Show Me Your Shoes!

I decided to join the Virtual Slumber Party a little late (gotta be me!).  Thanks Beth at The Stories of A to Z for hosting such a fun party!

I have a lot of shoes.  I don't wear them all and they sometimes pine for me, but hey, I have to have them!  Here are some of my favorites!

Hello mi tesoro!!  I bought these beauties in Italy while on a Greek cruise.  They called out to me from the store and for only $50, I couldn't leave them behind!  I don't wear them as often as I would like because they kill my feet.  One time, I even carried them out to a pub that we went to and only put them on because we were able to get parking right across the street and I knew I could change them quickly and easily if I needed to.  Aren't they so pretty though????

Spring is here and I love these colorful shoes!!  They just scream SPRINGTIME!!!!

These are my sassy girls when I am going out on the town!

These are my go-to girls.  I adore these boots and bought them in Germany in 2000!!!  I just had them resoled because I can't part with them!

Isn't she just the sweetest thing??  She misses her mate and maybe one day when I forge into the land of mystery (aka my closet!) I will find her mate!

Cheerio my lovely ladies!!!  Aren't these adorable?  My best friend sent them to me years ago from England.  I have always worn them and people used to make fun of me.  Now everyone wants to borrow them!  Back off, people!  They are mine and I was hip and cool before you knew it!

These are absolutely one of my most favorite pair of flip flops.  Your toes go between each little strap!  How uncomfortable, you say!  On the contrary!  They are the most comfortable flip flop I have ever worn!

My shoe basket in the hall closet.  So many flip flops for the good ol' summertime!  Yes, that is a pair of orthodic black shoes there, but hey, my feet hurt sometimes and these got me through Europe!

Now to keep it real...

My babies I wear all the time!  They just feel so darn good!

Thanks again, Beth!  What fun!

Happy St. Patrick's Day

I am going to link up with Heidi at Heart and Home for Wednesday Gratitude!  Thanks for hosting, Heidi!

I am grateful that I have a husband who loves to have adventures with me!  We lived in Germany for 2 1/2 years and when he got home on a Thursday or Friday, he never knew exactly where we were going that weekend.  I was a travel planning guru.  We have been lost so many times in Europe and had so much fun finding our way through unfamiliar places with unfamiliar languages!  One of our most memorable trips was our 8th wedding anniversary trip to Ireland.  This was our third visit there, and I have to say...we love it there.  I would move there in a heartbeat.  The scenery is beautiful and the people are the kindest, funniest, most helpful that you will ever meet.  It all started like this...

We were on a Greek cruise and an American couple were on board.  She had a Cosmopolitan magazine.  We were all lying by the pool and she finished it up.  Before she could put it down, I asked if I may read it.  You see, living in Germany doesn't afford a lot of opportunity to read American magazines!  Of course, I had my Southern Living sent over, but that was it.  She told me to take it, so I started to eagerly read!  It was an October issue and there was an article about haunted places that stars stayed at.  It was great and she even let me have the magazine!  About a month later, the BHW tells me that he has booked our anniversary trip!  I have no idea what he has done and he can't wait to tell me (he can't keep secrets!).  He said, "I booked the hotel, but I need you to do your magic and book the rest of the trip!"  I was more than happy to oblige especially after he told me we were staying at Castle Leslie in Ireland!  This is the hotel where Paul McCartney married Heather Mills.  We stayed in the "haunted" red room that Paul stayed in the night before his wedding.  I slept in the same bed as Paul!!!  So by proxy, I guess you can say that I have slept with Paul McCartney!  Moving on...

I booked our flight through Ryanair.  Can you say "CHEAP"!!!  I love Ryanair and was able to get tickets for both of us roundtrip for $35!  That's right folks!  $35!!!  We need a Ryanair in America!!!

We arrived and had the most wonderful visit!  Ireland is a magical place and Dublin is a lovely city to visit.  If you want to really experience Ireland though, go to out into the country.  It is what Ireland is all about!  We flew into Shannon and toured the Cliffs of Moher.  Amazing!!!

Cliffs of Moher

O'Brien's Tower by the Cliffs of Moher

The next day we headed north to the Sligo area.   We stopped in the village where the filmed The Quiet Man with John Wayne.  This is a favorite of ours!  This town didn't even get electricity until the early 1950's when they decided to film the movie there!  We stayed at a lovely B&B there and headed to the castle the next day.

As we are driving we see so much beautiful scenery through the areas known as The Burren.

We passed the Poulnabrone Dolmen which is a portal tomb dating back to 2500 to 2000 BC.  I made the BHW go back as I couldn't pass up the opportunity to touch something that was 5, 000 years old!!!  The Irish heritage hasn't roped it all off yet so we went right up to it.  Ok. We sat on it for a picture.  I don't think it was quite what we should have done, but we were so excited!

As we were getting closer to the castle, I noticed a sign that said Belleek.  Well next thing you know, we came upon the factory!  This was a definite stop and I purchased a few items!  Embarassing moment here.  The lady rang up the goods and told me the price in pounds.  I asked her why and she informed me that we were in Northern Ireland.  Without even thinking, I looked at the BHW and said, "We aren't supposed to have the rental car in Northern Ireland!"  What was I thinking??????  Oh well, they still took my money and we drove off happy that the rental dealership didn't know about this!!  

We made it to the castle and were greeted by the granddaughter of Sir John Leslie.  He owns the castle and she runs the place.  She showed us around and took us to our room where Tom had champagne and flowers waiting for me!  We had a wonderful anniversary dinner in the dining room.   You sat in the drawing room, ordered and when your food was ready, they escorted you to your table.  So lovely!

The next day, we ventured to Northern Ireland (please don't tell the rental car agency!) and visited the Giant's Causeway.  This is where my family is from and what a spectacular visit!  

Tom's in Finn McCool's wishing chair

                                                
                                             This is the wave that almost took me out to sea!

We toured around a few more days and enjoyed the beautiful sights and scenery that I will share with you.

Our last day there was spent taking a tour of the house given by Sir John Leslie.  He is in his 90's now, I believe and such a delightful storyteller.  What a life he has lived and how wonderful to live in a home filled with so many bits of history.  I will share those another time!  Here is Sir John going to feed his geese.  Isn't he dapper with his feather in his hat?

 If you look closely in the house shot, you can see me sitting in the window of our room!

We saw more rainbows on this trip than you could imagine!  I kept listening for the hammering sounds of leprechauns so we could catch one, but unfortunately we didn't!  We did search for the pot of gold, but couldn't find the ends of the rainbows!

So, after all that...sorry everyone... I got carried away!  I am so grateful for my darling husband who knows me and loves me.  He takes care of me and my daughter and loves us.  We love him even more.  

My first Met Monday!

Ok, everyone!  I am going to try to link up to Susan's Metamorphosis Monday at Between Naps on the Porch.  I love Susan's blog and she and Debbiedoos were the ones who really inspired me to go for it!

We moved into our new home last July and I am really having a hard time making it my own.  We moved from our "dream" house in Michigan to a very lovely house here in Charleston, but just missed my old house.  It was a few hundred square feet bigger which I know isn't much, but when you try to cram as much stuff into a smaller space...well, there are challenges!  We are enjoying the process of how to make it all fit and one idea that I came up with to put shelves in my pantry for my spices.  

My spice shelf in my cabinet started out like this

I couldn't ever find anything I needed and once I started pulling things out, everything fell on my head.  Don't you hate when that happens??

My pantry looked like this

We had an old wooden wine rack that we were no longer using.   I thought we could repurpose it for a spice rack so the BHW went with my thoughts, cut, nailed,  and created these sweet little shelves!

Now my pantry looks like this!

Everything has its own little spot and I can easily read and find all my spices!  Not to mention with the curve of the original wine rack, they are pretty too!

And there you have it!  Repurposed wine rack into easy to find spice shelves!  

Day 12 - Auf wiedersehen!

We woke up on this last day in Germany to warmer weather and blue skies... go figure!!  We had our last breakfast with Marina, as she had the day off.  We headed out and drove to Heidelberg to hit the Kathe Wolfahrt store.  This store has everything German you could want!!!  I picked up a new smoking man and some ornaments.  Then we strolled the pedestrian zone for a bit of shopping and had dinner at a lovely little restaurant.  I had my last jager schnitzel and spaetzle... oh how I will miss the German food!

This is the quaint restaurant where my lovely daughter threw one of the biggest fits that she has ever thrown in her life.  The last few days she has been singing and dancing while we eat, says she isn't hungry, and then right before bed she is starving.  I told her that she needed to sit down and eat that there would be no more food as we would be in a hotel.  She refused to sit down and started to YELL at me!  I was so mad.  I told her to sit down or I was taking her to the bathroom.  She continues to yell at me and I grab her up and head to the bathroom for the beating to begin (I am joking here... sort of).  As we head to the bathroom, she is wailing.  I am getting angrier as she is fighting me and everyone is staring at us.  We get in the bathroom and it is the size of a narrow closet.  Jemma is squirming, I am furious, and can't beat her as there is a girl standing there in front of the sink!  I can't even get into a bathroom to take care of business as I can't get by the girl.  Squirming and screaming continue so I give her bum a smart pinch to try to snap her out of it.  Well....that doesn't work.  She wails louder, I am sweating and the girl is just taking her time washing her hands.  I finally squeeze by (I am pretty sure she got a good kick from Jemma as we squeezed through!  Serves her right!) and get her in the bathroom.  I am trying to talk to her and she starts screaming, "What are you going to do to me?  What are you going to do to me?!?!" I kept trying to talk to her and she kept putting her hand on my mouth.  I moved her hand and told her to stop.  I can't stand when she does that.  She did it three more times and then it happened... I had a Horrible Mother of the Year moment and  bit her hand.  I didn't chomp down on it, but it was by no means a love nibble.  I felt horrible, but I swear it all happened so fast I had the moment of "did I just bite my own child?????"  The crying has reached the shatter glass moment and I felt horrible.  I was trying to wrangle her and console her, but the bathroom is so darn tiny, I couldn't even bend over and she is a jelly blob sliding down me.  I sit on the toilet and cuddle (as best you can cuddle an angry jelly blob) her and start my shushing.  See I read The Happiest Baby on the Block and the shushing thing is good!  She finally calms down and we have a little "coming to Jesus" meeting.  We stroll back out all smiles and sniffles.  Tom is just eating his food.  I sit down and he asked what happened.  Jemma immediately tells Daddy that I have bitten her.  Nice.  I get the "what in the heck are you doing to my precious child" look and explain exactly what went down in the bathroom.  He said that is sounded to the whole restaurant a LOT worse.  Double nice.  We ended up having a lovely meal and strolled back to the car.  We arrived at the hotel, repacked what was needed for our one night in Detroit, and all slept.  I seriously think I am out of the Mom of the Year race...

We got right on our plane the next morning and had a wonderful flight back.  Jemma was such a good girl and colored away.  We arrived in Detroit where our neighbor Renee picked us up.  We had a great visit with the Thomas Family and then headed over to my dear friend, Michelle's, where we were staying the night.  A surprise birthday party was planned that night already, but all our friends headed over for a quick visit.  It was so nice to see everyone!  We got up early the next day and headed back to Charleston.  We had such a wonderful visit, but there is no place like home!