Notes from the Craft Room

Ah, getting back to crafting has been nice! Last week I made a little clutch-pouch type purse for a friend for her birthday. There are some cute envelope pouch type purses in The Art of Handmade Living that I've been wanting to make and thought my friend would like one. I had some vintage fabrics I thought would work well with the style and used a button and ribbon a that another friend recently gave me for my birthday (so hard to part with those gems sometimes but also great to use them and pass them along). Here are some photos of it.

Portugal in View

Oh my goodness, a few of the keys on my keyboard are really messed up, and I have to smash down on them about 30 times to get them to work! Time for a trip to the Genius Bar. So, needless to say, it takes me a while to write just a few sentences. So here's a brief summary of our Portugal week. Andrew needed to go for work so we tagged along and added a few days to the trip to make a holiday. Andrew went to Sesimbra (photo above) with co-workers and took that photo. I would have liked to go there too! Most of our days were spent in Lisbon though (photos below), and some time out and about just beyond Lisbon in places like Balem, Cascias, and Sintra (where the moorish castle is in the photo). It was a very nice, hilly city with friendly people, great food, and beautiful scenery. I loved the tile buildings. So many beautiful patterns and colors!

The Art of Simple

Quickly before heading to my Lisbon post I meant to also mention a great shop in Seaside, FL called The Art of Simple. One of our rainy day activities during our drenched beach week was to go shopping (of course!) so we left Seagrove and headed to Seaside nearby where there are a handful of great shops (and some pretty great food trucks as well, BBQ and shaved ice to name a few). The Art of Simple is a gift shop, filled with plenty of nice soaps, candles, and various "gift shop" items, but what I really loved about the shop is they also sell some great vintage items as well.

Belated Beach Week

Look at that cute little bottom! Lil' Miss who does not like water actually took to the beach pretty well. (Lois picked out the Peppa Pig tutu swimsuits, by the way. It would not have been my first choice, but they did look adorable in them.) It was great to see the girls on the beach and a really nice visit in general. I have so many photos that it's hard to choose just a few but this gives you a good idea of what it's like to be in Seagrove, FL with me and my family. The water and sand are amazing there. Icy blue-green water and fluffy white sand. It was aunts, uncles, cousins, my mom, my sister, her family and a bunch more. When I was growing up, we'd go to Destin, FL many summers and the last few years we've tried to get together as adults and make a big family event out of it. Last year we couldn't go because I was too pregnant, and the year before... I can't remember why we didn't go, but we went for a few years before that. In the past we met in Edisto, SC, but I prefer the gulf because the water and sand are much prettier (though you don't find the amazing seashells that you do in Edisto). We had a really good visit but were all bummed by the bad weather. Argh, that annoying tropical storm had to rain on our parade, literally! It rained, I mean poured, 4 out of 6 days of our beach vacation. I went on and on to Lois weeks before we left about how fun the 4th of July parade and fireworks show would be. Parent fail. Probably should not have said a peep as the parade was canceled and the fireworks were minimal. I also learned that riding in a car with a 4 year old who easily gets motion sickness and an 11 month old, who is not used to riding in cars, for 6 hours is not a whole lotta fun. I'm glad my mom was willing to cart us all there and back. (We don't have driver's licenses, but that's another story. I haven't driven a car in more than 3 years, which just sounds nutso to me.) So this is Florida!

Time Spread His Wings

My poor little blog, I've neglected you! I've gotten very behind in my posting, and everything else it seems. I know I sound like a broken record here. The fact that my keyboard does not want to type certain letters sometimes lately, like the letter "T" which is in almost every other word, is not helpful either! I have to smash down about 50 times to get it to work, argh. So much to catch up on though, which I hope to do within the next week or so like sorting the 8,000+ photos on my phone into albums before it explodes. I probably don't need photos from a year ago on my phone. And I have lots of beach photos to post, an update on a quick trip to Lisbon that we just returned from, sharing some photos of sewing projects I never got around to posting before we left, and sharing a few articles I wrote recently. I'm also going to enjoy my birthday, which is tomorrow. I love birthdays, but they do seem to come so quickly as you get older. My friend Emmeline gave me a sweet little package today, some of which is shown here. Buttons!! Buttons! I love all the buttons and little bits she gave me, and packaged so thoughtfully too, and with a very nice card as well. Don't you love it when people give you gifts and you just know they get you? So after I enjoy my birthday and finish unpacking, which seems to be taking me forever for some reason, I will give my blog some much needed attention. 

Beach Week

Greetings from Florida. I meant to post about our trip back to the US but as is often the case leading up to a trip, I got busy and didn't get to it before we left. We went to Atlanta for a few days and we're now in Florida with my family. The first few days were sunny and beautiful but now it's cloudy and raining. Blah! But I have been enjoying the thunder and lightning, which we don't get much of across the pond. And the rain makes for a good day to read and to start organizing all my photos of the trip so far. I'll post more soon. Looks like I'll have plenty of time as the rain might stick around for a few days.