Hello Koko!

Lest you think the past few months have been entirely dreary around here, we'd like to introduce you to our newest family member, Koko the pug. After wanting a pug for more than 10 years, I am so glad that things finally aligned and we were able to bring this sweet little one into our family.



We got her from a rescue (after filling out the longest application ever) in August. She was 11 months old at the time and is now fitting in with our lives wonderfully. Nuku nuku is not as thrilled with her as we are, but they are slowly starting to tolerate each other.



As you can see, she is ridiculously cute! Whenever we take her out on the town, we can't go more than a few steps without people stopping to coo over her. She's the little instigator at the dog park and tries to initiate play with every dog that she meets, big or small. She plays tag with huge labs and weimeraners and is always the last one running. It's hilarious to see!



When she's not running around like a crazy girl, she can be found at my side 90% of the time. She's the the best cuddler in the world and I love it when she falls asleep and starts snoring away.





She's got the best sense of humor and a face that makes me melt! What a darling!

Goodbye Shinji

We lost our dear, sweet Shinji to a brain tumor on Friday, July 22. It was a tough summer between the two weeks leading up to his death and the grieving afterward. I never realized exactly how much I cared about him or how big of a hole he would leave in our lives until he was gone. To this day, it's hard to walk around the house and not get choked up as I pass one of his favorite spots or remember that he's not around to greet me at the door anymore.

He was the nicest cat and always loved greeting visitors and making them feel welcome. He had the smoothest, silkiest fur and was always ready to be cuddled or petted. His love for eating Cheez-its and licking plastic bags was unmeasured.

Whenever I want to feel even more depressed, you can count on me to be looking at senior, special needs cats up for adoption on petfinder.com. Jon has pretty much banned me from looking at the site because of how emotional I get. I'm not sure when or if we'll get another cat. Shinji was just the best.



My library did the sweetest thing for me in honor of Shinji! They plated a picture book in his memory for our bookmobile collection. I was so touched! The book perfectly describes him and is a darling book if you are in search of a sweet cat book.

Balloon Fest

We headed over to Howell, MI last night for the Michigan Challenge Balloon Festival. This is our second time attending and the weather was much better last night than at our previous visit.










I don't think watching ballons take off and examining their interesting color combinations and designs will ever get old! Hopefully I will overcome my fear of heights one day and take a ride without getting queasy!

See the rest of the balloon photos here.

Jon's bonsai tool wrap

One of Jon's most favorite hobbies is bonsai. He is always fiddling with plants and acquiring new specimens. It's the perfect hobby for him because he is such a patient guy!

He had been begging me to make him a wrap for all of his tools for ages. I knew he was serious when he sent me links to wraps he found online that he liked and dimensions for his dream wrap!




I made this wrap for him for Christmas and it went together quickly (in 30 minutes!). This project requires:
Twill tape
Backing fabric
Sturdy canvas
Doublefold bias tape

I cut out 2 rectangles of fabric in his desired dimensions (one piece of canvas, one piece of printed cotton). Then I cut out a half rectangle of canvas and lined the top edge with bias tape.
I also cut a smaller rectangle in canvas and lined 3 sides in bias tape for the top flap.
I placed the half piece of canvas over the full piece of canvas and sewed pockets for each tool.
Then I sandwiched the canvas with the fabric and edged it with the bias tape.
To finish it off, I attached a piece of twill tape folded in half on one side of the wrap.

It was a super easy project and I should have made it sooner!

Milford, CT

Our final stop on our trip was to Milford, CT. Our newly transplanted friends, Ben and Hannah, are from Milford, so they told us what to check out while we were in town. First we had dinner at Rainbow Gardens and then we headed over to the duck pond to check out the birds.














See the rest of the pictures here.

Gilette's Castle

We traveled to East Haddam, CT to visit the home of  Sherlock Holmes actor and director, William Gilette. I've visited the castle a few times before and knew that Jon would love it. He did and now would like to take a castle tour of Ireland, naturally.

William Gilette was an eccentric man and filled his home with lots of beautiful carvings, glass, and tricks for his guests.


Upstairs hallway



Gilette's bedroom


View of the Connecticut River


The sumptuous library!


A guest bedroom


The conservatory and wishing well


The great hall






View the rest of the castle pictures here.

Middletown, CT

I grew up in Middletwon, CT, so I took Jon on a little tour of my old town. Our first stop was at the waterfall just down the street from my old house.

My dad used to take lot of pictures of us in front of here when we were growing up. I remember waiting in agony for him to get the settings right so we could just be done taking pictures already. Little did I know that I would inherit his annoying photographer gene years later!



The highlight of my visit to the city was seeing my old public library. My mom used to take us here all the time and I loved exploring the place! It was fun to see where the first seeds of my career as a librarian were planted.


The adult reading room.


The youth room. The picture book shelves are such a great way for kids to browse books. I wish my library could afford to install shelves like these.


My sister, Ruth, and I hung out on this rainbow sculpture all the time!


We had a lovely lunch at this fantastic vegetarian restaurant, It's Only Natural, before heading to our next destination.

 View the rest of the photos here.

Portland, ME

After Vermont, we drove through New Hampshire to Portland, ME. We had a fun time exploring the cute shops in the city, eating at delicious restaurants (Yosaku and The Green Elephant), and soaking up the bay.


We drove around looking for a good spot to watch the sunset and found ourselves on a tour of luxury oceanfront property before we ended up at this public beach. After shooting this photo, we were promptly eaten alive by tons of little black gnats and got the heck out of there!


The Portland Head Light has to be the most beautiful lighhouse I've ever seen in my life!


I loved these Portland banners.




We took a schooner ride in the Casco Bay. It was my first time on a sailboat and it was amazing. We were clipping along at a great speed and there was no pesky engine noise to spoil the atmosphere. We were able to bring along our own food and drinks and enjoy a picnic on the boat.




Jon loved it so much that he's looking into starting sailing lessons soon!




We headed up to Freeport, ME to the headquarters of LL Bean, which is open 24 hours a day. This is what happens when we shop while we're tired...Jon lays down to test out travel pillows and gets up minutes later.


View the rest of the Portland photos here.