Canada or Bust

We're on our way to Canada! We started yesterday morning and headed north into Vermont.
We stopped at Montpelier's Farmer's Market. What a cute, lively little town! I really liked the area that we saw!

We picked up a loaf of bread, some cheese, some onion relish, some pickled eggs (gross, right? not so! they were really really good and I never would have believed it!) and some perogies for lunch then we headed on to Ben & Jerry's Ice Cream Factory!!!

We took the tour, sampled some ice cream, and finished off our trip with a scoop each!

After the ice cream we headed up to the Magic Hat Brewery. Where we took the tour there too and sampled some of the beer they had on tap. We both really liked their new Ginger Ale which was awesome!

To end our day we took the ferry from Vermont on to Plattsburgh, NY, where we stayed the night. 

Off We Go

Into the wild blue yonder, I guess.

I don't know. Is Canada considered the wild blue yonder?

Either way we're heading to Montreal tomorrow for a long weekend! I promise I'll be back soon with lots of fun pictures!

Hope you have a great holiday weekend as well!

With Love,
Ashley

Lost

Well, six seasons of Lost (yes, the show) and it's finally coming to an end. We went to David and Carolyn's house last night for dinner and to watch the show.
It seems like just last spring when Bryan and I were putting in 40 hour work weeks and coming home to put in 40 more hours of watching Lost just so we could get all caught up.

Elizabeth preparing salad

Carolyn cooking mac & cheese and kale & beets

mmm!

Then we got our dessert together before the show. Cookies with ice cream in the middle!

Bryan's cinnamon rolls. (I think he shared a few.)

Only one more episode. All I have to say is they better plan on answering some questions.

Newport

We went down to Newport on Saturday so that I could do some work in the house and Bryan and friends could go tour a (dead) philosopher's house. Barkley, I believe it was... But seeing as how the house was a little less finished that we'd expected, it was more like a quick run-through for me and then off to play!

I'm excited to see everything get wrapped up soon. Hopefully I'll be going back in the next week or two to get some final things done!

We all had lunch from Portabello's and it was absolutely delicious. We took it to eat on the harbor near Fort Adams.

We toured The Elm's garden. (Which happens to be the view from the master bedroom of the house I'm working on.) 

We had a beer at the Tennis Hall of Fame, a scoop of ice cream at the Newport Creamery (who's ice cream coincidentally comes from Massachusetts and wasn't great), and walked the cliff walk before returning home. 

(the breakers)

We couldn't have asked for a more beautiful day! I would definitely recommend Newport as a fun vacation spot... Come to think of it, I even know of a house for rent there!

Too Much?

We finished planting our garden this weekend! (After a quick brunch at Cafe Luna again, that is...yes, the same place as last week! So good!)

We have garlic, broccoli, lettuce, jalapeños, basil, cherry tomatoes, roma tomatoes, green beans, peas, and cilantro! I really want to plant some strawberries, too. Does anyone know anything about growing strawberries?

Brimfield

This weekend was the Brimfield Flea Market in Sturbridge, Mass. Tiffanie, Adele, and I went on Friday to look for some of the remaining pieces of furniture for Newport. It was the most amazing flea market I've ever been to! We were there allllll day and didn't even see a quarter of the stuff there. Mom, please come up the next time they have this flea market! No one else could do the whole thing with me! (It's in July, I think.)
We found an entire car load of awesome things and at the end of the day a carnie helped us tie everything down so we could get it all back to Boston.

See those wheels sticking out? Yea, that's an old railroad cart that we're going to use for the coffee table! I'm STOKED about that find!
We also got some great art school benches for the dining room:

Some side tables for the master bedroom. An awesome danish modern esque chair. And some antlers!

We saw some strange things too of course...

(the tiki chair, not the man)

And then there was this:

At one point in the day I walked back to the car to get Adele's bottle, and when I rounded the corner this fellow was rolling around in the grass. So I crept quietly back behind the car. And I watched. When he got up and stretched I knew I'd spotted a blog-able moment. (as if him rolling around on the ground for a few minutes wasn't already too good) You're welcome.

We're a Little Bit Country

and a little bit more rock and roll but this post is about looking a little bit country so we'll stick with that title.

Our garlic was suffering a bit because of all the foliage that recently sprung forth on the trees (as it has just turned to spring here in New England). And since our garlic is one of the only living things Bryan and I are responsible for other than our selves at our house we felt we should do something about the sudden shading. I mean what kind of 'parents' would we be if we'd done nothing?!

We just watched a "King of the Hill" episode where they were using this pole-saw thing to cut branches while they tossed back a cold one. We did the same, of course. It just seems like a pole-saw thing almost requires a beer in order to operate.
Anyway, I was responsible for catching the falling branches so they wouldn't land on our neighbor's car. I was  sure I'd be knocked unconscious, but I wasn't! Hooray!

I am one with nature.

Well, until two minutes later when that very branch violently attacked me, that is. It found it's revenge and bloodied me up a bit. I couldn't find the source of blood at first and was sure it was coming from my ear or forehead when Bryan spied a tiny scrape on my finger!

The End.

In other news the other headboard is finished!

The 'wings' on either side are not attached yet, but you get the idea. We are moving everything down to Newport this weekend and I'll finish the attaching when we get there. I'm so excited to see everything start to come together!

My Week in Pictures

(and a few words)

I'm working on a residential project in Newport that I'll show pictures of as it's completion comes. This week I've created two upholstered headboards (with the help of Derek who cut out the backing board pieces and Tiffanie who helped me pull the buttons). I'm so proud of this Elvis-blue mohair, scrolling headboard!

I love how it turned out and may have to have one for my own house eventually! I don't have photos of the other one yet because it's not quite complete but I'll show it soon!

There was another day spent lounging in the grass with little ones.

And a fine Mother's Day Brunch indeed with my sweetie! (In honor of our far away mothers, of course!)

Bryan's surf & turf eggs benedict

My blueberry and lemon curd french toast

and home fries for sharing

Happy Mother's Day!

Oh How Lovely

What a wonderful way to spend the afternoon! Eating bubbles and drawing with chalk!