How's this for design inspiration? Just got back from 2 weeks in the Mediterranean and Rome, and was blown away by the beauty of Santorini. Makes me want to redecorate the entire house in blue and white. But with the economy, decorating's on hold 'til I pay off a couple things from the home theater project.
So for now I'll just bring out the red and green.
I'll be posting more videos from the cruise here.
While most of you are cooking today, I'm cleaning!
I'm so excited and busy getting ready for our big cruise. On our first night we celebrate our 24th anniversary. Along for the ride will be our good friends, Jim's best man (and BFF) and his wife.
I was thrilled to find a travel & photography buff's blog that featured photos of our ship, including the atrium above. Blogger Dom was so kind to let me use his photo here. (Thanks, Dom!)
Here's our itinerary below. If anyone has any tips, please leave comments! This is our first trip to this region. We had company last week, so I'm heading out today to do some shopping. Comfortable travel clothes & shoes are tops on my list!
I had to grab my camera this morning at 6:30 AM to capture this amazing sky. Hanna is on her way and I'm finally doing my hurricane prep, just in case. Hopefully it will be a BIG waste of time. We'll find out Friday morning.
Happy Labor Day weekend! I'm spending it at my favorite beach while keeping an eye on the tropics. My prayers are with everyone along the gulf coast.
Our beaches are wonderful after all the kids have gone back to school. On the way, I may stop at Marineland, the world's first oceanarium (est. 1937) and now a dolphin conservation center.
For $5, you can see feats like Sonny taking flight.
Dolly, Sonny's mom, is the world's oldest dolphin on record at 55. Doesn't she look great? She was rescued years ago after a shark attack and now lives in a special tank with another older gal.
If you visit the St. Augustine area, don't miss Marineland. And have a great weekend!
Reminds me of my days as a paid professional shopper (retail buyer). Men just don't enjoy the thrill of the hunt.
FAY UPDATE: Thursday noon
The rain and wind hit us overnight, but being in the center of the storm all day yesterday was a true blessing. St. Augustine and Jacksonville to the north got the worst part of the storm.
I went down to the beach at noon to get out of the house for a bit.
I love the beach on days like this.
It's misty, looking north - looks beautiful, doesn't it?
High tide usually doesn't come this far up the beach.
A $2 toll to get here keeps our beach quiet, even on sunny days.
Our friends who live across from the beach lost their last home to Hurricane Katrina, so they're not taking any chances.
The 8 PM advisory had her south-southeast of Daytona, back out over the ocean, and about to make a left turn for a 3rd landfall (or 4th - did Okeechobee count?) about 700 yards from my house. Or so it seems from NOAA's track. But who knows? She could change her mind again, right?
This adorable American "Pooch Idol" is not mine - I'm her aunt. Jim and I had the opportunity to adopt her, but didn't act fast enough before our good friends Jeff and Nancy fell totally in love with her.
Nancy's away, so Jeff asked me to assist him with Charlotte's debut at our club's annual Pet Parade & Contest yesterday. Even if you don't know Jeff, my YouTube video will make you ROFL.
I was going to try to resist snarky comments about this nice wholesome family event (who knew there were this many tikes in FL?) But the operative word here is "try." Maybe I'm just feeling cranky today (Restarting my pre-cruise diet, broken last Monday at the Cheesecake Factory).
Anyway... the very jovial, animal-loving MC announced that all contestants were winners, even if they might go home without a prize. But I think every pet was awarded a prize, maybe even the pelicans out over the ocean if the judges had spotted them.
What kind of self esteem boost is there in being second runner-up in a goofy pet contest? Or winning "smallest pet?" Come on!
If the audience had voted, Charlotte would have swept not only "best costume," but also "cutest pet." You could hear the Charlotte buzz - kind of like you just knew Archie was the number one Idol vote-getter, for 11 weeks.
Charlotte might have also won "best talent" for making Jeff roll over - which I thought I was filming, but had the cam on standby instead. (Which means I got a ton of footage of the ceiling while the cam was in record mode. If you shoot much video, you know what I mean).
Other than the two ponies and my friend Colleen's hunky Mr. Kitty (as BatCat), most of the other pets were pretty ho-humm. But I guess I'm glad they and their owners all feel good today.
BTW, if you enjoyed the video, you can rate it and leave comments here.
Maybe I'm moved to post this because it's Day 4 of Phase I of the South Beach Diet that. It's 2:30 and I haven't had breakfast or lunch...yet. And I feel like Princess Chunk looks.
Here's my fat boy, Ollie, 14 years old and a 20 pound diabetic.
We don't have kids, so he's pretty special (spoiled). It's hard when I take him to the vet for his blood work, because people say things like, "My, what a big cat.... and he's so handsome." I know they really mean he's just FAT. And I know they're thinking I'm a bad mom to let him get that big.
BTW, if you'd like to see MORE of 44 lb. Princess Chunk, who I'd love to adopt, here's an in-depth video from CNN.
I've just gotta keep busy. It's after noon on Day 2 of the South Beach Diet and I'm afraid to eat lunch. After seeing a side view of myself (twice!) on HGTV's Rate My Space last Thursday it was good bye, sweet carbs. Hello, turkey bacon.
It's too hot to go to the driving range 'til later, so I've been spending some time on my YouTube channel, uploading more of my video masterpieces (IOW, decluttering 2 hard drives), which I enjoy creating a lot more than my family and friends enjoy watching.
Proud geek that I am, I can't believe I never knew before that you could actually DECORATE your channel. LOL!
How do you like my digital "sample board?" YouTube is one of my favorite online "spaces."
Seemed like it would be a piece of cake (you can tell where my mind's at) to make my page there unique, especially since I've been doing web design since 1996 when it seemed the only women using the web were college students. Nevertheless, I really had to spend some time getting the background, colors, and readability I wanted. Let me know what you think!
Of course I wanted an exotic vibe. Animal print was de riguer because I love furry creatures and my Florida home is filled with animal prints and faux fur. The real fur on the left is my gorgeous hunk of feline love, Ollie...all 20 pounds of him (he claimed that rug in the foyer about 30 seconds after I laid it down a few years ago).
So I found a great free downloadable cheetah pattern created by Stephanie at Obsidian Dawn, a cool Photoshop site. If you want to use any of her work, please be sure to abide by her terms of use.
If just the thought of using Photoshop makes you want to run out for a root canal instead, download my resized-for-YouTube cheetah background here. But again, you must give Obsidian Dawn credit!
In case you're wondering, Spot , my little sweetie above, is the world's most perfect dog. He doesn't eat or poop. And you never have to walk him. But maybe I should... I need some exercise.
