Finally Finished!

I started this about 2 and 1/2 years ago. I don’t remember where I first saw this idea because it has been SO LONG ago but I thought it was really cool looking! I started bugging people and had finally collected a bag full of corks so I went to Michaels to pick out a frame and fell in love with this one and it only came in this size and I thought I should already have almost enough corks collected to finish it. WRONG my goodness this thing was the never ending project. I don’t know enough people that I could ask to collect them for me… I even ALMOST went through one of my neighbors recycling bins because… well never mind I am sure you can guess why… anyway I am sorry for everyone I bugged for these but it's now done and I LOVE IT!! Isn't it pretty!? I need to go pick up some decorative pushpins from Ballard Designs (which are a rip off… does anyone know somewhere else that carries them? So far none of the craft stores do!) and then I am going to put some of my favorite quotes up on it. It's hanging in my entry way. Hopefully this doesn't offend any of my company : P

I actually got my act together for Halloween this year. Mainly because my Mum sent me decorations last year and since they were already at the house and totally cute I had to put them up. Some of you will recognize these since they were from the shop, they would be REALLY cute on a little black tree ( I think you guys may have done that) but I don’t have anywhere for a tree so I went with a wreath. I just picked up a grapevine wreath, orange/purple ribbon and some funky ball garland and played with it all until I could live with it… I am SO NOT a wreath maker I always have all these cool ideas but I can't ever get the wreath to cooperate… it really bugs me. BUT I think this one turned out decent (that is about all I can say for it) This will probably be the extent of my decorations for this year… I might try and pick up some pumpkins but we don’t usually get more then 2 trick or treaters a year so it seems wasteful … we'll see how festive I feel. This is actually hanging inside the house because we never use the front door… but you can see the wreath when you walk in the front door.

How are your decorations coming? I am off to work on something new...

Apparently I shouldn't be messed with...

Uber had been bugging me for a while to get out to the range. We finally went this last Friday and it was a lot of fun. Totally a stress reliever (HA!) After shooting at our own targets for a while (which is fun but gets a little old) Uber decided we should compete and who doesn't like a little competition?!?
I am on the right and Uber is on the left… never would of guessed that huh? To be fair Uber is usually better than this… but I WON I WON!! Oh and that stray on the big bulls-eye that is my one out of five that didn't go into my target.. I TOTALLY did THAT on purpose (right….thbt) not to bad for someone who has never shot a hand gun before… we will definitely be doing this more often!

Oh and presents for small ones. Finally got this in the mail today I don't think his mom reads the blog so I should be safe and not be ruining any surprises... This jacket is SOOO cute! it has fold over pockets on the sleeves! And what little boy doesn't like dinosaurs?

Alright off to work on a new project!

No Way!

I just had to post about this cause I think it is cool... this site mentioned my blog for the tour of Kings Point I did the other day - how wierd is that!!

http://gcaptain.com/maritime/blog/maritime-monday-128/

*warning actual crafting happening in this post*

I just finished these invites up tonight. They are my first commisioned invites so that is REALLY exciting!

It is going to be a Christmas wedding but this shower is in October. I dont know if you can see on but the white papers is pin-striped and the ribbon is Grosgrain... yum!

Sorry for the terrible pictures it's kinda night here.. but I wanted to show these off!

Sunday

We had an early breakfast with Kris's family and then headed in to Manhattan for church which was lovely a smaller group but boy could they sing! Love that! I have been here for a day trip before and we had hit up a lot of the touristy spots so I was cool with being a little more low key. I got to experience the NY Subway and I can pretty much sum that up with YUCK! They have nothing on the German transit systems!!! Had to take a picture of this.
Makes you feel good huh? Take a deap breath! It wasn't working though let me tell you because I saw a huge rat on the tracks… it was too fast for a picture but I tried!! I was very excited to exit- it was ridiculously stifling down there! Kris kept joking about NY being built on top of hell… or something like that… sorry if I quoted that wrong… (he can say that he is from there… kinda…well for the purpose of this story anyway)We came up to walk through Central Park a little, I think I would like this more in the winter time there were just a bit too many bodies out. We had a drink at Tavern on the Green. Apparently this is a thing to do. It was pleasant and the perfect way to cool off!

I love the architecture and all of the old buildings squished inbetween the new ones. The detail work is great.

We walked by this church building just as service was letting out… that robed guy has to be HOT!! (robed guy… he's under the pope.. how about a father?? a minister… ok drawing a blank… I really should know this one!)

I hadn't seen Time Square on my previous trip so we walked through here and goofed off the streets were all closed from a concert so we took a lot of pictures!

We got a hot dog… cause they said I had to… I let uber eat most of it.

We popped into the M&M store… to cool down… not sure why we chose that store I think because it was there.

What are these two doing you ask? I have no idea...

Kris bought some candy …chocolate on a hot day… this about sums it up!

We were hungry by this time so we went in search of a German restraunt Kris had been to a few times and said was good… we (finally) found it about 4 and got some yummy grub. They weren't serving the dinner menu yet … much to our annoyance… so we decided to stick around until 6 and order …. again. HA! Stephanie was able to meet up with us here so we just ended up staying there all evening… enjoying hanging out and tormenting Stephanie with (far too many) random stories about home. We ended up spending roughly 6 hours in this restraunt… in Manhattan… we aren't very good tourists! … also unfortunately no group photo… what were we thinking… !? it's no like we didn't have the time!!!

It was a fun day in a neat city. We will definitely be visiting again. I don’t think I could ever live there visiting it for a day every few years is definitely enough! I need space! I need air! This wraps up my posts on the trip… hope it wasn't too painful… Uber got back home fine. I will be posting some crafty stuff tomorrow!

Saturday

We headed up to Connecticut to hang out with Kristen for the weekend (about a 45 min drive). Which means a guaranteed blast. We stayed at his Dad and Helen's house which was wonderful, just the kindest people especially since we totally crashed their house! His dad has so many cool artifacts everywhere! He actually has this really neat print of the Statue of Liberty that he let the Museum at the base of the statue borrow for quite a few years… How cool is that?!?! And we got to see it all close up in his living area! It was fun to look at everything I don’t know why I didn't take any pictures of it … but that may have been rude! Anyway we really didn't make a whole lot of plans just to have fun we spent the morning driving around looking at the ridiculously huge houses which Kris says is what Connecticut is all about.

Then we had a snack and wandered around the Maritime Aquarium. Which was very cute! They had a petting area for the Skates… so you know I had to have a turn! Move out of my way small children!

I liked the Seals… Especially when Kris and Matt were hanging over 'looking' at them and one of the employees walks over to inform them that they need to be careful because 'what do you think your little fingers look like to the animals, SARDINES! They would have no problem jumping up to their hieght and biting them?!?! WHAT?!?! Why do they let you get close enough for that?! And where are the signs warning of eminent danger!!!

Do they look worried? I don't think so! But they did back up a little. HA

They were pretty stinking cute though! Huh?

These frogs were CREEPY I mean really… This one just opened its mouth A LOT I know it is a little blurry but the open mouth thing was wierding me out I just had to take a picture!

Apparently that fat one can go for a ridiculously long time without eating… I wonder how small he can get if he doesn't eat and if the skin gets in the way of him jumping… or how about does this frog even move…ever… I mean look at the size of that thing!!! Can you imagine finding this thing on your door step?!?! I think I would leave it alone!

I know this doesn't look like it but it is alive and huge! I dont know how the picture turned out this well! It doesn't even look like it is in water... wierd

We were going to eat out that night but decided to BBQ at home instead-- which was AWESOME… why you ask?!?! Because we went and bought lobsters!!!

I know I am not supposed to play with my food but COME ON it is ALIVE …. We massaged its head to 'hypnotize' it and make it feel better about its impending doom… I am pretty sure it worked…

Just because...

Yeah we are nerds....

Meet Brunch, Lunch, and Dinner… or just the yummy trio….

We had steaks and corn as well so we cooked the lobster outside… Farewell my lobster friends! (I got to go first)

Oh! Kris's turn!!!

his folks don’t think we are weird or anything …. taking pictures of the whole experience

Tell me you don’t want to reach in and take a bite of one of these!!!!

Alright have you had enough of that?!!? Connecticut rocks by the way….

Friday Evening (much smaller post)

We had a lovely dinner Friday night with some of Uber's long time friends. I had not met them before so I was a little nervous since they love Uber but I was very excited to find out they are truly wonderful people!! It is so nice to have friends you don’t even know about. I do think Uber is rethinking the introduction though we teased him A LOT! Back in college he used to eat these poor people out of house a home… they thought they were being nice telling his parents to send him over for dinner and what they got was 4 years of hungry for dinners… can you imagine? Haha… Anyway she is a WONDERFUL painter and even sent me home with a water color she did which I am VERY excited about getting framed! Her daughter is GORGEOUS and a lot of fun we talked her into hanging out with us a little on Sunday as well. Hopefully they will get down to visit us next. Here is all of us out at dinner…we had yummy Greek food!
This is an oil painting she did of some Irish scenery… I am still trying to figure out how to get this out of her house… she did it for her daughter though… so maybe I wont steal it…she's lucky I like her!

Here is the water color she gave me… need to figure out how I am getting it framed (mom?!?!) I will show it to you again when I get it done! I really love it. Its very warm and wintry. I love the flags and trees.

Alright well I need to go get a shopping list together. I will show you more later!

Friday WARNING HUGE POST

Uber took me on a tour of Kings Point (the United States Merchant Marine Academy) It was raining like crazy… wouldn't you just know it… so we made a quick stop to buy umbrellas… which saved the day. It was fun to see where he spent four years in college. It was very pretty and didn't seem too terrible… though he swears there have been major improvements! The school is in Great Neck on the North Shore of Long Island. The property was originally owned by Chrysler and this is the original house which is where the Superintendent who runs the school hangs out.
The building is definitely in need of some work but it is GORGEOUS. The back side of this building has a spectacular view of the city but this is what it looked like the day we were there…lovely huh?

Here is me. In the rain. It's hard to get pictures while holding an umbrella that needs to be as close as possible to keep your dry…

I had Uber take this picture for me on a sunny day so you can all see what it should of looked like…

This is the Manhattan sky line (behind the bridge) you could see the Twin Towers when they were still standing. The boats are the schools. Apparently this area down along the water is the only area the freshman can't be tormented but the upper classman… let me tell you if I had attended here I would of put up a tent and stayed there. Not that they are like ridiculously mean to the people but they do things like make you cut your corners so you always have to walk the walls and edges everywhere you go and you have to greet every one 'Hello Ma'am, Sir" and then a message can be added to the end "Beat Coast Guard" or something to that extent depending on what is happening at the school during the week… It's VERY easy to point out the freshman because they are all stuck on walls and they have to talk to you I of course said hi back to every single one of them…Oh! and apparently they also have to drop and give you push ups if you feel like 'asking' them to… I was tempted let me tell you… but then I felt like a bully…. HA!

This is the school Chapel (incase you hadn't noticed I am using pictures from two different days)

Here is the inside. The column at the front with the cross is actually 3 sided and spins to do different religious services... very interesting...

This is definately not how Uber looked when he was in school here...

Here's the Basketball area which was getting ready for a volleyball game. I LOVE the way this looks the floors are really neat.

This is me feeling very claustrophobic… I will never be a raquet ball player if this is how I have to enter the room… THE DOOR IS SHRINKING!!!!....UGH! I think I am going to hurl… (and yes I know not all raquet ball doors are like this)

Here's the mess hall. Yummy food is served here….I swear.

In the mess hall they have plaques of the class rings which are designed by each class their freshman year this was Uber's year. They all have the same theme of course but a different interpretation.

This picture is interesting, it is actually there to cover up something else. USMMA is the only military school to have casualties of its students (meaning these kids never even graduated before they died for our country). 142 students died during WWII and their names are engraved on the wall as a reminder. Apparently it was so completely depressing that they covered it. Just a very interesting bit of info for you….

This is the bell the cadets ring when they find out they passed their licensing exam.

This is the statue in a fountain that the fourth company plebes (freshmen) kiss after passing the indoctrination phase (a two week boot camp at the beginning of school) Uber was part of this company.

This is a cool statue that I wanted to take a picture with… isn't he cute he looks a little shocked….

Here is Uber I made him pose occasionally (everywhere) but I will keep it to one random shot….

Oh and here is Uber all dressed up (Yum) I made him get someone to take his picture on a prettier day…

Alright well I hope you enjoyed your tour... I have a couple more post coming from this trip... aren't you excited?