Weekly Review in photos:

Happy 71st Birthday to my Dad...November 2nd (All Soul's Day;)  Celebrated in Sea Pines!


 Had an incredible day yesterday celebrating my dad's 71st birthday and visiting the beach for the first time since before Hurricane Matthew. Stopped in my favorite coastal Rock Shop, Black Market Minerals and chatted with the amazing people who make the magic happen there, picked up a few stones and gave them a sweet salt water bath 💙. It's funny, although I only live a few miles from the coast line, it never fails, every time I visit, I notice as I'm leaving that my breathing is incredibly free and deep...I'm not conscious of holding my breath (sometimes I catch myself)....but Grandmother Atlantic always helps me to breathe like I've never breathed before ... grateful
 
This picture perfect day was very very wonky for awhile...not even sure why...but the energy was just off for the whole clan. Thankfully these wonky moments are few and far between... and a big part of it is because the beach (and some chocolate 😳) makes everything better!

My new banner! (you know, in case I ever decide to do a craft fair again, or maybe a farmer's market or a town festival....I may never do that, but one can never be too prepared :D

da beeeeee

flashback:


the lemons are getting real, folks!

first of two Veteran's Day Performances this week:

I'm thrilled and honored to be collaborating with Brigid's grove to add sparkle and words to their beloved hand-crafted goddesses!  This has been a very exciting venture!
 



and I started making some darn cute, nature-inspired earrings!

weekly review:

It's hard to believe that just last weekend my beloved Bluffton/Hilton Head Island hometown was hit by a major hurricane. Just days later we are sitting at Bluffton Oyster Factory Park (hit hard here, an
entire forest was wiped out:(...On a good note, there's probably more room for parking!), at our town's sea food fest (the girls and I brought Zoe's;), listening to a great band, watching the sunset over our beautiful May River, dolphins, kayaks, boats, our community. I can't begin to express my gratitude for all who are working so hard to clean up my amazing Lowcountry community!



 
 

So many people were impacted by the hurricane in my community, in so many different ways, it's overwhelming. Even just evacuating can put a huge dent in the finances! (although there were busses and free shelters, but I'm not sure if these options were available for families with animal companions.)
I've made a few smaller donations here and there. This message was in response to a donation I made for someone who took it upon herself to go door to door in one of a Hilton He...ad's harder hit "working" neighborhoods. She knocked on every single door to see what they needed (help cleaning up, money, ride to the grocery store, p/u prescriptions, etc).

A small donation can go a long ways, here's a response I received:
"Dear Friend -
I apologize for the impersonal nature of
this message but I wanted to get right back to you and let you know what you accomplished in the last few days.
With your GENEROUS spirit on Saturday, I was able to get cash into the community quickly. On Sunday the work continued as well and is still being managed today (Wed).
In total - our monies served over 40 people including...
Fast food workers who had not been paid in a week.
Grocery Store workers who were in the same situation.
A guy that worked two jobs landscaping that had pennies to his name.
A woman that washes dishes and has three children that had used her money to evacuate.
A number of peoples homes who's home had been flooded
A woman who had been in a MAJOR car accident and her car was totaled.
Friend of mine who needed minor roof repair on her trailer but couldn't cover the costs (cash and donation from a church was used)
A woman who evacuated animals and spent her money on evacuation."

Finally cashing in our 15 year anniversary gift card from my parents...14 months later  
 
I'm happy to report, that my first-year container garden did survive Hurricane Matthew! I started out with: zucchini (but something would eat the flowers, must be a bug as we have deer fencing), tomatoes (which never flowered, sage (it just died 😳), strawberries (we got like two berries out of the whole $10 plant deal 😥, some flowers (they are well, thank you for asking;), basil (great while it lasted), and bell peppers and and Meyer lemons ... both are flourishing 🌶🍋


 
It's been four years since I created my last business cards...decided to give my new ones a whimsical face-lift: A collage showing My new back and front printed, heavy card stock, business cards! 
 


 
I've headed to the island a few times since Hurricane Matthew, it's still unreal, with all the damage and trees down, everywhere....and it downgraded from a 4 to a cat 2 by the time it reached us...if it would have remained a 4, it's possible most of us would have not had homes to return to...we were VERY fortunate.
 
3rd shift lawn cutting crew!
 
decided to change things up a bit this year....instead of going as a witch, I'm a hippie...my girls asked how that changes from the other 364 days a year :O
 
and you don't see this everyday?
 
I know people were upset that we weren't allowed back into Bluffton and HHI the second the hurricane was over for us ....but this might explain why...I can't imagine the amount of manpower and work that happened, just to get us back to Bluffton two days post Matthew. And Hilton Head was hit much harder. An incredible amount of cleanup has happened, but our beloved island is a mess :(.
So beyond grateful to all who work so hard so the rest of us can get back to normal ...it hasn't even been two weeks yet. And I have never seen so many tree trucks and catastrophe and disaster relief trucks in my entire life

Great day today: celebrated three flawless dental appointments by trick or treating and receiving lots of candy at our town's farmers market, and lunch at the Downtown Deli 
Piper had a great day....he went on a long my golf cart ride! and he saw a HUGE gator (and didn't bark;) 🐊

on this day, five years ago.....

"

May 18, 2010 ·

It was such a beautiful day we had to take an afternoon "field trip"---we hit Boerner Botanical Gardens and Basse's Farm for icecream (bribery for the girls letting me take a thousand pictures at the gardens of them:D)"

....we were so blessed to live within a couple of miles of these beautiful gardens. When we got home that night, we found out we were moving to South Carolina (and our WI life suddenly became very hectic with the mass exodus;) The girls' ages: 4 and 6....they both still had most of their baby teeth....

 





 

weed-free gardening idea :)

(sorry, I'm not sure who the original source is to reference)
"This worked well for me for many years - it's a simple, weed-free way to grow lettuce, spinach and even radishes. Take a 2 cubic feet bag of potting soil (I used Miracle Grow), rumple it around quite a bit to loose the soil, poke quite a few holes in the back side for drainage, then lay the bag on a smooth surface that will allow drainage and not get too hot, and cut out the top, leaving about a 4 or 5 inch border all around. Lightly rake through the soil to even it out and loosen it even more, then carefully, and evenly sprinkle the seeds around. I put my salad green seeds in an old spice bottle with large shaker holes, added some cornmeal, shook it all up to mix well and sprinkled them out of it. I put the cornmeal in there to allow me to see that I had covered the soil evenly. If doing radish seeds or spinach, just make lines the depth mentioned on the seed pack, plant the seeds and cover appropriately. For salad greens I sprinkled a lite covering of soil over the cornmeal and seeds and then spray-misted to water them in. I put my bags on metal sawhorses and grates to make them waist level. This kept the bags off the hot concrete and I didn't have to bend over when cutting my salad. When harvesting, just use a pair of scissors and cut what you need - don't pull the plants out. Same goes for spinach - they will grow back almost magically overnight, and you can't tell where you cut. Spray mist the seeds and plantlings at first when watering, until they are established, then you can water more vigorously as the plants mature. You will probably need to water more often, since the depth of the bags are not as deep as a regular in-ground garden. I just kept mine moist, but not sopping wet." 

 

random snapshots