This is the view we look at for 7 days straight - always changing, always serene. Did I tell you that only two cabins out of 7 were occupied, so we almost had the whole place to ourselves this year?
Sunday, July 11, 2010
Vacation in the Great North Woods
We just returned from our week's vacation in the Great North Woods of New Hampshire. This year we were there for the 4th of July festivities. Unfortunately for us, all the July 4th festivities in Pittsburg, NH (closest town to the cabin and last town in NH before Canada) took place on Saturday, the 3rd of July! We arrived in town all dressed in our red white and blue for the pancake breakfast, only to discover that everything - the breakfast, the parade, the Lions Club chicken barbecue - had taken place the day before! Arg! Off to breakfast at the restaurant.
The week went by with no mishaps and a lot of fun. The weather was very unique for this part of the country. Most years we pray for a few days of blue sky and sun, and almost always get some rain and thunderstorms during each day. This year, it was Miami all the time, sun sun and more sun. It was so sunny that we didn't fish much. The lake was calm and bright and the fish had cooler, deeper places to be. The dock had gotten messed up by a fall storm, so our chairs didn't fit well on the rocks, and it was too darn hot to sit out there looking at an unmoving bobber. So we donated our $70 fishing license money to the state, and went swimming instead.
The swimming was wonderful. We played a lot of cribbage and cooked out every night on the barbecue over charcoal. We read, and I worked on learning how to read a crochet pattern and made several lovely dishcloths (?), and beaded a difficult project, and read some more. When it got too hot for man or beast in the afternoon, we retreated to our air conditioned car and took rides around the countryside. We drove 100 miles on a 90 degree day to Cabot, VT, and watched a demonstration about curds and whey and spend $50 on artisan cheeses. It was a lovely ride through the Vermont countryside.
I estimate that I used about half of the stuff I brought, including food. It was too hot to do many things, and I didn't need a nice hot pot of tea at the end of the day in my china tea pot. We didn't use our fishing gear, our sweatshirts and sweaters, half of the food we brought (too hot to have much of an appetite), and we stayed cheerful, packed it up and brought it all back home again.
It was a lovely vacation. The whole country was suffering from heat, so why not us too? The days went by slowly, we got lots of rest, no stress, and BEST OF ALL, no bug bites for me thanks to a morning slather of Avon Skin So Soft gel lotion--miracle stuff! Whoohoo!
Here are the pictures.
The week went by with no mishaps and a lot of fun. The weather was very unique for this part of the country. Most years we pray for a few days of blue sky and sun, and almost always get some rain and thunderstorms during each day. This year, it was Miami all the time, sun sun and more sun. It was so sunny that we didn't fish much. The lake was calm and bright and the fish had cooler, deeper places to be. The dock had gotten messed up by a fall storm, so our chairs didn't fit well on the rocks, and it was too darn hot to sit out there looking at an unmoving bobber. So we donated our $70 fishing license money to the state, and went swimming instead.
The swimming was wonderful. We played a lot of cribbage and cooked out every night on the barbecue over charcoal. We read, and I worked on learning how to read a crochet pattern and made several lovely dishcloths (?), and beaded a difficult project, and read some more. When it got too hot for man or beast in the afternoon, we retreated to our air conditioned car and took rides around the countryside. We drove 100 miles on a 90 degree day to Cabot, VT, and watched a demonstration about curds and whey and spend $50 on artisan cheeses. It was a lovely ride through the Vermont countryside.
I estimate that I used about half of the stuff I brought, including food. It was too hot to do many things, and I didn't need a nice hot pot of tea at the end of the day in my china tea pot. We didn't use our fishing gear, our sweatshirts and sweaters, half of the food we brought (too hot to have much of an appetite), and we stayed cheerful, packed it up and brought it all back home again.
It was a lovely vacation. The whole country was suffering from heat, so why not us too? The days went by slowly, we got lots of rest, no stress, and BEST OF ALL, no bug bites for me thanks to a morning slather of Avon Skin So Soft gel lotion--miracle stuff! Whoohoo!
Here are the pictures.
Thursday, July 01, 2010
Packing Light
Tonight we are packing up the house to take it to the cabin. We leave for Pittsburg, New Hampshire on Saturday morning. We want to leave in time to miss any 4th of July traffic. By the time the hoards get going, we will be way up past the White Mountains. I think that packing light is highly over-rated. When I go on vacation, I want to make sure I have most of the comforts of home. I take pillows and towels and nice sheets. I take table cloths for picnics and one for the kitchen table. We take our books and binoculars and my beading lamp and supplies. I have an afghan kit to take that should be easy to knit outside by the lake with my feet dangling in the water. I take a china tea pot and two nice mugs, so that I have tea in a china cup. My mother always said that tea and coffee tastes much better in china, and I believe her. We take clothes, but not too many. I probably take one pair of shoes too many, but, hey, it's my vacation and why should I leave my new flip flops at home? We take steaks and hamburger from a good butcher, and cold cuts and sausage from our favorite German sausage store. We buy fresh vegetables and fruits on the way, and I packed a pie plate and small rolling pin so I can make a fresh strawberry pie.
If all this sounds a little crazy, just think of all the things I'm leaving behind: TV, cell phones and computers! See you on the flip side!
Have a great day!
If all this sounds a little crazy, just think of all the things I'm leaving behind: TV, cell phones and computers! See you on the flip side!
Have a great day!
Saturday, June 26, 2010
Milwaukee Bead and Button Show
My friend Connie and I went to Milwaukee for the Bead and Button Show. We were there for four days and had a great time. This year, we concentrated on taking classes. She loves silversmithing, and took 3 classes. I am working on learning new skills in seed beading, and I took four classes. Every morning, one or the other of us was up with the birdies, packing our rolling bags and heading out into the Milwaukee sunshine to find our class room. We really had to concentrate in order to have all the materials that we would need for each separate class. Connie had to bring a bench block and hammers. Traveling with a 50 pound limit while carrying heavy tools is a real challenge. I had a Marudai, which is a Japanese braiding stand made of wood. Between the two of us, we worried a lot over our 50 pounds.
We had challenges, and we met them head on and prevailed!
Our first class was on Wednesday night, the same day we arrived. I took a class with Irina Miech in wire wrapping cabochons. I have done this technique before, but she uses half round wire, which makes a softer look, and she is always a great teacher.
The next morning was my class with Sheila Cleary called Seafoam Necklace. This class is Kumihimo with beads and called for a wooden Madurai stand and 12 bobbins of strung size 11 (small) beads. It was a challenge to do the prep work at home, and mine was not without fault, so I got off to a slower start than I wanted, but my skills in braiding were good, so I caught up fast. One whole day of class and I finished half my necklace. I wasn't interested in racing to the finish, I'm more interested in getting the technique perfect, and it was a super class. I have enough work to do in this technique to last me for years!
The next class was the following day - making a beautiful heavy chain maille bracelet called GSG "Great Southern Gathering". I love the name of this weave. The class was taught by Diane Miller, who sells on Etsy, and who supplies me with all my Argentium silver rings for chain maille. This was a fun and relaxing class and the bracelet I made is beautiful. I will list it for sale soon!
Saturday I took an inspirational day long class with Diane Fitzgerald. We worked on making ginkgo leaves out of tiny delica beads and she taught us how to choose bead colors and patterns to make them shimmer in the color change. Color technique in beading is an art and something I could never have figured out by myself. She has many books on beading and color, and is a very thorough teacher. I loved this class, as I knew I would.
Classes at Bead and Button are serious business. They are expensive, and the teachers are very good. Teachers are evaluated and carefully considered each year. Getting to class on time and well prepared is a prerequisite. This is beading at its best!!!
Between all these classes we shopped at the marketplace in the huge carpeted and well lit Frontier Airlines convention center. 370 vendors mean that you can't even visit all the booths in a week, and everything you need to supply your beading needs is there! Expertise abounds and it is really great to walk around and see demonstrations. I walked into one booth and they said, "You're Yvonne Shea? I read your Bead_Tips Twitter every day!" That made me very happy! (I'm famous!)
Connie and I managed to pack our bags for the home trip without exceeding our 50 pound limit, but my rolling backpack was filled with a couple thousand dollars worth of purchases that I couldn't trust to a checked bag. (The lady who pulled our bags aside at airport security said that she wanted to "shop right out of the bag!") Even with all those classes, we found the time to talk to old friends and to buy beautiful artist-made beads and purchase the elements we need at wholesale prices that can't be beat anywhere! This was my fifth year going to Bead and Button. It is a once in a lifetime experience, that you get to go to every year!
Have a great day!
We had challenges, and we met them head on and prevailed!
Our first class was on Wednesday night, the same day we arrived. I took a class with Irina Miech in wire wrapping cabochons. I have done this technique before, but she uses half round wire, which makes a softer look, and she is always a great teacher.
The next morning was my class with Sheila Cleary called Seafoam Necklace. This class is Kumihimo with beads and called for a wooden Madurai stand and 12 bobbins of strung size 11 (small) beads. It was a challenge to do the prep work at home, and mine was not without fault, so I got off to a slower start than I wanted, but my skills in braiding were good, so I caught up fast. One whole day of class and I finished half my necklace. I wasn't interested in racing to the finish, I'm more interested in getting the technique perfect, and it was a super class. I have enough work to do in this technique to last me for years!
The next class was the following day - making a beautiful heavy chain maille bracelet called GSG "Great Southern Gathering". I love the name of this weave. The class was taught by Diane Miller, who sells on Etsy, and who supplies me with all my Argentium silver rings for chain maille. This was a fun and relaxing class and the bracelet I made is beautiful. I will list it for sale soon!
Saturday I took an inspirational day long class with Diane Fitzgerald. We worked on making ginkgo leaves out of tiny delica beads and she taught us how to choose bead colors and patterns to make them shimmer in the color change. Color technique in beading is an art and something I could never have figured out by myself. She has many books on beading and color, and is a very thorough teacher. I loved this class, as I knew I would.
Classes at Bead and Button are serious business. They are expensive, and the teachers are very good. Teachers are evaluated and carefully considered each year. Getting to class on time and well prepared is a prerequisite. This is beading at its best!!!
Between all these classes we shopped at the marketplace in the huge carpeted and well lit Frontier Airlines convention center. 370 vendors mean that you can't even visit all the booths in a week, and everything you need to supply your beading needs is there! Expertise abounds and it is really great to walk around and see demonstrations. I walked into one booth and they said, "You're Yvonne Shea? I read your Bead_Tips Twitter every day!" That made me very happy! (I'm famous!)
Connie and I managed to pack our bags for the home trip without exceeding our 50 pound limit, but my rolling backpack was filled with a couple thousand dollars worth of purchases that I couldn't trust to a checked bag. (The lady who pulled our bags aside at airport security said that she wanted to "shop right out of the bag!") Even with all those classes, we found the time to talk to old friends and to buy beautiful artist-made beads and purchase the elements we need at wholesale prices that can't be beat anywhere! This was my fifth year going to Bead and Button. It is a once in a lifetime experience, that you get to go to every year!
Have a great day!
Saturday, May 22, 2010
Picture from the local paper
I am completely charmed by this picture of the baby Swans at Ells Pond near our house.
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