Lots of wrap-up work as we prep for our summer.

 Wow, time's a-flying and soon we'll be on the road for parts west. I've been busy with craft shows and having fun restocking my dazzler's. 

I've been doing 2 regular shows a month with an occasional extra thrown in just for the fun of it. Here's a shot of a larger one near downtown that was well organized and well attended. I plan on doing this one again in the fall.

I've thoroughly enjoyed mingling with other crafters and have make quite a few friends. I'll use the summer to replenish my stock in anticipation of the fall/winter season.

Meanwhile the Boss has been enjoying his early morning soaks in the hot tub, firepit creating some nice ambiance and the morning sky reflecting on the lake. How can you miss with a cup of coffee and wireless earbuds piping in some smooth ambient music. What a great way to start the day, we are truly blessed!

Cozy little hide-away spot .

You may remember my "rock" project back in Dec '23 on the side yard cleaning out dirt and debris and generally tidying things up. Well this year I've been tackling the front yard, and man, did it need it. It's a slow process but I'm getting there. Luckily I have my tent canopy I can pop part way up to give me some shade while I work.

Look how nasty - sad to see and not "Bristol" at all.

Ahhh, much better. OCD much? It's worth it!

Another project we decided to do was a makeover on the north wall of our Florida Room. The Florida Room was added onto the house at some point after the original construction. We adore having this room, it runs the full width of the house with 2 sets of French doors leading out to it. We eat many of our meals out there, plus the Boss has a special seating area out there he enjoys which gets him away from the noise of the main house (mainly me making a racket out in the kitchen, 😊). However, we thought there could be some changes made to improve insulation and aesthetics. The wall needed to be opened up, examined and freshened-up, then converted into a beautiful focal point by adding stone veneer.

Our local contractor did a fantastic job with each and every part of the project, and it sure looks beautiful!!

After the old paneling was removed, the old insulation and debris
removed and replaced, and the Hardie backer board up.

Here it is underway, and we can already see how much we are going to love it.

Here's the completed wall - so pretty! It adds a ton of character to the room, now we'll just need to upgrade our furnishings to match. That will give us something to do in the fall/winter season.

Not put back together all the way as we are having a sealer 
applied to prevent dirt/dust from infiltrating the rock's crevices.
We have decided we need a new couch though, lol.

My creative juices were flowing one day and I had my 3D printer friend, Nick, print up some tiny pots for me to turn into mini refrigerator magnet forever plants. They are so stinkin' cute! And fun to make to boot. I also made some new "smalls" that combine the forever plant aspects with the wire-beaded look. Also cute, and a nice smaller offering for a teacher, mentor or friends/family. 

Nick printed these in purple, green, orange and robin's egg 
blue but for the next batch he's swapping out the orange out
for yellow. I want some to take out west with me.

I love the charm dangling off the bottom.

And a collage to finish with which show off a few new designs.

I like the combination of tiger's eye/citrine with amber accents
but I also always like the looks of the multi-colored dazzlers.

Well, thanks for dropping by and our next post will be from Colorado. Have a great summer folks. 😊

Another Yard Project and taking off for parts known and unknown.

This is another after the fact catch-up post covering the early part of May. Hopefully, one more and we'll be current. We are actually in Colorado now but sadly, the wifi is slow and spotty this season for some reason.

There was another large yard project that needed to be accomplished before heading out west for the summer - the palm tree beds on the dock level. There are 2 sections with 2 palm trees in each. These pics are of 1 of the beds.

After finishing up the rocks and the pavers out front I needed to tackle the palm tree beds down below on the dock level. The indoor/outdoor carpet (fake grass) had worn very thin, and the weed barrier underneath wasn't doing much better. The job entailed a thorough weeding, then temporarily removing the lava rocks from the beds, installing new weed barrier, and laying down new indoor/outdoor carpeting on top of the old stuff, then adding the lava rocks back to the beds. Hopefully, all this will keep the weeds down and allow our lakeside back yard to stay reasonably presentable while we are out west for the summer.

Here's a collage of the steps and a separate shot of the final outcome (from the deck level.)

Top left - weeds & tired carpet, bottom left - weeds pulled &removal
of the lava rocks, top right - new weed barrier, bottom right - new carpet.

The after shot with lava rock back in place.    

After this project wrapped up, it was time to head out for the summer with a few stops on the way. Up first was an overnight at  Lake Guntersville State Park Lodge. Wow, what a gorgeous spot, and the Lodge and restaurant were quite nice too. It's a popular venue for graduation parties and weddings and the like. Our room was very nice and even had a lake view balcony.

A beautiful lake shot as the sun sets.

Morning shot after breakfast.

We were on the fast track up to Nashville where Ed would be joining the American Cruise Lines Tennessee River cruise, and I would be heading off to visit a special girlfriend who was long overdue a visit from me.

The cruise package included an overnight the evening before departure at the GORGEOUS Gaylord Opryland Resort & Convention Center. Wow, just wow! A huge atrium in the center with hundreds upon hundreds of tropical plants, plus waterfalls, lakes/ponds(?) and many different pathway levels for strolling. Restaurants, shops and more. Lots of people too, and noisy. Check it out sometime. Suffice it to say the room rates are steep!

We had a nice dinner at a Tex-Mex inspired restaurant where I had a bowl of delicious pozole and a chili verde chicken taco, and a carne burrito with all the trimmings was the Boss's choice. Afterwards a wonderful and lengthy stroll. I must have taken 50 pic's at least. Here are a few random ones for your enjoyment.

Lots of private nooks to enjoy.

Look at the scope of this place!

More than one fountain.

It's huge inside - you can get lost.

The Boss on one of the paths.

Eye-catcher right at the entrance.

I could go on...

Needless to say, it was a once in a lifetime experience, and thoroughly enjoyable. The next morning Ed headed off on his adventure and I headed off on mine. I'll cover that in the next blog post which will be coming up soon.

Thanks for dropping by.