iloveshelling cruise to Cayo Costa

 

I was lucky enough to be on Sanibel during Pam Rambo (of I Love Shelling fame) cruise to Cayo Costa.  Just in case he's not recognizable in this photo, that is none other than captain Brian Holoway at the wheel of Captiva Cruises boat.  You can look at his blog here..Capt Brian's Observations

You may access Pam's blog here..iloveshelling

Both are excellent to help with your Sanibel withdrawal symptoms :)

 

We have landed and have disembarked to go our own ways.

 

 

Luckily for me, there were lots of things to photograph because the shells just weren't there.

Don't get me wrong, there were plenty of shells, just not enough for all the people that had taken the cruise.  You pretty much had to be the first few off the boat and you had to high tail it ahead of everyone else.  The lady who did that found plenty of beautiful shells.

 

I am just not that competitive.  Plus I was busy taking photographs.

 

The Periwinkles on this tree are the closest I came to lots of good shells..lol

 

Not that I am complaining.  It was a beautiful day

 

And I have seen these drift trees so many times on Capt Brian's blog and I really wanted to take my own pictures of them.  Although Brian's are much better.

 

It was still so cool to try to capture them.

 

At times it was like I had the place all to myself.

 

 

And of course I had to capture the birds

This is another boat that pulled up as we were getting ready to leave.  Love their sunny yellow umbrellas!   Just remember if you take the cruise - sit up front and be the first off the boat if you really want good shells.

 

Ok..you shell lovers, I have teased you long enough.

 

 

Here is part of my overall haul....most of these found on the beach in front of Sanibel Inn.

 

 

Hope you've enjoyed these posts on my love of Sanibel because I have more to come......until then Thank you so much for popping by!  Please make my day and leave a comment. 

 

May all your dreams come true..............

The Inns of Sanibel

There are three inns on Sanibel Island and I used to get them terribly confused.  I could never remember which one was which.  I knew that one of them is on East Gulf Drive and one or two of them are on West Gulf Drive.  The Island Inn, Seaside Inn and Sanibel Inn.  Well, I know one of these that I will never have difficulty remembering again and that is the Sanibel Inn.

 

I ended up booking our trip later in the year than I normally do.  The condo complexes that I usually use were unavailable.  My five year old niece Kenna was not going to be joining us this year so it ended up being just myself and my brother.  I decided to try one of the inns this time.  I went back and forth and back and forth trying to decide which one to use.

 

 

 

I am the travel coordinator for all of the divisions of the company I work for.  I use Expedia a lot for our travels and based on the volume that we do, I am one of their elite members.  It just so happened that the Sanibel Inn had a special arrangement with Expedia to treat Expedia's elite members "special".  So I chose it.  I booked two Ocean View King hotel rooms with balcony.  One for myself and one for my brother Kenny.

 

 

Isn't the office so stinkin' cute!  It was overcast on the day I walked around with my camera.  But you can still see the wonderful plants and the lovely landscaping.  The brick driveway adds to the character as well, don't ya think?!

 

 

After booking I sent a fax and requested that our rooms be side by side.  We were sharing a car and being next door would just make everything easier.  I also mentioned that I was a VIP with Expedia in the note.

 

Well, let me just say that I was blown away upon check-in.  They upgraded, at no extra cost, us to a two bedroom condominium.

 

EACH!!

Both of us!!!  Kenny had a two bedroom condo and I had my own two bedroom condo with great ocean views. 

 

 

 

And that wasn't all.  Upon entering the condos, I saw that they had left us welcome gifts.  Each of us.  A nice bottle of wine.  A nice beach tote and a wonderful beach blanket.  WOW...OH WOW!!

 

 

Talk about feeling special.

 

I was blown away.  This is my unit, I can't remember if I took any pics inside Kenny's.  If I find them I will share them later.

 

And that "special' feeling didn't end there.

 

I noticed on the front door that there was a "do not disturb" or "please service room" card that you could place in the lock on the outside to let housekeeping know what you desired.  Housekeeping?  For a condo?  I've never heard of such.  But yes, you could have housekeeping daily, DAILY, if you wanted or needed it.  Crazy, huh?  Crazy GOOD!!!

 

The view through the screened in patio.

 

 

The Beach

 

Another great thing about the Sanibel Inn... Beach Chairs and Beach Umbrellas!  Yes, the other condos had them too, BUT you had to wrestle with them and drag them back and forth from the beach yourself.  Half the time you couldn't get the umbrella secure enough and you end up chasing it down the beach on a windy day or out to sea.  Yes, out to sea.  I remember strolling on the beach last year and looking out at the ocean and seeing an umbrella upside down floating further and further away.  I thought, "poor schmuck!".  Then I looked at my spot and realized that schmuck was me!! lol

 

 

Well not this year, thanks to the Sanibel Inn my umbrella was anchored firmly each day..

 

Well that's it for now.  I have so much more about the Sanibel Inn to share.  And of course some more beach shots and shell shots...............so stay tuned, my friends and Thank you ever so much for stopping by.

 

 

Dreaming of Sanibel

 

 

Wow.....I can't believe it's been nearly 11 months!!

Please do NOT look at my New Years Eve post....holy cow...holy moley!!  I promised to do better ..Holy Cow!!  It's been nearly 11 months since I've done a decent post.  11 MONTHS!!! 
I have so missed it.  I did not deprive myself of the pleasure of my favorite blogs.  I still look at them if not daily then at least weekly.  And I tried to comment so you guys would know that I haven't forgotten you.  I get so much pleasure from seeing what you have been up to.  I will ALWAYS visit.  You do a post and I am there, baby!!

What has prompted me to write again is my recent trip to my favorite place on God's Green....Sanibel Island Florida.  I've been back home for about 10 days now and I am so longing to be back on the Island.  I thought I'd share a little of my trip and in so doing I will feel connected to the Island again.

 

I love the shore birds.

 

I am terrible however because I can never remember the names

I mean I know the ones in the water are Pelicans and the ones on the beach are some type of gulls.  I just don't know which type.

 

My photos are straight from the camera.  I don't have the time to do any editing.  I know they would look ever so much more dramatic if I would edit.  I don't have a program that does it and pic monkey takes too long for me.

Anyone know of a free program that is downloadable so I can access it much quicker?

 

This post is going to be short and hopefully sweet :))  By the time I downloaded the last of my nearly 1000 vacation pics it is now 11:18pm and this girl has to get up at 5:30 am.

I won't promise another post but I do have some good shots that I'd like to share.

So Sanibel lovers stay tuned...............

 



giveaway

Hello Ladies,

I wanted to share a giveaway with you and introduce you to the wonderful blog of Cheryl's called "Beachcomber".  She lives in Australia and shares the beautiful coastline and her love of the sea with us. 

http://beachcomber26.blogspot.com/

This is straight from her post................................................................

Friday, 12 April 2013

giveaway

I thought it was time for another giveaway.. just in time for Mothers' Day or a treat for yourself.

The winner will receive a $30 jewellery voucher to spend in my Etsy shop. 

TO ENTER:

• Leave a comment 
• Become a follower on Google Friend Connect, Facebook, Instagram if you're not already
• Share this giveaway on your blog, Facebook, Pinterest and / or Instagram
• Every follow and share is an extra entry
• Overseas entries most welcome
• The winner will be drawn by Random Org same time next week

GOOD LUCK!

Cheryl

Happy New Year....and more bottles!

Happy New Year Everyone!

I hope that 2013 is good to all of us!  I don't know about you but 2012 was not my best year.  Not the worst either but definitely not the best.  I am going to try to have a more positive outlook as I enter 2013.  I am going to try to become more organized and more productive.  I will let you know how that goes...fingers crossed....lol.

I do want to share a few more bottles that I have made.  The first set are made from bottles that I am sure you can recognize.  They were the first bottles that I spray painted.  My BF liked them so much that I decided to put his monogram on it and let him have it.

then I put my monogram on one (well it's not totally correct) the "B" is my maiden name but I wanted to keep it "symmetrical" like his.

 

I also made mine a little more girly with a bigger flourish and I added some jewels as well.

I bet you know what bottles these are now.  Doesn't the detail show up with the silver metallic paint?  They are really detailed and quite pretty.

 

I know I should have staged these before posting but I really wanted to get this one in before the new year.

 

I also made a set of bottles for my 4 year old niece Kenna ( the love of my life)

 

 

Yes - these are Starbucks bottles too but these are the smaller ones.  And no, I didn't quite drink it all myself.  And yes, I have been saving them for a looong time.  That's why I have so many!!

I don't think she will remember, but on the plane home from Sanibel Island she told me she wanted rainbow butterflies. I think these qualify, don't you?

But I couldn't leave well enough alone and I aqdded a few more small butterflies and I am not liking them as well as I like the bottles before.  But it's too late to take them off..sigh.

I am going to make a set for my 1-1/2 year old cutie pie niece Jayden and my 4 year old nephew Braiden.  I will of course share when I do.

once again a little staging wouldn't have hurt.  instead you get to see my lovely workbench and all my stuff piled on it....sorry...lol

Signing off now.............must go see what you've been up to.

Merry Christmas (and more bottles)

Merry Christmas Everyone!!

I sincerely hope your day was everything you wished for.  I hope the new year brings even more good things your way.  I have so enjoyed visiting with you this past year.  I appreciate your friendship and camaraderie. I appreciate you sharing your creativity and your inspiration.  Most of all I appreciate YOU.

I was hoping to get this post in before Christmas day .... but alas I did not.  But I will get it in before Christmas day is over..lol......although barely.

More Starbucks bottles turned Christmas decor.  It started like this.....

And with some ribbon, mod podge, craft paints and e6000 (for the wire edges in the ribbon) we turned them slowly...

ever so slowly it seemed...( I am the worlds worst...I have no patience...I want the glue and paint to dry immediately so that I can move on  ... still waiting on stuff to dry....)

into this..........

side note:  after I took the first picture with the flash I previewed it on the camera and thought it looked too washed out.  So the next photos I took without flash and they are not as good, but it's too late to start over.

I really have no idea now what I am going to do with all these.  I did give the earlier ones I made with the gold ribbons on them to some of the girls in the office.  I fully intended to give these away to them as well but did not get them finished in time.

My friend Della at Del's Shells (who truly makes gorgeous stuff) suggested that I fill them with wrapped candy and I think that they will be too cute with Hershey's kisses inside to give as a thinking of you token at Christmas.  What do you think?

I do plan on using some throughout the house next year.  You have inspired me to decorate (at least for Christmas) much more than I have in the past.

I will be linking to some of the fabulous parties on my siode bar.  When I am finished visiting you guys and have a little extra time, I LOVE to hop around the blogs linked up to these parties. 

Thank you for stopping by.  It means the world!!

ps: I have no idea how I got that humongous picture at the top.  I could probably remove it but I think it looks kinda cool.