Painted vases

I made some vases to go with my decor as an accent color.  I had some candles I liked, and wanted to match the color with these.  So, I mixed up some paint and got to work. 

Then, I swirled it around the vase to cover everywhere

Finally, added the finished product to our built-in bookcases.



Flowers

Last weekend, Adam came home from the store with a gorgeous bouquet for me.  What a sweetie!  My favorite, lilies, plus some pink daisies.

Cute Wreath

I needed some door decor, so I went to Michael's and got some ideas and some supplies.  I wanted something a little more modern that could also translate into winter/spring.  I wanted something simple and clean.  I love the way it turned out. 

I started by gathering my supplies together.  A grapevine wreath, flowers, ribbon and a W.



Next, I cut the flowers off of their long stems, to the size I needed to attach them to the wreath.

Then, I hot glue guned the flowers to the wreath.

Finally, added the W with hot glue, and tied a green ribbon on to hang.

Chicken Gyros

For a quick weeknight dinner, I threw together some gyros.  I had some pre-grilled chicken strips, some pita, and then cut up some tomatoes, onions, and had some leftover cucumber sauce and feta. 

I made a little conveyor belt to make the gyros.  I heated the pita on the griddle, put it on some aluminum foil (to hold in all the goodies when it was picked up), and started adding my insides.  Grilled chicken, onion, feta, tomato, and topped by some tzatziki sauce.  Rolled up, and served with a side salad. 

Ingredients:
Grilled chicken or lamb
tzatziki sauce
feta
tomato
onion

Chop tomato and onion while chicken is heated on the griddle.  Remove from heat.  Warm pita on griddle, and assemble wrap on tinfoil adding desired toppings.  Serve warm

My assembly line

We ended up on the back porch for dinner, with the nice weather and good conversation.

Moody Gardens, Galveston TX

My friends Jessica and Jon invited me to go to Moody Gardens with them last year.  We took their cute baby girl also.  Moody Gardens is essentially two pyramids - an aquarium pyramid and a rainforest one.  The rainforest has monkeys, birds, sloths, flowers, butterflies, etc.  The aquarium has penguins, seahorses, fish, etc.  They also have a ferry you can take for a ride in the Gulf, and some other attractions like a water park and a dinosaur thing.  Some of my favorite photos were of the flowers and animals.

The gorgeous orchids of all varieties were everywhere.

So pretty!

Cute macaw - I liked the blue ones

Penguins in the aquarium

Cutie pie baby and momma

 

Bermuda

I went on a cruise with my dad and his friends Bud and Sandy to Bermuda last fall.  We left from Baltimore, and sailed for a day and a half to the island off the coast of North Carolina in the middle Atlantic.  We played a bunch of pool games, ping pong, did some swimming, and ate well while on the boat.  In Bermuda, we did some shopping, went to the house my Mom lived in as a child, and went on an island tour and snorkeling at the beach. 

Here we are in one of the many lounges, getting ready to play some trivia. 

Here we are in Hamilton, after taking a ferry ride to the island from the cruise ship port.  Dad and Bud are asking directions to the house my Mom lived in.

Here is Pembroke Hall, where my mom lived when she was 7 and 8.  They lived on the second floor.  She always wanted to come back, and they had this trip planned for her to get to see her home again. 

Bermuda is a volcanic island, which means the black rock is what we call Basalt.  Here I am posing with some of the basalt as we get ready to leave the beach for the day.

A view of Bermuda from the ship deck.  A terrific sunset.

Tiling a Frameless Mirror

Our master bathroom recently had the countertops installed, and I wanted to make our frameless, builder grade, mirror be a little more personal.  I had done a similar framing of a mirror using wood and glass tile (pictures here), but I wanted to try using only tile. 

I did take some in-between steps, as it takes a while to get everything you want done.  To begin:

No more ugly poop brown in a bathroom.

The counters were done, so painting the walls and then the cabinets ensued.

Now, the tiling of the mirror.  I started with a layout of stone and glass tile that I wanted to use, and laid it out to make sure I had enough.

Next, I began using all purpose liquid nails and glued the tiles to the bottom and sides of the mirror. 

When it came to adhering tile to the top, it was a little more tricky.  You can use tape to hold the tiles in place, but I found it more effective to add glue, put the tile in place, and remove it immediately from the mirror.  Then, I waited ~10 minutes until the glue became a little set on the outermost layer.  Then, I could add the tile to the mirror and it would stay in place!