The last days before school starts

We have a few more days before school will start next week. I am really going to miss summer with the girls. The school year always seems much too hectic. But this year I will have more free time with my youngest in school for the full day. It will be an adjustment for me. I know most people can't wait for this but I think I will miss my time with my youngest.

Anyway I did get to photograph two of my wedding bird couples this morning and wanted to share their cuteness.

Changing landscape, sand castles, and teenagers

We packed up our things for the beach yesterday morning and my oldest daughter invited a friend. As usual it was difficult getting out the door. My youngest is always difficult when it comes to getting ready to go anywhere. Today it was "I hate the beach!" So after an hour of "threats and intimidation" and then "outright bribery" we were happily on our way. Our picnic basket was a bit pathetic - a few cold water bottles and sodas and two mostly finished bags of chips. But the important thing is we had a plan -- a plan to stop at a little store just before the beach to pick up salads and sandwiches. I often wish I was the kind of mom that was better organized. The kind of mom that would fill that picnic basket with sandwiches, homemade cookies, and folded napkins. BUT overall I think I do ok. The beach trip is 3 hours round trip so its not an easy trip for me.

The day was absolutely perfect -- not a cloud in the sky! And temperature-wise I can't remember a more comfortable day at the beach. Without an umbrella were were quite happy. The tide was just finishing its climb up the beach and I was reminded of my promise to my youngest (as part of the bribery) to build sand castles with her. We had a lot of fun trying to build our castles while the waves washed them back to sea. Finally we moved high enough to enjoy a few waves but still allow us to build our elaborate drip castle. It was quite pretty and she was thrilled with it. We left our pail and shovels in the castle's "lake" and went off (about 10ft away) to collect shells amongst the waves to add to our castle. After several trips back and forth from the ocean to the castle we returned to the castle to find two adorable children stomping and bulldozing (with a toy truck) our castle down. I told them that it was our castle and we were working on it but they just smiled at me and continued their stomping. I looked up at their mother which sat only about 5 ft away but she seemed oblivious. My daughter's eyes were filled with tears and her little lower lip was quivering as she held back her tears. I walked her back down to the waves and hugged her. I suggested we take a walk along the beach so we gathered up her sisters and friend and went off for a walk.

She talked about the castle incident for a long time as we walked -- not able to understand why they would do something like that. I tried to explain to her that these things happen -- some kids are like a force of nature. But I couldn't help thinking there was something lacking in the parenting skills of their mother. Finally we reached a point of land where the waves were converging from two directions and created some rather large and exciting waves. The older girls were in the water body surfing and experiencing the fun and painful realities of "sand" burn and what waves do with bikini bathing suits. But they had so much fun and laughed the whole time! My youngest too was enjoying the waves as they crashed along the sand and finally forgot about the castle.

We returned to our chair and blanket and I stopped by to speak with the mother of the two children. I just wanted her to know how upset my daughter was but even though she did apologize she laughed at me and told me to lighten up. All she had seen was a pile of sand. I indicated that we had left our beach toys there while we were collecting shells for the castle. She said there were toys everywhere on the beach. I told her that I always taught my children to respect other peoples belongings and not to destroy sand castles. And I asked her what were were supposed to do -- put up a sign saying "Off collecting shells to decorate the castle!" Overall it was a humiliating experience standing there as she laughed at me. I guess I should have realized that any mom sitting that close to us as we built our castle and then allowed her kids to destroy it wouldn't really care how we felt afterwards. Sigh.

Later we built another castle and my daughter cheered up considerably.

The tide had turned and we took another walk along the beach to explore the sand bars.


We have come to Crane's Beach for many years now and love it. I was so amazed today to see such a change in the sandscape. We always remembered a sand "island" out in the water but everything was completely changed. Instead we followed a rather long sand peninsula out into the ocean. At the point were exciting waves that were crowded by many children and adults.


The other exciting adventure was the teenage boy that was eying my daughter and her friend. They were really enjoying the attention as they played in the water and built sand castles. It was so cute as he walked back and forth on the beach and watched them swim. Of course all this attention made these two teenage girls much too giggly and silly!



We stayed on the beach until after 5 when most of the crowds had left and made our way back to the car all covered in sand. Overall it was a wonderful day at the beach even with the castle destroyers.

Clowning around....

Friday (of last week) was the final day of circus camp and it ended in an adorable skit put on by the kids. I am sure this will be one of the things that my daughter looks back on with fond memories.



I also finished up several of these cute ring bearer pillows with a needle felted nest of eggs. I was pretty happy to come up with such a cute idea but for weeks now haven't had the time to sit down and actually sew them. I was getting a little worried that someone else might come up with a similar idea in the mean time.



These are two treasuries on etsy which feature an item from my store. One features birds and the other chickens.




This weekend we spent Sunday afternoon at Tanglewood for the last concert of the season. The music was featured Gershwin's music and it was a lovely concert. My husband made up several salads and chicken wings and packed us up a nice picnic basket. After the concert we had fun with the girls running through the maze (hedges) and playing tag and hide and seek. Later we played with our "large" frisbee on the open lawn and again played tag. All the girls seemed to enjoy themselves -- which is harder to achieve now that some are teenagers.

Autumn Beauty

I woke up a little early this morning and took a few photos of this little bird. She seemed to enjoy her first exploration outside!



The morning glories are looking so beautiful now. These are the purple and pink varieties that seem to grow so well.

I wanted to share this adorable bird treasury on etsy. I love birds so I am really in love with this one. It was put together by reindeergirl



My middle child is off to circus camp in the afternoon for two weeks. A daughter of a friend of my has organized this and this is their second year. At the end of the two weeks they put on a show/skit. Its very cute!

I love days like this!

We woke up to a nice cool summer morning with a crisp cool blue sky. These really are my favorite days -- a little fall like but still summer!

The state bee inspector visited today and looked at our three hives. They all seem to be doing strong with few mites. One of the hives must have swarmed a few weeks ago though. The inspector is really nice and I am glad that I had a chance to meet him since he sometimes visits when we are away from home. I love the smell of the bee smoker as he puffs in the smoke to subdue them a bit. He did get stung a few times though!

We spent the weekend in Ogunquit Maine and enjoyed a visit to the beach. Saturday evening we took the kids to "The King and I" at the Ogunquit Playhouse. It was a late night and our youngest was having a little difficulty before intermission. She perked up after that though! The next day we went to see "Fairy Houses" at the same playhouse. The author Tracy Kane of "Fairy Houses" was there signing her books. Our family has been making fairy houses since my oldest was about three -- nearly 10 years now so we were so excited. I used to take grape vines to make a little house and the kids would pick flowers and decorate the house! This play "Fairy Houses" was put on by children. Afterwards we explored the woods and fairy houses made in the forest out of natural materials. We spent about an hour and made a few of our own too.

Here are the fairy houses that other groups had placed in the forest...


The fairy house forest tour provided some sea shells, bird seed, hay and pine cones to make our own fairy houses. This is what we came up with using those supplies as well as those we found in the forest.



That afternoon after a yummy lunch outside we went to the beach for a swim. Along the path to the beach we admired these flowers and butterflies.

A very BLUE day!

I finished up my custom order of bluebirds this morning and tried to get a few good photos on the porch -- its rainy today. They are going to be used as decorations on a bed skirt. I think they are just too adorable all grouped together! They were a lot of work though!



I need to get busy finishing several orders of wedding birds. I really love doing these. I remember how much fun it was planning my own wedding. We did so much of the work for my wedding ourselves and it came out so beautiful. But I really love all the color combinations that are used now -- so much more variety too!


Here is a cute painting my 6 year old did this morning while I finished up my bluebirds. She is using my watercolors this time and having fun with my messy palate. She is definitely a perfectionist so is not satisfied with what I find rather beautiful!



I wanted to share another nice Treasury on Etsy. This time it is a "buy and replace". It included one of my pottery chickens which someone purchased! It was created by tickledpinkknits. I love this cute knit wrist cuff from tickledpink's shop.

Ribbon drawer organizer project

I have noticed that a lot of my time is spent trying to find the materials I want to work with. So I thought I would work on a few organizer projects to make life easier for me. My first idea was to make something to organize my ribbon and lace collection. I thought a box frame with some dowels to put the spools onto would work nicely. We had saved a few of the old wooden drawers from our old kitchen cabinets. These would be perfect. I knew they would be good for something! The condition of the drawers weren't too good but I figured a little paint would work wonders. So here is my project...

Materials:

1. Old drawer
2. Wooden dowels (I used 1/4 inch but for wider drawers 3/8 inch would be better)
3. Wooden wheels or caps to fit on the end of the dowels that can be removed to add more ribbon spools
4. Ruler/T-square
5. Drill with bit to make holes in the drawer slightly larger than the dowel diameter
6. Paint primer
7. Top coat paint
8. Paint brush
9. Hand saw to cut the dowels to length
10. Sand paper



Steps:

1. Measure positions for the holes for the dowels. First I decided the depth within the drawer I wanted the dowels to sit. They need to be far enough out to allow for larger sized spools. I chose 3 inches from the back of the drawer. I made 3 marks down the side of the drawer 3 inches out and then with the ruler connected these marks to make a line.



I chose to space my holes 4 inches apart. Starting at the bottom of the drawer I measured and marked the spacing I wanted.


Then I made the same marking on the other side of the drawer.

2. Drill holes: With my cordless drill and a drill bit larger than my dowels I drilled holes at the positions I marked. Keep the drill straight vertically so the holes are straight. I had some tearout of the wood as the drill pushed through -- but I wasn't trying for perfection.



3. Before I started the finishing work I "dry" fit all the dowels just to make sure I had drilled the holes properly. Once the dowels were in position I marked the length I needed with a pencil so I could cut them to length. I used a hand saw to cut them.



4. Prepping the wood. I cleaned and sanded all the wood surfaces that were a little rough including the dowel ends. Then I brushed off the drawer so it was ready to paint. I also removed the old drawer handle and saved it to put on after the painting was finished.

5. Painting: First I painted the wood with a white primer paint. When all sides were finished and dried I painted the top coat. We have many old cans of paint around and I chose this Robin's egg blue. I did have to paint two coats to get the proper coverage. I chose not to paint the dowels because I was anxious to finish up on this project.

6. I replaced the drawer knob and fitted the dowels and their ends together. Then I added the spools of ribbons.




Yeah! All done! I was a little impatient and didn't organize the colors much but may do this later when I have more time -- or maybe not since I never have more time. I definitely want to make another because I have more spools to add. I have a few narrower drawers to use. Also I would like to add a square of fabric that hangs down from the top to cover the spools and protect from dust and sunlight. I set the drawer at the back of my work table and I love it!

What I would do differently -- next time... I think the dowels I used for the wider drawer were a little too small in diameter for the span of the drawer. They tend to sag a bit when I have a lot of heavier spools on them. And I think that the spacing of 4 inches might be a little tight -- 4.5 inches would be better.

Little Sunshine explores my garden treasures

I love overcast mornings so much for photographing items for my shop. It makes such a difference in the photos. I brought my little yellow bird, named Sunshine, out for a photo shoot early this morning. Instead of struggling to get 5 good pictures almost everyone I took was pretty.

Here she is sitting in my hypertufa bowl amongst the moss. I love the rounded stones we collected up along the coast of Maine. I still haven't filled in this bowl with plants yet but the moss is slowly spreading outward.




Here she is exploring my cement cast split leaf philodendron. This leaf was difficult to cast but I gave up on trying to get the slits and cast it as a solid leaf. I love how the green algae is filling in the indentations.




Here she is eying my hypertufa Tibetan stone. I love the rustic carving on this cairn. Eventually I would like to make a larger stone for one of the gardens. The creeping jenny that is dangling down the stone walls are so beautiful too. They are spreading like crazy too!


I think she likes the nasturtium as much as I do! I have them planted in an old metal chicken waterer (that rusted out and leaked). I planted some sedum in the ring at the bottom.






Sunshine has discovered my pitcher plant terrarium. Last fall I scooped up some of the pitcher plants my husband gave me for my birthday and planted them in this terrarium so I could enjoy them during the winter. They needed to be misted regularly (with rain water I collected) but did amazingly well. Collecting rain water during the winter was a little fun though! Of course they are loving the outdoors now and are doing so well that I decided to leave them in the terrarium. Every now and then a big rainstorm drowns them but then I just drain it out with a little tube (siphon).


I love these these bright red Impatiens that brighten up the garden all summer long. Sunshine is sitting in another leaf casting while she admires the garden.






She has found my bright blue glass globe and copper waterer. I love the blue on this copper sculpture. If connected to a hose water will come out the copper ring and everything will rotate as it sprinkles the garden. It was handcrafted by an artist in Maine and we bought it at a town craft fair as we were driving through.

Hot summer days!

The girls could barely move outside the pool yesterday it was so hot. So with a few neighborhood friends the pool was busy all day. My husband and I took turns keeping an eye on them.



We didn't do much house or yard work due to the heat but enjoyed a bit of reading and for me a little needle felting. I also did the final wet felting of some of the felted squares that I made in the early spring. With a little water and soap and two sheets of bubble wrap I rolled and squeezed until it firmed up quite nicely. I want to make some small purses with these. I took the bantam chicks out of their "house" and put them in a little wire pen that will help protect them from predators but give them a little chance to scratch in the grass and dirt.



These are a few pairs of wedding birds I am working on. One is a custom order.




We stayed up late playing "The Settlers of Cattan" with the girls in the air conditioned bedroom. It was a fun game now that the girls are getting the hang of it.

Summer days

We have been enjoying a few quiet days at home. Everyone in the family has been reading Harry Potter and I too have finished this morning. I really enjoyed this book so much. In a way I am sad its over.

I am still facinated by the treasuries on Etsy but have yet to catch one of my own. My little wedding birds are included in a new treasury called Primary Blue by cynmb.


This treasury includes a cool concrete relief sculpture of a light bulb by scenicartisans. I really love their work! This is a nice reminder to me that I should allocate a little free time to do some cement work that I love to do during the summer. I can't believe that it is already August. It looks like the girls will have a longer summer this year with the delay of school starting pushed back into mid-September due to the budget issues. As much as I like summer I know the girls will be anxious to be back with their friends too. And next summer we will pay with a much shortened summer.