Aaaaah the beach

I got to go to the beach at Plum Island on both Saturday and Sunday a couple weekends ago. It was so nice! I brought snacks:

Reading material:
And my camera (this isn't my chair):
And just hung out for 3 hours or so each day. Very nice and relaxing. :) Too bad the water is so damn cold...

Whale watching 2

I went whale watching today with my colleagues. It was a "team building" activity. I was really nervous, as you might remember, that I was going to get really seasick, but I was actually totally fine! I took 2 Dramamine tablets the night before and then 2 that morning and didn't feel the least bit nauseous. There were some people, however, who were not looking so hot. They had this slight greenish look to their skin. I felt so bad for them! Lord knows I've been there so many times. The key is to have Dramamine in your system since the day before. I've taken it just an hour before activity, as recommended on the bottle, but it does NOT work. At least not for me. I've always gotten seasick, but this time I was determined to not get sick! It worked.

Anyway, here are some pictures I took while we were out. Next time I go, I'm taking my nice Canon to take super close ups! The day was absolutely perfect too. We really lucked out. Check it out:

Manchester by the Sea

Manchester by the Sea is this wonderful little town near the coast on Route 127 in Massachusetts. It's very quaint with this great, great, great, used book store. I could've spent hours in there! It's cleverly called "Manchester by the Book." I loved it! Definitely have to go back. It's also architecturally beautiful. Check out their library:

Isn't it gorgeous? This is the Historical Society, which is just as beautiful:

We walked around the neighborhoods, admiring all the beautiful houses and gardens. We bought lemonade from these little girls who were selling some in front of their house. Very cute! Only 30 cents too!! We finished off the day relaxing on a bench, looking over the water at all the boats and kayaks and admiring the beautiful tricks the light was playing in the sky.

I think I can get used to New England.

Blueberry picking

We were driving through the countryside yesterday and saw a sign for blueberry picking so we stopped. It was a beautiful farm with hundreds of blueberry and raspberry bushes. They also grow blackberries, which I love, but they won't be ready for picking until August. We were given a bucket with a plastic bag in it to fill with wonderfully fresh, juicy blueberries. They are as sweet and tasty as they look!

We also stopped at a farmer's stand, which was selling fruits and vegetables. We got some sweet peas (sorry for that dark photo) and shelled them last night. Can't wait to have these!

Memorial Day Weekend 1

I'm sorry I haven't been online much lately. I just started a new job, which requires an hour and a half commute each way and it's such a heavy workload I barely have time to eat lunch everyday! But I like it. That's what's important. Once I get a routine down, though, it'll be much less hectic!

If you're wondering whose adorable face that is up there, it's Bumper. We dog sat this last weekend and I FINALLY got a decent picture of him! This one's my favorite:Isn't he cute???? This is his mommy, Angelina:
She was refusing to look at the camera for a picture. You can just see the diva attitude! Finally, I had my sister-in-law, Kristen, hold her in a "pose". :)
Speaking of Kristen, we invited her to stay with us while we house/dog sat. It was a lot of fun. We spent the entire weekend eating and........well, basically eating! It was great!! Here's Kristen climbing a tree:

That's about as far as she got! hahaha :) We had a good time. I'll post some pictures of the gardens soon. (I promise!)

Hope you all had a good time too. What did you do?

Buzzer

When we moved into our apartment a couple of weeks ago, it had the cutest doorbell and buzzer. Unfortunately, my husband tried it out a couple times and the buzzer didn't seem to work well, so we called the landlord and asked him to repair it.

He did.

-sigh-

Only...well...words fail me, so I'll just let you see for yourself:Not quite the same, is it? It's missing...charm, character, EVERYTHING. Here's what we walk by at night:
My husband is so appalled at the choice for a replacement that he is thinking of buying another one just like it (since they still make them) and asking the landlord to please replace it.

What an eyesore. Or as my husband said, "It looks like a radioactive roach on the wall." Not the look we're going for, needless to say!

I'm back!

Well, it's been a looooooong several days, but it's finally over. Sort of. We moved from DC to just outside the Boston area this past weekend and it was very tiring! I packed like a maniac and then my husband packed like a maniac until we had it mostly done by Friday night (hence the dark photo).
Our friend threw us a farewell party on Saturday night and it was absolutely wonderful! We are very lucky to have such great friends. As the evening came to an end, we saw our friends grow a bit sad to have to let us go. :( I'll really miss them.

On Sunday, we went to see Bodies: The Exhibition with some friends. It was absolutely fascinating! We went out to have some Thai with them afterwards and then said our last farewells. *sniff*

You know, it hadn't quite hit me until that day. Until I realized that it would be awhile before I saw these people again. That I wouldn't be going out to Karma's happy hour that Friday for mojitos, that I wouldn't be joining our friends for Saturday night Ethiopian food, that I wouldn't have a nice long lunch in the sun with my freelancing friends, that I wouldn't drive out to the horse barn with my friend to see her horse, or hold great conversations with my book club girls for a long time. It was when we were in the car, driving back home from the exhibition that it dawned on me. As we passed all the wonderful monuments on Constitution Avenue, I just started crying (as I find myself now just writing this). This is much harder than I anticipated. Much harder than any other move I've made. I've gone from Wisconsin to Japan, from Japan to California, from California to DC, and never have I felt this intense sadness...

We went to bed that night feeling quite melancholy.

On Monday, we went to pick up the rental truck and a friend came over (the same awesome friend who threw us that farewell party) to help us move our stuff into the truck. It took us about 5 hours or so and there were three of us. Not too bad. We left the last few boxes and the bed for my husband and I to pack the next day. We took our friend out for some jerk chicken sandwiches and homemade fruit punch at Negril and drove him home. That night, we cleaned the entire apartment and then went over to a good friend's house for dessert. It was nice to just relax for a bit!

On Tuesday, Kurt and I get up early to pack up the rest of the stuff into the truck. We were hoping to be on the road by 10am. Noon rolls around and we're still at it!!! My gosh, what a difference one extra person makes!! We finally hit the road around 1:00pm to drive all the way to Boston. We got to our new apartment at around 11:00pm or so. We got the bed and suitcases out of the truck and crashed.

On Wednesday morning, Kurt's friends here in Boston helped us with the move. We had 3, count them 3 extra men and it took us only an hour and a half!!!!!! Unbelievable! If only they had driven down to help us in DC! :) We are very grateful for their help.

So here we are. We arranged the apartment as best we could to make it livable until we find a house to purchase. Here's the living room and the sun room so far. It's nice because we eat our meals out in the sun room and there's always a really nice breeze coming in through the windows. And then....then there's the "other room". Technically the dining room, which we've turned into a storage room...The boxes are piled up to the ceiling, but I'll be damned if I'm going to unpack all that only to repack it a few months later when we find a house!! I'd rather live with one "storage" room, thank you very much! :P
I'll keep you posted on our house hunt! :) I'm dying for a craft room!!

Boston here we come!

We're moving to Boston!!! You might remember that a while back, Kurt and I had gone to Boston for the weekend. Well, I was actually up there interviewing for a job. And I got it!! We're officially moving to Boston the first week of May. Kurt is already in Boston, apprenticing with an awesome painter for a month, so he went out and found us the cutest apartment! This is the living room here. On the far end, you can see French doors that open on to a sunroom type space that would be great for plants. We're really hoping to buy a house (cross your fingers!), so we don't plan on being in this little apartment for long, but it sure is cute!!

Needless to say, I'm here in DC packing. I seem to recall an article that said that one Chinese torture technique is indeed packing...it HAS to be. It is by far the worst activity known to man. When you realize just how much crap you've accumulated in two and a half years you get the urge to just push it all into a pile and burn it! Start afresh! Who invented this packing and moving thing anyway. I say we burn it! BURN IT AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAALLLLLLLLLLLLLLL!!!

...pant...pant...sorry about that...

A colleague of mine said that Boston has a lot of contact with Canada, particularly Quebec. That reminded me of the beautiful trip we took to Quebec last year. It was definitely cold up there, but very very beautiful. Just look at this blue sky!

Now that we'll be farther north, maybe we can go back and visit all those cute little shops again! Tomorrow I'll be posting pictures of the new felt bag I just made!! Stay tuned...

Guest Quarters

I'd like to thank you all for your enthusiasm over the book! I'm glad you all liked it. To answer a question on how I did the gold stamping, I actually had to go over to the bookbinding studio near my house for that. They have a machine that looks similar to this one that heat and gold stamps books. I would love one of my own, but they are very very expensive. Maybe in the future!

Last weekend, my husband and I were up in Boston again. This time we stayed at a friend's house and they have THE MOST AWESOME GUEST ROOM ON.....probably THE PLANET! Everything was so gorgeous!

The lamps!The tables!The napping, I mean, reading nook!The embroidered cushions!
The fabric hanging from the walls!!!

And most extraordinary of all...the bed!!!!!!!They really know how to make their guests feel like they've died and gone to heaven in that room!

They also have two adorable Bulldogs, Bumper and Angelina. CUTIES! They never stood still for a photo they were so excited! :)

Boston

Sorry for my temporary absence on the blog. We were in Boston last weekend, taking in the sights, meeting friends, and eating amazing Italian food. We stayed at this very cute hotel called the Kendall Hotel. It was gorgeous!!

The bed was comfortable (practically unheard of these days) and the entire hotel was decorated very tastefully in the country style. I loved it.

The bed had a pretty quilt and diamond waffle blanket. Under the diamond waffle blanket was ANOTHER waffle blanket. Now, let me just tell you, I LOVE waffle blankets. LOVE THEM. My best naps have been on a waffle blanket. I love how it feels and how you can snuggle up with it and how nice and toasty it gets. If I could have an entire set of sheets made out of the stuff, I would. Although that would probably leave nasty marks on your face in the morning, wouldn't it?

It'd still be worth it I think. I was ecstatic!!

And how ecstatic was I? I went to bed at 8:00pm one night and didn't wake up until 8:00am the following morning. IT WAS AWESOME! :)