holiday with my boy

Sometimes, some very few times now, we are just the two of us. Jonas and I visited our old home for a couple of days, Mount Desert Island, which is sort of like a whole lot of beautiful in one tiny place.

our sea glass mosaic at our hosts' house

So if Maine's one of my favorite places in the world for natural beauty, MDI is sort of the essence of that; the best of the best. Most of it is owned by the National Park Service.

the view from Parkman Mtn.

We have so many favorite spots there and so many memories of when Jonas was small. I was always saying: Look, Jonas, that's where we went to the beach! That restaurant bathroom has special significance for you and your dad! That was our apartment when you were a baby! There used to be a goose at this beach we called Lucy!

We kayaked with friends, hiked up a favorite old hike (still great), and visited this lovely secluded beach full of rocks and sun (yes! SUN!).

I did not reenact being the troll under the foot bridge, but only because the stream bed was flowing quite strongly. Jonas was still game!

The Asticou Azalea Gardens are always a treat. And so much more relaxing now that I have an older child who is not about to shriek or run into the Japanese sand garden or stray from the path or otherwise disturb the meditative mood.

We camped out in the backyard of two friends (one of whom is Kate, my Unfurling Ferns collaborator) and listened to the rain on the tent, all snuggled and cozy. (OK, actually it was a little sweaty.) Both of these people are artistic food-lovers and have these amazing little treasures everywhere you look (driftwood accents, for example) around their very sweet and comfortable home. Martha Stewart has one of her houses on MDI and is probably sneaking around stealing their ideas.

Kate has this adorable tea cup, her grandma's. That I am in L O V E with. So here are two pictures, that's how much I adore it.

I couldn't even bear to use it. Kind of like having a crush on a boy in 8th grade that you can barely stand to look at, you like him so much. You might just fall into a really embarrassing swoon, just by glancing. Swoon away, in the comfort of your own home.

some creative endeavors

Tamarack flowers/cones

Maybe you have made a visit to my new project already, but if not, I sure hope you'll stop by. Unfurling Ferns is a new little creative venue for my friend Kate and me. Kate is a new friend, the fiancee of a dear friend, and isn't it grand when your friends pick out great partners and you love them practically on sight? So one of the things I loved right away about Kate was her great photos. And after being inspired by A Year of Mornings by Vettese and Barnes, I decided maybe it would be fun to have a photographic conversation with Kate. 

Sewing books

scored for $4 at a booksale

We decided, since we also share a tendency towards verbosity, that we would keep words to a minimum. So how it works is that we each take turns posting a photo, giving the post a title, and saving it as a draft to wait for a reply. Then, the person who replies goes ahead and publishes the post to the blog. It's fun to share something like this with someone who I am still getting to know. Getting to know Wordpress is completely annoying, but it has some cool features which makes its user-unfriendliness ultimately worth it.

the bird fabric

on its way to being curtains for my bedroom

So how about this gorgeous puppet? The work of Joanie, of Primrose Puppets, when we had a publicity photo shoot for some local performances coming up this summer. The word on the street is: she takes special orders for any puppet you might have in mind. She dyes her own silks, has a propensity towards perfectionism, and has made some truly remarkable creatures and personalities (large and small). Keep this artisan in mind...

If we had TV

Sylvan may not have discovered yet another 

low cost amusement:

Marble in the Wok Lid