Milkweed Stars

It's no secret that I love milkweed. It's one of the only things I like about fall. I get excited when I go running and see the pods open and the white fuzzy seeds floating everywhere. A few years ago I shared a tutorial for making Milkweed Pod Santa Ornaments. 

 A few weekends ago when my family was visiting I suckered them into going out to collect pods.

 Fill those bags you suckers! Penny ran around in the field, I took pictures and everyone else did my work for me. Sometimes I wonder why my family likes me. I swear they had fun, I think.

Garrett at least had fun. He posed for these wonderful shots, what a good sport. In case you're wondering he does have guards on his glasses, wouldn't want any milkweed seeds getting in his eyes. Seriously though he wears them all the time. I digress.

 After giving the milkweed adequate time to dry (in other words I was lazy and left it all in a bag for a week) I got my craft on.

All this project entailed was hot gluing five pods together, then gluing dried flowers or berries to the inside of the star to hide all of the glue globs. Then I glued ribbon to the back so I could hang them. totally simple; a baby could do it. (Warning: do not let babies use hot glue guns.)

 The only place I had to hang them was on my purse wall. My milkweed stars kinda snazzy next to all of the beaded glittery purses.

Now that I finally got around to posting about this I think it's too late to collect milkweed pods. Sorry. Store my fabulous idea in your noggins until next year.

We're going to Maine for Thanksgiving so I won't post anything until after then. Hope you have a great holiday.

Lauren

Admitting Defeat

You probably thought this post would be about me quitting my sweater endeavor ...but you thought wrong. I am a whole 12 rows in and (knock on wood) kind of, 82.3% know what I am doing.

No, this post is about my desire to make things and be cheap and how that desire can at times cost me a lot of time, aggravation and sometimes money. In an effort to keep Penny from being shot by a trigger happy hunter this Fall I purchased a blaze orange reflective vest from Ocean State Job Lot last Spring. It cost $3 and I just knew I could whip up something that would keep Penny safe.

Three failed prototypes and18 attempts later I finally admitted defeat and bought a vest specially made for dogs at the hardware store for $17. I figure my attempts cost me at least $200 in hours and labor (huge overstatement, but one must value their work right?)

Anyways, my story is just a shameless plug to get you to look at these ridiculously cute pictures of Penny in her "Please don't shoot me, I'm someone's pet and only friend" vest.

 Penny hates Fall just like me, the crunching leaves scare her. 

As you can see the vest doesn't exactly fit Penny's trim figure. In order to stay Velcro-ed it's big in the back. She doesn't seem to mind. This version is much better than one of the ones I made which made it impossible for her to run or even walk. Another version made it impossible for her to pee, big mistake, and ended up tied like a bow around her neck for the rest of the walk. 

A reluctant model to say the least.

Oh no, now you know she wears a size Medium. She'll never let me live this down. 

I just added this picture because it makes me laugh. One of the places we take Penny walking is an old ski resort that was shut down. During Irene (I think) part of the road totally washed away. Penny looks so curious looking into the hole. She's probably thinking "How can I get down there and play in the steam?"

Goodnight! Lauren

Winter Hike

Yesterday Charlie and I went for a winter hike. We'd both heard about a cabin on top of a mountain near our house and decided yesterday was as good a time as any to try to find it. After some bushwacking and use of a compass we made it to the top. Here is the view. That's Cardigan Mountain in the distance. 

There hasn't been much snow but the trail we walked on had quite a bit of ice covered by snow, which made for some slippery moments, and also some fun track spotting. 

We actually saw the animal that left these prints sliding/walking across the snow and then it took a dip in a stream, thus eluding my picture snapping.  We've decided there must have been two of them because there are two sets but we only saw one. Charlie used his tracks book to figure out it was a mink.

On the way back down we say these tracks. Come to find out they were made by a squirel, not too exciting but fun none the less.

At the top there was a one room cabin with pots, pan, a cook stove, an air mattress, lots of toilet paper, water, band aids and most importantly, playing cards. The owner was nice enough to open the cabin to others. There is a "guest book" inside that was really fun to look through and see when and why people had come to visit the cabin, that's what Charlie is looking through in this photo. We even found the name of someone we know! After spending a few minutes pondering how someone would carry two glass doors, windows, and all the wood to build this tiny cabin Charlie informed me that the materials were brought in on a helicopter. Crazy huh?

Charlie loves winter hiking (when there is snow) and I think he is crazy, so I figured I would post pictures of what is most likely bound to be my first and last winter hike.

Lauren

Springtime Hike

Charlie and I went for a walk today at Adam's Point. It's a wild life refuge with lots of trails along the bay. I took some pictures and then experimented with different effects to make them look a little more interesting.

View from the trail head.

Apple blossoms

Apple blossoms.

Charlie on the trail.
Lastly, here is a picture of Charlie and I on a swing along the trail.
The timing on the timer was perfect, so the fact
that I look like a double chinned ninny is ignored.

Happy Spring!

Lauren