The Maine Event

My mother will tell you that I have been talking about Maine now for decades.  She reminds me that as a grade schooler, I vowed I would live there someday.  Well, apparently the eight year-old version of me was onto something.  Graham and I just came back from the most amazing weekend in the Polar Star state and it was everything you would expect it to be--quaint towns speckled with old sea captains' homes, rocky beaches, sea glass rolling in at high tide, vibrant flora and fauna, sailboats at sunset, lighthouses, and lobster rolls.  On the flight home, instead of choosing what location or experience of our trip we loved the most, both Graham and I agreed that it was a particular time of day- the mornings- that held us most captive to Maine's beauty.  Our early beach walks, collecting smooth black stones, sipping coffee to keep us warm in lifting fog, practicing yoga on the lawn of our inn or going on a beach run, were our best moments.  So, here's a look at Maine in pictures!  Fully worth your consideration for a summer vacation spot or a fall foliage destination.  Heck, I bet even the winter is gorgeous.     

 

 

A Bountiful Fest

This weekend, my family braved the rain to attend the 2nd annual Edible Food Fest in Orange.  All from central Virginia, these earth to table vendors showcased their most delicious produce, offering tastings, demonstrations, and tips for preparation.  There were also lectures from sustainable living experts, but with three children in tow, we stuck a little closer to the kids zone- planting seeds, enjoying face painting, and sampling fresh fruit pops.  We were all soaked by a big rainstorm that blew through around noon and missed some good-looking gyros we hoped to have for lunch, but we still came home with some yummy foods, using a basil pesto and veggies we picked up as a base and toppings for the homemade pizza we devoured for dinner.  

The Market at Grelen and The Garden Patch are local and delicious and worthy of a visit to their markets, open from spring to fall.

We made a connection with the owner of the Hudson Henry Baking Co.  Her granola is wholesome and amazing and she has a little Henry just like us.

We couldn't pass up a dozen of these goodies, just off the doughnut truck from The Market at Grelen.

You wouldn't believe how tasty these fresh fruit pops are; lemon ginger and strawberry coconut milk are my faves.  From Pantheon Pops in Charlottesville.

Had to pick up a bottle of the Chambourcin grape juice from Oakencroft Farms after the company rep rattled off this sangria recipe to me:

Chambourcin Sangria

Ingredients:

• 1 bottle of chilled Chambourcin grape juice
• ½ cup pitted and quartered fresh cherries
• 1 sliced fresh peach
• 1 sliced lemon, remove seeds
• 2 sliced oranges, remove seeds
• ½ cup brandy optional

Directions:

• Place all in pitcher and allow to chill 4 hours

Our thanks to the Orange Downtown Alliance for another wonderful Fest!

Make it Meaningful

Next Friday, Graham and I will be heading up the coastline of southern Maine for a long weekend of lobster eating, lighthouse spotting, and beach combing.  As a girl who has never been north of New York, I gotta tell ya', I'm pretty thrilled to be going to such an iconic location.  One of the things I simply cannot wait to do is peruse around little New England towns like Bath, Wiscasset, and Rockland for a day.  I will be on the lookout for a new piece for my summer beach collection that I use to decorate my living room with between May and Labor Day.  I am of the mindset that good decorating takes time, and pieces should be meaningful and accumulated slowly.  Nate Berkus explains it well in this article.

"I always want objects in my home that have a connection to me or something I've loved," he says.  "It's still stuff, but it's stuff that has meaning."

 This spring, my husband's parents gifted us with the picture that his Grandmother Crouch painted of little Graham at the beach in 1982.  It works perfectly in my living room.

 I got this interesting backdrop at a paper store in New Orleans and bought it without really knowing what I was going to do with it.  It works well as a frame for these starfish, collected on a family vacation to Cape May, New Jersey.

 I saw this screen printed pillow at my favorite local store, Shabby Love, and had to have it.  A quirky little addition to my summer pillow collection. 

"Everywhere your eye travels in your home, it should land on something that resonates with you," says Berkus.  At a sisters weekend a few years ago, we all signed seashells for our nieces/nephews.  I keep Maddy's in this jar with our other ocean finds.

What meaningful treasures do you have in your home?

Yard Sale Ya Ya's

It's amazing what you can accumulate after a decade of being on your own.  One would think that with all the times Graham and I have moved post-college, our "stuff" would be pretty well purged, but my yard sale this past weekend proved that to be false.  I wouldn't have even considered such a daunting task except for the nudging of my eldest daughter.  Maddox has been saving her pennies up all summer for a trip to the American Girl store in D.C., and somewhere along the way, she caught on to the idea that a yard sale could be a lucrative venture.  So, after much prodding and begging, I agreed.  My name is Molly, I am 32 year old, and I lost my yard sale virginity on August 3rd, 2013.

In typical trial-and-error fashion, I learned a few things from my little event on Saturday.  My sales background told me to merchandise well and create displays.  I made the entrance welcoming and put bigger items toward the front where they could be easily accessed.

Though my husband thought I was crazy, I picked up plastic tablecloths at the dollar store and put them on the tables.  I wanted my sale to look cheery and well-organized so people would have a positive experience.

I organized my jewelry on a framed chalkboard/cork board I've had for ages and priced it to sell.  I also grouped similar items together (like the picture frames below) and I tied window panels, pillowcases, and quilts with pretty ribbon to keep them from ending up in a big, messy pile.

I made Maddox's nook look festive with bright colors and artwork and we sold breakfast items and water bottles to keep it simple.  She made $30!  Not bad for a morning's work.

 We made our guests feel welcome and at home so they'd stick around awhile and told personal stories about the items we were selling, like this BOB stroller that I jogged with practically every day with Maddy when we lived in Dupont, WA.  I love that it is going to a great family!

I enjoyed my pals and met some new neighbors!

My friend Marlene also joined me to sell on Saturday.  We spaced our items out so as not to get mixed up (mine were in the yard, hers were on the driveway).  I advertised for us in the newspaper and with neon signs around town, while Marlene took care of all the online promotion.  We made a good team and had a great day!  Just call us the Yard Sale Ya Ya's from now on.

The Flash Distorts the Picture

If you are a friend of mine and haven't been asked what kind of camera you own, consider yourself lucky.  For the last few months, I have been researching (aka asking everyone I know) and saving up for my first DSLR camera.  We have had a Sony Cybershot that hasn't steered us wrong for the last five years, but as I dabble into more photography, our aging camera just isn't getting all the shots I need anymore.  I finally saved enough, and just before we left on vacation, I ordered a Nikon D3200.  Wow, have I got a lot to learn!  Thank goodness for the owner's manual and for the 95 minute video tutorial that the nice man at the camera shop convinced me I needed.  

Learning this thing is going to take time.  Yet, amid all the things I have to absorb, one thing this novice knows- the flash distorts the picture.  I have found this out time and time again when I try to take a shot with the flash on and it turns out too bright, eerily unnatural, losing all the great detail.  It happened this spring when the kids discovered a bird's nest next to the house and asked me to photograph it.  When I leaned my iPhone carefully into the boxwood to get the perfect shot, the flash totally disfigured the appearance of the nest and eggs.  It wasn't until I turned the flash off and took a shot in the natural morning light, that I got this:

The flash distorts the picture.  That truth has got me thinking about some things.  How many times am I using the bright and shiny things in life to represent who I am?  Who my family appears to be?  Doesn't that altered reality distort the real picture?  We are not all as glossy and shiny and flashy as we make ourselves out to be on Instagram or Facebook, myself definitely included.  What if I could go with some natural light for a change and see what happens?  It might be real.  It might be refreshing.  I just might get the best shot.

Pink and Green and Red All Over

We are not a bunch of sickos.  My kids and I rarely get sick.  My husband, even more seldom.  But in the last week, we have put our insurance to good use, both in and out of network.  The kicker is that this was our family vacation.  It was a colorful week. . . 

Harper was the first to spike a fever in Raleigh, while visiting Graham's parents.  Off to the urgent treatment center she went, and was diagnosed with an ear infection.  Okay, we suspected that.  Two days later, while in Lake Lure, NC, her brother was seen and treated for an ear infection and bronchitis.  Just to be clear, one is a much better sick patient than the other and I bet you can guess who. . .  I'll give you a hint: the girl.

So far, our colorful illnesses had been green (mucus) and red (ears, plus Harper had a reaction to the antibiotics and had a red rash all over her arms and legs), but on Tuesday morning, I was awakened to a layer of crust over my left eye.  The old conjunctivitis.  New color.  Pink.  I headed back to the doctor for some eye drops.  (Amazingly, no one else caught this one).

I should mention that all the while, Graham is having headaches and a bad cough, but is taking sinus medicine and powering through it like a champ.

Now our sweet Maddox was coughing all week too, but seemed okay until yesterday on the ride home when she started complaining about pressure in her ears.  We assumed swimmer's ear and encouraged her to jump around to get the water out.  Meanwhile, Graham Crouch's ride home to Virginia was less than pleasant.  He had the heat on at full blast in the morning, then spiked a high fever somewhere in western Virginia.  I called the doctor at home and they agreed to see him this morning.  But after doing some research and already having a hunch from the debrief he received before leaving Afghanistan, he guessed his diagnosis correctly.  Umm. . . malaria.  Yep, you read that correctly.  Those pesky mosquitoes strike again.  Now we are all on meds (Maddox had a double ear infection, after all), and Graham is doing a round of doxycycline.  Thankfully, he's not contagious.

So, that's our colorful vacation in a nutshell, folks.  Memorable, right?

Hey There, Sugar

About a year ago, I got a tad frustrated with sugar.  It was around the time that the USDA and the American Heart Association began to get pretty specific about their recommendations on sugar intake for women.  The AHA suggests that women should only consume about 100 calories per day from added sugars (that's 6 teaspoons of sugar, or 24 grams).  Now, this girl has a serious sweet tooth and loves to bake, but I thought I'd give the recommendation a try-especially because diabetes runs in my family-and so I used a My Fitness Pal app on my phone to track my sugar intake.  Who knew that I would blow through my daily allotment by breakfast time?  Really?  Really.  Turns out, that cereal and milk have about 5 teaspoons of sugar.  Add that reduced-calorie orange juice and I was up to six teaspoons by 8 a.m.

I had to start thinking differently about this whole sugar thing.  Breakfast is tricky, because the simple, fast, seemingly healthy foods that we munch down right before we run out the door are not filling us up and are causing those dreaded sugar crashes by mid-morning.  I began switching things up this spring (right around the time I started eliminating processed foods), choosing oatmeal with nuts and berries instead of cereal, making green smoothies using natural sugars in fruit for that something sweet in the morning, trying out gluten-free toast with interesting toppings.

I finally came up with this savory breakfast item, and have been sticking with it for about a month now.  Rudi's gluten-free toast with Veganaise (I never thought I'd like it as much as butter or mayo, but it is AMAZING- look for it at Whole Foods), avocado slices, salt, pepper, and a dash of cayenne pepper.  It is seriously delicious and best of all, has only 3 grams of sugar.  That leaves room for 5 more teaspoons for the day- more than enough for that ginger cookie that will call to me by mid-afternoon.  After all, I still have the sweet tooth, and it's not going away.