Somewhere Along The Way

The things they say

The boys had to very interesting and funny things to say today.  First Julian came home from school and told me that Mrs. Orr has given them all calculators!  Julian says "Mom I put in a number, then another number press =, and you get the right answer!".  "Mom, all the answers right every time!".  I thought that was super cute.  The introduction to the calculator!

Last night as I was putting Tyler to bed he says "Mommy, you are the best Mommy in the whole wide world because you make scrapbooks for me".  That one just melted my heart.

Tomorrow is vacation day!  Headed to our home away from home.  Apple Bay Tortola.  Time to charge the family batteries !

 

 

"A Wonderful Time was had by All"

I spent the weekend at the Sturbridge Host Hotel and Conference Center scrapbooking with the most fabulous group of ladies.  A few I only see twice a year and Heather and Ashley who I've been scrap-booking with for the past seven years.  Our scrapbook friend Joan had us in stitches as she was scrap-booking a fall themed layout with photos from ten years ago.  We said Joan "aren't you going to do a little journaling with all those photos?".  She replied well yes, I am going to say "A fun time was had by all."  It just really made us all giggle.  Maybe it was one of those you had to be there moments.

 Most of the layouts chronicled our Tortola vacation last year, and a few were about some outings we had in the winter, and first days of school.  I was rather pleased with what I accomplished, but I am a gab queen!

While I was taping, gluing, cutting for the entire weekend, it snowed about 7 inches back at home.  The boys went sledding in the backyard.  Bill sent me photos on the iPhone every few hours which was nice.  Pictures of the boys outside and the boys crashed out by the wood-stove later.

Coming home was great.  The boys greeted me with super big hugs and wanted to look at the album I worked on.  The smiles on their faces as they looked through the photos was priceless.  Makes me realize just how valuable this hobby is to our lives. 

The girl time is wonderful too.

(heather in the foreground, ashley behind)

Surprise! A special Lego for you!

Tyler: mommy mommy close your eyes I have a surprise for you

Me: okay, my eyes are closed

Tyler: okay open now

Me: wow! What is that?

Tyler: that's me making coffee for you!! See the coffee machine!

So precious!

Another year went by again!

Gosh, I have been so lax in blogging, and really it is a great format for me to capture all the great things the boys do that I know I'll forget. 

Here's a couple of goodies from this week:

Last Friday I had a jam packed day, at 3pm quickly retrieved Julian from the bus and headed straight to TF Green Airport to pick up Bill.  He had been in San Francisco all week for work.   Sometimes the boys act as if they never get out of the house.  The airport is such an exciting place for them.  Come to think of it, the airport is a great activity.  We got there a little early, and while we were walking in I realized I had forgotten my wallet at home and then just had enough cash to pay for parking so that meant no treats.  To my surprise I found a Starbucks gift card in my pocket, so TREATS FOR ALL.  Coffee for Mommy, cookies for boys. 

After our snack Tyler annouced that he would like to go watch the "Soupcase" conveyor.  Stinkin' cute.  I know he truly wanted to hop on and ride it !  Luckily no fingers got caught.

Julian learned how to watch the arrivals board.  I had him go check it a few times.  Finally Daddy arrived from the escaltor and the kids ran to him.  Bill was thrilled with the reception and wished all his arrivals could be like that.  Lots of people around smiled and giggled. 

So our airport visit was the last time I got out of the house I've been down and out with a crappy cold now for a few days.  So need to get well for Scrapbooking this weekend and our trip to Tortola next weekend!

Another highlight this lovely piece of art by Julian! 

And lastly, my friend Neil was visiting from the UK this week.  Neil moved back to the UK from Mystic after breaking up with his partner this fall.  Neil is a super special person.  He has a heart of gold, a big personality, and you can't help but be attracted to his energy or of course his handsome face!  He is just one of those people that you meet every now and then whose personality shines like the warmest sunlight.  I was so thrilled that he found an hour to spend with me and Nancy.  We had lunch at Bridge in Westerly.

Me and Neil:

Happy Valentine's Day

 

Spending Valentines Day in bed with my hubby.....both of us have the flu.  We are exchanging red sudafed tabs instead of chocolate and kisses.  *sigh*

It's been a year. Really?

Well I guess I abandoned the blog in November 2009.  I know why.  I started focusing more on my photography, website and business and something had to give.  So it's time to start writing again. Feature more photography.  Capture memories and recall the little things.

Thought I would start with our kitchen makeover photos.  Our poor kitchen.  We never really disliked the room.  It had a few things going for it.  Good working space I suppose.  It was bigger than the kitchen in our old house.  Plenty of storage, and oh, junk drawers.

We started the research process back in September/October 2010, and started the demo in early December:

 

(aaaah that wavey overhang...uuugh)

 
(the tall cupboard/pantry to the left was nice, lots of room, but falling apart)

 
(mmmm, the tile floor.  Again, it wasn't totally dreadful but the original builders of the home had never put the sub-floor in correctly so there were quite a few broken tiles.)

We orginally thought we'd keep the floor, but then it doesn't make sense to put in a ton of new cabinetry and granite on an old floor.  So we decided to replace the floor too.

Poor Tyler he was so confused.  "What happened to our kitchen Momma?"  Well Tyler this is our new kitchen, the dining room.  eeeeeek! 

 

For seven weeks we lived out of the dining room and washing dishes in the bathroom.  Living off of paper plates, frozen food and takeout.  Boy did we need a vacation!

Luckily we found an amazing contractor from Waterford.  Always arrived in the morning on time, always answered his phone, and worked pretty darn fast.  We decided on a hardwood floor.  Demo of tile took two days, install of new floor took two days.  Cabinet install was about five days.  Granite leadtime was about two weeks.

We decided that since the kitchen was so dark, and didn't get much light that we would go for cream color cabinetry.  Inspired by these two books:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

and several UK issues of House Beautiful we decided we wanted to keep the whole scheme in light creamy colors.  We wanted to mix a little modern with a little bit of an antique look.  Still wanted great functionality and robustness.

The result:

 
Since our first visit with our contractor we knew we wanted the corner tower cupboard.  It's super deep, and we love the way the two steps of crown moulding draw your eye upward.

 
Some might find an all vanilla kitchen boring, but for us it's refreshing, easy on the eyes and simple.  The cocoa creamy granite complements the new mocha hardwood floor.

 
Chose an extra large stainless steel farmers sink.  So happy we did.  We used to have a double sink and I never really used one side.  It was small and sort of useless.  I love that we can now put cookie sheets, deep pasta pans and all the evening dishes in the sink ! 

 

 
Opted for a side mount swan neck faucet with pull down nozzle! Works great.  One handle for water temperature.  Opted out of having soap dispenser installed into granite. That would be more little places to clean.  The beautiful little boxwood topiaries are from Restoration Hardware.  I could just go and live in the RH showroom at Providence Place Mall.  Gorgeous!

Hello sexy french door fridge!  Goodbye ugly useless side by side fridge.  No more unboxing all of the frozen groceries to fit in the freezer.  No reorganizing the entire fridge after every grocery shopping!  It all fits!  It's wonderful, well lit,  and has a great water filter that only needs to be changed once a year. 

 

 

New food pantry, new desk !  Now the goal is to keep everything organized and clutter free!

 
These little scallop shell door knobs might just be my favorite thing in the whole kitchen. They really tell the story.  We love the sea and everything ocean themed. Incorporating these into the design was the icing on the cake.  The antique bronze look goes great with the cupboard glaze.

After searching high and low I found the knobs at Lowes, and so inexpensive too.  Funny how it's the details at the end of a big project that bring the biggest smile to our faces.  Bill loves them too!

 
Breakfast bar for the kiddos.  Julian and Tyler are having a ball enjoying breakfast here every morning and I like reading the newspaper and having a mid-day coffee on the countertop. 

 
 
Retired the old oblong kitchen table for a round one! I've been wanting a round kitchen table forever.  Again, I found this one online.  Tabletop matches the floors and can be expanded.  The base and chairs match the color of the cabinetry.  In the corner near the clock, a beautiful dog themed watercolor that Katherine and Jim gave us for Christmas.  They found the artist in Key West.

 

    Details.

Candle hurricanes, my moo cow creamers, M for Mileski and new soap holder.  Treated us to Restoratation Hardware dishsoap and handcream.  The fragrance is called "Shore" and it smells delightful ! 

So there you have it.  A new year.  A new blog post.  A new kitchen!

Stay tuned for BVI vacation photos!

Deepak Chopra: Self importance is self pity in disguise :)

sun flare

Capturing sun flare in portrait photography is neat trend going on right now, but super tricky to execute.  In this photo I got a beautiful octogon shape of sun flare coming through on these lovely friends of mine.  Of all the photos I got this day, this was my fav.

 

Autumn Beauty

Took this photo a few weekends ago.  A long time friend and her beautiful son.  We were doing a family shoot and after an hour or so when we were wrapping up I got this shot of the two of them just hugging in the grass w/ the newly fallen leaves.  I love the contrast of the color of her sweater w/ the green grass....and the colors of the leaves which were perfectly dotting the foreground!  Fall in New England is gorgeous....and one of the best times of years to take photos!

Katherine's Best Recipe

I posted a recipe to my friends last week and got lots of responses.  Katherine, my sister, is not much of a cook.  She does okay, but posted this as her best recipe:

The best recipe I am good at is:
2 scoops bran
3 apples cut up in 1/4 slices
3 carrots cut in 1/3 slices
1/2 cup of molasses
mix all in small bucket
Add hot water until saturated
let sit for 5/8 minutes then serve
 
The horses just love it!!!