The interior of the Guncles' home is quite wonderful, but it doesn't stop there! Out in the lush, tropical, Florida garden, tucked into the corner, is a rather plain looking, tent covered, metal gazebo.
If you open the flaps and peek inside, you will find that the outside is deceptive. Inside, is a dining wonderland, whose theme changes every time I visit. It is a charming, herb themed set up now, and this chandy is simply breathtaking.
Lovely!
While in Florida to celebrate our 60th birthdays with my life long buddies, I thought I should take advantage of my plane tickets and extend my trip to visit family.
First, I spent some time with Terry at Disney, then the two of us headed up to Jax to revel in the hospitality of the Guncles.
As always, the table was set with style and flair. This time, nodding to our sister trip to Animal Kingdom with a jungle setting. I should have gotten a photo of the food, but I was way, way too busy shoving it into my face as fast as I could.
Oh my goodness!
Lobster tails, BBQ Shrimp, Fish Tacos!!!
Oh my!
After my couple of days there, I felt like I waddled out, stuffed to the brim with some of the best meals I'd ever had the pleasure of being served.
All deliciousness was devoured with joy, and with the best views and company possible.
Every corner of the Guncles' home is filled with eye candy.
Whimsy abounds.
Color astounds.
Vintage goodies surround.
There is never a shortage of pretty displays to get lost in.
Thank you, Randy and Kevin, for the wonderful, welcoming time. Lots of love, lots of laughs, your home is the best!
My visit to St. Augustine was better than I even hoped it would be.
The weather was pretty dang bad the first couple of days.
And chilly after about 48 hours of thunderstorms.
So we didn't get to do the things we planned.
Hmm, not sounding great, huh?
Oh, but it was!! I met up with friends from childhood and beyond, they are lifetime friends that I rarely get to see. We made the most of the weather, wrapped ourselves in warm quilts, drank some wine, and enjoyed the view of the storms across the ocean.
We also enjoyed our never ending conversations that started when we met at the airport and flowed non-stop til I rolled my bag out to the car to leave.
It wasn't what we were doing, it was who we were doing it with that counted.
Although, we did manage to get a lot of fun activities going despite the weather.
When the sun finally came back out, we had LONG walks on the beach and hunted seaglass.
I'll leave you with a few photos of the 180 Years of Celebration trip. (all three of us were having our 60th birthdays, one in February, two in May)
I found a deal on these resin cameos, but thought they were a little too obviously resin.
So, I thought I'd age them up a bit.
I used this Martha Stewart stain, but a dark glaze would work too. Or if you were quick and careful, watered down brown paint would do.
Just brush it on, wipe it off, leaving the darker tone down in the creases and shadows. Here are some before and afters.
I was happy with the way they turned out.
Before I went on vacation for the 60th Trio of Birthdays Bash, we had a little dinner party.
Everytime I host a dinner, I tell myself that I need to buy some matching silverware. And wine glasses. Then, I never get around to doing it.
Someday.
Sugarwings was away for Easter and it sounds like she had a good trip to the west coast.
The grand fairies and Katie Tree are teaching me some circus moves! I want to master at least a couple before I turn 60 in May. Trouble is, I have a ridiculous fear of heights, and I am clumsy. They have lowered the apparatus for me, and that helps. Not with the clumsiness, though.
My son has a new farm, which will be used also as a retreat and business. He found this bubbly spring on the property, and there is a mossy heart rock by it!!
After rebuilding this section of the fence a higher so the Amazing Jumping Circus Poodle (Sugar) would stay in it, we discovered that it didn't work. She flies over any and all fences. All of our fences are being recreated as privacy fence height now. Too bad, I loved being able to look over the fence from the windows and enjoy my yard. Now, they will be too tall.
But at least I'll still have a dog. An expensive dog, we have a ton of fence to redo!!
My sister, Bobbie, is hugely into genealogy and has a wonderful collection of old photos. Recently, she posted this delightful one of our great grandmother and her sister. (I edited it to clean up some of the age spots)
(Here is the original scan)
This is one of those pictures that I would have squealed loudly about if I'd found it in an antique shop, it will be beautiful to work with. But to know that these girls are actually relatives??
Wow.
I am thrilled to have it.
I saved it in a tinted version too.
Funny, when it was posted, facial recognition asked if we wanted to tag either me, Sissy, or her daughter, Shelli. Apparently there is a family resemblance?
Possibly in the shape of the faces. I find facial recognition fascinating. It seems to measure bone structure, distance between eyes, etc, not sticking to a passing similarity from hair color or style.
Bobbie also had this photo of our great grandmother (center) with our grandma (left) and her sister (right).
I brightened it up a bit too. I hope to do something with this one for our annual sister trip to the beach in October. I just wish I had that beach bag to take with me.
Thanks, Bobbie! I love the photos.
Two lifetime friends of mine are meeting me in St. Augustine to celebrate our 60th birthdays together for a few days on the beach. So, I created some beachy themed jewels as gifts for them each.
These are for Debbie, who is into hiking and nature. I thought it was beachy, with earthier elements.
Each piece goes with the others, but doesn't match exactly. I find matchy-matchy jewelry too much. Colors and styles that coordinate are more my preference. This set has chalcedony, aquamarine, labradorite, mother of pearl, pearl, jade, moonstone, amazonite, and jasper. I am not sure what the larger, pendant piece is. Does anyone know?
The soft blues are for Sandy, who says blue is her favorite color. I've used lots of amazonite, aquamarine, pearl, and larimar. Gotta love larimar for the ocean!
Oh, there is also some kyanite, that is a new one for me, and I fell in love with them at the gem show. These reminded me of blue moonstones. They are the oval shaped ones on the silver earrings.
Planning and a anticipating a trip can be as much fun as going there, and I loved choosing special beads for my long time buddies.
My husband's favorite tree fell down. The "Grandfather Tree" lived on the other side of our creek, on the edge of the woods. It is the tree that the grandfairies walked to with him, to hear his stories about our family's history.
When it fell over in a big storm, we decided to salvage the wood (oak) to make a table for our dining room. We found a guy who could slice it up, but that was complicated, and we had to first have another tree guy out to cut the main trunk and place it on the ground to make it easier to approach.
My husband loves playing with a chainsaw, more than about anything. But this thing was waaayyy too big for his saw, this required a pro.
It will also require a mill to cut it up further and a kiln to dry it. Months later, we will have the pieces to build our table.
Of course, before that, it has to go across the creek…. Yes, the pieces are as heavy as they look….
It took 6 people with those appliance dolly straps on to lift one onto the trailer. We are transporting them to my son's farm to store and age, one at a time, that is all the trailer will hold. The weather turned cold and rainy after this one was moved, we will have to wait for a dryer time to move the rest. Plus my boy is just moving into his new place this week and is busy getting settled and working on projects there.
This is the table I have now, which I've been pretty happy with, but we regularly have dinners for at least 10 people and it isn't big enough. I've been thinking about getting a rustic, farmhouse table for the room, something long and narrow. At least 10'. (this is an old photo, the room is different now, this was the best one I could find of the table itself, it can seat 10, but we often need 11, and 10 is slightly crowded)
The style of table I had in mind was more of a repurposed, old wood in planks. But now that we have this, sentimental hunk of oak, I need to decide what to do with it. It is worth more as is, and is almost a shame to cut it into boards. So, do I want to have it milled to become wide planks, or do I want to leave it as is and have a live edge?
We could trim it up, something like this.
Either way I decide, I want to find old legs to use. But man, they will have to be STURDY! Although, that might not look as good with the slab top, I might need to consider a bit.
And I want it light. Maybe a pickled stain? White or gray rubbed in, wiped off, then sealed with a mat finish. When we began discussing this, I started a pinterest board with a few ideas, and none of them are quite right. But still kind of helpful. I'm still pondering, and need to make a decision before we move the slabs across the creek. It would be easier to move them if we cut them first. If we are leaving the slabs as is, the process will be harder. One definitely stays as is, our son is building a table for his new farm from one of them. We have 5 slabs, total, so there is plenty to go around, and he is going to build my table too.
Here is another photo of the existing table, that I found from Christmas time. 8 fits nicely, you can see how 10 can be a squeeze.
The style of the room will be changing, with the new table, but I'm ready for a change. A bit of roughness will compliment the stone of the fireplace we built a couple years ago.
EDIT- We have come to a decision! We will have an 11' x 35" slab, with the edges cut off for our table. For a desk in my husband's office, he will have live edge on the outside of the slab.
At my latest trip to the gem show, I was thrilled to find opal beads! I've always admired opals, but the beads had been elusive on my hunts. This time, I found a few strands, and at very reasonable prices.
My only problem was that very few of them fit onto head pins to make into jewelry. I think they were meant for stringing, and that isn't in my set of skills.
These tiny beads could be a reason to learn how, though.
The handful that fit onto the pins were immediately turned into a necklace for myself, along with moonstone, pearl, beryl, and rose quartz. All of my favorite pale shades of pink and cream, with a hint of fire and opalescence were gathered together to make this piece to wear on my beach vacation next week.
I also made a bracelet for myself, all in white, cream, and clear. There were Herkimer Diamonds at the gem show, and at first, I made up a bracelet full of them. Then, realized that those guys are SHARP. So, I remade it, with just a couple of dangles with those stones. I'll have to come up with a design for a necklace with some, because I'd like to use more of them.
While my tools were out, I turned some Herkimers into earrings for a friend's April birthday. And Kyanite with labradorites for Kia, and just laboradites for Avahni. I'm taking those two teens on a cruise for my birthday, along with the two littlest grandfairies and wanted them to have some beachy colored jewels to wear.
Plus, kyanites for Kia!!?? Of course.
I hope you had a good holiday! Ours was sure nice, but quiet. Well, it was quiet for me, but busy for the guys.
This girl decided she didn't need a fence, so she gracefully leaps over them. Only to get out to follow us, never to run off. But we didn't want to take any chances, so the fence pickets had to be replaced with taller ones, on Saturday.
Then on Sunday, we found her flying over the new height.
Did you know that Home Depot was open on Easter? We picked up another load of taller pickets, to raise the entire fence to the level of a privacy fence. If that doesn't keep her in, we are in trouble.
Thank you to everyone who bought one of my floral, sugared eggs! I went a bit berserk making them…. they were so fun, I couldn't stop and ended up with a couple dozen.
Now that Easter is over, there are still some available. If you'd like one, they are half price now. Just purchase (full price) and I will send a refund for half of the amount when I ship the package. And please remember, I do refund excess shipping costs too. Sometimes the Boutique shipping amounts can total up pretty high, so after I weigh the package, I send a refund to the buyer.
You can find the Sugared Eggs here: