Water Water Everywhere....

I've lived in Clearwater Florida for about 6 years now and am overjoyed with all the water..
I was asked to "Pick One Body of Water"... how can I do that when there is
so much water around me? Each photo below is a 'favorite place'.

I can literally walk to a little town called "Safety Harbor"

They have the best "Marina and Fishing Pier".  If you get out

early enough, about 7am, you can see the "Manatee" swimming

under and around the pier. Yes, Moms and Babies together, their large bodies

coming up and out of the water, to blow for air...If you bring some lettuce, they will love you!

Although I don't.. it's frowned upon to feed the Manatee! I do bring bags of bread for the "Sea Gulls".
They literally "Take if from your hand"!

I'm usually out early to walk around this beautiful area.

 The above is an areal view of Pinellas County.  The photo above is where I live...Upper (East) is the Tampa Bay and below (West) is the Gulf of Mexico.  I live about 6 streets from the Tampa Bay

Here is the walkway out onto "Sand Key" Beach, Clearwater.

I love to go to this beach.. not alot of tourists go here, mostly locals.

Again, "Sand Key" beach.... The Sand is literally a "White Powder".

The above buildings are million dollar condos..


Tha'ts me and a passerby, feeding the Sea Gulls!

The above photo is what we call SR-60, or the "Courtney Campbell Causeway"

this road is about 5 blocks from my home and travels West from Clearwater Beach, all the way East to Tampa.. the length is about 24 miles on this road way!  When the Hurricanes come in, they have to close this road.. they put 'tractor trailers' on each end to block the cars from driving on it. (yes, some try)

An evening photo from the 'Safety Harbor" Pier.. I love this spot most!

It looks at the city of Tampa, across the bay!  On a clear day or night you can see the 'Space Shuttle" take off from the "Kennedy Space Center" from this view!

Below is my creek, "Alligator Creek" that runs from the Tampa Bay to The Gulf of Mexico,, East to West in Clewarwater.... It's rather shallow but many little row boats can be seen from my back windows... No, I don't have a boat, or a pier to dock a boat.

And yes, there are "Alligators" in this creek... none have walked into my yard, or at least I have not seen them do that, but I have called the "Alligator Catcher" to pick up two.. He put long fishing poles into the bank and hung a raw chicken for them. After a few hours they took the bait, then he tied them, and they were taken to his truck and released  into the "Everglades". 

As I said before I've only lived here in 'Clearwater' for about 6 years. I came over from a few years in "Ft. Lauderdale" where I literally lived 2 blocks from the famous beach. My favorite pastime was at "Sunrise".. walking to the beach and watching the tractors come in and clean the sand.

My life has mostly been near water and my skin shows the damages from the sun. Brown spots are real, so now I slather with "Sun Screen" each and every day.

I'm linking up to  My French Country Home  where "Sharon" is doing an article about 

"Living by Water"  She asked for a "Little Photo", my favorite body of water, but I don't have just one. 
I will also be sharing this post with  A Southern Dreamer's "Outdoor Wenesday" 

Wednesday Gratitude @ Heart and Home 
 

I am so Grateful for where I live 
Thank you ladies for hosting 
 
Water is "All around me"

Overwhelmed

There comes a time during any 'Home Transformation' that you become "Overwhelmed"

Today I'm sitting, or rather moving from one chair to another, totally "not knowing what

to do next"?  A 'one woman band', I am!

Since I first started the 're-do' of my townhouse, that was the summer of 09, my first

intentions were to simply "Make my kitchen look better'!  I mean, "look at this kitchen"!

That scary thing in the ceiling is a 'Florescent Light' 6 bulbs up there?.. With dirty yellowing  plastic panels surrounding it!  It had about 25 years of bugs in there! 

One day I'd had enough, took out the sledge hammer and started with the ceiling!

Within 2 hrs "It was gone"!

Every time I stepped into the kitchen I felt like I was "Back in Time"!

It was someones time, surly "Not Mine'!

 Well, one thing led to another and my townhouse took on a life of it's own!  I got out the "White Paint" and the paint brush went off an a tangent!  It just started going 'splish splash' from one room to another... and I started liking what was going on! I moved out of the kitchen, into the other rooms of the house. Poor kitchen is still there, begging to be finished. I keep talking to it... soon, when I get the money for the new counter top I'll be back... promise!

Ok... I think now I'm totally "OVERWHELMED"! Time to hang up the 'Paint Brush' for a few days and 'Re-group'....I made a "White Pair of Drapes" for the family room this morning.. love it, but the rod needs to be larger/longer... to the Home Depot for a 105" wood dowel to make my own!

Look at all the photos.. "Who Does This"? 

And, "I have more photos, of more furniture I painted

in the past 6 months!

  It is Saturday evening and I've decided to take off tomorrow, Sunday. Not one thing will I do except read the newspaper and watch the Hallmark Chanel ,, or maybe watch the design shows on HGTV, check my e'mails and peek into a few of my bloggie friends sites... maybe get a little energy for Monday!

Knowing me, I'll be dreaming of the 'stair case'... yes, I want to remove the carpet and paint the wood steps.. and the living room, remove the carpet and paint the cement sub floor... 

StOp!!! No more for the weekend.. I'm sure everyone knows, "When you start dreaming of this stuff, it's time to hang up the paint brush"!  OK!  "Sandy Out"

Garage Saleing Frames

With all the transformations going on in my home, I want a few new wall hangings. After looking to the stores, I saw each would run me (this was for nice ones, not expensive ones) from $24.00 and up!  Well I'm not one to spend money on such things. Most of my wall art is something made by friends and family.  My daughter, my mom, my niece are all very good with their art and I much prefer real art;  oils,  needlework and family photos, as opposed to faux anything.

This week I went to several Garage Sales and picked up about 8 'Wood' frames.. each under a dollar.

Then I took out the old art and spray painted each frame... then washed the glass...

For the 'art'.. I went to the internet and did a search for "Blue Floral"....

It's wonderful how much is on the internet. Images of anything you might want.

Once I found what I was looking for I 'saved' the image to file.. then brought it up to 'print'. Telling my printer the size i wanted the image to be and clicked 'print'..... 

        I chose to 'spray paint' the frames 'black' and they look so good with the blue images! 

                            

At the moment all my 'new art' is standing on the back of the sofa.. it will get hung once I get the walls in the family room painted.. but for now, I'll just smile as I look at my new "Art Work"!

Grand total for my art.. hard to estimate?   .99c for each frame,  12 pieces of printer photo paper (I had to test on 5 of them),  ink?  ok.. I'll guesstimate, $9.00 for 5.

I'll be linking to   




Time travel Thursday 6-24

Old pair of lamps.

While turning my entire townhouse "White and Blue" I noticed two really old lamps that

were sitting on two end tables... "Well, they could be white also", I thought!

Out came the "Spray Paint"! I took a bit of time to "tape" the areas that were to be 'silver' or 'pewter', not sure at this point?

 

While I thought about the color choices for the lamp base, I went to work to cover the two shades.. I had this nice fabric hiding away from another project and thought it might just be cute.. and it was just a small piece of fabric.. enough for the lamps. I had some white trim for the top and bottom edges.. turned out nice!

You know, "I think it's a  perfect color"!

Once the "White" was spayed and dried I took out the 'pewter' craft paint and did the design on both the bottom and the top of the lamps.

Now 'that's better'!  Goes with my "All over white" theme!

Wonder what I can 'paint next'? 

The townhouse is getting such a 'face-lift'... One day it will be finished.. (one day) I will walk around each room and get some photos... 
(At the speed I'm going with this entire Reno, may be months!)

I will be linking to these Parties

Show and Tell Friday 

"We must save the Gulf of Mexico"

I'm normally not one to "Join A Cause" but living only 2 miles from the Beach of Clearwater and knowing

how beautiful and how much we need the "Gulf"... I have to ask all;   'Take Notice'... this "Spill".. or rather "Gushing Pipeline" is going to affect we humans and kill all wildlife  for years to come! No matter where you live!

I've also come to the conclusion that we should "Not" Boycott BP
We need to let them make money,,, so we can "Bleed Them Dry"
They need to pay for the damage they have done!

This sign was spotted in a "Ohio BP Station"

"The arrogance of this company"....So many "Fisherman and Business People" are begging for help.

I'll not rant here on my "Happy Blog"... Just wanted to "Speak Out"......

"BP has been lying to the public".  All they are concerned with is 

"Saving their Pipeline for Future Revenue"

"Imagine the Billions of dollars they will loose on this disaster" 

"Hog Wash"

I called BP several weeks ago and spoke to three Engineers telling them "My thoughts"

"Bury the entire area with tons of Cement" Entomb it!! All the scientists and brilliant

minds, can not figure out how to stop this so "Bury it"

BP refuses to stop it, "Future Revenue" to recoop their losses!

The "Gulf of Mexico" will be forever known as a "Dead Zone"

"This is indeed a Shame" 

A few of my favorite things in the yard....

I'm joining A Southern day Dreamer for her "Outdoor Wednesday Party"

I'd like to show a few of my ceramic/terracotta statues... I love these little people scattered around my yard.

Above is my Angel who sits out on the back deck... She brings Joy!

And this is my "Gargoyl"... he keeps the evil away...

I wounder if I could talk to him and see if he can also

keep disease off my plants?  Oh, and the bugs that

love to eat my Basil?

This is "St. Francis"... he is the keeper of the animals and critters....

I have a creek out back.. it's called "Alligator Creek" and yes their

are Alligators out there.. We have raccoons, armadillo, squirrels,

huge frogs, very large tropical birds, great blue herons, egales, large vultures and a very large assortment of birds and lets not forget the snakes.. lots of them!   I've registered my yard with "The National Wildlife Fed." as a "Back Yard Habitat".  So I've become very picky as to what go's out there! No spray of any sort are used! 

They say "I might see a Florida Panther" one day?

Oh, we also have a monkey, it has been loose for months now!

"Mystery Monkey of Tampa Bay 

(I never go out on my deck when it's dark)

Here are my "Flys"... I have five of them scattered around the yard.. some people think they are really ugly and creepy!

  I love them, rust and all!

This little lady greets all that enter my driveway.. she holds a "Lilly Pad".

You can find many different items scattered around my yard... One of my "dear sweet" neighbors

said with sarcasm "Your yard is looking like a junk yard", but I just smiled and walked away!

He is old and besides "What does he know"?

I have more to show, but I'll wait for another post... 

It's hot here today 94' and really "humid".... when I walked outside around 2pm, it felt like

I was back in "Texas"..... So I watered my flowers then went to sit in the a/c...

And how was your day!