Showing posts with label Vacation. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Vacation. 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....

Saturday, July 9, 2011

The Search for Pebbles at the Muskingum River


Ah, the Muskingum River.  River of my dreams.  River of my Home. 

Maybe not the stuff of love songs or Hollywood movie franchises, but certainly the river of my memory.


This is the Bridge. The one my school bus (and later, my own car)
went over twice a day. I know this bridge like the back of my hand.

It is the Muskingum that lazes through my hometown.  The river that my school bus crossed every day on the way to Middle and High School.  The river that fed Zanesville's Art Pottery boom in the early 20th century.  The river that I return to.  Always.


This trip was no exception, and I had a mission.

My goal was to gather pebbles from the Muskingum to transform into Curious Pebbles, and then to plant them around town while I was there.  Ah!  The best intentions! Alas, between family-time and friend-time and memory-time, I really never got around to making the poor dears their little crocheted pebble jackets, and so...

Under the Bridge (Go ahead.  Begin singing the Red Hot Chili Peppers'
song.  I do.  Here.  I'll start..... "Sometimes I feeeeeel.... ")


...In the end, I even left the box of Muskingum River pebbles on the nightstand in my room at my parent's house, because my suitcase was already pushing the weight limits.  Dad says he'll ship them.  He will.

But as I was gathering pebbles, I (as usual) was practically FORCED by the hand of ______ (something?)into taking pictures of this lovely place.  So I did. 


(Stick with me, and in the end, I'll reward you with a photo of the lone remaining Muskingum River Curious Pebble... although in truth, I actually did succeed in making TWO, but gave one away as I'm wont to do)



Perfect place to start a family.  If you're a bird.  And you can make
your house out of mud.  And don't mind the sound of semi-trucks
barreling overhead at all hours. 

The search for the perfect pebble begins.  Huh.  Not so easy here.
These guys are kinda craggy.  And small.  Hmmmm....


... Oh!  Look over here!  It's LOVELY!


And... it is at this point that I forget about pebbles and start photographing like mad.  I live in the DESERT, you know (sorta.  Close enough).


I could build a cabin and just live r.i.g.h.t. here.  I'd be happy.
You know... If someone would bring me groceries and stuff.  And
maybe DVR "Weeds" for me.  That kind of thing.


Ummm... yeah.  We don't grow moss like that in California.  Nope.  Not at all.






There's something witchy and wonderful about these tree roots.
Something permanent and tenacious.  Something very cool.




And then there's THIS guy.... Like a giant yawn, he is. 
The strange thing was that it's still alive.  Still breathing.
And the hole/cavity runs about 4 feet deep.  Cabin?  Who needs
a cabin?  I could just live in this tree....


I adore the bark pattern on this maple.  Adore it.  Spotty!  La-La-LA!


Bug!



Would have been nice if the monarch I was photographing
on this blossom stuck around... but I suppose he had other
things to do, places to go, nectar to suck....


Blurry Bug!  But the antenna we so freaking cute, I had to
post it.  I think he was a'smilin' at me.  Hard to tell,
though.  With a bug. 

Muskingum River Curious Pebble.  Now residing on my mantlepiece.
NO, that's not my mantle.  That's a PIANO.  Piano's don't hang very
well above fireplaces.  A simple rule of decorating you'd do well to follow.

MY! I'm snarky this afternoon!

/Julianna