Florida Pics!

We have arrived safely home from our family beach vacation. I believed we traveled around 1800 miles total with the drive each way being 13 hours. We of course rented a car (Nissan Sentra) which served us well and we had no unexpected events on the road.

The condo we rented was spectacular and had all the comforts of home. Our view of the ocean was breathtaking and I got to enjoy a cup of coffee each morning on the balcony. We even brought our Roku along so that we (mainly Brad) could have our usual shows with us! We all had a wonderful time and were very impressed with this area of Florida--I am sure we will be returning when possible! This will probably be our last "fun" vacation for awhile since we have big plans for next year.

Here are the pics:

 Pulling out of our driveway at 11:30 pm. Brad is a happy boy!

 Sunrise in Louisiana after 8hrs of driving.

 The 4th tall one from the left is our condo "The Pearl"

The views.....

 Living room looking onto balcony

 Standing in living room looking back toward dining room/kitchen/front door

In master bedroom looking at balcony

On balcony looking down....

...one of the two pools beneath us.

 On balcony looking left at Pier (we walked out on this later)

We spent a lot of time on the beach each day and all had a great time. Brad was scared of the sand and waves for awhile but he finally warmed up to it and had a blast playing and looking for seashells.

This is the Pier we walked out on--the longest in the Gulf.

 

 We watched a school of stingrays swim by.

 In this pic Nick had buried Brad in the sand. He liked it so much that he had us snuggle his towel next to him so he could snooze!

Aaaaahhhh

We made it to Florida! This is our second day here and we are having a great time. The condo turned out to be AMAZING--in location and quality! The drive ended up being just under 13 hours which is better than the 14 hours I estimated. Brad was an angel for the whole thing! We left our house at 11:30pm and didn't arrive until about 1pm the next day. Brad only slept a total of around 3 hours the entire drive. He watched cartoons for some of it but mostly sat there quiet or singing songs and looking around.

I navigated the old fashioned way via map and didn't get out the GPS until we crossed the Florida border and headed for the final destination. We drove thru Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi, and Alabama on our way here.

We brought lots of snacks, drinks, and food for breakfast so we have been eating one fast food meal a day, and one nice meal a day. Yesterday for dinner we ate at an amazing Mexican restaurant called the Cactus Flower Cafe. Today for lunch we ate at at Vinny R's Italian Restaurant and were again impressed with the food!

The weather here is picture-perfect. It feels like we are on summer vacation even though it is almost October. There is not many people on the beach and I'm sure once the work week starts tomorrow there will be even less. The best news is that we haven't seen any jellyfish! You may or may not recall how every beach trip we have been on in the last few years has been foiled by broods of jellyfish taking over the shores and water. None here! No storms, no clouds, no problem!

That's all for now, I have pics posted on Facebook but I will post pics on here after we get home.

Pre-Vacation Pics

 Just a quick post of recent pics before we leave for our beach vacay tomorrow!

My friend Allison ordered two hats for photo props.....

....and I got my hair cut today! I think this will be the last short cut before I grow it out. I had them take a bit more off so it would last longer. Longer in the front with lots of layers in the back!

I also painted my nails with the colors I've been saving for the beach--white with aqua gradient glitter! I am thinking of doing a little red starfish on each thumb...

And of course this one had to have a picture taken too! His mohawk has been trimmed down to normal and he is excited about our family vacation!

How to Upcycle a Tshirt into a Pillowcase!

Are you someone who sees a great deal and buys something even if you don't know what you are going to do with it? I am! Every once in awhile I go our thrift store on Wednesday (which is half-off day) and browse the aisles to see what I see. I found this XL men's tee a long time ago for just 50 cents. I knew I could do something with the green knit!

The time finally came when I needed to make a custom pillowcase for our toddler's new "big boy" bed that we are switching over to robots. I bought him a travel pillow b/c it is just the right size for him, but the downfall was that the pillowcases only came in a couple colors! That when I remembered I had this bright green fabric......

*I really didn't measure anything--I mean, it's a pillowcase! It's ok if it's not perfect.

I knew I wanted to use my robot fabric for the edging on the open side, so I guesstimated the size I needed of the green minus a few inches to leave room for the edging. I used the the side of the shirt so that I would only need to close 2 sides.

I hemmed what will be the bottom and one side of the square, and left the last side open to sew the edging on.

Then I got my robot fabric and folded it in half to a width that I wanted, and for the length just held it up to the end of the green square to see how much it would take to go all the way around it (just picture a pillowcase if you are getting confused...)

This was kind of a tricky part--you have to sew everything inside out so that when you are done you can turn it right side out and it will look nice! Just triple check everything before you sew. First I sewed the ends of the robot strip together, then lined up the fabric inside the green square to sew the raw ends together.

When everything was pinned in place I sewed around the entire edge with a straight stitch, then went back to the edge and did a tight zigzag (in place of a serger) to help soften the edge and prevent fraying.

All done! Trim the threads and turn right side out! Admire your handiwork.

Doesn't it look so cute with his new sheet and fleece tie blanket that I made?

He loves it and it is just right for a little boy!

Our Day at the County Fair

Today was the perfect day to go to the fair! A much needed cool front came in last night and we were able to enjoy ourselves without sweating! That is always a good thing. This is the 3rd year we have gone to the Cleveland County Fair (the same location as my craft shows) and Brad enjoys it more every year.

We got an awesome parking spot and starting off with funnel cake. Then Brad and I rode the carousel. After that we all rode the ferris wheel. From there we headed to the back for a free hayride. There was a car show and a live band playing so we all enjoyed that for awhile. Then we headed to the food court and Nick got a burger with fries, I got a chili cheese dog and Brad got a hotdog. After eating we went in the building to see the farm animals, then Brad and Nick rode the carousel one more time. Right before we left I got a big corndog to share with everyone then we headed home!

When we got home, Nick took the drop rail off of Brad's crib so that we could finally convert it to a toddler bed. I put it off as long as I could but he has climbed out a couple of times and scratched his chest on something so I don't want him getting hurt.

While Nick was doing that, I finished up sewing the custom pillowcase I made for Brad's toddler pillow then we put his new robot bedding on:

Brad loves it! He is supposed to be in there right now taking a nap but was reading a book last time I check on him....wish us luck! Next blog will be a tutorial on what I made the pillowcase out of...