Alligator Point

A few weekends ago our Doctor who has also become a family friend invited David and I to join him at his beach house on Alligator Point for the day.

Yes please!

The day started out kind of overcast but ended up being beautiful.

The first set of pics are beach side. We made the hike over from the house.

Scout and Lucy

Scout runs like the wind.

 

See Scout run.

Back at the house, Bay side.

<3

Just beautiful!

View from the top deck.

Dinner out. Buffalo fried shrimp. Yummmm

And back for sunset. I love living in Florida.

Phone Dump

A lot of these have gone on Facebook over the past couple of months but here’s some of my favorites to share with my non-facebookers  

Well, well, well what do we have here?

Good spot Rem.

And this week on Animal Planet, the black labrador retriever sees a turtle for the first time.

Spring flowers make me happy!

A good hair day.

A rough day at work called for a midday milkshake.

Walking the dog, in style.

Glorious clouds.

After looking at these I see most of them are Remington or myself. Hmm, perhaps I should get a life. And some friends…oh well!

Camelbak Rocks

So remember a few months ago I posted about how unhappy I was with my Camelbak waterbottle?

Well imagine my surprise when I got an email that said “Greetings From Camelbak”. The representative Eden went on to tell me they came across my blog post and wanted to reach out to me since I was unhappy with their product.

Say wha? How in the world did they find my blog? Who knows! Product search I’m guessing? I was a wee bit excited!

She said if I gave my address they’d send me some new products to try. I hemmed and hawed for a week or so because let’s face it, I thought it was a spammer or stalker trying to get my address! I was scared to send it! I talked to my Mom about it and she said well have it sent to their address. So I finally did.

And boy was I glad that something actually showed up and I didn’t give their address to a random person and nothing come of it!

Here’s the goods:

Pretty awesome right?

I kind of freaked out. I mean in the store, the insulated ones are $19.99 each and the Camelbak Groove is $24.99. That’s a lot of free product!

I was not asked to post a blog review or anything, but after having time to try them out, I thought I owed it to Camelbak to give them a pat on the back.

They done good.

I love the new bottles. And the best news is they don’t sweat like Niagara Falls all over my desk. The insulated feature is the bomb dot comb.

Thank you Camelbak!!

March Photo a Day

In February, I participated in Fat Mum Slim’s Photo A Day Challenge.

Well, I did the same for March! (See key below)

It’s been a lot of fun. And now I’m starting April’s Challenge!

Wanna play?

Head on over to Fat Mum Slim’s for the how-to!

Spring Porch Sprucing

Say that three times fast!

Warning – fat post on porch stuff ahead.

I have done a little sprucing up around these parts to Spring-ify my house.

It started by hanging a Spring wreath (70% off last fall at Joann’s), keeping up with my weekly grocery store flower purchase…and well that’s all I can think of. Don’t wanna think too hard I may hurt myself.

Anywho, I got the bright idea that I wanted to give my milk can another makeover after seeing this beauty on Pinterest.

Gorge, right? Source

That’s right, mine already had one makeover. But, I can’t find for the life of me the blog post I did on it. I KNOW I posted that one. What is it with my posts? Are they disappearing or am I going crazy? I can picture reading that post and I think I was even wearing a purple v-neck shirt. Grr…

Well I took an old rusty milk can my Dad let me have and first painted it red.

It’s been sitting on my front porch so was icky.

Well it’s been red for the past two years and yesterday it got a makeover!

I was thisclose  to painting it white but decided last minute to jump ship and go yellow. You know, for Spring. I think it turned out really cute. But it may still end up white one day. Or peacock blue with white numbers…oh the possibilities!

Ta-da!!

I lurve it.

Now, let’s back up a little for the deets.

First I cleaned and primed it.

Oh and it went from drab to fab in one evening. I am impatient.

Then it got three coats of Krylon’s Bright Idea.

While it was drying, I whipped up a few things on my Cricut.

I got this blank slate sign from Michael’s for $1.99.

I cut the word welcome out in a fun font in white vinyl and stuck it on.

Then I did the address in black vinyl.

The light color shows the imperfections of the can, but that’s okay. It’s really old and it’s okay if the character shines through.

I picked up a flower arrangement from Walmart and put it all together on the front porch. What do ya think? Springy right? I love it. Makes me happy!

The great thing is I can change out the address real easily on my next house. It’s interchangeable!

Here’s the before:

Not awful but nothing to write home about.

Okay, so now that the front porch was looking up to par, it was time to tackle the back.

My Adirondacks were faded and plastic pieces were broken, and everything was covered in pollen.

After reading Brandi’s post about sprucing up her back deck, I was inspired.

I fell in love with the table she posted about.

When we lived in our last house we had an awesome patio table. It was huge but when we moved we sold it and ever since I have missed having a patio table outback. My porch isn’t very big so I didn’t need anything massive, so this would be perfect!

I really love to sit out back but my blue bench has now broken for a second time and my plastic chairs were breaking so I’d go out there and with three broken things to sit on, end up sitting on the ledge of the patio. No bueno.

 

Light bulb moment!!!

 

Whoa! I just realized something. I really need to layoff the food. All three of my seating pieces are broken! HAHAHAHA!

Anywho, I went to Target and they had it, and it was on sale for $99, but it was too small for what I was looking for. The chairs didn’t have arms and the table wasn’t large enough. And they only had it in white that was boxed. Boo. But it was SO cute!

So I did a little browsing in the patio section and ended up finding a table on sale for $40 and two chairs for $30 each. They didn’t come as a set but they are both wrought iron and match perfectly. The chairs are big and comfy with arms, and the table is plenty large. And I spent the same amount of money.

Score! And the cool part is I can always spray paint it

They had lots of cute sets but the others had chairs with cloth and in my experience they get yucky quick and tend to mildew. These are perfect cause they can be wiped down or hosed down. Minimal tending – I like!

But first, my discard pile.

Anyone else still have a pumpkin chilling on their back porch? I never got around to carving it and it was still in perfect condition. It’s in the trash now though. Poor pumpkin.

So here’s my new set, styled for the “after” picture of course. Don’t think I actually leave that cute stuff outside. Which brings me to my next search…outdoor décor!

Don’t mind the tarp out and junk in the corner. It’s my firewood pile!

     

I love my blue Ikea glasses.

You can find them here. Can’t beat $6.99/6 pack.

So there you have it. A big blog post about some Spring Porch Sprucing!

Girl’s Night Out–Skating Edition!

Friday was a night on the “town” with some of my sweet girlfriends.

I am just a hippy girl. And I don’t mean child of the seventies…I mean I’ve got some child bearing hips!

Brittney, Nicole, Katie and I started out with some dinner and drinks at Chili’s.

Yum.

Then we went skating! It was Brittney’s idea and I’m so glad she thought of it!

Picture stolen from Katie. We had some rule breakers in our group and it wasn’t me!

Missing Nicole!

Couple’s skating for friends!

Thankfully none of us fell or suffered any broken bones. We enjoyed ourselves!

We ended the night with TCBY. Brittney’s concoction was too pretty not to have a picture of.

It’s back to work tomorrow.

Working for the weekends I tell ya!

Sidenote…does anybody have any suggestions on a Picnik alternative for when their site shuts down in April? It’s how I currently do all my collages and I think I’m gonna cry when they’re gone. I got an email from them with some alternatives but after brief looks they didn’t look promising. OR, anyone know how to do pre-made collages using Photoshop Elements 9? Please share because that I DO have!