Weekend Wrap Up & Many Happy Returns

Poof, It's Gone.

My post was just eaten by the computer, so here's a condensed version. The Dublin visitors left this morning. That said, you can imagine we tried to make the very most of the past weekend. 

Some of the things we did included:

• stroll through Prescott Park
• lunch at RiRa
• Friday evening visit across the street in Tom & Joan's driveway
• back to The Bates Estate for a campfire
• lots of laughter and many memories made. oh yes, the stories will be told for years to come.
• Saturday date with a Ralph & Cathryn's Lobster Bake
• Sunday BBQ at The Bates Estate with birthday cake and wish for Harry & Dad

• Made Sangria, Guac and rice/shrimp/caper salad
• Listened to everyone moan and groan over how good the banoffee was, thanks to bil Niall (I'll post the recipe sometime soon and you do not want to miss it....bananas, whipped cream, caramel, ginger snaps...bring on the goodness!) 
• Got stung by a yellow jacket on my thumb. Ow. 
• Sang happy birthday to godson Harry and Dad
• Made scrambled eggs with help of niece Leah
• Goodbye time with our Dubliners

It was a great visit, and hopefully it won't be too long before we see each other again in person. Until then, we're very grateful for Skype. 

Dad's Big Day

It's my Dad's birthday today. He got to enjoy a little pre-birthday celebration at the cookout yesterday, complete with his serving of the banoffee with candles to blow out for wishing.

Here he is serving up one of his specialties....linguine with clamsauce.  He's a heck of a cook. 

He's also a missile test engineer, problem solver, community volunteer (lions club, elks club, and many, many more), skilled woodworker and folk artist, voracious reader, excellent writer, Dad to 5, Grandfather to 8, Great Grandfather to 2, husband for 59 years, friend to many, traveler, go-to-man and man with the microphone....the list goes on.

cake photo via karaspartyideas.com

Hope you have a fantastic birthday Dad!

Thanks for being here everyone.  It sure makes my day.

See you on the flip side,

A Day In Beantown

Good Day For One & All

Yesterday was simply perfect. Gorgeous temperature with a lovely breeze. Blue sky against the Boston skyline. The Aquarium. The Marketplace. The Black Rose. Good times with our Dublin family- Gar's brother Niall, our sister in law Caragh, our niece Leah and our nephew Harry. What more could we ask for?

We really seem to luck out weather-wise when we're off to Boston for the day and yesterday was no exception. I only wish I'd been able to pop into my blog pal Amy's new Maison Decor store in Beantown, but it was a day with the kids. (Next time Amy, for sure.)

It started with the the Aquarium which was great, as usual. Even if most of the penguins and the shark were off site while they did some maintenance. Bummer. It was ok though, there was so much more to see.

The seals greeted us upon arrival. The kids got to go face to face with them.

The sea turtles where the indoor greeters since most of the penguins were off site.  The were really big. The picture doesn't really have any scale to compare them too, but suffice it to say, the big one was as big as our dining table and a whole lot heavier.

Leah's favorite were the little Blue Penguins. They were pretty darned cute. They even shook their butts like Shakira. She had to see them twice. 

It was a beautiful day on the Harbor, even the seagulls thought so.  Once we were done at the Aquarium we headed back to the Greenway Carousel and then back to the Marketplace for lunch at The Black Rose.

After lunch we strolled the marketplace and Faneuil Hall. There was a lovely woman, Pamela Means, playing guitar and singing. Her music helped soothe Harry who was getting a bit tired.  Before we headed home though, we had to pick up a box of Canoli to bring home. Can't leave Boston without them!

Super fun day filled with lots of good memories. The best kind of day, right?

ps- While the penguins were Leah's favorite, mine was Isaac with his spikey mohawk.

courtesy New England Aquarium

Apparently, he had one serious itch to scratch.  My second favorite can be seen in the background....the smaller sea lion who loved the hose. He nearly got the crowd a couple of times. Back to Isaac though, he just had great laissez faire attitude. 

May I Have Your Attention

Giveway. 180+ worth of handmade and vintage prizes. Enter here.

A quick shoutout to all the new followers of the Muse. So happy to have you here with all my other blog-pals. I hope you'll stick around, and please feel free to comment. I just love hearing from all you guys.

Gorgeous day here. Will probably be going to the park with the Dublin kiddos later, and we will sure be in the pool while it's a warm one! Got to get it in while we can.

See you on the flip side,

5 Years Gone And Giveaway Time....Almost

 

Five Years Ago Today

Time goes by in the blink of an eye.  On this day, five years ago, we were in Dublin to celebrate the wedding of Gar's younger brother Niall and Caragh, our current visitors.  And I do mean celebrate. Have you ever been to an Irish wedding? A real Irish wedding? They go on, and on, and on.  We started in the morning and we ended in the morning.  It was one fabulous time.

Gar, Niall and I remembered to put the Infant of Prague out for good weather. He worked his magic.

 

It was a bit cloudy as the bride stepped out of the limo but that all changed.

Don't you just love a wedding? The happiness? The love?

 

Gar was the best man. He cleaned up nice.

He doesn't like this picture because his coat is askew.  Ah well.

Like I said before, nobody was happy. Not at all.

The Brothers Bates.

Then we danced and sang.

All.

Night.

Long.

First to the dance band. Then to the traditional band.

We even danced in our pajamas.

It was one helluva wedding.

I don't know why I look so scared in this picture.

Happy Annivesary Caragh and Niall.

We love you guys.

Wishing you many happy returns of the day.

The Giveaway Is Coming

Soon.

Just so you know, in case you were wondering, this is just a tease.

Be sure to be here next week for the official start.

Are We There Yet?

The Bates of Lucan aren't our only visitors.  Bonnie from {PaperKeeper} also swung in on her coast to coast trip.  OK, it's was a virtual visit. It was fun just the same. You can read about our visit here.

Freeform Friday

This is for you Caragh and Niall.

Here's a little clip of the girls dancing. Sorry it's dark.

I think of your wedding day everytime I hear this song.  Click here if you're reading by email.

Happy Friday,

Thrift Takes & Weekend Wrap

Learn Something New Every Day

I snuck away on Saturday to do a sweep through Goodwill and Salvation Army. I wasn't up and at it early, so I beat the morning rush by missing it....yippee for that.  Sure, I probably missed some things I might have had to have, but I was pretty happy with what I did find.

My thrift take included the sweetest little nippon dessert plate. I've opted not to put it up for sale in Bates Mercantile Co.'s vintage selection and instead I'm going to include in the next giveaway. In case you're wondering, I'm currently pulling together the giveaway, have some awesome stuff already and it should be set to begin next week.

For now a sneak peak of one of the prizes.

See what I mean about sweet? Some of you may remember me mentioning this before, but see that first picture? The one where you can see my hand through the plate? That's how you can tell bone china. It's translucent when you hold it up to light.

I also found a piece of ironstone I couldn't leave behind.  This will be going into our shop.

Beyond the floral design, I lave the pretty pattern and crimped edges.  It does have a spot or two of discoloration but I find this happens a lot with ironstone. I think it adds to it's charm.  It shows a piece has been used the way it should be.

I also scored this lovely Rorstrand porcelain bone china serving bowl. I had never heard of Rorstrand and had to look it up to find out some info.  Rorstrand has been manufacturing china in Sweden for more than 300 years, and continues to do so to this day.  They have some romantic patterns like the one I found, but also some really great midcentury patterns that really fun.

Once I picked this up, and felt how soft and silky it was I knew it was coming home. I'm planning on putting this in the shop as well, though it might be a tough call.  It's so very lovely.

So as usual, while researching a vintage piece, I did in fact learn something new. Am I the only one who had never heard of Rorstrand? 

My mother found a pretty little sugar/jam bowl last week, but I'll save that for the next Thrift Takes.  Oh the things you can find.

The Weekend Round These Parts

We didn't get the campfire in on Friday night, but we did on Saturday.  Friday was a pool fest at the end of the day with our pal Charlie bringing his granddaughter Makenna over to swim with our visitors Leah and Harry.  We had a ball. Then neighborhoodlums Tom and Joan showed up with lobster appetizers to share. Honestly, I don't know who they think they are to just show up with lobster like that. (Insert sarcastic tone). 

We let brother in law Niall, aka Chef Bates, cook dinner for us which included stuff portabellos.

We did get a little youtube dancing and singing in later, well at least Gar and Niall and I. We're still not sure how the kiddos and sil Caragh slept through it, but they did. Solid as a rock.

Saturday we did enjoy a campfire. Caragh opted for lobsters while the rest of us enjoyed some swordfish kabobs and chicken kabobs. The brothers worked on World Peace at the campfire.

My husband looks like a lobster in this picture, but he's not really that red.

We had a good view of the Blue Moon. I liked this shot even though the moon isn't as crisp as I'd like. It looks like it's emanating a blue force field of sorts.

Enjoyed more pooltime.  Just ignore the tilted picnic table with the umbrella balancing on it in the background (it has to get moved when Gar mows), my hairclip on the pool edge, the styrofoam box that has no reason to be sitting next to the pool. Life can be messy.

Picked our first tomatoes. Yay. Isn't that a beautiful yellow color?

The chitlins even got in a little Mommy & Me time.

Yesterday we were across the street to Tom and Joan's annual Labor Day Cookout. Missed a family cookout, but you can't be at two places at once, can you?  We obviously need an appointment secretary.

Sunset Meadows

The sun continues to dazzle us with its Summer show.

I hope your weekend was as chock full as ours. Today, even though I'm not 'working per se' I am sneaking in a little time at my desk.  The plans for later include more pooltime --- who would have guessed?  Picking some green beans and getting them into the freezer. I think there's more tomatoes that need picking too.  Generally speaking, the afternoon is reserved for some chill-axin'. How are you spending this Labor Day? Hope you're getting some downtime.

Ciao for now,

One Bright Smoothie

Energy In a Glass

My friend Kath, who is one of my bookclub/champagne ladies, owns a Blue Moon Evolution....cafe by day, restaurant by night. She's had the most wonderful Green Bliss Smoothie on the cafe menu for years. Yes, you saw and read right. GREEN Bliss Smoothie.

I made my own little take on it this morning.

First thing I did was go out to the garden and pick fresh kale. Yup. You read that right too. Kale. Just trust me on this, ok.  Here's a little bit about kale from WebMD.

"One cup of kale contains 36 calories, 5 grams of fiber, and 15% of the daily requirement of calcium and vitamin B6 (pyridoxine), 40% of magnesium, 180% of vitamin A, 200% of vitamin C, and 1,020% of vitamin K. It is also a good source of minerals copper, potassium, iron, manganese, and phosphorus.  Kale’s health benefits are primarily linked to the high concentration and excellent source of antioxidant vitamins A, C, and K -- and sulphur-containing phytonutrients. Carotenoids and flavonoids are the specific types of antioxidants associated with many of the anti-cancer health benefits. Kale is also rich in the eye-health promoting lutein and zeaxanthin compounds." (Did you catch that part Dad?)


Suffice it to say, Kale is a powerhouse. It also makes a wicked good green bliss smoothie.

I used 4 Kale leaves (rip the leaf from the stem, as the stem can be a bit tough), 1 small (3.5 oz) vanilla and honey yogurt, 1 large banana, 1 cup orange juice and ice.

Blend and viola.

This is good stuff. It tastes fresh and clean. You can always add some honey if you need it sweeter, but I find between the yogurt, the fruit and the OJ it's sweet enough for me.  It made a good batch. Gar, bil Niall and I all had glasses.

Oh, did I tell you I had a helper?  I did.  The next wave of Dubliners arrived yesterday afternoon-- The Bates of Lucan (yup, the hound is named after the town that they live in, just outside the city).  My niece Leah helped rip the leaves of the stems for me.

I finally met my godson Harry face to face. Live. In person. Not via Skype!!! He would have helped too but he was too busy chillin' with Lucan and eating watermelon.

Get a load of the shirt we gave him - 'I get all the chicks'.  I just love peanuts. 

Gorgeous day here. Perfect for pooltime with the kiddos later.  First, some work on my desk though. What about you?

This post makes me think that I really, really need to make a 'recipe' page on the Muse. Put that one on the too do list.

Loved all your comments about Neil Armstrong yesterday. Off to reply now.

Have a fantastic day,