Our own little island, Sandy Cay

It has been too long since I've written, and now that we are back from our vacation, I thought it would be good to add something about that.

We spent 8 days at Laguna Beach Resort, on Utila. (Off the coast of Honduras.) Great food, great dives, great company.  It was a slow week (in-between busy seasons), and there were only 10 in our group.  It was a great group, and we really enjoyed the time we had there.  We logged 22 dives- the most we've ever done in one week!  And we had our first night dives ever.  So fun!



After the week+ at Laguna Beach Resort, we went to our island, Sandy Cay.  We rented it for 5 nights, and had a ball.  We had to bring all our own food, so we went to the grocery store with a very detailed list.  John cooked most of the time, which was really fun for me. :-)





 This was definitely not a 5 star hotel, but it was exactly what we expected it to be.  The cabin was actually divided into two: one part was 2 bedrooms and a bathroom, the second part was the living room, a bathroom and the kitchen.   The table was outside. 







The fun part was the ocean!  We went snorkeling every day (I skipped one day, and read my book, but John went in the shallows where I could see him.)  One day we spent 3 1/2 hours and snorkeled around the whole island!  It was so much fun!









The snorkeling was as good as the diving was in Utila.  Absolutely beautiful.



But, it was kind of like camping.  Like Young Women's Camp.  There's a cabin, flush bathrooms, gas cooking, BUT there were bugs!  Flies, mosquitoes, ants and roaches.  We found that if we were out of the kitchen by sunset, we missed most of the bugs.

Sunrise: 5 a.m.  Sunset: 6:15 p.m.  Pitch dark: 6:30 p.m.

Never had to set an alarm.  Read, walked on the beach, did a puzzle, watched a movie every night on John's computer, snorkeled.

So we were camping!  But camping in paradise!  And with the one you love!  Fantastic!

New skirt!

I like bargains.  Well, maybe I should say I love bargains!  Therefore, when I have time, I like to browse through my favorite thrift store, Deseret Industries, or D.I., for short.  The kids used to say it was my favorite store!

Anyway, several weeks ago I had finished running my errands, and had nothing else on my "to do" list, so I stopped by D.I. and went through practically every isle in the whole store.  I had so much fun!  I found 2 really cute summer button front blouses.  Just what I've been looking for!  One is an "Hawaiian" type, which I love taking those on vacation, and I only had one!  I have been jealous of John, because he has about four. 

I got a couple of other little things besides the blouses, but my find of the day was some beautiful rayon type fabric.  Hawaiian style.  Gorgeous.  $3 for three yards.  Wonderful!  I picked it up!

I went home with my wonderful new blouses and material and showed them off to John.  (He really liked them!)  Then I looked through my patterns to find a good skirt pattern for my new material.  Didn't really like the choices, at least of the ones that were my size.  Sigh. 

When I visited my mom, we stopped by JoAnn's one day, and some of the patterns were $1.25.  Love those bargains!   I couldn't decide on which of two patterns would be best for my skirt, so I got them both, plus another that I just really liked!  One pattern would be super easy, no zippers, but also no pockets.  The other pattern had both a zipper and pockets. 

I decided to use the pattern with the pockets and zipper, but I altered it a little.  I still put the zipper in the back, but I also made the top back straight (instead of fitted) and put elastic in it.  That way if I gain or lose a few pounds it will still fit.

I cut out the pieces last week, and finished sewing it this week, putting on the hook and eye just a couple of hours ago.  It is really cute.  At least I think so!

In other news.....  John and I have hiked the Y twice so far this year! 

Here's my skirt:

The picture isn't the best, but you can still see what it's like.  I'm going to enjoy wearing it!

PinTesting, once more!

PinTesting once more.

Over the last almost 2 months, I have had a wonderful Thanksgiving and Christmas, and have had a hard time counting my many blessings!  I have tried many new recipes that I on my "Pinterest" board, "Recipes I've Tried," but have not done much with Pinterest except recipes.  But one came along that I just HAD to try!  It looked so fun!  It was how to make a "Scratch-Off" Valentine's card.
http://patandlindsay.blogspot.com/2012/02/diy-scratch-off-valentine-cards.html?m=1

I didn't actually make a card.  Yet!  I wanted to test this out to see if it would work!













I looked in my pile of scrap paper to see if I had any scrap cardstock.  I did!  It was from a genealogy chart I put up at a family reunion!   It had nice little squares on it that would be perfect for testing.

I made 4 test squares.  After I wrote in each box, I then did the "fun" part: painting over the crayon!  I chose a light blue and when I opened it up I realized it was a bit thick.  Ended up being perfect for this project, as I only needed to apply one coat.

I waited a long time, probably 2 hours, before I tried scratching the paint off.

Here's the outcome:

Test 1: 
In the first box I wrote "Hello" in the box then immediately drew over it with a white crayon. The ink was pretty blurred.  But I was thrilled that I could read it!

Test 2:  In the second box, I wrote "Test 2", waited at least 30 minutes before coloring over it with a white crayon.  Not sure how long I would have had to wait for the ink to dry, but was surprised that the ink smeared on this one, too.





Test 3 and 4:  In the 3rd and 4th boxes I colored over the words with a blue and green crayon after waiting at least 1/2 hour to let the ink dry.The other colors of crayon work, but you'd want to make sure they were a light color.  I tested these because I wanted to know if the crayon part scraped off, too, or just the paint.  The crayon protected the words pretty good.

 

Verdict:  It works!  BUT, if I were to make cards myself, I would have the words I wanted in the boxes printed on the computer, not by my ink pen.  You notice the names of my relatives didn't smear and are very readable!  I would probably use a white crayon, but the design possibilities are many if you chose a different, very light colored crayon.  Oh, really lay down a lot of crayon!  My thin spots weren't as nice and the paper got scratched.  Plus, I'd make sure I used nice, thick paint!

Quilt Squares

I have tried something new!  I took a 4 week, 2 1/2 hours each session, quilt class!  Our last class was a week ago.  We made 4 squares in class, enough to make a table runner, but I decided I wanted to make a 9 square sampler.  I just finished my 9th square!!!! 

The squares still need to be "squared", then I'll put in borders.  But here they are "as is."  I'm pretty proud of them, even though they aren't quite perfect. :-)

Hiking the Y

John and I try to hike the Y twice a week, on Tuesdays and Thursdays.  I was a little concerned Monday night, because it was supposed to rain on Tuesday.  It was nice and cloudy when we got up, but it didn't look like it was going to rain anytime soon, so we went.  It was a nice hike!  The weather is cooling down, though, so it's going to be harder to pysch myself up to going!

Wednesday night I told John I wasn't setting my alarm, because I was tired.  I was glad, because I slept an extra hour, and obviously needed it.  (I usually wake up too early.)  I was extra glad when John called me up from work and told me to look outside.  There was a quarter inch of snow on the rooftops and any dirt and the snow was coming down fast!  I was VERY glad I wasn't up walking around in it!

We've been seeing some pretty sites on our early walks, since we get up there about the same time as sunrise.  Last week I took these pictures:

Gorgeous colors, but the picture doesn't do it justice.

The sun is peaking through the canyon.

The sun is just reaching the lake.

The fall colors are now just shades of brown.

Pinterest testing

Another test:  I saw this clever idea and just had to try it.

I didn't happen to have an empty soda bottle, but did have an empty milk jug.  I carefully took that little ring off, and that ended up being very useful, because it needed that to hold down the bag.  Before that it was very loose and the lid didn't want to screw on.

Since this photo, I remembered I had a Snapp Capp, and put that on instead.  It works that same as the milk jug lid.

So, it worked.  Do I like it?  Yes and no.  It is a clever idea, but because the hole is so small, it is actually more difficult to pour out the chocolate chips.  So I think something like a Copco bag cap would be a lot more useful.  But obviously more expensive than free!  For now I'll keep using my chip clips from Ikea.  (I have some from Pampered Chef, too.  Love them both. I have about 3 dozen!)

Pinterest Testing

I saw this pin about re-newing old paintbrushes by soaking them in vinegar.  So I decided to give it a try.

Here's my paint brush before the soaking.

 It's not in terrible shape, but I wondered if the soaking would release the old paint.

 So I boiled up some vinegar.  I would have rather put the paint brush flat, but to cover the whole thing I would have needed to put it in my 9 x 13 pan. I didn't want to use up a huge amount of vinegar, so I stuck it upright in my quart measuring cup.

I let it soak for about 6 hours.  Then I washed it really well in soapy water.  Here's what it looked like after.

I do think it turned out nice, but not as nice as I had hoped.  The oldest paint is still there.  You can't tell from the photo, but the bristles were softer.  What I don't like is that because I didn't want to use up a gallon of vinegar, the bristles are now a little distorted!  I hope they return to normal when we paint again!

But the question is, "Was it worth it?"  No.  I may do this for little paint brushes, when just a small amount of vinegar is used.  But I don't think it affected how the paint brush will work, unless it is adversely affected by the warped bristles!  Plus, my house was stinky for 6 hours! (It was cold, and I didn't want to put the experiment outside.)