Inside the belly of the beast!

One of the sites the girls really wanted to see while we were down south was the caves of Diros. All of the sightseeing books highly recommended them so off we went. 

First we needed a detour to Areopolis which is the unofficial capital of Mani, not a very big town, they had a couple of super markets, which are nothing in comparison to our super markets. We needed to pick up a train ticket to Athens for Sharon who was leaving us the next day (sniff) and go to the bank. We didn't want to carry all of our cash with us so decided before we left the states we'd hit the ATMs a couple of times and pay the $5 service fee versus using our cards where we could (lots of places want cash) because there would be a fee with each purchase. 

Now we were off to the caves. I believe it was 8 euros a person. Every site you go to costs money, well except Cape Tenaro. Guess they figure if you're willing to make the hike, no need to pay. There were 5 of us in the boat for the cave tour and the navigator who did not speak English, not convenient when he's talking about the caves. He wasn't very chatty anyway so we weren't missing out on much. 

The caves were pretty cool, it felt like we were inside the belly of the beast! Su was in the front and spent the whole time saying heads or left side, right side. I'm 4'11", if I have to duck that tells you how low the ceilings are at some points. We were so close to the walls of the cave we could reach out and touch but I didn't want to get yelled at. He already yelled at me once for leaning too far to take a pic. My big complaint is we went so fast so we didn't get to just sit and enjoy the moment (and some of my pics came out blurry).

My camera had the flash on, Sharon's didn't hence the difference in the colors but I love her photos and want to share them too!

The following pic was taken outside of the caves, walking to the car. Greece is truly beautiful, inside and out.

We decided to go to MarMari for lunch. The best thing about MarMari was the hot waiters. They were super cute and made lunch more enjoyable. Actually, the food here wasn't the greatest but I can't get enough of grilled squid and eat it every chance I get in Greece. I'll skip the aubergine (eggplant) salad. 

We're dark in this pic but check out the background to our lunch!

After lunch we hit the beach at MarMari. Linda mentioned it was windy but it was out of control windy. Makes for great waves but I wasn't going in. The entire time we were in Greece we never made it to the beach before 5pm, try as we might (except for the one day we went snorkeling outside our room). I think the water would have been warmer if we made it in sooner. 

Nancy and Su braved the waters, Sharon and I read. There was a wedding happening right there on the beach which was fun to watch (as well as the couple making out on the beach). Due to the wind, we only stayed about an hour and decided to go back to the room to relax.

Once we finally got moving, we got dressed up for dinner and our date with our waiter. We went and ate at the restaurant we ate at the first night. Our waiter was doing the big up sell and we were all over it. We're weak when it comes to food. One thing we had that was different that we loved was the giant beans. That's what they're called on the menu and if you google Greek giant beans, there are recipes for it. Nancy and I killed them! What can I say, I'm a fan of the bean.

We were supposed to meet up with our other waiter after dinner but we were 20 minutes late and he got tired of waiting so he went home. We did tell him would meet up with him but as he knows first hand, it takes awhile to get thru dinner. The owner offered us a free drink but since we had plans we said no but we couldn't say no to free dessert. There's a cake-like dessert that was given to us at 3 different restaurants, turns out we don't like it but we don't want to be rude so we try to eat a piece, well most of us anyway (I win!).

Even tho our waiter ditched us, we decided to still go to the Temple of the Gods for a drink. Turns out, we were the only ones with that idea, well, other then the staff. So we only stayed for one drink. We tried to take some pics but they came out too dark. We were going to snag the bartender's phone to take some pics of us for him as a memento but he was smart and picked it up before we could. Drat!

We had an early night, got home about 1am. 

Walking to the ends of the Earth

Or Europe at least!

This was the day we decided to go wandering east of Gerolimenas. The hard part was making any progress because we kept stopping to take pictures. I was using Mia's camera for some high quality pics, Sharon was taking gorgeous pics with hers and Su was using my phone so we could have pics for the blog. Nancy had the job of driver.

Our first official stop was in this mostly abandoned town of Vathia. We could walk among the ruins and take lots of pics. I think we spent over an hour there. We have tons of pics of stone but we couldn't stop taking pictures. The buildings here just ooze history.

Doesn't it look like a fairy tale?

Next up was lunch. From the cliffs we saw this beautiful coastal town and we just knew we would have good food there. Course we were hungry so that helped make our decision for us. We went with the restaurant that we could find parking in, as long as they had Internet which they did. We had one of our favorite lunches there, we'd been looking for an octopus dish that wasn't just grilled octopus and found it here. It was an octopus salad. Very tasty. Also enjoyed the sardines, very salty but lots of flavors. We've been ordering the garlic salad everywhere we go. We all love it and since we saw bats flying around at night it will help keep the vampires away.

I totally thought this fish would be dry and I was so wrong. It was the best fish of my entire trip! Perfect char on the outside, moist on the inside. The juices were dripping. Well worth the money!

Next up was Poseidon's Temple. Have to say, it was not that impressive. I expected more for him.

From his temple there is a 45 minute (that's what the books say, took me an hour) hike to Cape Tenaro which is the southernmost point in Europe, not including islands. There's a lighthouse there and Su loves them. I'm not a big hiker but decided to do this since a 45 minute isn't a bad one. I'm from WA state, our hikes consists of lots of trees and shade. There was no shade and the hike was extremely rocky. There was no looking at your surroundings. You were looking down to navigate your way and just in case the rocks weren't fun enough the rocks were lined with thorn like bushes, and I would say 75-80 percent of it was uphill!

Uphill (both ways!)

A mosaic floor of a Roman ruin. 

It just gets rockier!

As soon as I saw the lighthouse in the distance I was done. I knew the end point was going to be anti-climatic but Nancy didn't want me to stay behind so I kept going and guess what? It was anti-climatic but I was there with my girls so I can't complain.

At least the walk back was easier since the sun had gone down the other side of the mountain and it was mostly downhill.

We were all so exhausted that we cancelled our date with the waiter (we drove to his restaurant when we got back versus walking the one block, that's how tired we were) and stayed in and had a wonderful dinner of cheese, fruit, olives and some shrimp scampi given to us by our fabulous hosts Linda and Kostas out on our balcony. It was really a perfect way to end the day.

Temple of the Gods

After spending basically 3 days traveling, we decided to stay close to home and just relax. I woke up and read while the girls slept in. Since we had no schedule Su and Nancy slept in while Sharon wandered off to get coffee. Once we were all up and about we ate a breakfast of yogurt, oatmeal (Nancy) and fresh cut up fruit. We bought more then just drinks at the market the previous night. We sat out on our terrace and listened to the sea as we began our day.

The view from our terrace. 

Then we decided to go snorkeling. I haven't snorkeled since Maui. I'm not a good swimmer. In Maui they had these ski belts that people used for snorkeling. I loved it. I wanted to buy one to take with me (we brought our snorkel gear, nowhere to rent it here) but I waited too late so I ended up buying a snorkel vest. I don't like it as much as the belt, keeps me too high on the water and floats up to my neck but at least I wasn't going to drown. It's very rocky where we are so under the water is just small columns of rock formations. Pretty cool but not a lot of fish activity like we saw in Maui.

Linda had told us about a place nearby that had three pools. While I love the beauty of the sea, I'm a pool girl at heart. Way more relaxing and you don't have to worry about sand getting where it shouldn't be. We decided to head there for the day, it was a less then 10 minute drive away. I'm awful with names here since the way things are pronounced and spelled are totally different but it turns out this was a resort that you drive halfway up the mountain to get to. The view below is stunning (sorry I took those pics with my other camera). We just called this place The Temple of the Gods.

Since its offseason (by a week or two so weather is still great), the only people at the pool for most of the day was the staff. First order of business was ordering drinks and food. We told them to take their time making it and we got comfortable. Because it was empty, when the waitress was bringing the food, we knew it was for us:)

The salad wasn't much to look at but it was delicious. I was craving a salad that day. Our other favorite dish was the shrimp with orzo.

Once we finished out drinks and lunch I tried to read but was way too lethargic. I pulled my chair under the umbrella and proceeded to take a nap while the others read and played in the pool. When I woke up there was a shot of something tasty the bartender had sent over. It was originally frozen but by the time I got it, it wasn't. I still drank it. Don't know what it was but it was good. I spent the rest of the afternoon reading and gabbing with the girls poolside. It gets windy here which helps keep the bugs away and keep it from getting too hot so while it was a warm day it was still comfortable.

When we were ready to eat we headed back to the village. We have been eating family style so that we can try everything. We planned on eating some light tapas and then having dinner around 10pm but when we made that plan it was 5pm and when we got to the restaurant it was 7pm so we decided to eat a full meal. I have to say, this was a disappointing meal, the food wasn't as good and our waiter while at first was funny became a grump. We didn't like him which also soured our meal. A lot of what we wanted they didn't have, the bad part about being offseason.

I was able to get online while at dinner but the rest if the girls couldn't because we had left the other passwords at home. We could get 3 hours Internet time for 1 euro but didn't realize the pw only worked on one device so the girls went back into town to check their emails and such while I took a nap and worked on a blog post. After I finished writing it I headed off to join the girls and post my blog but they were coming back. Su went with me to keep me company while I posted. Since I have to write my posts on my phone I had Su read it for typos and while she was, our waiter from earlier came over and invited us for a drink on him. It would have been rude to say no.

We had thought he didn't like us but turns out his English isn't very good so it was just miscommunication on our part. That means Greece is batting a 100 when it comes to the people and their friendliness. Due to the language difference I think he thinks we wanted him to take us around. We were just asking him where he likes to go. So now we have plans to join him for a drink at the Temple of the Gods after he gets off of work today. How do we get ourselves into these things?

The road to Paradise

Fun Greek fact: the sewage system is so bad here that they don't want you to flush your toilet paper. There's a trash can next to the toilet everywhere you go to throw it away. Ok, let's call that a not so fun fact.

Walking to the Metro.

The first leg of our journey begins in Gerolimenas, which is on the tip of the southern peninsula. It's over 4 hours away from Athens, so we planned on driving and keeping the car for the week while we explored the area. The big hurdle would be driving out of Athens and surviving. Turns out to some people, traffic signals are optional, as we found out when we tried walking across the street. Nancy was our designated driver. I'm not going to lie, both of us were apprehensive about her driving us in the city.

But first we had to get the car! Our rental car was six stops and a transfer over by metro. We thought about taking a cab but if we took the metro we could stop at the bakery that was next to the metro stop. There was no debate there. The bakery was so awesome it deserves its own blog post.

It took awhile to get the car. There was only one guy working and he was also answering phones. Plus, people just do things slower in Greece. If you're an impatient person, you shouldn't be here. The good news is our rental car guy hooked us up with a bigger car, which is nice because try as we might to pack light, 4 people, 4 carry on sized suitcases and 4 loaded carry ons, takes up a lot of space. The other good news is our car was facing the correct direction leaving the rental car agency. Nancy wouldn't have to drive off of the sidewalk (where a lot of their cars were parked) into busy traffic and then make a u-turn. So with fingers crossed we were off and running.

Nancy was doing great. We all breathed a sigh if relief. Then we noticed the guy next to us making some signal at us. Turns out Nancy was driving down the street with her hazard lights on which goes with the fact she was driving below the speed limit. It was a good way to make sure they knew we were tourists!

While ducking and dodging cars, motorcyclists and bicyclists (they are insane riding in the middle lane of all of these crazy drivers) we managed to make it out of town without getting killed. Whew, the drive was cake after that.

Well, except when the exit we wanted suddenly showed up, Nancy hit her brakes and looked at the lane we needed to get over in, she neglected to look behind her, there might have been some squealing brakes and horn honking as we got over.

And except for the fact that we were on a toll road and went to the lane that we thought was cash only. It wasn't. You needed a pass to get thru there and there was no one operating that toll so no way forward. We might have had to turn the hazard lights on again and back up and drive across 5 or 6 lanes to get to the correct lane (not by gradually changing lanes but turning the car and driving straight across those lanes).

Oh and let's not forget driving along a winding road and almost getting side swiped by an oncoming RV. They really don't pay attention to road markings here. You see drivers driving in two lanes, the shoulder or over the center line a lot.

A couple of stops to ask for directions and a stop at Cash and Carry for a bathroom break (when you got to go, you got to go) on an otherwise uneventful trip. The scenery was gorgeous. Olive and fruit trees where everywhere as we drove and if you know me, you know how much that excites me. We also had mountains to drive thru so lots of tunnels. My nephews would have loved that!

Nancy did great for driving in a different country. I know I wouldn't have been brave enough to do it.

We decided to make a pit stop at Mycenae, it was on our way to another stop we wanted to make. Sharon read us the history of the place. I don't remember it and we ran out of time to make our original planned stop.

By the time we got to Gerolimenas we were an hour or so late. I factored in 6 hours for a 4 hour trip (I know us), it took us a little over 7 but it was still light enough to see the beauty of where we were. This isn't a party town, when you get here you get a feeling of peace. It's so quiet and tranquil. Well, it was before we got here. :)

We're staying at Kyrimi bed and breakfast. It's the reason for this trip. My brother Andy does some work for Kostas and Linda the owners. All of the buildings here are stone and the town is right on the water. We're so close to the sea we could probably spit in it from our balcony. We didn't, we are higher class than that, ok maybe not. Gerolimenas is beautiful. We were oohing and ahhing and couldn't believe we were staying here and Kyrimi is a jewel.

After a long days driving, this was definitely a welcome site.

Once we were greeted by Kostas and Linda (so warm and friendly), we unloaded and headed out to the market to get some essentials, water, beer and wine. Before we left for dinner Su poured us all a shot of ouzo. I'm not a fan of black licorice and this has a strong anise taste to it but I've tasted worse (tequila) but the burn, wow, this drink will certainly put hair on your chest. No wonder Greek men are so hairy!

Kostas sent us off to dinner to this wonderful little restaurant at the edge of town. By the way, the town is so small we can walk it in less than 10 minutes and you know how slow I am. I've been wanting to eat octopus since I got to Greece. Everyone says it was a staple to their dining and fabulous. I have to say, I was disappointed. It was very tough to chew. What we did love was the garlic salad. It's actually more of a spread that you scoop up with bread. It's garlic and potatoes puréed together with olive oil and lemon juice. Amazing! We also loved our squid which was stuffed with cheese and tomatoes. I was a little leery of it since cheese and squid didn't sound great but it was!

Ordering a whole fish is very popular here so we also ordered that. We had a Hunter fish. Our waiter said it's only sold a couple of months a year and they rarely get it in. It sort of looked like it was related to a sardine because of the way the bones were. It was grilled to perfection and easy to debone. The meat was incredibly flavorful. To top off our wonderful meal we had excellent service. We will be going back there before we leave.

At night the village looks like a ride thru Disney's It's A Small World. It's just surreal how beautiful and peaceful it is here.

We wandered back to our room fat, happy and looking forward to many more days in paradise.

No sleep til Athens

Our adventure in Athens has begun, it only took two days in the air. Ok, not quite two days but we left at 12:45pm on Monday and got here at 7pm on Tuesday. I haven't figured out the time difference to give you the exact travel time but it was a lot. Would have been here sooner but just as we were taxing the runway leaving the airport a man had a seizure and when the paramedics came he didn't want to leave the plane. An hour later he did. At least it happened before we got in the air, otherwise we would have had to make an emergency landing in Paris. We also had many doctors on the plane who jumped into action before the flight attendants even got there.

By the time we left WA it was nap time for me anyway so I had no problems sleeping for a couple of hours, then I picked up my kindle to catch up on my reading. I wanted to read my Dianna Love books but because I transferred my books from my old kindle I have to delete then renown load from amazon, not going to happen in the air so I started reading a Shana Abe book. It's YA wish I had known that before I started reading lol, I'm not a big YA person.

In DC Nancy and I met up with Su at a restaurant, we were watching the football game (was a rough start to our fantasy football season) but once Su got there the cackling began and we stopped watching the game. The chatter continued on on the plain but once we took off we stopped being the loud obnoxious (funny in our own mind) travelers and turned on the movies. Best thing about traveling overseas is the free movies. It was a Channing Tatum fest with 21 Jump Street (hilarious) and GI Joe 2 (boring). Then I slept some more. You know who wasn't sleeping. Nancy, which is funny because she usually never has a problem sleeping. She made up for the flight from London to Athens. She was so tired she barely paid attention to all the action with the sick man. I rely on her bionic ears so had to gossip with my neighbors instead.

We finally got to Greece a bit travel worn. A lot of people around us were chattering away excitedly, we were too tired to be excited.It was a loud flight but I did love Aegean air, they gave everyone a piece of candy before take off and Su says the wine was free too. Plus the flight attendants were gorgeous and wore scarves with their beautiful uniforms.

The metro was a bit confusing for us but we figured it out and a Greek man took pity on us and told us he would let us know what exit we were getting off of. We then asked a motorcycle cop how to get to our location, he was no help but Nancy had it mapped out and guided us in.

We are staying in an apartment we rented thru airbnb. Since we are renting a car and heading out tomorrow we just needed a place to sleep. We will be coming back here. We will be using this apt for nights and the total per person is $100, you can't beat the price!

We asked out neighborhood grocer where we should go eat and he pulled out take out menus, lol. We told him we didn't want fast food, turns out a lot of restaurants deliver and it's cheaper then if you eat in. He gave us directions to a neighborhood restaurant. When we asked him the name of it he just shook his head. You can see why.

As soon as Sharon got here (she was in town already and meeting up with us) we headed out to get some food. We hadn't eaten since DC because I didn't want to spend a fortune in London. I had dollars and euros and didn't want to convert any money just for a snack or pay a fee to use my card. Luckily we weren't that hungry but by the time we got here we were starving. The restaurant didn't have an English menu so our cute greek waiter let us know what they had and answered any questions. We were just giddy to be there.

The ladies were ready for a drink!

I was more excited about the olives.

Since their menu was Greek to us we went with the souvlaki. It was pork, so tender and juicy. They also put fries on too.

Totally delicious! Almost as delish as our cute young waiter who was bring pimped out by his co-worker to us.

He was smiling in the pic before this but it didn't turn out. We will have to go back and get another pic. :)

Avocados: A Love Affair

I've been mentally working on a different blog post but today while I was making guacamole I decided to do a post on one of my favorite food groups, the lovely, creamy, delicious, avocado. If you check out my pinterest page a good portion of the recipes I've pinned involve avocados. 

A salad isn't complete unless it has some avocados in it. I consider lettuce to be a filler in salads so I don't always use it. Nancy is thrilled whenever I make lettuce-less salads. An easy one is avocado, cucumber and red onion with whatever dressing you like. I usually use a blue cheese with this one. Today I mashed avocado with 2 boiled eggs and some salt. Got that idea from one of my pinterest pins. I loved the concept of using avocado instead of mayo for an egg salad. As you can imagine, it was AWESOME!

My favorite way to eat avocados is guacamole! I remember the first time I came across this green lumpy mass, it was in middle school Spanish class. I said a firm no thank you to it. I can't remember the first time I had guacamole but I can say, I can't imagine my life without this delicious food! It's not just for Mexican food. It's great on top of burgers, in sandwiches (instead of mayo) and eaten with Tim's Cascade Jalapeno chips (mmmm, so good!). Of course, it's also fantastic with tortilla chips but that's a given. 

A couple of years ago I made a Mexican dinner for a friend and her parents and her parents had never had guacamole! They loved it and I loved turning them on to it. If you've had guacamole that was bought at the store or made table side for you at a restaurant, it just doesn't compare to home made. The store made one is usually bland or very citrusy (in order to preserve the color). As for the table side made ones, guacamole takes time to develop their flavors so having it made and served immediately is just not as good as if it was made an hour earlier. 

I have a super simple recipe and one that is almost as simple. 

The super simple recipe is 2 large avocados and guacamole mix. Cut your avocados in half, scoop it out and mix with the mix. A fork works best to mash and mix. This is my favorite brand. It can be found in the produce section. Usually stores only carry one brand, I could never find this one in Publix when I lived in FL so I would stock up whenever I went home. Make sure you get the spicy kind. If you get mild, all you will have is mashed avocados. This in itself is quite delicious. 

But when I'm feeling more motivated I will jazz up my gauc. Add the mix, diced red onion, chopped cilantro and if you really want to get fancy, a couple of chopped chipotle peppers (you can find them in a little can in adobo sauce in the Mexican food section), seed and rinse off the peppers before you use. It adds a divine smokey taste to your guac. That secret ingredient is courtesy of Linda T. Sometimes I'll even add tomatoes. Whatever I'm feeling at the time. This is a pretty forgiving recipe. The authentic way of making this doesn't include the seasoning packet but quite honestly, it adds so much to the guac. If you don't want to use the packet use some salt, pepper, jalapeno and lime juice. 

Since I was making my delayed Cinco de Mayo dinner I also made Sharon's Sensational Salsa but I cheated and didn't use Rotel, nowhere near as good so I gave it away to Edgar who liked it. He doesn't know better. BTW, for those who are having trouble finding the Cilantro Lime Rotel, I found it at Winco. 

I also made my version of pico de gallo but since I wasn't putting it in something, it was more a pico de gallo salad. So incredibly fresh tasting and another simple recipe. 

Another lettuce-less salad, Nancy was in heaven. She bought these delicious little yellow tomatoes, I think they were called sunbursts, they put the grape tomatoes that were also in there to shame. If you want to use it as a traditional pico de gallo, quarter the tomatoes (I prefer the small varieties) but I sliced them in half for this recipe. I also chopped up a half a bunch of cilantro and red onion (I normally put more red onion in but they've been really strong lately). Sprinkle some salt and pepper and squeeze two limes into it. I made this salad earlier in the day, just before serving I added, you guessed it, avocado. Everything is to your taste. I love cilantro so I always use a lot. Sometimes when I make this I'll throw in cucumbers. Another very forgiving and delicious recipe.  

Avocado Tips: A ripe avocado (Haas is the one you want to use, more flavor) is darker and if you squeeze it it will give. Don't squeeze too hard, you don't want to bruise it, just see if it gives. If I'm not using them that day I'll just buy a bunch and let them ripen on my counter. If you're not ready to use when it's ripe, throw it in the fridge. 

Instead of peeling the avocado, cut it in half. Slice or cube it inside it's skin and use a spoon to scoop it out. If you're making guac just scoop it all out. I went to a restaurant where they would just cut in half and squeeze out the insides. I tried it but I would always have to scoop it out afterwards so stick to the spoon. 

To remove the pit they say use a sharp knife and thrust the sharp side (not the tip) into the pit and twist out the pit. I'm always worried about cutting myself so I just use a spoon to scoop around.

Guacamole will turn brown. Lime juice will prevent it from browning but too much and you have a very limey guac. My Mexican friend used to keep the pits in her guac to prevent the browning but it only helps the area around the pit. What I do is put saran wrap right on the guac. Even if it's in a tupperware bowl, place a piece of saran wrap over the guac until it's directly on top and make sure it's closed around the edges. Then put the lid on. This prevents air from getting on the guac which in turn prevents it from browning. 

What about you? Do you have a love affair with avocados like I do? I've heard they make great shakes but as much as I love avocados I'm leery. Have you tried it? What's your favorite avocado recipe? If this was Watch What Happens Life and the word of the night was avocados, you all would be drunk right now!

Spring has sprung and cleaning has begun!

Actually, the real reason we've been cleaning is because we plan on having a revolving door of guests this summer, which is a wonderful thing! Our first visitors will be here in less then 2 weeks, Julie and her son will be coming in so we've spent the last couple of weekends getting ready. Unfortunately, because we're doing such a thorough cleaning, our living room looks like a tornado went thru it. The good news is the bathrooms and the bedrooms look great!

My room is pretty small which doesn't bother me because I don't need a lot of space but because of the size I've never really done much with it. When I moved to FL I let Kathy use my bed frame and I never took it back because it provides me with a couple of inches of extra space at the foot of my bed where I had my dressers. Kat got a new bed and brought my frame back so I set the bed back up which I love my bed but I do miss my risers, which I used for storage under my bed. Having my bed high makes it feel more regal. While Nancy was working on her room I decided to re-arrange things to make more room. Next thing you know, we took off the sliding doors of my closet, moved a dresser in there and switched out my old school tv with a flat screen tv I borrowed from Nancy's brother.

Once the wheels were in motion, I was inspired. I realized my curtain was filthy and since it's way too long for my window I kept it folded over. So I took that off and Nancy and I made a trip to Joanne's to buy fabric and Kim made a new curtain for me. She's a pro, she sewed most of hers. I'm going to get more fabric so that she can also make me some matching throw pillows, score!

One of the things I hated in my room were my metal shelves. I loved having extra shelves and they were free which makes them more appealing but they were always ugly to me. After a little research I decided I would spray paint them. I honestly never thought about spray painting them due to the fact that they were metal. OMG, as soon as sprayed the first shelf, I was in heaven! I love tiffany blue so much! 

Next up, I decided it was time to get a chandelier for my room. I've been wanting one for awhile but you know me, I'd rather spend money on food and travel but it was time. A few years ago I had bought Kim one for her birthday at Ikea and I love it so decided that was the one I wanted. I also found a blog online where someone painted their Ikea chandelier. She even used my color but she used acrylic paints and I went spray paint. Here's her blog in case you would like to do it yourself. 

I didn't think about blogging this when I started cleaning my room so  I don't have a before of my room or  a great before of the chandelier. This is a pic I took in order to remember how the crystals get put back on, the photo didn't help me when it was time to re-assemble. 

And now here is the almost finished product. Yes, I still have stuffed animals on my bed, Ethan loves them (and so do I:).

Now I want a new comforter or bed spread. Probably not a tiffany blue one, a white or cream comforter without the pattern.  I most likely won't get it before Julie gets here, it's not a high priority. I also spray painted my night stand and Nancy bought some trim that we're going to put around one of the sliding mirrors that used to be my closet door and hang it on my wall. I need to have a mirror in my room.

FYI, if you need a professional painter, don't contact me, it was actually worse then this looks, this was after I used vegetable oil and alcohol to try and get it off. I also had blue legs, blue arms a blue chest and a blue face. Nancy already made the smurf joke. 

 

Once I get everything set the way I want, I'll take a pic or video of the rest of the room. BTW, Nancy is also working hard and we'll be painting her room next weekend. Casa de Leiha (and Nancy) is throwing open her doors. Let us know when we should pencil you in. 

Oysters, mussels and clams, oh my!

I just can't get enough of food foraging blogs. There aren't as many as I would like. I've even found myself reading the entire blogs, the less prolific ones, of course. I just love the idea of living off of the land. I'm not a hunter myself and am barely a gatherer. I fantasize about mushrooming and have decided I really want to try cattails. Turns out you can eat them like tiny corn on the cobs. I love the idea!

I thought my fascination with food foraging a relative new thing, over the last couple of years but then I was reading a blog and they mentioned the book, My Side of the Mountain. A story about a kid who ends up living inside of a hollowed up tree and he had to fend for himself. I loved that book when I read it.  I also loved The Swiss Family Robinson. Another book about a family living off of the land. These are books I read when I was in elementary school and read many times. It made me realize this is not a new interest but rather, a re-awakening. 

A few years ago I decided I wanted to go clamming. I'd never gone. My siblings went when they were younger but I was out of the house by then. Nancy's parents turned me on to a wonderful spot. So wonderful it doesn't even have a name. It's just a spot on the map. While reading up on the area I found out there was a man made oyster bed a mile away. So last time we went, we added oysters into the rotation. The bad part is you have to shuck the oysters on the beach. I prefer my oysters raw so I bring lemons with me. My dad just enjoys the experience so he shucks and then gives them away.