Girls Day Out

I went out today with my friends Nicole and Tracy. We went to the farmers market and an antique and art festival in a town nearby.

The farmer's market was not too crowded. We got there earrrrrrly.

I love red. Especially when it tastes good.

There were so many beautiful plants...

...and vegetables.

We then moved on to the antique fair.

So many things to buy, so little time and money.

This event was held at a place called the Roycroft Campus. It is a very historical area of Western New York. In the late 1800's/early 1900's, a man named Elbert Hubbard started a guild of craftsmen who were artisans and wanted to live together and work on their crafts together. They started the "Arts and Craft" style of decorative arts. You can read more about the history of the campus here.

Some photos of the original campus buildings.

This particular building is being rebuilt. It was the original power house and generated heat and electricity for all the buildings on the campus. It suffered a fire in 1997 and some weather damage so it needed to be rebuilt. The project is nearly done.

Another part of the campus is the Roycroft Inn.

We usually come here for our anniversary to have dinner. It is so astoundingly beautiful inside, you can barely stand it.

We have never eaten outside. I guess we always go at a busy time of day and they put us inside. I also remember rain one year. 

The gardens are something else.

There also was a craft show, made up mostly of people who are Roycroft artisans.

I absolutely love all the Arts and Craft style furniture and home decor.

The town this campus is located in is one of the most beautiful and unique towns around here. So many residents embrace the Roycroft history and have reflected this in their homes and gardens. If  money were no object, I would buy an old bungalow there and fill it with Roycroft furniture. After spending a day there, I want to take my little Cape Cod home and remodel the whole thing into an Arts and Crafts home. Lol. (I think my husband would move out). I love the oak wood and how these artisans can make new wood look old.

So, in the long run today, I spent $47.50. I got...

Strawberries and cherries.

Shelling peas.

A new perennial called a Centranthus.

A really cool, milky type glass juicer (you know, the fetish).

A footed salt cellar for THAT collection.

A few prisms. I wish I would have gotten more of them but I couldn't because my arms were full of...

...THIS! I have wanted a cute old typewriter for so long. This was calling out my name.

I also spent $3 for a cheeseburger.

So, a day of fun with my friends for $50.50. But the fun with friends part, priceless.

I leave you with some of my crazy firework photos from last night. It was pouring so my dad and I sat in the car while the rest of the family stood out in the park in the rain.

I thought this one looked like a string of Christmas bulbs.

My girl thinks this one looks like a flower.

This looks like flying stick men to me. Lol.

The smoke couldn't rise because the clouds and rain were in the way.

I thought we had a great view from the car. Nothing was blocking our view. Every year we end up sitting behind the same tree and not being able to see. Now I know where to sit. Lol.

Now we are off to a graduation party! Enjoy the rest of your Saturday!

Summer Work

This summer, I have several projects that I need to work on.

The first is a re-do in the screened porch.

We have vinyl siding on our house. It's pale yellow. I did not pick it out. The house was like that when we bought it. I have been dying for years to take the siding off in the screened porch to see what was underneath it.

This is it. Light yellow clapboards. I was hoping for barn red. Plain or varnished wood. Anything different. But its exactly the same. So I started sanding and filling nail holes. I'm planning on painting it all white.

Need to get the ceiling done.

When we moved in, there was a fiber board ceiling in here that we pulled down. I always wanted to have it sprayed white. But I am now looking for quick fix so I think I'm going to put bead board up.

The floor is in not-so-good shape.

It's "remnants of brown" brown. I'm leaning towards gray or bluish gray for the color. Only thing is, it's been raining again lately so it may not be dry enough to paint it. I'm hoping next Wednesday will be nice because I'm off work.

I also have this table and chair set that used to be in my kitchen.

 I didn't like it when it was in the house and I don't really like it much more outside. I'm hoping to paint this as well, though I'm not sure I'll get to it since there is so much to be done. It has to stay since we eat out there everyday in the summer. It also serves as the game table when we play Dominoes or Scrabble.

One more thing is this glider I garbage picked a long time ago.

We have a big futon mattress we put on it every year, but it's really large and takes up so much space. I should probably buy or make cushions for it, but I have the feeling the family will be against that since the futon makes it really comfy and we like to take naps and read there. Maybe next year for that. I always debate painting it, but its such a cool old green and I really like it.

Wish me luck to get it all done before my 4th of July party!

Last night I went to the grand opening of the new Anthropologie store in our area. I am so excited to get a new retailer in our part of New York. The store was quite beautiful visually and all the clothing and home goods were wonderful. It will be nice to have a new store in our area to shop in. We never seem to get the really special stores that I would love to go to. It will be very hard to come away from the mall without picking up something there.

I loved this juicer I saw there. I have a fetish for them.

 

Photos from Anthropologie.com

This skirt I saw in the store was gorgeous. One of the sales ladies was wearing it and it looked great on her. Might just have to get it before the trip to the Cape this year.

Since we had some hot weather before the rain, my daughter was making cool drinks for us this week. I pulled out one of my old Martha magazines and we found three pages of cool summer drinks.

The first one she made was this blueberry smoothie.

All it takes is:

1/2 cup blueberries

1/2 cup low fat vanilla yogurt

1/2 cup skim milk

2 tablespoons honey

5 small ice cubes

Mix all ingredients in a blender until smooth. Serve immediately in tall glasses.

 It was delicious!

The next day she made a sweet frozen drink called "Latin Lover", but I didn't get any pics of it.

Tomorrow I am off to an antique fair and artisan show with some friends. I will make sure to take my camera so I can show you!

Have a great Friday! Fireworks in my hometown tonight! Can't wait, it always signals the start of summer for me.

Catching Up

So I've been away for a while. I've been a little out of sorts still. I don't seem to feel that I have the time to spend with my blog entries. I have barely even gone on the Internet much at all in the last month or so. My email inbox keeps piling up. Once again I've been keeping up with meals and the basics and that's just about it. We had such a depressing and rainy May here in Western New York that I didn't have the drive to do anything.

It could also be that danged fibromyalgia. It has never wiped me out before. I would get a flare up once every other month, pain in my wrists or knees or elbows. But lately, it has been giving me constant pain. I have really never taken anything for it. Working in the pharmacy has enlightened me to side effects from medications. It has always turned me off. But lately, I've been thinking I should go see the doctor and get something for this. I just don't want to become dependant on anything. But I really need to be able to live a better life I guess. I started taking Vitamin B12 and it seems to be helping me get my energy back. This past weekend I got my flowers planted and that made me feel a lot better.

So, here is what we have been up to.

We went to Colonial Williamsburg. It was such a nice relief from the terrible spring we had. Although, the weather took another month to get better after we came back.

It was beautiful there, as usual.

The gardens were amazing. Made me want to change my whole property.

The huge brick mansion would be a great start. Lol

Wouldn't it be nice to have this lovely walkway in your yard?

They really know how to grow things there.

I guess it helps when you have the sun. :)

We came home just in time for Easter.

There is no shortage of bunnies in my house.

Even ones that dance and serve tea at the same time.




 

I used the Meyer lemon juice I froze in March to make this delight.

Meyer Lemon Crepe Cake

One of those dishes that I define as "I can't believe I made something that tastes this good."

You can find the recipe from Martha Stewart here .

It was a lot of work. But worth it. Luckily I cleaned the house thoroughly before we went away, knowing full well I was having my family here for Easter, so all I had to do was food prep when we got home.

We had another birthday for Baby Girl.

She's a teenager now. :(

Red velvet cake. Mmmm. Also, my Mother's Day cupcake in the foreground there. All from our favorite bakery.

 

 

 

Then the day finally came when the cherry blossoms opened. I left the Christmas lights up so that I could see how this looked. It was beautiful. Now the flowers are gone but the tree still looks pretty all lit up through the leaves. The girls say it looks great so I'm leaving it for now. If it looked dorky or all "hey don't you know it's not Christmas anymore", they would definitely tell me.

Oh, so pretty. Too bad the rain started again two days later and pulled all the blossoms down before they could be pollinated. I hardly saw any bees. I'm not sure if there is a problem with the tree or what, but I sure miss the cherries.

My crazy brother Michael came to town for a day. Long story short, he came to pick up a piece of furniture that my Dad made since his friend had a rental truck that was going from New Jersey to Idaho and this was his only chance to move it to Portland.

His son met him in Idaho with his truck and loaded it up for the remaining drive to Oregon. Michael also picked up my grandparents old radio to take to my other brother Donald in Washington.

Isn't it so cool?

So my Dad's house is two pieces of furniture lighter. Lol. 600 to go.

I bought some new hostas for my front gardens. I was more concerned with how the water stayed like this on the leaves than anything.

 Anyhoo, these plants were huge so I divided them and got six instead of three.

We also had a dance recital.

Flash photography was not allowed and it was very dark in the theatre. So, sorry, the pic is not exactly what I wanted it to be.

We never had a recital before. Watching Irish dancing was never really promoted and at competition you are not allowed to record since there must have been some cheating and copying of steps in the past so grandparents and aunts and uncles never really got to see the team dances unless there was a special occasion.

Big V joined a local dance studio with some of her old friends from Irish dance so they had a lot of fun. Hip hop is sooooooo different. Much more relaxed.

So, that is it my friends. Two months gone by. Not too much to report.

If anyone is still tuning in here, I am thankful for you.
I know my MIL is. She's sticking with me. Lol.
Thanks Flobie!