Jamie Ribisi

Welcome Sammy the super Schnoodle into our family!! We adopted him a few weeks ago and are totally in love with him! He's a Schnauzer-Poodle and really adorable. He came to us all muppet like and we had to get him a haircut so we decided on the Schnauzer cut this time around. He has the best stash and brows-- wait til we get the pomade!


Compare to the pics when we first got him-- like a different doggy completely!

Art Opening Tomorrow!!! Come and see me (Thursday the 21st) from 5pm-8pm at the Blue Marble Gallery in Waterville, ME

Click here for directions

Hope to see you there!!!

We're getting him on Friday-- my sister found him in NY and my BFF is driving him up here! Can you help us name him?? I like silly names so think of something creative!

I'm almost settled on Sprocket cause he looks like the dog from Fraggle Rock but I'm not sure yet!

I just came back from meeting with a gallery in Waterville, ME...he asked me to bring a bunch of my paintings to pick which ones he would like to show in the next exhibition opening on February 21st. He took them all!! Woo-hoo!! Can't wait to see them hanging up!! I know there are a few of you reading this that live in Maine so come and see me on the 21st from 5-8pm at the Blue Marble Gallery in Waterville!!!!

Joy creates a happy face on my ass with the shop vac


This is how I got to that point. I spent a good 4 hours sanding this with very fine sand paper all by hand and dragged my butt all over the place...you gotta get dirty! Brian sanded it with rougher stuff right before me. We have just stained it in an Early American finish and are about to put the polyurethane on it tomorrow.


Brian did an awesome job installing pine boards on the landing upstairs. It looks fabulous and is awaiting a stain and polyurethane, also.

Don't forget to view the website (slightly updates, too!) SweetlandRetreat.com

We have painted the Master Bedroom in two tones of yellow/gold. It looks amazing in the morning light and with the newly sanded floor. We're still in progress on the floor but it's looking beautiful...


This is a before (gray paint) and during (top sanded portion) shot of the original wood floor. We didn't think it would be so pretty but it certainly is! Now we need to decide on a finish! Any ideas???

http://www.sweetlandretreat.com

These are the winter berries outside the living room window. They are SO pretty in the snow! It's a nice sunny day today and hopefully we can get to an auction going on today. Looks way fancy so I doubt we will buy anything. But we went to a junk shop yesterday and bought an apple picking ladder to put in one of the rooms to hold towels or quilts. Yeah! I always wanted one of those!

http://www.sweetlandretreat.com

Our website is up and running with it's own blog embedded for updates. It's not a pretty site yet but works for the purpose of updating!! http://sweetlandretreat.com

Joy with her BFF the paint roller. These slanted ceilings are literally a pain to paint. This is the primer going on. We've already painted the main color but will take photos over the weekend. This is the 2nd floor master bedroom which is over the workshop space. It will have a private bathroom and a private entrance from the studio. Since this is in the converted woodshed it has wonderful slanted ceilings. It'll be a nice hide away!


The underflooring on the landing needed to be repaired so that we can lay down new pine on top of it. The rest of the floor in the bedroom is going to be refinished to it's original state! It's very pretty but not done yet...more photos to come!


Workshop room is painted!
We chose a buttery yellow for the workshop walls. Soothing, bright, and neutral. Now we need to figure out what to do with the floor. We lucked out with the rest of the house, most of the other rooms have original wood floors underneath their current coverings. This one, though, used to be a wood shed so there is only a sub-floor under the carpet and linoleum. Anyone want to donate wood flooring???

A little icy and rainy today and very foggy the past few days. Hopefully that means that warmer weather is abound (and not the other way around). It's nice for a few days.

We're trying to get the website running for Sweetland Retreat. I'm trying to insert my Blogger feed into the new website as our News section but I can't figure it out. Can anyone help me??? I'll cook you a smashing breakfast if you stay here!

It snowed like crazy last week. Thankfully we should have at least 1 week to take a break and hopefully warm up a little. I've had ice on the INSIDE of my car windshield. Twice. How strange is that??

The snow is really high right now. It looks pretty and it is really nice as long as you don't have to go anywhere right away.

Etsy NEST Post Holiday Sale!!!!!

Instead of the usual lull after the holidays, we have some great deals for you! Check out these awesome sales going on in the Etsy NEST (New England Street Team) shops. Get our blood pumping with purchases to keep us warm for the winter (it's COLD up here!)

***Sale runs from January 2 through January 15, 2008***
Clcik on the link above for full list of shops participating (over 30 shops!) See individual shop announcements for the details of each sale ...there are some great pre-sales going on right now! (and I'm sure if you convo these sellers most will let you in on the sale early!)

This week we've been working hard on the workshop room. When you walk into the house through the main door (which is really the back door) the room to your right is the workshop.

You can see the junk pile where all the wood paneling is piled that we ripped off the walls. Brian's stepdad will be reusing all of it --no garbage here! Right now we have patched & spackled the drywall, re-insulated the walls and ceiling where needed (basically everywhere), and now we're ready to paint! The stairway on the right will be closed in for a private entrance to the master guest room above. (click photo to see the rest of the photos)

We want to tear up the carpet next and have a fund raiser called "Cutting Up The Rug" which is, of course, a dance party! The funds will go to a nice wood floor.

These are some of the crab apples that grow in our yard. This was taken the first time we came to visit the house and they sold me! We can't wait for them to grow again so that we can love them and use them as garnishes. I may try to make a crab apple butter or jam...we shall see.

I traded some of my photos for a bunch of skeins of cotton and rayon handpainted yarn from http://yarntopiatreasures.etsy.com and just had my cousin-in-law and aunt-in-law teach me how to crochet! I really love it and this is the first piece that I made. It is a double wrap button closure scarf in my favorite autumn colors mix. Heaven. My next venture is a super soft cowl neck scarf in greys and pink/purples. It shall be awesome. I'm not sure that I needed to learn another craft but I'm very happy that I did!

By the way, I've just separated my flickr accounts so that we now have one just for Sweetland Retreat to show the progress of our renovations. We will set up a new blog and website after Christmas and I'll post it here. For now the photos of the move in have been transfered, I'll make a new post in a few minutes.

I now have Fine Art Giclee Prints of my paintings available in my Etsy Shop in a variety of sizes! Contact me if you'd like a certain piece or size not listed!

In other news, I have submitted to JPG magazine..please vote for me, I need the cash!

http://www.jpgmag.com/photos/361649

I'm back! I've been changing my life completely and it feels super-dooper! Our dreams are coming true and we're finally opening up our Artist Retreat and Bed & Breakfast! We purchased an old 1800's farmhouse in Manchester, Maine. WE are my husband, Brian, and my twin sister, Joy, and I. We are now renovating the house and hoping to start offering workshops in late January or early February. If you're interested in taking a vacation and teaching a class, contact us! All instructors are invited to stay the night on us in a private bedroom with room to work inside it and 24 hour access to the studio workshop space and a yummy breakfast. Tell us what you'd like to teach...or take a class!

So, Brian and I went on our honeymoon to Italy and had a blast! I'll post more about it another time. We've since moved into our "new" house and are now job-seeking. Click the photo to see a tour of our house. We're going to create a blog with daily updates and live feeds of the work in progress so you can get to know your favorite B&B!

Joy and I have opened up a joint Etsy shop for all of our craft goodness.. check it out! We have cute tea towels, hand towels, jewelry, knits, & more! http://constantgalore.etsy.com

We finally got married on Sunday! It was so much fun and was even better than we planned. We have a ton of photos to go through but you can see many of them on my flickr set. We did all of the decorating ourselves with amazing help from our families. Brian made all of the boutonnières for himself and the groomsmen. Each is a leaf mounted on brown felt with a green velvet ribbon tied into a flower pattern with an acorn on top of it. So cute! My sisters and I made all of our bouquets from single flowers that we bought at the supermarket-- $60 for 4 bouquets instead of the $650++ that the florist wanted! Showed them up, huh?? :) We also made all of our placecards from scanned photographs of the family.. that was the biggest hit of the party, it made it a whole lot more fun to find your assigned table!


Speaking of tables, we set and decorated them on the cheap. as well! We found an old bolt of vintage lace fabric at an auction for $25 and cut them to size (we had borrowed white cloths underneath them from a friend). Then we planted mums from Home Depot in thrift store/garage sale/clearance flower pots-- each centerpiece cost under $5! The BEST part was the place settings! We bought vintage china & mixed and matched them at each table. Each person had a place setting that matched itself but was different from the person sitting next to them. We also bought vintage linens for the napkins. It was SOOOO much cheaper than renting them! We spent under $60 for all of the plates & cups.



Brian made those leaf garlands above so everyone could dance under them. It was magical-- exactly what we love. We also gave out tree saplings as our favors. Those are them on the table picture above. I have so much more to say but we'll have to save it for another day!

My parents bought me a REAL wedding dress today! I'm so excited!!! I'm in love with it. I didn't think I would get one. I've actually gone through 2 cheap-o dresses before this that just weren't right. I had previously gotten one long ago from Newport News that looked beautiful on the website but terrible in person (now i have to ebay it and the shoes that are way too big). Then my sister got me a dress at TJMaxx for 30 bucks that didn't fit me 4 months ago but is now too big for me (did I mention I have lost 20 pounds????!!!!)

So we went all over town yesterday-- I was determined to get a regular white/off-white dress that wasn't a wedding gown. We're having a casual wedding and I didn't want anything too poofy. Nothing fit and nothing was perfect so we went to David's Bridal once again (when I first went I was a size 20 but now I'm a 16 so there were more options). I fell in love with a dress but it didn't zip up all the way. They didn't have any larger sizes than 16 of it in stock so I called around today and another DB told me that the closest store that had a 16W in stock was in Wayne, NJ! That's about 1.5 hours away from me. But my dad said "That's not far-- let's go!" and we did!!! I have the best parents! They must be relieved that we did everything else on the cheap cause my dad bought me everything I tried on-- this DB was THE BEST one I have been to. The woman was so helpful and found perfect accessories for me- including a veil that I previously was against the thought of!- and I bought undergarments, a headpiece, veil and wonderful shoes. I love being done thinking about this!!!

Without teasing more HERE IS THE DRESS!!! It looks tons better in person and fits me perfectly! I just have to get cap sleeves sewn into it. I'll post pictures in 2 weeks from the wedding!!!

I haven't posted in so long! I have much news but I am holding back until things are final. For now we are focusing on our wedding-- 2 weeks away!!!!! We're almost ready-- we're super crafting it up so there are a few projects yet to be done. I'm not happy with my dress so we're going to go look for something simple at Macy's tonight. Otherwise things are working out as planned. We're getting our marriage license today!