Back from PEI!

Isn't the first day back from vacation the saddest day ever?  I mean, I was somewhat glad to see my friends at work and catch up on the Downeast Maine news, but...

...I'd rather be at Green Gables. 

Prince Edward Island!

We're all packed and ready to go!  I'm looking forward to time with family, exploring the hitherto unknown world of dog beaches, shopping my way through Anne's Land and relaxing with a book and a glass of wine.  Can't wait!!

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Procrastination

I should be cleaning/packing/gardening/banking/buying dog food.  I'm leaving for a week of camping on Prince Edward Island in...3 days.  And I'm not ready.

Instead?  I am catching up on my blog reader.  And following Centsational Girl's insanely easy instructions for creating digital collages.  I've been looking for new photo editing software since Picnik closed (boooo!), and while I'm not completely sold on Pixlr, it is pretty easy to use.  I suppose my main gripe with it is that it isn't as cute as Picnik was.  I do tend to make decisions based on aesthetics. 

Anyhow, here are my first three attempts with some travel photos I've taken over the years.  I don't quite have the knack for choosing color palettes yet, but I'll keep procrastinating...er...practicing.

Vineyard

Grass in a Maine lake

Glacier in New Zealand

What do you think?  Have you tried this?  Might be great for coordinating a room around a favorite photo or painting!

The Bath - Demo

After my realtor first showed me what would eventually become my house, I went to the car and called my mother while dousing myself in hand sanitizer.
"Yeah, so you know that house down by the island? Horror show! No, really, Mom, there was tacky linoleum, the entire place smelled like a litter box, which makes sense, because there were like 50 cats living there, the deck is rotting off, the backyard is a swamp, and the main bathroom is baby fucking blue. There is no way I am crafty enough to pull this shit off." 
So, after a few cocktails, I realized that there was nothing else habitable in my price range I was up for the challenge and bought the thing, blue tile and all.  Ironically, I found a nice Nautica shower curtain in stripes of tan and the exact blue of the bathroom, so I decided to live with it for a year or so.  And it was...okay.  Livable.  But still...blue.
It needed to go.

 Taken the day I closed on the house - sorry for the dismal lighting.  The floor was kind of a cool vintage pressed tin-ish tile, but I could never get the grout clean. Note the tiled countertop, and the weird shelf/seat behind the tub.  I mean, it's as if they just looked at some random piece of furniture and were like...yeah, let's throw some blue tile on that sucker and stick it in the bathroom.

 That towel rack?  Tiled into the back wall of the shower.  Yes.  The only towel rack in the room was actually inside the shower. 

 Blue, blue everywhere.  The showerhead is a nice Delta that I found on clearance at Home Depot.  I installed it myself (so proud!) but failed to spray the rest of the fixture oil-rubbed bronze to match. 

 The floor wasn't usually that dirty - this was after we started construction, but this is a better look at the cool-but-crumbling tile and the heinous grout. 

 The shower surround, post demo, all prepped for tile.  The purple are patches Michael put up.  The white is actual cement-board.  The rest of it?  Yeah, they tiled right over drywall. 

 For some reason, I giggled every time I walked by and saw the toilet in the tub. 

It looks better already.

all photos, ours

New Zealand, Part VII

After the long drive to the west coast of the South Island, we geared ourselves up for what we thought might be a highlight of the trip - our excursion up to Franz Josef Glacier.  My aunt and uncle had bought us the tour package as a wedding gift through Traveler's Joy, and we were both insanely excited about it. 
Franz Josef (the town) was just what I'd expected - cool and laid back in an alpine resort-ish down under-cool kind of way.  We also found that we had finally made it far enough south to find Speight's!

 Happy Hour after a long drive.

 

We hiked through sweltering rainforest to reach the glacier.  True story.

 Finally out of the canopy and into the Waiho River floodplain.

 Richard, our guide

 Crevasse and blue ice

all photos, ours