Showing posts with label Florida. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Florida. Show all posts

Thursday, August 18, 2011

Home.Home.Home.


THIS is why people come home from vacation..... ahhhhh....

Your own bed. 

In your own house. 

With your own stuff. 

Yes, indeed.



Lest you think that my room is neat and sparse and clean and stuff....  here's the view from another angle. 

And I'm proud of myself - I actually cleaned the bookshelves less than 3 months ago.  

What you CAN'T really see here is that the book shelves line an entire wall in my bedroom-- let's just be happy the man took HIS four or five bookshelves worth of Philosophy materials to his office, m'kay?--and are stuffed with a rag-tag assortment of pictures, bits and bobs, jewelery, a dried pirhana (really!), the horse emblem from my husband's old MustangII named 'Bob' (the car, not the horse), mini hudu shaped rocks from Utah, a multitude of glasses from the kitchen (probably I oughta gather them up and like, wash them or something...) and other sundry things that probably shouldn't be there. 

But it's a small room and a huge bed, so it's what I have.

I've also purposely neglected to show my sweetum's dresser, which is usually (and currently) piled high with bits of paper, cables, legos, art projects, coins, and other manly things. Piled to the point of toppling off onto the floor. But really, it's the only space he makes a mess of, so I'm not complaining.

But I'm not photographing it, either.


And!  For your viewing pleasure! 

An assortment of the shells I brought back from Florida.... washed and arranged oh-so-lovely-like around my coffeemaker with views of the hideous-hated countertop that will YAY disappear this week with a kitchen remodel.  O.M.G. I can NOT wait...  

Yeah.  I know.  It's a lot of shells.  I should add that this is only about 1/4 of my haul.  In fact, I filled 4 gallon sized Ziploc bags and had to buy an extra suitcase.

For shells.

No kidding.

I can't help it.  I see a beach, and I feel like an heiress in a jewelery store.  Oooooh!  Pretty!



Shark's teeth and part of a horseshoe crab...

The shark's teeth hunting is AMAZING at Manasota Beach. 

Better than Venice Beach, which is crazy famous for shark's teeth. 

Better than Casperson's Beach.  Bettter than ANYWHERE. 

Seriously.  This is just from ONE DAY.  And only mine. 

My husband has decided that our finds shall NOT mingle, and has stolen his away.... ???? 

Weird.  He'll share his drink with me, but not his shark teeth.... SUCH a Florida boy.



Ah, the lowly cockles and clams... still beautiful.  Love them. 




And I'm somehow quite adept at finding bones on the beach... these are mostly bird bones (hollow), but the largest one is not a bird, although I don't know what it is, and there's a bit of a back bone there on the left, although I don't know from whom... s'ok.  I still like them.


Lettered Olives and Spiny Oysters and a few calico scallops.  So sweet.


Top left:  Murex.  Murexes?  Murexii?  I haven't a clue what the plural is... Anyone?

...but my Aunt C and I used to find these pretty infrequently at the Nokomis North Jetty when my Grandmother lived there, so it was nice to find a bunch of them.  Even if they aren't perfect.  They are still lovely.

Top Middle:  Shark Eye Moonsnails, some little Augers, broken Florida Conchs (used to find whole ones ALL the time, alas, not so much anymore) and a few others.


A couple of lightning whelks (again, used to find TONS of these), Turkey Wings on the bottom right, the stripe bits... those are Banded Tulip peices. 

The Elusive Banded Tulip... My absolutest favoritest thing to find EVAH. 

Again, that's thanks to Aunt C... I DO have a few whole ones from years gone by, but this time, I searched and searched and searched some more, and could only come up with pieces. 

Sigh. 

One of these days, though... I'll find another one.


And finally, some lovely coral bits.  I kept thinking that I need to find a way to somehow assemble them into one piece of coral... and then of course, I decided to crochet them together.

We'll see how that works out.



Plenty of Florida fun remains in my camera.... But for now, I have to get ready for the kitchen remodel.

Did I mention that the kitchen will be remodeled?

Did I?

Because I'm a little excited....

I freaking HATE my kitchen.  It's hideous.

I'll post pics so you can hate on it too.  And you will.  Oh, you WILL....

But that will wait until tomorrow.

/Julianna


Sunday, August 7, 2011

IRB to Terra Ceia to Sarasota to Lido Key

Greetings from Sunny Florida!


The Sunshine Skyway Bridge.



We climb an ancient mound of Oyster Shells and Burials at Madira Bickel Mound. In awe.


Truly lovely and peaceful, were it not for the Mosquitos. Ow.


I think Miss Havisham lives here.


US Post Office, Terra Ceia, Florida, est. 1830



On the bayfront at New College, Sarasota. My sweetie's undergrad Alma Mater.






The mansion of Charles Ringling, of Ringling Brothers Circus fame, and what served as the LIBRARY when my husband was in college. Can you IMAGINE studying with all this beauty around???





More Ringling/New College



She is beautiful, isn't she?



From this angle, too...






Front of the Charles Ringling Mansion. The pink Marble is really something.



One last shot of the Pink Marble.

Tomorrow... A crocheted pebble/Florida Conch for a friend.

/J

Thursday, August 4, 2011

A Few Pics From Today


Although my husband is from here (close enough, anyway), and I'm here with family who live here, I think this photo makes me a tourist. Oh, well. Crabby Bills, Indian Rocks Beach, Florida.




Tonight's sunset....




...Followed immediately by moonrise and some serious colors.

Getting all Hipstamatic up in here.

Will resume with the pebbling in a day or two... Stay tuned...

/Julianna

Location:Indian Rocks Beach, Florida

Tuesday, August 2, 2011

Indian Rocks Beach, Florida II

Another gorgeous day...





Another lovely sunset, and a good time for a Pebbling...







She was a pretty one, too...







Left in the sand...







...near 8th Avenue.

Did YOU find it???

If you did, Please take a moment to sign the guestbook and tell us! We'd love to hear from you! Click the "Sign the Guestbook" link at the top right of this page!

/Julianna

Sunday, July 31, 2011

Indian Rocks Beach, Florida I


At first glance, an astute observer would notice the Great Blue Heron in this picture (can't miss him, really, and on closer observation, this guy was a hot mess, with the avian equivalent of mange or something equally hideous), but what I'm really showing is the utter lack of pebbles and/or shells of usable size for the Project.

Sigh.

But, not to fear... I had the foresight to bring along a small assortment of Curious Pebbles from home, which I had planned to give them to friends along the way. But, after two days of shell seeking for suitable bits to crochet and leave on the beach, all I've found is a rather too large Pen Shell. It's a foot long. I don't have that kind of time, and actually, I think I'd like to keep it... I know. I'm selfish.

So.

Pebbles pre-made in California, with California pebbles, it is.

My friends will have to forgive me.

And here is installment numero uno:




Pebble number one...




Left on the beach between 6th and 7th streets on Indian Rocks Beach.

Did you find it???




If YOU found it, please sign the guestbook and tell us what you think! We (as in, Me, and my utter scads -hahahaha!- of followers) would love to hear from you!

I'm posting from my phone, and it's easier to ask that you click the Guestbook link up on the top right of the page than insert some HTML code... Sorry.... Me being selfish again, I suppose...

There were also these lovely pics today:



A Piece of what appeared to be a red, white & blue striped sea plant. How very American of it....




The view from what I'll just pretend is my forever-house... Even though we're only here for a week....




An Ibis on the shore doin' his Ibis thing.




My boy. He was with his Grandmother and Grandfather in Ohio for THREE WEEKS, and I missed the Dickens out of him... I'm so happy to have him back, that I can't stop taking pictures of my monkey.

Silly mommy.

Stay tuned.... More pebbling to come in the next few days!

/Julianna

Thursday, July 28, 2011

Off to far-flung places, again!








Oh, my... It's happening again.

Another cross-country flight with Ziplock full of crochet thread.

I had BIG pebbling plans, as we are heading to a beach house at Indian Rocks Beach near Clearwater, Florida--- big plans that is, until my sweetums reminded me that Florida doesn't really have the pebbles I need.

I knew that. I just conveniently forgot, ok?

Seriously, I spent weeks of each year of my life beachcombing the Gulf Coast of Florida. I have made more tchotchkes out of shells than I should really admit to, and still have bags and boxes stashed away.

I even have a very cool shark's teeth shadow-box that I made hanging in my bathroom. Literally hundreds of teeth, a few of which are the giant, pre-historic kind. Remind me to post a pic of that when I get home. It's awesome. No lie.

But until then... The question remains: with no pebble-pebbles, just what WILL I make sweaters for and leave on the beach?

Stay tuned.

'Cause really, it will be a surprise for me, as well...

Sand Dollars? Florida Conchs? Elusive Banded Tulips?

I have NO idea....