Canning!

And... this is a partial image of what we canned this year.  We did tomatoes, tomato sauce, charred chili salsa, barbeque sauce, corn salsa, apple butter, applesauce, blueberry jam, strawberry jam, salsa verde...I think that's it.  We did a lot of those things.  We also have yet to do blackberry jam.  Or pear jam.  Yum.

Roommate reunion 2013

Roommate reunion!  

My lovely roommates and their families came to visit for a few days over the course of the summer, for a few blissful days.  It was fantastic seeing how the little ones are growing (so quickly!) and to spend time together as a group again.  We made pancakes, played with the bunnies, had a girls-only lunch downtown, picked veggies from the garden, played in the rain, made fancy desserts, and enjoyed time together.  We've done this just about every year since college, but this was the first time that we had all of the husbands and children with us as well, and that made it even better.  I can't wait for next time!

The sunflowers were showing off for their visit.

 Dinners are an adventure with seven adults and three little boys under five.

 Step portrait!

 Fancy dessert!  And not that hard to make.  And SO delicious!

 Very proud of chocolate mousse and fruit tart.

 Lunch time!

 Playing with Gwenn, who really enjoys eating lettuce treats from small people.

This kid is an expert pancake-maker.

 Picking carrots!

More images from Acadia...

Acadia National Park

It's been a busy summer and early fall, full of adventures!  One of our favorite things to do is travel, and we've been hoping to go to Maine and explore Acadia National Park for a long time.  We finally made it up for a few days this summer as part of a road trip through the Northeast.

As we hiked further up the mountain, each view was better than the next!

 Depth is difficult to capture in a photograph.  In this case, we're pretty high up!  And we had to get a foot shot.

For us, it was a perfect break - hiking during the day, exploring areas of the park that are off the beaten path, exploring Bar Harbor at night, sampling gelato and Maine beers and meeting interesting people!  What a beautiful part of the country - I can't wait to go back one day!

Visit to Blandy Arboretum

This rock begged to be climbed

The dramatic angle for increased artistic impact.

My favorite bird (that I've never actually seen)-the Bobwhite Quail.

But really, I'm holding one here...really.

Project time: A knitted blanket

During the winter, we decided that it would be a good idea to do something about our old red chair, or rather I should say Shasta's red chair.  We actually moved it out of our room for a while and replaced it with a brand new ottoman.  Alas, our fuzzy little creature of habit refused to sleep on it and instead decided our bed was the next best option.   After a few weeks of none of us sleeping very well, we moved the chair back into our room, puppy promptly moved back into it, and glorious sleep ensued.

But the chair was still ugly.

We toyed with the idea of sheets and other covers, but Steph found an online video that showed how you could knit a blanket using thick wool roving and knitting needles made out of PVC pipes.

So we decided we could do that too.

Steph spent a Saturday teaching me how to knit (on little needles) and we went in search of thick yarn.  Alas, after visiting every yarn seller in town, we couldn't find anything that fit the bill and wasn't too expensive, so we decided to make our own "yarn" out of felt:

Cutting the felt strips-hooray for rolling cutters!

So we ended up with a bazillion 1 inch strips of felt that then needed to be sewn together.

Steph is much better at sewing the strips together than me.

When we were ready, we coiled all the felt into several bins and prepped our needles with duct tape and cardboard tips (the pictured ones are actually smaller diameter than the ones we ultimately used)

So with our materials prepped we set out to knit.  But
 knitting with little needles and knitting with PVC pipes are two completely different tasks.  You really can't do more than 3 or 4 rows before your arms feel like they've been set on fire.  Even so, we kept at it:

That's the smile that says "I can't feel my biceps anymore!"

As it got longer, Shasta started to test drive it.

Eventually, we finished it, though!

That thing is toasty too, let me tell you!

Novel means of transporting the finished blanket.

The suspense was killing Shasta...

So we brought it upstairs with unbridled enthusiasm,  put it on the chair and...

It looked like a cargo net on a really ugly shipping crate.

Fortunately, with the application of a white sheet underneath we cut down on the "net to capture wild animal" look and reached a "textured" look

That's the ottoman we bought in front of it.  The dog ended up with the equivalent of a twin bed.  And yes, she knows she's spoiled ;)

Most importantly, though, the dog will sleep in the chair (which means we can all sleep at night) and it no longer looks like the monster chair in the corner is going to eat you.

"Guys-you know I shed black hair right?"
(Oh yes, which is why we now have a gray blanket, but, eh, it works)