Progress

Slowly but surely this kitchen will get done.

I've gotten back on the cabinet painting bandwagon and am making slow but steady progress. I've been using the guest bed as a painting zone to keep things relatively free of hair but it makes for slow going.

Also, the door hardware came in and I can't wait to show you what we went with (hopefully end of this week). It was probably my biggest non essential splurge.

We also did some floor shopping.

The only thing holding us back is color. The color is fairly accurate in this (maybe a little red) so you can see what we are dealing with. We both agree that the first small sample (middle left) is the closest to the color of the floor in the rest of the house however neither of us are really in love with the color of the floor. So the big debate is do we really think we will ever get around to staining the floor and if that is the case should we pick a different color for the cork? We both like the natural color (on top) but it feels a bit too modern for our space. I really like the lower right but it just doesn't go with the floor we have now and I'm not sold on redoing all of our flooring just to match the kitchen. What do you think?

Anyone else making these kinds of life altering decisions? I know, who knew something like flooring could be so difficult to choose.

Cheers!

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