Acadia National Park

While on our Maine vacation we stayed 4 days in Bar Harbor, the little town outside the National Park.

 

 

Before checking into our hotel we drove to the top of  Cadillac Mountain which is not only the tallest mountain in the park, but also the tallest mountain along the eastern coast of the United States.

 

 

 

 

We had dinner at  Stewman's and then found a beautiful spot to watch the sunset.

 

 

 

 

 

It was a gorgeous day

Our next day we booked ourselves on one of the local puffin cruises.

 

 

 

They are so cute, flying by with a beak full of fish or coming in for a landing and flopping on the waters surface.  I was surprised at their size.  They are only maybe 10 inches in length.  We saw all kinds of sea birds and also harbor seals and bald eagles.

Our cruise didn't depart until the afternoon so that morning we decided to see if we could find a anemone cave that we heard about and is only exposed during low tide. The park does not advertise it and has taken down the signs but we found it and had fun exploring the area.

 

 

 We didn't see any anemones but we did find this cute little crab.

 

The next day we drove over to the other side of Frenchman's Bay to Schoodic Peninsula.  The fog gave the day a mystic feel as we watched the waves crash along the rocky coastline.

 

 

 

 

Our last day was a rainy one but a perfect day to walk the shops of Bar Harbor

We had a wonderful time and were sad to say to goodbye.

A Vacation in Maine

Summertime and a vacation!  I'm so excited to finally get away.  My DH and I traveled to Maine this summer and I would love to share with you some of our adventures.

Most vacations we pack up the car and enjoy a long road trip but Texas to Maine is a little far so we braved the security lines and took to the air.

 

 

My husband had read about Blowing Cave in Kennebunkport so that was our first stop. When arriving we discovered it is across from President George H W Bush's home and there is a nice plaque to give a little information.

 

We checked into our hotel in Portland and then asked a local where to get dinner.  Their suggestion was The Dogfish Café.  David had a lobster roll which he loved and I had a delicious bowl of Haddock chowder.  Yum.  I love sea turtles and had to get my picture by this mural on the side of the restaurant.

 

 

On our second day in Portland we spent our day doing genealogical research at the Maine Historical Society's library then walked the streets of Old Port.  We had a late lunch at Gilbert's Chowder House where the lobster roll and haddock chowder was awesome!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

And of course a trip to Maine is nothing without lighthouses!  Here are a few we visited.

 

 

 

Portland Head, Portland, ME

 

 

Pemaquid Lighthouse, Bristol, ME

 

 

Owl's Head, Owl's Head, ME

 

Marshall Point Lighthouse, Port Clyde, ME

(lighthouse Forest Gump ran to in movie)

 

Dyce Head Lighthouse, Castine, ME

 

Bass Harbor, Acadia National Park

 

 

 

 

These last three lighthouse we saw from the boat on our puffin cruise out of Bar Harbor, ME

They are Mark Island Lighthouse, Egg Rock Island Lighthouse and Petit Manan Island Lighthouse

 

 

 

All we did in Maine is way too much for one blog post so stay tuned for my next installment of a Vacation in Maine coming soon.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Painting Plastic Outdoor Chairs

I have so many pins on my Pinterest Boards and after my trip to Maine I was very inspired to attempt one of the projects.  In Maine everyone and mean EVERYONE has Adirondack chairs in their front yards!  Well I have two plastic ones in my backyard but they are old and very weathered.  I know I could go buy two new ones but then my old ones would in up in the landfill.  Very Sad idea.  But they would look great with a fresh coat of paint!  At first I thought I would do traditional white but... how boring is that.

After reading all the pins on my Pinterest Board on how to paint plastic chairs I headed out to my local home improvement store and purchased six cans of paint especially made for plastic.  It took three coats to cover them but I love the new look.

 

So Pretty

 

So ugly

 

very dirty

 

a good scrubbing

 

three coats

 

and voila! brand new cheerful chairs!

 

They really brighten up the yard.
Happy Pinning!

 

Double Nickel Birthday

Last week was my husband's 55th birthday and when I asked what he'd like he said two nickels. At first I was disappointed that I couldn't find any ideas on line for double nickel birthdays but that just made me have to come up with my own.

Besides taping two nickels to his birthday card I created a special birthday t-shirt for him to wear for the day.

It was really simple.  I created the design on my scrapbooking software.  Then printed it out on iron-on paper, followed the instructions and voila!

 

 

 

 

Happy Birthday Sweetheart!

 

Heirloom Block's

My most recent project was creating a quilt out of heirloom quilt blocks.  The blocks seemed to be kind of fragile so I wasn't sure what I should do but I knew the owner of my local quilt shop would know exactly how to help me.

 

 

 

 

The first thing she suggested was to use a lightweight iron on fabric stabilizer which I did.  There were not enough blocks to make a full quilt so I decided to cut them on the diagonal and make half square triangles using a cream muslin as filler fabric.

 

 

And finally I framed the blocks with color coordinated fabric.

 

 

Now that it is done I'd like to find more vintage blocks and see what else I can create.