Weekend in New Hampshire #1

I recently spent a weekend in Jackson, New Hampshire for a scrapbooking retreat.

I haven't done one of those in AGES.

Anyone who is my friend on Facebook already knows all about it because I posted pictures of all of my layouts as I finished them.

But I have to document here for my own memories.

I went up with a friend from Ink About It, Joni.

and we met two other friends there Meg and Claire.

The weather was kind of gross and rainy as we drove up but I still got a picture of the cute covered bridge that sits at the entrance of the town of Jackson.

 The Hotel was amazing.  A big old building.

We found out during check-in that the hotel is known to be haunted.

(nice ghosts thankfully)

Since I had just gone on a tour in Boston with my brother Dion and they had mentioned haunted hotels in Boston, I thought it was interesting.

Joni and I decided we wanted to meet the ghosts.

The freaky dream I had that night will come in another post!

The hotel was sitting near a gorgeous stream and waterfall.

So on the second day, when the weather was nice, Joni and I went for a walk and I took a few pictures.

It was a really gorgeous area.

I guess the rain from the previous day had made the river run high...but it was just crazy that day.

LOUD and wild.  You definitely wouldn't want to fall in because you'd be swept away for sure.

It was pretty cool to see.

Shortly after this walk, I came down with some sort of food poisoning.

Which made my afternoon and evening of that day less enjoyable and less productive.

Luckily it passed quickly and I was back scrapbooking the next morning.

Dion comes to visit!

My brother Dion came to visit during the last week of October.

I rarely get family visitors so it was awesome!

(I like that business trips occasionally bring people here.  Otherwise I'd never see anyone!)

Unfortunately he took all of the pictures soI have very few to put on here.

I'll have to go steal some from him.

*ok, stole some*

Day 1 didn't go as planned.  We had planned to pick him up from the Boston airport and go to dinner and maybe walk around the city a bit.

Instead we ended up taking Carter to the ER at Mass General for a big lump on his neck

so Frank picked Dion up and brought him back to the ER instead.

We were there a LONG time.

But Frank was able to take Dion up to Lunder 10 (the cancer floor) where he spent most of 2012.

I think Dion found that interesting.

I mean, who wouldn't?

As usual, none of Frank's nurses were there. 

 I swear everytime we go up there to try to visit, none of them are working. sad.

We finally left the ER pretty late and decided to go to dinner

So we took him to one of our favorite places, Papparazzi.

We usually go to a different one but we went to the Boston one

and it was great.

The next day was Sunday so we went to church together

and he bonded with everyone in the ward right away.

what the heck?

I think they like him better than me.

For the afternoon we decided to take him out to see the foliage, 

which was not at its peak...not gonna lie.

Yes, it was chilly.  No mocking my attire!

But we went to Walden Pond and Concord

and it was a nice day together.

Monday morning we headed down to Boston to see the sights there before he had to check into his hotel and start working.

Work.

Gets in the way of life.

We went to Dunkin Donuts for breakfast.

Dion was pretty excited about this...and, well, I love a good donut, so I was on board.

We even ran into one of Austin's friends working there.

He was all "Hi Mrs. Hill!" I always feel old when people call me Mrs. Hill.

Dion's festive donut choice.

Before heading to Boston we went to the MIT observatory that was over by our old house.

aaand we might have swung by the old house just to check it out

(since he'd never been there)

Anyway, once we got to Boston, we did the guided tour from the Park Service and it was a great time.

Our guide was quirky and funny and had good stories.

She even told us all about some ghosts in a hotel downtown

(since 2 of the people in our group were staying there)

We had lunch in Faneuil Hall

(a must for any tourist)

and got some Cannolis

(No pictures! what?)

The statue of Paul Revere was wearing a beard and jersey since it was during the World Series.

We even road the T

and enjoyed a bit of the super friendly, unafraid squirrels in Boston Common.

So I think we hit all the high points for a tourist.

Wait.

Missed the Duck Boats...dang.

Well, Dion, guess you gotta come back!

Upholstery class Week 5

I decided to do the sewing of my skirt and the strips for my welting at home before class.

There are limited sewing machines and I figured there would be waiting going on while we shared

so I figured I'd get done what I could in advance.

It was a good decision.

There was an awesome tutorial for sewing bias strips that I used and it worked like a charm.

tutorial

(I originally found a youtube video that showed it but now I can't find it to save my life!)

Unfortunately I tried to help another girl in class to use this same method and we screwed it up.

So I felt bad because I basically caused her to have extra work instead of less work.

DOH!

Traffic was unbelievably bad this week.

I left my house around 3:30 and planned to run a few errands and do some shopping before heading down to Boston.

After it took me an hour to get to the exit to head up to my shopping, I decided to go straight into the city.

It was an awful drive.

I saw 3 or 4 accidents on the side of the road

I had 2 different police/rescue vehicles come past me (in the bumper to bumper traffic) 

and I saw 2 very near misses as far as accidents go.

Crazy.

And it wasn't raining or snowing or anything!

It was bizarre.

But I arrived safe and sound and about 15 minutes early

(having left my house 3 hours before)

One thing I haven't mentioned is that, due to the spot I chose for setting up my work area,

I somehow was chosen, week after week

as the "example" piece. 

I think my location was just convenient to the spot where the teacher set her bags

and I'm also sort of in the center of the room.

Anyway, when she wants to show us a new step or skill she tends to choose my project to show it on.

Plusses:

 I get to see, on my own project, how a professional would do it

I often get to go first when using a tool, since she starts on mine

She has done some of the work for me

Minuses:

She has done some of the work for me, so I'm not doing it myself and, therefore, learning

Sometimes when she's demonstrating, she's also talking and I think she's sometimes rushing a bit...so I feel like I get a slightly lower quality than I would if I took my time myself.

Occasionally she does the whole thing as she demonstrates it, and I have nothing left to do.

Again, I'm here to learn so that's not really that helpful to me.

Soooo....

since I arrived early this week I got set up at the sewing maching to make my welting and sew my skirt together.

She starts doing it to "show me how"

but people start trickling in

and so as each new person comes in she just keeps demonstrating

and she sewed the whole thing.

I didn't even touch the machine.

I got a few cracks from other students about me getting my project done for me

which I understand... but I really wish it hadn't happened!

Anyway, she actually sewed the welting together and attached it to the skirt all in one step,

which was pretty cool.

After that I attached the skirt to the project.

Tacking first to hold in place and then stapling like mad.

Here she is showing me how

A view of my tack holding it in place, followed by staples.

The final step is to cover the bottom with black fabric to hide the bottom and make it all look finished.

and then to put cardboard strip along the edge.

this also covers the edge and I think helps give the skirt a crisper look.

I had to do some piecing around the legs

 Finished leg area and cardboard strip.

And the finished product

(except for some steaming)

I have already signed up for the next class.  It starts in January and I'll be bringing in my own chair.

We'll strip it down to the wood frame and build it back up!

I'm pretty darn excited.

I do have one more week of class, but I'll just be "helping" other people finish.

I left my project there so we could take a group photo when we are all done.

Upholstery Class, Week 4

I missed last week so I went in a week behind.

I figured it wouldn't be too big of a deal because she has told us all along that we would finish early.

I worked like crazy

and didn't remember to take any pictures!

oops.

I put foam and cotton on top of what I finished last time.

I then covered it with muslin.

Then came the fabric!

Tacking it on to hold it in place:

Working on the corners.  This is called a butterfly corner.

I still need to make my cording that will go around the edge
(this will be solid gray)
and the skirt. 

Modern life

Cards with the family on a Sunday afternoon
I looked around and realized that everyone had an electronic device next to them.
Frank-Ipad
Carter-phone
Austin-laptop

I commented on it and went to get...
you guessed it, my electronic device
my phone
So that I could take a picture of this ridiculousness

In the meantime, Austin put his computer down so it was off the table
(I can still see it though!)