Give-A-Way

So not so timely, but here it is! My little Give-A-Way~ A miniature clam basket with 4 soaps that transport you to the rocky shores of Maine: Beach Rose, Lilac, Lupine and Vanilla Bean ( okay, that last one isn't exactly Maine but it smelled so good, I threw it in!)

To win the prize, post a comment here!
I'll post a link to my new blog at the end of the week where you can find out the winner!
Good luck...

Change is inevitable - except from a vending machine.

I'm a bit sad today as I write this blog post. As I've mentioned before, My Maine Cottage has been in a period of transition due to the economy. Today, nearly one year from the date that I started this blog, my husband was offered a job. In Boston. I've never been one to shy away from change, in fact I embrace it! Yet there is a little piece of me that wishes that this perfect bubble that I live in- this life in the slow lane might always be my life. But change in inevitable- and that's just a fact of life. Stay tuned, this blog is about to become, My Boston Apartment!

I hope you'll stick with me, I plan to blog about the transition and of course

decorating our new place!!!!!!

Give-A-Way as promised in my next post.......

Long Awaited

Once again, I've been a way for a long time. There have been a lot of changes around My Maine Cottage. My husband unfortunately was laid off from his job which left us with a lot of uncertainty about our future and our time in Maine. While we are still not sure about what is to come, we have a least come to a point of feeling more comfortable and positive about it all. In other news, all of the work at our in-law's home is complete and we've started off a successful (yet rainy) summer vacation season! YAHOOOOOOOOOO

For the long awaited photos of the work click here: http://secure.smilebox.com/ecom/openTheBox?sendevent=4f5467794d4449324f513d3d0d0a&blogview=true&campaign=blog_playback_link

You'll have to visit my older posts for the before pictures.

In the meantime, we've been working on starting our business, Harbor Watch Property Management & Vacation Rentals. We are hoping for a busy season next year as we are off & running to a great start this year!

Now I must spend some time catching up with all of you! I've missed everyone here very much, and am glad that some of the hard work is behind me~ now if only the rain would stop so I could enjoy some of this Maine Summer. I will enjoy every minute of it because who knows what the future will bring for us.

By the way~ My One Year Blog Anniversary is July 8th...I think a give-a-way is in order to thank you for sticking with my long absences! Stay tuned........................

I havn't Dissapeared!

I'm still here!!!!! I have just been doing a little bit of painting. Okay, I'm being modest....I'VE BEEN PAINTING MY #%$%@@O off. :-)

Care for an update on my in-laws home?? Common...you know you wanna see!!!!!! Keep in mind these rooms are only minimally furnished for the time being.

As always..."Before Pictures"

The orange room:

Its now the yellow room!

The Master Bedroom Before:

Now Its A Peaceful Master Bedroom:

The Little Room Under the Eves:

Now Its A Cool Green Room Fit For A Cottage:

The Old Kitchen: ( I have better pictures I will have to dig up)

And After:

More Pictures To Come Soon, Stay Tuned :-)

More Flooring!

So, I've been a little quiet lately because my mother was visiting, and we have been working around the house quite a bit. I gave you a little preview the other day of the floors we were putting in, here are some more pictures. ( Before pictures on the left for those of you who are new to my blog).




We also added some shutters to the outside of the cottage and did some more painting. Next we need to rip up the tile in the kitchen and instal the trim-but its time for a break now!

Hope you all had a wonderful Easter!

Floors, Floors, Floors!

Completed Bathroom~

All Done!



Before:





After:

(Visit my previous posts to see how I painted the countertop)

Hope you're enjoying your weekend!

Sir!... Sir!... Here's a good stick, to beat the lovely lady.

Have you ever seen the move "The Quiet Man" ? It has to be my favorite movie. It stars John Wayne and Maureen O'Hara and was filmed in Ireland in 1952. John Ford was the director ( who just so happens to be from Maine).

The movie is described as a romantic drama, but its pretty comical.

Here is a synopsis from Wikipedia:

"Sean Thornton an Irish-American from Pittsburgh, returns to Ireland to reclaim his family's farm in Innisfree. He meets and falls in love with the fiery Mary Kate Danaher ,the spinster sister of the bullying, loud-mouthed landowner "Red" Will Danaher , angry that Sean outbid him for the land adjacent to his property, initially refuses to sanction the marriage until several town locals, including the parish priest, conspire to trick him into believing that the wealthy Widow Tillane wants to marry him, but only if Mary Kate is no longer living in the house. After learning the truth on Sean and Mary Kate's wedding day, an enraged Will refuses to give his sister her full dowry.

Sean, unschooled in Irish customs, cares nothing about the dowry, but Mary Kate is obsessed with obtaining it, the dowry representing her independence, identity, and pride. Angered and shamed by Sean's refusal to confront her brother and demand what is legally hers, she brands him a coward, and, despite living together, they are estranged as husband and wife. The truth about Sean, however, is known only to one other person in the village, the Church of Ireland minister "Snuffy" Playfair. Sean is a former boxer in the United States, a heavy weight champion known as "Trooper Thorn." After accidentally killing an opponent in the ring, Sean hung up his gloves, vowing never to fight again.

Later, in an attempt to force Sean to confront Red, Mary Kate leaves him and boards a train departing the village, although she continually looks around to see if he is coming after her. Infuriated, Sean arrives and drags her off the train, and, followed by the townspeople, forces her to walk the five miles to Red's farm. Sean demands that Red hand over her dowry. Red finally relents and gives him the cash, but to his horror, Mary Kate and Sean throw it into a furnace, showing that Mary Kate never cared about the money, but only that Sean stand up for his wife. Sean and Will slug it out through the village, stop for a drink, brawl again, then become best friends. Sean regains Mary Kate's love and respect, Red and the Widow Tillane begin courting, and all is well, at least in Innisfree. "

It's available on Netflix, so add it to you queue! Hubby and I will be watching it tonight as we continue to celebrate St. Patty's Day! Cheers~

Happy St. Patty's Day!

Care for a cupcake?

Happy St. Patty's Day!

Chipped Beef Breakfast

Many of you may have already had this breakfast dish- and for most people its a love it or hate it meal. At our house, its a love it!

Chipped Beef on Toast in my Husband's new favorite breakfast- I've been eating it since I was little. Its super easy to throw together and its great comfort food on a chilly morning.

Follow along...

Melt some butter in a pan

Stir in Milk & Flour and heat until it thickens. While its heating, make sure to stir it so that it doesn't burn on the bottom of the pan and keep the heat low

Chop up dried beef....

And stir it into your white sauce...

Pour over toast

And serve to hungry man!

(Do this before showing him your Honey-Do list)

Another Week, Another Weekend

So as you can see, I've switched to my summer theme. Yes, I realize that its not summer, heck...its not even spring! ( At the time of this post, spring was approx. 3 Days, 21 hours, 46 minutes and 40 seconds away) However, I'm just sick of winter and I'm skipping ahead. I can't stand looking at that snowy picture & background any longer! It was 50 degrees this weekend and the snow is melting quickly. We still have a fair amount left but with no snow in the 10 day forecast and a string of 40 + degree days, I think its safe to say that its on its way out.

My back is killing me this morning after lots of heavy lifting over the weekend! I was at the home depot looking at countertops when I came across a stellar sale. Ceramic tile at just 49cents a square foot. This is half the price of the sticky vinyl flooring I had picked up. So I loaded up my cart and lugged it home with me. Sweet deal!

It was also my very favorite neighbor's birthday this weekend! I've decided that I want to teach myself to bake. I have ZERO experience in the cake department but I thought I'd give it a try. You have to start somewhere right? Her favorite cake is strawberry so I pulled this one up from allrecipes.com. Then I used a buttercream frosting recipe that I found on the net. The cake itself taseted good but the frosting was a bit too sweet for my taste. It wasn't stiff enough to decoarte with either which was a problem. That said, I would say the cake was decent for a very first try. I even tried making some frosting roses. You'll laugh, they are a little bit lopsided (I'm blaming it on my frosting recipe!!! ) :-) I rushed at the end to add the wording because she was on her way!

Check it out!

Do you have a great frosting recipe?

I need to practice, practice, practice as I have no instructor to show me the tricks!

After I made the cake I went to wrap her present and I realized..AHHHHHHHH no wrapping paper!!!! I once saw that you can wrap presents in newspaper but I couldn't' find any anywhere, except for the grocery store circular but I wasn't quite sure how that would look. So i pulled out my stash of magazines and started clipping.

A little silly- but it did the trick! Its the unwrapping part that makes presents fun after all.

I hope you all had a great weekend, hopefully next weekend I'll have a completed kitchen to show off!

Is It A Kitchen Yet?

No quite, but getting there!

Some Assembly Required

Because I was rushing out the door to get to work on time ( in the middle of a snow squall at that) I missed the fact that my phone had rung five times! I recognized the number as my contractor for my In-Law's home. Hmmm, this can not be good, I thought.

As I was dialing my voicemail another call came in.

"Hello?"

"Hello Elizabeth, This is Greg (A.K.A. the contractor). How are you?"

"I'm good Greg! How are you doing?"

"Well..... (Long pregnant pause)...I'm not sure."

"Ok. Whats the matter?"

"It's just...It's your kitchen"

"Yes?"

"Well, its all in small boxes"

"Oh, its from IKEA, some assembly is required"

You see where this is going?? My contractor was in a state of sheer panic over my cabinets. He had never seen anything like it. I'm confident though that once he and his crew assemble the first couple of cabinets it will start to go faster as they get the hang of it.

That said, I'm sure glad its not me putting it all together!
Yikes!

Its hard to imagine how all of that is going to look like this:

(Those are the actual cabinets)

Stay tuned!

~ Spring Time ~

We have some of the most beautiful sunrises here in Maine but in the winter I never get to see them because I'm always at work before the sun comes up. But now that the winter snow is melting away and the days are getting longer we have started to see them again.

On a side note, my birthday wish was granted for a new matching chair!

Hope you're having a great week!

IKEA IKEA IKEA!

Poor husband! He had to go to IKEA with me over the weekend. Have you ever been? This single store is as large as a shopping mall with its own cafeteria and parking garage and its always packed with people. And husband hates crowded shopping places.

(Can't say I blame him)

But we were on a mission!! For the in-laws home that is being renovated, we needed to purchase a new kitchen and furniture which we found at Ikea all for a very reasonable price. Why so reasonable? Because everything comes in small boxes and require assembly.

( That's him amidst an enormous pile of boxes )

We rented a 17 Foot UHaul Truck which we drove from Massachusetts back to Maine filled with all of our IKEA purchases

After an exhausting day of shopping & loading we made it home & fell right into bed! No way we were going to finish unloading that night.

But the next day we were right back at it.

Inside, the construction crew is hard at work.

The old kitchen has been ripped out, and a drywaller has been scrapping all of the "popcorn" on the ceilings and re-sanding them.

Now they are laying new flooring in the upstairs bedrooms and making doors for the eves

Everything is looking good! Can't wait to see the new kitchen installed!