What to do during big rains.....

I brought along my colored pencils in case boredom from this beautiful island was to set in. Well boredom from rain in the afternoon and the last two evenings drove me to it. I decided on a Ann Kulberg pattern. I love this womans work and her designs. I only am in the frist 1/3 of the picture in the current picture. Lots of layers to go from here. I still have some smoothing out of the background too. Just thought you all might like to know what I have been doing. Hugs, Marcia

Tuesday at Hilton Head SC

This morning brought lots of grey clouds and 68 degrees, so my husband and I decided to go exploring. We went to the Sea Pines Preserve and looked at the fabulous homes and golf courses, saw some beautiful waterways and then found the Preserve.

John read we might find a gator or two, but of course I didn't pay any attention. I also at this time never gave snakes a thought either. So off we treked and took one of the easier trails. I thought this is great......nice paved bike trails and sidewalks. After all this was a very well off area of the Island. That trail ran out fast after the first turn and then turned into a normal pine forest type dirt road. Darn.....well no bugs so all was well.

John found the wooden walk way through the rice bogs and off we went across. We kept looking in the the water when we could see it and would stop and look. John was all happy to find turtles.....meanwhile I spotted eyes that spotted me!!!!! Yup....a gator! NO, wait, two of them......well I guess my shriek might have scared them as they backed up and

sunk into the mud. After standing there and looking I spotted a larger one. I gave John the camera as I was on the phone....LOL, not many bar areas here on the island so you talk when you can find the signals. LOL, wouldn't you know my batteries were dead! So I dug through my purse and found some more and then we were able to take the pictures. After this we continued the walk, but bugs were beating the bushes or whatever their communication system was "fresh meat"! So we hurried along and were at the last stop and the sign was all on snakes! Copper Heads, Ribbons, Black, among the few I remembered my husband reading.....you see I was on a dead fast walk to the parking lot! It was time to head home to the very safe condo. I think I will contain my exploring to shopping, my sister in law told me she found a clothing only Tuesday Morning store, that had shoes and more shoes....also my very favorite Skeechers.

In the middle picture you can see the one gator, in the bottom you can see the smaller one that came up along the larger behind him. Hugs, Marcia

Greetings from Hilton Head Island, SC. Its been a wonderful Mothers Day. A great vacation started once we got through the Carolina's and the horrid rain storms and
somewhere thru there was a tornado too. We came through on Friday afternoon, just when it all let loose.

This is our third year coming here to the island with my husbands brother Bob and his wife Johanna. They have been coming for at least 24 years. Once here the weather has been very cooperative. We hit the beach for the morning, come up for lunch......they go back down after lunch, but our tender skin is not ready for 8 hours of beach yet. So off we went Saturday and hit my very favorite thrift store. St Francis.... found lots of goodies of course. Some silver baskets to be converted to "egg baskets", some pieces to my Phaltzgraff dinnerware.....12 pieces for 3.50....what a buy. Couple other odds and ends to paint too. Tomorrow we have several more to cover. Will save others for later in the week. Ok, I will take more pictures and continue to update you on our vacation.
Hugs, Marcia

Way Way Overdue....Starting NEW!

Way over due is a very mild way of putting it. Sooooo......I am just starting new. A lot has happened since my last posting. Surgery, down time, laptop problems, now a new laptop, so new laptop problems. I could go on, but I am sure you all have the picture by now. In all this Vickye and I left the flea market arena. We hated to go as we both had made some wonderful friends and will be sure to go to visit every chance we can. Out of these couple of fun but very poor sales months, we made friends with a sweet couple of girls and their families. The same weekend we pulled out so did they. While we finished out the weekend our brains and mouths were non stop Sheila and Deirdre about their opening a shop. By Sunday at business close, Sheila had rounded up a nice building on a very busy main street and rented it. Soon, plans were in place and I got to help in the starting of their business known as Willow Tree. I had a barn full of old tables and chairs, plus a few other things and these were to be used as props for displaying merchandise. They girls painted nonstop for 14 hours for the first couple days to get this shop on the go to open. With hardly any sleep these two along with husbands, and assorted family
members managed to get this shop opened last Friday in a total of 7 days. So far without benefit of advertising it is showing to be very much a success.

I will have my painted items in there, but will be painting more towards the prim side of what I do for the shop. I will still continue to do all the styles I love also. They shop has an assortment of primitive styles so everything fits together nicely.

I will continue to update you and post pictures that I have taken during this transformation of a doctors office, so stay posted.
Hugs, Marcia