Sea Turtle Time!

It all started back in August with a magazine article.  Those who know me know I have a bit of an addiction when it comes to magazine articles.  Picking up the August issue of Charleston magazine started my family talking about what we'd like to see when we went back.  There was a great article about educational activities for kids, complete with an activity, websites, and a book for each topic and with different age categories for each subject as well.  A couple of topics really stood out for Little Man.  The Joseph's Adventure book and tour that teaches about Charlestonian history, and the wildlife topic on sea turtles.  The sea turtles topic for Little Man's age talked about the book Turtle Summer, and a visit to the South Carolina Aquarium's Sea Turtle Hospital.  The hospital can be seen as a behind-the-scenes add-on to the regular South Carolina Aquarium. 

Once the new year started and we knew Little Man's Spring Break schedule, we knew the sea turtle tour was part of what we wanted to do.  And so, we talked about it for months, and when Little Man saw the mommy sea turtle with her babies and eggs, he asked for the set.  How could I refuse such a sweet request?  Even if I did have to reconfigure the pattern to make the eggs hold the babies so they could hatch?

I finished the project with about a week to spare, and the happy sea turtle family came with us.

Yes, Mommy sea turtle is anatomically correct in how she lays eggs!

After a great 4-D ocean movie (we even got sprayed with water) at the aquarium we met with the volunteer who would take us into the hospital and answer questions.  We realized after our return home that our guide was Barbara Bergwerf, the illustrator and photographer of the book Turtle Summer that we had purchased!  She also has a blog with all kinds of information about the turtles.

After a quick introduction we were free to wander and meet the turtles.  Little Man really liked the baby turtles.  He spent quite a bit of time watching Tiny, Howie and Hatchling swim and crawl.

There were two other sea turtles that we befriended during our time.  Little Man sat near Pirate and waved and smiled.  I'm happy to share with you that Pirate was released this past Saturday, May 7th back into the wild after being at the hospital for approximately two years!  You can read about the release here and here.

As for me, Santee decided to pop up and say hello...see for yourself!

We loved the turtles so much!  And I'm excited to share with you what I'm sure is a first for a craft blog...and you saw it here first!  Turtle Art!  You can read more about how it's done here!  Best part?  The proceeds from the canvases all go to the rescue program!

After the hospital we went back into the main part of the aquarium and enjoyed the rest of the exhibits.

And then...we headed the beach spot to finish our perfect Spring Break week.  It was great, right down to our view!



The rest of the story...

Oh my goodness, I have people looking for an August blog post, but I'm not finished talking about July yet!  What to do?  Get to finishing one story so I can tell some new ones!  This post I'm just going to show you really how we finished our longer beach trip with my Mom.

On Thursday, our 10th anniversary, we had a great time on the beach until a quick rain storm came and we ran back to the beach spot for some crafty time, a movie, and lunch.  Then we had some downtime.

Later, we headed to the pool, then grilled out before roasting marshmellows.

The next morning the kids went to Kamp Starfish for the morning while we packed up.  Then we picked them up, took Little Man's picture at this character cut-out, and then both families drove to Ripley's Aquarium.

The kids loved the sharks and interactive exhibits. 

After the aquarium we all had lunch together at Johny Rockets at Broadway at the Beach before hitting the road for home.

The next day we enjoyed pool time, hibachi, and a movie with yummy Southern Belles to drink.

And the next day, with Little Man sad and crying in the backseat, we dropped my Mom off at the airport.  But it would only be 2 weeks until we would see her again!  The next post will be up in a day or so, so be sure to check back to see all about when we met my new nephew!!

An Explosion and Making the Cut!

So you may remember when my good friend who I have dubbed Obi-Knit-Kenobi gifted me a Cricut. Well, she became a fan of a new program called Make-the-Cut which allows you to design your own images with your computer that the Cricut, hooked up to the computer, will then cut...without having to purchase cartridges over and over again. Anything you can think of, you can cut with this program! She wrote about the program through her blog and then she became an affiliate seller. Her tutorials are wonderful, and really the possibilities are endless! I purchased the software and have had so much fun playing with it. I've got loads of ideas that I want to implement, but I thought I'd share two projects I've made.


The first project is a card I designed where the card and the fish were all cut out in one piece, I painted the fish and then there is a separate watercolor background. Little Man quickly snapped this card up and it's currently sitting in his room.

The second project I wanted to share was made for my Little Brother's wedding (more on that next post). I knew I wanted to gift the new couple (who have blended two households) a monetary gift, but I wanted to do something a little more involved. So I decided to make an explosion box card, which I was first introduced to by Obi-Knit-Kenobi. Her project had multiple layers, but I decided to go a little simpler. The foundation was cut from one 12 X 12 piece of cardstock. VERY EASY! The monograms I cut out with the Make the Cut software, the envelope and love birds were cut out using cartridges that I already had. The envelope housed a check from me, and on the other side I printed an excerpt from First Corinthians.

Yes, my Cricut and I have been having a lot of creative fun together! I finished it off with ribbon and a tag with love birds cut out.

Craft Room Addition

The craft room recently welcomed a new piece of equipment. While walking through the clearance aisle of a popular craft store I noticed this:


Originally priced at $34.99 and marked down to $14.99....and this Craft Chick bought it for $6!!! Hubby was happy with it since you shouldn't use your oven for Sculpey baking more than a couple of times (chemicals are released that find their way into food later). And Little Man was impressed when I made him these:

I had made a pig before, and Little Man asked me to make him his own...then as I was getting everything together to make the pig he asked for a fish...I pulled this little puckered up fish from the creative brain bank. It was fun to just wing it right then and there without over thinking it too much. I baked them for half an hour in the oven, with the wire still threaded through them. The next day I worked the wire with some beads and Little Man had two little hand-made beads to decorate his room with.

I've been going back and forth between a lot of different artistic mediums lately. I've worked with Sculpey, beading, knitting, and crochet...

I found this pattern through Etsy, an Internet site that features handmade works and crafting supplies. The designer (monpetitviolon) lives in Italy and has, what I think, is a unique eye. Her design was cute enough for me to dust off my crochet hook to make these little darlings that even have a crochet flower button! Very cute, and they were so quick!

New Big Boy Bed

I could wait to post until I take a photo of my library prize, but instead I thought I'd just go ahead and do a post on Little Man's new big boy bed.

We'd noticed that Little Man was starting to get a little cramped in his toddler bed, so when we saw a sale at a furniture store we had browsed in before, it seemed like a good time to upgrade. We still need to get him a larger bookcase...but his new bed and fishie tank have made quite an impression on him.

The night before his new bed would be delivered, I tiptoed into his room and took photos of him sleeping in his toddler bed. It was sad for me when Hubby took it down the next morning...Little Man has slept in that crib/toddler bed since he first came home from the hospital. Little Man did ask about his "baby bed" when he came home, and was sad he couldn't sleep in it anymore, but REALLY loved his new big boy bed.

His new bed is a twin, and it came with a frame for a full size bed down below, the chest on one side, a desk that can be attached, and stairs to get up to the top bunk. Each of the steps has a drawer in it.

It worked out well that the magnet areas of his wall, where the felt fish are, is still accessible.

And he wanted some fishies of his own, so we pulled out an old aquarium and set it up in his room.

It should be interesting getting him up to use the potty this week with Hubby away (it gets a little tricky since he's up high). As a treat for all of us before a hectic week, we used the ice cream maker for the first time last night. We made strawberry ice cream. It was so decadent! I can't wait to make some more! Little Man had fun helping. And Hubby said it was MUCH easier than using the old-fashioned crank kind. It was done in 15 minutes!

Until next time, have a great week!

Just a quick post...

Ok, so I'm watching the 2-hour Brothers and Sisters movie event (so I've got to make this quick)while I wonder if the snow will keep us home tomorrow. And I've had some interesting things happening around here of late, but until some things are more concrete I'm going to hold off on sharing here. The last week was busy with Hubby away, but the weekend was peaceful and restful. First we went to ALDI for our grocery shopping again and I have to say, I'm really enjoying our shopping excursions there. One, the store is a lot smaller since it only stocks core items. Second, the prices are insane! Three green peppers for $1.89...we had stuffed peppers last week! And we've been eating strawberries, and blueberries, and shrimp, because the prices are so good! I even bought a bottle of white zinfadel wine for $3.49, and you know what, it wasn't bad! After grocery shopping, we went out and picked out some new fish for the fish tank...

Four of the five new fish...Little Man was so excited!

And, because I thought it would be good for Little Man to learn about something new (and I thought it was something interesting and different) we picked out a snail. It's been fun so far looking around to find the hiding snail...

And Little Man is learning how they suction-cup themselves onto things...

And today after the usual household chores...I started my Christmas cards...5 done, with envelopes. The silver foil behind the word peace doesn't shine in the photo, but in person they shimmer and really add to the card(in my humble opinion). Now, I'm off to knit, with yarn I already have since I decided to not buy yarn during Lent. And it's going to be hard too, since a local yarn store is going out of business and selling yarn for 50% off! Hopefully I'll make some progress on the sweater I'm working on so next time I can show some progress photos, have a great week everyone!

Mermaids at the Beach

This past weekend we made a last minute trip to Myrtle Beach, South Carolina. I had read in The Charlotte Observer that there would be a live mermaid show at the Ripley's Aquarium for the August 1st-3rd weekend only. The mermaids, from Weeki Wachee Springs, FL, performed on the road for the first time in the 61 year history of the mermaid show attraction. Well, Little Man has been very into mermaids, and was disappointed that he and his cousin had not spotted any on our beach vacation back in June. So, when I mentioned it to Hubby and some co-workers, the consensus was that, if we could, we needed to try to make it to one of the shows. So Friday evening I booked a room at Compass Cove Resort on the Grand Strand, and Saturday morning we finished packing and hit the road. We arrived late afternoon, checked in, changed and headed straight for the beach. Then we went to one of the 22 indoor and outdoor pools, hot tubs, kiddie pools and lazy rivers that the resort offers. First was the kiddie pool with the submarine that the kids could play in. Then the lazy river, then the hot tub (and a 5 minute sit in the sauna for me), and then after hours of playing, we headed back to the room to clean-up for dinner. We went to the Giant Crab which is an excellent buffet with great fish tanks (Little Man loves the Nemos) and out of this world food...including our required Myrtle Beach food...crab legs. Afterwards we went back to the hotel and sat on the balcony before going to bed.

The next morning Little Man woke up at 6:45 AM to go potty. Afterwards we got dressed, went downstairs for breakfast at the hotel restaurant, and then headed back to the room to change into our bathing suits. We went down to the beach for an hour where the water was as fantastic as the day before and the sun was peaking from the clouds in a way that made both Hubby and I stare at it feeling like an angel was shining down on us. It made the hair stand up on my arms, the image of the clouds with the light was so hauntingly beautiful...it made me wonder if my Pop was looking down on us. Meanwhile, Little Man enjoyed digging in the sand and splashing in the water (which was great since the day before he had lost a plastic cup in the ocean and was too scared to go in the water the rest of the day for fear he would lose something else). At 9 AM the pools opened and we left the beach, taking one more good sea air breath before packing up the beach toys. Hubby took the buckets to the car and Little Man and I headed to the kiddie pool where we spent another great 45 minutes running around and getting drenched (and yes, it was warm enough already that it wasn't chilly). After that we rode the lazy river again, and sat in the hot tub, and THEN played in one of the indoor pools (where Little Man practiced jumping in and swimming), and then we headed back at 10:30 to the room to get changed. By 10:50 we were out the door and the car was packed.

From the hotel we headed to the aquarium where we bought tickets, walked in, and Little Man got right up to have his photo taken with one of the mermaids. Then we battled the crowd of people to find a spot from which to watch the mermaid show. We waited about 10 minutes, during which a pirate led sing-a-long songs, and then the show began. Little Man was mesmerized. He loved the blue mermaid because he said she looked like Ariel. As the 15-minute show progressed people left so the end was more enjoyable than the beginning...but since the show wasn't extra, I felt it was a great opportunity, especially since we love the Ripley's Aquarium to begin with. They have a great pirate exhibit right now, which is entertaining and educational...and they have a reef with a clear tunnel throughout that has a moving walkway you stand on that takes you under and to the side of hungry looking sharks and eels, amongst other sea creatures.

After the show ended we went to the beginning of the aquarium and worked our way through, with Little Man just as fascinated by what he was seeing as he was the first time he had been to an aquarium. We had a great time. Then, before hitting the road we had lunch there overlooking the sharks! We enjoyed a great last minute trip, and Little Man got to meet a mermaid!

T's Bedroom

I said I would show some better photos of T's bedroom so I thought I would just make this post focus on his room.

I love how T's room came out. I think there are some really great touches that make it unique. T loves the water, loves aquariums and looking at fish; and so I think this room is really him. We painted waves at the top of the walls...


And then I wanted a growth chart...but I couldn't find any that went with the colors and the decor so I decided I would make one. I bought 1 ft. wood boards from Michael's, along with unpainted wooden shapes, enlisted my mother's help (she painted the lighthouse, the dolphin, the whale and the anchor), and hot glued the pieces on after painting the wooden boards. The sailboat at top is actually a photo frame that now has a photo of T in it. It is stuck on with velcro so I can take the boat off to change T's photo as he grows.

He's grown since this photo was taken!

Another neat feature of T's room is that hubby and I painted magnetic areas in three large areas of his room before we painted the walls blue. Then I enlisted the help of my friend Elena to cut out fish from felt, glue on wiggly eyes, glue on magnetic strips, and use fabric paint to paint letters and numbers on the fish. It decorates the walls with lots of colorful schools of fish, and the fish are educational. Right now I use the fish to teach T his colors, and numbers, and they can also be used later to teach him the alphabet and how to spell. Oh and of course I decorated one fish to look like Nemo...which brings me to the painting I painted for T before he was born.

Since he first came home this painting has hung over him at night. These photos don't quite do the painting justice, since I used glittery paint to give the "water" a shimmer to it that isn't visible here. But you can see that Nemo, Marlin, Dory, Crush, Squirt, Gil, and some other fish from "Finding Nemo," along with Flounder and Sebastian from "The Little Mermaid," "The Rainbow Fish," and "The Incredible Mr. Limpet", are all featured in the painting. There are lots of other things that bring special meaning to T's room, like the pretend aquarium from Grandma North, the seashell collection I made from shells from my Great Aunt Frieda (one of the shells was from a creature that is now extinct), a fishie bank from his Northern grandparents, books galore, and so many other things that have been lovingly chosen for him. It really is a special place to sit and enjoy him while he plays. I should probably mention though that T's room creates a chicken and the egg type question because his room was decorated with the fishie theme long before we met him. We waited until the birth to learn whether we would have a son or daughter and as a fan of the ocean myself I thought the ocean theme would be great for a boy or a girl. I guess we'll never know if T would have loved the water and fishies as much if he hadn't been surrounded by them from the beginning. But I know I wouldn't change a thing.