Come home soon SS Samuel Erwin!

Much love to our brother Sam who is headed out to Iraq.
Take care of your men and come home safely very soon!! We love you!!!!

Etsy Finds- Art!

I curated an Etsy Find with some of my favorite artists! Come check it out and buy some art!!!

Art Fair tomorrow!!!!!

Come out TOMORROW Saturday July 28th from 12pm-dusk to see us at the WHATEVER FAMILY FESTIVAL ~ HALLOWELL’S RIVERFRONT CELEBRATION ~ We will have a couple of tables set up for the Outdoor Art Fair: show and sale, featuring artists from the Kennebec Valley Art Association.

We will be having a "Be an Artist For a Day" event where folks young and old are invited to contribute to our "Whatever Festival Art Quilt" --all supplies will be provided so come on out and paint! ...No talent necessary :)

The Art Quilt will be assembled on the spot so keep coming back to our table to check out the progress! We are encouraging artists to sign their quilt square in the middle to show the vast array of ages and locations of the contributors. Art can and will unite us!

Hooray for helpers!!!

Our sister, Justina, came up from NY to stay at her camp just a few minutes away. She's so excited to get us moving along that she volunteered to work yesterday! She finished taking down the wallpaper in what has been dubbed her 'pink room'. This is a difficult task and one that we have come to dread so we are SOOOOO happy to have her come and help us!

She brought along her Husky, Brody, who wanted to get in on the action between playing games of Shark with Sammy. Justina also painted a desk that we bought at auction this past weekend-- It looks fabulous and now matches the dresser that she gave us! Things are coming together!!!!!

Now our only question is for our sister JoAnn--- when are you coming up to peel wallpaper????

A Garden Tour of Sweetland Retreat...

Our roses are in bloom and they're as big as our heads!! Joy models one behind her ear (really on top of her face!)

The best part of our week is strolling around the property to see what's newly in bloom-- we're finding flowers and trees that we didn't know that we had! The women that lived here before us really knew how to garden and put a whole lot of love into it. We thank them every day-- cause we know they're listening! The beautiful flowering white bush behind Joy in this photo is called Spirea-- our nephew dog walked under it the other day and tiny white dots of confetti were all over him-- I thought he went to a party!

The Lilies have started to make an appearance as well and they are lovely ladies. This patch is growing behind the cottage where the white and yellow Daffodils were last month. Can't wait to see what comes up next...I bet it's yellow!

Sweetland Retreat also has the good fortune of having a ton of Hostas! We saw them when we were thinking about buying the house and fell in love-- luckily there are even more now than we saw last year! The will soon blossom into pretty flowers but right now they are nice big patches of elegant curved leaves.

We were surprised to wake up one day and see exotic colored Irises on the side of the house. They have petals that are just begging to be painted or photographed! I'm sure that these will be a favorite muse amongst our guests!

When you turn the bend in the driveway you will be greeted by this buxom lady. A fragrant hello from this jeweled purple Lilac will start and end your day perfectly! You may feel dwarfed next to it but you'll delight in her sweetness.

Next to the Lilacs were another surprise... Poppies!!! My favorite flower! What a burst of color. They are growing under a Rhododendron bush and we're going to try to take some of the seeds and spread them around the yard. Unfortunately, it was so hot the day the poppy bloomed that she wilted within a few hours. No worries, though, there are a few more peeking their heads out now.

The front yard has it's share of beautiful blooms, too. There are monster Azalea bushes and Rhododendrons. The Azaleas are a fiery pink that are almost red and the Rhododendrons are a light purple-pink. You can't miss our house when they are in bloom!


...more to come soon!!!

In memoriam

Aunt Stephanie
Rest In Peace, you will be missed.

"Farewell to thee! but not farewell
To all my fondest thoughts of thee:
Within my heart they still shall dwell;
And they shall cheer and comfort me."
-Anne Brontë

Gardening time!

IMGP6050, originally uploaded by Sweetland Retreat.

It's fiddlehead season! The former owner of the house came over and taught us how to pick fiddleheads and where to find them on our property-- and boy are they plentiful! This photo is from our first day's picking-- and there were some more to come!


We also started a vegetable garden. This section is the spiral herb garden-- a Joy's brainchild and my sculpting skills :) We've used pottery shards that we got from our friend Jennifer and some bricks and miscellaneous items from the garage to form it.


While were planting, Joy decided to have some fun and try a headstand...it didn't really work out!!