Weekend Catch-Up...

We are really enjoying my parents' visit. They arrived to Jax on Friday and it seems like we've done SO much in just three days!

My parents got in late Friday afternoon, we met them at their new property, grilled hamburgers, and talked.

Saturday was my mother-in-love's birthday, so we treated her to dinner.

Of course we had to get a pic of me and my two mom's before we left...

Happy Birthday Cathy!!

I tricked David into taking a picture with me too :)

We had dinner at a Japanese Hibachi restaurant called Daruma. LOVE that place. Except for the fact that we were all miserably full when we left :(

On Sunday Tropical Depression Beryl tried to ruin our Memorial Day weekend. But he did NOT succeed. We prepared for major winds and rain, even as far as moving a lot of our plants inside the porch AND convincing my parents to stay at our place that night...the trees at their property could have been dangerous.

Luckily we only had a few big gusts of wind and a LOT of rain. The only damage we saw in our neighborhood was a tree that split in our neighbor's yard...

Monday we had a little more rain, but nothing that our yard really didn't need. I expect BEAUTIFUL green grass and a lot of growth from our plants in the next week :) Thanks Beryl!

My parents plan to be in town for another week or so and I can't wait to spend more time with them.

I hope you had blessed Memorial Day weekend and were able to reflect on how thankful we are to live in a country where FREEDOM is a gift, a gift paid for by so many men and women before us.

More Red, White, and Blue...

I had mentioned in THIS post that I was thinking about changing out the planters on our front porch to two urns instead of just one pot. Well, I finally found two small urns that were on sale and I HAD to snatch them up...

I'm loving the new look and think that I might change up the flowers, but for now, the ferns are just SO easy to maintain.

I also received this adorable red, white, and blue planter/hanger from Willow House...

I still haven't decided where I'm going to hang it yet, but the veriegated ivy inside of it just makes me smile :)

I also made this red, white, and blue ribbon wreath to hang on on our pantry door...

I added some tulle and mesh to my wreath this time and I think it really stands out.

Are you getting ready for all the red, white and blue holidays just around the corner??

Container Garden...

It's no surprise that I like working in our yard...I really enjoy planting, seeing new blooms open up, and of course smelling all the pretty flowers.

I've been pinning a lot of container gardens on my Yard and Garden Ideas Board on Pinterest lately. Here are just a few that I think are gorgeous...

I MUST find an old wheelbarrow so I can create one of these beauties!!! I just love how over-the-top it is!!! I have the perfect place for something like this in the very back of our yard.

Note to self: my mom and I WILL be on the hunt for one of these when she comes into town next week!

This one almost looks like fall to me...so so pretty.

I love the mixture of reds and purples in this one. I never would have thought to put those colors together, but they work well.

I have a few containers in our yard that I really like. To be honest,  I don't even know what half the plants are...I just know they look good together :)

 

I think this is just white and red lantana. You can't really see the red in this picture, so I took a side pic of it too...

I think red and white flowers always look pretty together.

This is just a hodge podge of flowers put together...

I don't know what the little pink flowers are, but my mom gave me those. You can literally just snap them off anywhere and plant them. They grow like crazy and multiply! The white flowers are Vinca and they are hardy flowers...don't need much water and love the sun. I still have the cute butterfly yard art that my mother-in-love gave me quite a few years ago :)

My favorite new container garden this year is this one...

 

This pot is a mixture of potato vine (which I LOVE), coleus, geraniums and pink lantana.

This is a top view of the container...

You can really see how bright the pink lantana is :)

Okay, enough of my containers. ALL I can think about right now is finding an old wheelbarrow...till next time!

FIRST Pool Party for 2012...

To be honest, I'm not sure I can officially call this our FIRST pool party for 2012...mainly because out of all the family we had our house, only three people actually got in the pool :( It is still too cold!!! But I'm sure as long as the weather continues to heat up, the pool will eventually warm up too.

David promised me that all I had to do was sit and relax and he would do the grocery shopping and preparing for the party. So I did EXACTLY just that :)

I still LOVE our pallet table and enjoy just sitting in our backyard and soaking up the rays!

My nephew, Mikey, had a great time in the pool...well, at least until his lips turned blue from being so cold :)

We grilled hamburgers and hotdogs...

And the guys spent a lot of the time playing corn hole...

Poor Mikey kept getting out of the pool to sit in the sun and warm up...although the pool was in the high 70's, it was still pretty chilly!

We are looking forward to many more pool parties this summer at the Knight Resort!

Hope you had a great weekend too :)

Hanging of the Flag...

Remember when I posted about the distressed wooden flag that I made? Well, I finally decided where I would hang it this summer...

Please ignore the dark pictures in this post...it was cloudy outside and I just couldn't get the right lighting.

I ended up hanging the flag on the trellis work my mom and I put up a few years ago to hide our shed. I think it is a great focal point for our backyard this season...

David pressure washed our sitting area and chairs this past Monday and now, with the new flag hanging, this area in our backyard looks so festive!  I'll have to post more pictures later of how clean this area looks now.

It won't be long until the mandevillas are growing all the way up the trellis...too bad I didn't plant red ones, wouldn't that look great with the flag?

I think it's safe to say that we are ready for our first pool party this summer!!

Oh Say Can You See...

I told you guys that I was feeling patriotic these past few weeks!! I can't seem to get the Star Spangled Banner out of my head :)

Well my friend Allie at DillydAllie created the cutest door hanger for me to use during this patriotic season...

Allie was posting some adorable letters on her facebook page the other day and I thought one would be perfect for our front door but in red, white and blue of course!

It is the perfect size for our frront door. Speaking of our front door...my mission in the next few weeks is to purchase two planters for either side of our door...the single fern is just not cutting it for me any longer :(

If you are interested in purchasing one of these door hangers for your home, front door, or baby's room, please visit DillydAllie and let her know that you heard about her store from ME!

....by the dawn's early light.

Uncle Sam...

I have been in a patriotic mood for quite a while now and couldn't wait to start decorating for the upcoming patriotic holidays...Memorial Day, July 4th, and Labor Day!

One of my favorite patriotic decor items is this sweet Uncle Sam...

I'm not sure this is where he'll stay this year (on our patio where we keep our beach towels). But I was anxious to get him hung up.

I have a few other patriotic projects floating around in my head, so stay tuned for those. AND I definitely can't wait to share the patriotic monogrammed door hanger my friend created for me at DillydAllie!!!

Love Notes...

It makes my heart go pitter patter when I receive unexpected love notes from my hubby...

Rainbow and Manatee...

I received the prettiest pictures from my hubby yesterday...

We had a pretty good storm on Wednesday night (MUCH needed) and by the time David arrived at work on Thursday morning, this beautiful rainbow was stretching across the marina.

Rainbows are just amazing, aren't they?

He also sent me a few pics of a manatee that wanted to play...

They love coming up to the dock and drinking the fresh water...

I was defintely jealous of my hubby yesterday...instead of looking at beautiful rainbows and playing with manatees, I was counseling teenagers, putting out fires during a heated parent/teacher conference, and prepaing an application for a school award. Oh the life!!!

And the Grammy Goes To...

...Douglas Anderson School of the Arts!!

I am so proud of my school's music program. They have been named the National Grammy Signature School for 2012. This is the second time we've won this prestigious award in the past three years. And to brag even more...once you've won the award, you must sit out a year...so technically, we've won it back to back :) If you want to read more about this award and my school, check out THIS LINK.

Our school put on a fabulous concert this past Monday night in celebration of receiving the Grammy. Here is what the program looked like...

Isn't it pretty? I LOVE the red carpet :)

After the concert, one of our school's BIGGEST patrons offered to host a reception at her gorgeous home. Her house was beyond beautiful and I was trying my best to be discreet when taking pictures, but I was hoping to get some "blog material" so you guys could see just how lovely it was.

I went to the restoom and just had to take a quick pic of her guest bathroom. Just check out this mirror!!

Sorry for the huge flash, but that is me over in the corner trying to take the pic :)

She had a bar set up outside on her huge patio that overlooked the river...

The weather was gorgeous and I could have literally stayed out on the patio all night long.

She had two different food stations set up in the main area of her home. Here is a little dinette table where a few of the guests were able to sit and socialize...

Check out the zebra skin on the floor...this patron is a HUGE hunter and killed that zebra herself in Africa years ago!

Our teachers gathered in the main dining area...

They were catching up with the representative from the Grammy Foundation AND eating some of THE BEST, MELT IN YOUR MOUTH shrimp and grits. Yum, yum, yum!!!

The evening was so special and the patron reception was just icing on the cake. Way to go DA...and congrats on having the BEST Music Program in the nation!!

Fernandina Shrimp Festival...

We had a BLAST this weekend!

We went to Fernandina Beach and enjoyed their annual Shrimp Festival. And like any good Floridian, we spent the weekend in Fernandina Beach on our friend's boat!

Our friend Lisa has beautiful boat called Island Time...

This was our hotel for the weekend! Pretty nice, isn't she?

 I think my favorite part about boating is the actual ride. There is just something about the wind blowing through your hair and the smell of the water that makes all your worries go away...

Lisa wanted to organize her boat, so she let David drive the majority of the way to the beach. So I took that opportunity to take a pic of me and my Captain...

As soon as we go to the marina and got the boat set up for the weekend, we sat down and relaxed...

And YES...my foot is still swollen and hurting. Not sure what is going on with my feet lately, but they look and feel horrible :(

When the sun went down, we went on a walk in the marina to take a look at all the other boats and couldn't resist snapping a shot of the sunset...

To kick off the festivities, they shot some fireworks the first night. This type of firework is my FAVORITE!!!

After everyone settled down for bed, David and I sat on the bow of the boat and just talked...

I could DEFINITELY get used to this :)

The next day we walked through downtown Fernandina to look at all the vendor booths. They had SO many crafts, artists, and unique items to buy. We then strolled around the marina to take a look at two of the newest boats that docked up that day. Check out this HUGE yacht...

But the boat that we really thought was interesting was this one...

It was two-toned grey and massive!!! We over heard one of the members of the crew say that the owners of the boat planned to put it on a ship and send it to Spain for a few weeks.

David looks like he is mesmerized by the boat in this picture...

Then we found this HUGE shark and I just had to take my picture with it...

I'm trying to kiss the shark :) And just fyi...it's not a REAL shark. It's just a tourist attraction where you can get your picture made. So I got tickled when I posted this pic on Twitter and had a few people ask me if I caught that shark...hehe!

Overall it was  relaxing and great weekend. Looking foward to next year's Fernandina Shrimp Festival.