Happy Memorial Day...through 4th of July!

I have been back for almost a week and really don't know where the time has gone. I did have hair dresser and doctor appointments but, I guess the rest of my week has been spent getting the house ready for the next round of holidays. Plus, I am dog sitting while daughter #3 and family are at the beach for the holiday. I guess I spend a lot of time with any of my grand dogs when they are here. I always had a dog in my life and I do miss having one although I am wise enough to know that I am too old to take on another dog. I love big dogs and that means lots of big care and costs. So, when any of the grand dogs are here, I tend to spend a lot of time with them. Guess all of that answers where my week has gone.

In any case, here is the beginning of the tour, I haven't made it to a garden center yet, so my porch planters are having to make due with some of the red, white and blue plants I could gather from around the yard.

I think it is true that what everything old will be new again. I made this fire cracker many, many years ago as my family gift that year, I really don't even remember where I saw the idea but, suffice it to say that it has been around a long time. Imagine my surprise when I saw almost the exact same thing as a craft post idea the other day. If I remember correctly, it is a paper towel roll covered in a download of the Declaration of Independence. The round ends and star are cut from cardboard and glittered...as is the #4. I made the medallion from folded card stock, printed the JULY and 1776 tails and added a 4th of July embellishment I had in my scrapbooking supplies. Then, I popped a hole in the top and stuck in some fancy 4th of July tooth picks. It had a lot of steps but none of them were difficult...and now I'm glad I hung on to it.

Here is where one of my new Uncle Sams ended up.

So that is pretty much the living room for this year. You definitely can't miss the fact that it is decorated for patriotic holidays...Lol. I'll be back with more soon. Stay safe and stay tuned.
 

I'm Back!

 I just returned from a week in St. Petersburg and boy, re-entry is difficult! I had such a great time. If we weren't off just having fun, I was tagging along with my daughter to some of her design clients or shopping for her clients (or ourselves) or just helping her finish her new design studio...it was all so much fun! And, it is never a trip to St. Pete without lots of walking, laughing and eating. I like to think that all of the walking counteracts all of the eating. Lol

My first full day down there we went to the Van Gogh Live exhibit at the Dali Museum. It was quite the experience. All of the rooms in the one area were saturated with one painting at a time - some the full painting, others were close ups of parts of the painting. Then, when you least expected it, parts of the painting would come to life. It was very hard to take pictures of because, #1, the images were huge and projected everywhere and #2, you didn't want to miss anything by looking through a camera lens. It was really beautiful and I managed a few shots.

After the exhibit, we headed to The Library - a restaurant in downtown St. Pete. It is the first time I was there and it was delicious!

We had the most delicious roasted brussel sprouts as an appetizer and then I had a Fried Green Tomato BLT...minus the B. Lol I let them put it on but then gave it to my grand daughter as I am not much of a meat eater.

I was having so much fun that I didn't get many other pictures until daughter #3 and grand daughter #5 arrived on Friday afternoon for the rest of the weekend. We spent Friday sitting on the porch, talking and ordering in food from one of our favorite restaurants... gotta love Uber Eats! I will say that we were soooo lucky with the weather! The temps were in the 80s but there was very little humidity and the wind was enough to not only keep everything cool but to also keep the mosquitoes at bay. It was the PERFECT porch sitting weather and we did a lot of it! 

Saturday morning we started walking. My daughter lives in the historic district so there are so many pretty things to see as we walk and, it is only a short distance to downtown. It was wonderful to see a bit of the return to normalcy. It took us a while to decide on a restaurant for lunch but we made a great choice. We decided on The Park Shore Grill. Kris eats there often but it was, again, new to me.

After a long, leisurely lunch, we walked to one of Presley's favorite places, Sweet Divas. And of course, we had to get one of almost everything! Lol

Armed with our bag of goodies, we strolled through the park and made our way to another favorite destination - the veranda at the beautiful Vinoy Hotel. There is just something about sitting on the veranda, having a glass of wine (or two), looking at all of the beautiful boats docked across the street and wiling away an afternoon. 

Presley had never been here before and she was actually very excited to learn about the history of the hotel. She found a "tour" to listen to on her phone and then set off to see the halls, gardens, grand ballrooms, etc. in person.

We hopped on the trolley for a few blocks and then made it home right as grand daughter #4 was getting home from work.

We did a bit of a smorgasbord for dinner...a bit of charcuterie and then lots of air fried veggies with a delicious aoli that Olivia made for us! And, we ate as we played games...for the rest of the evening. 

And, after milking as much breakfast time on the porch as we could, we headed home. It is always so much fun down there and always so hard to leave! But, I am back and getting back to reality. I have a few appointments this week but then I think I will start my 4th of July decorating. We are supposed to have a scorcher of a week so the idea of staying in doesn't bother me at all. My grandson does have his spring football game Friday night and it is supposed to be HOT but I'm hoping we can set up a tailgate in some shade and manage to get through the evening. And then, I am dog sitting for the holiday weekend...should be fun!

I have a quick little 4th of July craft I will try to fit in as well so I'll be back. Stay safe and stay tuned.

Spring, Spring...

 Even though we are short on rain so far this year, the gardens are pretty much in full bloom because our temperatures have been pretty moderate so far. There is nothing like heading to the back yard in late afternoon! I just came in from taking some pictures now that all of the pressure cleaning for this year is done. The sun is a bit bright so I'll be waiting to head out until there is more shade but I thought I would share what's happening out there right now.

 

Lots of things blooming and lots of wonderful aromas right now. I definitely need to enjoy it all as much as I can because, before we know it, summer temperatures will be upon us and it will be a lot harder to keep these blooms happy! Stay safe and stay tuned.