Life's happenings

This is my last butterfly for this year. It was fun watching it grow from the VERY VERY little catipiller, into it's J, and then getting to see it transform into it's chrysalis, and then on to a very beautiful butterfly! The process amazes me and causes me to stand in wonder of the one who created these creatures!

SO yes, I've decided to be exciting and write a blog post! :) A couple weeks ago Asa and I went to my cousin's house to work on some of his porches. We had a really good time and even though it was crazy getting back in time for work EARLY that Saturday morning it was worth it! Here's a really funny shot of my cousin's cat watching the guys work:

We got back Saturday, I worked, we picked apples andwent to meet some of our friends to press our own apple cider! Our neighbors let us pick applesoff of their trees and from only two trees we got about 8 gallons of cider! Our friends did bring that many apples so we endedup letting them use some of ours. Afterwards they all came back to our house to eat and havea nice time around the camp fire. Unfortunately I just took pictures ofthe pressing cider and nothing else. HOWEVER, I did make AMAZING cakedoughnuts. AND to some of themI added frozen mashed up blueberries and they turned out delicious! (I know, shame on me for not taking pictures!) I really would like to make them again, So I promise I"ll take pictures this next time!

We were only home a few days and we were off to NYC. Asa's family needed to clean out some of their garages. Since Asa enjoys collecting other people's unwanted treasures most of the stuff to be cleaned out was his. SO while he cleaned Emily and I got to be city girls. We met up with some of her friends the first day in the city. It was fun but I was itching to find new places and go shopping. On Friday we went to Brighton Beach, a large Russian area. This is SUCH a FUN place to shop! (and no, I don't have pictures from here either) Emily and I just spent time walking in and out of the unique little shops! We bought Halvah for Asa. If you haven't every tried halvah I highly recommend it. I'd love to describe it to you, but honestly I have a hard time doing that. The first time I had it I didn't like it at all because it didn't taste like I expected it to. It has a rough/pasty texture and it slightly sweet. I bought a sunflower seed one this time and it hasmore of a nutty flavor. It's a very unique treat! On saturday Emily and I got to finally go shopping. We didn't have much luck on the purse shopping in China town, but we did get to try out a cool little tea shop for lunch. http://alicesteacup.com/ go here and on the top pick "chapter one" and you'll see where we went. It was a very cute place and the scones were AMAZING! I have always had a VERY bad impression of scones. Every single scone I've ever had was dry and flavorless, however, this place changed my mind. The scones here MELT in your mouth! (I'll post pictures soon, they're on Emily's camera) I enjoyed this place so much and I highly recommend it for something fun and delicious to try!

TOnight I made homemade maple cream! YUMMMMm it turned out delicious, thanks to Grandma!

Since I've been home I've just been trying to keep busy. It's different now with no gardening, canning, and mowing the lawn. However, there are so many projects I could keep myself busy with. I'm trying to get INSPIRED to be creative with cooking/baking again! Here's a picture of the bottles that I painted

with the lights finally in them. I think they look like fireflies.I'm thinking about selling them... what do you think?

WELLL now that I've caught everyone up on my life maybe next post will be more thoughtful and inspired :D ---Erin