Reusing old album mats for some springtime pretties
holiday decor, vintage paper/collage art, wallpaper 
These are pretty beat up, but I think they could be used to make some lovely Easter collages.
Don’t you?
March 2022
St Augustine Seashell Fairies and Gnomes
Dew Drop, dogs, fairies, family, Food and Drink, sea shell fairies, Sugarwings, Travel
You have to love the beaches of St Augustine, and well, just everything about that city.
Technically, I guess it was Butler Beach, a tad south of town. The dogs needed to be on leashes, which wasn’t quite as much fun for them, but the place is soooo pretty, we adore being there.
Shelling for fairies wasn’t as easy as our previous stop, but I managed to wrangle a few sprites into shape to place on the beach our last day.
Tide was coming in soon after these were made. My husband asked to see the fairies, and as we walked over to them, they slipped out into the waves.
He said he’d always been confused by why I spend so much time hunting for the shells to make something that has no permanence, but now got it. That it was the joy of creation, not the creation itself. I don’t think those were his exact words, but it was a sweet conversation, however he phrased it.
It has been pointed out to me, that this gal has three boobs.
hmmm
Not what I was going for, but I sure see it now. I just thought it was a pretty gown with a ruffled bodice. Her striped socks are my favorite part, they look like pieces of the same shell but were found at opposite ends of the shoreline.
One thing I appreciate about this area is the long, flat stretches of sand. Ideal for walking. And there is a “road” along the back where you can drive, so we bring our truck with all of our paraphernalia for the day. We can easily haul a tent, chairs, and coolers to settle in and spend an afternoon.
And I have never seen it too busy. The weather wasn’t perfect, but even when it is, it hasn’t been crowded when we have visited.
After living in a 19’ RV with four dogs for a few weeks, we decided to find an Airbnb while our boy, Dewdrop, and her mother came to see us. It was sorta last minute, so we took what we could get. And we got pretty lucky with this spacious, new house.
I was sold when I saw photos of the fence. What a luxury to just open a door to let dogs out, after being in an RV park and needing leashes!
Oh, and the pool was a bonus.
I already mentioned that our weather was less than perfect, but the grand fairies still spent time out there. Then they’d run to the hot shower and I’d have warm towels waiting for them in the dryer. So the pool wasn’t wasted, even if we couldn’t enjoy it as much as we’d like.
Renting the house was a good move, I cannot imagine what our trip would’ve been like in hotels or another, smaller rental we’d looked at. This one had spacious areas and a covered porch. We sat on the patio while it rained to drink our coffee in the mornings, and it felt very vacationy.
The house was around the corner from some cool, but swampy walking trails. I doubt if I’d take dogs over there on warmer days when gators are active.
We were right down the street from the beach access too. Now, would I have preferred a home with the surf as a backyard?
Well, dur.
But- this one was close. We could zip down quickly between rain spurts if we wanted. And that fence for the dogs? Such a pleasant thing to have when you are crazy enough to travel for five weeks with four mutts.
Most of the trip, we avoided big crowds. Except that rainy Saturday when we, like the rest of the spring breakers thought they’d put on raincoats and go visit the historic downtown. But even then, we avoided the biggest rush of them by looking for a place to eat on side alleys, not the main road, George St. We also took a drive north to Vilano Beach to go to a place that didn’t have a two hour wait like most places in town. I guess I’ve spent enough time in the area to know the ins and outs and avoid the most touristy spots.
You never know when you plan a trip what weather you’ll get. All you can do is hope for the best and be flexible, look for fun where you can. We had planned a big day kayaking out on a crystal spring, but had to cancel. We even scoured the weather map looking for a break in the clouds within a couple hours of driving time.
Nope, no weather break for us. We hunkered down and made the most of our time.
Enjoyed the beach when we could, went to the seafood market and cooked, played games, and just enjoyed each other.
Fresh, local food to cook together, lots of long walks and giggles. It was a great visit, even if I was wearing a raincoat.
Seashell fairies and hearts at Walton Rocks Dog Beach
dogs, Dorkies (Yorkshire Terrriers), fairies, sea shell fairies, Travel
Our first beach stop on the never ending zig zag of a trip was Ft Pierce, which I’d never been to.
I will have to admit that Ft Pierce isn’t high on my list of cities that I love in Florida. But- this trip was about the dogs, and the dog beach there was off leash, which isn’t always easy to find (Jupiter and Ft De Soto also have off leash beaches, and those are spectacular, but we couldn’t get reservations nearby).
The KOA we stayed at was new and quite nice. So, yes, I guess this city was a good place to be.
And while the beach wasn’t the powder sugar of Siesta Key, that I love so much, the shelling was just my style. HEARTS galore!
And so many broken bits and bobs to make into fairies and a mermaid. These are not the typical shapes of shells that most people look for on the beach, there weren’t a lot of perfectly pretty shells. Because the shore was a bit rocky, the waves beat up stones and shells to create the ideal pieces for the kind of things I like to find on beaches.
I did happy dances up and down the shore, finding hearts everywhere I went. On many beaches, my main hold up in piecing together a fairy is often the head. I look for smoothed out, oval shapes and they usually are the last part to find. Some fairies take an entire week of shelling in certain cities, others come together quickly, like the three that I made in Ft Pierce.
There were hearts up by the parking lot too.
While I say that Ft Pierce isn’t my favorite city to go to, I reckon I should weigh my needs. For that week, and what we wanted, it was ideal. Lots of space for dogs to run and play, heart shapes and fairy pieces everywhere, plus a clean new campground to park our tiny home on wheels.
So yep, maybe I do love Ft Pierce? The town itself is a bit on the low end of the tourist scale, but there are nearby cities to run to if I needed to pick anything up. This is not a place I’d go to stay at a hotel on the shore with family, but for what we wanted, it couldn’t be better.
We could walk forever and be mostly alone with the dogs.
And an ocean view, is always a precious thing to have.
Other cities might have softer sand and less rocks, but being able to let four dogs run and play in the surf, to walk for miles without crowds, and to have a view of the crashing waves as we strolled?
Priceless.
Gideon’s Bakeshop and a Jam Packed Disney day
family, flowers, Food and Drink, Travel
We had a whirlwind trip through Orlando. No, more than that, it was like a Kansas tornado going through!
There wasn’t a lot of stopping to enjoy the flowers during our one day at the parks, but our evening before and morning after were pretty mellow.
The visit was a later add on to our trip, we had planned on being home about then. But, Sugarwings was starting spring break, and her dad offered to meet us in Florida, so we flew the grand fairy on their very first solo flight and met the brave kid (who did just fine) in Orlando.
And if you know me, you might have noticed there is something about Orlando that I just love. Yep, I indulged myself with a Disney visit. We camped at Ft Wilderness, on an off and on rainy couple of days. The temps were warm, and we had ponchos, plus the rain thins out crowds so we were just fine. The pool was practically empty, and not a single other person was in line at the food truck we went to.
Terry met us at Epcot and the frenzy began the next morning with an early entry for resort guests. And man, did we ever hit the ground running. We “rope dropped” (going to the most popular rides early before lines got to be hours long) then between Terry’s and my booking skills and Disney knowledge, we became power mad. Scheduling and layering ride reservations faster than a bluebird can find a Princess who just broke into song.
Seriously, we over did it. Our prowess in maneuvering ourselves out of standing in lines had us pushing ourselves to the limit to ride every single thing we could at Epcot then buy a park hopper pass over to Magic Kingdom.
Now, I am not saying I didn’t enjoy our adventure, it was amazing! But in retrospect, it might have been slightly crazy to start at 8 am and go to midnight, non stop.
We had a blast.
And we stopped when the kiddo wanted to, Terry and I enjoyed sitting while Sugarwings explored some areas. It wasn’t complete competition to set a record for most rides rode in one day. Terry hung in with us til evening, and I was skeptical about staying ourselves, we had a few moments of exhausted irritation, but we rallied, snacked, and kept rolling. I’m glad we did. Late nights at Magic Kingdom, when the crowds thin after the fireworks are pretty, well, magical.
There was very little shopping til the rides closed at 11pm, and stores stayed open til midnight. But we aren’t there for souvenirs.
(By the way, the two little buildings on each side of the castle, make for ideal photo ops)
Here is our breakdown:
Over 25 rides
Over 33,000 steps
16 hours
2 parks
And yes, I woke up slightly tired the next morning. But we had some time to spend between when we had to leave the campground, drive to St Augustine and check into our rental house.
Disney Springs has RV parking around back, and seemed like a good place to while away an hour or so.
It was still early, and Gideon’s Bakeshop was just opening, already with a 30 minute wait. Later it becomes so long that they take your name and call you back, sometimes hours later. Really? Hours to wait for a cookie?!
Oh, but it is quite wonderful inside.
Quite.
Since we avoided lines all day at the parks, I figured 30 minutes for a cookie wasn’t bad.
I would show you the cookies, but they were so good, they disappeared before I got a photo.
If you get a chance, you should get one. And one to share is probably plenty because they are 1lb each.
New friends. No, frien-emies, I think.
Travel
We rented clear kayaks to float down Silver Springs with Terry and Dale, our adventure partners from last fall’s Marco Island trip.
The river was magical.
This is my view through the bottom of my boat.
We got to see wildlife everywhere, including the mating dance of these birds whose names I have forgotten.
Because my view of them was interrupted after realizing that there was a little gator right in front of us, in that floating grassy area. My attention was quickly taken away from the birds to this tiny monster.
That was just the first of many we paddled by that day.
We saw what seemed like dozens of cute turtles in many varieties (I like the last guy’s orange tummy), and a couple of manatees too.
There were pretty little dragonflies, and lots of herons.
But I think that staring into the eyes of an 8’ gator was the highlight of my day.
Glass bead bracelets
jewelry, Travel
As much as I enjoy our camper, I have to have something to do other than sit by a bonfire. So, I brought along some embroidery as a craft that didn’t take up much space and wasn’t messy.
Embroidery, or “painting with thread” can keep me entertained, but when Randy offered me a box of glass beads he got from a garage sale, I scooped them up and wove some bracelets.
Aren’t there some beauties?
I thought they looked like mermaid colors.
My sister Bobbie is visiting Florida too, when I went to see her, I took her one of them, and we both wore the mermaid wraps as ankle bracelets.
There were brown and black wooden beads that I whipped up into something for Randy. But the leather I had was too thin, so I braided it first.
Which ended up being a pretty cool look.
RV Life is Better When Things are Pretty
cottage, dogs, Dorkies (Yorkshire Terrriers), redos, sewing?
When we first got to Florida, the beach was a little chilly, but since then the weather has been ideal.
And I am so happy that I cozied up the little camper with new linens, paint and curtains.
Dorothy likes it too.
The other dogs like their new bunk bed/kennel that we created for them.
My only issue is in trying to hang the artwork I brought along. Command hooks didn’t support them, even though they are lightweight. I did figure out that a binder clip on the ugly valance will hold a picture over the windows, but I can’t get anything to work on the walls.
I’d also like to get rid of those ugly valances, but that’s another day.
New curtains cover the top bunk, and I ordered cushion covers for the top pillows on the bench. Now, they aren’t exactly my first choice in fabric, but they are what I could get and they are better than just plain dark brown.
This is the door we made to turn the bottom bunk bunk bed into a dog crate. My husband had to do some rebuilding and boosting the opening to make the door fit snugly and securely. I am so glad he did, what a helpful addition to camper life.
One change that was important to me, was covering the inside of the glass doors so that I don’t have to look at all of our stored goods. What a simple fix for something that irritated me every time we used the rv. I cut foam core to fit and wrapped it into the curtain fabric, then attached it to the interior of the windows.
I am much happier without the cluttery view of peanut butter, cracker boxes, and stacks of dishes.
The sea glass blue paint in the bathroom has made a world of difference to me. The previous blah brown wall paper was a downer.
So was the icky brown shower curtain. This one is put together (I wouldn’t call what I do real sewing) from curtains my sister gave to me when she redecorated.
We use the campground bath houses instead of our teensy shower, so I made use of the space by transforming it into a closet. If I do ever need to use it as intended, it’s pretty simple just to move the stuff out again, nothing is permanent.
Because in a 19’ trailer with four dogs, you need to make use of every inch!
The pups can fill the space quickly.
But mostly we are out doors as much as we can be.
Going for walks or running on the beach.
The dogs love the beach as much as I do.
Steampunk Vintage Violins
guncles, how to's, Travel, vintage paper/collage art
This could be one of my all time favorite projects. Randy had a violin he wanted to possibly modpodge, but then we got to talking and thinking and planning and brainstorming and getting excited and going through his stashes and well, it blossomed.
He had so much cool stuff to work with! Some was from sister, Terry, who sent him the gears and such, some was goodies he’d been collecting.
We painted the violin black then glued down some lace for texture and painted it too.
Next we picked out what we wanted to add to it, painted those bits and bobs all black too, including some small frames we placed vintage photos in, then covered in paper glaze.
The mat black (chalk paint, so no priming was needed) was very stark, and needed some dimension, so I dry brush silver over the high points of each item.
Once everything was all glued into place, it got aged with more dry brushing of a bronze mixed with sepia (acrylic craft paint).
The brown/bronze really topped it off. (The white is wet glue that will dry clear)
We loved making this so much, we couldn’t wait to start another! This time, ivory with the addition of some sheet music. I still used the gears, frames, keys, etc, but also embellished it with some vintage rhinestone jewels and pearls that I had with me.
Because who doesn’t travel across country in an RV with four dogs and not bring vintage sparklies to craft with?
Hello from Guncleland!
guncles, Travel
We are zig zagging around Florida and visiting Guncles between other adventures. They have been kind enough to let us park our camper in their driveway, fill up their four dog house with our four dogs too, and feed us great seafood meals!
Plus crafting, did I mention crafting?!? THE BEST PROJECT EVER!
And the boys have taken turns visiting us at the campground in St Augustine too.
At the moment (and actually throughout the visit) my internet hasn’t been that great, but I have a little window now where it’s cooperating. So I thought I’d slip in some quick pics of how pretty their house looks, all decorated for a fancy, fancy, foo foo Parisienne styled dinner they served us.
More later when I get another opportunity.
