Tag: October

31 Days of Beach Living: Day 20 New Life

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31days day 20

Life is our most precious commodity. Closely followed by family and great friends.

I was lucky to have new life added to my family this month. A new niece to cuddle, buy cute girlie clothes for, and do awesome girls only stuff. My brother and sister-in-law brought forth this new life. And they did a fabulous job! 

Camillia Rose Quinn October 16, 2013 10:21 p.m. 7lbs 1oz 20" long

Camillia Rose Quinn
October 16, 2013
10:21 p.m.
7lbs 1oz 20″ long

Hold those that you love close to you and never lose a moment to hug and kiss them.

Life is precious and we need to treat it as such.

31 Days of Beach Living: Day 14 Book Page Garland

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31days day 14

Once again, I turned to trusty ole Pinterest to get creative. I already had my sewing machine out and felt like making a garland for the mantle out of book pages.

pinterest book garland

Here is my inspiration. I was drawn to the garlands that looked full and gathered. A great project to keep you occupied between texts of your new nieces birth!

If you have any sewing experience – even just a little- this project is a piece of cake. All you need to know how to do is sew a straight line and fold paper.

I checked out my bookshelf for the materials. I wanted an old book and one that had sentimental value to it. Not just any book from a thrift store, but that could certainly be the perfect place to find one. You also have to have nerves of steel to rip pages out of a book, especially if you love books. I found the perfect pages for my garland. I had a diary as a pre-teen. I only used 4 pages. I took those pages out carefully and placed them in my childhood photo album. Then, I went to ripping. Ripping is important for this project. No neat lines needed. It is also supposed to be quick, like less than 45 minutes quick. Rip away!

My diary!

My diary!

Here are the ripped out pages and how I folded the pages.

Here are the ripped out pages and how I folded the pages.

The longest part of this project was folding all the pages. I decided to fan fold it in thirds length-wise. I did this knowing that I would then fold it in half when I got to the sewing. I choose brown thread and a quilting needle on my machine. I set the tension at about 4 and used a medium length stitch.

I had no real plan for the garland… I didn’t even count how many pages I had. Just began sewing and putting it together as I fed it through the machine. Let the fun begin!

Left to Right: Sewing finished just crinkling and opening the fanned pages. Garland mid-way through. Garland in progress.

Left to Right: Sewing finished just crinkling and opening the fanned pages. Garland mid-way through. Garland in progress.

This project did not take long and the results were fabulous and just what I needed to spur the Halloween decorating.

I even went back to Trader Joe’s for more pumpkins!

Mantle complete. I had everything on hand except for the pumpkins.

Mantle complete. I had everything on hand except for the pumpkins.

31 Days of Beach Living: Day 10 Rain, Rain Go Away

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31days day 10.2

It has been raining. And raining. And raining. It started right after my post about a warm, sunny weekend on the bay. Dang. I hope I didn’t cause all this rain. I’d feel really bad.

So far, we have gotten close to 6″ of rain since Monday. Ugh! Grey skies and drizzly rain make me want to burrow under my duvet, clad in a comfy lululemon athletica outfit, drinking coffee, and watching episodes of Call the Midwife (PBS) or Downtown Abbey (BBC).

Instead of hunkering down for the day, my hubby and I get to go to an adult Halloween Party. It’s a themed party. Divas and Rockstars! So, since I love Katy Perry music that’s what I’m gonna be. My hubby gets to keep his goatee and go as Mr. Ex-Katy Perry, Russell Brand. I gathered all my costume pieces at several different stores. Paying $80 for a Made In China Katy Perry costume was not happening! TJ Maxx, Double Take Consignment, Dollar Tree, and one of those crazy Halloween stores that pop up in September and mysteriously close 2 days after trick-or-treating and I found all the necessary pieces to my costume.

costume collage1

Hopefully the costume comes together like I fantasize in my head. Of course, that does include pre-kids abs. And, yes, those are shower sponges sewn onto that tank top. Cupcake boobs here I come:)

So, rain please go away! Here are the reasons why:

1. Hurricane season isn’t over. Nor’easter season is soon approaching. 5+” of rain is plenty.

2. I think this blue wig may frizz on me. I don’t want that to happen. Frizzy blue hair is definitely not the look I am going for tonight.

3. It is hard to walk in muddy conditions with 4″ platform high heels. Accident waiting to happen… and as apparent in my previous post I don’t need any more injuries.

4. No one likes to party in the rain.

5. We don’t get many adult only parties. Come on. Slack off a little.

6. Because of the party, I don’t get to do my other rainy day activity of watching period British shows in bed with coffee and comfy clothes.

And, 7. I just heard that our neighbor is supplying a smoked pig that he hunted in South Carolina. I wonder if it will have an apple in its mouth. Smoked pig and adult beverages could make for an interesting evening.

31 Days of Beach Living: Day 6 Indian Summer?

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31days day 6

Did we just have an Indian Summer? It sounds good, so I was telling everyone this past weekend what a glorious Indian Summer we were having in October. We were on the beach. The boys went skim boarding. I packed up the Roll-eeze (best beach invention evah!) – with food, drinks, and even the umbrella. My sister and her family joined us on the beach. The adults even had the chance to SUP on the bay. It had all the “hotness” of an Indian Summer. So I thought.

Well, I just got schooled… I decided while writing this post in my head last night in those last stages of consciousness that I would research the phrase. Good ole Farmer’s Almanac just proved my beautiful 85°F+ weather weekend wrong.

According to the The Old Farmer’s Almanac, an true Indian Summer must meet the following requirements:

  • “As well as being warm, the atmosphere during Indian summer is hazy or smoky, there is no wind, the barometer is standing high, and the nights are clear and chilly.
  • A moving, cool, shallow polar air mass is converting into a deep, warm, stagnant anticyclone (high pressure) system, which has the effect of causing the haze and large swing in temperature between day and night.
  • The time of occurrence is important: The warm days must follow a spell of cold weather or a good hard frost.
  • The conditions described above must occur between St. Martin’s Day (November 11) and November 20. For over 200 years, The Old Farmer’s Almanac has adhered to the saying, “If All Saints’ (November 1) brings out winter, St. Martin’s brings out Indian summer.””

I thought we had a few weeks of cold weather, but honestly, it was in the 70’s. It certainly felt cold. Now that I know what an Indian Summer is, I think I’m good with what I had this past weekend. Sun, small breezes, low tide loveliness, SUP boarding with my sister, and the boys got sandy.

A PERFECT BEACH DAY IN OCTOBER!

Stand-Up Paddle Board and the Chesapeake Bay

Stand-Up Paddle Board and the Chesapeake Bay