My girls sharing a moment together on the front porch.
The girls ended up with different spring breaks this year, but were happy to have at least one day of their vacation that overlapped. I love to see them laugh together and sometimes suddenly stop talking when I walk into the room. For there are always things you can only share with a sister, and that's just how it should be.
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Happy May Day! I hope you all enjoyed a beautiful spring weekend!
On Saturday, we headed out early in the morning to drive to the Frederick Wine Trail, (in Maryland) for a day of wine tasting. We had never been wine tasting before but were happily meeting up with friends who happen to be wine enthusiasts. We enjoyed driving down country roads and taking in the beautiful rolling farmland which surrounds the family-owned wineries.
The buds had sprouted and the fresh spring grape leaves had just begun to unfurl along the vines.
Time flew by as we chatted with our friends and enjoyed the wine tasting. After visiting the second winery we decided to stop for lunch and discovered a fabulous restaurant. If you're ever in the area, I would highly recommend Drover's Grill and Wine Co. - the crab cakes were excellent!
We visited four wineries in all, stopped in at a great bike shop to look at tandems, and then enjoyed another delicious meal in downtown Mt. Airy. When the day was over, it truly felt like we had taken a little vacation. (Thanks Pete and Kathy!) Oh, and we also came home with three bottles of wine. Cheers!
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Last Saturday was admittance day at The College of William and Mary, so we decided to leave a day early to enjoy the weekend in Williamsburg. Sweet pea made earlier arrangements to meet with a few upperclassmen on Friday, so my husband and I walked around Colonial Williamsburg which is adjacent to the campus.
The weather was beautiful, crowds were at a minimum and many of the flowers and trees were already blooming.
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Good morning and happy Monday! It was incredibly wonderful to take time away from the studio for a few days and enjoy our first, but very cold, spring weekend in April. First up, was some time spent in the kitchen baking bread. I haven't been making bread as much as I used to and after looking over my favorite bread cookbooks, I couldn't wait to start again. I love the whole process of bread making - from the smell of the yeast and the rising of the dough, to how incredible it is that a few simple ingredients results in something so absolutely delicious you want to eat the entire loaf.
Fresh out of the oven! The hardest part is waiting for the loaves to cool a bit before you can slice into one. After a wonderful day spent in our warm kitchen, the next morning we headed outdoors. Don't let the cherry blossoms fool you, it was cold!
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Sunday morning we were up bright and early to take the metro downtown. We are in the midst of the National Cherry Blossom Festival in DC and our "Sweet Pea", along with four of her friends, were participating in the annual Cherry Blossom run. (She had to leave the house at 5:45 a.m.)
My husband and I waited at the finish line to cheer her on. She did such a great job and it was so exciting when we spotted her coming up the hill approaching the finish line.
Here they are after the run and ready to head off to a favorite restaurant. My husband and I made our way back to the metro as well and we stopped off in Clarendon to eat breakfast at one of our favorite cafes, Le Pain Quotidien (the daily bread).
It was nice to come in from the cold and enjoy a cozy breakfast accompanied with a pot of hot tea. Enjoying their delicious artisan breads inspired me to try baking those as well. So I came home and ordered some new bread baking supplies which I'll share with you once they arrive.
My Favorite Bread Cookbooks:
The Book of Bread, by Judith & Evan Jones
Baking with Julia, by Julia Childs
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Last evening we received eight inches of snow, our first accumulation of the year. It was a heavy wet snow that coated the trees and we awoke this morning to a winter wonderland, and thankfully no power outages.
I relish any opportunity to keep my girls home from school so I love snow days. My husband is even working from home today so it's especially nice. After my walk outside this morning, I took one of our frozen bags of blueberries (from our summer picking) and made our favorite blueberry buttermilk pancakes.
So delicious, easy to prepare and the perfect snow day breakfast. I don't have a link to the recipe since it's one of my own, but if you'd like to make them just let me know and I'll be happy to send you an email with the recipe.
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Christmas came early for us this year. We just found out this evening that our daughter was accepted into The College of William and Mary! We are beyond excited and so proud of her!
This will be her home away from home beginning next fall. You may remember that I blogged about our college tour last spring. You can find more pictures and information on my previous post here. I don't think any of us will sleep tonight!
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Looking forward to a crisp, cool autumn weekend filled with lots of activities. We found these tiny, bite sized apples at the market this morning just waiting to be turned into caramel apples tomorrow. I have to eat at least one, or maybe two.... Saturday morning we are headed into Georgetown for an early breakfast and shopping, and then back home for some serious pumpkin carving time. Time to get ready for our little guests who will be arriving on Sunday evening. (I confess, yesterday sweet pea and I broke into the candy....we needed it after a busy week!)
And a quick shop announcement.... Thank you for all of the burlap stocking love! To date, I have filled orders for over 65 stockings, and many are still in que to be made which takes me into the second week of November. Therefore, I will only be able to accept a few more orders for stockings. If you don't get in the order process this year, I promise to bring them back next year. Thank you for understanding, as I have a weekend show coming up and most importantly, want to spend lots of time with my family.
Thank you all for visiting today. I always appreciate hearing from you. Have a fun-filled Halloween!
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While vacationing in Old Quebec City we enjoyed some delicious meals. Two of my favorites were... flavorful savory and sweet crepes (the simply prepared lemon/sugar one was the best!), and French bread topped with delicious aged cheese, roasted tomatoes, and fresh herbs, which was served hot from the oven. The best part was dining in the outside cafes, or quite often we were lucky enough to be seated at a table right by the open window. Doesn't food always taste better when dining outdoors?
Being able to walk everywhere was a highlight of the trip - no cabs or public transportation required. Our hotel was by the river and each day we would walk (aka climb) the hills and cobblestone streets to Upper Town which lies on the top of Cap-Diamant promontory. We would pass by the high stone wall, which surrounds this portion of the city, lined with many original cannons.
In all fairness to my husband, the girls and I had to force him to pose with this cannon. (Although, secretly, I think he actually enjoyed it! Hopefully he won't discover I've posted this picture.)
Upper Town is filled with charming old buildings and offers sweeping views of the St. Lawrence River. The most recognized building is the massive castle-like Chateau Frontenac Hotel which is perched on top of Cap-Diamont. Here you will spot authentic horse-drawn carriages filled with tourists exploring the city.
There were many beautiful churches to visit and on Sunday, we had the pleasure of listening to the church bells ringing.
On our last evening, we took a round trip ferry ride to Levis to enjoy the beautiful view of Old Quebec City by night.
Au revoir, Quebec City! We hope to return - perhaps during Winter Carnival.
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Sweet girl will be moving out of the dorms this school year and into an apartment on campus with two of her girlfriends. We've had so much fun this summer selecting things for her new apartment and last week we bought the furniture for her bedroom. She drew a floor plan, complete with "to scale" furniture drawings, to be certain that everything would fit. Then it was off to Ikea! It's amazing how an entire room of furniture can fit into flat boxes, and how many of those boxes you can fit into a mini-van!
Move-in day is this Saturday. Wish us luck! I can't tell you how much I'm going to miss this smiling face!
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My girls have beautiful eyes....they really do. But you would never know it based on our vacation photos.
Looking through our pictures, (and we took a lot!), they are either both wearing sunglasses, or one has them on and the other one doesn't. Sometimes they even switched glasses with each other. So, I may not have captured the perfect photo for our Christmas card, but two things are certain - we had beautiful sunny weather and based on their smiles, they had a really great time.
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Last weekend, our youngest daughter directed and filmed this video as part of her AP US History Project on the 60's. All of the girls featured are some of her closest friends. The 1969 VW Crew Cab Pickup is my husband's. (For those of you who have followed my blog for a while, you may remember me posting a picture of it after he finished restoring it.) Our oldest daughter did a great job editing the video and giving it that vintage look. My favorite part is the very end, when the bus drives away with everyone in the back waving good-bye.
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I appreciate all things creative and am inspired by the smallest of details. Here is where I love to share projects, designs and favorite things. ~ (more)
