Pat and "C" straightening out the backing for the "Blue-min' heart" quilt, while Dot, Enid and Anna ready some foundation blocks.

"Cranberry Crush" needs a backing and already has a striped binding. We got it put together, but the batting needs adjusting.

like lasagna??

This is the lasagna quilt that Margaret has been working on(Lasagna 1).... Didn't get to finish it, but I may take it home and finish the quilting (SITD). We made a Lasagna, Jr. and decided to play with the borders...(?) or not...(?)

By the end of the night, we decided on a narrow black border, then found some 'aAfrican huts' material (I know, it doesn't have ANYTHING to do with lasagna), to finish the outer border. Will look great!

This little "Peek-a-Boo Animals" premmie quilt was made from test blocks (we'd never done this block before). We found it has to be REALLY exact on the sewing or you get the waves (whidch we did). It irons out okay, but not sure I'd make this one again.

Quilt show quilts-yes, a sewing post!!

This is a table runner I may be entering in the GHQG quilt show in August... It's Sushiko quilted (learned it in a class), but never 'finished' it until last year.

This is the baby quilt I'm gonna enter. It was a mistake as far as a quilt goes, but it found new life in being another quilt top (it originally was the back of my DIL's baby quilt). Then I just picked out some material for the back, added the leftover fabric from the front (including the prairie points around the edge, then made a cute label for it.

I finally got a picture of my quilt stuff I'm thinking of entering in the GHQG quilt show in the fall.