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What To Do with that Beach Souvenir?

September 23, 2014 By Erica Deuel 1 Comment

starfish_souvenir_tutorialDo you find yourself collecting shells at the beach? We still have a pink sand bucket in the garage holding shells from our family beach vacation this past summer. I am afraid a clam died in that bucket. Literally. Now that all of the living things have, ahem, moved on, they need a craft or project.

Now, if you’d rather not deal with the potential sea creatures you may be carting home, another fun and less alive thing to collect on beach trips are all those pretty shells and starfish for sale in the gift shop. It’s been a while since July 3, but that was me and Matt’s 10 year anniversary. Crazy how long it has taken to do this post, but that’s life.

happy_anniversary

riding_bikes

beach_tent

jump_for_joy

sunsetanniversary_beach_couple

ringsWe had so much fun. We relaxed, ate, and chilled out for four days. We missed our kiddos, but these windows of time to focus and be together are so important. Gifts can be expensive. We have never been a big expensive gift couple. I would much rather spend the money (if there’s money to spend) on a trip, and that is exactly what we did.

Although while we were on our trip, we wanted a little keepsake to take home to remind us of our 10 year anniversary and how we celebrated it at the beach. We found this cute little starfish in a gift shop. I loved how it was a bit thicker, wider and different from the normal star fish you might see.

star_fishIt has been sitting in a gift bag in our laundry room since our trip. No joke. But last week, I was cleaning and prepping for a house showing and went ahead and created this little sign that I had been imagining. It took two minutes, so I really shouldn’t have waited so long.

what_to_do_with_a_starfishI found an old board that I liked in my collection. I cut it a bit smaller with my miter saw and sanded the edges. I then simply used some super glue on the back of my starfish, stuck it in place, and it was done!

star_fish_art

star_fish_wall_artIt was simple, but that’s us too. It’s the perfect souvenir and it was so cheap and quick.

DIY_starfish_souvenirDo you try to find ways to use all those beach keepsakes too? I’ve seen shells in bowls, lamps, glued around picture frames, strung up in garlands, used in wind chimes and even glued to burlap wreaths. There are lots of possibilities if you use your imagination.

I hope you have a good week! Thanks so much for stopping by!

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Haven, Here I Come!

July 31, 2013 By Erica Deuel 2 Comments

family on beach

We just got back from St. George Island and had the best time hanging out with my extended family, playing on the beach, and swimming in the pool. Those were great summer days. We got to catch up with people we love, meet our new nephew/cousin, and just relax.

family beach shot

family on the beach

I will be posting more about that trip and the fun we had with my big family (including the boys’ fishing trip where they caught a shark), but first off I want to tell you what I am excited about.

girl on beach

Tomorrow, I leave for my first ever blog conference. I am so excited. Attending a blog conference was one of my personal goals for 2013. It might be the only one I have almost accomplished, but that’s ok. I’m going and so excited about it! There are so many wonderful bloggers going that have become real life friends that I can’t wait to hang out with, as well as some pretty awesome bloggers that I can’t wait to meet.

Haven, is a conference for DIY bloggers, and I know I will learn so much attending the sessions and from talking with everyone else. I plan to come back and hit the ground running with all kinds of new ideas and inspiration! So stay tuned!

I can’t wait to share with you about my time at Haven, but if you want to follow along with me, while I’m at the conference, be sure to follow my twitter and instagram feeds. For those who follow along, you will get a chance to win a prize next week – don’t miss out!

Thanks so much for checking in, and I will be back soon!

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Thank you so much to my amazingly talented and servant hearted sister-in-law, Christina, for working and using her talented photography skills for us while on her “off” time. We are blessed by you, Someplace Wild!

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Living on the Road by the Numbers

September 6, 2012 By Erica Deuel 14 Comments

I know you might want to have some more details about our trip across the United States.  We love to talk about it, so there might be quite a few posts about it!  While we were driving and on the road, my husband had the idea for this post.  We kept some tally marks on interesting things that we did or happened to us.  One of my favorite facts is how many times our boys peed in a bottle in the van.  🙂

I hope you enjoy this post with tid-bits of our trip as much as I do!

Facts from our road trip:

  • Travelers: 5

  • Days on the road: 25
  • Miles driven: 5,904
This is the path of our travels!
My job, as the passenger, can be heavily described as “toy retriever” to keep the kiddos happy.
He is so cute!!
  • Hours in van: 95 (**this is not including time at each destination driving to different activities, etc.)
Overall our lil 19 month old babe did FANTASTIC!
  • Galloons of gas: 289.80
  • Quarts of oil: 10
The driving time was so gorgeous! It was one of my favorite parts of the trip! I loved seeing the different landscapes.
  • States: 13
  • Hotels: 9
We got two double beds at our hotel stops. The boys LOVED sharing one, and Reagan was in her pack and play.
There were quite a few meals where we got food to go & took it back to the hotel.
  • Number of bags packed: 19
This is just a small sampling of our luggage pile.
  • Number of bags to still UNPACK: 4
  • Pictures taken: 793
  • Family members/friends seen: 34
Poor Grammy Pammy can’t have a cute picture with her grandkids while everyone is looking at the camera at the same time. 🙂
Our “family -best friends” in California have some of the cutest kids. Our kids alternate ages, so they are really close in age and were raised together most of their lives! So special to spend time with them in their new home!
  • Superheroes seen: 27
In Hollywood, people dress up as Superheros and you can give them a “tip” to have your picture taken with them!
One of our favorite “guys”!!
  • National landmarks: 3
I had never been to the Grand Canyon! I was giddy and soooo excited to be here!
  • Oceans: 2
Having my daughter and sweet niece experiencing the ocean for the first time together was such a gift!
Caleb has no fear of the ocean! He LOVES the waves and even did a jet ski ride!
Reagan and her BFF, Kendall, are two of the prettiest girls I know!
  • Crabs caught: 37
We had a cooler filled with these guys after our beach night walks. Yes, I screamed every time one ran across in front of me. After the fun of rounding them up the boys would walk back down to the beach and let them all go.
  • Starbucks stops: 13
  • Times the boys’ LeapPad’ batteries needed changed: 10
These little “i-pads” were worth every dollar spent for our trip. They were AMAZING in the van!
  • Stomach viruses: 1
Caleb woke up throwing up one day in California. Praise the Lord no one else got sick. I think he drank too much salt water the day before. He is a beast at “body surfing”, but it did change our plans with our dear friends on our last day there. 🙁
One plus to having a car seat that needed cleaning was discovering an awesome laundromat to explore and spend a lil time in. For someone who might actually like laundry (crazy I know!), this place was gorgeous!  Did you notice Caleb’s throw up bucket!?  Nothing like a multipurpose pink sand bucket!
  • Stops without a sweet tea to be found that was not fountain or canned: 14
  • Tweets breaking my social media silence: 11
  • Ways to get Reagan asleep in the van: 1
Reagan would only fall asleep in the van if music was playing and playing loudly!
  • Pools swam in: 9
  • Broken bumpers: 1
  • Zip ties required to hold a broken bumper together: 3
Turns out Waco, TX has some pretty steep curbs and driveways. Oops!
  • Horse rides: 5
My sis, Olivia, and her husband have horses in Arkansas. We got to stay with them for almost a week. It was a BLAST! The boys loooovvvveeeddd the barn and land!
She could barely wait for her turn to get a horse ride!!
My boys would move to the country in a heart beat!!
  • Immigration checks: 3 (Odd, right!? Even though we never crossed the border, driving close to Mexico had checkpoints.)
  • Van vacuumed:  1
In the top picture that might be a spilt/dried chocolate milkshake from an In-N-Out in California. It is getting cleaned tomorrow! Yes!!!
  • Target runs: 6
These girls are the cutest Target shoppers!
  • Drives in the rain: 4
  • My longest drive stretch at one time: 3 hours
  • Pees in a cup or bottle in van: 19
  • Times I went for a run: 2
  • Theme parks: 2
We went to a water park with friends in TX, and it was so fun!
We went to Disneyland’s California Adventure in Anaheim, California. It was awesome! Where else do you see live Lightening Mcqueen and Mater driving around!?!
This rocket ride was one of our favorites! Reagan even got to go on it!
  • Blog posts written: 0
My only “to do” was to enjoy my family, and I did!! Isn’t it crazy that we are home all together and I miss them?? I’m still with them all day/everyday but so distracted by life and house up keep.
  • Memories and laughs together: millions

Thank you so much for reading this post!!  I have some more posts coming with the “how to’s” of traveling with kids and how we made this insane trip possible.  This is not our first BIG trip on the road, so we have learned a few tricks along the way.  Please feel free to ask any questions about our trip or how we did something.  I will respond!

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Dancing Zebras and Dreams

July 25, 2012 By Erica Deuel 1 Comment

Congratulations to Tiffany, Nina, and Angela for each winning one of the three hair clips from last week’s giveaway!  Thank you so much for entering this giveaway and I hope you LOVE your clips!!

If you are sad to have missed out on this giveaway, please check out my store, Dancing Zebras.  There are more cute hair clips over there that you could get, and I am trying to upload even more soon!

Here are a few of my latest items…

Green Flower Bobby Pins

Creme Lace Hair Clip

Button Earrings

Retro Black and White Hair Clip

Red Flower Earrings

Dancing Zebras has been such a fun little hobby for me.  I love creating things and watching others enjoy them as well.  About three years ago my sister, Olivia, and I dreamed this idea up of doing a business together.  I remember sitting on the beach and staring out at the ocean as we brainstormed names for our company.  There were LOTS of things thrown out and good laughs till we came up with Dancing Zebras.

This endeavor has been so fun.  As stay at home moms, we loved the idea to be able to be home with our kids and still be able to craft (a passion of ours) while getting a little money in the process. We’ve had a few craft shows and private orders that don’t show up on our etsy store, and all of this just fuels us and keeps as dreaming.  Someday, I would LOVE to have a boutique little store.  In my city, Roswell, Georgia, there is a little street called Canton Street.  It has all kinds of cute stores and restaurants.  This part of town is called Historic Roswell.  I think my house is actually considered to be part of this area as well.  It’s all old buildings with exposed brick walls and little sidewalks.  Anyway, I dream of having a cute little shop out in a place like that.  Someday, right!?

It’s really hard to get enough inventory for a craft show with three little kids, let alone the risk in having a real store.  I think there is value in knowing my limitations to my dreams.  I dreamed of being a mom and I am, so I choose to enjoy and soak in this season of my life.  One day I will have all the time in the world to craft and try to start a store and I will miss this season.  It’s a constant conscious process to be fully present in the present.

In about thirteen days, Olivia and I will be back on another beach together.  I’m excited to catch up and brainstorm in an environment that does our souls good!

What are your dreams!?!

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