Music Monday

One of my favorite songs from one of my favorite bands...SPILL CANVAS! So fitting after visiting the ocean. Don't be worried about the style of music, it is acoustic with a little symphony. Be sure to have some tissue ready...you will need it for the end of the video...it is sooo sad! But it is the true essence of real life - not that fake Hollywood "life is so perfect" crap!

Baby Sea Turtles

What a lucky girl I was.  Just down from our 'spot' on the beach, a Loggerhead turtle nest hatched.  Well, I actually missed the hatching, by a half an hour on Sunday night.  But the lucky thing is that three days after the nest hatches, the "Turtle Squad" digs up the nest to make sure there are no stragglers left in there that can't get out.  Guess what?  I happened to be on the beach during the dig and....well, watch the video!  It's less than a minute.  There was two stragglers left in the nest!  The video shows them walking down to the ocean.

Here is another video, but is was super humid that night, so my camera began fogging up.  You might have to make it full screen to see it better.  Just hit "escape" to make the video go away and return to the blog.  This one is getting closer to the ocean.

And one more...again, make it full screen.  The second turtle on his way to the ocean.

I guess the actual hatching was incredible as there were over 100 baby turtles, being described as ants coming out of the ground.  Cool.  Sorry I missed it!  However, I am lucky I at least got to see two of them.  There was actually a third, but he was dead :(   A sad fact...for every 100 eggs hatched, only one sea turtle will make it to maturity.  Couple this with the massive sea turtle hunting and now wonder they are endangered!

This is how it goes...

The "Turtle Patrol" rides four wheelers on the beach every morning looking for evidence of a new nest.  They scan as they ride looking for body drag and flipper marks from the momma coming up on shore to lay her eggs.  When they see this evidence, they block off the nest with landscape edging and put a sign up showing the date that the nest was found along with a warning of a $10,000 fine if you mess with the nest.  About 54 days after the nest was discovered, they hatch.  Starting on this date, one member of the squad sets up chairs for the night and sits and watches the nest all night for as many days as necessary until the nest hatches.  Three days later, they dig up the nest looking for turtles that couldn't find their way out.  Then they tear the whole thing down.  When the nest hatches, the baby sea turtles make it to the ocean by following the light of the moon, therefore, when your house on the island is by a nest, you are forbidden to leave your outside lights on so as not to confuse the baby turtles when they hatch.

Back Home :(

We got in last night (Monday) around 1 AM.  I ended up driving straight through as I stopped at Food Lion before leaving town and loaded up with 10 cases of Cheerwine!

For those of you who don't know what it is, it is a cherry soda with more caffiene than 12 bottles of Mountain Dew (well, not really but close!) and is simply scrumptious!  Cheerwine is only available in select southern states which just so happens to be made in the same town my parents live...Salisbury, North Carolina.  Yes, of course we went to the Cheerwine Factory, too!  We loaded up on T-shirts, a pair of Cheerwine Boxers for Jacy, collectible figurines and they even gave the kids Cheerwine pencils for school and gave my father and I cool Cheerwine pens. 

Why would Cheerwine keep us from making the trip in two days and staying in a hotel?  Would you want to drag 10 cases of Cheerwine up to your hotel room, along with the luggage you came with and the crap you accumulated on your trip!?  'Nuff said!

I will be back in a few days, however.  I have gotten most everything unpacked, but I am so exhausted!  Them waves kick the poop out of you!  I have Jacy's high school orientation tomorrow...which takes all day for some reason.  ?  So, after a few days of recuperating, I will try to get back on track.

In the mean time, look for a video in the next day or two...it will be so worth it!

Miss All You Bloggin' Buddies...But it's the Ocean!

Miss all of you so much and I don't get enough time online to be able to visit all your blogs, but I will be back in full swing next week.  In the mean time, here is some pics I have taken so far....

At The Beach....

We are finally at the beach after a five hour drive.  Whew...I am so sick of driving!

We didn't really get much time to enjoy the sea today as we checked in at 4pm, spent an hour unpacking, had to run to the supermarket to get our food for the week, bring it home to unpack it and finished it off with a light dinner.

The house we rented has no WiFi, so my internet usage will be intermittent.  I will try to catch up with all of you as the opportunity presents itself.  I miss visiting all your blogs so much...I will try to get some time in :)

We Made It!

After a two day journey, we have made it to North Carolina!  Whew!  My son Jacy just can't wait to start getting busy doing stuff before we head out to the ocean....I just want to rest!

The first day of travel didn't really go very well.  See, I have real bad sinuses that require surgery to fix (which I simply refuse to do).  Therefore, I suffer horrible sinuses and migraines.  I have learned to live with this and pretty much accept it...that is, until Monday.  We left an hour later than scheduled in the morning but that was okay.  What was not okay is that my sinuses were misbehaving.  Now, I don't travel much, so I don't have any experience traveling with aggravated sinuses.  The results?  Disastrous.  We had to stop for about 20 minutes after every hour of driving - even before we got out of New York!  I had such a headache and was so dizzy from my sinuses, I literally had to take a break after every hour of driving.  We were supposed to cover 7 1/2  hours of drive time - we only got 5 done and I had to stop for the night. 

Tuesday's driving went much better, but then, my sinuses were much better, too.  I will never follow through with long driving plans again when they are so aggravated.  It was so miserable.

So, I am going to leave you with some pics the kids took on the drive down.  Enjoy!

Ohio near Canton, maybe?

Ohio near the West Virginia Border

Ohio River

West Virginia

West Virginia

Fancy Gap, Virginia...coming down the mountain

It's All About the Dresses!!!

I have finally finished the dresses I am taking on the vacation with me. Since it is so hot where we are going, I definitely want to be sporting dresses and skirts....so much cooler than shorts!  I had to take the pictures early this morning, so I'm afraid they are not very good :(  Also, keep in mind that this is pre-laundering, so they may be wrinkled.  I always pre-wash fabrics before I sew with them, so you can see the intended draping.  Either way, here's what I made!

1947 sundress pattern 

Fabric detail

1947 dress - same pattern as above, but with sleeves

Bodice detail:

Fabric close-up:

Another 1947 dress pattern:

Bodice detail:

Fabric close-up.

The buckle is a vintage celluloid art deco buckle from the '30s...I know - wrong era!  It actually looks kinda 1970's in this photo, come to think of it!

Modern dress pattern - I changed the neckline to have a sweetheart neckline:

Fun mix of fabrics:

And finally, a couple cute skirts I whipped up yesterday.  Awesome with a colorful tank top!

I much prefer early 40's fashions, but 1947 was the earliest I could get a hold of for now.  I will still be on the hunt, though!  For as much as I love to sew, I am actually kinda glad it is over for a few weeks.  Whew...that's a lot of sewing!  I actually have one more dress, but I didn't get to finish it in time :(

We are leaving tomorrow morning and I may be offline for a few days while we travel down to North Carolina.  We are due to arrive Tuesday afternoon, 10 August.  I am hoping I am not too tired to drop in tomorrow night after we reach our hotel!  I ham hoping to share my vacation with you, but I can't promise daily contact.  This goes for dropping, too.  Oh well, rest assured, I will be at least checking from time to time.  Have a great week until I can check in again :)

RIP, Gregg, Dear...

Gregg and his wife, Jamie

Yesterday was my brother's 5th anniversary.  He died from melanoma cancer August 6, 2005. 

Gregg and I were best friends from the time we were children.  He was held back a grade in 1st grade (before dyslexia was given a term...yes, I have it, too), so we went through our remaining school years together in the same grade. We look so much alike and were inseparable, everyone thought we were twins.  We played the game and made most everyone believe it.  Sure, we went through a phase when he was 11 and I was 10 that made us hate each other, but by the time I hit 13, we were best friends again.  Gregg left New York in the mid 90's to move to Florida.  We didn't get to see much of each other after that, but we were on the phone all the time!

Gregg, me and Bob when we were little, prolly 1970

So, I spent my day in the studio sewing skirts and cranking bands we used to listed to together:  Suicidal Tendencies, Led Zeppelin, Smashing Pumpkins, Metallica....the house was filled with sounds of memories of Gregg.  He played bass guitar for a band for over 10 years and I kept imagining him standing in the studio....air-bassing!

After he passed, I got tattoo for him on my left shoulder.  It's an ankh with lotus flowers coming out of the arms, above that a cartouche with his name written in hieroglyphics and an Eye of Horus over that.  On either side of the tattoo is his birth year and death year:  66 - 05.  I'll have to post a pic one of these days.

 Gregg with his bass

Gregg opted to be cremated - half his ashes in the Gulf of Mexico and the other half buried up here in NY. One of the songs we used to listen to was Heaven by Suicidal Tendencies, so I wrote the lyrics down and put them on his box along with a couple David Austin roses from my garden when we buried him.  Read them....little did I know the foreshadowing of these lyrics:

I'm so excited today I'm gonna die
But I'm going to heaven so there's no reason to cry
God says he loves me and I love him too
Yes I have struggled, but but now suffering's through

I don't want you to cry
I just wanna say
I'm so excited today I'm gonna die
But I'll live forever so it's not really goodbye
God has a plan for me and a plan for you

So there's no reason to cry
There's no reason to cry
Cause I'm going to heaven
I'm going to heaven
Yes I'm going to heaven
I'm going to heaven

Over head such a shinning light
As playful angels hover in flight
In the blindingly brilliant pure white
A sensation so peacefully
My soul rises separates from my body
The pearly gates I can now clearly see
I've gone to heaven
Hallelujah
I'm so excited again I'll never die
I'm up heaven so there's no reason to cry

It was very difficult the first year, but things get easier and easier.  Now, when his anniversary rolls around, I don't get sad anymore.  I celebrate the time I had with him.  I will always miss him, but am convinced that he is always with me, even though he is not here. 

I Won...I Won!

I don't enter in many giveaways on blogs unless it is something I know I really, really want.  Jennifer of Glass Addictions (a blog I follow) was giving away an art charm book, Making Mixed Media Art Charms and Jewelry, and I simply had to try for it.  Well....I Won!!!

I'm so sorry I will be on my vacation when the book comes in, so I will just have to scour the beach while on Oak Island to find cool things to use with the book when I get back.  I will definitely post a review about the book after I have had some time with it, so stay tuned.

I am coming down to the wire on leaving - whew there is so much to get ready for!  I don't leave on vacation hardly ever, so I forget what it is like to prepare to leave.  The last vacation I took was three days in Cleveland, Ohio to see the Titanic Exhibit with my kids - that was in 2003 I think?  Long time.  Work is almost wrapped up and I'm putting the finishing touches on my dresses.  I plan to photographing them on Saturday, so hopefully I will be able to share them with you!

Okay...back to work before the kids wake up and steal my time!

5 Days and Counting....

(photo credit)

5 more days till we leave for North Carolina!  Spend a week with Mom and Dad, then it's off to the ocean for another week!  Can't wait!  Hubby is not going, and he is not too thrilled with the ocean part.  He is insisting that me and the kids are going to get eaten by sharks!  Really?  REALLY?  I have told him to keep his mouth shut to the kids about it.  If we get to the ocean and the kids don't want to go in (because of sharks) I am going to kill him!  Thousands of people swim the waters off Oak Island and only a handful get bit.  A handful.  Not only that, but they get bit by baby tiger sharks.

(photo credit)

Now, I'm sure a baby tiger shark bite is pretty nasty, but it's not like the darn thing is going to swallow you whole!  Mom said you can't even get out far enough for the sharks....the sand bar is super long and when you do get up to your waist, the waves are so strong they prevent you from going much farther.

Of course there is going to be sharks.  It's the ocean!  I'm not worried about a couple little tiger sharks.  But you know what would make me crap my pants if I saw in the ocean?

(photo credit)

Now, that tiger shark would definitely keep me out of the water!

Other than obsessing over sharks (well, hubby is...) I have been so busy sewing dresses for the trip.  I hope to post a few pics before I leave for you to drool over.  You should see my studio....MESSY!  In addition, I finished up some custom orders and have doubled my production.  I figured since I won't be making things while I'm away, I can at least have things already made to keep listing.  No need to close the shop...it's all coming with me!  All the finished product, anyway.  That way, if orders come in, I can keep the momentum!

I need this trip so bad :)