20 Tips for a fun beach trip Phyllis & Jorja Style!

Qunitana Beach, Texas

The Beach can be such a great place!  We are so lucky to only live 20 minutes from our favorite hangout...Qunitana Beach!

We go almost every week starting in March.  We can go up until October, and even have gone in November and December.  We even spent Christmas Eve on the beach in 2010.  Now that was a beautiful day!  

If I were only allowed to take five items with me to the 

beach it would be....

1.  Cooler

2.  Radio

3. Shovel

4.  Umbrella Table

5.  Chair

These five items are always, and I say again "are always in the car", just in case we get the urge to drive down for a few hours, or just to go and have a sunset cocktail!  

 "Beach Trip"

Should you or should you not take the dog?  We have taken Lemon, and she did really well until she decided that she wanted to chase cars more than romp in the sand.  We kept on trying to take her, but the day that she got hit by a passing car we stopped taking her!  It was to much of an aggravation for her and us.  She did not get hurt by the way, as the sand was soft enough that the tire just pushed her down.  Thank goodness....

That is when we decided to start taking "The Bean".  She has gone with us ever since, and behaves quite well.  So ask yourself these questions... Does your Fido behave badly?  Does your Fido bark all the time?  Does your Fido get along with other dogs? If your dog cannot pass these simple question, then for everyone's sake including your Fido... do not bring them to the beach.  If you choose to take your Fido, then by all means take them fresh water and a bowl to drink out of.  You are taking water for yourself, then take some for Fido!  Also take a leash!  If for some reason your Fido does get out of hand you will have something to tie them up with.  Enjoy your day without having to worry or entertain Fido, they are probably more happy at home anyway!

If you are orga-woman-ized like we are!!  

Your "Beach Trip Gear" is in a plastic bin in the garage.  

Loaded and ready to go with the following items....

Zip Lock bags - All sizes 12 or so.

Garbage bags for your trash.

Toilet Paper- You never know!

Meat Tenderizer -  For Bug or Jelly Fish stings.

Small First Aid Kit.

Clorox wipes.

Clips or clothes pins.

Koozies.

Swiss army knife.

Plastic forks.

Strike Anywhere Matches.

Throw away camera.

Dog leash.

Small towel or wash cloth.

Binoculars.

Suntan lotion.

Kids toys.

Water shoes for the whole family!

Insulated cups with lids.

Whisk broom!   

Fold up Chairs .

Small Shovel.

Radio - Inspect your batteries before going!

Small American Flag 

Sunglasses & Hats.

Boogie Boards.

Life jackets for kids that cannot swim.

Safety pins.

Tips & Tricks

1.  Plastic pipe to bury your umbrella pole in the sand or Academy does have the anchors you can buy now.  This will only help keep your umbrella from going air born!  Of course it is fun to watch them take off like a rocket on a windy day!  Use a nail or screw to help keep the umbrella also from flying away!  Pre-drill this before leaving for the beach!

2.  Cut off some old golf clubs - they make great stakes for chairs if the wind is to high, or to use as a pole for your dog's leash.

3.  Remove two batteries from your radio at the end of your day so if for some reason the radio gets turned on, your radio will not run down the batteries!  I keep mine in a plastic bag in my bin.

4.  If you are going to fish then be aware of swimmers!  Nothing worse that catching a kid with your hook!  Do you have your license??  Be prepared to loose all your gear if you do not have that licence!

5.  If you can walk 20 yards away from your car and hear your own music...turn it down!  Not everyone will like your taste of music and it can be quite aggravating to listen to someones else's music over your own music!

6.  Good Golly Molly....Do not under any circumstances forget to put suntan lotion on your feet and ears!!  Please...for the love of god trust me!!  Nothing worse that burned feet!  Remember when you burned your shoulders and how a shirt hurt....well just think what shoes would feel like on burned feet!  Bald guys....cover that head or put lotion on it!

7.  Nothing ticks me off more as when people just throw their trash on the ground.  Fill your bags up and close them tight and dispose of it properly!  If the cans at the beach are full, then take it home!  I could stand on the soap box for hours griping about this subject, but I am respectfully stepping off and lowering my blood pressure!

8.  If the surf is to rough...Do not let your kids swim in it!  What is worse?  Little johnny crying that he cannot swim or burying little Johnny because he drown?  

9.  Stay off the dunes!  First off most of the time they are protected and you will get a ticket, and second...rattle snakes!  Enough said!

10.  Look up your tide reports before you go, so you will know your wind, wave and tide info.  Check out most of the weather channels now have this feature.  Before smart phones we use to jam a stick in the sand where the water is cresting when we would get to the beach, and watch to see if the sea goes out or comes up!  

11.  Feed the birds. Bring all your old bread ends or crackers that have gone stale.  I keep a plastic bag in the freezer just for those items.  Again be mindful of other people if the beach is crowded!  Nothing worse than bird poo from the hundreds of seagulls flying around!

12.  WD-40 your chairs when you get home to help keep the rust down!  We usually wash our stuff off and then spray everything down before putting it back up for the year!

13.  Expect your car windows to get murky from the sea air!  Clean them with vinegar!

14.  If you have a youngster or adult that has to wear glasses, get them the eye holder strap and safety pin the strap to the top of their swimsuit!  Waves have eaten more glasses and sun glasses than I care to think about!

15.  Make your lunch easy!  Pre make PB&J or sometimes we do Tuna.  I make my tuna up and then put it into small sandwich bags.  When we have lunch I cut a hole in the corner of the bag and use it like a pastry bag, and squeeze my tuna on crackers or make a sandwich.  Easy clean up and no messy hands, not to mention its fun for the kids!  Remember to take snacks that do not melt!  Close up any bags with your cloth pins!

16.  Use your whisk broom to knock off all the sand off your chairs and other stuff before putting it back into your car!  Really helps keep the sand down!

17.  I place a water bottle in every door for that "just in case" you need to wash your feet before getting back in the car, or you need to wash an eye out!

18.  We usually will walk the beach after we set everything up and look for glass.  One we have a jar at home with all the glass we have found, and it helps clean the beach, but mostly we do it so the kids or adults will not get a cut foot!  

19.  I keep a towel under my soft side cooler to help catch the water that leaks off and then I use it at the end of the day to wipe our faces with a nice clean cool towel!  Ahhh!!

20.  Last but not least....Forget your problems!  If you did not bring it who the heck cares!  Enjoy your day with your family and friends!  Enjoy the ocean!  Just enjoy!

I find this shoe very interesting!  First... some one left without taking it!  Why?  & Second... these sea creatures decided to make a home on it!  Whole new meaning to the word "House Shoe"!

Now this is what it is all about!

Bird Feeder - Recycling at its best

Today I decided to try the "Empty Toilet Roll Holder" 

applied with "Peanut Butter" & "Rolled in Seeds" 

Thingy-ma-gigs!

Voila!

Sure enough it works!  

I had a Cardinal hit on it five minutes after I stuck it in the tree.  

The big question will be to see what the squirrel is going to do with them!  

Will he take it off and high tail it home, or sit and eat on it there?  

Update - 5/5/12

The birds love the rolls!  The squirrels like them as well!  

I have put three out in the yard, and one is missing!

Looks like our yard will be very popular this year!!

Recycle Tire Planter - Under $80.00

I saw the same photo on Pinterest that everyone else saw... you know the one with flowers flowing out of some colorful tires.  I knew I had to do it! I had five tires in my garage ironically enough, and after searching a friends place I found some smaller cute ones. I laid out the tires in the spot where I had pulled up a long above ground vegetable box.  I went to Lowe's and bought some spray paint (actually made two trips, as I forgot the all important pink & orange!). 

 What had me in a quandary for about a week, was what & how was I going to keep and hold the dirt in the tires without having to use a lot of soil, and just in the off case I might want to move them one day.  I knew that something would come to me, but in the mean time I needed to get the painting started!

We played around with the design & color combinations for a few days until we finally come up with what we thought we wanted to do.  Still had to come up with a way to hold the dirt in the tires without using a ton of soil.  I searched around on Pinterest until I saw a photo on how to make a vertical planter. They used burlap or plastic backing, but I wanted to use something I already had, as I was trying very hard to stay within the recycle, reuse or up-cycle mode & wanted to keep the project as cheap as possible!  At this point I had spent $40 bucks on paint! That's when it hit me that I have plenty of bags that hold the duck's corn!  They are a plastic burlap bag of sorts, and would be just....Perfect!  We gathered all the tools we thought we would need our for the project. 

 Our morning started with Lemon trying to help us straighten out the burlap bags so we could cut them open. We just laid the bags over the tires and cut enough to cover the holes.  My first thought was to just staple the bags on the bottom of the tires and fill then up.  After a few minutes of consideration we felt that would be fine for the ones laying on the ground, but the ones on the upper levels we would have to come up with a support system. 

We had a few pallets laying around (yes that's another project taking place), so we pulled a few boards off one of the pallets to help with the support of the dirt.  I did not want the dirt to lay on the boards, as they would deteriorate & the dirt would fall through from the weight of the soil.  So we cut out three boards per tire and stapled the them onto the bag and inverted them into the tires.  This way the plastic burlap bag would hold the dirt & protect the wood slates, while the wood slates would help support the dirt in the tires.

Now we needed to drill some more hole in the tires for drainage, and tacked down the plastic bag inside the tire until they could be filled with dirt.

We placed the tires back out onto the ground, when we realized we could not remember what the original arraignment looked like!  We played with the colors again, while looking at the photos I had taken.  Pull this one here and pull that one there.  That's when we had the thought to turn the smaller pink tire on its side.  Hey that looks great, but I think it needs another small tire.  I quickly break out the paint can and painted a small blue tire.  Once the pink tire was turned on it's side it showed the fence and needed something... something to hide the fence.  I started for the garage we found an old temperature dial off the fence that has not worked for over a year, and I had never thrown away. By George it fit perfectly.  Grabbed the gorilla glue and 30 minutes later it was ready to go!  We commenced in filling in the tires with top soil and then topped it off with the better garden soil. Finishing off with some plants and added some bedding flower seeds for additional flowers to come up...........

Voila!

Supplies Used:

9 - Used Tires 

5 - Plastic Burlap Feed Bags 

10 - 40 lbs. Bags of Cheap Top Soil @ $1.35 per bag**

1 - 40 lbs. Bag of Garden Soil @ $4.50

7 - Can of Spray Paint @ $4.95 per can

8 - Plants @ $25.00

4 - Plants from the Garden 

1 - Pack Seeds @ $1.00

1 - Old Pallet 

1 - Hammer

1 - Saw 

1 - Staple Gun with 5/18 staples

1 - Drill with 5/18 drill

1 - Scissors

1 - Tube of Gorilla Glue

1- Used Temperature Dial

1 - Pug Helper

Total Project Cost 

$78.65 

**Instead of field dirt to keep the tires from being so heavy, use empty water bottle to fill in the sides**

This was taken in May, as you can see the Easter Lilies are almost gone.  I split a fern and shoved a bunch of bulbs in the top tire.

This shot was taken December 21, 2012.  The tires have shown the wear from the Texas heat and have faded.  Pink and Orange do not like the sun!  The Ferns in the top tire are starting to come in!  

Shop at your local Pawn Shop!

Yesterday I went into my very first Pawn shop!  What the heck have I been missing!  I watch "Pawn Stars", and love it so why was I being such a wienie about not going into the local pawn shop in my area? I am sure there are some gritty criminal underworld place the movies always portray, but I had Jorja with me so what harm could happen, and besides it was in broad daylight.   I was about blown over when I walked in and the lady behind the counter hollered out  "Hi, How are you today?"!!  This was better than Walmart already. After walking the aisles and aisles of power tools a nice young man even approached and asked if he could help us find anything!!  What..."Customer Service" at the pawn shop!!  Where is the camera?  Someone must be pulling a fast one on me here.  The shop was nicely organized,  no steel cages, lighted, stuff galore and it smelled like power tools!  I think I am in heaven, as the tool bins were loaded and loaded some more!  This place was great.  I started looking at the prices and they were not all that terrible.  I purchased a rubber mallet with a steel handle, and a flat headed crowbar (I am not sure that is its technical name, but it is what I call it), both almost brand new for five bucks each.  Now I have a rubber mallet hammer when I need to pound something that requires that sort of pounding, and a flat headed crowbar to do....well I have a flat headed crowbar when I need to do something that tool does.  I even asked the lady if she would size a pair of earrings for me, and she did so gladly....gladly I say!! The pawn shop has just become my new "Favorite" place to shop!  I guess the lesson learned here is to step out of the cookie cutter mega conglomerate store box, and give a local pawn shop a try!  I love learning new things....and spending money on tools.


Update...04/03/2012
After going to our local Pawn Shop (Tom's Pawn), I have learned a few new things...
1.  If you want to take an item and "Pawn" or "Sell" it...take it 
     out of the box as this is considered a "new " item and 
     must have a recipe!  So take it out of the box!  Odd I know
     but this is the Pawn industry rules!!
2.  Haggle..Haggle...Haggle....Yes this is common practice 
      done in the Pawn Store! Not to mention it is quite fun!
     Do not be embarrassed... Although I know my face turned
     bright red the first time I did it!  The guys and gals at the
     store are very use to people haggling!  

Shamelessly Promoting my ETSY shop!

Antique Gold

Rusty Red

$4.00 each

Hanging Tea Light Votive Ornament.  2¾" wide and 3" tall. Includes a jute hanger. Use a battery-operated tea light in this ornament. Tea light is INCLUDED, and also with a extra battery.. If you choose to use a wax candle tea light PLEASE/MUST change the jute to wire and hang where there is no fire hazard! But I highly recommend the battery operated tea light, so you can hang them in a tree! Really makes a a great impression!  

$8.00 for each bud vase!
**Set of two vintage brass bud vases 4 inches high with an inch base. Made in India.
Some wear on the top of one of the vases that might polish out, but I am not the polishing kind of girl. 
**Single brass etched bud vase. 5 inches high with an inch base. The etching's remind me of feathers. 

These have not been polish, as I choose to leave the patina on, and as I have said before I am not the polishing kind of girl. They have been used, and loving so! They have the wear on them to prove it. They have been good bud vases, but now its time to be displayed in a new home! Sold as a set only.

Soil Saver & Recycle Trick!

This is my trick for saving soil and recycling a generic plastic pot.  When I am transplanting new flowers or re-potting plants into a larger pot I will use an old plastic generic pot and turn it upside down in the larger pot.  You still get drainage and lots of room for the flowers or plant to grown while saving soil and recycling!  I even in this case put my larger pot into an even larger pot.  Finish off with a little moss and no one is the wiser! Voila!  Save your self some soil and recycle!  Love it!

Carport Repair...Thank Goodness!

I had been noticing over the last year or so that the carport was getting a wee bit of a sway in its roof.  What I did not know was that the wood ants or termites had eaten about three inches off one post!  OMG.  I had installed three other posts with the metal feet when I moved into the house and for some dumb reason I did not repair this particular post. This carport is about to fall down on my Mini!!  I called good friend Charlie...Help!  After assessing the situation he said..."Yup....You have a problem!!"  So we looked at the post this way and we looked at the post that way until we (I should really say "He") decided on the correct course of action.  Out came the skill saw, two hammers, extra 2X4's, the Farm Jack, sledge hammer, crow bar, along with the foot plate I had bought with some metal plate supports the day before.  The scariest part was when a lone 2X4 held up the whole carport while he cut the leg off (for a total of seven inches).  Charlie is a hero and everything is back to normal, with the exception of some paint to beautify the new post.  My Mini is safe and sound from the carport collapsing. Thank goodness!!