What is it? Answered

Sam's Mom, you were right it is a plastic bag dryer *grin*. Nice guessing!

But, I have found it also handy for drying bibs, wash cloths and plastic bags!
I picked this up in Vermont at the Manchester Woodworking shop. This shop was great they had unfinished wooden furniture, poplar wooden ornaments, etc. Most of what they sell they make right there on the premises and the prices were so reasonable! I saw a wooden doll highchair for Allie that was $32 dollars! and a wooden doll clothing rack/closet that was $25! I have my eyes on those for Allie for Christmas. I also have my eyes on a great hanging wall shelf with 4 cubbies and hanging pegs that was $52. I also go this super cute birch bark moose, that will be so cute for Christmas!

They also had a larger one that I think I will have my parents pick up when they are back in VT in October. I am thinking of using them in a Christmas vignette.

Our Trip to Vermont: Part 2

When ever I go to Vermont it makes me miss living in New Hampshire, Matt and I lived there throughout college and then for 5 1/2 years after college. Well I miss it except for the winters, I'm not a huge winter fan. Anyways Sialia Farm is the name of Bonnie and Pete's farm. They used to have sheep farm and some chickens; Bonnie is an avid knitter and they would sheer their own sheep, then she would clean the wool, dye it, hand spin it into yarn and either sell it locally or use it to make custom sweaters, mainly for children. I have to say I have been lucky enough to have a small collection of her beautiful sweaters. The one below is the most recent, she gave it to Allie this weekend. I will take pictures of the others and post them in another post (they are in the kids rooms and I can't get to them now.)

The first sweater Bonnie made Allie, I accidentally washed and shrunk it so tiny it would fit her Bitty Baby. I was post-partum hormonal and I was so upset, my mom called Bonnie and when I got home from my stay at my parents there was a new one waiting for me *grin*.

Any way enough about sweaters. Now they now longer have sheep, it was more work than they could keep up with, so now all they have are the chickens. I swear there is a point in here, sometimes I tell a story like my Grandmother did. Right now they have baby chicks and they were so cute and Allie was so excited. She even got to hold them and there was one that she particularly liked and she got all caught up telling it a story, so cute. Jack was also quite interested in the chicks and was eager to touch them, with Grammy's help to be gentle.


Both Allie and Jack took right to Bonnie and Pete, not like either of them are very shy. Allie can do the whole shy thing when she meets someone new, but they both really warmed up to them. Allie wanted Bonnie to sit with her in the coop and anywhere else that we were and Jack really took to Pete. He would just giggle, smile and watch Pete.

The flowers that Allie is holding in her hand are from the yard, she was pretending that she was getting married. Of course Grammy sang her the song "Here Comes the Bride" and Allie sang it over and over.

Here are some more pictures of Bonnie's flower gardens and the kids and the chicks, enjoy! Isn't this picture of the mother hen with her chicks sitting on her back just the cutest thing.

I love hydrangea, they are one of my favorite flowers.This is the largest hydrangea that I have ever seen. You can't really see it, but there is or was a garden there too!

So, now that you know my favorite flower, I am curious, what is your favorite flower... so go ahead and leave a comment and let us all know.

What is this?

Can anyone guess what this is? I got it on our trip to Vermont. Leave a comment and let us know what you think and I will post again tomorrow night, letting you know what it is. Can't wait to hear your thoughts *grin*.

Our Trip to Vermont: Part 1

This past Sunday and Monday my Mom, the kids and I headed up to Vermont to see an good friend of hers from nursing school. We had such a great time; we stayed at the Manchester View which was so nice. Below are some pictures of the gardens and our room. Which was by the way a wonderfully generous upgrade from the innkeepers. A couple of days before we left my mom called to make sure that she had asked for a porta-crib for Jack. When she did the innkeeper said that the room we had reserved would be to small and that he was upgrading us to a bigger room, for free, how generous! The Manchester View is a hotel that we have wanted to stay at for many years, it is just around the corner from Bonnie and Pete's house. But until I had my own children there was never a real reason for us to stay anywhere other than Bonnie and Pete's. But let just say that things would be just a little chaotic with my two small children and they probably wouldn't have wanted us to come back.

This was our room, nice, huh! And there was plenty of room for the four of us and that is a deck in the back of the picture *grin* If you have ever stayed in a hotel with young children then you know how hard it is to get them to sleep and not have to go to bed yourself at 7:30 when you put them to bed. The deck was perfect, it gave Mom and I a place to go when the kids went to bed other than to bed ourselves!

The pictures below are pictures of the gardens; they were in full bloom and so beautiful!

More to come about our trip at little later.