DIY- Desk Top Zen Garden

I have been wanting a Zen garden for a while now. AKA Japanese rock garden.

Zen gardens go way back to the sixth century when Monks created the first Zen gardens to aid in meditation. It was a place to go for peace and serenity. They would consist of a large area of sand in a setting that included rocks, small plants and rakes. Ripples in the sand represent the nature of water. Rocks are delicately placed to add energy.

Small Zen gardens are popular right now. Kits for these small gardens online can cost up to $100.00 depending on the quality of dish, sand and rock you choose. That's just crazy, so I decided to make my own for less than $9.00.

First I called my brother in law at the beach and asked him to bring some soft white sand when he comes to visit. When he arrived last week with a bucket of sand, I was excited. I mean, who else can have the beach delivered to them?

Next I ran out to the thrift store where I found a small shallow glass dish and an unwanted fake succulent to adopt.

I needed a rake so I visited an Etsy shop and purchased an authentic Art of Bali brand Zen rake. This was the most expensive part of my project costing a whopping $5.75.

I glued the plant to the bottom of the glass dish, poured in the sand and began to play. I think I spent a half hour playing with this thing once I got it all together. It's amazing how something so simple can add hours of soothing fun to your desktop or table.

Many people have resorted to small desk size Zen gardens as they reduce stress, improve focus and relaxation. Most Zen garden include a little buddha statue, but I prefer to stay away from that. Meditation? Na, My meditation is in prayer.
I just like the way it looks. It adds some tranquility decor to my office. I do think it is relaxing. After all, I am fidgety. This may even keep me from all the doodling on paper that I do.

Glass dish- Goodwill -.99 cent.

Plastic Succulent- Goodwill $1.49.

Desktop Zen garden Rake- TheZenGardner $5.75.

Sand- Myrtle Beach, SC-  FREE +1 cup of coffee.

No way to get real sand? 

Visit your local dollar store where you can purchase a small bag of craft sand for only a dollar.

Beach Birthday and LuLu's

We finally got in our last beach trip for the year. We fought two hurricanes to get there. One knocked us out completely in September and then this last one (Michael), held us back a day. I hate winterizing the camper. It means no more trips til Spring. Nick says we can still go if we want too. We would just have to winterize it again in case of a cold snap, but we never do. We will probably not take another trip down until March.

First something funny/cute I saw:.
I kid you not. As we were walking down the beach we approached an oxygen bag sitting on the sand, there was a very long oxygen tube that was running down to the surf to a lady with her feet in the water. I thought "now that's some beach loving dedication". I wish I'd had my camera at the time.

While we were there we celebrated Nicks birthday. He turned 59! Isn't that wonderful? Our plan was to grow old together and here we are living the dream. haha.

For his birthday dinner we visited a new place at Barefoot Landing called Lulu's. This place is owned by Lucy Buffett. Jimmy Buffett's Sister (I heard).
This was a neat place that included a gift store, indoor and outdoor eating, a sand playground outback for kids, a live band and a bar.

We requested seating on the patio. We loved the atmosphere of sitting out by the water way. The sun setting in the back ground made it a beautiful night to dine.

Nick ordered the blackened fish tacos and I order crab toast. It was a mixture of melted cheese and crab meat baked open face on a french bread with a side of fries.

I also ordered a mudslide drink to try. We laughed because of the cost, we figured it would come in a fancy glass topped with whip cream dripping down the sides. But no. It was more like a frosty in a LuLu Cup. It was good though.

My review of this place? Well, I thought it was rather pricey to be served on plastic and paper plates, with plastic cups. They had a roll of paper towels on the tables and tub of silverware you help yourself. The food was just OK. Nothing special. The over all dining experience was nice. We enjoyed watching the boats and listening to the live band. We liked it enough to try again but it will not be one of our first choices.

Picture Post- Beach

I am home from vacation. We had a great time. I dread going back to work. I will have a load of work to make up from being gone all week. I have unpacked and all of the laundry is done. I am exhausted, so this is going to be what I call a "picture post" of some photos I took this past week because I simply do not have a train of thought right now.

Enjoy while I pout. 

The beach was very crowded. We were out at 8 am each morning to get a spot. People would still come on and sit up right against us crowding our space. This would annoy me. Especially if they were smokers or had filthy language.

Here is nice shot of our camper. No one ever occupied the camp spot in front of us all week. That was pretty nice.

My late father in law made us this sign years ago when we first started camping. The Ice cream represents the ice cream company that my husbands grandfather owned in town.(before my time). 
It has our city and state painted on it as a conversation starter. (Edited for privacy).

The ocean ate my sunglasses. So before we left, I ran into the store for this new pair.

I was brave this past week and sported my bikinis. 

Sunday morning, I could see the sun breaking through the clouds and could not resist the chance for a good photo. You can see the rain bans moving in. However, we never saw rain all week.

More sun beams over the dunes.

Remember in a previous post where I mentioned we were not taking the daughter? Well, she ended up getting her boyfriend to bring her down on the last day. After they played around a while, We enjoyed a nice dinner and gave him a tour of the campground while we all had an ice cream cone.

Here they are being silly on the barrel train that runs around the campground all day. 

I’ll end here with a little Scripture I found to add to one of my photos. I thought it fit perfect with the scenery. 

Vacation Week

Nick and I have been at the beach all week. I have been wanting to do some blogging and I’ve tried my best to keep up with everyones new post. The internet is terrible here and as soon as I try to sit down with my iPad, it goes out. I have data but I limit the use.

We have started each day with a cup of coffee and breakfast. At 8am we head down to the sand and set out our umbrellas and chairs as the beach fills up fast with the crowd.

Despite the weather saying rain all week, we have not seen any rain. It’s been up to 100 degrees and the sun is hot. Once our chairs are set up, we head back to the camper to put on our tennis shoes and go for a three or four mile walk around the camp ground.

We have met some really nice people this week on the beach. It seems just about everyone is from around the same area as we are. We have met 3 preachers, and 4 school teachers. We even talked to some Canadians and spent 15 minutes explaining to them what “Grits” were. They have never even heard of grits. We advised them to go to the breakfast place in the campground and order a bowl. 

One afternoon we met up with my brother in law for his birthday dinner at a Japanese restaurant. We enjoyed watching the chef prepare our food. I had shrimp and chicken and Nick had the shrimp and steak. 

We had enough food left over that we heated it up on the grill the next night for dinner on the picnic table.

After we ate we walked off our dinner at the outlet mall nearby. In one of the court yards they had a seating area with these fun egg shaped chairs. I think they are actually called “plop chairs”. I do not know why, but I loved these chairs that were also light weight and moveable. I would love to have a set of these in my yard.  

Nick took a photo of me sitting in one. You can see his shadow. Ha.

If anyone can find these chairs on the internet anywhere, let me know. 

Now we are headed back out to the sand to soak up some more sun, make more friends and people watch.

Oh and one more thing. I saw a Guinea pig on a boogie board yesterday, I kid you not. I did not have my camera with me at the time but I hope to see it again today and will be sure to get a photo so people will believe me.

Hang ten

Peanuts On The Beach

Our trip to the beach started out slow but we eventually got going. We headed out early after breakfast and coffee Saturday morning only to find one of my tires was flat. Nick could not find a hole or a leak but it was all the way flat with no warning from the day before. We had just gotten them rotated last week along with an oil change. We like to make sure everything is right before we hit the road. Nick used our little portable tire pumper upper and got it back to pressure. After convincing him it was not the end of the world, we took our chances and headed on to the coast. He checked the pressure upon arrival and they were perfect. Not sure what had happened. 

We woke up Sunday morning and the sun was blazing hot. It felt like satan’s sauna. After a nice three mile walk we.........No wait, It was not a “nice” walk. It was miserably hot. I love the hot weather but not today. Anywhow, after our walk, we visited the general store here on the campground. I could hear some young girls giggling and grossing out over the boiled peanuts in some cooker pots over beside the hotdogs. They obviously have never had any.  

However, I could not resist. I love boiled peanuts and I didn’t care how hot it was outside, I wanted a bowl. Yes, I turned down ice cream for a bowl of hot cajun seasoned peanuts. 

They made the perfect mid morning snack while we were settled under the umbrella on the beach. Nick helped me eat them. There are also a few hungary Seagulls standing around waiting on any nuts that may fall. I’m not sure why everyone is watching us eat peanuts. Maybe they have never seen someone eat boiled peanuts before or they might be thinking of getting a bowl for themselves. Maybe it’s the wasp thats flying around me causing me to junp up and run every few minutes. 

Do you like boiled peanuts? The first time I ever had any was only a few years ago while visiting the NC mountains. They were selling them on the roadside. 

Rain and Sand

It’s Tuesday and I am just getting around to posting about my weekend beach trip. It was a great trip for a Duck!

My husband, daughter and I took a trip to our beach camper this past weekend. We knew rain was in the forcast but plans were already set. I get a limited amount of days off from work so we have to go when we can. 

We can never really go by the weather forcast for the beach since it can be so unpredictable. It can be raining a mile off the beach and still be sunny and beautiful on the beach. 

ANY WAY....It was terrible this past weekend. Rain, rain and more rain. The camper gets very small when we are all stuck inside. Cabin fever will set in quick. We literally would stare out the windows and once the rain would stop, we would go outside and walk around. It was off and on every fifteen minutes. We finally made the decision to go for our excersise walk in the rain. It was very warm so the rain felt refreshing. We were soaked from head to toe but it was fun. Of course we could have gotten out and went shopping, but for what? We didn’t need anything nor the money to waste. We were there for the sand and sun.

While my daughter watched a little tv, me and Nick headed out for a walk on the beach during another rain break. We didn’t drive 210 miles not to get our feet wet in the ocean. However, I did more than that. I actually fell in the ocean. I wanted Nick to snap a photo me in the water. Just as he snapped the photo, a wave took my feet out from under me. He had a good laugh with that. 

One day I took my excersise walk/run on the beach. I decided not to let the misty rain keep me imprisoned. 

Later on that afternoon we got some ice cream and played a few games of skeet ball in the campground arcade.

We made it a short day and finally headed out to dinner. We visited the local winery then ended the night with at trip to the outlet malls. 

Of course the drive home was sunny. 

Today is...

• I am 49 and don't feel a day over 32.
• Well except when I’m around my daughters friends, then I feel 49.
• I don’t know how to act because I have never been this old before. 
• Inventors must have thought I’d be a hot one since they invented the smoke detector the same year I was born. 
• I lived in this world before Emails, cordless phones, automatic sliding doors and ATM’s. 
• No one knew what a laptop computer was or a GPS. 
• Prozac was also invented after I was born. They saw me coming. 
• Did you know the first personal computer was invented in 1983 and called an “Apple Lisa”? Just had to throw that out there. 
• Microwaves were just getting popular in homes and moms actually cooked. 
• We didn’t have Xboxes or Nintendo . 
• We played pong until Atari came out.
• We also played hopscotch, jack rocks and marbles.
• We swung on a swing set almost every day 
• And played in the woods all the time. 
• If we were not playing outside, it meant to our friends that we were grounded. 
• I just realized, I’m too young to be this old. 

The birthday fun actually started last weekend when mom prepared a wonderful birthday dinner with family. Four out of six of us have May birthdays. The fun will last through this weekend with a short get away with my daughter and husband. 

I need to enjoy it while I can still get around.

Here is a the “Apple Lisa” 

People Are Rude!

Sometimes I wonder if people are more rude than ever or if I'm just turning into an old fogey.

We went to a restaurant this past weekend because I really wanted some crab legs from Duffy's Seafood Shack. Don’t let the word "shack" confuse you. This place looks like a shack but the food is delicious and the prices are high. It’s more expensive than I usually will spend on a meal but since we were on a little short vacation, we thought we’d splurge a little. 

The restaurant was not quiet as crowded as it usually is and we were seated fairly quick. We placed our order and nibbled on some peanuts while we waited for our food to come out. As soon as our food arrived, so did a group of ladies. Twelve of them to be exact. They looked high class as they were all dressed in designer clothes and fancy pocketbooks. 

They were really having a good time and I think that's great but they were so loud! They were terrible! Seriously. They screamed at the top of their lungs back and forth at each other and laughed like hyenas. I could see other people doing eye rolls as they too had to hear the obnoxious behavior. 

We were sitting at the table beside them. I could not hear my own voice much less Nicks. I think I swallowed my food whole as I was a nervous wreck. Not only were they loud but we had to hear all about pet surgeries, PMS issues and bad pedicures! I was disgusted. If our food was not already at the table, we would have asked the waiter to move us.  

Needless to say, we did not get to enjoy our 50.00 meal. The girls got the stink eye look from me as we were leaving. Nick told me to leave it alone. It was obvious they wanted to make a scene and wanted someone to say something to them. It was not my place to say anything, or was it? I understand they were having a good time but really??? People are just rude!

What would you have done in this situation? 

Weekend at the Beach

Nick and I took a little trip to the beach this past weekend. We kept putting it off while watching the weather. We wanted to go when it was gonna be sunny and warm. We did not make our final decision to go until Wednesday. So Thursday I worked half a day, then we took off on a four hour drive to the coast.

It was St. Patricks Day weekend with lots of festivals, car shows and parades around. We didn’t go to any though. Nick is not a fan of being in crowds. If we have to fight for a parking spot or bumping shoulders to hear a band, we will turn around and leave. So we just stayed in the campground and enjoyed the little peek of sunshine on the beach.

Here are a couple cars we passed on our walk. We saw many old cars everywhere we went because there was a big car show going on in the heart of Myrtle Beach. We also passed many of them on the highway on our way home as they were heading out.

The campground did have a golf cart parade on St. Patricks Day. We were sun bathing when I seen them riding by. I jumped up from my beach chair and ran across the dune to catch a shot of them as they passed by. I barely got there in time. 

“Don't blink or you'll miss it”. 

We had a pretty good time even though the wind made the 72 temperatures feel like 42. 

We took some long walks, went out to dinner and relaxed some on the beach. 

Then this happened. 

Yes this was a pig on the beach. This guy walked his pig every day.  It was hilarious and everyone would stop and stare or walk up and pet it. 

For the record, Here are a few things you do not say when you see a pig on the beach:

“Wow, what a ham!”

“I smell bacon”

“We are having a BBQ, want to come?”

“You can come early”

“Make sure the pig is dressed”

Ok, I know you animal lovers out there do not think any of that is funny but we had fun joking about it all weekend. The pig didn’t seem to mind. His little tail wagged and a smile was always on it’s face. 

The weekend was too short and now its back to work. We will not be going back again until May. I sure hope its a lot warmer then so we really can have a BBQ. 

Camper Hack

We have been using a travel trailer camper on vacations for about 15 years now. My first experience was after I married. I had no clue what to expect but now I love it. Something about having your own bed and toilet away from home.

We have owned two campers. The first one was a 27ft sportsman without a slide. The second one and the one we currently still have is a 34ft Puma with a super slide.

When I speak of a slide, its where part of the camper will slide out a few feet to make the room larger. It really makes a big difference in comfort.

With just a push of a switch, the room will slide in and out. 

Our slide switch is located inside the door right below the light switch. It is a much larger switch but can easily be confused with the light switches. I have actually hit the slide switch causing it to slide in while the camper is occupied. It will stop when released but that single oops of hitting it will cause it to move in just enough to smash a toe, break something in its path or possibly blow a fuse. 

It could also result in a safty issue if you leave a pet in the camper while your gone or a child left unattended while you turn around a second. 

After trying to figure out a solution. My husband came up with the bright idea of purchasing a receptical cover and placing it over the switch so there are no accidental hits.

Though red is the only color he could find, I will accept the tacky look for a sense of safety. 

Isn't he smart? 

I think newer campers and RVs come with a cover over the slide switch or the slide switch is located out of reach of children and pets. Speaking of "newer", We are ready to look for us a new one. We want a different set up with a front living area and give up a second bedroom since the daughter is older and travels less with us on our trips. Thought they are nice, we are also ok having one without a slide. We spend most of the time outside under the awning anyway.

Now if I can just find a hack to keep me there so I don't have to come back to work.

At the Beach

Hope everyone had a fun and fabulous St. Patricks Day!

It was an absolutely wonderful day for me. Why? Because I took a day off and we decided to head on down to the beach.

But first I had to have my traditional St. Patrick's Day breakfast. I love me Lucky Charms. I absolutly could eat a whole box in one sitting.
Luckily, they make these single serving sizes.

 

We had been planning on going to the beach this weekend for a while but the crazy weather decided to turn cold on us and we were not sure if we wanted to go this weekend or the next. Next weekend looked more rainy but warmer. After thinking about it, we decided to go on down this weekend. A cold day at the beach is better than a cold day at home if you ask me.

This is our first trip of the year. We hooked up the water and plugged in the electricity. Then we did an inventory of things we needed for the season and headed out for a nice walk. We will head out to Walmart after dinner and pick up the things on our list.

Its always nice to walk around the campground and we never fail to find friends or family staying at the same park. Since the car show is this weekend down in Myrtle Beach, we are seeing a lot of nice old cars around too.

After lunch, I was looking for something St. Patrickish to get into. We walked up to the nearest ocean side bar which was about three hotels down the coast from us. 

 

We found a warm spot in the sun and an enjoyed a little rest with a view. Nothing green to see here.

Afterwards, we walked about half a mile down to my brother in laws place to pay them a little visit. 

Saturday morning we woke up to a cloudy day. It was cold. That did not stop us from getting our walk in. We could see the sun popping through the clouds. 

 

Now we are cuddled up in the camper where its warm so I decided to write this little post. We hope it will warm up, but I doubt it as the wind is riping through the air. This is definatly not a great weekend to catch some warm sun, but its still a getaway we needed badly. 

 

Later we plan to go out to a nice dinner and maybe a cruise down the boulavard. 

Sunscreen Changes

Summer is here! Before you head outside be sure you protect yourself from the dangers of the sun.

I'm one of those people that do not burn easily. In fact, to be honest, I don't usually even wear sunscreen even while I'm on the beach.  However, I always made sure my daughter was protected. I just hate the oily sticky feeling and then worry if I miss a spot.
As I've gotten older, I have been using makeup and BB creams with SPF on my face just to keep it for getting that leathery look.

Even though I do not use sunscreen like I should, I highly recommend everyone to wear it. I am in my 40's and I am just noticing the affect of never using the stuff. Not pretty.
Before you buy that Banana Boat or Coppertone, read some of these interesting facts and changes I have learned.

Broad Spectrum:
The FDA has made changes to the labels on sunscreen. You will notice when you purchase a bottle or spray it will have on the label "Broad Spectrum". This means it will protect from both A and B ultraviolet rays and has a protection factor of 15 or more.
If it does not say "Broad Spectrum", then it only protects against sunburn, not sun cancer, according to the FDA.
Products that do not meet those requirements will have an ugly label on them saying "Skin Cancer/Skin Aging Alert". Wow if that's not enough to make you put back and spend a little more on the good stuff.

Water Proof:
No sunscreen is guaranteed to have endless hours of protection. It is important you reapply every 40 to 80 minutes. New rules now also require manufactures to tell customers how long the sunscreens can stand sweat and swimming. In fact, manufactures are prohibited from even claiming their product is waterproof at all.

SPF Levels:
Choose at least 15 to 20 SPF. Higher levels only filter about one or two more percent. The FDA is still in the process of changing the SPF labels. Some products will have as high as 100 SPF printed on the labels. This is misleading. FDA is considering making manufactures lower the number to 50 and just put "+" after the number (50+).

When I do rarely wear sun protection, I notice I still tan, just slower, and as a matter of fact, the tan will stay longer if I use the sunscreen. Now, lotion down and get out there and enjoy yourselves!

Birthday Beach Weekend

Just got in from a wonderful weekend at the beach. I also had a birthday while I as there. No party, No presents, No caked Just me and my Husband enjoy time together at our camper by the sea. I could not ask for anything else I'd rather have.

It was so nice. The weather was perfect. It was a short trip. I only had Friday off so we left early that morning. We want to get in every bit of sunshine and sand that we can in the short time we have. We didn't go out far on the highway while were there because it was Bike Week at the beach this weekend and honestly, all those motorcycles scare the crap out of me. Im always afraid they will get hurt. I become a nervous wreck. The traffic was terrible at times with rumbling motorcycles as far as you can see, so we stayed close to the camp site.

We spent Friday afternoon relaxing on the beach and a nice little dinner that night. Saturday morning we were up with the sunrise, ate a small breakfast and had coffee. After we had our coffee we ventured out for a morning walk around the campground.

As we walked further into the permanent home neighborhoods, we could see families having breakfast together and smell bacon in the air. Everyone we passed would give us a friendly smile and a "good morning" wave. We ended up walking four miles before we headed back to the camper, slipped our shoes off and took another walk down the beach for another two miles or so.

The beach walk was more relaxing as we skimmed the beaches and tide pools for sand dollars and sea life.
 

 

I learned that most of the l the pretty shells, no matter how small, have renters in them. Some of the tiniest shells had little crabs curled up inside. We found sea urchins and even an eel. Yes, I learned that just because it looks like a stick, does not mean it is. My husband spotted it first. About three inches of it was sticking out of the sand and water in the tide pool. He said, " This thing is breathing and moving".  I couldn't get to my camera fast enough before it shot back into its hole under the sand.

There are also so many creatures that look like the sand and you will never see them until they move. The beach was full of sea life that morning. I also found several big shells and sand dollars. I love finding sand dollars. They just lay on the sand like rare flower or gem.

After lunch we grabbed our chairs and headed out to the beach to catch some sun shine. It was so warm and beautiful but cool enough that we didn't have to put up the umbrella.

After I packed up to go home, I walked over to the open air shelter to the Sunday church service while my husband finished with unhooking the camper and making sure everything was complete. The ride home was nice and my daughter came over that afternoon with me a birthday surprise of a new pair of shoes and an angel food cake with strawberries and whip cream. That's my favorite and goes light on my diet. 

Now its back to the office. I hate going back to work after getting spoiled by the beach life.  I just need to hang on a few more weeks and we will be going back to the beach for the third time this year so far. Meanwhile , I plan to make some little sail boat crafts with the small pieces of driftwood I found.