Assorted delicious.

the photo I would have taken, this one by my dear husband:

chubby baby hand

holds umbrella in the rain

chilly May day in Maine

Happy Mother's Day to you. I got just what I asked for: a sleep-in morning and nice breakfast (scrambled eggs, danishes, coffee) and a big day of housecleaning. Because in May, when we are so busy having festivals and baseball and parties and birthdays and someone is trying also to finish her semester, the housecleaning falls by the wayside.

Sylvan is trying out the position of catcher!

Random things sit in random places. Multiple loads of laundry in need of folding are the norm and occupy a large portion of the floorspace in my bedroom (like the photo from last post).

men who knit!

I married one.

Today we asserted order into our house of entropy.

typical May day celebration in Maine:

dismal 47 degrees

And then as I was cleaning the bathroom, on a whim, I decided to paint.

local Maine ingredients augment these fine chocolates

from Black Dinah's Farm Market Collection

You haven't ever ever seen our bathroom, blogfriends, because it is awful. It is small with weird striped wallpaper, not vintage, just cheap. Also, there was this terrible brown-beige trim around the window, edging the doors, etc. (WHO uses brown to prime?!) Plus, the wall behind the toilet was not wallpapered (OK, fine, it was ugly) and was just plain white sheetrock. And out of all of the rooms in our house, it is the one that has not been touched since our first summer here, almost eight years ago, when we made shelves in it. (There was a linen closet, strangely, with no interior shelves. It made us wonder about the former residents.)

mother's day gifts:

alphabet wine (totally librarian, right?)

PG Tips (without it, I am nothing)

So I painted. We had white paint---imagine!---that I used to prime the wall behind the toilet and the trim around the window. It looks clean! Neat! White! And I figured that getting a small start on this project would then inspire more work when I am officially done with school for the summer. I just did it and it felt SO. GOOD.

There was also some mowing and bike-riding today. Sylvan, recovering from a touch of fever-y virus, bundled himself up quite well on this breezy, chilly spring day: here he is, wearing two adult-sized down vests over his sweatshirt, down earflap hat, with ear-protection muffs.

The apple trees are in bloom, which I love. Not so many blossoms this year and perhaps this means we should have pruned better.

Brave Little Parrot

As promised, some visuals of this past weekend's performance, referenced in last post. First, an official photo montage from Kathryn, here. And here is my own amateur filming of the Regal Eagle!

A new Buttercup bag is in the making...a trade with a very talented quilter who has made custom-designed tank tops advertising our favorite exercise class, Sacred Sweat. So this little interior pocket is a nod to the quilting goddess who will carry it. Feels good to be sewing again!

Sipping chocolate from Black Dinah Chocolatiers, locally made chocolates on Isle Au Haut. Delicious and otherworldly: a little bit of warming spice (cardamom and cinnamon, maybe?) makes this a cup to savor. They ship. Seriously. To Die For. Oh and that adorable vintage tea cup? From P.O.S.H. Chicago, and I felt pretty posh sipping my chocolate from it. (thankfully, the gifter didn't give me this mug.)