Goin down the Shore, 2011

When we’re going to the beach we say,  “goin down the shore,” it’s a regional thing, I guess.  I might ask a friend, “you going down the shore this Summer?”

Anyhow, the past few Summers we’ve gone to Ocean City MD  to stay for a couple days with my husband’s daughter and family at a condo they rent for 3 weeks every Summer. Yeah, I did say 3 weeks!

The condo has 2 bedrooms and 2 bathrooms and while not luxurious, it’s great for a family. It has anything you might need….. dishwasher, granite countertops, 3 tvs, cable, 2 small balconies, washer and dryer and could sleep 8 people with the roll away bed and pull out sofa bed. Plus, since it’s on a side street with little traffic, the kids can ride their bikes.

 

It’s just a few steps from the beach and about 20 blocks from the boardwalk. Walk one block and there’s always a bus going by on the main street. Hop on and get wherever you want to go, which is the best way to get around, unless you like driving in traffic.

 

It was hot, too hot. You can almost see the heat in these pictures on the boardwalk. Hazy, hot and humid.

Boardwalk smells made me hungry…pizza, cotton candy, gigantic soft pretzels, BBQ and the best french fries in the world! Thrashers fries, but make sure you douse them with apple cider vinegar and salt.

You just have to get a big bucket of greasy fries!

The shops beckon you to come on in and spent your money on overpriced stuff. Maybe you’d get a tattoo, boogie board or an itsy bitsy bikini, or not!

Just look at that blue sky! So much to see. Beautiful hotels and lots and lots of eye candy are everywhere you look. I loved these little balconies

and this dolphin bench.

 

 

 

The next day we drove to Assateaque Island. It’s about 9 miles from OC.

There’s a wooden walkway heading to the beach at Assateaque and sparkling pure white sand.

It’s beautiful and much less crowded than the beach at Ocean City.

If you buy a special permit you can drive right on the beach.

I could never stand to camp on the beach in 100 degree heat, but it must be nice at night. Campfires are allowed. You could have S’mores.

 

It’s thrilling seeing the horses. I know we’ve all seen horses before but these are  wild horses that graze openly in the marshes and sometimes near the road.

The feral horses and ponies living on Assateaque and  Chincoteague are thought to be descended from survivors of shipwrecked Spanish galleons off the coast of  Virginia.

Ever been to Assateaque?  It’s a beautiful place.

I really love Ocean City MD and plan on going back next year and staying longer. What’s your favorite beach?

 

Debbie (((xx)))

Orange pineapple pie, A summer delight

This is a really simple recipe with just a few ingredients and takes about 5 minutes to whip up. Any recipe that starts out with a ready made crust gets my attention. I’m not much for making pie crust, even graham cracker crusts.


Whip together 1/4 cup lemon juice ( I use bottled ) and a 14 oz. can of sweetened condensed milk. Fold in 8 oz. Cool whip.
Add to that, a 20 oz. can of crushed pineapple, drained and  two 11  oz. cans of mandarin oranges, drained. Save some oranges to decorate the top of pie. Put the filling into the pie shell and that’s it!
Refrigerate to give it some time to set and that’s as easy as it gets!

This recipe fills two 6 ounce crusts or one of the larger size.



My mouth is watering just looking at the picture!
One of the nice things about a ready made crust is that the lid serves as a cover.  That makes it easy to tote to a potluck or a friend’s house.

If you’re not toting it anywhere,  you can flip a ready made graham cracker crust into one of your own glass pie pans. The direction are here on the Keebler site.  You’ll fool everyone into thinking you made the crust yourself!


Debbie (((xx)))

Table makeover X2

When I bought this table at an auction many years ago, it looked like this. It was a sturdy little table, I liked its look and enjoyed it like this for a long time.

Eventually I got tired of this look and it got a makeover. It became green with an antique wash and gold Rub n Buff on the edges.

But then I got tired of it again………

It looks like this now.

As much as I would have loved to try out the Annie Sloan chalk paint that everyone is loving so much lately, that didn’t happen. It was made over with trusty, dependable, good old spray paint in Blue Ocean Breeze by Krylon.


After the paint was dry, I sanded it off to make it look distressed.

I scratched it up here and there too!  Basically, I just beat it up!


After sanding all the old paint off the top I stained it with a dark stain, then waxed it with S.C. Johnson  paste wax.

I like it again now.  But for how long, who knows!

Have you tried chalk paint? I heard only great things about it. Do you love it?

Added to Miss Mustard Seed, furniture friday.


The other side of the room can be seen in the previous post……it’s getting there, slowly.
Starting to get lots of goodies from the garden, more about that coming.
Debbie (((xx)))

Collage of yardsale finds

I wanted to create a gallery wall somewhere and since we don’t have high ceilings or  lots of wall space I decided to use the wall behind the couch in the living room.

The old frame and oils were all found at yardsales and I think I got the birdcage at a thrift shop. If you remember Rhoda’s gallery wall…..she had a birdcage in a frame too.  Just call me copycat.

It doesn’t look quite right yet ……I still have to find a few smaller things to add before I call it finished and I’m working on that.  Maybe when I find a few more pieces I’ll redo the whole thing, like hang the large framed piece on a different wall.  I like how the oils have the same subject matter but hate that dang thermostat!

The mercury glass lamps are from TJMaxx, I can always find great lamps there! Fabric across the back of the couch is from the thrift shop and I’m contemplating just what to do with it. The pear on the coffee table was green and I sprayed it white.

That’s as far as I’ve gotten on this room redo. I still have curtain panels to add and finish hanging things on the walls. And I’d love to add some kind of rug, maybe, I’m not sure about that.

On the other side of the room is a table makeover that I’ll be sharing soon.

Adding this post to Thrifty Treasures Party, Southern Hospitality

 

Debbie (((xx)))

What’s blooming/Garden 2011

I had beginner’s luck with this orchid. My daughter received it as a gift and was about to give up on it. I brought it home and it bloomed! All I did was water it and was rewarded with these beautiful blooms. Amazing!

Outside my Endless Summer hydrangea is blooming nicely. I think I planted it about three years ago.

I tried to keep it simple this year and scaled down on the number of pots I plant.  Impatiens in stacked terra cotta pots  in a rusty wheelbarrow, the ground cover is Sweet Woodruff. It was from a friend and I’m hoping it will fill in this area.

Nothing fancy just more impatiens in a window box on the shed.

Knockout roses are amazing! This is the second round of blooms. If you have space for one I would recommend it. You will not be disappointed. This is double knockout in red.

Another Knockout rose, this one is pink, but not the double variety so the flowers have less petals. The white airy plant is Guara.

More impatiens at the entrance to the garden. Rabbits won’t eat white impatiens so that’s what I plant in the ground, bright colors for the pots only! Notice the wire cages in the garden!

This is the perennial bed edging the vegetable garden. I really should get in there and divide some things, but I actually like the overgrown look.

Our potager, french style kitchen garden….vegetables, flowers and herbs.

The crazy vine is cantaloupe and it grew on its own….a volunteer from last year. It took over the space and has the peppers surrounded.

 

Look at this beauty! It’s almost ready for picking.

I found and old galvanized bucket to hold this fern.

These pots are on the patio and the urns are out front.

Hen and chicks or cats and kittens…whatever you call them, I actually brought these from my old house. It’s an old wives tale that they protect your house from fire.

Well, that was the tour, Happy Gardening!

Every year I post pictures of our garden so you can check out previous years here. It’s interesting to see how it changes from year to year.

Got to get to work…putting down mulch today…..

 

Debbie (((xx)))

An Unexpected color on the front door

I was tired of the color of our front door and it did need a paint job so I decided to make a few changes.

I picked out these lights with a verdigris finish for the porch and garage when the house was built and loved them at the time but you know how that goes. They were faded and looking in need of help and it’s time for a new look.

I took the lights down, cleaned them up then gave them a few coats of black spray paint. This job was a pain! A real pain, with the heat and humidity and I forgot how to put them back together! But I finally got her done! Phew.

Here’s an old picture of the burgundy color. It’s a classic look, not bad at all.

Here’s the new look. Updated and a bit fresher. I like it, even though it reminds me of split pea soup. The color is Valspar, La Fonda Olive.

Do I need something on the door? I don’t want a wreath because there is already a big urn full of flowers, so what do I hang there?

 

Wow it is hot today. I’m hanging my clothes out to dry in the free heat but I come in drenched. 

I’m psyching myself up to start a slipcover project, a good indoor project for a heat wave…..we’ll see how that goes!  

^Debbie