Friday Finish!

 Well, I worked on my stitchery when I could, but I still have a few more leaves to add. There are a lot of flowers and leaves, so taking longer than usual. So, I worked on another butterfly painting. After this, I have one more butterfly and then I move onto flowers. I work on painting a bit a time, in between cleaning and cooking. I also put together two smaller table toppers to work on, when I finish the stitchery. 

This butterfly was more pink in the tutorial, but I didn't have that color. But, I realized on my next one, I was missing the part that gives recipes for those colors, by using the ones I have. 

Last week we went to the island for some beach time. This time of year is always nice, no crowds yet, so we can enjoy beach combing and Bean can run free.

In the fields we spotted a flock of Glossy Ibis. They are always on the move, so hard to catch one.

I always like to stop at the cove with lighthouse views and was surprised to see the new addition to the Osprey nest. Not sure how it got that white cloth there, maybe stole it from someone's clothesline?

Today we went to the farm preserve. Last time it started to rain when we got there, so it was nice to have warmer weather with a nice breeze. The donkeys seemed to be loving it up today.

We also spotted an Eastern Bluebird.

And a lot of Swallows in the other boxes.

The walk ends in a cove from the river, so we spotted a few more birds there. 

And on the way home, we caught the female Osprey, calling out to her mate. They can be quite vocal and get upset if their mate stays away too long or doesn't come back with dinner.

Tomorrow will be rain, so a day in or maybe shopping. We want to do some things around the house, so we might go looking at supplies to see what we can get and pricing. I am getting anxious to go camping, but it seems to rain on the weekends, so hoping we can go next weekend.

I hope everyone had a nice holiday weekend. We had a nice day with the kids. I wasn't going to do a hunt, but Alex asked if we were doing it, so how could I say no. 

It's Friday!

 I didn't get anything finished this week, busy with Easter, the boys and beaching. We had a nice Easter with the kids. I kept dinner simple but nice and made my son's favorite, Delmonico Potatoes as a treat. Before Dinner we had an Easter egg hunt, which the boys loved. I put two of each item in one place so they can each take one.

After dinner, we went to the school playground to run off their energy. 

Alex loves to show off and getting too brave for his size.

Since they had the week off, they spent an afternoon with us, while their parents got things done. We took them to the new beach I found and Nick was thrilled to find so much glass. Even Alex gets in on the fun of finding pieces.

Speaking of new beaches, we went to the beach on Saturday. The plan was to spend a few hours at the beach and then come home to get ready for Easter. We hit our regular beach and then I decided to go to the diving beach to use the bathroom and see what was on the beach, and found quite a few pieces. Then as we were leaving, I wanted to try an area I thought might have a good glass beach and we hit pay dirt. There was so much that I left half of it there and just took the better pieces. We got quite the haul with 3 beaches.

And today, we went back to the new beach. The tide was just going out and I walked up and down the shoreline and picked up what was being thrown up. I even spotted some large pieces sitting in the water, glad I had on my thermal boots. We stopped at our regular beach before we went home and I found some nice blues, and some old greens. We even watched a snail as he made his way back to the water.

I guess I need to start making some things with all the glass I have found. Some things I end up putting in the junk box, I may use the large chunks of pottery in the garden. Have a wonderful weekend.

Holiday Weekend Part II !

We packed in a lot of things in 4 days, I am still recovering, lol. Cleaning and cooking to catch up and then to top it off, I won a contest. I won a free class from Teresa Kogut, Angelic Strokes Tutorial. I was totally surprised and thrilled, never thought I would win one of her classes. I love her angel designs and her style and now I am learning the technique she uses while making one of the angels.

Today was shopping for supplies, even though I have painting supplies, I didn't have the ones I needed. I still didn't find everything, but I can substitute on the ones I didn't find. Today was cutting up paper and applying that to the canvas, then tomorrow I seal it all, then I can start painting on the next day.

The camp we stayed at was close to multiple beaches, so we stuck close by and enjoyed each one. We did get cooler temps, but warm enough during the day to get out for some walks. At night we got some rain, so I didn't get to enjoy as many sunsets or see the meteor showers, but it was nice to get away and give me a change of pace, just what I needed to recharge.

One nice thing about off season is, we can take Bean to the beaches. We realized after, that this month is off limits to dogs, but everyone else had their dogs on the beach, so I guess they don't enforce it.

And we found a section with no people, which Bean was thrilled about since he gets to go off leash. He was really good and stayed with us, but if he is close to kids and dogs, he wants to go play and jump on them, so I am careful about that. He loved playing in the ocean, I guess the cold doesn't bother him.

We got down before sunset, so we got to watch as the sun went down, then the clouds took over and we never got to see the full setting, but still beautiful as it went down.

On Sunday we spent the morning watching the ferry go out and then headed home  to get ready for Easter dinner. The kids cooked and my son smoked beef and salmon and made foods I could eat, it was a real treat not to have to cook and be able to eat most of the items at the table.

They also did an Easter egg hunt for the kids. Hard to take photos when they are running around so fast, you can't keep up. Nick is so cute, he kept up with the older kids.

Alex is at the age where he is aware of everything and seems to have taken cues from Nick on making faces for photos, he is such a ham with his expressions. Most are blurry though, he never sits still.

Now it is back to creating again, hopefully I will have some progress of my painting and a new stitchery block, by friday.