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Showing posts from November, 2010

May Peace be your gift at Christmas and your blessing all year through! ~Author Unknown

A  flash mob  (or  flashmob ) is a large group of people who assemble suddenly in a public place, perform an unusual and pointless act for a brief time, then disperse.The term flash mob is generally applied only to gatherings organized via telecommunications, social media, or viral email. (from http://www.wikipedia.org/ ) I'm always the last one to hear about any new trend. If it weren't for my 24 yo niece Pookie who lives with me I would be total obtuse about Snookie, the Kardashion's, or McDreamy - McSteamy - or any other variety of Mac except the Big Mac. It was my niece that gently corrected me "Ant Karen - you say "it's the bomb" not "it's a bomb". Whew, somebody's gotta keep this on-the-sunnyside-of-middle-age lady straight. So flash mob? Who knew? A group of people with a common song or dance that just pounces it's performance on unsuspecting people in a public place...Come on - that rocks. (not to be confused with &quo

"I've got a new madness! I'm running wild for shells. The beauty of shells are as infinite as flowers." - Mary Delany, 18th century shell artist

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Welcome to the 1st Annual Making Christmas a Merrier  Holiday One Ornament at A Time Linky Party! I am thrilled   to get this party started!! I always liked show & tell days at school.  I was one of the nerdy kids that brought in all my treasures to show off to the class.  I started a tradition  with the Hubbs when we were newly married 30 years ago and had our first tree.  I buy a "couple" ornament for us but some years later I started buying or making a seashell ornament for me. Well now,  I've been around awhile so I have a few keepsakes to share and I know you do too. To join the party -  it's very simple. * just copy/paste the web address of the specific blog post or your blog home page. * add a title of the project in the appropriate box. * choose the best picture so I can easily see what you have to share. (it will give you an opportunity to choose a picture when you are linking up) I also ask that you link back to me in your post! that way mor

Shift Happens

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When one lives in Florida it can be a challenge to get into the holiday spirit especially if you are a transplant from the north. I am a native-born Florida cracker so my holiday spirit has never been attached to snow. But the holidays are something I start dreading around August - September. The thought of shopping, cooking, mailing, decorating, baking, spending....aaahhhh! I usually am in a Cracker Barrel that already has 7 Christmas trees up and the Alan Jackson Christmas CD is blaring full blast and it dawns on me..yee gads it's coming again. Then I forget about it and Autumn rolls around.   The big box home improvement store I work for can't be outdone by Cracker Barrel so we put the Christmas stuff out right along  with the Halloween decorations  so there is a big honking witch cackling away on aisle 24 with Santa ho ho ho-ing out of the big blow-up snow globe right across the aisle.  It's confusing.  But something magical happens to me on the day before Thanksg

“I recently had my annual physical examination, which I get once every seven years, and when the nurse weighed me, I was shocked to discover how much stronger the Earth's gravitational pull has become since 1990.” Dave Barry

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                    What do this                                                      and this                    have in common?            Full moon night shelling              on Englewood Beach. As I was driving home from work last night I rolled all the windows down to let the nice cool Florida air blow through my truck. The full moon was just shining over the tree line. I work a late shift so as I walked quietly through the door at home so I wouldn't wake anyone I decided I was not ready to call it a night.  Well I was  but I'm calling it Night Shelling.  I tiptoed into my closet in the dark so I wouldn't wake up the Hubbs (the most dangerous part of night shelling-the closet not hubbs) grabbed my sweatshirt & jeans. I decided to travel lightly - my mack daddy 230 lumen's LED flashlight, extra batteries, camera to document anything blog-worthy, & a Ziploc baggie for shark's teeth.  The beach is an 8 minute drive from where I live. App

Going a Little Coastal This Christmas

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There is a fine line separating those of us who collect and those folks who make it on to reality tv shows like "Hoarders" & "Clean Sweep". Every collector sooner or later runs into the problem of space. Our mantra is "I know I have one of those - I just can't find it". All my stuff is in tubs. I have a storage locker filled with the niece  Pookie on one side, my mom GeeGee on the other, & me. The Hubbs even has a box or two. I hate to keep my treasures packed away but I only have so much space.   To resolve the issue somewhat I picked up a neat  old hutch to use for storage and display.  I saw the hutch at a tag sale. It had what I thought was $150.00 dollars written on the price tag.  In an effort to get the seller to step his price down a tad I started asking about the hutch and the price.  The seller quips at  me "Lady, it's 15 bucks - how much lower do you want me to go?" SOLD Darlin -  I slapped the money into his hand and

No one needs a vacation more than the person who just had one. -Source Unknown

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Well, my vacation is winding down. Whew!I've had such a full schedule. I went to a conference in Sarasota on vacation day #1 & 2. Days 3-7 were in Sanibel doing a little power shelling with blogger friends. The Hubbs & I drove up to Tampa on day #8 to meet family for a wonderful dinner at International Mall.  As I was planning my time off on my scheduling calender I noticed someone had penciled herself in for my only remaining day.  That would be my niece Pookie who is also one of my best garage sale-ing buddies. She had an entire day planned starting at 7:30 am where we would leave for the biggest community garage sale of the year - Sawgrass Lakes in Venice, Florida. There was also time scheduled for Thai food so I sharpied her in - it's a go. The early bird catches the worm - and also waits in line to get in Where to begin?  Pookie chose a left-flank attack House after house looked just like this The line of cars to get into the development was about 1/

“Too often we are so preoccupied with the destination, we forget the journey.” - unknown

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Let the fun begin!! I have shelling down to a science.  I know the right weather conditions for the best shells. I am familiar with practically every beach on the west coast of Florida and the type of shells you can find there. I have a tide chart app on my phone that can tell me the low/high tide times, moon phases, and the sun rise/set times. I have tools - shell shovel, shell sifters, and hand rakes for the big shell piles.  You might say I am passionate about my favorite past time.  People ask me all the time where do you find the best shells? I can give them my best guess but as I have learned that all the planets can line up for a good shelling day and you can still come up empty handed. Oh, you'll always find scallops, arks, & lots of venus clams but we tend to want the alphabet cones, horse conchs, & that every elusive Junonia. My hopes were high as I drove to Sanibel with my best shelling buddy Rhonda of Shellbelle's Tiki Hut . We started out at Litt