A Fun Filled Friday!

I can't believe August is at an end - it certainly doesn't feel like it with the warmer temps (82 today!).

Our dog visitor of this Friday day is Havi -
he was SUPER cute!! very friendly and quiet!

He's 11yrs old and belongs to Gil and Shen (Gil's gf)

Havi is a rescue and had a hard life before Gil and Shen -
the little guy has no teeth and is much smaller than he should be due to malnutrition when he was a puppy. Consequently, his tongue is usually hanging out of his mouth - but he is one happy, peppy tiny guy!

I also got a hair trim! I always feel like it's long afterwards....

because she blows it out straight - something I hardly ever due (too lazy!).... I know it may not seem long to you - but considering I had VERY short hair just a year ago - this is long!!  

Happy Labor Day Weekend!

Baltimore was AWESOME!

Here are a few pictures:

While I saw her sleeping Friday night when I arrived, this face on Saturday morning was even better!

Kel and I managed a few projects while I was there, including this bookcase.

Kel added some pretty pink and white paper to the back of the bookcase
to add a personal touch  and make it a bit more girly! 

Here it is all loaded up with books and a few toys in her closet.
I LOVE that Kel painted the inside of her closet a pale pink :-)

The double rack allows for more hanging storage.
Not seen are 3 more cloth bins on the shelf above to maximize storage.

We move the lamps around in the room and put the two matching ones on top of the dresser
and hung the mirror above. It's a perfect spot as it reflects the light from both windows
in the room making the nursery even brighter and lighter feeling!

The square shelf on the right holds picture frames, mementos and  special items.

Here's a great photo of the 3 of us from Sunday.
I had so much fun!

Thank you for a wonderful visit! I can't wait to come back and see how much she's grown! (she's growing like a weed!)

What Reese was up to this past weekend....

While I was down in Baltimore, Reese was at home making friends!

Reese, Hayboy & Jordan after running around at the dog park

Reese & Jordan playing (VERY!) early Saturday morning

Reese & Jordan sharing water on a hike Sunday

A HUGE thank you to Melissa & Tom for watching Reese (and the house!) this weekend!!
(all pictures courtesy of Melissa)

Countdown is On!

It's been a looooooooong 3 months for me, waiting to meet this cutie! 

But now the countdown is on and I can't wait to land in Baltimore!

(what a smartie! she hasn't even met me and she already knows I'm the best :wink:)

Manchester Quilt Show

After last year, when I took a ton of photos and Mum and I were awed by some of the quilts and different techniques, we were just a tad disappointed by the showing this year. It seemed as though we were looking at the same quilts as the year before.... Regardless, we had a good time walking through all the quilts and vendors. Mum even got a few quick 'how-to classes' from 2 vendors that were showing their different projects!

This was not the all-around winner, but it was my all-around favorite!

It's a borderless (so it almost looks like a picture!) quilt of a boxcar traveling the rails

A close up of the wheel assembly

details on the side of the box car

The view of mountains, farm land, telephone poles that you see under the car

more details of the rivets/ bolts and box car info.

We ended the afternoon with an early dinner at Portland Pie Co.... same place as last year :-) and it was not a disappointment!

Gluten Free (for a month)

and feeling so much better!!!
So, I know I updated you all on my allergy list earlier in the summer (Allergic to Carrots???), but my allergist has had me playing a bit with my allergies to test out how bad they are (some don't bother me at all in small doses, and others are pretty bad) as well as trying gluten free.

But, I really wanted to share with you some gluten free products I've tried that I enjoy:

Annie's Gluten Free Mac & Cheese! It's made with rice pasta and while I tried it out as the recipe tells you too, I would add some spices or pesto (YUM!) as it is a bit bland.  

NOTE! I did try the left-overs with a spoon of pesto and totally DELISH!

So this is more like fudge than a brownie.
Messy but delish when you truly need a heavy-duty chocolate FIX.

These are wonderful, but as my entire family decided, the taste is more like that of a brownie than a cupcake.
I don't think it's really bad to have a cupcake that takes like a brownie,
but if you're looking for a basic chocolate cupcake, this isn't really it 

Van's Natural Foods has some wonderful frozen waffles! You can find more info on their website: www.vansfoods.com

And lastly, we have found a local pizza place that has gluten free pizza crust! Portland Pie Co. also a delish basil gluten free pizza crust, but we can't really drive to Manchester, NH or Portland, ME whenever we want pizza.... so Weeksie's in Dover, NH has quickly become a favorite! :-)

I have not found a bread and I'm thinking that may be something that cannot be replaced. I do have some rice wraps, but I'm holding off sharing them because I haven't really gotten the hang of them yet (they keep breaking apart)...... I feel like there are some things that just can't be replaced, so you find other different things that are tasty :-) I did the same thing when I was a vegetarian.... my 1 gripe about that is my delish spicy black bean burgers have gluten so I can't eat them anymore! :-(

The adventure continues! I will let you know more as I continue to experiment and find out more!

Car Camping!

This was our little spot for 2 nights - Dolly Copp Campground near Mt Washington

Here's another view - we didn't have this view, but I'm sorta glad since
our campsite had more privacy.... this was a big field

The campsite was beautiful and had a great combo of  water, mtns, green space and trails.

Reese did really well and LOVED hiking with us!

SEE?! are the views amazing??

The water levels were really low...
but we didn't realize how this would impact us until later.....

The trails were lovely too - very little brush, ticks, etc.
It was truly  a beautiful hike!

BB took all these pics, by the way (Thanks, BB!!), so she insisted on some almost post-card like photos
..... maybe this one will go on the holiday card this year?

And just to show her smallness..... can you see her on the  fallen tree?

funny pic #1

and #2....

And then Reese decided he needed to get wet :-)

........cooled off his paws.......

....had a drink......

but mostly splashed around and watched the river!

This is for Matt's online pic for Liberty..... he wanted something less formal

LUNCH!
I should probably mention, that while we hiked up following the signs, we decided to take a bit of an adventure on the way back down and ended up back-tracking the adventure until we got back to the original trail and went back to camp. In our defense, we were on a labeled trail... it was just meant for skiing and not hiking. Ooops!

And now the low water.... so we wanted to go swimming, but it wasn't really deep enough.

So we hung out, soaked tired feet

Reese got really wet - but had trouble with the uneven rocky bottom that he couldn't always see.

I really wanted him to be able to swim, but no luck on this trip.
He got in 2 good plunks of his front feet and that was it.
We really needed more water!

But a cook-out and S'mores was a great top-off!!