A tour of Ocean Park

I thought I'd show you some of the lovely houses and shops in Ocean Park.  Typical New England architecture - very rustic.

 The building at the top of the road is our little home for the duration. Right at the beach!

 This is a little antique store

 The grocery store where they make the best cinnamon buns & muffins.  We haven't had any this trip or we would have gained back all the weight we've lost!

 The soda fountain where they have wonderful ice cream.  We are saving this for our last day here as a real treat.

Hope you've enjoyed this little tour.

A shopping day for sure!

Every day so far has been a beach day, but we knew on the weekend that this would be a shopping day.  Why, you ask?

 

We woke up this morning to the wonderful sound of rain on the roof.  We didn't want to miss our morning 2 mile walk along the beach, so we donned our raincoats and off we went. I had my dri-fit running pants on so I was okay, but poor Wendell just had his regular shorts and was soaked to the skin!  It was fun though and we feel re-vitalized now!

We feel ready for a day of shopping now. There were a few people out walking as we walked towards the pier (they must have English blood!), but on our way back we literally had the beach to ourselves.  We had the same experience on Sunday night as we went out to sit on the beach at dusk.  So beautiful!

 Then we went back to the cottage to play "Settlers of Catan".  Our favourite game.

 

 Mind you, we do love lots of games.  Every year we come, we go to this little shop.

 They have the most amazing selection of games and we always pick something up.

Well, I'm off to have a smoothie for breakfast and then shower and get into some clean dry clothes!  Have a great day wherever you may be.

Hello from Maine!

Well, we have been here a week now on vacation and every single day has been a beach day!  This coming week looks no different either, so we are thrilled!

Here is our little cottage by the ocean

We have been coming to Ocean Park for 21 years.  Rebekah was only 6 months old when we first came.  At first we camped in our tent trailer, then we gradually moved closer to the ocean.  We have been staying at this cottage for four years now and can't imagine a better location.

Each morning, Wendell and I are up by 6.30am or so and then we set up the chairs

We go for a long walk along the beach.  Not a stroll, but a good walk to get the heart pumping!  We get back to our little beach set up and read our scriptures and then go in for breakfast.  We are out on the beach for the day by around 10am and pretty well stay for the whole day other than coming in for lunch.  We have two other beach umbrellas which we set up so we have plenty of shade for those who want it.  We play bocce, splash in the water and read - it is sheer heaven.

In the evenings we sometimes go shopping

  

And we will often sit and play board games as we love to do that.

People ask us how we can come to the same place every year and not get tired of it.  We don't understand the logic of that question.  It is the fact that we come each year which makes it special.  It has created tradition in our family and we love that!

This is how far we are from the beach.

This past Thursday was my birthday and we went out to dinner at a local restaurant which we love

Crab cakes for appetizers .....yum!

Surf & turf......grilled beef tenderloin medallions, baked stuffed sea scallops, rice pilaf and glazed carrots.

On Thursday, Andrew, Kelsi & Norah arrive for the last six days......we can hardly wait!  We haven't seen our little angel for a whole week and we miss her terribly!  They talked with us on skype on my birthday, but I just wanted to reach through the screen and kiss her.

She cut her first tooth yesterday.  Andrew said "it's white and very sharp!"  Look out mommy!  She has been chomping down for a while already - could get a little painful now!

Before we left, they came over and she was touching my face, and the next thing I knew, she was sucking on my chin!  I remember when our babies did this!

So cute!  Roll on Thursday!

Sampler Quilt

Well here it is finally.  I finished up the binding on my first sampler quilt last night.  I laid it on my daughter's bed to take these photos, so I hope the lighting is sufficient.

I backed it with a green floral pattern 

I am really pleased with how it turned out.  I just did straight line quilting again.  I need to do a lot more practice before I feel near comfortable enough to try free motion quilting on a quilt!  I may never get to that point and that's okay if I don't as well.

If anyone is interested....only 3 more high tides (and 2 sleeps) until we leave for Maine.  I will have my computer with me and will be taking lots of photos.

Nine high tides until Maine!!

That's what we have been hearing from Wendell today!  We leave for our vacation in Ocean Park on Saturday and he has a tide watch and has been telling all who will listen just how many high tides are left before we arrive!

Now I know I showed you my first quilt top which is still being finished, but I have actually got another one to show you.  While it wasn't the first one I started, it is the first one I've finished and there is a very good reason for that.

 

A few weeks ago I ordered some "Seaside" fabric by Riley Blake on Ebay.  I just love this collection of fabric and thought I'd make a quilt to take on vacation to the "seaside" every year.  The fabric arrived in the mail and I got started.  Do you see the outer border in a sea green?  It's beautiful fabric and has little pictures of children playing on the beach with buckets & spades. As I finished up the quilt top and cut out the final border, I realized that I was about two strips short on that fabric and could have kicked myself for not ordering more!  

A few days later I was notified that I'd won a giveaway on Lindsay's blog.  Guess what it was?  A whole fat quarter bundle of seaside fabric!!

The fat quarter of the sea green fabric was more than enough for me to finish my outer border and I was just thrilled. Thanks so much for a lovely giveaway Lindsay!  Go and have a look at her blog. She always has great ideas.

I finished up my "Maine" quilt last week and gave it a wash to age it a little.  I may eventually embroider some words that bring back Maine memories for our family on some of the larger pale squares.

I am pleased with how it turned out.  I love the washed out seaside colours.

 

 This will go with us each time we visit (that will be three times this year!)

Ten more high tides - Yay!!

Looks like a party!

Having almost finished the front of our house, we now have to turn the attention to the rear of the house because of some uninvited visitors!  Last week, our neighbour, who has a beautiful vegetable garden, informed us that he had seen one of these in our garden coming out from under our shed.  Wendell saw a large one after that and a couple of little ones, so we assume that a Mommy and her babies have set up home under our nice big shed.

Skunks may be cute little things, but you do not want them around!  They really leave you alone and will only spray when they feel threatened, but nonetheless!!

The other night we were all watching the olympics when Wendell went upstairs to turn on the water for the grass and he called us up.  The sun was just getting low in the sky and as skunks are nocturnal, it was time to come out and play.  We didn't see the mother (maybe she'd told the babies to go outside and play while she cleaned house!), and not two, but FIVE little baby skunks came out to play.  We watched them wrestle with each other and play games. It was party time for them! It was really cute because we were on the other side of the glass, but we don't want these around for good!  We will be getting the pest control in to catch them and remove them.  It is all done with their safety in mind and they will not be harmed.  We will then need to replace our shed and make sure there are no ways for them to dig again.  Honestly, there's always something isn't there?!

My camera has been acting up lately and although my birthday isn't for another three weeks, Wendell and Rebekah went together and bought me a new one last week.  I really didn't want anything like this, but Wendell is a photography buff and convinced me that I want good photos of Norah and future grandchildren, so I need a good camera.  I got the Olympus PEN mini

I must admit that the colours it produces are beautiful.  Olympus apparently, are know for their blues and you can sure see it with the photos. Guess I'd better get busy and take more.  It will be coming to Maine in a couple of weeks and will get lots of use there!

 

Almost done!

Well, the renovation of our front porch and driveway is done, now we are just waiting for the new front door which will arrive in two weeks.  Here are some photos during and after.

I know, it looks like a building site doesn't it?  Which is exactly what it was for a while.  It should have originally been finished a couple of weeks ago, but as they were putting up the railing I just happened to be pulling in to the driveway and realized that it was way too high!  They ordered a shorter one, hence the delay.  But it was worth the wait as here is the finished result, along with the new driveway and interlock.

We are enjoying sitting out there on our rockers.  It's almost like we are in our beloved Maine!

I realized that I haven't posted the quilt top for my first quilt, so here it is.

I have just started quilting it this morning.  I did finish the free motion quilting class and I must admit that I found it very frustrating!  It does not come naturally to me and will require a great deal of practice!  But I will keep plodding along until I conquer it.  Did anyone else out there have the same problem?

This is my seaside quilt and it still needs one more border.  It is made from Riley Blake's seaside collection and I just love this fabric.  I found out today that I won a fat quarter bundle of this from Lindsay at the cottage home.  I am so excited as I love it.  This is coming with us to the cottage in Maine in two weeks time!  Can't wait!!

And finally, our little sweetheart!

 

Playing with Mommy

Laughing at her reflection in the mirror.

Have a great weekend everyone.  We are in for a real hot one (40C).  We are in desperate need of rain here.  I know those in England would gladly trade places!