Two more layouts and lunch

This first layout is from my reveal yesterday at A Cherry on Top with the lovely Prima Botanical line.



I finished this layout of our cutie, Landon, yesterday cropping with Jacque, Jean and Di who had to leave us as she was not feeling well. Hope you are doing better, dear Di for our crop on Friday at Posh Scraps!


Speaking of Posh, we were in yesterday when Mary and Michele were unpacking box after box after box of brand new goodies for the store. I picked up tons of stuff such as Webster's Pages Yacht Club line, Afternoon Muse, Laced with Grace and Love Games from Glitz and all the Butterfly Garden papers and embellishments from Pink Paislee. Locking myself in my room and scrapping the day away!

We're having terrible weather today so today is perfect for playing in my work room. Kristen and I were suppose to take the boys to lunch today (ok...take ourselves to lunch and having the twins along was to be the icing on our cake). We're decided to wait til tomorrow. So far today, we have been under a tornado warning and an alert, experienced hail, torrential downpours, flooded streets and, in an attempt to keep the pool from over flowing into our house, a burned out pump. And we have another storm moving this way off the Gulf. Stay safe everyone in the area!


Yesterday, after we cropped for hours, Jacque and I headed to one of our favorite places (we have tons of these actually), Ozona Blue, a fun place right on the Gulf. It is one of the few, if only, restaurants in this area where you can swim and have lunch both right on the Gulf.



I had the Sicilian flatbread and Jacque had the seafood pasta...both were excellent. I had been craving pizza and the flat breads are far fewer calories yet they satisfy my pizza cravings.





I posted the tee shirt I created using the Prima Botanical papers and one of the silk flowers on my altered blog so, if you get the chance, roam over and take a look/see. It is also on display at Posh Scraps. Ms Mary has also done a fun thing with a tee and some of the flowers and Jacque is working on a vest from what I understand. I love wearable art!

As always, thanks so very much for stopping by!

Pretty Prima Botanicals

My reveal for this month at A Cherry on Top was with the Botanical line of products by Prima. While this company is primarily known for the beautiful flower embellishments, their paper lines are primo as well. I could not stop making layouts with these papers and they are so versatile.






I printed this photo onto canvas paper and used pearlescent watercolors to enhance the colors. I love to print on canvas as the photo takes on a depth that glossy or matte photo paper lacks.



Thanks for looking!

It can't be Tues already, can it?

Yesterday I scrapped all day...with the rain and everything all wet, it just seemed the best way to pass a day inside. Around 3:30, I headed over to the kids' house to watch the boys a bit while K went to the dentist and C went to class.

Every time I go to see these little fellas (and I see them at least once a week if not more...trying not to be a smothering Nana, you know), they are cuter and cuter and doing so many new and different things. The kids had pulled out a new toy for the boys that someone gave them when the boys were born. This slide like thing shoots out little balls (not small enough to choke on) and sends them swirling back down around and back out the top again. Each of the boys has his favorite color (Landon red and Colvin purple) and they delight in this toy! Daddy seems to enjoy it too. lol






K and I were going to take the boys to baby yoga class this morning but seems that the boys are 'too old' for this class. Unfortunately, we did not find out in time for me to make my WW weigh in and meeting. May try to catch the Thurs. one if I can find out where it meets.

My reveal at ACOT is tomorrow and I had such fun with the products I selected; oh, and my project for the Blue Moon challenge at Gingersnaps premieres tomorrow too along with several other members of the DT so stay tuned here for the layouts and my altered blog for...well, you'll just have to stay tuned and see! lol

Hope your week is going well.

Fridays are for friends (back tracking a little)

and, after the Chari-tea for Community Pride, we met up with some of our friends at Dimitri's on the River for libations and dinner. There is no better way to celebrate the start of a weekend.






Catching up here a bit: today is our Greek community's celebration of Independence for their native country. E and I have been sitting on our lanai listening to the martial music coming from the Greek Community Center. We are a bit less than a half mile from the river and sound travels. While the loud music from Capt Jack's was an annoyance last Friday night, this is a whole different story. This is joyous and not late at night. Mixed with the sounds of our waterfall and the aroma of our roses, this is close to heaven.

Hope your weekend has given you joy and has been a delight!
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Having fun...wish you were here!

We have had a very busy past few days. We watched the boys Thurs evening and they were just so tired. They had gone to Little Mama's school to see the second graders school musical. They did entertain us with their newly acquired skills: Landon is sitting up and starting to pull himself up and Colvin is chugging away crawling and is quite shy about showing off his new tooth.





On Friday, I attended the Chari-tea for Community Pride Day Care. The tables were all decorated so pretty and the food was great. There were several speakers and they were all inspiring. I donate to causes in which I believe and this one is so worthwhile providing "quality child development and supportive services for families of children ages 2 months to 6 years who have been exposed to poverty, prejudice, homelessness and violence. The organization will have a web site up soon and I will post it here for those who are interested.

Today was the garage sale at Posh Scraps and, thanks to my daughter, I had the chance to show off my little fellas to a lot of sweet women. Here are the boys with their 'Aunties' Jacque and Di and Landon with his mama.




I made some fun money at the sale today and have 7 women signed up for my Workshop on Faux Finishes for next Sat. morning. There are spaces left for 3 more if you are in the area and interested. The cost is $10.00 and all you have to do is bring your standard kit and come. The store phone is 727-784-2928. Hope to see you there.

I still have my Wishblade for sale for 35.00$ with software etc. If interested, please email me at eeickmeier@hotmail.com.

More photos tomorrow of our lovely evening with our friends at Dimitri's on the River down on the Sponge Docks last night. Hope you are having a great weekend!

Plans for the week

Weight Watchers today at ten, bike ride to the library and we have the little guys coming over this afternoon for a visit.

Cropping tomorrow at Posh with the Wonderfully Wacky Wed. girls.

Thurs there is an evening yoga practice out at the beach I'd love to attend but am watching the little guys while Little Mama attends a workshop. Catch that one next week.

Friday is the Chari-tea for Community Pride Child Care Inc. and another crop at Posh Friday evening.

Sat. is the big garage sale at POSH and I have a big table and 5 boxes left from the Four Crafty Ladies Garage sale held at my house a couple of weekends ago.

Hope the night bird who lives in the trees outside our bedroom window finds a girlfriend ASAP...his plaintive cries keep me awake! Hope everyone has a great day!

Chris' Birthday party

Yesterday was Chris' birthday celebration here. E and I have had the solar on this past week and the pool water was lovely. We had invited the kids' friends, Katherine and Tom and our family friend, Kim, and her friend, Mark,and Chris' brother in law, Rob (and our son) to help us celebrate. E served prime rib, mashed potatoes, corn and Kim fixed a salad and brought the birthday cake. We gave Chris at golf lesson at Innesbrook in Palm Harbor and the baby sitting time so he can use it. I think he was happy.




When Clare was here, she gave the little guys these wonderful swim tog sets that she brought with her from New Zealand where the sun's rays can be without mercy. They were terrific and looked so cute. Not sure spandex is Landon's best option...lol.




The twins took to the water with various degrees of enjoyment. Colvin had serious reservations until he discovered if he kicked his legs he could move about the pool. He didn't even mind getting his face wet. Landon jumped into the whole swim thing with both feet, almost literally. He splashed, kicked and had fun. We need to replace the red floatie with another one like the Speedo one...it has far better balance for the little guys.

I am checking into finding someone to come to our house to give the boys swim lessons early this summer.

Happy Monday to you all and hope your week is a good one.

Super (moon) Sunday

These are not the best pics in the world but you get the idea of how big the moon appeared here. This is what I get for standing in the middle of the street at nine at night in my jammies, right? lol For some amazing ones, head over to Janet's blog, Never Knowing Where I'll Be.





Today is super Sunday because we are having the family and a few friends over to help celebrate Big Daddy's birthday which was this past week. E and I will take the cover off the pool when we get back from our Sunday morning ritual of biking into town to have breakfast at Tuela's on the Trail. We have blow up floaties with canopies for the little guys and this will be their first pool experience. Clare gave them swim suits and shirts that have a high UVA and UVB protection built in and I bought the swimmez diapers. We have a baby 85 block too so the boys should be all set.

Stopped by Posh yesterday and found, as usual, far more new goodies. Left 3 new layouts for the store and picked up 3 of my older ones. My next workshop (faux backgrounds) on April 2, already has sign ups so I'm happy.

Hope everyone has a Super Sunday!

Friday with the our grandbabies

This is going to be a double post today because both of the boys deserve their own five photos. So, please scroll down to see Colvin's pics and my thoughts on him as well as this post. Thanks.

We had a good day with our little fellas. Both are cutting teeth. Landon is working on his top two front ones and our poor little Colvin is cutting his first lower ones and is not a happy camper.

Usually it is Colvin who plays to the camera but today it was Landon. I swear he would wait til he knew I was ready to take another pic and he would strike a pose. What a ham!







They eat everything and play hard and finger foods are their favorites. We are having Big Daddy's (aka Chris')b'day party here on Sunday and bought the boys an 85 block so we can all play outside.

Hope your weekend is a good one and now...presenting our Colvin

Poor Little.Colvin

"Little Buddy", as Papa E calls .Colvin, was having a terrible day. He is cutting his first teeth, running a low grade fever and not feeling so great in general. He needed some extra cuddling and we were happy to indulge him having gone through the exact same thing with Landon, not that long ago.

It was not all sad and unhappy. These little guys wake up so happy from their naps and cuddle so sweet...makes my heart break when they are not feeling good.





As I have been chronicling my grandsons' life to date, I have tried hard not to focus on just the happy days and I know Little Mama and Big Daddy have had more than their share of trials and tribulations. But, I also know, none of us would change a single thing!

ATTN: JanGlyn

My Tim Holtz favorites are oldies but goodies: vintage photo, tattered rose, tumbled glass, peeled paint, brushed corduroy, barn door, spun sugar, victorian velvet. Hope this helps and see you on the 16th. Thanks for signing up to take my workshop! (P.S. please email me at eeickmeier@hotmail.com)

Slainte

It was a sea of green in Dunedin yesterday for the annual Flannigan's Street Party. This is our second year attending this one of many St. Pat's celebrations in the area. Our first year, we missed much of everything but had a nice sandwich at Peggy O'Neals in Palm Harbor. The celebration there is held the weekend before St. Pat's or the weekend after. The second year, we went on the right date and did see some Irish step dancers but would have preferred Irish music to the country western band that played. Then we discovered Flannigan's and have been spending St. Pat's day roaming the streets of Dunedin.

Last year, I had on my Pat's tee shirt from Pat's Pub in St. Louis and was hailed by a fellow St. Louisan in the crowd. This year, I wore one of my Savannah green tees and we ended up chatting with a couple from Cook County in Ill., one of whom was a former teacher.






Today is Friday and that means Nana/Papa day with the boys. Can't wait...they are growing way too fast...and, pictures to follow, of course! lol

Hope your St. Pat's was a good one!

Ah bliss!

That is what I call a lovely day scrapping the hours away. I headed up to Posh around ten and Di and her grandchildren (the most well behaved not to mention cute kids)showed up. The kids were working on birthday cards for their mom and Di was working on helping...lol. Not sure how much she got done. Our pal, Jacque, couldn't make it...know you were missed,friend. And on the up side, our new friend from Cause for Paws, Beth Reed, came back to chat with us. She was on the Pirate Treasure hunt. And Beth, working on that summer crop at Posh!

If you have not met Beth, you should. She is a director for Thirty-one. You know, those darling totes and bags and she is a delight. You can contact Beth to have a party or place an order at beth@grabaclue.com or through www.facebook.com/tampathirtyone

Di had promised her grand kids a picnic in the park so I stayed at Posh scrapping for a while and then headed home. I had left the pictures I wanted to scrap on my desk (senior moment) so just did the layouts...all 7 of them! Here are just a few; the rest are for my reveal at ACOT at the end of the month.






Hope you are having a wonderful Wed. too.

Welcome to my world

It was the perfect day to put the top down on my mid-life (ok..late mid-life) crises car, "Hot Mama" and go cruising, indulge in a little retail therapy and meet friends for cocktails at a tiki bar...so we did!

It is days like today that make all those almost 30 years of teaching, worthwhile...they got me to Paradise!

If Monday is half a lovely as Sunday, I'll be a happy camper

We headed into town for breakfast at our favorite little cafe, Toula's on the Trail. After trying the Cajun Crab Benedict, we may never order anything different. To get some of the calories under control, we walked the few blocks to the Farmer's Market for far more fresh veggies than we had intended. Oh, the strawberries from Plant City...pure happy!

We headed out to one of our favorite nursery and landscape places, Landmark, on East Lake not too far from our house. We did have trouble limiting our choices but really only needed a few plants to fill in for the ones we lost to the frosts from last winter.

I caught this butterfly in all his/her glory and, inside the nursery, on the counter, was this monarch caterpillar . They are almost as beautiful in this stage
as when they spread their wings.

It was home to rake winter leaves, plant our new pretties and enjoy the day. Hope you had a nice Sunday too and that your week is a nice one.