A Few More Florida Trip Pics

Hi everyone,

How is your Sunday going?

We are back home from our trip to Florida.  While it's always nice to get away, it feels oh so wonderful to be back home!  We have been so lucky this year weather wise here in Michigan. We returned to temps in the low 60's, which is unheard of for February!

Sadly, it didn't last long, but we are still well above average, and no snow, which is fine with me!

So today, I thought I'd share with you a few more photos of our trip.

Isn't this statue amazing?  It is right near the marina in downtown Sarasota.

If I hadn't been standing in front of it, you might not be able to tell just how huge it is!

It's a recreation of the famous photograph that was taken in New York City, the day WWII ended.

The details are just incredible!  If you look closely, you will even see the seams of the nurses pantyhose!

This sign tells a bit more about it.

Hubby and I joked that it appears there never was a recession in Sarasota!

One look at all of the boats and yachts at the marina,  impressive and elegant high rises and condos, (which are still being built everywhere you look), and plenty of fancy sports cars makes for one glitzy city!

We did not stay in Sarasota.  Unfortunately, the city we were in (which I will not name, to be nice!!)

was, lets just say, much less appealing!!

I snapped the photo of the tree, below near the waterfront in Sarasota.  Not sure what kind it is, but I couldn't get over those crazy roots.  It made me think of banyan trees in Hawaii.

We ran into a group of fellow mid westerners who took our pic.  

Katie was having a good time!!

The last few photos were taken in Lido Key, which is right outside of Sarasota.
They were taken by hubby's son, who came down for the weekend to visit us, along with his girlfriend and hubby's grandson.
Aren't these pups just the cutest??!!!
It's not every day that you see a bunch of cute fluffy little dogs riding along in the sidecar of a motorcycle!!
You can't see them all, but there are five pups!
They were Maltese, and just so darn cute!
The man stopped along the sidewalk, and drew quite a crowd.  His pups are therapy dogs, and he and his wife take them for hospital visits.  His wife was walking around town with two more Maltese.

It was Valentine's Day, and they were all decked out for the occasion!

 I wanted to take them all home!

Thanks so much for stopping by today, hope your week is a good one!

Retail Therapy, Coastal Style!

Hi everyone,

We're enjoying the last bit of warm temps here in Florida, before we head home.

The town of Venice quickly became a favorite of mine.  It was about an hour drive from us.  I would have loved just staying there the entire trip!

It's right on the Gulf, and the beaches are amazing.  In town you will find many beautiful upscale shops (read: expensive!!).

The home decor stores all had a wonderful beachy/coastal vibe that I loved so much.

Wouldn't you just love to take a bubble bath in this incredible shell encrusted clawfoot tub? 

 I was drooling over these aqua tinted starfish!

At $10 a piece, I had to pass them up, though!!

 Plenty of mermaids!

 Venice of course has many Italian themed restaurants and shops, as well as Italian named streets.

The shop below was filled to the brim with beautiful ceramics, straight from Italy.  It made hubby and I think of our trip to the Amalfi Coast 1 1/2 years ago.

 More coastal treasures.

 And another one of my favorite stores.

Notice the pink wood shutters on either side of their window?

 And this adorable pink bike with the basket and flowers made me smile!

 Gorgeous glass hearts.

 I was totally drooling over the shell covered creations. Everything from lamps, picture frames, urns, mirrors and furniture was embellished with them!  Love!

 Sorry for the blurry photo, below.  I just had to show you this gorgeous mirror.  Notice the crystal chandelier in its reflection?  Wow!

 Sweet stone cherubs and oh so soft drool worthy linens.

 Shabby Coastal Chic!!

 The ruffles make me happy!

 And looking out on the main street of down town, Venice Ave.  Cloudless blue skies and the tallest palm trees made for a wonderful day!

Thanks so much for joining me on my little outing!

Easter Shadow Box Project

Hi everyone, how is your week going?

Ok, so I do realize that Easter is still more than a month away.

But, for those of us who love to create, well, we often tend to jump ahead of the calendar, right?

I do have a valid excuse, though, as this is my latest project for DecoArt!  

DecoArt was requesting Easter themed projects, so I couldn't resist the chance to make something fun and spring like!

Sometimes inspiration comes just from walking thru the isles the craft store.  Other times it's searching for neat ideas on Pinterest.  And yet others just seem to pop into my head!

So with that, I'll share with you my Easter shadow box project.

 I found this neat wood shadow box with a pretty laser cut frame at Michael's.  I knew right away that it would be the basis for my project!

 Then I had another brainstorm!  I picked up these little wood banner cut outs, also at Michael's

I began by painting the frame and outside of the box in the prettiest light green, called "Pistachio".

One easy way to get more mileage out of your paints 

(and keeps you running to the store to buy yet another color!) is to mix several colors together to create a multitude of shades!  So for a little contrast, I mixed some of the green with a bit of white "Snowball" to make a slightly lighter shade of green, and used it to paint the inner edges of the box.

 I also painted the little wood pennants in both shades of green, as well as a pretty "Baby Pink".

Again, for another shade of pink, I mixed it with a little white to create a paler pink for some of the other pennants.

 I love adding little polka dots to my projects.  So I decided to add them to the edges of each pennants, just for fun.  It was easy peasy!  Just dip the end of a small paint brush, or even the eraser end of a pencil into your paint to create the dots (I used white).

 To each pennant I added adhesive alphabet stickers to spell out "Happy Easter".

You can't tell from my photos, but the letters have just a bit of sparkle 

(because you know just how much I love glitter!)

 I then added the pennants to two lengths of jute twine.

To the inside of my shadow box, I decoupaged a piece of vintage sheet music

(I guess you could say sheet music is one of my signature looks!)

 Then the real fun began!  Assembling my box!

I found this darling little Easter bunny at Hobby Lobby.  Isn't he just the cutest?  He is foil wrapped, giving him the appearance of chocolate (but don't try to eat him, he's decorative only!!)

I also added this sweet spray of pastel colored eggs.

 And the cutest little nest with eggs, also from Hobby Lobby.

 I had so much fun with this project!

 It makes me want to create more for different holidays and seasons!

 I hot glued all of my embellishments in place.  But, if you just placed them inside the box, you could swap them out with the seasons, using the same box again and again for different looks.

Hope that inspires you to create something fun!

Greetings From Sunny Florida!

Hi everyone!  How has your week been?

We are taking a little break from winter (though it's been pretty mild back home in Michigan) and are in Florida right now.

We took a day trip today to Venice, and it was just gorgeous.

I was so happy to find a dog friendly beach (not a common thing here, it seems), and the three of us walked forever.

 Katie had a blast, and we had fun collecting lots of shells.  Notice the bulge in my pocket?  It's filled with shells!)

 It was a beautiful and sunny day, not a cloud in the sky.  A "cold front" just moved in, highs are supposed to be in the low 60's for the next several days.  That is fine with me!  For us mid westerners, that constitutes a heat wave!

 Downtown Venice was full of lots of amazing shops.

And mermaids, too:)

Gee, I sure wish I really had a figure this shapely!

Well, except for the tail:)

 Katie couldn't resist getting in on the fun, too!

That's it for today!  Looking forward to seeing what you all have been up to!