Happy 4th of July

Happy 4th of July to you! Nature Girl drew this picture and said "Happy America Day!" It seemed like the perfect picture for this post. We hope you have a wonderful holiday.

Vacation Toes

We're getting ready to go on vacation. Yesterday we spent the morning with Laurie as she pampered us for hours. Nature Girl got her own special reclining pedicure chair. She was thrilled! It was the best manicure & pedicure I've had. Laurie really spoiled us. Thank you Laurie!!!
Look how great our nails look! We had them done in our vacation theme. Can you guess where we're going?

Apron Fieldtrip and Apron Fun

While we were in Vermont we took a little field trip to the Vermont Apron Company. The owner started off making carpet bags to sell at craft fairs and farmer's markets. She got tired of always sewing bags and sewed a few aprons. She found that the aprons sold out faster than anything else. She started making aprons and opened the Vermont Apron company.
Nature Girl posed with the manikins. She wasn't as excited about the aprons as I was but she still had a good time.
The cashier had fun talking with Nature Girl as I tried on aprons. She even dressed her up in a manikin's wig. With Nature Girl entertained, I finally decided on a pretty reversible sheath apron. My husband wondered why I needed another apron, let alone to buy it! I can't explain why . . . I just loved it.

I signed up for the Vermont Apron Company newsletter while I was at the store. The newsletter was e-mailed to me today and it has a code for 25% off a purchase. I could have used it last week but that's okay. If you sign up for the newsletter you get monthly discounts on specials both in store and online. Stop by the website to see. Plus, they're getting ready to launch a wedding apron. The newsletter has a sneak peak. It looks like it will be beautiful! I wish I had thought about a wedding apron to protect my dress. Then again 10 years ago I didn't wear an apron.

The Toy Society

We did our first Toy Society drop this morning. The Toy Society spreads joy and kindness one homemade toy at a time. You can check out the Toy Society and it's mission here. It was very exciting to take part! Nature Girl picked our drop location and the spot to leave the toys. We left the house early and went to the park before anyone else would be there. She asked me to tie the bag to a play structure. Then we played on the slides, swings and merry go round for a bit before heading home. It was a great outing!
We hope that whoever finds and rescues the turtle and his fishy friend will enjoy them. Nature Girl enjoyed this project. Now she wants me to make and hide toys in our backyard and in our neighbor's yard for their kids too.

Artful

From time to time I've posted Nature Girl's artwork. I LOVE her pictures! This time I wanted to share two pictures that she has recently drawn. Nature Girl really enjoys drawing and has gotten very good at drawing people. The first one is a picture of her friend Abby. The second one is a drawing of her Mimi. The photo isn't the greatest. That's my fault not hers. I like to scan in her artwork but the original of this one is on Mimi's refrigerator in VT. I think it's still somewhat visible though. I think her drawings turned out great!

Summer Safari Fun

We've been having fun so far this summer. We took a trip to see my mom and Gram in VT. My mom is home recovering from a double knee replacement so we went to visit and help out for a few days. After that we took a trip to the wilds of NY, as seen in the picture above.

Nature Girl went on an impromptu summer safari in the wild fern fields. The safari hat was the perfect touch. She found it in the garage at a relative's house and decided to lead me on a safari. We captured the pictures on my Droid. It's great being able to pull it out and capture great moments like these. She was too cute!

She gave me on a guided tour through the ferns down to a brook, where she climbed on the rocks, found a salamander and collected river stones for her rock collection. We had a great time!

Spring Fun 2010

Nature Girl was having some leafy fun in the yard this week. She's gotten really tall this winter but she still had to pull the branch down to cover her head with the leaves.
She picked some daisies while she was at daycare this week. She put them in this jar and set them on the table so we could enjoy them during dinner. Those of you who know Nature Girl know that she is a rock collector extraordinaire. She LOVES rocks and picks them up everywhere we go. Tonight she added some of the rocks that she has collected to her flowers. She told me that it would make the flowers look prettier. I think she's right.
These little matryoshkas headed out to the backyard for some spring fun and a photo opp too. Nature Girl has a few sets of wooden matryoshkas on her shelf. I've always liked matryoshkas but have never owned a set until now. My mother knew that I liked them so look what she bought for me. They're matryoshka measuring cups. They measure 1 , 3/4, 2/3, 1/2, 1/3 and 1/4 cup. Aren't they cute! You can find them on Perpetual Kid.com. Thanks Mom!