New Obsession!

People. I have a new obsession. I know, I know... I have many, but this one is definitely worth sharing. It is edible, vanishes in two and half bites, can be made in under 10 minutes, and is something the whole family can enjoy.

Here is what you need:

• 1 Loaf of French Bread, sliced
• 1 Ripe Tomato
• 1 Mozzarella Cheese Ball
• Buitoni Pesto Spread
• Oh and an oven, you need an oven.

Set your oven on broil and while that baby is warming up, commence on spreading the love... ah hem... the pesto.

(Doesn't the lighting in this picture makes the pesto look scary... perhaps even a little evil...

but it's not, I promise)

After you have all your bread covered in spread, stick those babies on a cookie sheet and broil them for about 2-3 minutes, or until the edges start to look a little brown, not brown, a little brown. And because, like me, you are a master at multitasking, while those are toasting in the oven, you can cut up your cheese ball and tomato.



Once your bread is a 'little brown' pull the cookie sheet out of the oven and place a slice of cheese on each piece of bread and then pop them back in the oven until they look:



Now top each one with a slice of tomato, add a sprinkle of salt and enjoy!!

Happy Tuesday!

Carrie & Devin - Sneak Peek!

For their 10 year wedding anniversary Carrie and Devin decided to mark the event by renewing their wedding vows in a beautiful intimate ceremony in Tenants Harbor. I am going through some of the pictures right now and am just GA-GA over the location Carrie picked!!!

I can't wait to go through these images in their entirety, but here is a small taste of what is to come.

Balloon Festival!

My alarm went off this morning at 3:30. My initial reaction was "NOOOOOOOOO!", but then I remembered why I was getting up this early, I was going to the balloon festival!!

Each year around this time, my friend Debbie talks about leaving at break of dawn on the first day of the Great Falls Balloon Festival to photograph the 6am launch. She has been to this event before, but never in the morning. So this year we hit to hot top first thing in the morning with cameras in tow and iced coffees in the console and we were off.

Did I mention it was early?

We got there a around 5:30am and people were already getting ready!

We walked around and checked out some of the equipment.

At 6:09a a fog horn blared and all the pilots gathered and watched the black balloon. Someone releases a black balloon and all the pilots track its progress, they also talk about the weather and then use a bunch of balloon terms I don't understand.

Then it was time to initiate the launches! First, they use fans to get air into the balloons.

Then they use FIRE to get the balloons off the ground!

This year's theme is "Critters in the Clouds" so these two guys and little lady fit right in.

Some of the other balloons.

After the initial launch, we ran to the bridge where the balloons were flying by. 

Imagine driving to work and seeing this in your path!

How do you like my vantage point here?

Two balloons or one?

This is what it looked like on the other side of the bridge.

Flying overhead.

Some pilots lowered their balloons to touch the water - it's amazing the amount of control they have!

Fun with photoshop :-D



I am so happy I dragged my sorry beehind out of bed this morning to go to this. It was awesome, it was free and it is something I would highly recommend.  If you are looking for something to do this weekend make the trek to Lewiston and watch these take off! If you have kids, they will love it too. I can't wait to bring Miss. E next year!

 For more information on the event click here.

Happy Friday!

Camp Road Etiquette

Yesterday I posted this as a facebook status:

 "Attention Flatlanders: The first rule in camp road etiquette is "wave back when waved to" - it doesn't mean I want to invite you over for dinner, it is a simple friendly gesture. If you don’t take note of this rule, for the rest of the summer I will address you with a different, more direct, hand gesture."

23 people 'liked' it. I think that is an all time record for people 'liking' one of my updates, or at least publicly admitting it. So I thought, what the heck, let's take it to the blog and list a few other bullet points.


1) Okay, we can all agree that first and foremost, wave when waved to.

2) Just because I drive a beat up rusty, trusty Subaru and you have a shiny something or rather, that doesn't give you the right to take up the entire road. Yeah I know, it's a bit more narrow than your I-93, but there is enough room for both of us to make it, trust me, there is. Now move ovah!

3) Don't park in my driveway. I don't care that you are only taking up 27% of my opening to the road, it's still my driveway. Perhaps you should have done a little research on the parking situation before dropping $250K on your 'camp'.

4) Oh, and tell all your friends they can't park on my driveway or the side of my land either, that's so annoying! How would you like it if someone double parked at the end of your driveway??

5) Ohhhh this one really gets to me. Firecrackers. Really?!! Last night, which was a Sunday I might add, 11:32 PM I am woken up by firecrackers popping next door. Are you kidding me!! Not only is that totally unacceptable, but inconsiderate to those of us who are not on vacation and have to work in the morning.
 
6) Don't put your trash in my dumpster! Unless you want to tape a $20 and a thank you note to the side of our CMD trash bin, don't bother! You can buy trash bags at the local store like everyone else and leave your trash at the end of the road on Tuesday night.
 
7) Fires. What is about being at camp that makes people want to start a fire? It's is 98 degrees outside! Think about your neighbor that just hung two loads of laundry out on the line to dry, she doesn't want to sleep in a bed that smells like burnt hot dogs.
 
Obviously, I can go on and on ... Please tell me I am the only one out there who has these issues June-September?? If you have an additions to the Camp Road Etiquette "Book" I have going on here, please leave a comment!!
 

Maine Children Photography

Plato once said "Of all the animals, the boy is most unmanageable." I think he was on to something there. I don't have any sons of my own, but I did have two brothers growing up and boy oh boy were they full of it! Which brings me to my latest photography session with these two little guys.

I had the pleasure of photographing these two brothers and this picture sums up most of the shoot.

Busy, busy, busy!! But most of all, absolutely adorable! Mom's lock up your daughter's because these boys are going to be breakin' a lot of hearts in the next 12-15 years!!

How cute are their matching shirts!! And love the hat!!

Look at that FACE!

This is one of my favorite photos from the day.

Oh and this one.

This one too...

What a little ham!

And I had to sneak one in that included their beautiful Mom.

Friday's Question

I believe in:

• Eating dinner together as a family,
• Mowing the lawn every weekend,
• Little girls looking like little girls,
• Kids playing outside,
• Treating people the way you would like to be treated,
• Dancing, even when all your friends beg you not to,
• Date nights with your husband.

To name a few.... Which leads me into this week's question:

What do you believe in?

Wall Worthy

It's been a while since I posted about a project and that is mostly due to the fact that it has been a while since I actually completed one! That's not to say that I don't have a few laying around the house (I actually have a small quilt taking up my dining room table as I type that I should really be working on... but between me, you, and this monitor, I sort of hit a snafu and am waiting for it to magically work itself out).

Here is a small project that I actually started and completed during one nap time. It involves one super sonically ugly frame with some pictures I took back when I thought I was going to be the next star photographer for National Geographic (orrrr something).

The frame came off the wall long ago and has since been kicked around from closet to closet. There were a few cuts and bruises, but with a little TLC, I knew one day, it would be worth displaying again.

"Brought back to life with what exactly, because it's looking like pretty banged up?"

With what else!? Spray paint!! Sigh... I thought there would be an instant attraction between myself and the indoor/outdoor spray paint. However anything that advertises itself to be "Exceptionally Smooth" should also come with a disclaimer to "proceed with caution"! First of all it is messy!

It has a tendency to drip like the nose on a teething toddler.

And, like George Clooney, attracts any and everything that happens to fly by.

Disaster!! Luckily for me and Martha Stewart, there are TWO SIDES to every story.

With the a twist of the rist, I went from novice spray painter to semi-expert and was ready to commence on the spray paintage.

I let the frame dry, reassembled, added in a few new pieces of art and wallah!! My once beat up picture frame is once again wall worthy!



Happy Wednesday!

One Track Mind

Fishing. Not something I would drag my butt out of bed at 5am for, not something I would list as an interest on facebook, and certinetly nothing I would look forward to. My husband on the other hand... Fishing, Fishing, Fishing, he has a one track mind! So from time to time, we all go fishing.

Now don't get me wrong, I love to sit in the boat while soaking in some UV rays. Back in the day we used to spend hours and hours on local lakes, ponds, and rivers. He would fish, I would lay back with a good book, the both of us would be happy. Notice how I said 'back in the day'. These days, there is a new captain in town.

Usually she jumps from one thing to another; one minute she wants to drive, the next she wants to lay on the floor, touch the water, play with the fishing rods, but on this particular day, like her father she had a one track mind.



This bobber. She HAD to have it with her the entire trip. "Bobbah, Bobbah??" It was (is) disgusting, I am pretty sure those are worm guts, but whatever, it kept her entertained for 1.5 revolutions around the lake.

I hate to admit it, but I too had a one track mind on this particular trip.

Wouldn't these Dave Davis fishing lures make fabulous earrings? Maybe a little much for earrings, so how about a pendant? Seriously, I could not stop thinking about it. My plan is to wait until open water fishing season is over, swipe two of these from the tackle box, attach a couple of earring hooks  and see if  my husband notices.

Although the boat contained three minds in three different places the most important thing is, is that we were there together!

Happy Monday!