Even though it was a short week with the Memorial Day holiday on Monday, it doesn’t make this weekend’s arrival any less sweet. While I am a planner and often have my weekends scheduled out well ahead of time, sometimes it’s fun to just be spontaneous.
For the kickoff of my Friday Favorites series, I’ve listed five free activities happening in and around the Portland area this weekend. Continue reading
Arriving at a new hiking destination for the first time is always a bit confusing. So when we stopped at the admission booth at Reid State Park to show them our park pass, we asked for a map and she handed us a photocopied, one page simply drawn diagram. It was a nice, high level overview but didn’t help us figure out where we actually wanted to go. After passing through the entrance, we encountered a fork in the road, and went left.
We quickly came upon a decent size parking area also on our left. I caught brief views of the ocean horizon through openings in the trees so it seemed like a good place to start. We pulled into the lot, and my husband opted to hang in the car so he could cajole his cell phone into bringing up more helpful hiking maps for the area. It’s always a challenge on our hikes to make technology work for us. I’m fine without it, but my husband likes to have a plan mapped out. So, while he worked on pulling the route together, I made a beeline for the beach. Continue reading
While my blog and digital photo books have taken over my hobby time recently, my heart is more in the realm of paper crafting even if it’s been almost a year since I tackled a project. The days are just too short to do everything I want to do, so sometimes things get put aside for a while. I know that eventually I will circle back to my paper crafts and put my obsessively over stocked craft room to good use again.
I have always been drawn to other crafters who excel in the field and have an entire bookcase dedicated to books written by fellow memory keepers sharing their tips and tricks. So, when I realized that there was a quilling artist located in Maine, I knew I had my letter Q locked up. I too have tried my hand at quilling, but on a much more simplistic and less successful level. Continue reading
Some hikes are planned while others are more a matter of convenience. With our goal to say active each weekend, we always incorporate outdoor adventures into the agenda. With a trip to Saco River Brewing planned, we stopped at the Mountain Division Trail in Fryeburg along the way for a quick hike.
It was also an opportunity to break in my newly purchased STABILicersTM. I’d already attempted a few too many winter hikes without the right gear and was excited to be finally properly equipped for the ice and snow. I was also especially happy that my new equipment came from a local company out of Biddeford. I bought them at Renys in Portland and this was my first opportunity to try them out. Continue reading
It is a testament to the fact that we have so many amazing food places here in Maine that I had not yet made it to the Scratch Baking Company even though they have been around since 2004. Of course, I had heard of them and knew that they got amazing reviews, but it was only this past month that I finally made my first visit.
My daughter was graciously standing in for my husband during a weekend hike as he was home sick with a cold and not up for it. The thing is my daughter does not like to hike. Not even a little bit. So, in order to convince her to join me I had to resort to the oldest of parenting strategies – bribery. I promised her a good meal if she came with me. Continue reading
