A Weekend in Michigan

I got to have a little get-a-way to my parents' house in Michigan this past weekend.  This trip was originally booked so that Eric and I could run the CRIM (10 mile) race with Mom.  However, since Eric decided to coach football this year he was not able to come, but I decided I wanted to go anyway.  It was nice to have a weekend with my parents.  We managed to pack a ton of things into a short 3 days, from a football game, to some shopping @ Birch Run, several craft projects, and some good-old fashioned family time.

Friday we met my dad for lunch (where I was INCONVENIENTLY) stung by a yellow jacket).  Then Mom and I ran some errands before we headed to the DHS football game.  I was never able to make it to any games when my brother was in school so I never got to watch him do the halftime show since I was always in school. However, my dad informed me that the cadence that the DHS marching band marches to was composed by my brother as they were leaving the field after halftime.  I was most impressed.  Apparently my brother didn't like the old cadence, so he decoded to write a new one.  He graduated in '08 so 4 years later they are still using it. Unfortunately DHS lost 48-47 in the final seconds in an offense battle.

Saturday Mom and I ran the alternate CRIM.  It was at a huge outlet mall up in Birch Run =).  I know I know, that sounds terrible, but we put in several miles walking around the mall's huge outdoor campus.  Plus we got some REALLY great deals!  That evening we got to work on some craft projects.  For a few years I have wanted to make a jewelry holder for my earrings out of an antique picture frame and chicken wire, but I have never made uch of an effort to find an antique frame.  Well, my very crafty and now Pinterest-addicted mother suggested we go through some old frames she had in the attic to see if I liked any.  We found a beautiful oval-shaped frame (that hung in her room when she was growing up) that we fixed up and viola! a earring holder was born!

Sunday we just stayed around the house.  Summer is absolutely beautiful in Michigan, so we spent most of the day outside.  When we were sitting on the deck after lunch, Mom mentioned that she wanted to do a photo progression of an impatient using the flowers in one of her planters, but she could not get the pictures on her camera.  I pulled out my Nikon CoolPix camera and an hour later we had it done!

I even got to meet up with my brother on my way back to Bama on Monday.  He is co-oping in Atlanta this semester so I managed to meet up with him for lunch on my way home.  It was great to see him!  It's hard to think of my "little" brother being grown-up and on his own now!

Latest Pins

I know I have been MIA for the past few days, but it was for good reason: a very much enjoyed weekend at my parents' house (more on that to come tomorrow).

In the mean time, these are a few Pinterest projects/recipes I have had my eye on to do soon!

Bored Jar

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I know it says for kids, but I am thinking I could put tons of chores, or small  projects in there for any time I need something productive to do!

Paper Pumpkins

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 Photo Pumpkins

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I am so ready to decorate for fall!

 Ultimate Chocolate Chip Cookie n' Oreo Fudge Brownie Bar

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 Bacon Pancakes

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 Ribbon and Pearl Necklace

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I bought some strands of pearls at Michael's a few weeks ago and have been looking for a way to strong them!

 DIY Canvas

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 Invitation Ornament Keepsake

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I knew I hung onto the extras for a reason!

Burlap Monogram

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Our Trip to Maine: Part 2 of 4

A Wonderful Time with Wonderful Family

After our adventures in Portland, Freeport and Bar Harbor, we headed up toward "the camp" Lake Ambajejus and Millinocket.  We were greeted by a flurry of family members, mostly familiar faces, but some we had never met before. I think over the course of the weekend there were 26 family members who made it up there.  We all stayed at either "the camp" (that's what Uncle Dick's cabin is called) or at the Big Moose Lodge (aah-ooh!).  Our part of the family (my grandparents and all of our extended family) stayed at Katahdin House, which was literally right across the street from the camp.

Katahdin House

It was perfect!  Each family had their own room, and we had a HUGE living room/dining room area so we could spread out easily.  

Most of our days were spent just hanging out, enjoying ourselves and enjoying the company at the camp.  They were having a "heat wave" while we were there so we didn't venture too far from the lake. However, it did make for warm nights in the house (thankfully Eric found box fans that we stuck in the windows of the rooms).

The view from the camp. Breathtaking!

The view from the camp.

The view.

Uncle Dick's boat.  

The ducks who hang out and eat all of the wild blueberries.

Mt. Katahdin from the boat.

My mom's Uncle Dick (we were @ his place).

Mom got to kayak (she may or may not have fallen out and I may or may not have photo evidence mwahahah!)

There was A LOT of this going on!

Eric and my uncle decided that my other uncle needed to wake up from his nap, so they woke him up with the hose.

 Carmen and Uncle Dick entertained us with stories of their childhood!  I could have listened for hours!

Of course we had a kid launch.

She is a good 6.5 feet in the air.

Getting some air!

 Charlie!

There were several s'mores.

And even more burnt marshmallows.

And of course beautiful sunsets (this one just happened to have my handsome hubby the in it).

It doesn't get much prettier than this!

Kayaking at sunset. 

This is a little preview of the next post.  It has something to do with the float plane in the picture!

Math Test

If you ask my husband he will tell you I am terrible at math.  However, that is only half true.  I cannot, nor have I EVER pretended that I could do math in my head.  Simple addition, subtraction, multiplication and division are not a problem.  However, you throw carrying numbers into the mix and I get completely lost.  I am also convinced that I have number dyslexia (if that is even a real thing) because I can switch the numbers of a phone number if I am looking right at them while dialing.  I am a visual learner so it is very difficult for me to do complex math without actually seeing the numbers in front of me.  However, give me a pencil and a piece of paper (calculator is nice) and I can solve most problems.

My FSIL is teaching Order of Operations in her classroom and gave her students an extremely complex expressions to simplify (remember Please Excuse My Dear Aunt Sally:  parentheses, exponents, multiply/divide, add/subtract?)  I was helping her put some stuff for school together this weekend and decided I was going to take on the problem myself.  Well I messed up the first time, so I took it home with me (homework, I know) and simplified it last night....I felt so proud!  So for all of the math nerds like me out there here's the expression.  The answer is 1.  GO!

A Crafty Weekend

Since our men decided to go on manly camping/fishing/hunting trips this weekend, Tera and I decided we would make this weekend a crafting weekend, and an extremely productive crafting weekend it was!

After 2 straight weekends of turning my latest DIY Pinterest Pins into my own crafts, I told myself I would take it easy this weekend and give my crafting closet a rest. That idea lasted until Thursday night when I found a tutorial on making photo coasters out of tiles and resin.  You see, I'd had my eye on another tile coaster project that used paint samples all week, but figured it would be a pretty pricey project so I had decided to not bother.  That was until I saw that I could get tiles for around $.20ea, um hello?  that's less than $1 per tile, the paint samples are free, and I had a 50% off coupon from Jo-Ann's show up in my inbox Friday.  I took all of those things as a sign from above that I was supposed to make coasters this weekend.  So we set out Saturday to collect our supplies, and by Sunday afternoon this was the result!

Set #1 -- found this paper on clearance 

(an entire pack of Mod Podge tissue paper for $.89-yet another sign)

Set #2--made with paint samples

(I added our monogram with some letters I cut out with my Cuttlebug

Saturday night we went to a Paint Party at the dance studio we teach at.  I was pretty pleased with my results. just not sure where I am going to put it, the guest bathroom maybe?. Isn't she gorgeous!?

Sunday we wanted to put a couple more coats of Modge Podge on out coasters, and after that we decided to embark on another DIY Pinterest Pin, a Star Wreath. They were super cute and cheap to make, but very labor intensive.  We will definitely invest in a star die cut before we do any mass producing of these (I already have my eye on one from Sizzix)!

side view

I can totally see these going up seasonally.  I am going to have to get some Christmas scrapbook paper out!

We finished off the weekend with the Season Finale of The Glee Project, and they ended up giving guest spots to ALL of the Top 4 contestants, which was awesome because all 4 were great and they were all so different that they would all be pretty cool characters!  Now if DirectTV and Fox would get over their petty differences, I could watch Glee on a regular basis!

Our Trip to Maine: Part 1 of 4

A Couple of Days on the Atlantic Coast

I am embarrassed that it has taken me almost a month to share these pictures.  My grandma's (mom's mom) family decided to have a family reunion this year, which I was pretty excited about.  Because we all live all over the country it is difficult for our family to get together more than once a year--add in 2 more families with college & beyond aged children, and a get-together seems nearly impossible.

When my mom's family was together at Christmas for my grandpa's surprise 80th birthday party, we started planning a family reunion in Maine in July.  Why Maine?  Well aside from it being an absolutely beautiful place (as I found out last month) it is where my grandma grew up, and where her brother still has a cabin in a place called Millinocket, on Lake Ambejejus at the foot of Mt. Katahdin (one of the ends of the Appalachian Trail). Quite a mouthful, I know.

Map from the Maine Office of Tourism

We flew into Portland, ME, on Wednesday and met my parents and brother.  They had a chance to scope out the area the day before so they took us to a great restaurant right on the water called the Portland Lobster Company.  They had picnic tables lined up and you got your food and drink at a little hut.  They gave you these cute lobster that would light up when your food was ready.

Eric also got to have an ever-popular lobster roll (the first of many).

We did a little shopping in Portland (such a cute little place!) and loaded up to head Freeport to the headquarters of L.L. Bean (and a few other outlet stores).  

Us with the giant boot @ L.L. Bean

 Ready for school!

We found a few things we could not live without but only stayed for a few hours because we still had a 2 hours drive to Bar Harbor.  It was absolutely beautiful there.  We stayed at a hotel right on the water.

Eric and I on our balcony

 The view to the left

 The view to the right

It was absolutely beautiful there.  The next day we wanted to go on a tour of the Bar Harbor Brewery but tours did not start until 2pm and we had to be out of the hotel by 10am.  We resolved the problem with a trip to Bar Harbor Cellars Winery for a wine tasting!  It was quite tasty, too!  They had the traditional wines, but they also had several fruit wines like Blueberry (made with Maine blueberries) and Cranberry Apple Wine.  They were all delicious, and yes we purchased a few bottles to take with us. 

After the wine tasting we had a little more time to kill, so we ventured into downtown Bar Harbor.  The boys decided to find a bar to try out the local brews, while Mom and I did some more shopping (of course!).  We met up with the boys @ The Thirsty Whale Tavern.  It was here that I decided to bite the bullet and try my first lobster roll.  Unfortunately my taste buds were not as excited about it as my mind was.  I don't know if I was expecting it to be warm or the texture or a combination of both, but I will be alright if I do not eat another lobster roll in my lifetime. Call me crazy, but I am ok with it. 

Ready for a day in Bar Harbor

My ill-fated Lobster Roll...it looked so pretty!

After lunch, we headed to the Bar Harbor Brewing Company for a tour of their distillery and to sample some of their wares.  The short and sweet, which made the boys happy. The tasting was an interesting experience.   They gave us mini-dixie cups to sample each beer in, I mean how much beer could they put in it, right?  For some reason, the guy who was pouring the samples got a heavy hand every time he filled my cup up.  I thought it was just my imagination at first but my dad, Eric and my brother all noticed it after the 3rd sample.  I would have twice as much as they did. I am not much of a beer fan (I am a wine kinda girl), so I ended up trading cups with either Eric or my brother several times after they had finished their cups (they did not complain).

After the beer tasting we were off to the Big Moose Lodge (ahh-ooh!) by Lake Ambajejus for some great family fun!  But that will have to wait for another day!  Buy I leave you with this beautiful sunset on Lake Ambajejus!