A is for Apple Picking

Yesterday was the first day of fall and my first in the beautiful foliage of Northern New York in ten years. This time around I have a wonderful husband and beautiful baby boy to enjoy it with.

The little man will be a month old in two days. He and I have been more or less cooped up for the last four weeks. Apple picking was our first family adventure. We grabbed grandma and went to a little orchard nearby. This was also our first use of the Moby...it was a little confusing at first, but worked out well for our wandering. The mister and my mom were able to get some good pictures in the lovely fall sunshine as well as a couple pecks of apples to turn into delicious baked goods. The weather was amazing, it was warm and sunny, with exceptional blue skies. It was a wonderful day spent with my perfect little family. 

Porch Paradise Project

One of my favorite parts of this house is the screened in back porch. In this century old house, with no central cooling, it is often the coolest place to spend time. And although I remember summers rarely breaking 90 in upstate NY, the last couple have been hitting those numbers pretty regularly. This year it has been pushing 90 already and its not even June! So with high numbers expected again, the porch is where me and the Mister can be found.

Since we spend so much time out there, I decided I would spruce it up just a tad. Not too mention, we had some small lighting concerns. With my porch paradise project, both issues were addressed.

 

I've had the last few days off, so I made it my mission to get the porch in ship shape before I had to head back to work on Monday.

 

Lights! As I mentioned there weren't really any lights out here. I work until midnight, so during the week the Mister and I are out here well into the night. Our makeshift solution had been the Mister's halogen garage lights. Great for garage work, great even for photography projects. A little too harsh for unwinding after work. The new solution, white string lights. These are perfect! They are bright enough to see whatever it is you are doing, but warm enough to allow for some relaxation.

Then I found a tutorial for fabric garland at Sew, Mamma, Sew!  Many of my projects use a combination of green and brown fabrics and leave me with small scraps that I keep around, but never know what to do with. Plus, the chairs I bought last summer were green and brown. I knew that this garland was the perfect project for all those scraps I had hanging around.

Throw in a focal piece complete with felt pomanders, tissue puffs, and origami cranes and you have yourself a summer oasis.

And let's not forget a fully stocked beer fridge, with a wonderful selection of summer craft brews and seating for six. So, who wants to come visit?

Springtime

I have been trying to line up my days off with nice weather for nearly a month. I have been anxious to get out and play in the yard, since this is the first year I have actually have a yard! It has not gone my way. I go to work when it is 60 degrees and sunny and then when I am off it's 40 and rainy. This week that finally changed!

I spent the afternoon basking in the spring weather and cleaning out the flower gardens. My mister came out and trimmed our lilac tree. I was pleased to be able to uproot a few thorny vines from the back of the yard to expose some of the smaller, less injury-inflicting plants that make their home back there.

I have an entire garden along the garage dedicated to strawberries and rhubarb. I am hoping to bake some delicious rhubarb dishes this summer once they pop up a bit more.

Rhubarb looks so creepy when it first comes up. It reminds me of alien eggs or something else from a low budget sci-fi flick.

The Mister had himself buried in the center of the lilac trying to get every last branch trimmed perfectly. I am just happy he volunteered for that job, because I would have gotten bored an cranky way before the task was finished!

This picture is just fascinating to me. The way my phone captured the angle of the sun is crazy. I am certain I couldn't duplicate this even if I tried.