Porch Perfect
I've so enjoyed working from the deck since screening it in last month. I’ve been researching roll up blinds for the porch but decided they’re just not in my budget. A search through the linen closet revealed one old curtain panel (just one). A...
Looking to the Future in a Covid-19 World
It's official. Hannah WILL be returning to Denison University for her senior year. She learned the news last week and is over the moon, knowing she'll reunite with her friend and begin classes again. It's been three months since she was sent home...
My Rain Barrel Runeth Over
I've had many questions about my rain barrels since sharing this picture of the completed project on social media. Here's a look at the details of the project. Given our steel roof, no basement, and a foundation drainage system, we never bothered...
Yellow Warbler in the Beach Rose
The weather app reported cloudy all day. By mid-day, the sun was shining on one side of the house while cloudy on the other, so we took our chances and headed to the beach. We parked our chairs and were rewarded with a quick 20 minutes of sunshine...
A Happy Porch
A porch is to a house as a smile is to a person. When planning our house, I was adamant that I have a porch big enough to sit on and enjoy being outdoors. I'm a winner, and we have a fantastic 8' x 33' porch that runs along part of the front of the...
Nesting Eagles
Hannah and I headed up to Meddybemps today to pick up a couple of barrels to turn into rain barrels. Meddybemps. It's such fun to say. On the way home, we drove through the Moosehorn National Wildlife Refuge, and pulled into a river overlook just...
After Work Drives
A couple of times a week, Hannah and I end the day with a drive before dinner. Cameras in hand, we take off for an hour or so in search of wildlife. Sometimes we only spot some Canada Geese. Or Cormorants. Or a gulp of Cormorants being harassed by...
An Official Monarch Butterfly Nursery
For the past couple of summers, Hannah and I have been raising Monarch butterflies. I've used little net houses and plastic totes to raise them. Inside, they've escaped, and I've found the caterpillars crawling up the walls. Outside, the wind has...
Monday Drive
Hannah was out and about this afternoon on a hunt for sea glass. She called to find out when I would be finished with work and said she was kidnapping me so I could enjoy the beautiful day for a while. We visited for a while with this Common Eider...
The Marvelous Magnolia Warbler
A friend shared a photo of a Magnolia Warbler on Instagram. Intrigued, I sat down yesterday to design one. This morning, as I was cutting out the pieces to sew him, I spotted a flash of yellow out the window. I popped up to take a closer look - a...
Hummer in the Snow
May 9 and the weather forecast called for snow. A polar vortex they say. I can't imagine what my first hummingbird of the season thought of this turn of events. In this one it looks like he's thinking WTF! My sentiments...
Northern Flicker Courtship
It was so beautiful yesterday that I spent my morning working on the porch. I made it through a Zoom meeting and another couple of hours of work before the sun slipped behind the clouds, chilling things down. It was absolutely lovely. No bugs. The...
Beach Hopping
I tagged along with Hannah today. She was on a mission to take pictures for her school photography assignment. The subject was beach trash. It was a beautiful day in Beals with lots of whitecaps in the harbor. Hannah scoured the landscape...
COVID Quarantine Month One – The Good, The Bad and The Ugly
We've just finished our first month of "Stay Safer at Home" here in Maine and are now into month two. Yet for the Bennett family, it's been over eight weeks of hunkering down. When Hannah arrived home from Denmark on March 14th, we self-isolated...
Woodpecker on Tree Square
This collage card started with a felt square design. Yet when it came time to make it, I was more interested in creating it from paper than I was from felt. The tree is created from magazine text torn from the magazine to mimic a birch tree. As I...
The Bright Red-bellied Woodpecker
I have a "to-do" list for my backyard bird books, but lately, my inspiration wants to go other directions (see last weekend's puffin square). Today, I buckled down to create the Red-bellied Woodpecker and check it off my list before I venture into...
Spring Fever
These days I feel as if I live at work. The commute from the home office is a ridiculously short one during the quarantine. So when the Saturday forecast was sunny and 50, Hannah and I packed a lunch and headed out for a photo adventure. Obligatory...
Torn Paper Puffins on Rocks Collage
This weekend I designed a felt square called Puffins on Rocks. I liked the Puffins so much that I started thinking about other ways I could use this design. I decided to try a collage greeting card with the Puffin scene. Somewhere in my stash, I...
Puffins on Rocks Square
Earlier in the year, I designed the Felt Loon at Cadillac square. At the time, it was a one-off type of thing. A few days ago, I woke up in the middle of the night with designs for two more felt squares clearly outlined in my mind. I grabbed my...
Saturday Morning Visitors
Saturday morning visitors enjoying a peaceful nibble by the pond - until Gidget saw them and scared them off. I wonder if they could be the same mama and teen pair from last fall?
The Beguiling Bumble Bee
Yesterday, after I'd finagled my morning coffee from a camp stove on the porch due to the power outage, I sat down and designed this little Bumble Bee. Since starting on butterflies a couple of years ago, this has been a much-requested design - a...
How to Make a Rose-breasted Grosbeak – The Video
With a little extra time last weekend, I decided to make a video about how to make one of my felt bird designs. How hard could it be? I've been making the birds for years. Despite having a daughter who is a cinema major, I wanted to do this myself....
Camera Woes
I tend to carry my camera with me most of the time - a 9-year-old Canon Rebel T3i. I get nervous when I forget and leave home without it because I know that's the day I'll see something wonderfully camera-worthy - and miss it. While Hannah was in...
Robins
This morning, I spent a good fifteen minutes sitting on the floor by the French door watching a flock of Robins in the yard. I don't recall ever seeing more than one or two visiting. This one was quite concerned about threats in the sky. They sure...
The Covid-19 Giveaway (Winner Announced)
This was so much fun! Thank you to everyone who took a few minutes to share how you're spending your COVID-19 Safer at Home self-isolation. Your comments reminded me that not all of us have time off - some of you are working harder than ever. Some...
