on an island in the sun....

Yesterday morning, waking up in Florida: yay! Mariel and I went to Publix, a store we don't have in the great white north, and yeah, I like it.

We got our half and half and some grapes, nuts, eggs, sunscreen...stuff for a good island vacation. We got to the resort by two in the afternoon...and oh, the loveliness! It's RIGHT on the water, the beach is it's front yard, and then there's a pool right outside of our room!

We spend a few hours in the sun...

Mariel and grandma...

Can anything be prettier? The weather forecast for the next few days: sunny and warm, high eighties. Our plans: brekky, pool, beach, dinner at a place on the beach, sunset... It's a nice get-away. I've almost forgotten we're in a global pandemic. Life is interesting though. Camille had a headache at school on Friday, and threw up. I got the call from the school nurse, and our guidelines in NY state have just changed, so that a doctor's note can suffice for return to school, in place of a negative Covid test, if applicable. Well, her headache went away after one dose of meds, she had no fever, and ate pizza for dinner. I took her to the doctor on Saturday morning, and he agreed that to test her would be overkill, a waste of a test, a waste of money. She was fine. He did do a throat culture, and actually spent 45 minutes with us, making sure all was okay. (He's an excellent pediatrician, he's been our dr. since Emily was born, 35+ years ago) Anyway, never a dull moment. If Cam had been tested, she would have had to quarantine until the results came back, so we had to cancel all of her weekend plans, on Friday night. So after our appointment on Saturday, it was fine for her to be out and about, that's why she went along on our wine tour, with Miss Char. Anyway. They're going back to school this fine morning, and hopefully all will go well. (It's nice that Paul works from home now, because they only attend school two days a week in person...)

The top pic, from our wine tour on beautiful Keuka Lake NY, Charlotte Claire, Sonja K., Mariel Joy, Molly Rose, Evelyn Joy, and Miss Camille Anaya. The bottom pic: Sonja in the yellow, then Molly, Evelyn in the way back, Char in the dark jacket, me, Camille in the right corner, then Mariel in the front...

The views were gorgeous.

Evelyn...this was at this strange old house, a small private winery, yummy stuff.

There was no consistency in the rules: one place, you had to buy a food item per Gov. Cuomo's ruling, no alcohol sales without food, so a dollar bag of popcorn counted. A few other places gave snacks with the tastings, not that I eat Cheese-Its. One place brought out little containers of chocolate chips, which paired excellently with a sweetish red wine. And one place didn't mention it at all.

Sonja was our driver, and obviously she and the two younger girls weren't drinking anything. We took it slowly, and enjoyed the beautiful day. We stopped at McDonalds on the way home, the younger ones liked that a lot. Then, Sunday morning, it was time to head to Florida. We had a long layover in Ghost Town USA, formerly known as JFK.

I guess not a lot of people are traveling these days. We made it safely to Orlando, took an Uber to Grandma's, and here we are! In a few hours, we are headed for a small island on the gulf coast, for three nights of sunshine and ocean and heated pool...the good news, I brought my trusty dusty laptop, so you WILL come with me...:)

getting ready....

Today, I have to get ready to go to Florida. I'm only bringing a backpack and a carry-on, which is not easy, considering that just one of my "fat-lady" bathing suits takes up half the room.

I went on my walk this morning, six days in a row!

The final delivery of deck lumber for the pool arrived this week, Adrian worked on it a bit yesterday. We need more screws, and some step stringers. So off to Lowe's I go...

I went outside and kept an eye on little Wulf while his dad worked on the deck. His mama was in the house taking care of baby Tennyson...I also picked what's probably the last of the garden harvest. We had the perfect amount of tomatoes and peppers, just enough to keep us from having to buy any for a few months. We had taco salad for dinner last night, and garden tomatoes and green peppers, yum.

I did get some baby time!

Like my new lamp? I bought two of them, one for Paul too. The lamps are from Walmart, $6.97, the shades from Target, ten bucks each. I am in the market for two matching nightstands that I can refinish, but it's not a hurry. This bench works fine for now, and Paul has a cube thing that works, although it doesn't look great.

Yeah, these signs are overused and kind of silly, but this one just describes our house...and it was a decent price:)

Oh what a lovely morning... So yes, I have to get ready for Florida, and also get ready to quarantine afterward, somewhat. I need to have enough project supplies. Sonja or Paul can grocery shop...I am going on a small wine tour tomorrow afternoon with four of my daughters. So I sort of need to pack soon, as we are flying out on Sunday. The forecast for the island we are staying on: sunshine and warmth, in the eighties!

and....after!!!!!!!

I know, I know, these were posted yesterday...

I wish I took "before" pics specifically of the handles. I just wiped them down, put them in a cardboard box, brought them out onto the deck after the rain stopped, and spray painted them with black spray paint I got at the dollar store a few years ago. It took two minutes, brought the box back in, set it safely on the table in case it rained again, and today put them back on. I used Jonny's impact drill to take them off and put them on, I felt like a real do-it-yourselfer. See who thinks she owns this bed?

She brought her ball, in case I wanted to play instead of take "after" pictures.

All these pictures, and I didn't even think of shining up the mirror. It's an old dresser. There are dings and chips, and the drawers are very persnickety. They squeak and squawk and like to close crookedly. I felt bad covering up her wood, but I don't have the skill...or the patience, ha, to sand and restore. Plus, doing a lot of sanding in my new room, nah, or worse, the thought of using chemical strippers with that new flooring...with me being such a supremely neat and careful worker, not. The dresser is extremely heavy, and with our weather right now, it wasn't going to be dragged outside. Heck, I didn't even take the drawers out to paint it. I just pulled them out a little, and was careful not to paint my clothes. A light sanding, two coats of primer, two coats of chalk paint, and two coats of wax. Easy peasy. Hmmm....what's next?! Margaret and Adrian and Wulf and baby Tennyson are coming over for a visit! Wulf can talk so well now, he asked me if he could come over. The he said, "Gramma, you can make me cookies." Well. How can I NOT????

somebody stop me!!!

So this is the "before" pic, that I remembered to take after I started sanding. Yes, I sanded it down right in our room, sawdust flying, vacuum cleaner handy. To be fair, I only lightly sanded it, then used some good primer, two coats. This morning, the first coat of chalk paint, white because...it's what I have, and I'm not feeling adventurous. Evelyn stopped in just now, and when I showed her the progress, she suggested I paint the top black. Hmmm. I'll have to think about that one. I am going to spray paint the handles, but it's raining out today. Even if it doesn't come out perfect, it'll be nicer than it was, we bought it for twenty bucks, sight unseen, answered a little ad for Dresser For Sale in the local paper, way back when...back when we lived in our first mobile home, I think. We had a water bed, because Paul bought it in college. We had couches and end tables because I bought them when I was a senior in high school, on a weekly plan, with my babysitting money. Oh dear, I've always been old! Anyway. Molly came over with little Ophelia and the kindergarten Miss Lydia Eleanor yesterday afternoon.

I went on my walk this morning before the rain started, well, I got pelted as I walked back up the driveway. I need to go do a second coat of chalk paint, so I can think about waxing it up and getting finished. I like to start projects, but oh boy do I like to finish them! Then I start looking around...the tall dresser, Paul's, needs something, but I don't like it at all, it's so old and big, and takes up too much room...I'd rather find something smaller, then paint it to match. Today, I have to bring Miss Camille to the dentist, then we're going to Aldi to stock up on our meal plan list. And now, another coat of paint...bye!