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Confessions of a Misplaced Southern Belle

Not so misplaced anymore!

Village of the Arts Adventure

Several months ago, my friend Chip at Oceans and Lands Custom Travel Planners let me know that he was headed to my neck of the woods to explore the Village of the Arts in the middle of Bradenton.   Since it had been years since I’ve explored that area, my husband and I decided to join him and Chris for the afternoon.  The VOTA website describes the area like this: “The Village is an eclectic mix of early 20th century residential bungalows, Florida Cracker homes, and later additions. The neighborhood features a legal commercial overlay, which enables a rare live/work/play mix. Village boundaries stretch from 9th Ave West to 17th Ave West between 9th St West and 14th St West. Over 275 individual properties are within the Village. McKechnie Field, voted Florida’s best minor league ballpark is a block away, and downtown Bradenton and the Riverwalk, are within easy walking distance?.”

As the VOTA covers a large area, take a tip from my husband and snap a photo on your phone for easier reference.  Thank goodness we did, because you can get turned around if you are too busy chatting with your friend. (cough…me….cough).2016-08-01_0006
First things first, we were there for lunch and Chip had done some research and wanted to eat at Ortygia, a Sicilian restaurant owned by Chef Gaetano. 

We were a little on the late side for lunch, it was nearly two, so we were a little concerned when no one was inside. Chef Gaetano popped his head of of the kitchen and welcomed us with open arms. Everything looked so good that we had a hard time deciding, so the chef sat down at our table (he also personally took our order and served us) and suggested options to each of us. He was so fun to talk to and we all said that we would go back. From what I have heard, his tiny restaurant can be difficult to get into on the weekends, especially during snowbird season.

 

Don’t let the tiny yellow house deceive you. Chef Gaetano served up some of the best Sicilian food that I have ever had.  He even managed to please my super picky husband, who lived in Sicily and is very particular about food that claims to be true Italian.

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Everything was so delicious that Scout, a guide dog puppy in training, wanted to  see what Chris was eating.
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As we were leaving, we ‘lost’ Chip. We wandered on down the street before we realized that he wasn’t with it. Turns out, he snuck in the kitchen to talk to the chef who was prepping for dinner.
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If I remember correctly, this was a lamb dish. It smelled heavenly. (We also had dessert, but we all forgot to take a photo.)
Afterwards, in an effort to walk off lunch, we took a stroll through the village to check out the sites. As you can see, there are lots of colorful galleries and yard art. Sadly, lots of the galleries had closed for the day, but we all agreed that we would like to come back when it was cooler and participate in one of the many Art Walks that they stage.  I think we managed to wear Chris and Scout out.  I would highly recommend having lunch or dinner at Ortygia, it is worth the drive. Check out the Village of the Arts website for a calendar of upcoming events. 

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Later in the week, stay tuned for the first part of my road trip to Louisiana last month. Lots of photos coming up.

A Night with Amy Tangerine

Let’s get this out of the way. I am a MAJOR fan of Amy Tan of Amy Tangerine fame.  I love her spirit, her quirkiness and her ability to make me want to get out of my rut and craft something. When I heard that she was going to be at Whim So Doodle in St. Pete, I jumped on the phone and made a reservation for her Scripting with Watercolor class.  I had missed her last year when she was in town, and I wasn’t going to miss her this time.  I have been watching Amy write with watercolors and a waterbrush for a while now and I was intrigued as to how she made it look so…not like a two year did it…which is how mine looked. So Wednesday, May 11, after work, I drove over the Sunshine Skyway to Nirvana…aka, Whim So Doodle for a class. I walk in the door and Amy is standing there at the cash wrap. For two seconds I was totally star stuck, something I’m not usually. After trying not to act like an idiot, I proceeded to shop a little since there was some time before class.  I picked up a few things, my favorite being this Whim So Doodle Stamp Set that Amy designed.  Isn’t it adorable? I can’t wait to break this out and use it.  (Check out the flamingo.)

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The coffee cups are adorable and one of them is going to my daughter. (She has a slight addiction to her local Starbucks)

Isn’t this chalk sign adorable? I don’t know how wrote this out, but that person has some serious skills.

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Class was so much fun. The kit that came with the class was awesome. image

Paint, a Tim Hotlz Detailer brush, two Amy Tangerine traveler’s notebooks, craft tags, a script booklet, plus (what you can’t see) a practice notebook and some watercolor paper.
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Amy is an awesome teacher! The class was small so she got to spend some one on one time with each of us, encouraging us and showing us tip and tricks to make lettering not so stressful!
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Before we got started, we all had to make a trip to the bathroom to fill up our waterbrushes. (What is it about women always going to the bathroom together?!)
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You can see my attempts.
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At the end, Amy was kind enough to offer to script our name or a word on one of the tags. I chose my word of the year, ‘flourish’. I love it and it is in my planner so I can see it every day.
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I had so much fun, and I have decided to try more classes and to get out of my box. Thank you Whim So Doodle and Amy! Come back soon!

Raise a Puppy, Change a Life

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In nearly two years of photographing Puppy Raiser Day, this is probably the one photo that truly defined for me why we raise puppies. I know we talk about the want a puppy/need a puppy, but today, this sweet lady was crying before she even got to Carol and Bob. Carol got up and hugged her and they stood that way for several moments with her just crying. All I could hear was ‘thank you’ or ‘thankful’, I couldn’t make it out, but the sheer emotion of what this sweet lady was feeling was something that can’t be described. This is why we raise those puppies, and this is what I will remember when we turn in Aja next month. (meanwhile, Tiki has figured out that she knows these people and headed over to the bench…lol)

For more information on raising a puppy, visit Southeastern Guide Dogs and click on Volunteer.

A Look into the Winter Fab Fit Fun Box.

Over the last few years, monthly and quarterly subscription boxes have popped up like mushrooms after a rainstorm. The premise is simple.  Pay a monthly or quarterly fee and a box show up with sample and full size products for you to enjoy.  This is a good way for brands to launch new products or to get their name out in front of their target audience. I first became aware of subscription services several years ago when beauty boxes were all the rage. I tried two different ones then opted to not renew as I didn’t think the value was there. Fast forward to this year when you can find just about any type of subscription that you could want.  You can find anything from makeup to food to crafts and everything in between. I have seen the FabFitFun box on various YouTube channels and in magazines.  Amanda had tried it out and said how much she liked it, so I decided to take a chance on it. This box is a seasonal box, which means that you get a box delivered once a season, for a total of four times per year.  The price per box is $49.99 and there is a discount code for your first box.  Each box is guaranteed to have over $300.00 worth of items, making the cost per box appear to be a good deal.  Below are two photos of the Winter 2015 box. This box had a mixture of health, beauty and lifestyle items.  My favorite out of the box is probably the headphones as I have currently misplaced my noise cancelling one. The overall value of this box was in excess of 300.00  I’ve used  the Demalogica products, the reed diffuser (which makes makes my room smell so fresh), the mitts, which came in handy the few mornings that we were below 40 and the headphones.  I haven’t used the polish, but that will soon and haven’t used the gift certificates or the Hello Fresh voucher. I also  use Hello Fresh, so that certificate is of no use to me.  Over all, the headphones alone make up for the initial cost.  I am going to try one more box and see if this is something I will continue.  Next post, I will talk about the Try the World box, an internationally curated food box.  image

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We’ll see how this goes.

Twelve years ago, this blog started out as a knitting blog. Over the years I’ve developed other hobbies, but  I’ve continued to knit. I also went through a phase where I listened to podcasts, then I stopped, but within the last year started up again.  One of the reasons is because I got a new car that has the ability to stream audio from my phone, and as radio gets boring on the commute to work, I started listening to various podcasts again. I’ve mainly listened to knitting podcasts, and that has jump started my knitting.  One of the podcasts I listen to is The Knitmore Girls. One of the ongoing knit alongs they have is Operation Sock Drawer.  I love knitting socks, and I need new ones because the dogs have decided that my hand knit socks are their favorite toys.  I found that out in the move when Idunn would find them and run around the house with them.   As a result, one or two were lost to collateral damage.  I have a goal of knitting a pair of socks a month to end up with with twelve pair by the end of the year. As I’m a month behind already, I think I have a couple of single socks that suffer from Second Sock Syndrome, so I’ll pull one of those out and knit the second sock.  I picked through the stash and found skeins for the next three months.  I close Truffles from Claudia Handpainted Yarns for February. It reminded me  of Valentine’s Day, Twinkle Lights from Knitterly Things for March.  I know this was dyed for the Christmas season, but I think that the colors just shout “Spring is coming!”  and then on the far right is some Sweet Georgia Tough Love sock yarn in Snapdragon. I’ve had this skein forever, so it will be great to finally knit this up.  I have cast on for the February socks and have the cuff knit for the first one.  I scoured Ravelry  and found a fairly easy pattern, Petty Harbor, that I hope won’t get lost in the varigation in the yarn.  I’ll post KIP photos in the next post. I also have two other WIPs, that I will post as well.  I’m working on Bifrost by Cate Carter-Evans  and Yowza! by Susan B. Anderson . I’ll have photos of those two.  Most of this knitting won’t get a lot of use until this time next year as by the time I’m finished, it will be 90 degrees here!   Are you doing Operation Sock Drawer, or any other knit along?  If you are, leave your comments below.

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