Yellow Pimpernel

Do you know what this is?



It's a Yellow Pimpernel. Have you ever seen one before? I bet not. I hadn't had any experience with the plant before my parents began construction on their lake house. You can read all you never wanted to know about it here.

The Yellow Pimpernel is a threatened plant species in the state of Vermont and my parents happen to have a whole bunch of it on their property. They applied for a building permit to begin construction on the lake house and were blocked last minute by a lover of the Pimpernel who was concerned that it might go extinct. I won't go into the whole long story, but they ended up having their property inspected by a Botanist from the state of VT (which they had to pay for) who recommended they build protective wood boxes to cover the Pimpernel during the construction process. It has multipled over the last few years. I think the Botanist first counted 17 and last year the number had grown to over 100. He hasn't visited yet this year.

Anyway, the Pimpernel is in bloom. I wish it made a little more of a statement.

8 weeks and counting....

It's hard to believe we've already been here for 8 weeks! I have focused a lot of posts on deodorant rocks and things of that sort lately and haven't posted much on our recent activities. So what have we been up to for the past few weeks?

We've been working a bunch! I don't think I've shared a picture of Matt's office yet. It's really a beautiful place...I wouldn't mind going to work there and I don't think he does either! It also has an amazing view of the lake, lucky for them.



My mom has been at the lake, so we've spent tons of time there. We spent most days staring at the view. It's hard to tear myself away to come back to work!



Willow had so much fun with her Mr. Boo...



She did some swimming with my grandparents' dog Pip.



Mr. Boo also likes to come but I wouldn't call what he does swimming. He prefers to wallow in the shallow end. Sweet Boo. He's such an angel dog.



After a long day at the lake, the puppies are usually worn out (or so we hope).



We tried to recreate the photo I took of Boo and Willow last May.



This was the best we could do. Mr. Boo was too tired to sit up for long :)





My mom and I spent a day shopping in Middlebury, VT home of Middlebury College. It's a really cute town.



We found some fun stuff and then ate lunch here.



It's right around the corner from these cool falls right in the middle of town...





My mom worked hard at putting in her garden (pics to come soon). I'm the official "garden waterer" when she's not here. I'm excited to watch it grow.

When we moved here, we had several people that mentioned they had a friend of a friend connection to someone in the area, so we contacted some of them. A few weeks ago we ended up having dinner with one of those connections at this restaurant. It was delicious!



We also met some of their friends at a birthday party this weekend. It was nice to be social :)

We were spoiled with gorgeous weather today, 70s and sunny! I can't get enough of that...It is on these days I feel especially lucky to live in this beautiful place. Back to work this week, but a fun wedding to look forward to this weekend!

Sofa Table

So I've been on the hunt for a sofa table. When you walk into our den, you look right at the back of the sofa and it was driving Matt crazy :) I had very specific measurements that I needed to follow so I thought I'd never find the right one. I was super excited when I was antiquing over my spring break and came across the perfect table at this store.



It was a little bit too tall, but I figured I could make it work.



Do you see those awful blocks on bottom of the legs? I think they were intended to make it more sturdy because it's so narrow, but they were terrible looking!



I thought if I could get those off then the table might be about the right height, but of course they were screwed in!



With screws that were rusted and stripped.



I tried a number of tools to get them out.



Including trying to gouge around the screws so I could pull them out with pliers or a hammer...



Nothing worked. As a last resort, I turned to the saw. Luckily the screws weren't very long, and I needed to take off more than I thought originally to make it fit. It was fairly easy to saw off the bottom part of legs, but a little more of a challenge to make them even!





I cleaned the table using some Murphy's Oil Soap and water and then used sandpaper to even the legs out. They aren't perfect so the table is a little wobbly, but it works!

Next I used this as a stain/finish.





I just put on one coat and then let it dry in the sun. Here is the finished product!



Here are a few pics of it in its new home :) I'm still switching things around on top. I'd like some sort of bowl or tray (my mom's suggestion) to hold mail, etc.



It's pretty skinny...just what I was looking for!



Oh yea and I finally got around to hanging my mirror (with my Mom's help) - here it is...



I'll be back sometime with a post on what we've been up to the last few weeks - can't believe we've been here long enough that it's almost time to go home for a visit :)

Happy Mother's Day

Happy Mother's Day to all the amazing moms out there! I hope you had a wonderful day with your loved ones.

I was lucky enough to spend Mother's Day with my mom this year! We had a wonderful day sitting at the lake drinking coffee all morning, walking the dogs, and antiquing all afternoon. I can't imagine anything better (except for having the whole family up here to enjoy it all together) :)

I want to say a special thank you to my mom and my mother-in-law for your unconditional love and support. We would not be where we are today without you. We love you!

Here are the two fabulous ladies braving the Vermont winter while planning our wedding...


A few old ones of my mom...(and Meg who we missed today!)





And a few more recent ones...




One of Matt with his mom...


Finally - a Happy Mother's Day to my grandmother too! I can't wait to spend more time celebrating this week when she arrives for the summer :)

Cosmetics Database

*Warning - long post about beauty products with few pictures!*

I came across an article a few weeks ago in one of my OT magazines about how to help clients with "going green" in everyday life. One of the resources listed was the Cosmetics Database. It's a website that claims to be a "safety guide" for all types of skin care products.


Basically, they take a product and break down it down according to the ingredients it contains and how toxic they are. They then give the product a score from a 0 to 10. 0 = totally safe and 10 = you're in big trouble.

Were they serious? I thought I just had to worry about getting rid of the chemicals in the house.


I should have stopped at the home page but my curiosity got the better of me. The first thing I looked up was the moisturizing body lotion I use every single day after I take a shower. Uh oh...a 9 on the toxic scale. After they give the total product score, they list all the things that the ingredients are linked to. This one was linked to cancer, developmental/reproductive toxicity, and contamination concerns. Oh my.

Did I learn my lesson and stop with the moisturizing body lotion? Nope. I proceeded to look up my face wash, deodorant, makeup, you name it. I wasted away hours on this website. Most of my products fell within the 5 to 8 range. Great.

What was I supposed to do with this information? I figured I could look into some alternatives and embrace the all natural stuff. There is a great place down the street called the "Healthy Living Market" that I hoped might have something a little less toxic.


I was wondering how much these new products were going to cost. All natural stuff tends to be more expensive and I've already established that I'm pretty cheap. I checked out their natural skincare products anyway and settled on making just a few changes that weren't going to cost me a fortune.

I can say that so far I'm happy with the new body lotion. I am OK with the face wash, not thrilled because it smells BAD. I've never noticed the smell of face wash but I do now. So far it hasn't given me a rash or anything crazy so I can't really complain.

The biggest change is the natural deodorant. I'm still not sold. This stuff doesn't contain aluminum (which I've read isn't good for you) but that means it also doesn't stop you from sweating. What's the point? I could have made a bigger leap and gone with the deodorant crystal (I'm not kidding - there is such a thing). Here's a picture:



Have I convinced you to go with the natural products? Check out the website - or maybe don't check it out if you don't feel like getting sucked in like I did :)

On a completely separate note, I love the way the sky looks before it storms (good thing because I think it rains a lot here).



And I love looking at the inside of open tulips.



We are excited to spend more time at the lake this weekend with my mom! Willow is going to be pumped to see her Mr. Boo :)

A Sad Time

I'm sure everyone has heard about the tragedy that occurred on Monday at UVA. My heart is breaking for the families and friends of both students. The pain and grief they must feel is unimaginable. I had no direct connection to this event other than my tie to same the university and sorority community she was part of, but I am deeply saddened by the loss of a beautiful young woman with an obviously bright future. My thoughts and prayers are with both families as they make their way through this difficult time. It reminds me how fragile life is and how thankful I am for those I love each and every day.

Opening Up

Wow. A full week of work = no time for blogging! We had a great week staying busy and feeling productive. I'm SO glad last week wasn't my spring break...check out these pics from last Wednesday:





Thankfully the weather warmed up for the weekend. We spent it at the lake and it was amazing! My parents' camp is a "seasonal residence," which means it is only allowed to be open for 6 month out of the year. The powers that be turned the water on last week so we were able to go out and open things up! We spent part of Saturday taking sheets off furniture, mowing the grass, putting pictures back on the walls, and sucking up spiderwebs. We spent the rest of the weekend here:



Sitting in front of this:


We also checked on the garden - it's coming along! I can't wait for fresh vegetables and beautiful flowers...



Willow is worn out from swimming, hiking, and long walks :) She had a great weekend minus the trauma she experienced when we first arrived. All of the smoke/CO2 detectors are hard wired in the house but also run off back up battery power. My parents took the batteries out for the winter and when the plumber came he turned on the electricity but didn't put the batteries back in. These aren't just any smoke detectors. They're fancy. They don't just beep - they also talk - LOUDLY. When we arrived, they were alternating between beeping and alerting us they had a "LOW BATTERY." When I tried to 'fix' them - they started screeching "CARBON MONOXIDE - MOVE TO FRESH AIR - MOVE TO FRESH AIR" on repeat. Poor little Willow has such sensitive ears; she ran out the door, jumped back in the car and wouldn't come out. Not even for treats. We finally lured her back in, only to have them go off again the next morning when I burned breakfast. Oops. She seems to have recovered now that we're home.

On another note, the flowers at our house weathered the storm. We have more tulips and have had to mow the grass twice!





Hope you had a good weekend - back to work tomorrow!