A little vacation redux…

As I’ve professed before I love all things Mexican, including vacations {:o)!  That is where hubby and I and a couple of great friends escaped to a couple of weeks ago. 

I’m always a bit apprehensive when booking this type of vacation– will the accommodations be clean, will the food be good, etc… – after being burnt on my first vacation 13 years ago with a trip to Venezuela where the water at the resort was turned off 5 of the 7 days we were there except for an hour in the morning and another in the afternoon (yikes).  I haven’t had a repeat of that experience, but I haven’t forgotten it either *shudder*!

This year though, we were totally spoiled with amazing accommodations, great food and wonderful grounds, including beach, many saltwater pools and some immaculate landscaping.  And while enjoying all of this we spent a totally relaxing, sun drenched week of doing nothing more than hitting the pool, beach and buffet.

This past week was a jolt back to reality with family and work obligations, phones and computers.  So I thought I would share a couple of pictures with you so that my memory doesn’t fade as fast as my tan has :(!

We awoke one morning at 5:30a to hit the beach for the sunrise – here’s a shot of the moon just before sunrise.

Here is a sample of the beauty of their plant life – in the midst of a Mayan village where the landscape consists mostly of rocks and jungle. 

A visit to Coba, a Mayan ruin that is the remains of one of the Yucutan Peninsula’s largest trade cities from the Mayan era.  This temple is one of the last climbable ruins in the area – but will be shut down in May of this year.  It’s 42 meters high and was more intimidating to descend than to climb (not to mention the new muscles we all found :)).

And here are a couple more of the sunrise shots..

*sigh* –  thanks for allowing me to reminisce. 

OK now - back to the real world!

May a little bit o’ the Irish grace your day …

On this, the celebration of St. Patrick, the patron saint of Ireland, I wish you all …

A world of wishes at your command
God and his angels close at hand
Friends and family their love impart,
And Irish blessings in you heart.

Not being Irish myself, although I do admit to adding an O’ before my last name every March 17th and enjoying a pint or two of green beer, I do have some Celtic heritage from the other side of the pond (Wales and Scotland).  And I believe it’s that Celtic heritage that has fed my love of the Celtic knot. There is just something about the never-ending knot that inspires me. 

I love the puzzle of it, the romance of it and the symbolism of it. 

One of my current projects  (which I hope to be posting more about soon) has a small carving that resembles a Celtic knot which was one of the features that drew me to it.

Here are some other inspiration pics I’ve uncovered ….

Celtic Tapestry   Paul Sahlin Tiffany Celtic LampThe Bard’s Chair (via irishfurniture.com)  Wallpaper by Charles Newhaven in Ornella (via Apartment Therapy)Irish/Chinese cabinetNeo-Celtic Cross (by stushie)Sterling silver Celtic design braceletAntique buffet via redlionantiques.com And here’s one my hubby would absolutely love …    

Which is your favourite ???

Where did she go???

Ahhh, there she is!

 

Don’t worry my fabulous blogging friends - I am still here.  I've been so so busy with work (my day job - not decorating *sigh*) and my recent addiction to the Olympics (twitch twitch) that I'm afraid my blog has suffered.

And it's about to suffer a bit longer … 

 

 

So, after a very exciting day tomorrow chilling with Kimberley Seldon learning all there is to know about the Business of Design; the hubster and I are off for a week of sun and sand.  We are going to enjoy some downtime that we both well deserve and are so looking forward to.

 

 

There’s a song by the Zac Brown Band that I’ve been listening to lately called “Toes” that perfectly describes what the next week will be like – have a listen:

Stay tuned my friends, when I get back I’ll let you know how both events went. 

Adios and vaya con Dios ….

 

Who me ? *blush*

Wow – last week Pam from Garden Designs + More gave dh designs a Best Blog Award!

What an honour – especially considering the field of 15 blogs that she included me in.  I truly am *blushing* :). 

According to the rules (aren’t there always rules???) in order to accept this award I must:

1. Post it on your blog with the name of the person who has granted you the award, and a link to their blog.
2. Pass the award on to approximately 15 other blogs that you recently discovered, and think are great!
3. Contact the bloggers to let them know they have been chosen for this award

Picking just 15 out of the multitudes of superbly creative blogs that are out there is extremely difficult

– but I’ll give it my best shot:

Low Tide High Style

Old Sweetwater Cottage

Our Suburban Cottage

Small Place Style

Thrifty Decor Chick

Architecture Tourist

Joie de Vivre

The Painted Home

Young House Love

Windlost

Serendipity

Kitchen and Residential Design

The Cinnamon Post

Decor Addict

Restyled Home

 

Phew – that was hard work – *wiping brow* – there are many many more I could have added, but bedtime is looming. Next time :)!

Enjoy checking out these amazing blogs and bloggers!!

A Valentines post…

I started researching this post by looking for “red rooms”.  Well, that was disappointing – I found NOTHING that even suggested “romance”  to me in that category.   Here’s some examples:

This room is just too busy to be romantic.

A bit better, but still too overpowering for my tastes.

So then I thought – OK look for “romantic rooms”.  Things got a bit better with rooms like this:

The Romantic Hotel in Istanbul

The Honeymoon Suite at the Four Seasons Georges V in Paris

A guest room at the Castello di Carimate between Milan and Como, Italy

The romantic room at La Bastide de Voulonne in Provence France

The master suite at the Rosa Blanca Country Inn in Costa Rica…

But my absolute personal favourite is this one…

A deluxe one bedroom overwater villa with pool at the St. Regis in Bora Bora French Polynesia

It appears as if my research has taken a distinct turn for travel and the exotic.  Funny how that goes huh? 

In the end though, it’s not the surroundings that dictate the “romance” factor, it is the person you are sharing the romance with.

Happy Valentines Day to everyone!

A Bling Fling

My talented creative friends, Kelly and Victoria, over at Design Ties,

are having one heck of a giveaway just in time for Valentine’s Day.   They are featuring a Canadian jewellery designer Melanie Roy from Dieppe New Brunswick (my hubby’s home province)!

And speaking of my hubby – the story Kelly relates about his shopping spree at Canadian Tire is absolutely true!  This happened years ago and we still chuckle about it today – and the gifts have taken a definite turn for the better :)!!!

Head over to Design Ties and enter their great Valentine’s Day giveaway right now …

Arrival of great things….

I can feel it in the air – even through the cold! 

Hubby and I travel together to and from work daily (we actually work in the same office building – but rarely see each other during the day; lol).  This commute happens at the same time every day (give or take a few minutes).  And today when hubby and I arrived home from work I noticed 2 things. 

First was the fact that it was actually still daylight.

 

Woo Hoo!!!

Second, I noticed that there was a parcel waiting at the front door --- all the way from Maryland !!!  The giveaway I won from Kat at Low Tide High Style had arrived!!!

So with some excitement, I opened the box:Carefully removed the carefully wrapped and well packed contents:

  Including the adorable songbird card…

And gingerly unwrapped each lovely gift: 

Absolutely beautiful!!!  Thank you again Kat – I can’t wait to display these lovelies in my guest room (as soon as it’s done *sigh* )!

So given all this I came to the only conclusion a person could reach on a cold Canadian February afternoon …

Wiarton Willie (and Punxsutawney Phil for my US pals) be damned -

with signs like these it is quite obvious that

SPRING

is right around the corner!!!