Biker Chick, Road Trip and Winery Tour, 2nd Edition

After a fun and successful adventure to a winery in the east of the province, we decided to explore more of New Brunswick's delicious offerings! Inviting a couple more friends to join us, we headed to Mott's Winery on the Washademoak Lake near Cambridge Narrows.  It was an absolutely gorgeous drive on a beautiful sunny Saturday.  Enjoying the breeze, the open road, and the fragrance of cedar, pine and roses along the road are some of the things I am enjoying the most about our bike trips - the helmet hair, not so much!  

Arriving - they have a lovely small tasting room, expansive property
and a stunning view looking down over the vineyard with the lake in th background!

We sampled several varieties and came home with the bike paniers
packed with our favorites.  One of the lovely benefits of these visits has been
being able to purchase local wines that I know I like both at the wineries and
conveniently in our supermarket.

yep.

Several varieties of jelly are also made there - we purchased this Sweet Chipotle
which was delicious with a bit of cream cheese on a cracker.  Our friends selected
a Fig variety which was sweeter and also yummy!

Very sophisticated :)

On the road along the Washademoak.

The ferry crossing the Saint John River at Gagetown.

The Gang

If the weather is nice on Saturday, I think we're travelling to St. Andrews - I'll keep you posted!

xo

Table Setting and Friends for Brunch

 Saturday dawned sunny and bright and a perfect November day for a brunch for friends! We have a long and deep history and I just love preparing the table for these wonderful women.  I thought I would share the décor for this early November morning!

 

 Felted acorn ornaments are a charming favor to remind us of delightful day!

 

 

Meaningful words help us find our spots.

 



 

 The colors outside are carried in to the table linens and centerpieces.

 

 

...a hint of red for the holidays to come!

 

  Our kitty swatted these acorns all over the dining room while I was creating the centerpiece!

 

I had a delicious day! Thank you, my friends!

I've Been Running the Roads this Week...

 

...spending time with my husband and friends but I did land in the studio long enough to finish some pretty sterling stamped leaf earrings and fabricate a few other pieces. I gave these lightweight lovelies a patina bath and a good polish to highlight the leaves.  The earwires are square sterling wire soldered to the back of the discs.

 My other project was a couple of pairs of bezel studs. I'm obsessed with making bezel settings and all the forms in which they can be designed. Making the stud earrings seemed a bit uncertain for me - I was concerned that simply soldering the post to the baseplate wouldn't be strong or durable enough for long term wear.  Hubs has a fair amount of metalworking experience in other fields and I expressed my worries to him -- over a glass of wine the other night! :).  He suggested I drill the baseplate, insert the post and then heat to draw the solder into the bezel...genius! It was the

perfect solution! These cuties are made with vintage light turquoise glass and fun peacock feather patterned paper under glass - and I'm confident the posts are secure!! What do you think?

 

 

 

Christmas Dinner in Who-Ville

When we built our new house, one of my dreams was to have a dining room that would accommodate EVERYONE for Christmas dinner...and this Christmas, it was so! It was our absolute pleasure to host 23 members of our family and friends for my favorite Christmas day ever! A Who-ville theme seemed perfect -- I could just see all the Who's seated at their long tables filled with fun, family, friends and fabulous food! Six different families (all related in some way by at least one member) gathered at our house and of course, everyone needed to know their proper Who name... www.grinched.com provides a great tool to help come up with these fun names -- we had Dibble-Moo-Who's and Tickle-Poo-Who's and Giggle-Boo-Who's coming out of the woodwork. I made nametags for everyone and the kids made sure everyone had their own. I also found this great lime green Grinchy tree at HomeSense and couldn't resist. My friend gave me the other funky one (I must admit, I'm a bit of a Who-Ville addict) a couple of years ago.

Red and white, stripes and dots and any wonderfully unique ornament I could find filled the tree, table and house. I even found some great red dishes in the clearance section of the grocery store and picked them up too-- LOVE them!

...and here is the crowd!