Lasts of the beach

Well this post is the last of the lasts of our time at the beach.  I know, aren't you glad??  Well, I think I have cut it down considerably since I took 562 pictures while I was in Mexico.  Our last night there was filled with our favorite things.  We had dinner out (but that was a nightly occurrence).  We then headed to George's for a Chocomoco.  That was something we had to do every single day.  It is chocolate and coconut that is iced down and chopped up.  Only I got mine without the coconut and it was delicious!!!  I miss it so much!  Thanks to my sis for getting me addicted.  After walking around looking at the native wares, we headed to the beach.  It was a sad good bye for us.  We really didn't want to leave this place.  This is our last sunset.  Thank you Lord for giving us another beautiful night!

This is where my parents lived while they stayed in Rincon de Guaybitos.

This is what is down and across the street from their place.  We passed this house and others like it every single time we walked out the door.  Wow!  Really?  Do you want to know what's really sad?  This is one of the nicest houses that we came across.

As you walk up and down the streets, you can peek into make-shift curtain doors that are hanging up in what looks like alley ways.  It will break your heart to realize it is really a home.  A home with dirt floors.  A sheet for a door.  Broken furniture.  Little dirty faces staring back at you.  Really?  People really live this way?  Remember the mansions from a previous post?  That area is less than a mile away.  How can you have so much wealth and so much poverty within feet of each other?  It was a lot for me to take in.  I just can't even imagine.  I know that I am blessed.  Seeing this still leaves me speechless even six weeks later.  The images are so real in my mind.  My kids are so spoiled.  I am so spoiled.  Our house is what we make it.  We turn it into a home.  A safe place for our family.  This is true for wherever in the world we are.  Thank you Lord that is only our temporary home!!  I am so very thankful that my Father has a mansion awaiting me and all my brothers and sisters in Christ.

I need to go back to happy now.  I feel the tears coming as I re-live.  Of course, we have to spend our last few hours at the beach.

It was 8:30 in the morning and the sun and the moon were both out.

We had lots of fun laughing at these dogs.  This first one was a wee little dog.  She was going crazy mad chasing those pelicans and her little pink outfit kept getting in the way.  She didn't let her clothes falling off keep her from running after them.  They would scatter like a bear was coming after them.  The pelicans were so scared of her.

This big dog was running out into the water chasing the pelicans.  He was having a good time; you could almost see the smile on his face as he was running free.

Pelicans riding the waves were always fun to watch.

Pelicans sitting on the roof were fun to watch too.

I just love this picture.  I love the little trails that the pelicans leave behind.  This pelican looks like he's keeping an eye on me.  Hehe!

See how the palm trees are lined up.

Well, it's time to say goodbye to the beach, the pelicans, the palm trees, the sunshine.  We so enjoyed our stay this year and looking forward to going back next year!

What a learning experience this trip has been for me.  I always thank God for all that I have because I know that I am truly blessed and truly thankful.  I'm grateful for the reminder that God is no respecter of persons.  He formed us, shaped us and made us all in His image.

Some flea market finds and some paint re-dos

I set up at the Tulsa Flea Market last Saturday.  Traffic was steady, but not near as much as we had hoped.  We were supposed to have some cold, snowy weather but would you believe it turned out to be nice and sunny?  So we know everyone had to be outside enjoying their first weekend of the year that was nice.  No wonder they didn't go junkin'!  I wouldn't have either.  Lol!  Oh well, I still did well money-wise and picked up a few awesome deals so it was worth it for me!

My friend had this lamp full of old spools.  She was selling all of her stuff really cheap, so I snagged this lamp for $2.50!  Some of the spools had 15 cents and 19 cents on them!  I love them!  My downstairs half-bath is done up in old sewing notions so they will fit perfectly in there.

I saw where Darla over at The Prim Patch had stained some lamp shades.  At the time I didn't have this lamp, but kept the idea in the back of my mind.  I used some watered down black paint instead of stain and I like how it turned out.  I primed the metal base and painted it with Folk Art's Apple Spice.  It was kind of a bright red, but I knew I would antique it heavily with black.  I painted the shade black and filled it with my favorite thing to make... rag balls!  I thought it was worth the $2.50 I spent.  Now that I'm looking at the after picture, I think I need to add some homespun and cheesecloth to it to tone down the glass some.

This handmade doily also came from my friend's booth.  I can't even believe she would want to part with it.  It will be going in my sewing bathroom along with the spools of thread.  Another thing, I couldn't believe it when I saw these brand new scissors so cheap!!  $5 for Mundial!  I looked them up on their website and they sell them for $24.00. We sell them at Hobby Lobby for $19.00!  This wonderful booth had lots of markers, scissors and hard back books super cheap.

I bought these two metal buckets at Hobby Lobby.  The weather was finally decent enough for me to get out and use spray sealer on them.  Here is the before:

I'm not a fan of light blue, even for Easter.  So I painted the Easter bucket with Folk Art's Poetry Green, and then antiqued it.

This bucket was painted with Ceramcoat's Candy Bar.  I love this color because it is a cross between my two favorite colors: brown and barn red.  It was then antiqued with black.

This little chick is too cute.  I have no idea where it came from but on the bottom I wrote my name and the year 1984 in sharpie so naturally, I can't get rid of it!  He's a little nicked up so I went ahead and antiqued him.  I finished him off with some spanish moss in his egg.

Well that's it for today's post.  I have some pastel Easter eggs to antique.  I'm not a fan of pastel at all so anything I buy that is pastel gets coated in black or brown.  Haha!  Hopefully this week, I'm gonna finish up and post some pictures of my sewing bathroom and Easter decorating.

I do enjoy my sweet prim blog friends!  Thanks for stopping by and checking out my blog.  I so wish I had more time to spend on it, but with three busy kids, I stay busy.  Nice weather coming this way this week, I hope so for you too!

Sunset on the beach and pretty flowers

Well, I wanted to blog about my weekend experience at the "Extraordinary Women" retreat and share a couple of pictures but I'm not figuring out how to download the pictures from my son's camera.  So... I thought I would blog a little more about Mexico and come back to Ewomen soon.

Do these people realize how fortunate they are to have open restaurants like this??  I can't imagine living in a town that is full of them, especially the ones ON the beach!  Our table of 11 good friends had three countries represented:  Canada, United States, and Mexico.

A few building/flower combinations that I just love...

My favorite!

Random... but I love the pelicans

Dad told us that he made this cool sand sculpture while he was waiting on us (we kept stopping to take pictures along the beach).  I tried to get him to pose with it, but he wouldn't.  He cracks me up!

Sunset on the beach.  My most favorite part of the whole trip.  I so wanted my lovely there with me.  I missed him so much on this trip, but never more than I did at sunset.  It. was. beautiful.

The sun going down.

I thought it interesting how the sky was a brilliant gold where the sun went down, but on the other side of the cove the mountains were showing bits of purples and pinks.  It was gorgeous!

Look at this blue streak in the sky.  Isn't it amazing?!  I just kept looking at it and praising God for all His wonder!

I love this beautiful hue.  It was a stunning sight!

The next morning, I awoke to this.

We had lunch at LaTerraza.

Then went for a walk.

And now for a splash of color

We couldn't tell if this flower was wilting or that's the way it's supposed to be.  It showed no signs of a dying plant, it was strange.  It was velvety soft to the touch.

I've been showing all the beauty of Mexico so I thought I would show a picture of reality.  Just like I was saying in my last post... beauty was all around, but so was dirt.

But it was colorful for sure.

This is one building of "The Coco's" where I tried to rent a room the week of Christmas break 2010 but all five buildings were sold out-- crazy!!  Maybe I should shoot for 2011.

Speaking of crazy... what in the world kind of flower is this??  Such an oddity.

I am grateful for eyes that can see such beauty and for a soul to realize that this beauty can only come from my loving Father above!