Momma's always right!

Taking odds that you're thinking that the title will lead to a post about some antic of my children! Low and behold it's a MEA CULPA from me to the people of Georgia. You see, "Momma always said if you don't have nothin' nice to say then don't say nothin'" is ever so true....and I need to do better to remember that adage!!!!!

Just a few short minutes after publishing my FFF post from this morning I had an e-mail from Etsy AND Paypal. They informed me that a lovely Georgia Momma had bought THREE of my outfits!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! "God works in mysterious ways" is another lesson I need to remember too.

So next time I travel through Georgia I will keep telling myself how very GENEROUS the people of Georgia are....I may have to say it loud enough to drown out the other voices in my head (and car) but I will say it over and over. 

So, thank you Georgia Momma for helping me fill another food basket for Mari's birth family....thank you so VEEEEEERY much!

It's me again!

Two posts in one day....must be the weekend!! C'mon, nothing really ever changes. The end of the week is clearly my most prolific blogging period as well noted on here!

Just had to take advantage of the sunshine today to get a snap of the latest dress that is finished. Lots in the works but this was the only one camera ready. Hope to have it on Etsy by tonight!

In the spirit of tying up loose ends.....

Ditto still lives!!!! This guy (gal who really knows with a fish??) is STURDY if not a tad psycho. He gobbles up food like there's no tomorrow and he's clearly growing but he 'paces' for lack of a better description. Back and forth, front to back in the tank over and over and over. Hyper too as he's always in constant motion...no treading or resting in place for Ditto! BTW, Salsa still lives too but I don't dare go in the tweener's room for fear getting lost in the disaster zone!

FFF-Florida

Nope that's not the official theme. Today is my FFF stands for Finally Finishing Florida by posting the pictures from the end of our trip!

Short reminder on where we left off in the spring break tale...we were at Sunday. Officially it was Palm Sunday but to our kids Grandpa's house always means Easter. Since we had to be home by Easter this year we turned Palm Sunday into 'Easter'!! We dressed up and headed off to St. Martha's for the service....and the absolutely traditional courtyard pictures!!!

The weather was less than cooperative. Sunday was also my official, 'real' birthday and I had longed for a 'beach party'. It was supposed to be a big Chinese spread on Lido Beach. Instead it was a quick dash between raindrops to a local restaurant. Just as well since I became sicker than a dog and had to excuse myself before the appetizers had even been eaten!!!! I spent my BIG birthday sleeping to the sound of raindrops pelting Grandpa's roof.

Monday was still cloudy and cool in Sarasota but we noted (on the weather channel) that it was sunny and warmer in South Florida...so we hopped in the car and headed to the Everglades!!

Warmer was a rather relative description. While we had full sun and 70+ in the sun there was still a rather brisk breeze!! We opted to go to the National Park first and take a boat ride around the 10,000 Islands area.

During the wonderful ride  we saw bird's nests......

birds on nests squawking at us to move along....

and dolphins!!!!! Loads and loads of dolphins swimming all around the boat! The captain of the boat made a joke about how many of us would find all of our pictures of the dolphins to be just water shots...so true. By the time you spotted one coming to the surface and clicked the camera he was on his way back down! Lots of pictures of dorsal fins....

but Peggy got a great one of one of the guys who came right up to the boat!!

Then we headed off in search of the creature that fascinates all us Northerners.....

 
since it was such a chilly day by Florida standards there were not as many laying along the canals sunning as I've seen in the past but they were still there!


Over the next two days we still had sun but cool breezy weather so instead of the beach we did a lot of time at the cove at the end of my Dad's block.

Lots more 'traditional' pictures on the Big Fish which was sporting yet another new paint job!!

There was some fishing too.

But the biggest catch was....

Andrew's sea weed! We are no fishermen but there is something so very relaxing about sitting looking out over Longboat Key with the sounds of the waves soothing your nerves.

Before we knew it it was time for our last night tradition. There is a trendy little shopping area out on the Sarasota Keys called St. Armand's Circle. Every year on our last night we go to a fabulous candy store called Kilwin's to get an ice cream cone...and if the weather allows we head down to watch the sunset on the beach while eating our ice cream.

This year we were too late for the sunset...besides it was chilly out!! We stayed and watched the chocolatier make a couple of batches of fudge and nut brittle instead.  

The drive home again tested our endurance! Being bluntly truthful, we could do without the state of Georgia!!!! NEVER in all of our trips through that state have we not sat in ridiculous back-ups over simple fender benders, stopped at a clean restroom, or seen any of their so-called 'southern hospitality'! I know that they would like to blame it all on us spring break invaders but for the past two trips we've been purposely noting the vehicle tags on the cars involved in the fender benders...100% Georgia plates so far!!!!!!!!!! Also cannot figure out how the blown lights, empty soap dispensers, dirty sinks-toilets-floors are not able to be cleaned during spring break??? This time as poor Mari pleaded for me to go back to the car for wipes because the gas station we stopped at had no toilet paper in it's single men/women bathroom (don't even get me started on the smell from the aim issues left by the men!!!!) the lovely southern woman behind the register hollered out "I just put a new roll in there! Tell her to look again!!!!" Southern hospitality?!?!?!? Not only did the absence of a light impede the hunt for the mythical new roll but not one of the seven of us that used that restroom could find the supposed roll of toilet paper! That's why we always travel with baby wipes...ALWAYS!! We REALLY need to find a way to get through that state without having to stop. The smoke-free hotel room which reeked of cigarettes is another whole rant!!....and the hotel clerk who had no idea what "feather free" meant when I asked about their pillows...we just went back to the car and got our own...I could really do without Georgia....

On Safaris and Sea Creatures

Back again, and not on track as usual but thought I'd give a 'sneak peek' of a couple of things I'll be putting on Etsy tonight after I get the homework duty accomplished.

The Guateguapo shirt is being problematic for me still. Standing alone I agree it needs to be 'more manly' but the problem is I have an order for a sibling set!! That means that the boy's shirt should really coordinate with his sister's dress....but the only fabric in the dress that isn't all flowers and lady bugs is the geometric I used in Guateguapo #1. Now I've done this up for the Mom to see with the idea being that I can just swap out the geometric for the stripe in the sister's dress and achieve a 'matching look'.

So this is Guateguapo #2!  Leah, I had originally leaned towards running it on a diagonal (like a soccer jersey design) so I think I'll use your suggestion as validation to go ahead and give it a try on Guateguapo #3.


Then, considering all the feed back I've been getting from the Moms of boys I'm going to try and push my comfort zone out a bit and try some sibling sets!
The biggest hurdle I'm running up against is finding cute fabrics that I can see used in both a feminine and masculine way!! Hopefully in time I can retrain my eye so that the girl's outfits don't get too tomboyish or the boy's outfits become too girlish!



So try #1 is this set inspired by a length of fabric I had laying around with sea creatures.

This pair are in size 5T and I'm going to list them as both a set or as individual pieces since I have more of this fabric. Once I got going on this set I 'saw' the potential in another piece of fabric I had on hand.

So try #2 are these whimsical safari/zoo animals. I'm thinking this theme would work at Animal Kingdom as well as the local zoo!!! This set is in 3T.

The food basket fund is getting low again so I'll be doing a lot of sewing these next couple of weeks in an effort to beef it up...pun intended.

My Personal Picasso!

It's not like I intentionally leave so many loose ends in my posting. Life just seems to flow faster than I can row sometimes and by the time I reach a calm harbor the promised follow-up and/or pictures seem passe. So when earlier this spring I posted about my budding artist having one of her projects selected for display in our town's art museum I promised a picture....

check this one off the 'to do' list! My teeny, tiny preemie who only seemed to care about the regular arrival of her pacha is now an artist in residence... who blew us away with in depth descriptions on the differences between Van Gogh and Picasso! When did this happen???...and how did she get so comfortable using oil pastels???? Sigh....

Now for a brief commercial interruption!

Still slogging through vacation pictures which I promise to get back to shortly! In the meantime, I had a request for a "boy's shirt" to coordinate with my Guatelinda dress that Maya so beautifully modeled in the last post. Since I don't have boys...or the need to shop and dress a boy I'm looking for a little help from the Moms of boys!! Could you check out the pictures below and leave me some constructive critique?

Did a little gardening in yesterday's gorgeous weather followed by sewing today leaving my back in a noisy state of protest! Back to work tomorrow....hope my back gets the message!

Happy Easter!

Wishing all my blogging buddies a most blessed and happy Easter! Just a couple of pictures today as it is just too glorious a day to stay inside on the computer.

Last week we did 'Easter' with Grandpa in Sarasota. We have countless poses over the years in the courtyard of St. Martha's Church! Another 'traditional' pose for the kids to endure (:

Today was Easter at our home church and the girls reaaaaally resisted more pictures on the grounds that we had taken their 'Easter' pictures last weekend....but Mom always wins...well almost always.

Now I'm off to soak in the sun and spring flowers!! Have a great day all!!!!