I just uploaded more pictures to my Flickr account. This batch is from a trip to Bermuda and mainly of the Unfinished Church in St. George’s Parish.
Tag: Trips
Cupcakes
Cheryl just sent me pictures from my stay in Delaware, and it doesn’t take much for me to make a slide show these days. One night we went the the chichi cupcake place on Main Street. After all, we were celebrating the birthdays of her dog and my brother (neither of which were there, but celebrating was a must). Oh, and I got the pink ribbon cupcake, which means $1 went to breast cancer awareness, which pretty much cancels out the cupcake calories anyway.
I offered to paint Cheryl’s guest room in exchange for letting me crash there, so the last photo shows its new, beachy colors.
New York
Steve and I just got back from visiting with his parents in the Rochester area. Now that we live in Virginia, we get to drive up through the gorgeous Finger Lakes region. The leaves were beginning to turn and we stopped in Naples to get concord grape pies and in Canandaigua to get coffee and window shop.
Usually we visit at the holidays and there is a full house, but the youngest of the seven kids is now a freshman in college and so it was a little strange to visit the empty nest. It was great to have Steve’s folks all to ourselves, though. We picked grapes and apples on their property and did a little shopping and relaxing. I’m glad we had the time to go for a visit at such a pretty time of year.
Another highlight of my weekend was having dinner with Kerry Bogert on Friday night. She lives about 6 miles from my in-laws and we’ve talked over email before, but meeting her was really fun. She seemed exactly the same in person as she comes across on her blog, which I love. I first heard of her through articles in bead magazines, but the first time I got to see her jewelry in person was at Joolz in Canandaigua (Hey, Francie!) earlier that day. I love that Kerry has a recognizable style and I’m excited to see whatever comes next, but above all I think she is a model of artistic integrity and I have a lot of respect for her.
Photography
If you’re interested in seeing some of my pictures of architectural elements, I just uploaded some to my Flickr account. Many of these were in slideshows from my trips to Sweden and Denmark, so they may look familiar.
I use a little point-and-shoot Canon A540, nothing fancy. Just goes to show that beautiful subjects make beautiful pictures as long as you hold the camera still. Most of the photos are the raw files, so if you want to print them out you might want to fuss with brightness/contrast.
Temporary resident of Delaware
Sorry for not posting… I’m away for two weeks. The owners of Sparkles (the bead shop where I used to teach) are on vacation in Hawaii and asked me to help hold down the fort while they’re gone. So their daughter Lisa and I are having a good time playing with millions of shiny objects and helping customers design jewelry. My pal Cheryl conveniently lives near the shop, so I’m staying with her. I hadn’t seen her since June, so my Cheryl tank needed a refill.
Meanwhile I am told Riley has taken over my side of the bed; Steve says she seems a little down. I miss her, but I have a bunch of furry friends to play with in the meantime.
Gothenburg & Copenhagen
Tuesday night we rode the train up to Gothenburg. More meetings, more solo-exploring. Then on Thursday Steve was finished with work so we took the train back to Copenhagen and spent a couple days exploring together (much more fun) before flying home. The weather reminded me of fall, cool and crisp.
Malmo
Steve and I just got back from another trip to Sweden. This time we flew into Copenhagen and took a taxi across the Oresund Bridge to Malmo, Sweden. Steve had meetings Monday and Tuesday, so I explored the town a little. Malmo is a lot like Gothenburg with interesting old buildings, canals, outdoor seating at restaurants, and cobblestone sidewalks.
Wegmans
Steve and I spent the evening in Ashburn getting a mirror for the living room, eating dinner at Old Dominion Brew Pub, and poking around our favorite haunt: Wegmans. We didn’t bring a cooler, so our loot was limited to stuff like toffee chips, tikka masala sauce, heirloom tomatoes, mini scones, and Dogfish Head. I also wanted (but didn’t buy) baby pattypan squash, crab cakes, huge raspberries, cremini mushrooms, tzatziki sauce, hummus, the olive bar, cheese dressed with nuts & dried fruit to look like dessert, olive bread, Irish biscuits, sparkling lemonade and so much more. On the way home we drove through historic Leesburg, which I had never seen before.
It is 10pm on a Saturday night, still 81 degrees outside, and we have just discovered that our air conditioner is broken. We may be sleeping in the basement.
Cabin in the woods
After one last ride on Smith Mountain Lake last Sunday we loaded up the kayaks and headed south for the next leg of our trip: The Cabin in Carolina.
My parents had been there for two weeks and were on their way home that day, so we compared mile markers via cell phone and met up for lunch. When we got to the cabin we unpacked and went to Waffle House for dinner (tradition for the first night) and bought groceries. I love going to the store here because the local accent is so thick!We spent Monday just reading and relaxing. On Tuesday we’d reached our unplugged limit (4 days) so we took off for Well-Bread Bakery in Weaverville (NC) to check our email and have lunch. One of my favorite galleries with jewelry is Miya, right down the block from Well-Bread, so I stopped in to talk shop and get some inspiration. After that we checked out the shops of Burnsville, a little town between the cabin and Mount Mitchell. I finally found some Cavallini folders (birds of course) that I had seen in a magazine, and after plenty of coffee and window-shopping we headed home to take naps and listen to the rain. After a month of hot drought at home I was loving the cool, wet weather we had all week. Our friends Valerie and Casey came for a visit from Charlotte on Wednesday with their two adorable boys, Coulson and Charlie, and Chester the dog. Riley and Chester swam in the pond, the guys kayaked and fished, the girls split a piece of The Best Chocolate Cake (from Well-Bread), and then we all took a hike and made s’mores in the fireplace.
On Wednesday night our friends Josh & Jill arrived, and we spent the rest of the week resting, reading, watching the fire, and hanging out in Asheville (Bele Chere).
They even cooked dinner for us. (See Josh’s halo?)
Our last stop was Sonic where Riley got a frosty treat.
We had a great time on vacation!
Weekend at the lake
Since we were already going so far on a Friday, we decided to make a weekend of it and spent last Saturday and Sunday at Smith Mountain Lake. It was so beautiful, neither hot nor cold, and the water was emerald green. We watched ski boats pulling tubes and skiiers, sunned ourselves on the deck, and kayaked around the south part of the lake. There was an interesting mix of vacation homes, everything from run-down trailer homes to sprawling estates with boathouses bigger than the aforementioned trailers. Notice the first picture of Steve with the helicopter parked in the background.
