Happy Birthday...

...to two very special men in my life!

St. Croix

My hubby and I took a summer vacation to St. Croix in August.  The water was deliciously blue, you could see directly to the bottom. The breeze was perfect, and love was in the air.

We stayed in Cottages by the Sea that were a hop, skip and jump from the water. After the first night we got upgraded (for free!) to the best cottage on the beach. This cottage had a full kitchen, surrounding windows (wonderful breeze!), a comfy king size bed... but the best part was the porch.  The amazing porch overlooking the water. The porch where you could eat, read, write and play battleship. (the cottage also had a library with books and board games!) The porch where you could breathe in the air and listen to the waves at any minute of the day or night.

There was a fantastic waterfront restaurant twenty steps away from the cottages.  When we didn't cook in our cute kitchen, we ate here at the Beachside Cafe!  We had a few dinners, a Sunday brunch and desserts!

When we weren't on the beach swimming, snorkeling, reading, napping, floating, cuddling, kayaking or basking in the sun...

 

...we read, wrote, relaxed, explored the area, went to an old plantation/ botanical garden,  listened to the waves, looked at the stars, watched the lizards, played golf (I watched!) and relaxed some more. I had never been kayaking before, and I loved it! I also really loved having a beautiful beach virtually to ourselves. We had this opportunity when we went to Tulum, Mexico in 2005, and I craved it ever since. 

I felt very lucky on this little vacation of ours.  As we approach 10 years together, I think about all the amazing places we've been and all the experiences we've shared. Rather then just a vacation, this felt more like a honeymoon.

 Love was in the air.

happy anniversary to the man I love!

a Tea Party

My  brother-in-law got engaged last summer, and is getting married this October in Saratoga Springs. In July my mother-in-law planned her son's soon to be wife a bridal shower...but this was no ordinary bridal shower.  This was a beautiful tea party!  

A tea party equipped with a tasty variety of homemade scones, cookies, quiche and tea sandwiches.  Delicious hot and cold teas, jams and jellies.  An elegant table with a combination of beautiful tea cups, saucers and plates, little flowers, candles, homemade sugar cubes, honey, rock candy and peppermint sticks.  And to top it all off, everyone wore a hat!

It was a well-done party. The bride to be and all the guests were very pleased and had a lovely and delicious time. Every detail was thoughtful and the whole experience was a memorable one!  I was extremely excited to attend a tea party, and was not disappointed.  I used to have them all the time with my stuffed animals as a kid...hello Bert and Ernie!

My love for a tea party has been rekindled, and I can't wait to have another one!  I'm planning the menu in my head right now!

Tee-Shirt Quilt

A ways back I wrote a post about quilts and mentioned that I hoped to use this summer to make a tee-shirt quilt.  I have so many tee-shirts I don't wear, but I don't get rid of... so I have been planning this in my head for quite some time now. 
Quilts take time. I spent many many hours in July, practicing patience, and little by little making a tee-shirt quilt!

Some of these shirts go back to 1998.  Some are shirts my brother made me using his photography, some I made in a silk screening class in college, many are tye dyes we all made...and some are just tee shirts I used to wear all the time.  There is also a pair of old pjs, boxers, and a beach dress.  The beach dress and the pjs had pockets, so I left them in so the blanket would have pockets too!
 

The process in short:

1. Had a stack of tee shirts I wanted to save.

2. Took the stack and used the rotary cutter to cut out all the save worthy parts (i.e-the picture, the logo, etc)

3. Years later...cut out the tee shirts I had built up since..ha!

4. Laid out all the pieces into 18x24 rectangles that had a variety of colors/images.

5. Began to sew each 18x24 panel together. (A wound up with about 25)

6. Once they were all sewn, I began laying them out to choose the best combination to connect them.

7. Started sewing the panels together into four very long rectangles.

8. Cut off excess fabric, and sewed those four long panels together.

9. Then came the hardest part...putting on the back. I used two old sheets, and screwed up a lot!  I spent hours trying to fix my mistakes, and never completely did. To be honest by this point I just wanted it done so bad, that during the front to back connection things got a bit sloppy and the edges of this quilt are a complete mess. At the time it seemed horrible, over time I got over it.

10. Enjoy your quilt!

The back before I closed it up.

Finally done!

In retrospect, I should I have done a few things differently with the backing.  But on a positive note,  the shirts have been transformed into something new that, if I do say so myself, is very very colorful and comfortable!  It has been great on the couch!  You don't even notice the edges when you're all cuddled up and cozy.

the Hudson River

Let's start by saying I love the Hudson River.  I love the history, and I have always loved living near it.  It is part of my life, and the beauty of where we live.  Of course I wish it was cleaner...but there are many wonderful people who are contributing to the welfare of the river; preserving, protecting and bringing awareness. 

I had the privilege to teach a class and take a workshop on the Hudson in July.  It was an incredibly  beautiful day, and the whole experience gave me more then I expected! The classroom was the river itself, and in the Kathryn W. Davis RiverWalk Center. This center is an abandoned bathhouse from the 1920's that had recently been renovated into classrooms.  It was lovely.

After teaching the class, a kind woman came up to me to tell me I was incredibly inspiring, that my passion was contagious, and that she was thrilled to have have been in my class.  That comment capped off a truly enriching experience.

our honeymoon (14/14)

Technically we had two honeymoons. Lucky us. We knew we couldn't do much after the wedding, since I am a teacher, and we got married on labor day weekend. So we went to France for 10 days the summer before, and called this our pre-moon.

A co-worker has a friend who lives in Paris, and needed to sublet her apartment in district 9.  This meant we had a place to stay that was inexpensive, and not in a touristy location.  Of course we ate out, but we also bought food at grocery stores and markets and had lovely little meals at home.

We went to tons of museums (including the Louvre) and parks, saw the Eiffel tower, and traveled all over the map. We caught a Bob Dylan concert in Nantes, went to Monet's Garden in the country, visited Stein, Wilde and Mr. Mojo Risin' at Père Lachaise, walked the colorful grounds at the Palace of Versailles, and ate a ridiculous amount of delicious food every step of the way.

After the wedding itself we went for two nights to Minnewaska State Park Lodge.  This is the area where we met and was the perfect place to relax before we left our wedding fairytale. We spent our mornings relaxing outside the lodge with our breakfast, our days at the park, and the nights reminiscing about the wedding! It was just what we needed.

Thank you for taking this journey with us through our wedding memories. It was certainly fun for us to reminisce together...and I am so happy to have our special moments documented!  This started out as a rewind for a few posts and turned into 14 posts and a summer long project.  Literally, work starts on Monday...and as we approach our 2nd wedding anniversary, and 10 years together, I can honestly say we are more in love then ever!  Life is good.