Yaddo Gardens – Saratoga Springs, NY
On our way back from Sarataga Springs, NY we stopped at the Yaddo Gardens. Just one more of the amazing places to see in Saratoga Springs, the Yaddo Gardens is GORGEOUS. There is also a huge mansion that has functioned as a private artist retreat since the 1920s. The gardens are open to the public and mid-June was the perfect time to visit.
The roses are in peak bloom.
The sculptures are tasteful and elegant.
I think my favorite part was this great hall of climbing roses. The smell was heavenly.
There is also a more woodsy section of the gardens. Plenty of ferns and water features and pine needle paths.
It was a beautiful end to a lovely weekend.
Sarah
Travel Review – Saratoga Springs Downtown
This last weekend we went back to Stefan’s hometown of Saratoga Springs NY. If you’ve never been to Saratoga, it’s on my must-visit list. Excellent food, great shopping, and extreme quaintness to boot. There is also the racetrack in late summer funny hats and all. There is also plenty of arts and culture with the Saratoga Opera and the Saratoga Performing Arts Center nearby. It is the summer residence for the NYC Ballet and the Philadelphia Orchestra. In addition there is a yearly Jazz festival and tons of more popular music concerts.
Every time we go back, I fall in love with this town a little more.
We had a great time with all the kiddos. Each of Stefan’s brothers have a 5 year old girl and a 3 year old boy. The four of them get along great and are great friends. We played “Keep the ball up” for a good long time in the backyard at Mimmi and Poppi’s house.
Our niece Gabby is looking healthy and happy after some very serious medical problems over the last 6 months. It was wonderful to see her running and playing…and eating. She is putting away the food like I have never seen which was very refreshing to see.
Even without the cute Kiddos, Saratoga is a must see if you are an old house aficionado. Both of Stefan’s brothers and his parents have amazing houses which I’m sure I’ll have a chance to show you at some point but the real treat is just walking down the streets around town. Row after row of turn of the century beautiful houses.
We’ll be heading back again this summer and I’ll be sure to show you more of the town. Tomorrow I’ll be posting a photo review of the Yaddo Gardens. It’s a treat for the eyes let me tell you!
Sarah
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Long sleeves and jackets. Wow. We are sweltering already at 99 and it is not even summer yet.
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It’s been rainy here and cool at night. We’re supposed to get into the 90s this weekend.
Busy week: Blog updates
I haven’t posted much this week. I was doing so well with my 4 posts a week schedule! Life gets in the way sometimes.
Just because I haven’t posted doesn’t mean I’ve forgotten about y’all! I’ve actually done a little clean-up here on the ol blog.
Most recently, I changed the drop down menus:
Now you can sort by room for projects whenever the mood strikes you and without an annoyingly long drop down menu. Whoo. I haven’t quite made it through all of my old posts categorizing them properly but I’m making progress!
Also take a look at my first sponsor: RocksBox. If you’ve never heard of Rocks Box, you should check it out. It’s basically a Netflix for jewelry. For as little as $15 a month, you can rent designer jewelry by mail. To get started you can take a style quiz and they chose the perfect pieces just for you each month. Pretty cool.
I also cleaned up some comment bugs that have been on my list FOREVER! My BBF (best blog friend..) Victoria E. Barnes pointed out this obnoxious “WordPress Hashcash” thing that was printing in all the comments. Thanks so much for pointing it out! Fixed that. I also got the comment box to display on the main page instead of forcing you to the individual post page. It hasn’t increased the comment usage too much but I’m hoping if I keep nagging you it will help.
We have some more features coming up in the next few weeks. One tool-tastic new series from my fantastic husband, Stefan (and his sidekick Vector), should be starting soon!
This weekend we are taking a little vacation to Stefan’s hometown to visit with the family. It’s been far too long since we’ve been for a visit. Since we won’t have a chance to work on the house this weekend, next week is going to be a little light on the blog posts but I’m planning on a busy and productive July. Operation Get-this-house-livable is underway!
Happy Father’s Day to all you fathers and a special shout-out to my own awesome Daddy. I love you!
Have a good weekend!
Sarah
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Your dad will love the blog mention, thanks.
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Thanks for the shout-out
Have a great weekend
I love you
The Dadmeister
Weekend Update: Finishing up the wiring
This past weekend was busy but we don’t have much in the way of pictures to show for it. We took care of some wiring in the kitchen and finished installing switches and lights in the closet and bathroom.
This isn’t the final center light fixture but it does the job for now. Vector was, of course, on the ladder and in the way for most of the work.
He’s so cute and Stefan spoils him tremendously.
After getting the closet lighting functional (YAYYYYY Lights) we went to work on the Kitchen where we discovered something odd. We cut a hole in the drywall and found a piece of plywood that they had apparently used as the wall earlier. It had this cute wallpaper on it.
The really odd thing was behind the plywood…there is finished wood back there. You can kind of see it here.
It looks like at some point there was some sort of exposed wood wall here. We think maybe the beams were exposed and finished as well to give a rustic wood feel to the kitchen. It’s so strange to peel back the layers of a room to see all the changes it has seen over the years.
Well, that’s all we got to this weekend. Nothing too exciting but lots of hard work.
I did prune some roses which gave me a chance to put some awesome smelling roses in the kitchen.
I should have a kitchen update later this week! I’ll give you a hint – it involves lots of sanding!
Sarah
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Vector in the way again, as usual.
sheila zimmermann
6/19/2013 | 2:13 pm Permalink
Very nice. I love the self photo