Yeah Summer Vacation at Last!!

What is it about the word vacation that totally makes me scream with joy! We were so ready for a few days to sleep in and go where life (or our reservations) take us. We are traveling south and our first main stop was Savannah Georgia. We feel in love with this beautiful city at first glance. We were only there for a few days, but boy did we crammed as much as we could into those few days.

The Mercer Williams house. I could so live there!

 We knew we wanted to see Jim Williams house ever since we saw the movie Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil. It lived up to all we had heard. The house is beautiful and the furnishings were absolutely gorgeous. I wished photographs would have been allowed, because there were so many great rooms I wish I could have shared with you all.

Shops on River Street

The Cotton Exchange

 For our grandson's girlfriend we went on the lookout for some supernatural items since this is her passion.....not mine. I have to say Savannah is choked full of ghostly spooky tales.
The one we enjoyed the most was The Pirate House.

So many stories surround this 1700 original building. The best is that is was often used to shanghai many an unsuspecting soul to serve as a mate on a short handed ship. As the story goes there was a tunnel that started somewhere from the Captain's Room and lead down to the docks.One story that we were told was about a police officer who had stopped in for a drink (back in the pirate days) and was knocked unconscious and when he woke up he was out to sea. It took him two years to get back home!

Robert Louis Stevenson also mentioned this place in his world famous book Treasure Island. Some of the action is suppose to have taken place right there. Hanging in the Captions Room are frames containing pages from an early, and very rare edition of the book.
This building contains so many twists and turns. There is even a building within one of the buildings. It is now a restaurant and is well worth a visit. As we were being seated I was a tad worried we would never find our way out and would end up on Captain Jack Sparrow's ship.....oh no, wait that just was a wish I had tehe!!

One bit of interesting trivia we learned was that during the Civil War when the Union soldiers were held up in the Colonial Cemetery they became bored. So what does a bored soldier do with his time....he's re-carves headstones! Yes they changed dates on some making it look as if some people lived for a very long time,or making a 9yr look as if he had a 7yr old wife and so on.

There is another world famous cemetery called Bonaventure Cemetery. I so wanted to go and see it but was advised not to due to many people being robbed.....not sure if that was from thugs or ghosts I should have asked.
Much of the city is actually paved and have had houses built right over old graves. We read some stories about body parts surfacing at times, up through flooded basements and of course during excavation.
Savannah is historic, quaint, spooky and down right gorgeous.....and we loved every minute we were there.

Oh and I nearly left out the best part.....our room! We stayed at The Mansion on Forsyth Park. It was a bit pricey but we thought it was worth it since we would only be there a few days. So now we're on the road again heading on down to Florida.....to us it's not a vacation if you don't get to see the ocean!!

I Spy Bottles

        I wanted to share something I made a few weeks ago for my neice's birthday. I made her an I-Spy Bottle. It's something I saw on Pinterest and on a daytime TV show called The View. My niece was turning 16 and she had asked for money this year. I hate giving gift cards or money, it just seems so impersonal.

As I was putting her money in her card it occurred to me that maybe this was something different I could include. She has always been my biggest fan on everything I create,giving me her opinion on what she likes, and what other kids might like. Lindsey is an awesome kid......kind of an old soul in away....grown up and very responsible. But what I love about her the most is she gets me....she really gets me!!

        So the hard part for me was narrowing it down to what items to include.I have seen several different versions on this so pretty much anything goes!

This is another version from a blog called Counting Coconuts

 Lindsey has always been an enormous movie fan and has lots of movie memorabilia in her room. Her main favorites so far have been, James Cameron's Avatar, Harry Potter, Twilight, Pirates, and most recently Hunger Games. We share the same favorites as a matter of fact! Yes I know I have proven over and over again on this blog that I am still a kid!

Can you see the tiny Harry Potter figure to the left of the purple stone?

So since I had trouble narrowing it all down I went a tad over board on her bottle. I probably could have made several with all the stuff I included. So consequently I had to up the size of the bottle. I ended up using a wide mouthed Gatorade bottle. My daughter-in-law Amy was my super shopper and boy did she find some great items.

We used some tiny erasers, some sparkly buttons, some little charms, even some doodads and some doohickeys......with glitter of course!
 On top of that we also included some flamingo stickers that we were able to stick back to back. We sprinkled in some bright colored sparkly confetti and of course a touch of glitter to make even more fun. It's amazing though what all you can gather up just from one household junk drawer. So look around your house you may have plenty of items stashed and saved that would be perfect for this.

Afterward I realized that these are just a modern day, handmade version of a kaleidoscope. Like the one in the photo below from Kaleidoscop Galaxy on Etsy.

I know I have always loved these? I use to think they were so magical and always wanted one. It could be how my addiction to sparkles started. If I have animal totem it has to be a crow since they are also attracted to sparkly things!

One very important tip to remember is be sure and glue the lid on your bottle. If you don't and it's opened..... well it could certainly make a huge, sparkly mess.

 
I had a thought after I finished my neices. What about and all black and white theme and add a few bright red items that your kids would have to find and keep track of. Maybe to win a special prize or treat at each rest stop along your car trip.

You could use any color variation or any items you want..... that's what makes this so much fun. We all know how hard it can be to keep kids happy and busy while your driving somewhere on vacation. So give it a try it is cheap, easy, and fun.....don't ya just love those three words!?!