anniversary trip!

Last weekend (9/22) was Kinsey and I's 5th wedding anniversary!  We decided to take a long weekend trip to New York.   After much searching, we found a nice converted barn around the Woodstock/Saugerties area.  We'd never been to that area before and thought it would be perfect for a nice and relaxing anniversary weekend.

The place was really nice and open.  I especially loved the wooden beams and floor throughout!  Here's the downstairs area (complete with our mess of bags on the table!) and below is half of the upstairs area (looking across the room from the bed).  Lots of good natural light and a very quiet area.  On Saturday night, there was a fairly quick thunderstorm and it was pretty cool to look out and see absolutely no lights or rain except every so often when the lightening would light up the entire sky.  

A box of delicious chocolates awaited us when we got to the barn/cabin from the owners!  They were so good!

On Saturday, we went to see the Saugerties Lighthouse, which sits in the Hudson River.  The lighthouse is only accessible (other than by boat) by taking a 1/2 mile trail.  The trail is not accessible during high tides, so you have to plan your hike accordingly.  The lighthouse is actually a bed and breakfast as well.  I would love to be able to stay here sometime!

Kinsey and I LOVE apples, so of course we visited a few orchards in the area.  Our favorite apple hands down is the Macoun.  It's very common in New England (we had our very first at the Bar Harbor Farmer's Market...yeah!), but not so common were we live.  A few orchards have them, but they only have a handful it seems and they're just not the same taste.
We went to Minard Orchard on our way back home and loved it.  First of all, they had lots and lots and lots of fresh, great looking, perfect, crisp Macouns.  We bought a huge amount (we very well knew that these may be our last for the season!) and were so excited to taste them.  (The apples were wonderful!  We have a small handful left and are cherishing every last one.)  Then, we got Kinsey's favorite thing, cider donuts.  He said these were the best he's had.  They had the usual sugared ones and (yes!) non sugared ones (which is a rare thing to find where we live).  Of course, we topped off the trip with some freshly pressed apple cider.
Now we're wondering, is it worth a 4 hour drive to go back for more?  (Probably!)

On Sunday, we also did the Walkway over the Hudson.   It's billed as the longest, elevated pedestrian bridge in the world.  The bridge spans 1.28 miles long each way, so we got so good exercise walking across and back.  It was a beautiful and clear day and you could see for miles and miles.

View from the bridge.  The right side is in Highland and the left is in Poughkeepsie.  This was a great way to end a wonderful trip!

maine times six

It's been really, really hot here lately.  So of course we've been thinking of going someplace a little cooler for a quick trip.  Naturally, I thought of Maine.  (This obviously isn't a surprise if you know me.)  

I was going through some photos on our computer and found some of my favorites from our last trip to Acadia.  This one is from a slightly foggy day which happened to be our anniversary.  

We considered going back to Acadia National Park, but have never gone in the summer months and were a little worried that it would be super crowded.  When we go in the end of September, it's perfect. The days aren't (usually) sweltering and the trails and beaches aren't packed.  On our honeymoon (to Acadia, of course!), we had discussed coming back and had said we would on our 5 year anniversary.  Well, we ended up going on our 4th anniversary instead.  We'll be skipping Acadia this year as I'll be starting a new job in the middle of August.  However, we wanted to fit in a summer trip before I started.

Instead, we're going to our second favorite place(s) - Portsmouth, NH and the Portland area.  This trip will mark our 6th trip to Maine in the last 6 years.  We like Maine the best for its natural beauty, but we are so excited to go back to one of our favorite shops anywhere- Daytrip Society and Daytrip Society Jr. Can't wait.  

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south carolina...take two

One of our favorite places we visited while in South Carolina was Brookgreen Gardens.  This is not just a garden, but also a zoo and the site of the Oaks Plantation which was set on rice fields.  The zoo portion had all kinds of animals from bald eagles and otters to alligators and foxes.  

The garden portion has wonderful collections of flowers and huge sculptures all over the grounds.  

Here's Kinsey in the Palmetto Garden.  I'm in love with the brick wall in the background.  It's two bricks wide on each section.  This would be great in our backyard...maybe in the future?

An overview of the Palmetto Garden.  The palms are on all four sides and hundreds of poppies line the pool.  The poppies are such a great burst of color.  I'm so happy they were in full bloom when we visited!

Foxglove up close.  I'm thinking about getting some for next year's garden.  

Me and some new friends. 

Just one of the many smaller sculptures in various beds throughout the gardens.  

In the middle of Live Oak Allee.  These are centuries old Oaks with Spanish Moss hanging off the branches.  Another favorite spot!  Below the trees are beds of hundreds of daffodils.  Unfortunately, they were practically over blooming when we visited.  I can only imagine how great the yellow flowers looked against the green leaves and dark trunks.

Of course, we did visit the beach.  We went to Huntington Beach State Park and the beach within walking distance to my grandparents' house in Murrells Inlet.

Kinsey isn't doing a crazy dance in the picture below (at least not at that moment).  He's bending down to touch the water on our last morning in the Grand Strand.  

This is a huge fish/shark tank in the Charleston Aquarium.  Twice a day or so, someone dives in the tank and feeds the fish.  We weren't here when that happened, but it must be crazy to see. 

The albino gator.

Hello Mr. Turtle...(or Mrs. Turtle).  

The week and a half went way too fast!  We're hoping to go back sometime in the next year.  This was our first visit in 7 years!

back from our spring trip down south!

Last weekend, Kinsey and I were in Richmond doing Spring Bada Bing.  We look forward to this show every year and have been attending it for 6 years and have been a vendor for 5 years.  This year was by far the best for us and I was so happy with how our table turned out.  

This year, my main offerings were soft toys.  I've really been focusing on the area of plush toys quite intensely now for the past 5 months.  

This was my first show with the plush rockets and boys, so I was excited to see how they would be received.  Rockets were by far my most popular item - I almost sold out!  

Another new item I had for the first time were soft rattles, which went over very well as well.  

(Oh and here's how nerdy I can be: I totally got really excited when I saw Sherry and John Petersik from younghouselove.  And even more excited when they stopped and my table and chatted for a few minutes!)

Before we headed to Richmond, we spent a week visiting my grandparents who live just south of Myrtle Beach.  Early April is such a wonderful time to go to the beach.  See all the people out on the beach?  Oh wait, there's hardly anyone.  Warm weather, clear skies, and local strawberries!!

While we were in South Carolina we took a day trip to Charleston.  We were searching for a place to eat lunch when we came across this quiet, old church cemetery right off a busy street.

I'll be sharing some more pictures in the next day of one of my favorite places I've ever visited while down south. 

Acadia...four years later

We just came back from a 1 and a half week trip to Acadia National Park.  We first went to what we call our "favorite place ever", on our honeymoon back in 2007.  We decided to celebrate our fourth anniversary with a trip back to the park and some much needed relaxation.  

 Here's an overlook at the top (well, what we discovered to be the first of the three "peaks") of a mountain that we grossly underestimated the climb.  At the top, you could look out over the lakes, oceans, and land of the island.  It was a great first hike of our trip and an excellent place to enjoy a soft pretzel and maple mustard that we packed from our new favorite bakery.  (I admit that I became rather obsessed with these pretzel nuggets of glory....and the mustard was phenomenal.  I could eat one everyday.)

This is from my favorite "secret" spot along the park loop in Acadia.  There is a little pebble beach that isn't marked at all and you wouldn't know it was there if you weren't looking for it.  I have no idea how we found it on our honeymoon four years ago, but we did and we think of this place when we think of Maine.  There are all kinds of gorges between the mountain of rocks and when the water is rough, you can witness some pretty intense wave crashes.  I love this sheltered hole of water along the edge.  Check out the those colors!

Kinsey skipping stones on the "secret" beach.  

A trail in the woods we followed.  Who doesn't like the quiet of the forest with soft pine needles on the ground and moss?

Two of the videos stocked in our cabin.  We aren't movie people (we have only been to the movies 4 times in the seven years we've been together), but these scream us.  Seriously.  Unfortunately, we didn't have a chance to watch them.   

We did have time for these books.  A Walk in the Park proved to be an invaluable guide.  It list all the trails in the park with detail information on the elevation, difficultly, terrain, and different routes.  We learned that when the author says "different and strenuous", he means it.  We wanted an easy hike one day and chose a trail described as "one of the most difficult and dangerous trail in the park".  (Jordan Cliffs, anyone?)  

I loved the bright orange book (which takes a certain person to enjoy) and the one with the raccoon proved informative when on our last night at the cabin, we saw a family of raccoons come right up to our (glass and locked) screen doors.  Raccoons are much larger in real life than you may think.  The only other time we saw one was in the middle of the day at a nearby creek back home and yes, it definitely wasn't healthy.  

We stayed here.  The cabin was in a wonderful location in the park and really close to trails (walking distance).  We loved this fireplace in the corner.  The window to the right of the fireplace is where the family of raccoons came up.  The cabin even had a small loft (which I named the "puzzle loft" because there were puzzles up there).  

Here's the outside of the cabin.  Complete with a birch tree growing in the middle of the wooden walkway to the door.  Love it.  

Shiny and natural inspirations

The other week, we were in Richmond selling our crafts.  We love going here and look forward to the time to relax and go to some of our favorite places.
There are a number of pretty interesting shops and restaurants in this area.
Kinsey always stops here to check out the hat selection and I usually end up "just looking" at the local bead store.  I'd work here in a second.

Here's my shiny selections.

I don't even really bead much anymore, but I fall in love with the selection here every time.


Another favorite is Maymont.  Tons of acres of plants, trees, gardens, and more.  Here's a shot of the Italian garden (with Kinsey).

I love these tulips!  We have a similar style in our backyard, only the pink and white are reversed.

Here's one side of the herb garden.  I'd love to have a nice herb garden in our yard.

And overlooking the back of the Japanese garden.

Such a peaceful place...even though it was spring break week and the place was packed with kids!  

Spring...and bada-bing!

We recently just found out that we got accepted to Spring Bada-Bing this April!  We've done this show three of the past four years and love it.  Not only is it a great and well put together show, but it always gives us an excuse for a little spring trip!

Some of our favorite places to go are here and here and here and to stay is here.

We've been busy working on some new items for the show.  Can't wait to see the official list of vendors for this year's show.  If you're around Richmond, the show is Sun April 17th from 11am-5pm!  

Countdown to Bar Harbor.....

"About midway along it on one of the uprights is a plaque marking the state line, and I for one always begin to feel wonderful the minute I've passed that marker.  The air starts smelling better, and the trees across the river on Maine soil look greener.  When I come off the end of the bridge, I always think, "There! Now at last I'm in Maine!" and everything is suddenly bright, even on a foggy day.  Maine has that effect on her partisans."

~The Coast of Maine by Louise Dickinson Rich

In exactly 7 months, Kinsey and I will be in the middle of our anniversary vacation to Acadia National Park.  Our first and last trip there, was for for our honeymoon, which will be 4 years ago in September.  We are super excited to go back and if you know us at all, you know we can mention Maine daily, especially Acadia.

So in 7 months we could be here (on the overlook of Bubble Rock):

Or here (on Sand Beach):

Or here (one of our favorite spots that we call Rice Beach):