Tutorial: EASY Graduation Cap Decorations

I had never decorated any of my graduation caps before, mostly because I either didn’t remember or the task seemed too daunting. I mean, who wants to compete with caps like these:

For those of us that can’t paint like Van Gogh or bedazzle with the best of ’em, I suggest some scrapbook supplies and fabric glue…

I threw this together in about 15 minutes, which is especially handy if you have a needy 3 month old at home. No hand-ruched fabric. No gluing 18,000 rhinestones. Just pick something that you like in the scrap book isle (Which could actually be the hardest part. There are so many great choices!) and stick them to your cap. In hind sight, I wish I would have added more flowers, but overall I’m happy with the concept.

Now I just need to graduate again so there’s another cap to decorate…

Congratulations to all of the 2015 graduates, and go Gators!

Bathroom Facelift

I’ve expressed my feelings before about the unfortunate peachy two-toned tiles in my bathroom. It’s too much of an undertaking to replace it right now, so I’ve been left to try about 5 different paint colors in an attempt to find a color that makes the tiles tolerable. My last color was a step in the right direction, but it ended up being way to dark. The whole room felt closed and tiny…

I also learned the value in sampling the paint before painting. I always pick up any good paints I find in the oops paint section of home depot, so I had plenty of options already in the garage. The light in my bathroom is apparently very bizarre though, because none of the paint looked like it should have once it was on the walls…

The two samples at the end were supposed to be grey, not brown and the one that looks grey was supposed to be light blue. So… test your colors. Anyway, I chose the second color from the right, which was the color left over from my bedroom. I was impressed, as I normally am with Behr, at how outstanding the coverage was. It only took two coats of Behr paint to cover up the really dark teal color..

The left side is two coats and the right is after one. Another problem I had, that you can see from the picture above, is the paint lines. After so many coats of paint, the paint lines are just ridiculously bad regardless of the use of painters tape and edging tools.

You can see the lighter color, the old teal color and even some of the dark green from two colors ago. My mother had the perfect solution, as mothers often do. Turns out a little line of caulk fixed everything…

Tada!! I hope the tip about the caulk lines was helpful. That is certainly going to make my life easier in the future! Thanks, Mom.

Top 5 Things to do in Key West

There is so much to do and see in Key West, and often with very little time, you don’t want to waste time and money while you’re there. Here are my top five touristy things that everyone who visits Key West should do…

1. Take a snorkel tour on the reef.

You can snorkel anywhere in the Keys, but you won’t beat the scenery on the reef. You’ll see so many types of plant and aquatic life. I have been a few times, but this last time was the best. I saw a nurse shark (not as scary as you’d think!), Barracuda (much scarier than the shark), Yellow Fin Tuna, Tarpon, Yellow Tail Snapper, Grouper, Blue Parrot Fish, Sheep’s head and so many more…

It’s harder to find water that is more beautiful than what’s in the Key’s. When you’re passing along the south side of Key West, there’s a really well defined line dividing the Atlantic Ocean and the Gulf. It’s pretty cool to see…

Even cooler through one of the deck-hands expensive Costa sunglasses.. The tour costs around $45 per person, plus a tip for the staff. It’s the only thing on the list that is slightly costly, but it’s well worth the money.

2. Mallory Square

From costly to free! Mallory Square has a sunset celebration that happens every evening. The Square is right at the end of Duval Street and very easy to find. Just look for the crowd of people with random jugglers, tightrope walkers and acrobats popping up throughout them…

“Look, Mom, I’m a lamppost.”

The cat show is great, but also bizarre. You should also see Dr. Juice’s tumbling show. He’s been performing on Mallory since I’ve been going, which is well over a decade now. The tightrope walker is also a permanent fixture on Mallory. The rest of the performers rotate pretty regularly but they are all very good. It’s also a good place to buy souvenirs, with several artists selling locally made goods. The best conch fritters in Key West are sold there too, so order half a dozen and don’t forget a side of spicy mustard!

3. Paddle Boarding

Despite being an island, Key West only has one tiny beach. The beach itself isn’t particularly exciting, but Sunset Water Sports has a booth where you can rent all kinds of things like paddle boards, kayaks, mini sailboat things and beach chairs. The paddle boards are only $22 an hour and they’re so much fun! It’s hard at first, but once you get the hang out it, it’s pretty easy.

Until your mother “accidentally” pushes you off…

3. The Cuban Chugs Exhibit

I already wrote a post about it, but I think it’s worth mentioning twice. It’s really eye-opening to the hardships that other people are dealt and made me really thankful to live in the country that I do.

5. Get some good Cuban food!

There are so many delicious places to eat in the Keys, especially Cuban places! Being only 90 miles from Cuban, I’d say it’s pretty close to the real thing. Sandy’s Cafe is one of my favorite places, but there are plenty of options and trying them all out is the best part…

So there you have it. Those are my top five! Beyond that, the jet ski tours are a lot of fun and the ghost walks have a lot of interesting history. Really, you can do anything while you’re there and it will be great. You’re in Key West which is better than where you’d be if you weren’t on vacation!

Bucketlist Item #218

Bucket list item #218 is to make a list of my favorite quotes. I love a good quote and a good picture, so why not put the two together for my bucket list?

With that, I give you the first two quotes…

Multilingual Mom Problems..

Your mom might speak more than one language if…

She gets home from the Netherlands you have a conversation like this:

*Gets back from running and finds mom lying down in her room.*

Mom: “says something in Dutch that I don’t understand.”

Me: “I just got back. Sorry, did I wake you?”

Mom: “A few more Dutch sentences that I don’t understand.”

Me: “Ok…. I don’t know what you just said…”

Mom: “…more Dutch.”

Me: “Ok well I’m going to go take a shower.”

Mom: “Goed.” (Good in Dutch)

This happens every time and it is still so funny to me. I can expect that she will call me by her younger sister’s name at least three times, before she fully becomes Florida Mom again. Love you, Mom! 🙂

Chelsea Market

This last trip to New York City, we didn’t have a lot of set plans. Our schedule consisted of waking up in the morning and picking a place on the map that looked interesting then taking it from there. This is how we discovered the Chelsea Market. It. Is. Glorious. The old brick building, the re-purposed materials as decor and furnishings, all the different restaurants…. It’s beautiful.

Take a look at the Stray Kat art gallery… the owner is as entertaining as any of the paintings…

You could buy some post cards…

Or you could buy some hand made cards from the nicest person in NYC..

Look at that table!

I almost have enough crates to make a wall like this…

So if you’re in the Chelsea neighborhood and you have some time, go take a look. You won’t regret it!

New York, I love you.

I finally just booked my next trip and I’m going back to NYC! If you missed my video from my last trip, you should really go watch it here. This time I’m going with my mother. We decided it had been too long since we had gone anywhere, and after looking through some very over priced Caribbean options we went the complete opposite direction, so next month we’re off to the Big City. I was so excited to go back, that I went through some of my pictures from my last visit and wanted to share a few of my favorites here.

The Met..

Music is everywhere in NYC, it seems..

The Empire State Building.

9/11 Memorial. One of many..

Lady Liberty.

Lazy Sunday in Central Park.

I’m excited to see many new things and revisit old favorites. Share your NYC travel tips below!

Travel Style 101: Scarving

I have this condition called, “I was born in Florida where we have no style sense.” Flip-flips are everyday wear, in many cases for work and church too. Outside of those things, shorts and a t-shirt are really all you need. I also had a double whammy in that I went to a school with a uniform. Not just a dress code, but full on plaid skirt, knee-high stockings and penny loafers. Traveling with any sort of style while not packing three suitcases was definitely a challenge for me at first.

When I went to Paris in 2008, I was walking around in jeans, flip flops and a t-shirt (terrible I know). It got really chilly in the afternoon, so we stopped at a market and bought some scarves.

I got this baby. I think I thought “Oooh shiny! Pretty colors!” I still do really love this scarf, but this matches with very few things, it’s pretty obnoxious and orange really isn’t a good color for me…. which is why, like a terrible daughter, I stuck my mom with the gaudy orange scarf and took her wisely chosen, black and brown scarf…

She’s so much better at this stuff than me! It matched with everything and it was really warm!

It started like this…. then the orange beast descended upon my mother…

And I “borrowed” the black one for the rest of the trip..

Much better right? Plus, how awesome is that subway entrance! Am I the only one with fashion slip ups? I’d love to hear your stories in the comments below!

So Apparently I’ve been to Paris…

My mom and I were going to the Netherlands to visit family, and we decided to tack on a trip in the beginning to Paris. Mom was coming from Costa Rica and I was coming from Florida. We managed to get flights that would meet up in New York, so we could do the last legs together. That sounds all well and good, except I had to leave Florida at 6 AM and then wait in JFK for 6 hours until she got there, then another 2 hours wait for the flight to Amsterdam and then connection to Paris. Needless to say, it was and long day and I maybe slept 1 hour the whole time. I am not one of those people that is blessed with the ability to sleep on planes. It was around 8AM when we arrived in Paris and we couldn’t check into the hotel until 1PM! Thankfully, we were allowed to drop our luggage there, so we at least didn’t have to walk around the city with them! You can see bags the size of the Boeing airplanes under our eyes in the pictures from that morning…

It was such a gorgeous day and we tried to enjoy it to the best of our abilities. After a few hours of dragging ourselves around, we saw a cute little park that was full of people sitting in the sun, having picnics. We found an empty bench and thought we would sit for just a few minutes… HA!… We. Passed. Out. In the middle of all the bustling activity of a gorgeous Parisian morning, there were two tourists, mouths agape, heads fallen backwards, probably drooling and oblivious to the world. After about 45 minutes we became conscious again (maybe the locals had made a game of hitting us with bread crumbs or something), had a good laugh and shrugged it off by saying we’d never see these people again. This pretty much sums up our first day, besides a marathon nap (actually in our hotel this time) and a nice dinner at a street cafe. There is much more to say about Paris, but that’s for another post 🙂

Cross-Eyed Monster

What is it about cats that makes it necessary for them to crawl into every open door, cabinet, crevice or in this case, carpet roll?

We also have a Husky who sheds on EVERYTHING. We were in the process of de-hairing our floors when we threw all the rugs outside. When we went back to get them all, this is what we found.

Pretty cute, huh? I was able to get a few quick pictures before the dog came over and sniffed his butt, which caused a minor heart attack on the cat’s part. They actually get along pretty well. By “pretty well” I mean they try to each pretend the other doesn’t exist. That’s good enough for me!

Kitten is the cats name (I’m not good with the whole naming thing, obviously. Hopefully, I improve before I have kids. I have a feeling naming all of my children “Baby Human” would be frowned upon) and the dogs name is Keen. It’s a good thing he was already named when we got him. If not, I’m afraid he would have been “Puppy” or “Little Husky Puppy” if I were feeling fancy. I guess it’s only fair to put a picture of “Little Husky Puppy” on here too…