Happy North American Holiday Weekend!

Canada Day July 1st!!!

America's Independence Day!!!!

Life seems to be getting back on track after the major derailment (see what I did there?) earlier in June.  Fingers crossed that things will improve from here.  Have a great holiday weekend!  

Happy Independence Day!

Wishing all my American friends a Happy 4th of July!!!  

Flag barn, Plymouth, MA

How I Spent My 4th of July Weekend

Had a very nice & relaxing holiday weekend!!  Started off by getting some awesome Chinese food from Hong Kong Island to kick off our time together on 7/2.  Had so much leftover that we were eating it for days!!  I had more traditional Chinese food on the west coast but I very much missed the more Polynesian-style food that you see around here.  Hong Kong Island is soooo good.  Best chicken wings ever.

Watched TV (mostly the NCIS & SVU marathon, also Friends & Big Bang Theory), played on the internet, visited with my mom, the youngest & middle children came over to hang with us, went to bed early, got up late.  

Stayed out of the brutally hot & humid weather.  This was the forecast for Tuesday, July 2 through Monday, July 6.  Ugh.  If I wanted to live in the tropics, I would have moved to the tropics.  And it was way warmer in Sandwich than at my house.  I didn't go to the July 4th parade downtown because last year's was so lame.  I heard this year's was really good.  Oh well.  It wasn't worth being out in the hot weather anyway.  The temps don't look that bad and in a drier climate, would be pretty nice, but you add that humidity to it and it's just miserable.

Discovered this adorable and hilarious art by Sebastien Millon and got sucked in for hours, pinning his illustrations and sharing them on Facebook.  

And by way of Millon's Tumblr account, I also discovered Sheldon the Tiny Dinosaur Who Thinks He's a Turtle.

I got this tassle on clearance at Michael's Crafts and added all the beadwork to it.

Finally finished the purse I so desperately needed.  And because I'm afraid of my sewing machine, this entire project was made with fusible tape & an iron.  Luckily I'd purchased pre-quilted/pre-backed fabric several years ago.  I've been meaning to do this since I lost the first purse I made, back in 06 when I accidentally left my backpack containing my purse on the trunk of my car and drove to work.  I was crushed.  I probably bought this fabric in 2007 or 2008, but I was still so dejected from losing the original purse that I stuffed it into my fabric box where it finally surfaced this spring.

There's a front pocket.  Time will tell regarding it's structural integrity.

I made a bunch more strawberries to bring over to a friends' house on Friday afternoon, July 5th.  It was great to catch up with old friends and introduce them to Russell (he didn't know that many people from my class). 

On the way home, we got takeout from our fave restaurant.  We've never had a bad meal there and I've actually tried almost everything on the menu.  We think of it as 'our place', because our first date in March of 2011 was at the 99 in Mashpee.  There's one in Wareham, only a couple of miles from our house. 

Saturday was even hotter than Friday so we stayed inside and watched TV, with the a/c and fan cranked, although we emerged briefly to venture out to Betty Ann's for vanilla ice cream & orange sherbet twist cones.  They really hit the spot.  Tasted like a creamsickle!!

My love left very late Sat. night.  It's getting harder & harder to say goodbye each week, especially after he's been home for several days.

Sunday dawned as brutally hot & humid as ever, and I had to force myself to go out and do errands, which included dropping more jewelry off at Butterflies of Cape Cod.

And I couldn't leave without visiting the habit.  More pics in a later post.

Then we had a late afternoon thunderstorm with pouring rain that didn't do much to alleviate the heat and humidity.

Definitely a memorable, happy and fun July 4th holiday!!

Happy 4th of July!!!

 I hope everyone has a Happy and safe 4th of July!! 

No plans in these parts.  There's the parade downtown but it depends on how hot/humid it is before I decide whether or not I'll go.  It was kinda disappointing last year.  One thing's for sure, I'm staying on this side of the Bridge!!!  I remember 2 years ago when we arrived from Seattle on 7/2, although we started from Albany, NY very early, we hit bumper to bumper traffic about 10 miles before the Canal, at 11:00 AM.  The next day we had to move stuff out of the storage unit in Sandwich to the BBay house and that was a looooooong day of sitting in traffic, both ways.  I'd totally forgotten that's how it is here on summer weekends!

Here's a picture I got off Pinterest for a seemingly easy-looking strawberry project....

And here's my version...this was my first attempt.  The Canada Day strawberries were my second attempt.  Everyone told me to carefully melt the white chox chips in the microwave, but despite my best efforts, the chox seized and I had to throw it out.  Then I tried melting them in a bowl that was placed in a small pot of heated water and that worked better.  However, I had a hard time dipping the berries in the chox and sugar, and as they cooled, they stuck to the plate!  Still tasted great though.

I'm sure it's going to be bad fireworks-wise and it's going to be a stressful night for the pups...I expect it will continue on throughout July as many towns continue to have weekly fireworks.  Keep your pets safe and inside, especially if you are planning to be gone all day!!!

Bourne on the 4th of July

I have fond memories of going to the July 4th Parade in Sandwich, 'back in the day'.  July 4th really isn't a big deal on the west coast, other than an excuse to drink heavily and light fireworks.  The holiday really means more on the east coast, especially in the 13 Colonies, since this was Ground Zero for the American Revolution.  

When I saw the "Bourne on the 4th of July Parade" banners across Main Street, I decided to go check it out.  We awoke that morning to pouring down rain.  My honey bunny decided to stay home and relax, so I went downtown to take some pics.  It was surprisingly crowded considering the weather.

This was what was promised:  Bourne - 10:00 am - Clowns, bands, floats, fire trucks, sirens, horses, costumes, scouts, veterans and lots of flags will be part of the Fourth of July scene once again along main Street in Buzzards Bay. The parade route will be the intersection of Academy Drive and Main Street to the Bourne Veterans Memorial Community Building.

The reality was something else, altogether ("the reality was something else").  Let's just say that Bourne didn't get the A List participants.  We didn't even get the B List participants.  Russell was smart to have stayed home and dry, while I got somewhat soaked, hoping that the parade would get better.  There were about 3 or 4 clowns, a few flags.  No marching bands at all.  Not even Bourne High School. No horses.  Maybe 4 floats. Can't recall seeing scouts or many veterans.  Mostly it was military vehicles, cop cars, fire trucks and then all the town vehicles, including the street sweeper.  There were 2 bagpipe bands.  I texted Russell that it would have been nice to see his truck in the parade because at least it would have added some colour.

I do love the old firetruck brushbreakers.

These pipers were pretty good but they didn't do my fave, "Scotland the Brave" till after they'd passed by me.

Cape League baseball team The Bourne Braves.

Jeep Club of Cape Cod.  This was when things really started to get lame.

Bourne Scenic Park is a seasonal trailer park near the Canal.

Really?

Were they paying these town guys time and half, plus fuel costs for this?

Then I thought, finally, here come the floats and stuff!

Did they really pluck the whale out of the garden at Barlow's Clam Shack for this?

At least Monument Beach had it together enough to do a float.

Best one in the parade.  I got 2 strands of beads!

Aleppo Shriner's Fire Brigade.

A few local businesses participated.

Farmers.

Because nothing says 'Bourne' like a mariachi band.

And that was just about it.  45 minutes long.  Sorry to be a Debbie Downer but to be honest:  Lamest. Parade. Ever.