New England, I've missed you...

I've run off to New England and I don't want to go back to the South!  I'm on day 7 of an 11 day trip to Vermont and Connecticut.

It started with a trip up to Vermont to see my sister graduate from college, and now I'm enjoying a week long stay with my lovely husband in historic Hartford, CT.  I absolutely love New England in the springtime, and it's even sweeter to see since our spring at home in the South has already wound down and the 90+ degree days have descended upon us.

I'd show pictures, but I've already gotten kicked off of the hotel internet twice in 2 days - once for checking my email (apparently my email program offends the internet gods at this hotel) and the other time either from using too much bandwidth looking at CNN or my friend's craft blog.

The drive up was long but enjoyable.  We like to take the scenic route (a family trait) so we take the interstate through the VA mountains and western PA, no I-95 corridor for us!  The small town of Clinton, NJ was the overnight stopping point, and I really have to suggest stopping there if anyone happens to go through.  The downtown area is really cute and I can't get over all the gorgeous Victorian houses.

The highlight of NJ was stopping to see a friend and her brand new 3 week old baby.  It was so funny seeing a tiny baby (I haven't seen one that new or that little in a really really long time) and I can't wait to make lots of cute little dresses for her!  Her baby was a perfect little angel while I visited, just sleeping and making cute faces while I held her for almost an hour.  The thing about babies is that even though they're cute, they do an awful lot of crying and projectile pooping.  That's important stuff to keep in mind.

Vermont has been getting more than its fair share of rain and snow melt, so Lake Champlain is 2.5 feet above flood stage.  My sister's summer job is on hold because even though the restaurant floats, the dock is flooded so no one can get to it.  I have some pictures of the lake with the crazy flooding, but again, with this extremely finicky internet connection, I have to wait to share!  Again, I was obsessed with all of the Victorian houses and even though I've been up there many times, it's still amazing to see.  It's hard to see college kids living in these great old houses with turrets and amazing trim work and slate tiles... and hanging their ugly hippie tapestries all over and having a general layer of college filth and grime on top of everything.  Maybe one day I'll live in a gorgeous painted lady with a turret and stop being jealous of these college kids... but for now I'll settle for our cute brick ranch : )

I've got big plans for Hartford too... there are lots of historic buildings to see!

rain, rain... do I want you to go or stay?

We're in the midst of a very rainy week.  I am so happy for that because of all of the plants I have recently planted... we need the water when we can get it before we head full on into the hot dry summer!  On the other hand, I'm having a personal problem this week with a leaky pipe in the kitchen wall and trying to dry out the crawlspace and subfloor is harder when it's raining!

You can't even imagine the feeling of minding your own business on the back patio painting some shelves and suddenly seeing water come pouring out of the bricks on the side of your house!  It was absolutely crazy seeing the house peeing.  Luckily I knew immediately that it was the drainage pipe for the dishwasher and kitchen sink because the dishwasher was mid-cycle, so there wasn't an emergency need for a plumber.  I just stopped using them until the plumber came in the morning.  I have no idea how long the leaking has been going on - I'm not often washing dishes while standing on the back patio.  It's a small miracle that I happened to be there to find out what's been going on!

There are a few wet floor joists and wet subfloor under the kitchen, but it only spans 3 joists and comes out about 2' from the wall - not a huge area.  We set up my dad's dehumidifier in the crawlspace and now I get to attend to the pleasurable task of going down there 3x daily to empty it!  I'm thankful that our crawlspace is around 3' high, much better than a lot of them.  I'm also glad that this was an exterior wall on a brick house that's 1 story.  It's like the least damaging scenario for a big water leak!

fun video clip of the new water feature on the back of our house!

Before the plumbing excitement, I was doing more interesting things...

Project:  Dog Bowl Cover - age 3ish years?

Our dog has occasionally gotten his collar tags stuck in the metal frame of his dog bowl holder.  I've had a yucky towel laying over the frame for a couple of years now to prevent that from happening, and I finally decided to make a proper top. 

The new wooden cover was outside while the paint dried and somehow in the 4 hours that the dog bowl frame was not protected by anything he managed to completely upend it.  I have seen this happen a few times and it's crazy - and really upsetting to our dog when he ends up wearing the frame as a necklace!  I was out to dinner and found this scene when I got home.  I have no idea how he managed to get one bowl perfectly inside the other.

The new frame.  It's so cute looking because I used the spray paint left over from our wedding table numbers!  I was very proud of my jigsaw skills.  Very disappointed that my screw for the underneath support very nearly popped through (you can see it in the front part).  Maybe if we got around to organizing the tools better (or at least into one location) I'd have used the proper length screws instead of scrounging up the least inappropriately sized screws I could find.

The new frame cover in action.  Tommy is looking on approvingly, wondering why it has taken years to make this happen!  The water bowl is too big because it pre-dates our frame.  After this photo, I finally went to the pet store and got a bowl that is the right size so the cats would quit sloshing it around when they lean on it.

If you think this is cute, wait till you see the shelf I made for above the stove!

April showers brought my May flowers!

The weather has been so great the past week that's I've been spend a lot of time outside - before we get hit with the summer heat.  I shared the work on the shed already and now I'm going to show off my work from the past couple of years as my perennials are popping up!  I've planted many new ones too, but they aren't much to look at yet so I'll share pictures of the new additions later.

Canna Lilies with Elephant Ears in the background

Astors with fading Daffodil greenery in between

I'm very excited about the cosmos re-seeding from last year.  It was so unexpected to see, I actually plucked a couple thinking they were weeds but then noticed the whole area had them and recognized the cosmos foliage!

Kopper King Hibiscus

Snapdragon

May Night Salvia

Hydrangeas (they will be a surprise since I forgot what the blooms look like thanks to being gone last spring and summer!)

project: shed - continued

We had another beautiful day so I spent most of it outside working on the shed.  Yesterday, I got it all prepped for paint so I was ready to go this morning!  Despite forgetting to bring my paint swatch with me, I did get the right paint color on my shopping trip this morning.

In the interest of full disclosure, I have to admit that I have only painted the half of the shed that we can see.  The back and other side are on hold because of all the vegetation and fallen limbs back there.  It would be another big project just to gain enough access to pressure wash and paint!  I might do that in the fall.

This is how the shed looked on April 7th, with falling shutters and gigantic boxwoods.

The tree guys came on April 8 to take down the two aged redbuds and take out the boxwoods in front of the shed... a great improvement - sort of - now you can really see how crap our shed looks!

This morning's fresh coat of the top strength primer that Kilz had to offer.  It's looking good already!

I love the new color!  I still have to do the second coat, but here's a peek at the new look.  I'm not planning to put shutters back up because non-functional shutters that are just screwed to siding make me twitchy.  Especially when they clearly aren't sized to even pretend to cover the window!  

Instead, I'm going to get a trellis for each side of the window so that I can grow some peas and morning glory flowers up it and I plan to paint the trellis to match the door.  I'm also going to make a flower box for under the window and paint it to match the door.  I've had this idea of making a garden in the now empty space in front of the shed... we'll see how quickly that happens!

Most importantly, here's a photo of the beautiful flowers that Bob sent for Mother's Day.  True, I'm not a mother to human babies but we have 3 furry babies that I take care of!  I'm also taking the opportunity to show off our cool couch and the wall installation I did this winter!

These are the very lovely farmers market flowers that my mom brought over for the Mother's Day brunch I had for her and my mother in law.

project: shed

It's been a busy week for our shed.  It's pretty big at 12'x16' - probably the size of some people's NY apartments!  We put down a new floor on Tuesday which only took about 4 hours including hauling everything out of the shed and putting it back on.  Today I pressure washed and scraped paint on the front and side of the exterior and I'm hoping to get it primed and painted in the next few days!  For now, it just looks like I've ruined the outside of the shed.

Can I just say how amazing it is to be able to walk around the shed and not have to be on the lookout for all the holes in the floor?  It was really dangerous because the floor is just over a foot off the ground so I think that you really could get hurt stepping through a hole!  It's still a bit bouncy as you walk across, but that's what you get from 6" wide floor joists I guess.  We just put the plywood on top of the MDF, agreeing that since it's just a shed, it wasn't worth the hassle of removing all the MDF and putting in wider floor joists.  Lazy or practical?  You can judge, but I don't care : )

 

the original shed floor made of MDF - not a good choice!

Looking good, the first two pieces of plywood down!

the old media shelving boat gets a perfect new life here in the shed!

the exterior after the scraping and pressure washing... it looks totally wrecked but the paint is hardly stuck to the plywood at all and keeps flaking off!

Royal Wedding Party

I was very excited about the royal wedding, but not excited enough to get up before dawn to watch.  That's why we've had a DVR for years and what the royal wedding viewing party was for.  I stayed so busy all day with preparing for the party that I actually didn't even cheat and look online to see the dress ahead of the party.

The tea party we threw to celebrate the wedding of Prince William and Kate Middleton was so fun!  Three friends and I went all out figuring out a good British tea party menu, a royal wedding pub trivia game, and fish and chips to eat while watching the (recorded) wedding coverage.  Including us, there were 24 invited and 13 said they'd be able to come... it turned out to be a good sized party!

The menu:

cucumber sandwiches
egg mayonnaise sandwiches (egg salad to us Americans)
spicy cheese crackers
tea biscuits (crackers to us)
cheese
grapes

scones

clotted cream

preserves

shortbread and lemon cream cheese pastries

cinnamon streusel mini cakes

linzer cookies

trifle

Eton Mess (whipped cream stirred with strawberries and meringue cookies)

a selection of teas (of course)

lemonade

Pimms

cider

champagne

Our party was slated to start at a totally reasonable 4pm tea time which of course we were behind schedule on - thank goodness most of the guests were arriving around 6...  by the time we all had a good chat and enjoyed the tea party fare then did the royal family pub trivia, we didn't start watching the wedding coverage until 9pm!  We finally got hungry for the fish and chips partway into the wedding viewing but TRAGICALLY after all that we were too full to even attempt to eat any trifle or Eton mess. The nice bit about hosting a party is that you get to snack on the leftovers all day the next day.

Also, I'd choose hosting a party that out partied itself any day over a party that ran out of food and entertainment too early.  So we ended up with the good side of that coin even though it meant lots of extra dessert and a very late night!

It was a really classy affair (except for the paper napkins) and we even got to use the hand-me-down glass plates that have been stored untouched in the china cabinet for years.

See the biscuit server between the cheese and melba toasts... you have to love a little silver basket shaped specifically for serving crackers!  We're also admiring the re-use of the paper peonies that decorated the arbor at our wedding last year : )

Other than the sandwiches, linzer cookies, crackers, and cinnamon cakes, everything was gluten free (meaning my kitchen was quite busy for the two days before the party!)

mmmmmm clotted cream, lemon curd, and raspberry and strawberry preserves

mmmmmmm homemade cream biscuits (gluten free naturally) - and the adorable size was achieved by using a champagne flute to cut the biscuits out : )

I was really thrilled to get to use a lot of the silver, china, and crystal fancy serving dishes and platters that belonged to my grandmother.  I also got to pull out my variety of demitasse spoons which are my absolute favorite.  Who doesn't love tiny spoons?

adorable silver servers, tiny spoons and my grandmother's sugar tongs *love*

Lindsay's tea pots with very sweet tea cozies knitted by her mother

A last minute find at the store - the most perfect and adorable set of wine glass charms ever - they come in a set of 12 and are different flower shapes and colors.  They looked so perfect and lovely with my daisy china and were definitely needed since everyone had the matching tea cups!

Most importantly, I finally got to wear my totally amazing hat.  I got it at the silent auction at a Costume Society symposium 4 years ago and have been waiting to create the occasion to wear it ever since.  I decorated with more hats in the TV room!

Thanks Wills and Kate!

*ahem*  I mean Prince William and Catherine, Duchess of Cambridge

final draping project reveal!

I am so glad I started my final project for draping class early (early for me anyway.)  Last week, I spent a few hours on Sunday, a few on Monday, and basically all day and into the night on Tuesday working on my project - and finished before midnight on Tuesday!  All told, I think I spent just under 20 hours on it which I feel like is a lot!

The dress!  It's very cute but I realized too late that it has a sheer overlay and would then be twice as much work and use twice as much fabric!  

Testing the bodice and skirt before working on the sleeve and collar.  The skirt is a circle skirt with decorative pleats

tracing the muslin onto pattern paper

they're wondering why I'm not done yet!

Pinning the muslin back together, all ready to turn in with the paper pattern and finished piece

Tracing the pattern pieces onto my fabrics, cursing again because last year I ordered 3 rolls of light blue tracing paper and they sent me dark blue (but I didn't care enough to return it) and it's pretty bold on my white fabrics.  Good thing it's just a half a dress for a project, not one for me to wear!

The finished product!  It looks like the picture, but is not nearly as svelte looking on my size 14 dress form as compared to the fashion drawing : (

Using silk organza instead of polyester would make the skirt flow out of the pleats better, but was way out of budget : )  

The breakdown:  

sleeve - 4 pattern pieces

bodice - only 2 pattern pieces because the sheer was flatlined onto the opaque

skirt lining - a flared skirt with 2 pattern pieces

sheer skirt - circle skirt with pleats, 2 pattern pieces

collar - 1 pattern, cut of sheer and opaque

adventures by train

It's been a few weeks now, but I am finally going to make mention of my trip to Baltimore!  I had another great experience with Amtrak, taking the train each way and also a quick train trip up to Newark over the weekend.  I wish our culture would value quality of travel over speed and take advantage of how civilized the travel is on a train!

Probably the most amazing thing about my train trip was the fact that a baby was right in front of me and a toddler was right behind me and for the entire 7 hour trip to Baltimore there was no shrieking, crying, or any other annoying behavior that's so prevalent with little ones on airplanes!  Overall, it was such a nice and relaxing way to travel.  I especially liked the part going into DC where we could see all the cars stuck in traffic as we kept zipping along!  I made a whole list of all the reasons trains are way cooler than planes:

1.  The super lenient luggage policy.  You could move a small apartment on the train for very little cost.  You can carry on 2 bags up to 28" tall, and your two carry ons do not include purse/briefcase etc.  You can also check 3 bags that are up to 36" tall for free, and if that still doesn't do it, you can check an additional 3 bags up to 36" tall for a MERE $10 each.

2. good scenery

3. No stupid 3-1-1 rules about liquids.  You could pack your carryon bags full of water and shampoo and they don't care!

4. Use whatever electronics whenever you want!  And there are outlets at each seat so you can charge your electronics!

5.  You can get some good exercise walking through the cars and down to the cafe car.

6.  It's so quiet.  My headphones didn't have to be at a deafening decibel level to drown out the engine noise like on a plane.

7.  The bathrooms are twice as big as on a plane, and there's a handicap one on each car.  Also, there are coat hooks in the bathroom.

8.  water fountain!

9.  Within 30 minutes of arriving at the train station, I checked my bag and got on the train - and didn't have to take off my shoes, belt, jewelry, and get patted down or have to unpack my stuff to send it through any metal detector.

10.  There's leg room for days compared to the average airplane!

I love trains!

Our hotel room in Baltimore was awesome because it was on a corner, so we had 2 walls of windows.  It may seem silly to mention this, but it also had one of the nicest bathrooms I've seen in a hotel.  The wallpaper was beautiful, the pedestal sink was so nice, and who doesn't love subway tile?

 One of my favorite things in Baltimore was this building which presumably was a firehouse.  The architecture alone is gorgeous, but we were walking quickly by because there was a bum sitting in the front looking like he was about to start talking to us.  Out of the corner of my eye, I somehow caught sight of the detail on the capital of the columns and stopped in my tracks.  From afar, they look like regular old decorated capitals, but up close you can see that they're decorated with little firemen!  There is a fireman holding a ladder on the left side and two firemen holding a hose in the middle.  How amazing!

We went to the B&O Train Museum which was really cool.  The roundhouse is shiny and new due to a snowstorm collapse of the roof on the original a few years ago.  There were so many neat trains both inside and out.  One of the most interesting to me was this clearance car which was used to determine how much tunnels needed widening for the new larger trains.  The iron spikes stood out on all sides so they could tell how much bigger the tunnel needed to be!

I also quite liked this tiny building that has a parking deck built up around it. It's the University Police office now I guess, but I wonder what the history of the building has been!

I had a great time and was so excited to see lots of people!  I got to see my cousins for two dinners and a lunch, have dinner with an old friend from college, and also pop up to New Jersey to see a good friend who was about to have a baby (which she did this past Friday!)

No wonder I was too tired to share my trip until now : )