Monthly Archives: June 2012

After a very rainy morning, and semi-rainy afternoon, the sun started to come out for the ride home on the 4 o’clock boat. As we left Northeast Harbor behind us, I could actually feel a drop in the stress level among the passengers. A deep breath and then aaaaahhhhhh. We were headed home to Great Cranberry and Islesford, having survived another day on the mainland.

I signed up for the 8/11 reveal and just learned that my Bead Soup partner is B.R. Kuhlman of Mixed Mayhem Studios. Some of her cool pieces are below:

B has participated in the Bead Soup Blog Party  3 other times and she tells me it’s a blast. The rule is to send your partner an unusual clasp and focal bead. They don’t have to be made by you but they should be nice ones like you would like to receive yourself as a cool surprise! You also add other beads to be used with the focal and clasp in a piece or pieces to be made by your BSBP Partner.  Your partner doesn’t have to use all the beads you send, but she gets to keep them, and vice versa.

As I got back to work today, I kept putting little bits and pieces aside to send to B by the end of the week. Some of them will be metal clay pieces I’ve made. Other will be some special beads I have in my stash. It gives me a new way of looking at my same old same old stash. Suddenly it has brightness and energy again. There is new life in looking to send something you hope will really please your partner. I can’t wait to see what you do with the batch I send to you B! (Though we’ll have to wait until August 11….)

…and ready to get crackin’! I’m headed right into a studio Monday before I go off island again tomorrow to see my Mom. This would be a good time to think about realistic expectations for the day. There are so many things I want to get done, and there is no way to fit them all into one day.

One of the first things I’ll do is look around the house for an old camera to use until mine gets back here. I actually left it behind in Vermont yesterday! That’s a first for me. Thank you to Henry or Zoe or whoever retrieved my camera and put it in a shipping envelope. I feel lost without it for even just a day.

Something made me download a few photos before we packed up and headed to brunch yesterday morning. (Brunch is where my camera decided to stay longer than I did.) So, here are a few of my highlights of the wedding of Simon Isaacs and Liza Lowinger:

(Actually the photo above was taken by the groom’s sister, Olive Isaacs. I nabbed it off her FB page. What a beautiful couple in a beautiful setting, eh?)

Idyllic flower girls.

Bruce hangs out with some cool dudes as we wait for the bus to give us a ride to the Barnard Inn for the wedding.

Good and happy friends. (And an amazing step-mom!)

Mainers!

Amazing mix of flower and vegetable centerpieces on the tables.

Who invited the cow? (We must be in Vermont)

The food was incredible!!

Bruce shows Henry how real men wear pashminas. Henry takes a photo to remember how to tie it.

After fried clams at Day’s Seafood in Yarmouth, on the way home, I realized I had left my camera behind. Luckily, Cynthia had her iPhone for the requisite photo op:

What a fun weekend, and what an incredibly lucky person I am to live in a place where coming home is the best part of every trip.

Today felt more like August than June. I worked in the morning so I could get to the beach to cool off in the late afternoon. Water temperature: a refreshing 53°.

It was also opening night at the Islesford Dock Restaurant. Congratulations on your 20th season Dan and Cynthia!

Bruce tried hard to make the longest day of the year last just a bit longer…

But, like all good things…

10 more weeks of sunsets from the Islesford Dock, coming right up.

Working away to get the next batch of jewelry ready for the opening of Winters Work on Wednesday. Meanwhile, here’s a mini sequence from Times Square:

I’m not sure where all the time has gone, or why it has gone so quickly, but I know I spent 2 days of it in New York…

We had lunch at a Turkish restaurant, went to the theater…

and waited in line at 10:15 p.m. to get 4 seats at Danji, a nearby Korean restaurant that was well worth the wait. We always eat well wherever we go with Dan and Cynthia Lief because they take their food very seriously.

The next day we had lunch at Joe’s Shanghai on Pell Street in Chinatown. Their incredible soup dumplings are a tradition for us at lunch before the big Ubuntu gala at night.

 We walked off lunch and checked out lobster and crab prices at a few of the fish markets:

 Then back to the hotel for a nap before the big Ubuntu fund raising gala with musical entertainment by Gary Clark Jr. (That’s some amazing guitar playing!)

I’ve been back home for over a week, trying to catch up on everything from getting my garden planted, to writing the Cranberry Report, to working on inventory for the June 20 opening of Winter’s Work at the Islesford Dock, to catching up with people as they return for the summer on Little Cranberry Island, to attending the 8th grade graduation of the Ashley Bryan School. Here’s the cake my sister-in-law, Karen, made for the graduates:

June is a busy busy month and I haven’t taken much time to write about it. I hope to be more regular with the blog posts, but who knows? One thing we all know on the island: This frantic summer pace is just getting started. We know we won’t slow down again until halfway through September, and there is no possible way to “do it all.”

I try to remember something I heard a wise woman say at a meeting a few years ago. “My life is so very busy lately. It is full of really good things.”