St. Petersburg Florida ~ The Sunshine City

While visiting my parents in Florida last week Mr. Rosemary Lane, myself and the kids took a day trip down to St. Petersburg, also known as the Sunshine City for its reported average of 361 days of sunshine each year. That's a lot of sunshine aye!

(LOL...no I am not Canadian...just like the word "aye"!)

The first place I wanted to see with the kids was the St. Petersburg Pier. I was there several years ago and loved the entire experience. The St. Petersburg pier also known as "The Pier" was constructed in 1973 and it features a 5 story inverted pyramid shape building.

Pretty cool right? 

It was extremely disappointing to find that the pier had closed. From 1973 to May 31, 2013 the pier offered activities including shopping, dining, nightlife, fishing boat rentals and The Pier Aquarium. 

The plan was to demolish the existing pier and replace it with a newly designed pier, however in August of 2013 the residents of St. Petersburg voted to cancel the contract with the architectural firm which was to construct the new pier.

So there she sits...empty...

Loved this St. Petersburg landmark...Loews don Cesar Hotel or the "Pink Lady". 

Ooops scratch that...the hotel is actually the Vinoy Renaissance Hotel as pointed out by one of my readers who lived in the area for many years. Thank you Shari!!!

Downtown St. Petersburg is the home of dozens of galleries and cultural venues.

Michael even found a new friend!

There are also a multitude of places to dine in the downtown district as well. I had a fabulous fish taco for lunch at 400 Beach Seafood and Tap House.

We then took a little drive over to Snell Isle to take a gander at some of it's luxury homes.

I love Banyan trees and there were two huge ones located in North Straub Park.

Now I ask you what kid can say "no" to climbing a Banyan tree???

Not mine that's for sure!!!

We even carved out a little bit of time to spend exploring the beach.

It was a wonderful day in St. Pete!

XO

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A Gift from Janet - Gorgeous Pink Cube Earrings

A couple months ago I pinned these fabulous pink earrings to my Pinterest board titled "Pink" and then decided to share them on my Facebook page.

Well my good friend and former college roommate saw the picture I posted and made a comment that she thought she could replicate these earrings. I wrote back that I was thrilled at the idea of having a pair of earrings even remotely close to these, so she went ahead and began creating!!!

To be perfectly honest the past couple weeks have been very difficult for me...too much in the way of sad news regarding the passing of a wonderful high school friend. So just as I was getting ready to leave for Florida to visit my parents for Easter...these came in the mail.

I opened up the box and you would have thought it contained a thousand dollars by the way I exclaimed. She recreated those beautiful earrings to an absolute "T" and then some. My dear friend added extra touches like the flower at the bottom of the pink cube and chose lever-back's with beautiful detail! They are also done in silver instead of the gold so they are more suitable for the spring and upcoming summer season.

Take a look at them side by side...

She did an incredible job on these beauties and I did wear them the entire time I was in Florida! I think they are even prettier than the originals!!! Wouldn't these be the perfect bridesmaid gift? ( Just saying...) 

Thank you so much Janet for making these stunners for me and for being thoughtful enough to make sure I had them before we left last Saturday.

Friends are true gifts from heaven no matter when or where or even how you find one another. They are earthly angels who seem to somehow intuitively know just when you need them most.

Thank you Janet for giving of your time, talent, and love just when I needed them most!

XO

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Timber Pines ~ Golf Resort Living in Central Florida

For the past 19 years my parents have been living in an over 55 active adult community in central Florida known as Timber Pines.

The development here was established in 1982 and is lovely as well as large, over 3400 homes fill this beautiful gated oasis.

There is a clubhouse and a lodge where residents can swim, play tennis, boccie ball, pick up a card game, have a drink and just simply relax. 

Here Chris and Michael are taking a dip in the fabulously warm waters the clubhouse's geo-thermally heated resort like swimming pool.

And did I mention golf??? Yes there is plenty of opportunity to golf for the golf enthusiast. Four golf courses exist within the community of Timber Pines. There are two luxurious 18 hole courses called executive courses, one championship course and one chip and put course. Not forgetting to mention a driving range and a practice putting green.

There is also some interesting wild life indigenous to the region. Would you believe this guy below is a member of the squirrel family? He is the size of an average house cat and likes to forage by the golf course greens

Most homes have back patios and or screened in in-ground swimming pools.

And there are some mighty beautiful homes and landscaping to ohh and ahh over.

My dad always referred to Timber Pines as Heaven's waiting room...

...and you know what...I think he is right!

We are headed home in a couple days and then it is back to welcoming the beauty of spring in our own neck of the woods.

Wishing you all a wonderful last weekend of April.

XO

Wishing You a Very Blessed Easter

So Peter the other disciple set out for the tomb. They both ran together, and the other disciple outran Peter and came to the tomb first. And he, stooping down and looking in, saw the linen cloths lying there; yet he did not go in. Then Simon Peter came, following him, and went into the tomb; and he saw the linen cloths lying there, and the handkerchief that had been around His head, not lying with the linen cloths, but folded together in a place by itself. Then the other disciple, who came to the tomb first, went in also; and he saw and believed. For as yet they did not know the Scripture, that He must rise again from the dead. 

Wishing you all the love and closeness as you gather today to celebrate this glorious mystery of faith.

Happy Easter and may God Bless.

XO

A Front Porch to Welcome Spring!

Its done!!!

Yay!!

I finally got into the mood to decorate our front porch for spring after some really nice days last weekend and the early part of this week. Only mother nature decided to pull a fast one and she yanked the rug of warm weather out and then zapped us with some pretty cool temperatures over the last two days.

Geeeesh!

As for pulling the porch together the first item I added was a place to sit, so out came my new thrift store wicker chair. It's placed on an angle so I can see our neighbors pass by on their spring walks and jogs.

I then added a little white table my sister had given me a few years back and adorned it with a couple coordinating metal lanterns. It is contrasted with one rustic lantern which literally has been sitting on my front porch through the entire winter.

Now I had the wreath hanging on the plain white siding, but that was just it...it was too plain.

So today as I was driving to pick up my friend Peggy, we were heading out for a cappuccino and a little girl talk, I passed by a house which had a bunch of doors sitting next to the road with a sign on it FREE. Oh well that was the perrrrrfect price so I grabbed one of them and stuffed it into the back of the minivan. 

Then I lucked out again because after I pulled out the door from the van I realized one side was already painted a pale sage green. I placed the door, green side out, behind my little white table and then using a metal wreath hanger, I hung the spring wreath. It was just the thing to beak up that long boring wall.

My ASC Antibes green chair came out of the entry to join the spring party on the front porch! 
Two Terra Cotta pots I had painted for a project a couple years ago and then left outside since then, were placed on the seat of the chair. I love the chippy paint look.

A rustic bucket of hydrangea were placed on the small shelf of the table and a pretty green carpet from the Christmas Tree Shop was added to the floor.

And that is my spring porch for 2014!

I hope you are enjoying a little warmer weather than we are here in the northeast. It is barely getting out of the 40's today. But hey if it stays cold it won't bother me, because we are heading for sunny Florida on Saturday!

Woo hoo!!!

Wishing you all a wonderful holiday weekend!

XO

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