Vacation Part 2

A few from the next day or 2...

 Yes, I'm a foot picture taker...

 Pretty much sums up how all of the group pictures turn out.

Walking around downtown Charleston.

 Hyman's seafood downtown Charleston.

Vanilla Ice and Sandra Bullock also ate at our table lol

Family photo taken at the Angel Tree-John's Island, SC.

 The Angel Oak Tree

This is maybe 1/3 of it?

I've never seen anything so enormous!

1500 years old approx?

 Gabe at the Battery

Sawyer at the Battery

Canons at the Battery

 Unitarian church, downtown Charleston.

The cemetary has always drawn me in-it's amazing.

The biggest onion rings I've ever seen...

Pitt street bridge, Mt. Pleasant~

A beautiful spot for a sunset walk :)

Hung out with this crazy guy and his huge great danes for awhile.

A crab pulled up on Pitt street bridge.

Sunset view from Pitt street bridge~

Gorgeous!

Vacation~South Carolina

I'm a month behind on vacation photos but thought I'd share a few of my favorites.

Background:

We were a Navy family. The bulk of my childhood was spent in Goose Creek, South Carolina-just outside of Charleston. It was an awesome place to grow up-and an awesome place to visit.

I haven't been back in about 16 years-and that time was a quick drive-thru...

It's been 28 years since we moved away...

Honestly this may take me a few posts~just a warning...;)

 Freaky turtles outside of Gilligin's resteraunt

Mount Pleasant

They seriously came if you called them and ate from your hand.

Tons of them. The kids LOVED them of coarse!

An awesome first evening :)

 The best 3 hours of our trip.

My best friend from 1-4th grades-Michelle.

28 years since I'd seen her. She drove 7 hrs from Virginia to visit for such a short time.

So very thankful for the time we had! :)

 My water baby

 The coolest bike EVAH!

I wish I could have met the chic who rode this around.

I bet she would have been interesting :)

I would totally ride this.

So jealous~I want a Wonder Woman for my bike too...

 Sullivan's Island

Home Team BBQ

"Painkiller" special.

No, I felt no pain for quite awhile...

 My brother happened to be there at the same time we were-crazytiming!

He was working for Sister Hazel just down the beach so he ran down to hang out with us for the evening :)

 I LOVE this shot.

So many fun things to find.

Tons of hermit crabs...crabclaws...horseshoe crabs...

*Pinch*



Chloe was pointing to the "treasure" she swore was washed up on the other side of the tidal pool and couldn't wait to get over there to check it out.

(there was no treasure-just a broken wood box-bummer)

But I just LOVE the pop in from the side by my brother-priceless.

;)



Happy 4th*

Snap pops rock!

Hope you all had a great 4th!

Ten

How has it been 10 years already?

A decade.

Half way to 20...

*omg*

Anyhow, our 2nd summer birthday has come and gone.

2 down 1 to go...

 Chloe chose Osaka for her birthday dinner.

This is what they brought her for her birthday treat.

I am totally loving the sparkler!

 She's the only steak eater...

Chloe and Gabe with Nana.

We were also celebrating her retirement as well.

I can't believe I didn't get anymore pictures on her birthday...

For once I just tried to sit back and enjoy instead of following her around with the camera.

I still can't believe I have a 10 year old...lol



Three days at The Gables

Two weeks ago today was the beginning of a very rainy 3 days in my tent at The Gable's Market Days :)

Here's a glimpse:

My tent~

 I see sun! lol

Luckily it was nice for Thursday morning set-up.

We were on an incline on our side and I ended up switching my arrangement the next day.

Loved this one. It sold pretty quick. Glad I had a chance to get a photo of it.

  My new fave's.

{love!}

Cluster necklaces.

Pink sold quickly.

I am in love with the grey...

If you know me you know I tend to wear grey/black in winter especially...

sigh~it might need to be mine ;)

 A fun sterling bits necklace with deep blue/light grey accents.

 A last minute ah-ha addition.

I'd been trying to figure out what to do with some thin flower disks I'd made...

I like how light and airy it turned out.

:)

 My new buddy Stacy :)

It's great to be next to someone who you can chat with for 3 days!

Stacy Krager is an awesome new natural light family photographer to our area.

Go check out her website-amazing :)

Ken Pease was across from me and was a super nice guy.

His painting are so whimsical.

Gabe almost yanked my arm off at the Old State Capital art fair when we passed his booth.

He LOVED his stuff and begged for anything lol.

Neat paintings...

Christy Freeman!

Sooo happy that I had Christy on the other side of my tent :)

We've been friends since 6th grade!

6th grade!

I love facebook and how it brings people back into your life...

We were able to plan being by each other and caught up for those 3 days.

I still remember in high school how freakishly talented she was with painting horses-it was her specialty at the time.

Her recent wildflower field paintings are so cool!

She's added glow in the dark paint to add dimention and a whole other image once the lights are off!

How cool is that? :)

I had a great time.

It was exausting-as I knew it would be-but was a little sad once it was over. lol.

Custom order

~For baby Maddox's mama~

Simple sterling name tag $36.

Hammered, oxidized~slightly rustic.

Love it.

Our last 3rd

Our #3 candle has been used for the last time :(

 And all of a sudden he seems so HUGE to me!

 We had an impromptu cupcake party with some neighbors.

How awesome are those cupcakes? I was inspired by a cake on pinterest and had to try it out.

You just take your cake batter and seperate it into small bowls and add food coloring.

(our mix was lemon but it was light yellow)

then just spoon in the different colors carefully and bake em up!

Sooooo pretty.

You could tell when each kid bit into one because they'd gasp and say Oh wow! Look!

 Yes, my 4 yr old has "sleeves" sigh...

Can you tell someone figured out how to do tattoos on his own?

We had a bee sting as the party started.

Chloe got it on the lower lip-yeowch!

Finally caught a smile on her though-she had a rough time for a bit.

 The parachute made an appearance.

The crew. Can you believe We have so many kids on our block alone?

Now, granted-6 of those are daycare kids down the block but they're a staple around here.

We were still missing 11 others that didn't come!

Can you imagine our block in the summertime?

Oh yes, it can be crazy :)

But a good crazy.

Summer List 2011

So it seems everyone has been busy making their summer lists thanks to Meg :)

I had good intentions of making one last year but the summer just got away from me.

I work better with lists. This will work ;)

One thing is crossed off already-although we will be doing it many more times-is making popsicles.

This is actually a picture of some Orange Julius drinks we made the other day-thanks to Cassie Donlen for posting the recipe on facebook...I just couldn't get them out of my head until I made them.

It made so much we had plenty of leftovers-even with neighbor kids beinig here-

So what do you do w/ leftover orange julius?

Make popsicles!

Can you say YUM? wow. Almost like a pushup...

Here's the recipe I grabbed online that was the same as Cassie's:

1 can (6 ounces) frozen orange juice concentrate, thawed

1 cup milk

1 cup water

1/4 cup sugar

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

10 to 12 ice cubes

{I doubled this recipe since frozen OJ cans tend to be 12 oz.}

In a blender, combine the orange juice, milk, water, sugar and vanilla. Cover and blend until smooth. With blender running, add ice cubes, one at a time, through the opening in lid. Blend until smooth. Serve immediately. Yield: 4-5 servings.

*I think the next time I make them as popsicles I'll have to add a little vanilla ice cream when I blend to make it a smidge creamier. Otherwise-they rocked!

Troubled

I wish I could put into words what I'm feeling right now. It's not pretty and I am so conflicted over it it's exausting.
Disappointment-in adults who have taken upon the responsibility to shape young people's lives.That's a good way to sum it all up.
How can a coach stand over the top of this little boy and yell, wave his arms and publicly humiliate him over his very first goal that he was so excited about?
How can he take away his joy of kicking the ball through the cones for the first time?
How can he intimidate a 4 year old and make him feel unworthy?

 I am fuming. My stomach is in knots. I feel so bad for him.

 

These were taken a few weeks ago during practice.

So Glad I caught these...since he won't be back-at least on this team.

Tomorrow

My first race.

The Fat-Ass 5K is in the morning. Wish me luck.
I'm starting back by all the walkers-lol.

{man, I need to scrub my floorboards...}

One from today

Our Irises bloomed today.

I'm not wild about their color on the outside-a deep dark burgundy-but their insides are gorgeous!

Hmm...I smell a bead color combo lol...

Speaking of: I've been hitting the torch alot lately and really cranking out the beads. I spent alot of time soldering little silver pieces today to mix in with the glass. I can't wait to start putting everything together.

Those first 6 or so beads came out soooo pretty. I can't wait to make a bracelet out of them. Just need a few more from my next torch session tomorrow and I should be good to go.

Heinous

It is always a kick in the gut when the mailman brings you what felt like such a huge order and this is what you got (for over $200!)

*gasp*choke*

Guess I'd better get to work and see how far this will stretch. lol.

Of coarse silver prices plummeted over 20% the day AFTER I ordered. :(

BOO.

Magnolia

I love our 2 magnolia trees. This year they bloomed early and shed fast-so these are from a couple of weeks back. I was just scrolling through some photos and wanted to share.

{Straight out of the camera-and loving how dreamy it turned out...}

{Sitting on the porch watching the boys play}

{The boys as bridges over the 'river'}

{A little fern popping through the petals}

Testing

Having computer issues...

Spring

Where does the time go? It's seriously just flying by-here we are in the last quarter of the school year already. Not that I'm sad to see winter go-heck no! I've actually been in an awesome mood today despite the grey dreariness outside because from the upstairs window this morning I caught a glimpse of leaf buds on the trees! And oour Magnolia trees are in full bloom. My most favorite thing ever-watching it all slowly start to turn green outside again...ahhh.

The winter blahs I think cause my quiet time here at the old bloggeroo. My grandmother passed away a couple of weeks ago and the week before I was fortunate enough to visit and tell her goodbye. I'm still trying to wrap my head around the fact that she's no longer here even though I know compared to the state she's been in for years she is in a much better place. I just miss her and hate how time changes things...

This might sound a little strange-but while in Missouri for the funeral I walked past the workout room in the hotel we were staying in and found myself dying to get on it. So while the kids swam with Travis I went in and walked-then jogged and broke into a huge sweat. I think it was a bit theraputic-the time to reflect about Granny but also think on what the next day will hold for her funeral. I really needed that time alone and to really work out some of my grief. You need to know though that I am not an avid exercizer...so it was kind of a big deal to me lol.


{A horse greeted us at Granny's farm when we drove by...}


A few days later talking with my chiropractor I was telling him about everything and he mentioned a race he and his wife are doing and suggested that I sign up. It's not the world's most serious race-it's called the "Fat Ass 5K" if that tell you anything. lol. They serve you donuts and beer while you run?! hehe. I'll wait til afterwards thanks anyway...

So really-it's got me focused on a goal-which is what I need. It's been a good distraction. I've changed my eating habits, been structured about starting back with the couch to 5K plan with fast treadmill walking on my off days for 30 minutes. I've lost 2 lbs and my stamina is only getting better!

I haven't made any jewelry lately-but I've been busy sketching up some new thoughts rolling around in my head. I've applied for 2 large art fairs that I've never done before...nothing like 2 huge motivators to get me moving here soon (I hope! I'll find out in a couple weeks if I've been accepted...) The crazy thing thing is they're one week after another in Sept so i will be going CRAZY if it happens. But a good crazy. lol. So just like the race-I guess I have to sign up to get my butt in gear. :)