Kindergarten

Wow, it has been awhile since my last blog.  We enjoyed our last few weeks of summer by being extremely lazy.  There was a late afternoon trip to the beach, swimming in the pool, and hanging out in the air conditioning.  It is now time to switch gears as our school year officially started as of this morning.  We are ready to get back on a schedule.

My sweet five year old started Kindergarten today.  She was very excited and more than ready to get back to her friends.

When asked what her favorite part of her day was:  "the playground" of course!

Mani-Monday: New Ulta Polishes

Ulta was having a sale this past week of their Salon Formula polishes for $2!  I've never used this brand before so I figured a sale would be a good time to pick up a few colors to try out.  The base color is an opaque grapey purple called Tutu Cute and the multi-colored glitter I used on my ring fingers is called Piñata-Yada-Yada.

Wordless Wednesday: 4th of July!

I just realized I made my very first blog post one year ago today!  I haven't accomplished as much with my blog as I had hoped to but on to bigger and better things in year two.  :)

Creative Summer Update/Pinterest Challenge

I have been interested in learning how to do embroidery by hand.  I have been inspired by several images on Pinterest.  Some as simple as embroidering of a road trip on a map to as ornate as beautiful flowers:

Sources:

1.  Map

2. Heart tree carving

3. Yellow flower

4. Orange poppies

Then I found this Seahorse pattern from Kim's Etsy shop, bigBgsd:

                                                  Source: bigbgsd.blogspot.com via Monica @ Creative Gator on Pinterest

Since I have a love for all things of the sea, I decided to try to use this PDF pattern as my first attempt at embroidery.  I used Kim's blog to figure out the scroll stitch as the border.  My stitching is not anywhere near perfect but it was fun to try.  As for the rest of the pattern, I just winged it.

I'm still trying to decide if I will rip out the scroll stitch along the top left and try it again.  Overall, it was a lot of fun and I look forward to learning new stitches. I plan to eventually frame it and hang it in my daughter's room on her gallery wall. I'm linking up with the Summer Pinterest Challenge hosted by Katie, Sherry, Kate, and Michelle.

Five For Friday/Little Things: Father's Day

Happy Friday!  So happy the weekend has rolled around again to be able to spend some quality family time.

This past Sunday, for Father's Day, we spent the morning at Dubois in Jupiter, Fl.  This was one of my favorite places to spend the weekends as a kid.  I have so many fun memories and it was great to take my daughter there to play.

Jupiter Lighthouse:

 Jupiter Inlet:

Happy Father's Day J!!

Cousin time!

Monday, we went to a local pool that has a great splash pad/kiddie pool area.  We met up with my best friend and her kids and my sister-in-law and nephew.  It was four hours of fun in the sun.

On Wednesday, it was very rainy.  We decided to go visit and eat lunch with my Grandma.  

Mall time!  When I am in town visiting my family, I love to go to my favorite mall.  There were lots of good sales and I definitely did my share of shopping.  ;-)  I am a minimalist when I go out and about.  I usually just carry my iPhone, credit card and ID with me everywhere.  I found this wristlet at Lilly Pulitzer that is perfect for me to carry my essentials and allow me to be hands free when I am wearing a dress without pockets.

After a busy week away from home, I am happy to be home and back to our routine.  We'll probably take our daughter to see "Brave" over the weekend and hang out in our pool.  What do you have planned?

Linking up with Lindsay:

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and Lauren:

Little Things/Five For Friday: Sanibel Island

This past weekend, we made a quick trip over to the West coast to visit Sanibel Island.  We were celebrating my husband's birthday as well as kicking off our summer travel.  After almost a week of heavy rains:

1)  We were grateful the rain stopped for our arrival to Sanibel on Saturday afternoon.

2)  We had dinner plans with college friends who live in the area.  We also hung out on the beach after dinner to watch the beautiful sunset while our children played.

3)  Champagne on the beach Sunday morning:

4)  Tons of shells!  My daughter and I brought plenty home to use for future craft projects.

We stayed at the Island Inn

Sanibel Lighthouse

5)  The storms waited to roll in until we were crossing the causeway to head back to the mainland:

Make sure to link up your "little things" with Lindsay and your "five for Friday" with Lauren.

I'm also linking up with Project Alicia's Summer Daze series.

A Creative Summer

Well, the first week of my daughter's summer vacation has drawn to a close.  It began with a very busy weekend full of dance recital rehearsal, actual recital, family and friends visiting, the beach/pool time, and lots of eating.  Since Memorial Day, we have just hung out and enjoyed a relaxed pace.  No specific time to wake up, no where to go, and no obligations.  I have to admit it was perfect.  But now I am looking ahead for ideas to keep myself creatively busy.

I have begun a list of all the things I hope to accomplish.  I have so many creative interests that it is difficult to quiet my mind and focus on one project at a time.  I do enjoy a good list and love crossing things off my list even more.  One of the first things I would like to accomplish this summer is to take Melissa from ISLY's "I Still Love Calligraphy" 30 day e-course.

photo: ISLY

 I absolutely love how beautiful calligraphy looks.  When I was in middle school, I checked out a calligraphy book from the library and taught myself the basics.  I hope to learn so much more from this class and perhaps be able to offer calligraphy services from home as a part-time job.  If you have a love of Calligraphy, you should definitely check out Melissa's class.