Vacation!! part 4 & 5

It's taken me 2 days to get these videos to upload. These are the last 2 from our trip to DC. Hope everyone enjoys!

Summer 2010-Trips

We took our annual trek with family and friends this year to Cape May, New Jersey. We got to stay with friends part of our trip and family the rest, best of both worlds. I'm always up for something different so this year I rented a bike and peddled around Cape May(mainly to the beach). It was so inexpensive and you know, very green!!

One really neat thing happened while we were there this year. Diners, Drive-ins, & Dives tapped at one of the restaurants we've been to a few times over the years since staying in Cape May! So if you every get a chance make sure to eat breakfast at George's Place, they have the best banana stuffed french toast.

The BFF and I took her kids to Philadelphia the day before school started. It's really fun being a siteseer in a city you been to millions of times. I highly recommend visiting the "City of Brotherly Love" when ever you get a chance.

Summer 2010-Making

Made a few pillows and covered the bench in the foyer over the summer.

Looking back over my pictures there was a lot more activity in the kitchen then I thought. I had a bumper crop of cucumbers so canning dill pickles were a must. This was a first for me.

Summer 2010-Gardening

We had a really great garden this year. I think I finally got into a good gardening grove.

Back to DC! Vacation part 3!!

This was my favorite day. We went to the National Museum of American History, the Washington Monument, the WWII Memorial, Lincoln Memorial, and the Vietnam War Memorial.

Happy 4th of July!!

Hope everyone has a great holiday!!

The next 2 weeks I'm going to be catching up on my blogging. I've been canning, sewing, cooking, and gardening. I also need to post the last 3 parts of our epic vacation! Hopefully you'll come back and enjoy!

Nap time...zzzz

Since it's Monday I thought I would get back to posting a kitty collage. There are 2 more parts of our trip to DC but I felt like taking a break to share a few pictures of Starbuck.

I made a new cushion and pillow for the wicker chair in the living room a few weeks ago. Now it's Starbuck's throne. Her nap time has been taken there everyday since I finished the project.

Hhuumm...to be able to live like a cat!

Vacation!!! part 2

We were a few miles from downtown DC, but we were lucky enough to be walking distance from the bus stop which took us straight to the Metro! If you every want to travel to DC stay on the outskirts and take advantage of the Metro.

So this day we went to the Smithsonian and visited the Air and Space Museum, the Museum of Natural History and the National Archives.

At the Air and Space Museum we watch a 3D movie in the IMAX theater about the Hubble telescope. It was very cool! The Natural History Museum had a new exhibit on the origins of humans. We had lunch there as well. All the Museums have a cafe or cafeteria. The best thing was most of the food was local, sustainable and organic. Plus the majority of the paper and plastic ware was made of recycled material and was biodegradable. I wasn't able to take any pictures at the National Archives so I was only able to take one of the building.

Vacation!!!

We're back from a great vacation! And of coarse I took lots and lots of pictures. I thought the best way to share them would be to make a few short "movies/slide shows", with relaxing music.

We spent the week in Washington DC. It's on of my favorite places to go. We stayed at the Wyndham Vacation Resort located in the National Harbor which is on the Potomac.

The first couple days we were there the harbor was having an art festival. It was so great. There were so many different types of artist displaying their work, anything from abstract to traditional, paint to photography, and sculpture with all kinds of different material.

I let the husband pick the restaurant for lunch. He did a good job picking the place. It's called Ketchup. Their known for their different flavors of homemade ketchup and they were fantastic! The flavors were regular, chipotle, sweet chili, maple syrup, and honey barbecue. Now I want to make homemade ketchup!!

Hope everyone enjoys!

Happy Earth Day!

Happy Earth Day!

15

So we were married on Tax Day. I don't even think we realized it at the time. If I would have remembered it was Tax Day at the time our favors would have included some clever way to use tax forms.

Sewing Project

I can't believe I've had this chair for 17 years. I got it at IKEA around the time my then soon to be husband moved in together. It seemed like the BFF and I took weekly trips to find bargains to fill our new apartments! Back then you could furnish an apartment for $100.

Well in the last 17 years I could never find a cushion I liked or would fit. So I decided to make my own, finally.

We got this cool hounds tooth in my favorite green at the fabric store a few months ago.

(I used my cool macro lens for some of the pictures)

March

March's flower of the month is a Daffodil. You know it is spring when you see these flowers pop out of the ground. Time to plan the garden!

I know she wants me to leave her alone!

I can't help it!

Friday's Favorites

On my birthday the BFF took to one of my favorite places, Reading Terminal Market. We had a great time! Not until we got there did we realize the Philadelphia Flower Show was going on at the convention center only a block away. So traffic was crazy, parking was limited, and everyone decided to eat lunch at the market.

If you're ever in Philadelphia the is a must see. Along with the other hundreds of sites.

40? Really!

So today was my birthday. 40...Yikes! I had a great day. Spent the day in Philly with the BFF(I'll blog about this later) and then the evening with the husband. I got lots of birthday messages from friends on facebook, texted and voicemails. Multimedia birthday greetings are the best. My favorite message was from my Mom. She calls around 5:35pm and leaves this message every year..."It's 5:35 and I've had my last contraction and then they knocked me out, Happy Birthday!"

Here are a few fanous people I share a birthday. My favorite is Dr. Suess and Bon Jovi.

The Cats are Starting to Hate Me!

My camera is at the ready at all times. When ever there is an opportunity I take it, mostly with the cats. I never thought an animal would get tired of getting its picture taken! Well I think they have gotten to that point. Oliver most of all. It takes me forever it get him to look at me. Maybe I need some new subjects. I wonder how the husband would feel about another cat and a few dogs?

Snowmageddon!

So with in a week we got a total of 30+ inches!

Now according to the fellow that correctly predicted these storms is now predicting a whopper around the 6th or 7th of March! We'll see.

February

I know February is almost over. But I wanted to let you know the flower for the month, which is Viola.

Some of the species of the Viola are commonly know such as; pansies, violets and heartsease. Pansies are one of my favorite. I can't wait until I can plant them again. Whenever the snow melts!

Tuesday's Tip

Along the edge of fabric, which is called the selvage edge, you'll find a lot of information. Including manufacturer, most of the time the name of the fabric, and a really helpful color chart. This is a great tool for picking out coordinating colors and fabrics!

Kitty Collage Monday

Always a cool cat!

January

If you haven't noticed the picture in my heading is a bunch of carnations. Carnations or Dianthus Caryophyllus are the birth flower of January. A lot of people a not fans of carnations. They are thought of as cheap filler flower. I think they get a bad wrap. If you get a large bunch all the same color and put them in a simple pretty vase you be very pleased. Give carnations a chance the next time you need to buy flowers.

A New Year and A New Computer!

The worst of the worst happened a few months ago, well not really the worst of the worst even though at the time it felt like it. I had an accident with my laptop and the screen went kaput. I was glad it was only the screen so I'm able to retrieve the hundreds of pictures that I've stored. So now I have a new laptop and an external hard drive. Since I wasn't able to share my Christmas with everyone I've made a few collages .

Just a few decorations and some new ornaments. My favorite new one is the pirate flag.

This is a family cookie exchange I hosted. We all bring a different type of cookie and also make sugar cookies cutouts. We bake and laugh.

Every year I spend about 10 days and become a slave to my kitchen aid making cookies for gift. Previous years I've made up to 1500 cookies. This year I was only able to do 1100 since I was sick for a few days in the middle of December. The featured flavors this year were chocolate chip, oatmeal raisin, sugar cookies, almond biscotti, peanut butter, peanut butter blossoms, white chocolate chip and macadamia nut, russian tea cakes, and snicker doodles. One thing I did this years was to make the dough ahead of time freeze it and just bake it later. This was such a time saver!

Just a few pictures of Christmas critter! Boomer is in the center with the antler. She is the only one of the 3 cats that will let me put them on.

Just a few shots of Christmas dinner prep. But I got to a point were I was all hands on deck and had to focus on the rest of the dinner.

Twenty days late but here are my resolutions for the year:

1. blog more!

2. get into shape (I think a lot of people have that one)

3. make sure I mail everyone's Birthday card on time (I'm the worst at this)

4. keep a food journal (I think I'll add this to the blog)

5. learn to crochet (like I need to add anymore to my plate)

6. take lots and lots of pictures

Hope everyone is having a great New Year so far!