Catching up

I've fallen behind and I can't catch up...or something like that. These are a few of the pics from a week ago's Farmer's Market. I saw this bike outside one our little breakfast places in town and lusted after it. The rear platform has a beautiful painted hibiscus on it. Our veggie man here has the best produce and always has some samples to lure his customers. Doesn't take much to lure us.

The market has been moved back to Alt. 19 and Tarpon Ave in town from across from Tuela's and there are more and more booths.
This Sunday, instead of going to the market, we went out to lunch with Bill and Jo. We had thought that we had heard our Crab Shack place on the Coot River was still open but we heard wrong. We crossed 19 and headed to Cathers, Rum River Bar and Grill. The view is excellent and the food, though a bit pricey IMHO, was plentiful and tasty. Jo and I got the grilled fish with homemade chips, E got his fish fried and Bill got French Onion soup and a burger. I skipped the bun and sent half my chips home with Bill and Jo. We were all so full that none of us ate dinner last night.
Bill and Jo opted for an after lunch nap and we joined Suzie, Justin and a nice assortment of friends at Miss Vickie's for some late afternoon libations. While we were sipping and chatting, a boat on the river started smoking and the owner refused 2 offers of help from passing boaters. The Sea Tow headed out just as someone called 911. I kept waiting for the boat to explode but, thank heavens, it never did. The marine patrol and a fire truck were arriving just as we were leaving.
Our view at Rum River.
Today Jo and I walked Anderson Park for about a half hour. This is a lovely place bordering Lake Tarpon.


After our walk, we hit the antique stores in our historic down town here and ran into one of the gals from Book Club...life in our small village!

Oh, and before I forget, I announced the winners of the Trash to Treasures give aways on my altered blog. Congrats to all.

Trash to Treasures give aways

on my altered blog

Awards

are on my altered blog
Jules-atoasttoalteredart.blogspot.com

Nana/Papa/Auntie Jo day with the grands

Jo, who says she will baby sit for E's cooking, has been a wonder at giving my honey a break since she and Bill have come for their 2 mo. winter stay. She arrives around noon and stays til Kristen gets home at 3:30pm. I have great company and she pitch hits when all three either need milk or shinny hinneys. Bless you dear Jo.

Bill and Jo are coming over for the second of our Spain dinners. We were in Barcelona, a city they were very familiar with for about 3 days during our Med. visit and cruise. E told them last year that he would cook at least one dinner for every port we hit. So tonight we(and I use that pronoun loosely ) are doing a spicy (but not too) chicken dish.

I so need to update He Cooks but we have been having far too much fun lately. I promise...soon, soon.
BTW: check out my altered blog. I was given an award and asked to pass it on...please check out the blogs I selected along with Kim, who gave me the award

Marcia, Marcia, Marcia

How can I thank you for the absolutely fun day at your house? Not only was the company superlative, the food divine but to leave with a piece of jewelry that (with a little help from my friends) I made!
Marcia is our winter friend from New Hampshire whom we met through Glo, whom I met through Sandy whom I met when she took one of my paper art classes way back when we first moved to Tarpon Springs almost five years ago. Now, all of us plus Jo when she moves here for two months every winter, are in Book club together. We discussed today how we all came together and how kindred spirits attract each other.Marcia had her friend, Sara Chadwick, visiting and, while Sara did not bead with us, she was studying up on her beads as her art gallery in New Mexico is going to start carrying Marcia's creations. Marcia was a silver artist among other careers and has now turned her interest to beads of all kinds. She was kind of enough to open her home and her beads with us and she and Glo shared their knowledge so generously.

I want to share the link to Sara's shop with you all...lovely lovely things . Be sure to check it out and tell her Jules sent you.

Marcia made the most wonderful chicken soup with a salsa by Sara
and here is our hostess with the mostess!
My necklace.
Sandy's necklace
L to R : Glo, Sandy, Jo, (hidding is Sara)and back to us, Marcia

I put a close up of my necklace on my altered blog. And, for those who are keeping count...Jo and I have 43 more toasts to go to make our 50 of our celebration of our 50 years of friendship.

Sweet Sunday

Yesterday, E bbq'd pork steaks and ribs for us, made a wonderful oriental cole slaw and roasted baby potatoes. We pretty much just hung out and watched the kids romp and play.

Our little Landon spent the night and is currently napping after a busy morning filled with walks around the neighborhood, breakfast, a ride in the stroller through the park to the river, playing on the play ground in the park, waving at everyone who walked or biked by, lunch and playing on the lanai. Daddy picks him up after nap time and Nana and Papa will probably be calling it a day! lol

Busy week ahead with lots of fun things on the agenda. Hope your week is a good one. I can't wait to scrap the picture of Landon giving his little sister a kiss.

Decisions Decisions

E and I have been doing our research and, while we have a lot more to do, if we book our New Zealand and Australia cruise before Feb 5, we can save some bucks. Now, this cruise is not until March of '13, we have always been big plan ahead people.
One of our decisions centers around how long of a cruise do we want this to be along with spending time with our Clare in NZ. The cruise is either a 12 night, 14 night, 17 night or 18 night with time in Bali. We would appreciate any input from those who have done this cruise before or one similar. E says if we're going to do it, we need to do what we want since the chances of us going on this one again are pretty slim. This is going to be a fun one whatever we decide. How can it not be with spending time with Clare and cruising with our good pals, the Millers.

Speaking of the Miller's, they are due down here Feb 5 and I can't wait. With their new house construction, they are delayed in their winter sojourn to Anna Maria. Janet and I have lots of scrappy plans including a scrapbook retreat with a lot of gals from Posh at the end of Feb. Hurry home, Janet!
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Busy day today. We're biking into town to the Farmer's Market in a bit and then the kids are bringing the grands over around four pm for ribs, pork steaks, cole slaw and roasted little potatoes. Then our Landon is spending the night with Nana and Papa and playing here until after nap time tomorrow.

Hope you have a great week!

I could not have designed a better day....

Oh, ok...winning the lottery might have topped this one. My class at POSH SCRAPS this morning was jam packed and the women were awesome. They shared supplies, ideas and incredible sense of humor! Love you all!

As soon as I got home, we called Bill and Jo and headed out to Miss Vicki's on the Anclote River. Due to the proliferation of the snow birds, there was not an empty table in sight...thanks to our friends, Mike and Kim, Fia and Frank we had a place to sit and good people to chat with.
We were entertained by a great duo...SPF40 who played 50s, 60s and up to the 80s wonderful hits...My Girl, Ain't Too Proud to Beg...etc. We will go back to listen to them over and over.
This is the 50th Anniversary for Jo and my friendship. Fifty years ago when we were about 14 almost 15 she and I met. We have decided before she and Bill return to St. Louis at the end of Feb, we will toast each other and our friendship exactly (if not more) 50 times. We need 44 more after today but we have days and days and evening and evenings to reach our goal.

This toast is to you...those of you and you dearest lifelong pal with whom you feel truly yourself...and to you, Jo!

Luscious Lushes Gift Exchange plus one

While we have never set a price limit on what we spend, we buy small and wonderful gifts for each other. The four of us know each other so well, that our gifts to each other are always what we have wanted or what we know the others would love. It is about quality of thought not quantity.

Take the gifts to me from Pam B posted above. We recently painted the house and Pam found Vera Bradley (whom she knows I adore) napkins, cups, plates and even a photo album for my purse for the grand babies photos in colors that match our house. I am thinking Book Club here or lunch dates catered by our personal chef , E, with gal pals or...wait! I'll save them for when we are all together once again!

Janet, worrying always about one of us (CLARE) thinking she loves us the best, gave us all the same gifts with a twist. We each got these beautiful Vera hanging mini cosmetic bags but each one of us got a pattern that best describes us. And then, wonderful Coach key chains with wine bottles (of course...what else). I'll put my car keys on this one...as soon as I find them again. lol
(and yes! Janet does love ME best)! Just sayin'.

Clare gave us all fun gifts from our new most favorite store, www.typoshop.com.au

and she gave me this lovely charm for my Pandora...it was the fundraiser for the Christchurch, NZ earthquake rescue.
I can not wait to use my little mustache paper clips and the two Tramp Stamps (particularly the one I do not have facing upward)
And, today, Clare and I continued a long standard tradition that if we like something, everyone we love must be in on it. So, Jo, is now not only an antler wearing reindeer but able to laugh with us all just like when she came to the slumber party at my house with janet, pam, clare and me last year.
We are planning our reunions. In March of 2013, Bob and Janet, E and I are planning on heading to see our Clare and cruise through NZ and AUS. And then, in 2014, the Luscious Lushes will be rendezvousing in New Orleans. We have started planning the trip in pinterest and add to it often. At the rate we are going, we will have to stay 2 mo. to visit all the things we want to. Wish us luck

I could have laughed all night...wait ! I DID!

Clare and I had experimented with the new Google + video chat before and were very impressed not only with the clarity of the voice and the no one sec delay but it was like she was sitting right across the table from me. We could even clink our wine glasses to toast.
So we had Janet M and Pam B down load the program and we set up our date for our Christmas in January gift exchange. Pam got on, invited the rest of us and the night was on...with one hitch. Janet got the invite, was in the system and could hear us but could not see us.
We feared all was lost but Pam B and her daughter, Laney, to the rescue. Using Laney's I Pad and the face to face feature, we had Janet with us ...at least until the I Pad's battery died. From then on, we had her via my phone and it was almost as good...almost!
Between the Angry Bird's hat Pam gave Clare and the 'reindeer feature' on the video chat plus a couple of glasses of a nice Merlot, I almost wet my pants laughing.





I'll put some pics up later of the wonderfully thoughtful gifts the 3 gals gave me...and E too (he got spices and a Haka hat!)

We will definitely be doing the video chat again and soon and this time Ms Janet will be on screen as well. I love how you can video chat with up to 8 people at the same time and how whomever is on the big screen changes when a) that person is talking or b)when you slide a little indicator at the bottom or c) when you click on one of the smaller pictures.

Now how much fun would this be for cyber cropping? Well, I'm going to find out soon since the Scrappin' Sisters of Cleveland, Moni and Pete, have also installed this and we're just looking for a good date.

Luscious Lushes Reunion

It has been a year since Clare, Janet, Pam and I spent a wonderful week together and, while we are having our reunion this year, we are having to do it a bit differently. Thanks to Google Plus, Circles and Hangouts we are opening our gifts together in a video chat that can actually hold up to 8 people at a time. Clare in New Zealand, Pam in Wisconsin, Janet in Pennsylvania and me here in Florida will be opening our gifts to each other on camera so we can all see. It will be almost as good as being together. The Luscious Lushes shall be together again I am sure but this is going to be the next best thing..

I've spent a bit of time thinking back to our wonderful, wild and zany times and felt a bit of a review is in order to properly set the stage for our reunion this evening.

Clare flew in a couple of days early and I surprised her with a weekend crop in Sebring with our wonderful friends, Jacque and Di. We had the crazy in a good way Orlando gals at our table, our sweetie, Beth, and our lovely pals, Maria and her daughter, Adrianna. Could not have asked for a better table mix!

Pam flew in that Sunday and bright and early Monday morning we headed to Janet's beach house on Anna Maria Island where we had a wonderful dinner. Next day we were off to Captiva Island for four days of hysteria and our Captiva Christmas in January celebration.

Our first stop was the Lighthouse Restaurant in Ft. Myers just before the causeway and then it was off to the grocery store to stock up on necessaries. We even bought some food.
This was where the notorious four called home for our get together. Our two bedroom,two bath, full kitchen, living room and screened in lanai looked right on the beach and it is a good thing walls can not talk. We put up our little tree, hung out snow men lights around our front window and took off for a walk up the beach.



Drinks and even some food later, we talked, sipped, and played Left Right Center (I think) but mostly we laughed.

We took lots of pictures in the four days on Captiva


Looked for a husband for our Clare.
Ate our breakfast each morning in the resort dining room.
Had a drink or two at the cute bar with the wonderful fireplace.
Took a long walk one morning in our jammies (ok...I'm the only one who actually did not change clothes) and then had breakfast starting with mimosas.
Shelled our way back to our lovely cottage.
Shopped and went to a wine tasting
Tried to keep Clare from being deported. Attended a cocktail party pool side and sat on the bay side having a cocktail.

Went to another wine tasting Or maybe this was the same one...
Toasted our friendship again

Visited the local sites
Toasted the sun sets
and just generally hung out
enjoying each others' company.

I may never finish the Luscious Lushes Scrapbook Album or, if I do, it will be far too many memories for just one album.

Looking forward to tonight my dear friends. See you then!