Jar Man

Like my subtle nod to Jamaican slang? Didn't get it? Yeah, that's how I felt most of the trip.

In grand tradition of honeymoons I wasted no time in collecting bits for our honeymoon jar. Daniel is very patient with me as I comb beaches for sticks and shells. I'm pretty excited with how this one turned out though.

For those of you who are unfamiliar with a memory jar I'll give you a quick run down (you can see last year's here).  First, you start with a clean jar. Then you fill it with stuff. Since our honeymoon's center around beaches ours always include sand. Jamaica's sand is very interesting and textural. Lots of shell bits and coral.

Empty.

Full.

I had lot's of fun diving for urchin shells and coral bits. I also included one of the wrist bands from the resort to remember where we were.

Here's a nice close up of that sand. See how pretty it was.

Nothing like a free souvenir right? I envision a whole wall of these someday to celebrate all of the years and travels we've had together. 

What do you do to commemorate your vacations? Are you a scrapbooker? Or do you have something more unique?

Cheers! 

Linking Up to

The Shabby Nest

Well Color Me Pink!

I've been featured on About.com's Unique Bedroom Closet Solutions!  A while back I was contacted about permission to use my photo from my cork jewelry shelf (which of course I said yes to) and now the article is up. How cool is that?

Via Me! 

Sorry for the post and run, things are still settling back in here but I did make one important purchase for the kitchen that I hope will be here soon!

Cheers!

Virtual Vacation

For those of you who aren't getting away this summer, feel free to live vicariously through me. Just kidding. Though we did have a great time! How about a tour? We stayed somewhere half way between Montego Bay and Negril in a nice quiet out of the way resort called the Lady Hamilton (fancy pants, I know). It was a fairly new resort so everything was nicely maintained.

We were greeted with this cute little arrangement on our bed. The room was small but nice and had a very well stocked mini bar.

Each of the little villas had a court-yard in the middle. (luckily the fountain turned off around 10pm and stayed off until 9am so we didn't go crazy)

Everything was very colonial and light and airy.

We also found quite a few fruit trees around the property.

The landscaping was spectacular.

 The main pool was pretty nice too, but too crowded for our taste.

There was also a weird mix of art.

We spent probably 90% of our awake time here.

I loved that our hotel had an adults only section which was quiet and less of a party atmosphere. The snorkeling was great for the amateur (which we are). It never got very deep and there was sandy spots to stop and rest fairly often. We saw an amazing amount of fish in that little area. My favorites were the octopi, cuttle fish and puffers but there was also a dizzying array of brightly colored beauties as well.

There were some other nice beaches on the grounds as well.

I also got some action shots of my DIY beach cover up. I actually saw a few of these around which was pretty cool.

We also saw some wildlife. Mostly in the form of feral cats.

Sleek little lizard hunters that they were. This Mama decided our porch was a safe place to nurse. We saw her quite often.

There were also the usual suspects. We found these wasps building a nest.

And one of the few surviving lizards.

We had a couple of afternoon rain storms but nothing that put a damper on our parade. The only thing I'd change was the food wasn't super. Though it did remind me a bit of dorm food which was kind of fun since that is where Daniel and I met. All in all it was a great third honeymoon.

Cheers!

Home at Last

After a good 12 hours of travel I'm glad to be home. Jamaica was a blast! The water was warm, it wasn't too hot and the food was ok. We were pretty lazy on this honeymoon so our days mostly consisted of eating, snorkeling, and reading in the sun. Can you blame me though? Look at our beach

It was great, the hotel had an adults only pool and beach so it was quiet and relaxing. The perfect way to while away a day right?

More tomorrow. I'm busily catching up on email and blogs and laundry.
Cheers!

And We're Off

My lovely sister-in-law is watching the kids so that Daniel and I can go on our third honeymoon to Jamaica this year. I'm packed, prepared, and looking forward to some serious relaxing.

Like my new goodie bag? I got it from Gap as a present to myself for losing 20lbs. It is stuffed with all of my travel necessities. Magazine, book, snacks, socks, you know the drill. So here's to not thinking about the house for one whole week because this is what I'm coming home to...

Cheers!

Throwing in the Towel

Just for now that is. The cabinets are proving to be the death of me (between the dog hair and lack of space it is pretty ridiculous).  I know they need at least 2 more coats and we have exactly 2 days before we leave for our Honeymoon. Cue sad music. We are going to give them one good sanding before we leave (to fix drips and stray hairs) and then stack them neatly until we return. Slowly but surely folks.

The nice thing about this throwing of towels is that I get to pick a new one up. Jamaica here we come!

Grand Palladium 

Updating the Back 40

My parent's house actually has a back 40 but ours is rather smaller. Still, I did finally finish planting it which is something to celebrate!

We added this cute little Japanese maple from Costco ($35!!) and some nice ground cover. My hydrangea from last year is looking good too. I also put down some weed block so hopefully it wont all get over grown again.

That spindly stick is our silk tree which apparently doesn't even get leaves until mid summer. Who knew?

But since this space looked more like this 6 months ago...

I'm excited for the rest of the progress.

My Irises are finally blooming too. I was not expecting these color combinations but I think they are pretty sweet.

And finally, a full picture of the yard. You can see by the upper corner I've got some branches to get rid of but I am keeping that spot free of plants for my shed. Hopefully we can break ground on that when we get home.

It's a pretty far cry from what it looked like last year before we left for our honeymoon.



The painting saga continues. With a minor miracle they will be hung before we leave so hopefully I will not disappoint!

Anyone else been working on yard work? It is the time of year for it here. We've had some great weather.
Cheers!

Add to the List of Jobs I'll Never Have

Full time painter. Sure it is fun for a little while but I figure when we are done with the kitchen I will have painted the cabinets 8 times. 8 times Ferris, 8 times... Luckily Daniel is the best and has been trying his best to help between work duties. Gotta love having a husband who works from home. He is also the meticulous one and is very happy to sand down paint drips and remove dog hair. In fact, dog hair in the paint has been our biggest problem yet. **sigh**

Today marks the third and hopefully final coat for the backs of the doors and cabinet boxes.



We've got cabinet doors in just about every room of the house at the moment. I sure to envy people with large garages or basements.

Since I've got nothing else to show, how's this for a giggle?



Pug love!
Cheers!

To Paint or Not to Paint

Well it looks like my cabinets are going to take three coats not two for full coverage but hopefully that wont slow me down too much. Currently we are debating what color to paint the back door. I'm leaning towards yellow but Daniel would prefer blue or white. I grabbed some leftover paint I had laying around and tried a few options.

The teal is from the stairs and the yellow came with the house. No me gusta. I guess I need to go get some paint chips but tell me. Should I go colorful or light?

Cheers!

DIY No Sew Swimsuit Cover up

If you are on Pinterest then you have undoubtedly seen this cover up.

via 

Fabulous right? I knew I could make one but I am always cautious with sewing projects. They don't always turn out horribly but it's about 50/50. Added to that, jersey and I aren't great friends. Still I looked at their linked tutorial and figured I could do it. The only thing I didn't want to do was sew. I figured jersey doesn't need hems, why make life more difficult? So here it is. My version of the swim-suit cover up.

Materials:

• 1.75 yds jersey (I'm 5'11" and about a size 8-10 so you can scale up or down from that)
• contrasting embroidery thread
• scissors
• 10 minutes of your life. Seriously, I did this while my husband snoozed one morning.

Step 1: Lay out your fabric

Step 2: Trim down the length. This was pretty unscientific for me. I wrapped it around myself to make sure it would go all the way around and then cut down the length. I used an old sarong to measure the length but that ended up being too long still.

Step 3: Fold in half.

Step 4: Round the corners. I feel like this makes it look more professional and finished. It also makes the straps easier to cut.

Step 5: Cut out arm holes. The first time I cut them too big.

Major side boob showage. Luckily the dress was too long so I trimmed about another foot off and cut my arm holes a bit narrower. This is why jersey and I aren't friends. It is heavy and stretchy so it hangs.

Okay, so I don't look like the model but I still like the way it fits. 

As for the embroidery thread, this is an optional step but I like the way it finishes the straps. I wish I had pictures of this but I actually had to have Daniel do it. I highly suggest getting someone to help since it will make it fit better if you wrap the straps while you are wearing it (again stretchy fabric).

Obviously mine is much longer than the original but I like the length. It is more comfortable and covers a bit better. I can always shorten later if it proves too long. 

You could probably do this project for under $10 but I splurged on this fabric. The color is perfect! Just in time for our Jamaica trip next week. AAK! so soon! 

The kitchen cabinets are well on their way. We are doing the first coat of paint today. More tomorrow!

Anyone else have any fun trips coming up? They always seem to sneak up on me. 

Cheers!

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Frugal Friday