Here are some fun pictures from Visiting my Sister-in-law! She just had a baby about a week ago!

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

The start of our second year!

We have now passed the first year mark! Yesterday, 10/10/10 (I just had to get that in) was a wonderful anniversary! WE went to Lancaster County to celebrate over the weekend! I'll let my pictures do the talking!

A nice LONG traffic jam... in PA (what a surprise)

Smelling the beautiful flowers my husband had waiting at the place we stayed at!

The view into the bedroom!

More flowers!

I took Asa to Sight and Sound for his birthday!

Some Amish people working in the fields

SOOOo many horses

The biggest most amazing whoppie pie!

Beautiful quilts!

Our Indian meal!

My definition of relaxation!

Goodbye to the weekend... heading out with my flowers

WE had a great weekend I loved how relaxed it was. We didn't really have any major plans besides going to the Joseph play. Which is something I HIGHLY recommend to anyone! It was so powerful and amazing! If I could I would go watch it again this weekend!

My project for today! I had bought a box of banana peppers for five dollars at a local market. Asa and I eat a lot of pickled banana peppers so I decided to try to can them myself! I hope they turn out well.

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Well I haven't blogged because honestly I don't feel like I've had much to say. First off I want to post a picture for my fellow blogger of something I drew!

So what do you think? is it the same bridge?

Ok so about my life... We're kind of starting to slow down a little bit. The lawn doesn't need to be mowed as often as it use to, which is a wonderful thing. However we're almost at the end of gardening and so there seems to be a bountiful supply of tomatoes for me to take care of. I canned some and made one batch of salsa. I still have a box of tomatoes in my fridge that I need to take care of but I'm kind of debating as what I should do with them. They're the grape tomatoes and so I'm not sure if I want to take the time to peel the skins off of all of them so that I can either can or make salsa with them. I'm really happy with the salsa recipe that I got from my mom though, it tastes great!

I've scrapbooked more since my last post, however, I wasn't able to upload them for some reason... I don't have the flash drive with me today or I would post. I was trying to have a book made for our anniversary of our first year together. It was a nice thought but epic fail! :( I'm still planning on making it but the program that I reallllly want costs a LOT of money so I'm debating as to what I should do!

Our Anniversary is this weekend! I can't believe a year has flown by, it has been a very good one! I look forward to the next year and all the adventures it holds! This next weekend we're taking a trip to Lancaster, PA for our anniversary! WE're pretty excited and hoping for a relaxing weekend.

My friend www.joeandbetsy.com are taking part in this food contest and the last part they had to do was a fancy dinner party! It looked like so much fun it inspired me to have a nice dinner party. SO we'll see maybe I'll do something creative again soon. I haven't done much this summer since I've been keeping busy with outside work and other things :)

Ok well I know this is a pretty boring update but I don't have my camera card here to upload pictures! :) I have some pretty cool caterpillar pictures... COMING SOON!

Have a good week everyone! Have you guys been up to anything creative or exciting lately?!!?

not much

I made this in honor of my best friend and sister on one of the most important days of my life!

I haven't done much worthy of blogging! I did go to NYC last weekend, but guess what... I think I might have taken one picture the entire time. It wasn't a sight seeing trip and it seems like normal visits miss out on the camera action. I spent most of Saturday washing windows w/ my mother-in-law and that late Saturday night we went into the city to meet up w/ friends. It wasn't as great as we thought it would be... Someone (clearing throat) wanted to go to Applebees for dinner. I laughed at them, I couldn't belieive they were in NYC and wanted to go to Applebees. But after walking down many authentic streets we came back around to Applesbees so that's where we went, unfortunately. A word of advice don't go NEAR this place in NYC. Asa and I got boneless, buffalo chicken wings, and two drinks and our bill was TWENTY EIGHT dollars! I couldn't believe it! I was already frustrated about eating there and then the bill was so Huge on top of it all! (not a very great trip into the city if you couldn't tell)

We got home Sunday night around 10:30 ish and then I started working on Monday. My week has flown by. My boss is gone for two weeks so I'm working for her. I get home make dinner and crash, I literally have no inspiration to do anything. My cucumbers and beans are piling up, that's for sure. However, on Monday I got home and my parents had mowed my entire lawn! It was such a blessing... I have the best neighbors in the world!

I have been attempting digital scrapbooking :) It's pretty fun... :) --I'm hoping to get our first year scrapbooked before my trial subscription is up :D