Isla Pandan

While we enjoyed this wonderful island (here) our tour guide group cooked our meal.  Al fresco.

They had brought our food and lugged it in coolers so they were efficient and quick with their system. 

But the island provided some vendors that had even more fresh things to try.

and how can you not add more to the menu with these fresh fish!?

So...  here's the menu!

 

 Grilled shrimp and Squid. 

 Boiled crabs.

Grilled fish with tomatoes/garlic sauce.

Rice, of course!... and the abundant fresh fruits!

We washed it all down with fresh coconut juice!

Bought from these guys. They sure could use them bolo axes!  They were great to watch!

And they had quite a successful business!  They always had a long line of people.

This island is such a treasure...



 ...and with just a small sprinkling of souvenir vendors, it made for a wonderful and peaceful respite from the island hopping tour.

The best thing about it?

Was that it had zero waste! 

All trash must be brought out and none to be left behind.

Otherwise there would be a fine.

Isn't this just absolutely magnificent?!  A place without waste!

Hmmm...  maybe this was paradise?

 

By the way, what's paradise without one of these?...  ;o)

 



Rewinding to Day 10

So here I am stressing out about losing readers because I have nothing to blog about. 

Well, actually, I do have a lot to blog about but blogs are crappy when there are no pictures and with no camera, I have no pictures.  But then.....  I remember that I've got a TON of them!  I have all of those pictures I took of the trip to the Philippines exactly one year ago!  Sooooo, TA-DA!  Instant blog content... and pictures!

There is ONLY one problem... my memory.  O_O

So we left Palawan (last P.I. travel post here) on Day 10...  so all these posts will be AFTER Day 10 but I can't tell you what day count it is because that's just testing my brain too much.  But I will still keep it in the order of happenings.... (well, I'll try to remember it in the order  ;oP)

So after we left Paradise...

We were hot and hungry.... very, very hungry.

We climbed back aboard the boats and off we went...

Where we were taken to this wonderful little island...

...which was named for the trees all over it.

Where we snoozed a little...

Where we snorkeled some...

...and just enjoyed the water.

 

 

 

 

 

 



Do I need a camera?

So blogging is still at a minimum because the phone is still dead.   =o(

I looked into buying a camera but then changed my mind because I will probably not use it when I get my new phone.  But it's only May and I have 2 more months to go and I may just give in in exasperation. 

It's really sad when a lot of things happen and I am not able to take pictures!

We had to go to Orlando this past Friday and so we made the most of things and

went to the Wizarding World of Harry Potter.

That's S2's finger in the forefront.  ;oP

It really sucks when you are borrowing a phone (hubby's) and it runs out of battery...  okay, really?! 

I mean he KNEW my phone is dead and we don't have a camera and

therefore I'd be using his phone....  why did he not fully charge it?

Aside from Potter land, we got spoiled by my sister. 

(I really hate going to her house cause I eat so darn much!) 

I also stopped by the Joann Fabrics Superstore that is right around the corner from her house

and spent too much money...  I MEAN too much money.

So you should be seeing project posts soon including the hopefully soon to be finished piecing of a quilt that I have been stumped on for a year now!  I found the PERFECT fabric this weekend for it!

 

Then, me and the hubs got to go on a mini-date and watched a movie.  WOOHOO!  Can you believe it!?  We watched Star Trek and if you haven't seen it, you should!  That was last night. 

 

Today is catch up day, and I am all sore and stinky as I type this post because I have dug and transplanted 4 banana sprouts from Buster's banana tree.

   These dwarf trees have grown fairly large and blocks the view from the window of the orchard (that's what we call our dog run!  ;oP because all of our fruit bearing trees are planted back there).

 I thought that this is best time to re-plant before they get all big.

I took this picture of Bus before he died.  He loved those trees.  He loved that spot.

I left a baby tree there just for him. 

 

And lastly, we went to the inlaws to pick up a new friend!

=oD  Can you tell how excited I am?!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I think I need a camera!

Hope your weekend was just as fun and fulfilling!





T's Enchanted Garden

So my phone is dead.  Dead in the sense that all you can do with it is call people.  Thank goodness I can still call people.  But everything else about it is dead, including the camera. 

What is a blogger without a camera?  Which is why I haven't been posting!  Not good. 

So last weekend we went to our local quilt show.  MomK had a couple of quilts in it.  

I borrowed S1's phone to take the pics.

Our camera is dead too.  =o(

MomK had her special entry which was a surprise for T.

Here they are reading the entry description. 

Grandma then told her to come look at the dedication.

The quilt is titled T's Enchanted Garden.

She made it for her wedding.

She says that by the time T gets married, she will probably be too old to quilt and she wanted to make sure that she gets a wedding quilt from her Grandma.

So she made one.  =o)

The work was all needlepoint appliqued and hand embellished. 

It was a large piece and I couldn't photograph it well because of the space that it was hung in.

It won a third place ribbon.

 The first two that placed she thought were the best appliquers in the quild. 

So she was proud of her ribbon.

 I'm glad that she has this picture and this memory with her Grandma.

I told her to look hard at this quilt... 

since she wont see it again until her wedding day!  



I've got Mail!

There is nothing better than checking your email and getting mail that says "Etsy order confirmation for $$$$".  I get so excited when I see those subject headings!  When I make something for my shop, I take pics of it, put it in Etsy, post it on FB then hope that it sells.  More often that not, I forget about it until it's time to renew the listing...and then of course I renew it again. 

In the meanwhile, it sits in a closet waiting its fate. 

 

Today, one of my upcycled pillows sold and it feels wonderful! 

However, I did not see (until it was too late) that the buyer had requested that I not include the receipt since she bought it as a gift for her dad!

When I saw this message I was in panic mode.  After going back to the post office (hours later) and asking them to look for said package and getting package back to pull out the receipt after package surgery, all was in order again in my world.

 

My pillow is going to a dad...given with love from a daughter in another part of the world!

Really, really LOVE this!

Made me happy.  Would it not do the same for you?  =o)

Cleaning, Purging and Salvaging

So as I told you in my last post (here) I have to clean the garage to make room for DadK's table saw. 

Well, believe me when I tell you that this is no easy feat.  It has years of "stuff" in there. 

I'm gonna say "stuff" because if I say crap, hubby will tell me to throw it all away...  again!  O_O

He tells me that I do a great job of relocating things instead of getting rid of what I should.

I DO NOT do that!  ;o)

 

So I started friday after work to attempt to clean and purge and I knew it had to start with the shoes.

They kinda really were all over the place... 

You see, I am a definite Imelda when it comes to shoes.

But I think not as bad as my sisters...  (I'm trying to justify...) But hubby still told me to count. 

So for the time being until I can get rid of the big white monster of a cabinet, I am using it for shoes.

So far, I put a dent on about a quarter of my shoe collection.

There are 68 pairs in there. 

I am hoping that I can at least fit 150 pairs after emptying the top and last shelf on the right.   

 Most of this cabinet housed the ga-jillion gardening stuff that we had accumulated over the years.

Of course, we kept buying stuff because we never knew that we already had it because it gets lost in the cabinet!

Soooo...  do you want to see where I got all those pieces of woods to make the shelves for the shoes?

This is a corner of our back patio right outside the master bedroom doors.

I always had planned on getting an outdoor cabinet/armoir something for there. 

Since I couldnt find one that I wanted, I decided to build it.

Building the shell was a little tough because the wood was still not dry from being treated.

So it was especially heavy and of course, you know how much I love height on any furniture!

I tried to assemble as much of the frame on the floor.

But the patio wasnt too level and so I had to assemble it where it is to go.

Here it is so far...

Not much of anything right now but just you wait and see...

...and this is where I salvaged the wood pieces for my shoe shelving in the garage.

...and this is what is going to house all the garden stuff that I took out of the white monster cabinet.

 

What did I purge?  I got a whole van full of "crap" ;o) that I will take to MomK for her garage sale in 2 weeks. 

Not too bad for a weekend, huh?

 

By the way, I only got rid of a pair of shoe....and it was T's!   ;oP

 

 



Bringing It Back

Yup!  I'm returning the table saw back to Home Depot.

I haven't even taken it out of the van!

Conversation with MomK resulted to DadK loaning me his!

Yeah, they have a different version of the "loaning" part but I prefer my version better!

At any rate, it's one of em fancy shmancy ones and a pretty good size.

And only way that it'll be brought over is if I make room for it in the garage!  O_O

 

OH EM GEE!

O_O

 

I am sure that hubby and my mom (who has been nagging me to clean it since we moved in!) will be sooooo happy!)  'Cause I want this table saw really bad...  I NEED this table saw really bad...

So guess I'm cleaning the darn garage!

 

Good thing I'm done with the burgundy and grey stoles!