Our visit to Hogwarts Square

So on Friday night Chris and I went to Harvard Square which had been renamed "Hogwarts Square". There were a number of places that would be selling the book at midnight, contests, etc.


There also was a concert with the band Harry and the Potters. On the left is a picture of the concert crows during one of the opening acts (The Hungarian Horntails and Draco and the Malfoys both performed.)



Here's a clip from one of their shows, although not the one that we attended. In fact, we liked the show enough that we picked up two of their CDs.





I also present to you a number of my favorite costumes while we were there.


(The quidditch team seems to be short a keeper.)


I had thought about going in costume, but until about an hour before I wasn't sure that we would be going. However, I think that if I had dressed up I would have been Tonks. What was interesting, is that since this was Harvard Square it was a little difficult to tell who was dressed as Tonks and who just had colored hair. If I had gone in costume I probably would have put on a pink wig since my color is pretty subtle.

I also liked that people chose to dress as some of the less popular characters or as villains. (There actually were large numbers of Slytherins, but I don't think I saw any Hufflepuff.) We also saw people dressed as Umbridge, Luna, Padma and Parvati Patil, as well as other lesser known characters.



Other businesses in the area also got in on the fun. Harvard's Natural History Museum had a scavenger hunt for owls, sorcerers stones, etc and a number of the eateries had butterbeer and other "wizard" themed food. Here are some of the flavors offered by a local icecream shop. I love the name of the last one!

Playing with the new camera lens

My new lens arrived today for my camera, so naturally I had to go outside and play.

I tried taking a self-portrait and discovered that I can't do that with this lens. It kept chopping off half my head. Oh well. You may also see that my pink dye is fading. :( Good thing I have plenty of extra dye. One of these day's I'll get around to touching it up. I was thinking it would be this evening, but now I'm rethinking that. Maybe tomorrow?

The new camera has been giving me lots of excuses to get out and take pictures if the garden. Not sure why, but today I got down on a lower level and took my pictures at a different angle than I normally do. I love the results! It makes the garden look much more full and lush.

Check out all of those herbs! We've got chives, parsley, basil, lemon balm, and then some snow peas on the trellis and some other flowers in the front.



Here we've got my two tomato plants, my cucumbers, and my peppers. In the front is some iceberg lettuce that didn't do too well. Anyone know the secret to growing good heads of lettuce?


And finally here we have the tomatoes. two different kinds- Better Boy and Sweet 100's. Can't wait until they ripen!

On Wednesday, to celebrate the 4th, we went to Old Sturbridge Village- a recreation village set between 1790 and 1840. All of the pictures on this post are from our visit there. It was a great chance to play with the camera and try to learn the settings. Unfortunately I over-exposed one event. I thought I had fixed the settings halfway through, but apparently not. Nothing major, so I'm not too concerned. I'll just have to practice more so that don't mess things up on our upcoming vacations.

While we were there, we rediscovered badminton, although at the Village it was Battledore and Shuttlecock and was played with paddles (similar in size to ping pong paddles). On the way home we stopped at the store to pick up our own badminton set. And since Wednesday we have played almost every day- and twice on Saturday.

There was another game there called The Graces that we also enjoyed- and picked up a set to play at home (although we haven't played yet). However, my skills at badminton are far superior to my skills at the Graces.

It's weird to me to be so into a sport- I am not an athletic person at all. If we keep up with the badminton I may even get a better racket. I question the quality of the racket that came in the set for $12. The racket I want is pink and costs about $50.


This weekend I also got a new bikini. It's very cute- black with a skull and crossbones on the top front and another on the bottom back. And since I already had purchased pirate scrapbook paper with no use in sight, I now have a reason to use that paper. Right?

However, I am realizing that perhaps my time for wearing a bikini is coming to an end. It's hardly a skimpy one, yet I seem to have some rolls of fat hanging out. Aaargh! I'm not used to that at all!

So, any suggestions on ways to loose a few pounds- especially in the tummy, butt, or hips? I guess I knew this was happening as I've noticed my weight gaining and my old clothes no longer fitting, but it still comes as a shock to me.


And my final update for the weekend-I finally got some scrapping done! Christmas Album, Mom's birthday, and Easter. The Christmas Album had been dragging for weeks and weeks. Such a weight off my shoulders to have that done. The other two layouts- nothing spectacular about them, but I was able to use some new products on them and it was a nice way to get the creative juices flowing a bit. Next up on the scrapping front is my trip to Chicago in April. I think I have about 4 pages worth of photos. Just one problem- no room for journaling. Not so sure what I want to do about that. The journaling that was on my blog earlier this month is about 4 pages long. I may just print out the journaling and tuck it into the page protector behind the LO. Either that or LOTS of hidden journaling.

My month for Stampers 5

Any of you out there in blog-land interested in buying some rubber stamps? This is my month for "hosting" in my Stampin' Up group. (For 5 months we each agreed to spend a certain amount per month, and we each are assigned one month to be the "hostess" and get the benefits.)

If you're interested, please consider placing your order through Melissa Barlow. The catalog is available here. Just let her know to apply the order to my "party".

Thanks!!!!

New camera

Yay! We got a Canon Digital Rebel XTi today! I LOVE it almost as much as I LOVE my pink hair. :)

I love that I can finally take pictures like this one where the flower is in focus and the background is blurry. I had lots of fun out in my garden taking pictures of the flowers and veggies.

And then I came inside and took some self portraits. So much easier with an SLR than my old point and shoot. (Just look for your reflection in the lens in the mirror and you'll know it's lined up properly.)

Chris with the Pink Hair

When I was on college I had pink hair. And I had a professor who's 3-year-old son knew me as "Chris with the Pink Hair". Well, after many years, Chris with the Pink Hair is back. And I LOVE it!

First picture is the "before", and the others are obviously the "after".







Two small pink chunks in the front. They actually look like larger chunks here than they actually are.

Then the back. When the hair is falling natually it covers most of the pink- just a little bit shows at the bottom. Chris moved my top layer a bit to better show off the color.

Vanessa- I chuckled to myself at your definition for Trail Magic. And re Stacy's blog- I was so excited when I saw the plug that she gave me there. I may even get an order out of it. Someone emailed me interested in one, but she's having some Paypal issues and since she lives in Canada she can't easily mail me a check. We'll see how that turns out.

I have more info on the deer from my previous post. There are two deer in the area. Their mother was killed/died and her two babies now roam the area. There is someone in the neighborhod who has been feeding them, so they have completely lost their fear of humans. This one in the pictures is much more this way than its sibling. We did see the other one, but it kept its distance.

In other news.... This past Saturday was our 4th Annual Pinewood Derby (and Cookout). I think we had our biggest turnout yet- 27 people! There were some awesome cars there- Batmobile, Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, The beach, the shark, the garbage truck... And the weather couldn't have been more perfect. Sunny, but not too hot. So many great pictures that I don't even know how to narrow it down, so just one for now and then the layout will have more- working on resizing them now. Have a coupon that expires at the end of the week so want to get them printed.

Weekend Review

For your viewing pleasure, we have a post that is NOT about gardening. (Feels like I've blogged about that a lot lately.)

This weekend we went to New Jersey. Chris' family has a cabin there and his parents were going to be there for the weekend, so we went down to see them there.

On the way we had to stop at a convenience store. I went in to make my purchase and waited. And then waited some more. There was only one employee, and he was busy pumping gas outside. He said he didn't see me go into the store, but we made eye contact. However, since I was in the store alone, it allowed time for me to take a picture of the bong collection. I also got to look at the box of porn DVDs.

Later on Saturday while at the cabin a deer came up to me. Literally. I thought he woudl be scared when he saw me, but instead he came right up to me. No stranger danger at all! In this photo on the left you can see me on the right and the deer next to me. For some reason he kept turning his head away right when I was taking the pictures.

I went inside to tell Chris' mom and she came out and the deer was still there. She tried feeding him some lettuce, but he wasn't interested. Instead he ate a cigarette butt that was on the ground. Mmm... tasty. Blech!

She then pet the deer. Personally I don't believe she should have fed or pet the deer, but I certainly understand the temptation. I wanted to but was partially afraid of it biting me, but I also didn't want it to get too comfortable with humans.

Next up is a photo of Chris and I "hiking". The cabin is very close to the Appalachian Trail, so we wanted to do some Trail Magic. We went to one place and were looking at the map trying to figure out what would be a good spot when a park ranger came by. We asked him for his advice and he told us of a shelter a few miles away. Perfect! The shelter was .2 miles from a road and parking lot.

We hiked up with a few gallons of water and ran into some weekend section hikers. One of them (the dad of the group) had thru-hiked in '03 and it looked like he was out with his son and either daughter or daugther-in-law. It was her first time backpacking.

Sunday morning we went back and noticed that 2 1/2 gallons of water was gone, so we left 2 more gallons as well as a bag of Snickers and Skittles.

Later that afternoon we swung by again and found 3 more hikers. Good thing we stopped by because they hadn't checked out the bear box where we had stashed the goodies. They were very appreciative!

As we were heading back to the car I kidded with Chris that we were now section hikers. After all, we had hiked the same section 3 times now. Probably doesn't count though seeing how it was such a tiny section. :)

We also made a stop at High Point. My dad "collects" high points- that's the highest point of each state. He had been to High Point, NJ before with Andrew. I figured that since we were so close I should get this one as well. After all, I've visited a number of the others with him.

This monument is at the top. There are 292 stairs inside, as you can see below. And let me tell you- a day later my calves are killing me from climbing those steps!


After High Point we headed back to the cabin, packed up the truck, and headed home.

Funny how a 4 hour drive feels so much longer after you've been driving around all morning through state parks, etc.

Insect invasion

NO!!!!! I was looking at my garden yesterday and noticed that I had aphids. Blech. A squirrel had already dug up my hosta in the morning, so I wasn't happy. I went inside and pulled out my gardening books. One told met he various chemicals I could use to get rid of aphids. Nope. The other book gave me some household remedies. So I mixed up some Dr. Bronner's peppermint soap and water and sprayed it on my plants. Hopefully the bugs will die or leave and my plants will be ok.

Garden progress

The plants that I had ordered arrived last week, and today I finished planting all of them. One arrived all slimy, so I'll need to call the company to get that one refunded. Rather than waiting for a replacement plant, I picked something else up today at a local nursery.


I tried waving my arms and saying "grow" in the hopes that all the plants would start to magically grow, but I do't think I have those super powers. I guess I'll just have to wait like a normal person to see how it turns out. The next to last section looks a little bare still, but I planted a number of bulbs that hopefully will come up soon- ranunculus and a summer blooming daffodil. I also have a peony in that section that I hope will come up soon.

More pictures to come as the summer progresses.

It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like Summer....

First order of business... a gross picture. Open at your own risk. This is what Chris did to his thumb last week at work. The photo was taken on Sunday after he soaked his thumb for about 30 minutes to loosen the gauze from his finger. And then it still hurt to remove the bandage.

Next up- my garden. Already things are progressing well, and things have only been planted for a week! The tomatoes are growing, and are up to or over the first rung of their cages. I saw flowers on one of my cucumbers this week as well as on my peas. Slowly but surely, the garden is coming along!

So what have I planted? Let's go on a "tour" starting at the top.

To the right of this section of garden is the small patio. You can just see the corner of it in the top right of the photo.

In the box is a tomato plant, 3 marigolds and some carrots. The carrots have not yet sprouted, but I imagine they'll come up this week. Next to the box on the trellis are cucumbers. You can't really see it in the photo, but next to the trellis are some cosmos. We'll see how well those do.

In front of the trellis are 6 pepper plants, and in front of those as well as the second tomato are 6 heads of iceberg lettuce. And the final thing in this section are a few flowers along the right hand size- impatiens and allyssum.

The next stop on the "tour" is my herb garden.

Here we have 2 chive plants. I've had these chives since I lived on Myrtle Street. That means they're at least 6 years old, maybe 7. They also have moved 4 times and been transplanted twice. They are thriving very nicely here.

On the trellis in the back are sweet peas, the only non-herb in this section, but I decided I needed some flowers.

In front of the trellis towards the left is some lemon balm. Any thoughts on what exactly one does with lemon balm?

Then we have 4 basil plants and 2 parsley.

And to round out the section we have more impatins and allysum along the stones on the left.


Moving down from the herb garden we have, what I believe is, the thinnest section of my garden.

In the back on beans. I transplanted 3 that I had started inside. Two of them are doing really well and the one in the middle isn't so hot. It was the runt of the group when I brought them outside. I also direct sewed a number of other beans and this morning I noticed that they had sprouted.

In front of the beans we have two lavender plants. I hope those do well because I would love to make some sachets with my own lavender.

In front of the lavender are 6 garlic plants. I planted these last fall and they seem to be doing well.

The final veggies of the group are 6 plants of leaf lettuce along the right and in front.

And for flowers we have marigolds along the left.

The final section of our tour brings us to my sugar snap peas. At the moment that is the only plant in this section (other than a few weeds poking up) but soon I will be planting peonies, ranunculus, and some summer daffodils. Depending on space I may get some more annuals as well.

There is one more section to the left of this one, but at the moment it is full of weeds. I've ordered some other plants for this section, and hopefully they will be arriving soon. A hosta is on its way, but there are others plants that should be coming as well.

Memorial Day Weekend Recap

Our weekend started on Friday celebrating our 4th Wedding Anniversary. We headed to Bugaboo for dinner, and then to Home Depot to get some items for our weekend garden projects.
Then it was back home for dessert. Chris had ordered us the same kind of cake that we had for our reception; well, almost. The website said all of the cakes came with raspberry filling. As you can see, it didn't. (I wonder if they meant they were all available with raspberry filling?)

I had decided that Saturday was garden day, so we woke up early to try to get some work done before the heat of the day.




The first pictures here are of our garden when we moved in last June and then the work that we did at that time. Not too much in the way of major changes this year, but what we did do made a huge difference, at least in my mind.



You can't really tell in the pictures, but there had been a stump and a bush in the upper section. We removed the bush and part of the stump so that we could finish up that retaining wall. Then, since we couldn't completely remove the stump, Chris built a box for me that sits on top of the stump, but still allows me to garden in that space.
Chris also added another retaining wall in the lowe section, dividing it in two. And then the final improvement was enlarging a walkway that we had to make it a small patio. Our oil tank gets filled on the edge of our garden, so last year we had put in the path for the oil guy. Now we extended it by another 2 feet so that it fits a small table and two chairs.


So Saturday Chris worked on removing the stump, but since it was a hot day he called it quits after that. No problem; swinging an axe is tiring! Sunday was when the walls and paths were completed, and while he did that, I weeded and planted my seedlings- and got a sun burn. Ouch.

Today, Monday, was my scrapping day. I got 4 cards done. Now all that's left for June are Father's Day Cards, and then I'm set until August! Hopefully by next weekend I'll be finishing up my Christmas album, and maybe my 2006 album as well. Then it will be time to focus on 2007. Luckily I don't have too many layouts to do for this year, but I think we'll have a busy summer.

Great phone call

So I just got a call from my dad.

Dad: The stock market is doing really well, so I'm going to give you some money. Would you like me to write a check to you or to your credit card?


Woo hoo! I have no idea how much it's going to be, but I just gave him my account number and he'll be going to the bank in the near future to transfer money to me. We decided to do it that way since he has to go to the bank to transfer money to my brother anyway. He knows that Chris and I are working to get out of debt, so this will be a nice bonus to that. When we started our debt reduction plan last March we estimated 3 years to get out of debt. Ugh. It just seems to go on forever. However, when I look at home much we've payed off already I am really impressed. I think we need to re-evaluate things again though. I know I have a very difficult time sticking to a budget. I am very much an impulse shopper, as you can see from the previous post.

Shopping at the Creating Keepsakes Convention

On Saturday I went to work at the Creating Keepsakes Convention in Manchester, NH. And I think that this first picture truly sums it up.

I saw this at a booth and had to buy it. It's a vinyl wall cling. I love it.

As I mentioned, I went to the convention to work. I was working at the Dollar scrapbooking booth from 8:30-1. That place was crazy! Not difficult work, but it kept me busy. I was pretty much just going back and forth between the registers and the end of the line handing out shopping baskets. The line was so long that it pretty much took 30 minutes to get through the booth! When not handing out baskets I was helping to restock items, but this was a challenge because you had to squeeze between people to get to the boxes under the tables, etc. The picture here on the left are just some of the goodies that I got at the booth. We could get paid $10 an hour of $20 of items an hour, so this pile of loot (plus a few things I forgot to include) was only $24 of my pay (purchase price would have been $48).

Here are some pictures of other purchases.
























And it finally happened- I bought a duplicate Quickutz. Anyone interested in purchasing the Topiary die? It's retired, and I'll sell it to you for $10 plus shipping. Otherwise I'll probably put it up on eBay.







And as if I hadn't gotten enough shopping, I stopped at the mall on my way home and went to Pottery Barn where I got the cute little colander and bucket. Now I just need to find a space on my shelves to put them.

Hmmm…. What happened to me? I used to be much better about updating my blog. I’ve been meaning to post an update since I got back from Vegas- just haven’t gotten to it.

So, first of all- yesterday a crazy hair brained idea popped into my head. Not sure if it will actually happen or not. I was looking at my paycheck and saw how much vacation time I have accrued and Chris has a couple of weeks coming up in August, and I thought, “hmmm, maybe we can take a trip to visit Andrew on the trail.” So, who knows, maybe we’ll be driving to Idaho or Montana in August. That’s a lot of driving- about 39 hours or so! If we do this, part of me wants to surprise Andrew, but I know that really isn’t practical. We would have to time it too perfectly to be able to do that.

I’ve also been spending my time knitting cupcakes, but I think most of you have already seen those over at TallyScrapper.

Spring seems to finally be here. I’m busy planning out what I’ll be putting in my garden. At the beginning of April I started a bunch of seeds, but now I’m trying to figure out what I’ll plant where as well as planning some other things to buy. And we’ll also be trying to remove an old stump and a bush from the existing area.

Anyway- back to Vegas. This was a work trip for our annual customer conference. The hotel we stayed at was fabulous! It was about 20-30 minutes from the strip but that’s ok since we hardly had any free time anyway. The property was fantast- lots of gorgeous landscaping, water features, etc. And the weather was perfect. Not too hot, so great for walking around and admiring it all.

And my room! Wow! I was truly spoiled. It was a 2 bedroom suite that I shared with one of the other admins. I arrived a day before her, so I claimed the “nicer” room, although, truth be told, I would have been perfectly content with the smaller room. The whole suite was almost 2,000 square feet- that’s bigger than my house! The bedrooms were both very large- and the bathrooms. Oh my. Giant room with a Jacuzzi tub and the shower had a rain showerhead. Separate room with the toilet and bidet, and yet another room which I deemed my “makeup room” with sink and bench to sit on.

The living area had a wet bar, 2 separate sitting areas (1 facing the TV and 1 for sitting and talking) as well as a dining table for 6 and a very comfy chaise lounge chair. And outside all of this was a humungous balcony with views of the mountains (I had no idea the mountains were so close! You don’t see them on CSI.) I even could see a little bit of the Strip out in the distance.

We had a discounted rate for the conference for the hotel so I inquired what the regular rate was for this room- over $900. Yikes! That’s a bit out of my price range. But from what I heard even the regular rooms at this hotel were fantastic.

Most of my time there (5 days) was spent working, but there was one evening where I went to the Strip. We saw the fountain at the Bellagio, walked through Caesar’s and the Venetian, and took in some of the sights. And can you believe it- no gambling at all for me!? I had wanted to play the slots a bit, but really no time. And I was overwhelmed. There are so many different slot machines. How do you decide which one to play? When I landed I had seen a Star Wars slot machine at the airport, but I was with someone else at that time and didn’t want to have to make him wait. Besides, it was very late and we were about to go stand in an hour long line for a cab. Yikes!

Anyway, there’s the very quick summary. Hopefully I’ll start to get back in the habit of more frequent updates.