flowering

My tree is flowering :)

Cupcakes

The other day I watched a marathon of Cake Boss. BAD IDEA! Now I want to try my hand at cake decorating. So here is my first attempt on cupcakes...

Making chocolate buttercream frosting:


Cupcakes (maybe I filled them a little too much):


Making fondant:


Fondant ready to be stored until later:



Now I have to wait for the cupcakes to cool, then I can color, roll, place, and decorate the fondant.

More pictures later...Now it's time to assemble two bookshelves!

tv stand

tv stand before (coffee table):


Tv stand after!:

DC

We had some friends from CT come to visit us this week and we did the tourist thing in DC.

Here is a view of Alexandria into DC:



Washington Monument:


Ken, Nola, Nathan, me, and Dumbo:


Navy memorial:

outside

I came home to this:



The ugliest weeds/leaves were growing, but there are these HUGE flowers





Ugh we have moles:

Drive home

Driving back to Virginia took about 8 hours. Nathan was with me so the cats were much more pleasant since they didn't have to be stuck in their crates the entire time.

Here is Lily during our pit stop.



Talkee likes the floormats:



Talkee totally passed out in the middle console while I was driving. I don't know how she was comfortable - she was laying on a soda can.



Lily sitting on Nathan's lap:

We were stuck in stopped traffic for a few, so Lily hopped up to see out the window:

Delaware

Delaware always has pretty sunsets when you are heading south.

Grill

We've been wanting a new grill for a while now. So what do we do the day after we get back? Go get one!

Here is our old grill. To me it says "I live in an apartment." It was a good grill and served its purpose as it was small and easy to move and carry (it was a "tailgating grill"), but now we have a house! So....



Here is the parts of the new grill:



And - Finished! It is a three gas burner plus a stove burner



Cooking dinner on our new grill!

Finally!

After 6 weeks I'm finally HOME!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

So we went up to New Hampshire for a short visit before the wedding and hung out with these guys:

Aimee and Joe! Thanks for letting us stay with you!




Always have to have a self-potrait:


We shared a hotel room before the wedding and Joe kindly ironed our dresses, as well as the guy's shirts. Interesting view we had to look, but at least we weren't wrinkly.

wedding

Today we went to a wedding for Nathan's best man Bill. The wedding was in York, Maine on an island right on the water. It was a beautiful, sunny day :)

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Done!

I'm done with school for the summer!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Woohoo!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I took 18 credits this summer. I will be taking 3 more online during the fall, and then will finish next summer!

Now time to RELAX!

2. more. days.

2 more days to go! I hope I can survive. I'm not feeling well today. Migraine.

This week I am taking a conducting class. It's really good, but I'm ready to be done with school and to have a bit of summer break. At the end of this week I will have 21 credits towards my master's degree. I anticipate being finished by next summer and then no more school for me! (Just classes/workshops here and there to keep up my certification).

Next week Nathan and I are going up to New Hampshire/Maine for a friend's wedding. Then we will get to head home and relax! In there will be continuing to fix up our house and a possible short vacation to do something fun before we have to be back at school the last week of August.

Well, that's about all for now. Hopefully something exciting will happen so I can take some pictures sometime.

Adios.

This weekend

As I survived these past three weeks, I decided that I needed some fun. Yesterday I went tubing down the Farmington River and today I went berry picking. I got 4.2 pounds of blueberries and 3 pints of raspberries.

Grad school

For the past three weeks I have been in Connecticut for grad school. I took 12 credits these past three weeks (9 more than the normal person took) and will be taking 6 more these next two weeks. It has been a busy, crazy three weeks with lots of research papers and readings! But I survived. These next two weeks are going to be a lot easier because they are workshops instead of classes.

Tap Recital

I've been taking tap classes this past year. We had our recital at the end of June.

baby gifts

Ok, here is what I made for the baby gift. First thing is a taggy crinkle toy.

Next is a burp cloth and matching shoes

and then the shoes in the post below. Tie them together and we get:

Hope they like them :)

Precious

Nathan's co-worker just adopted a newborn baby girl, so I set out to make a gift. I started out by making these precious little shoes! I will add a custom made burp cloth, and perhaps something else. But aren't they so precious?