Sea Monster Sandcastle

This past weekend we enjoyed two glorious beach days that make living in a place called 'Vacationland' a joy. The sun was shining, nothing but bright blue skies above. Lowtide was in the middle of the day offering a huge expanse sand. Recent erosion on Popham beach has made it practically non existent at high tide.  A constant cool breeze blew in from the Atlantic, making us forget the heat of the sun's rays and sparing us attacks from the dreaded green head flies.

I come from a line of serious sandcastle builders and now that Celia is old enough to join in the fun I'm enjoying the chance to play with sand again. While the kids were frolicking in the waves I dug up four mounds of sand. When they came out of the water I had just finished shaping the head and they all hit the sand to help smooth the mounds and form a bumpy ridge along the top. It brings me so much happiness when kids are excited to create.

My husband Jon helped by elongating the tail forming it into a curved shape. When we decided the monster should be spewing seaweed, the kids enthusiastically collected and positioned it. My only wish was that we had rocks or shells for teeth, none were to be found.

Our monster made us lots of new friends, kids from other families joined in the fun. Celia and one of her new friends kept rebuilding the head as the incoming tide carved away our creation.

Sunday we made a giant starfish the kids helped out and covered it with different varieties of seaweed. We enjoyed watching the ocean claim it, although it lacked the presence and magic of our monster.

Fairy houses in the Maine woods

One of the joys of having children is the chance to relive the wonders of childhood. Building fairy houses with my daughter is a great escape from work and has brought fantasy and creativity to our playtime. We've developed a system first we select the spot usually at the base of a larger tree. Then I build the structure with large sticks while she collects shells bark twigs acorn caps and pinecones. She loves the role of interior designer selecting where the beds tables and swimming pools should be located. 

Our Botanical Garden two story fairy house.

We've started erecting a vail of the fairies to one side of our long driveway. That way we can keep an eye on the coming and goings of any animal visitors. Today's mission was to bring our house building talents to the 'Fairy Village' at Coastal Botanical Gardens in Boothbay. In preparation Celia loaded up her purse with sand dollars, oyster shells and a few pieces of sea glass. I had the more mundane task of packing food, bug spray and sunscreen.

Celia crouching to take a closer look at a small fairy house just inside the village gate.

After hanging our merchandise at the Botanical Market Fair we escaped down to wooded fairy village that sits in the shade alongside a tidal estuary, There's a child sized opening in the fence and a small sign with the following instructions.

Welcome to the Fairy Village 

Enjoy Building fairy homes, but please use only non living materials.

Yes: Pinecones, Bark on the ground, Sticks, Fallen leaves, Stones, Shells.

No: Moss and Lichen, Bark on trees, Tree branches, Leaves on trees, Mushrooms and Fungi, Ferns and other living plants.

The interior decorator placing her finishing touches on our creation.

What a joy to walk around all different kinds of structures, I especially loved a fairy treehouse that was built halfway up the trunk of a tree. There's also a huge pile of sticks with a 'gnome depot' sign.We had a great time building our home with a pine needle roof. Hopefully will get a chance to visit it again this summer. We're looking forward to making a ferry trip to Monhegan to experience their island fairy realm.

This impressive stone table sits at the base of the fairy village, if you look closely you'll see fairy houses behind it.

If you have children that are interested in Fairy houses I would highly recommend the Kristen's Fairy house book series and video recording.

For adults there's a brand new book entitled Fairy Houses of Maine Coast filled with gorgeous photographs of fairy houses and the festival at the Botanical Gardens.

I will be selling my Mermaid and Fairy doll kits along with necklace pouches at Heritage Days Craft Fair in Bath over the July the fourth weekend.

Here's wishing you summer days filled with creative magic!

DIY carpet sample flooring

Heidi and Jon's weekend 'free' carpet installation.

Jon's offices are moving to a new location in Portland which means they've been purging stock piles of old product samples. He works for an architectural firm that specializes in 'Environments for Health' hospital and assisted living facilities. Part of their client services is to offer custom tailored interior boards that feature flooring, wall coverings, paint and trim samples. Instead of unloading the leftover commercial carpet samples he brought them home with a Memorial Day weekend den remodel in mind.

Commercial carpet samples have heavyweight rubber backing, making them ideal for high traffic areas.

Since the day we moved into this home we've loathed the dark blue shaggy nylon carpet in our TV room. Six years later we were still living with it. The one redeeming quality is that it hid the kids and dogs spills and messes. On the other hand the navy color showed every stray thread and fiber from my sewing and felting projects.

You can change the appearance of two of the same patterned titles by simply orienting them in a different direction.

The worst part of this project was discovering that the floor underlayment needed replacing under the old carpet pad. Once we got through taking it out and installing a new one, the actual placement of the tiles was quick and easy. I camped out on the floor sticking the two foot square tiles in place with a double sided flooring tape (easily found at a hardware store). Jon devised an effective cutting strategy, he clamped either end of the carpet square between a straight cutting edge and cutting board. This secured the tile so that it stayed in place while he trimmed it to size with a utility knife. We worked from one side of the room, one row at a time across to the other side. If necessary it'll be easy to pull up a square and replace it with a new one. It took two hours to cover our 10.8 x 11.8 room.

The purple paint went on the night before it's Martha Stewart 'Lavender Verbena' and works well with the yellow, orange, and aqua colors in the adjoining rooms. What brought me the most satisfaction was finally printing Celia's baby pictures and getting then up on the walls alongside her brothers. We missed a day on the beach and in the workshop working on lobsters but it was nice to relax on the couch and enjoy the room watching Shrek with Celia.

Please check out my book Craftcycle for more recycled home decorating ideas.