The Goat: February 2011

Monday, February 28, 2011

February links 2011

These are the links to all of my posts in February 2011

I lived in Daytona Beach from 2003 - 2006 so I was excited to come back, explore and photograph the area with Bob. One of the last times she was in Daytona with me it was an icy cold week. We did not have a lot of outdoor fun in the sun.

This time it was a very different trip!

It was gorgeous.

We stopped at a little dock area on the Intercoastal and we scared the seagulls, took a photograph of our reflections in the water and then drove on over to the beach.

The tollbooth guy was Bob :) What a hoot. If he only know how much the Bobs in the car loved the name Bob! We paid our $5 to drive on the beach.

The sea mist was such that it completely obscured the view down the beach.
I thought it looked neat though.

You can buy all kinds of things on the beach in Daytona and sometimes you can get it all from one truck. There are folks who have chairs and umbrellas or even ATVs for rent.

I still think it's just wild to see cars on the beach, but it sure makes hauling your stuff to the beach a lot easier. There is a dedicated parking area and driving path, so it may look crazy, but it's really quite orderly. The big Spring Break weekends the beaches are a zoo. I don't think I ever went on the beach those weekends.

A common sight in Daytona is the carry-a-case-of-beer walk. I can't begin to tell you how many times I saw this when we had our business down on the beach. A dozen times a day? Two dozen times? I was happy to catch one while Bob and I were in town!

Previous links to the Bob and Bob Road trip
The Swimming Lady
Many Mailboxes
Fernandina Beach part I, II
Sea Foam Clouds
Sunshine and Clouds
El Fonzo

Have a great day!
Kristin

POTD - Bees in Trees

In my wanderings I found this lovely tree all budded out in purple splendor. When I approached I realized that the darned thing was just teaming with bees! Thankfully there were more tempting treats in the tree than on me :)

Enjoy!
Kristin

Now in my Etsy shop

Sunday, February 27, 2011

The Swimming Lady

My Daytona Beach photos (from my road trip) were getting kind of lengthy so I decided to shuffle these aside and post them as the Sundays in My City submission. I loved the Jantzen Diving Lady from the days when I lived in Daytona and I'm so happy to see that she's still there. She is quite vintage - I think from the 50s.

To see more people joining in with Unknown Mami, please head on over to her site and see more places in the world!

Happy Sunday :)
Kristin

Links to other information - 1, 2, 3, 4

POTD - Many mailboxes

I like little mailboxes, too! These really are quite small, but those numbers on them and the rust just make them sweet. I can't imagine trying to fit a magazine into one of them, though. Bob was driving the car at this point and we were making our way through Daytona Beach. We pulled through a neighborhood in order to turn back and photograph something we had just passed. Good thing we turned - this is a great find.

Enjoy!
Kristin

Saturday, February 26, 2011

Fernandina Beach part II

Once upon a time Tom and I toured this house. I haven't found the photos yet but I will.

It looks like someone is starting to remodel this place, but the sign they have placed in front of the gate is just hysterical. JB and I kind of stumbled upon this place because I took a side road to look for a place to park. We found a spot and we found a little gold mine on that side road.

Falling Debris, Glass and Nails.
Skull and crossbones!

JB and I had a good laugh over it - then we trespassed and found debris, glass and nails.
Oh, I'm kidding. We just peeked over the fence.

Across the street from the falling debris are three art galleries/gift shops.

LOVE LOVE LOVE these shops. I purchased two pottery pieces - one from each of the shops above. I'll show those in an upcoming episode :)

JB fell in love with several items from Gallery C, the third shop in the trio. The steps leading up to the place were So COOL! Paint, tissue paper, map pieces - each step was a wonderful collage.

These little dolls were so neat, but the best thing about them were the sayings that inspired the look.

The first one had something to do with tea, but I can't remember what it was. The middle one is "Madam Blumer" because that's what it says on the little egg slicer and the third one is "You can count on me." The one that represented JB so well was "She makes music wherever she goes" but JB didn't get that one. She got one that spoke to her rather than described her. It was the perfect choice. She'll love it.

After wandering through the city, going into the stores, touching as many items as possible -I love to touch and it bothers me to no end when there's a sign that says don't touch! - we finally found the bakery and we got a cupcake.

Yummy!

The next day I drove JB around Jacksonville. We went from one side to another and back again. I showed her the Joe Motel that she'd seen on my blog, but I had never published the Chinese restaurant that was next door.

Oh she loved it! Chopstick Charlie.

The kinda scary part of this place is that it's still open. I would have never guessed from the outside.

Still, it's a great old sign and I love the graphics painted on the brick.

Finally, we went to the beach to walk and look for shells and ask a seagull to model for me. I caught him mid turn and he has one webbed foot sideways and behind the other. It's great.

I think I went to the beach three times with JB. I think that's a record, thankfully I enjoyed each trip. I even have a little container full of shells.

Orlando and Daytona beach are on the roster for tomorrow.

Have a great day!
Kristin

POTD - Skeleton Keys

Aren't they cool? It's a huge assortment of skeleton keys that I found at one of the Fernandina Beach antique shops. They were three dollars a piece. Since I certainly wasn't going to buy the whole bunch, the photo is the second best alternative to having the keys. I love all of the colors in this photo, too. Yellows and purples, greens, gray and rust. Gorgeous.

Enjoy!
Kristin

Friday, February 25, 2011

Fernandina Beach part I

She's back home, in her snowy little town, but boy oh boy did we have a great week.

We had a lot of fun and millions of things to talk about.

We ate food (lots of food), drove around town and added a few hundred miles to my odometer, saw a lot of wildlife, shopped a little, visited her friend in Orlando, saw my friends in the hospital and slept with the windows open.

The best vacations we've had together have been the ones spent in the car driving around and chatting.

Since I haven't said much this week, I'll start tonight with a little photo essay of our first few days.

Our first day out I decided to take a route I had never driven before. It was the scenic drive to Amelia Island and Fernandina Beach. I really like the sandy tracks off the main roadway. When we stopped to take mailbox pictures, I took this photo.

Lots of interesting mailbox art. The dolphin was right next door to the Danish flag with the rope. The surfers on the big wave was a hundred yards up the same road from the others. It was clearly an exciting drive for us!

In order to read the menu, you will probably have to click on the photo. I put dots next to the featured item and that was the Trio of Grilled Cheese ( shown below in the collage) Oh my goodness it was so so good!

Bob ordered the the grilled cheese trio, too. We shared the mac and cheese, as one can never have too much cheese in a meal and then we ordered the trio of dessert.

The bread pudding was the most delicious dessert I've had in a very very long time. It tasted like a creamy, buttery french toast dessert. Then we had a chocolate fudge cake and a peach cobbler.

Our waiter was attentive, funny, informed and fantastic. This was a fabulous meal.

Jack and Diane's
708 Centre Street
Fernandina Beach, FL 32034-3941
(904) 321-1444 ‎

To walk off our fab lunch we walked around a few antique shops. I asked the person at the front desk if I could take photos because the first few steps in the door were things I had to capture. She said, "Please! Photograph anything you'd like!" and I did :)

This hanging hook thing was unusual and very cool. I saw some kissing folks :) and a Royal Crown sign as well as three or four other RC items. The most wonderful, awful, tackiest shell sculpture ever! Loved it!!

I'm going to end it here and continue the adventures of Bob and Bob tomorrow.

Have a great day!
Kristin

POTD - Sea Foam Clouds

Fort Matanzas is just a little bit North of Marineland, FL and a little bit South of St. Augustine. Bob and I didn't see the Fort, but we did notice this gorgeous beach area so we stopped to take a looksie. The ocean was conjuring up this incredible foam that was coming on shore like clouds. When the waters rose up to meet them, they'd float for a few moments and land in another location. It was incredibly cool.

As we were leaving this beach we were stopped by a couple on the boardwalk who suggested that we should stay a few more moments and watch the Discovery Shuttle launch from this prime location. So we did! I'm so glad we just happened to stop and take a walk on the beach.

Enjoy!
Kristin

Wednesday, February 23, 2011

POTD - Sunshine and Clouds

Self portrait number two for the 365 photo project. I'm standing at the beach with my best friend from New Hampshire, you all know her as Bob. She arrived on Sunday and we've been having a blast! I am the one with the clouds in my sunglasses and she is the one with the sunshine in hers.

Enjoy!
Kristin

Ooops, this wasn't supposed to post until morning. sigh. I'm tired :) Night all!

Tuesday, February 22, 2011

POTD - El Fonzo

I asked Bob what she wanted to name this aqua blue dolphin mailbox that we found on our day out today and she said Alfonso. I was totally being dorky and wrote it El Fonzo like the Fonz in Happy Days - actually come to think of it, I wrote el Fonzo. Too funny.

We found a whole crop of cool mailbox art and house number art in a one block span along this road. I parked the car along side the road and we took pictures of all of them. It was fabulous! Photos coming soon.

Enjoy!
Kristin

Monday, February 21, 2011

POTD - CK Liquor

JB and I found this sign on Beaver Rd in Jacksonville. I was trying to get to another part of town, but I took a wrong turn and ended up on this road. Finding the Drive - In Liquors sign was worth the wrong turn, it sure was.

Enjoy!
Kristin

Sunday, February 20, 2011

She's here!

With just moments to spare, I got the guest bedroom all ready for my friend. The room had turned into a catch all space and since I haven't had a spend-the-night guest in about two years the bed was surrounded with stuff.

I didn't know it at the time, but I had given away all of the sheets for my queen bed. I thought I had given away extra sets of sheets, but I guess I gave away one too many! I had to ask one of my tenants if I could borrow a set of sheets. I have two queen sized beds in each unit with 4 sets of sheets, so there was bound to be at least one extra set, I was hoping. Thankfully my tenant Katie came through for me.

After retrieving Bob from the airport we decided to get food. I was taking a new route and immediately got myself on the wrong side of the tracks. We did find a cool old sign, which will be the POTD in the morning, but we really needed to get ourselves to a different neighborhood. I finally got myself on a road that I knew and found our way to the restaurant. Whew! I was really beginning to wonder.

From the restaurant we went to the car show. Tom wanted food and he needed a break. He also needed help taking down the booth so we stayed to help. We did however go and play in some of the cars. Here's Bob in a green car with a green kayak. Funny, I don't remember what kind of car that is...sheesh. Is it a Mazda? It might be.

From the car show we went to Tom's office to help him unload, then we went to the grocery store and then back to my house where we watched a little TV and rested after a long day.

I'm actually kind of tired myself.

I hope that I will be able to blog each day while she's in town, but I won't hold my breath! I'll be sure and take lots of pictures. Tomorrow we are going to Fernandina Beach/Amelia Island just North of Jacksonville. I have been there but have never gone to the historic downtown area, so this a perfect little adventure for us.

Good Night and have a great week!
Kristin

POTD - Hoop and Net

I was thinking about this basketball hoop today (which will be yesterday by the time this is posted.) I don't actually understand why images pop into my mind like they do, but I decided to just go for it and make it the photo of the day. I enhanced the photo just a little to bring out the blues in the backstop and the yellow in the leaves. I talked about the area of town where I saw this basketball hoop a few weeks back, in this post here.

Enjoy!
Kristin

Saturday, February 19, 2011

I'm getting a visitor!

One of my dearest friends is coming to visit me this week.
Her name is Jennifer, JB, Jen, or Bob depending on who you're talking to.
In fact, she arrives tomorrow afternoon!
I'm so excited I can hardly stand it.

Bob is coming!!

There are a few things that are an absolutely guarantee when she arrives.

She will find the Redken shampoo and conditioner bottles in the shower, as she has found them for the past 16 years. I bought these bottles in Charlotte, MI in 1995 and I've used them ever since. They no longer have Redken products in them, but I really like the clear bottles so I can see the contents. So they have become a staple in the shower.

She will also find a little container of half and half. She drinks tea each morning with a little half and half, so I make sure that's here for her. The tea however - I forget that half the time!

Bob can be guaranteed that Mocha will come visit her room and the kitty will absolutely make sure to get fur on the pillow before she even gets a chance to see the room.

Sometimes we have an agenda when we visit each other - in October when she came to Michigan I had a birthday party. She's been a houseguest when she came to my wedding and I was a houseguest of hers when she had hers. Although I made her work her tail off at my wedding and the days leading up to it. She came to FL a few years ago and I had her help me paint and go on a big shopping trip to outfit my rental condos.

This week there will be no work. I won't even make her do dishes (but she'll do it anyway) and I'll haul her all around town looking at things and talk. That's really what we want to do anyway - talk and talk and talk and talk.

talk talk talk

Enjoy your weekend!!
Kristin

POTD - Fence Post

This is just your average, every day fence post that can be found in any neighborhood.
Right?
I guess if everyone had these beautiful fence posts they wouldn't seem so special.
Although maybe you might not think these are beautiful.
The lichen and tillandsia (air plants) have made themselves at home on the metal posts. I guess they must be getting some nutrients somehow.

Enjoy!
Kristin

Friday, February 18, 2011

Jacksonville Car Show

My husband has his Monkey Bars booth at the car show this weekend. It makes sense, but today a whole lot of people just walked past without even glancing our way. I really dislike working these shows, really really really dislike it, but I do go for a few hours so my husband can get something to eat, walk around, and chat with people. Tonight I stayed for about 3 hours.

I was happy to find some interesting sights, that's for sure. The van that was parked right next to our booth (the first photo) was so COOL! It was a $72,000 van! It was gorgeous, seats 7, all leather interior, a pretty big TV was located in the built up roof of the van. It was a pretty spectacular van, but Tom and I cannot imagine who is the prospective buyer of such a thing. It seemed to be designed to watch TV.

Then I saw this girls with the matching hair and shirt. I loved it. I had to pretend to take a photo of a car in order to get this shot :) I felt so sneaky!

This Porsche race car was pretty cool I was quite surprised just how wide and how long it was. I guess I didn't realize how much space these things actually take up.

I took photos of more cars, but the lights in the convention center make for some distracting photos. I'm going to try again tomorrow when I go back to help out once again. Not that the lighting is going to be any different, but maybe I'll feel differently :)

Have a wonderful weekend!
Kristin

POTD - Shuffleboard Benches

In New Smyrna Beach, FL there is a wonderful outdoor shuffleboard deck. The Coronado Shuffleboard Club has organized a daily play program from October - April for just $20 a year! Every afternoon, except Sundays, you can find a lovely group of folks out enjoying the game and probably sitting on these benches. When I get to be shuffleboard age, I bet I'll be out there. Maybe not in New Smyrna Beach, but I'll know the ins and outs of shuffleboard, guaranteed.

Enjoy!
Kristin

Thursday, February 17, 2011

It's a swap!

I have always been interested in journals, although I rarely write in them. I have always been interested in scrapbooks, but never wanted to make one or try to even begin to understand page layout designs. I have always wanted to put together an old time scrapbook book, where bits and pieces of a trip or an event were just pasted on pages.

I have also always wanted to document the things that I see, that might not have any value to anyone else. A soup label, a receipt, a cereal box. This is probably one of the many reasons why I started taking photos of things instead of people. It seems like people are documented all the time in family photos and snapshots, but things aren't as often.

Being a collector of things can make for an incredibly messy house - at least if I'm the one involved in the collecting! I've tried for years not to buy things (but I do of course) and no matter how I try, crazy little bits of paper and objects make their way into my home. I fell hard for security envelopes and have quite a collection now, with far too many ideas on how to use them, but I'm a bit of a perfectionist. I want something done perfectly and if I can't do it perfectly, I just won't do it, yet I still believe that I will.

The other day I found this website called Remains of the Day. It is the anti-perfect. It explains how to use all the little bits and bobs, papers and fabrics from all of the collecting we've done and get it put into a journal that you make from all of those items. You use a sewing machine and sew them in!

You can use about anything in there from old library cards to photographs and receipts. I have been wanting to start sewing my photographs onto the fronts of the cards and maybe add a few embellishments, so I bought a sewing machine. I haven't used it yet!

(It's that perfectionism again)

So I joined the class and the group was having a swap - you send in some of your stuff and you get some of someone elses stuff. Which isn't a real good way to get rid of more stuff, but it does give me a bit more variety to work with.

Pluto is a planet in this book!!

In my scrap swap I gave away four pages from the dictionary, two pages from the hangman book (with all of the little scratch off discs still intact,) some pieces from the Butterick pattern, a small North Carolina playing card, one of my photos, an old library card, a portion of a tourist map, big piece of the striped fabric shown, as well as a few items that didn't make it into the shot because I used up all I had in the swap packages. I packaged up and mailed out the swap packages before I realized that I didn't take a photo! Silly me.

About a week from now I'm going to begin my journal. My friend is coming into town on Sunday and after she leaves I'm setting up a little sewing table in the guest room and will learn how to thread the sewing machine and get to work on my cover. I'm really looking forward to it! It's not about doing it perfectly, it's about doing it!! Right? Right!!

If you'd like to see a video of a finished journal, you can see one on the class info page, here.

I will update on my project as I go along. Now if I can just get my house cleaned up enough so my friend will have a place to sleep :)

Have a great great day!
Kristin