Wednesday Morning at the Beach

Just some pictures from the beach today.  

I had some orders to fill and spent some time walking the beach. It felt amazing & really lifted my spirit!

I made some bracelets and an anklet.  

Check out my Facebook page if you're interested in one. 

Video Proof

That the Jersey Shore IS Open!

This is from Bay Head, NJ this morning April 6, 2013!

I hadn't been to watch the sun rise since before Sandy came to town.  It was time I got back there.  The video is a little shaky, I took it with my phone and it was chilly this morning (37 degrees)

Hope you enjoy it!

Hurricane Sandy

I hate the name Sandy... two times in my life I've had to deal with troubles dealing with a Sandy (nothing worth sharing, really really boring)

So now Hurricane Sandy is bearing down on the east coast, and where is she supposed to make landfall?

On the Jersey Shore..

Where do I live?

On the Jersey Shore.

 We are in Hurricane Prep mode.  Lots of water & non-perishable junk food!

I'm also doing some cooking. I have sauce made & bagged & 2 jars of store bought, a whole pot of chicken noodle now in the freezer & I'll make stew a little later today.

Bags & plastic containers of water will go in the chest freezer - and the wood will be accessible to board up the bay window & sliding glass doors just in case we're going to need it.

Then tomorrow, this will all be coming down.

SOB!

I love Halloween, all the fun & none of the stress the other holidays impose on us.  And I don't think it will go back up either.  This makes me very very sad.

Happy Halloween Sandy, you bitch.

Open Letter to Snooki & Jionni

Dear Nicole & guy hanging around for the limelight,

Move.

Seriously, move to the midwest somewhere.

(ok before you catty bitches say "i thought you never watched tv" - I said Rarely.. and yes, I watch Jersey Shore. I friggen live there... have to watch)

Oh and change your names.

And change pretty much everything about you that leads back to these personas you've created.

You have a son now and every single thing needs to be about him.

Ok you can wait until after the "covered better then Prince William & Kate's" wedding fiasco - but then you need to be done.

What prompted this post.... 

I have sons, 2 of them.  They're 13 & 11 now.

And the mere thought of the torture this little baby Enzo is going to have to endure when his classmates find out he's Snooki's child..

It makes me feel like throwing up.

Can you imagine the abuse when he gets to like 5th grade?  "Hey Enzo, watched Jersey Shore last night & saw where you wrecked your mom" or something other gross thing that 10/11 yo boys say to each other (and no matter how you raise, them they can be gross - just hopefully never around their grandparents!)

I have to say I was happy to hear they were having a boy... because girls are MUCH worse... much, much, much worse (yes, I'm having a flashback to middle school - I was bullied and picked on a lot- you could not pay me to go back to middle school)

Whether you were picked on or the bully, think back to how a girl with a known "celebrity" mom like Snooki would have been tortured...

I shudder just thinking about it.

So my suggestion to Nicole & Jionni

Have your obnoxious wedding & Snooks, wear white if you want to....

Then over the next 3 or 4 years, pull out (insert joke here) of the spotlight

Change your style

Change your names

Pick a nice quiet town in the midwest somewhere and settle down.  Be real parents, attend your kids sporting events or dance recitals.  Don't draw attention to yourself by whining or hitting on ever dad there

and just fade into history. 

Because it's no longer all about you... it's about Enzo and he deserves a normal life.

Just like your parents did Nicole when they gave you up for adoption.  Your parents did what they thought was best for you, now you do the same.

I'm not saying give him up for adoption, I'm saying stop being selfish and thinking it's all about you. 

You've made your money and I'm sure there is enough rolling in that if invested wisely will support you very well for the rest of your lives.  So there is no reason to subject your child to anything more.

Have you see that Honey Boo boo show? Do you really want Enzo to end up like that?

Parenting is hard enough - you don't need to make it harder on yourselves or Enzo.

You can always come back to Jersey for a visit.  Hell it's not like you're actually from here anyway, so that doesn't change.

Speaking of parenting, I need to wrap this up here and get moving. So much to do on this last day before school starts! I'm just very glad that one of the things I'm not doing is readying my boys for the crap Enzo is going to have to deal with thanks to the way you 2 got "famous."

The Tree on the Wall

Now that we're out of foreclosure & will be staying in this house until our younger son graduates high school in 2018, it's time to redecorate!

Honestly, when we moved in here 10 years ago, I only half decorated.  The kids were little and we had other things to do. 

Then things got bad, and we took everything down figuring we were going to have to move & it may have had to happen in a very short time frame.  But like I said, now things are better & we're staying.

BTW I'd like to just add a side note.  If you are in NJ and need the very best foreclosure lawyer, go see Bill Penkethman.

OK back to decorating.  

We had the stairs completely redone a few years ago.  The guy did such an awesome job, they look beautiful!  He did the stairs & the railing, not the trim on the sides, so I'd like to eventually replace some of that.  But more importantly, the walls are bare (and dirty, need to wipe them down).  I've been thinking about what I want.  

At one point I was thinking of something with books at the top of the stairs. I saw somewhere that someone made a faux fireplace out of hard cover books. I thought that was a great idea, but then I remembered I'm in a house full of males & dogs, so putting something like that at the small area at the top of the stairs is probably a very bad idea.


Now there is a trend of vinyl wall clings.  I really like the idea.  I bought this from Amazon & put it on the wall in my tiny half bath. (stock picture from Amazon, my bathroom is green)

It's really cute. I put it down by the baseboard like in the picture above. BUT I'm thinking if I can find a frame big enough I'll white wash it & then move the whole thing up the wall.  My half bath in tiny, maybe 4x4 so decorations have to been on the less loud side.  


This made me think of the vinyl tree wall clings. I did a Google image search and saw some great ones.  I loved some of them, but decided I want to paint it.  So I looked around at the different ones & found one I like and would work.  It's going to go in the corner and branch out on both walls.  


This is the image I drew to see if I could do it.

 

I like the way it came out, so the next step is to figure out colors, and what kind of paint I need to use and to draw it out on the wall.  I cheat and draw it in chalk first then paint.  

Yes, in the tree trunk is a heart with mine & Mike's initials, and yes that will be in the finished product as well.

Then when it's all said & done, I'm going to hang pictures from ribbons to make it look like they're hanging from the branches.  

I will do another blog when I actually get to work on this one!

Update 1/23/12  I did the tree yesterday.  It needs another coat or two of paint, but looks awesome!  Check back for a step by step blog!

The Ocean didn't want to play today.

Most days, when I go to the beach to fill my custom beach writing orders, the ocean practically dances for my photos, and I am absolutely grateful.

 

Then there are days like today where I can not get one single thing done. 

The ocean was definitely dancing today. 

 

But it kept trying to get me to dance with it!

I had to run for my life (ok run for my dry feet!) more then once this morning!  There were 2 old guys standing up on the stairs and I am pretty sure I heard them laughing at me running from the waves!

I need a pair of those hip waders that fishermen use!

Or at least waterproof boots.

I couldn't really write anything today without it being washed away before I could even get 1 picture!

The birds weren't even safe!

Run birdies RUN!

No matter where I wrote, the waves immediately came and washed it away.  The sand could have been completely dry, but as soon as I put stick to sand, WOOSH it got washed away!

So instead I spent about 45 minutes walking through this rock field looking for beach glass. 

I found quite a bit!

Yes, I know the big round one isn't beach glass, but it's a really cool stone, so I took it.  

 

Becca was a little mad at me for not taking her to the beach today.  I'm actually blogging from the front porch because I'm afraid to walk in the house!  

LOL Just kidding, my dogs rock!