Happy independence day!!

Yay it's the Fourth of July and I'm home with my momma (or mo'ma as Billy calls her) and she is in the kitchen as I type making my favorite, fried chicken and potato salad! Yum. It's been a wonderful holiday thus far. I have my yellow nail varnish on my toes, I have sunburned skin and all my freckles are out. I forgot that my face is pretty much covered in freckles.

Life is good. We have beached it up and Billy and I have rode bicycles almost everyday and we both have read about five books each. I finished my last book on the hammock in the backyard sipping on sweet tea. Oh what a life. Its so relaxing here. And I still remember how to drive on the other side of the road.

Tomorrow Billy, Mo'ma, my 16 year-old nephew Dylan and me are heading down to Miami for the night and staying at the art deco Avalon Hotel on South Beach. The next day we are going to Gator Park for an airboat ride in the Everglades and then we're going to stop to see the Coral Castle on our way back.

Its been wonderful and the only bad thing is we have to leave!

Holiday in the sun...

I'm away to Florida tomorrow and one of the first things on my list to do is a mani/pedi. I haven't had one since my wedding two and a half years ago and my poor toes are in need of some tlc. My feet have always been my favorite part of my body. Weird eh? But I have cute feet and I always have varnish on them.

But I want something cute and summery so I've been looking online for ideas and yellow keeps coming up and I think that might be my answer. It's not a colour I'd normally use so I think it may be perfect. I never know if I should get the same colour on my toes as on my fingers. Such choices! I'll have to wait and see.

Not vermin...

I have packed all my craft supplies except some cross stitch supplies. I attempted to cs once before but it gave me a tremendous headache so I stopped. But I found the cutest patterns from Sewingseed on Etsy.

You can see a lot of the aida cloth through the stitches so I'm not completely happy with it, but its a squirrel so its okay. I had a pet squirrel when I was a wee lass and his name was Baby the Squirrel. His momma was run over by a car so we saved him and he'd would sleep in my momma's shirt because he loved her warmth and the beating of her heart.

So I like squirrels even poorly cross stitched ones.

a new home- well kindof

The next 6 months are going to be a odd for Team Sully (yes that is what my husband and I call ourselves Su + Billy = Sully please don't judge us to badly). We get back from Florida in July and the day after I have to move all by myself down south. We're not sure when Billy will be able to move too because it all depends on his job and/or finding a new one.

We are definitely counting on being a part for two months but hopefully it won't be any more than that. So we will both have a flat and our stuff will be separated between the two.

So I am filling my pre-move days looking for stuff to fill our new home with. We have a very limited budget and as we are going from a fully furnished flat to an unfurnished one we will have to rely heavily on charity shops and yes, Ikea.

We are in the market for a new couch! Years of having a narrow two seater has given us a great appreciation for comfy couches. We love love love the Emlyn couch at Habitat but the price tag isn't very loveable. Yikes. So instead we will probably go with an Ikea 3-seater. I think it's really important to have it washable because Billy is very clumsy with his wine glasses (he's broken most of them and spilled loads everywhere).

We also need a bed. We will be going from a queen sized (there isn't a king size in the UK maybe because there isn't a King?) to a double and I'm not that keen. I like my cuddles but then I like my space when I'm sleeping. But we are probably going for one with storage underneath (yay I don't have to be afraid someone is hiding there when I'm all alone!!). But to start off with we will probably get a futon-ish thing while I'm on my own so I have a couch/bed which will later be moved into the second bedroom (yes we'll have two bedrooms!!).

Okay so I should add that I've never really felt like I've had a grown up place because I lived like a college student long after I was out of college (hey photographers aren't paid well in the states). But now it feels like whoa I'm married and we are putting together a home.

Here are some more things I want to make on my lonely nights in England:




(1) http://www.edytaszyszlo.com/blog/2008/10/08/diy-home-decor-with-your-wedding-photos/
(2) http://swelldesigner.blogspot.com/2009/04/colorful-mosaic-wall-on-cheap.html
(3) http://www.ladiesandgentlemenstudio.com/megadoily
(4) http://www.adventuresindressmaking.com/2010/01/i-am-so-proud-of-my-diy-zig-zag-rug.html
(5) http://www.designspongeonline.com/2009/05/diy-project-kates-pretty-paper-coat-rack.html
(6) http://metalandmud.wordpress.com/2011/02/10/how-to-freezer-paper-stencil-pillow-cases/
(7) http://melissawilliamsonphoto.blogspot.com/2011/01/great-ideas-for-wall-displays.html

I hate packing!

My sewing machine, knitting needles, and all other craft supplies have been boxed up even though I'm not moving for ages. We had to pack up my box room/ craft room/ photographic gear room first so that we can pack everything else up in there. I don't have a flat to move into and we're not giving up our flat here until August (maybe I'll be able to catch a little bit of the Edinburgh Festival).

Billy's job has decided to be fairly uncooperative in our move, not allowing him to work from their London office. So now we are not sure when he'll be able to move in with me. Grr.

I have been on a lot of sites getting inspiration for my new flat, wherever it may be, and I'd like to get started but alas I must wait until after the move in July. I guess I'll have plenty of time to do crafty stuff when I am sans husband.

ps this is a photo I found of the town we will most likely be moving to. It's Britain's oldest recorded town and was a Roman centre so there is loads of quaint cottages about. It is also a large London commuter mecca so I'll probably be in newish housing which isn't great but we'll see.

Big News....

So I’ve been incredibly busy the past month and I spent the better part of last week down in England. A very, very long story short, I have accepted a job as a senior photojournalist. So I will be living 50 minutes outside London where my husband will have to commute (if his job will let him) while I cover a large area of England.

I have been in a constant state of flux for weeks and I am really happy that a decision has been made. I can’t go into details quite yet so I have to be careful not to seriously spill the beans until I get the go ahead.

The sad thing is that my husband and I will be separated for a while until his job gives him the go ahead to work out of their London office. Boo.

And I will really, really miss Edinburgh. I love this city so much and now that I can navigate it so easily I am picking up and leaving. I have moved so many times in the last decade that it’s not a huge deal but this was my first marital home so I will miss it.

(PS The photo is my husband's taken on a recent day out in Edinburgh- see how pretty it is here!)

England's Dreaming

I am so sick of the royal wedding. My marital influenza seems to be an epidemic amongst Scottish folk as there are only a few “Street Parties” planned versus the hundreds in England and Wales.

I must confess (though it isn’t much of a confession when you hear me rant about how my money shouldn’t go into funding their lifestyles) I really don’t care for the Windsors. We live in a constitutional monarchy where the Queen does not have any political power. Yes, she can have her opinions and suggest certain tactics but she is, by law, politically neutral.

So what does she really do? Well, she has charities, she visits other countries, she tells Silvio Burlesconi to shut up, but really she doesn’t do anything that a politician or an A-list celebrity doesn’t do (or a D-list underage prostitute in Silvio’s case).

William has a degree from the one of the poshest and elitest universities in Britian (well it’s in Scotland actually) and he is active in the military. Great. Pay your own way then because lord knows you make more money than I do in a year (uh oh here goes my taxation rant). I think he’s fine and great he’s getting married, but honestly I wish people would get over their fascination with this wedding and the royals in general.

I think that a family who practiced endogamy, yes, William’s grandpa is actually his grandmother’s third cousin (they share Queen Victoria as a great-great-grandmother) is not a very appealing family to want to spawn with. William and Harry are lucky their mum was not conceived by kissing cousins or else I’d be looking for a tail or a third nipple if I were Kate.

I really just want to start singing Sex Pistols songs (yes, I know I am not 14 anymore) every time I see displays in grocery stores hawking Will and Kate undercrackers and tea cups.

I think what makes me so conflicted about this wedding is the fact that it is a major news story and I should be covering it on any scale as a photojournalist. I have an itchy camera shutter finger and I probably will keep my eye out for some festivities on the day. Oh well. God Save The Queen’s Grandson.

Northern Wedding...

Billy and I ventured northward last week to Thurso for Billy’s mum’s wedding. Here are some highlights from the trip. (This is a photo of our niece Ava).

I learned to speak Orcadian (the groom and his family are from Orkney): There is a gare-din outside the petty who-us.

I learned that getting your make-up done by a girl who is the color of a tangerine will not end well.

I learned that if there is another American in the vicinity that I will be dragged through a pub by my in-laws to talk awkwardly to him. He was from Hawaii. I am from Florida.

I learned that swallowing a bug on a bike ride is bad and then I learned that I looked silly walking said bike up a hill because I am so unfit.

I learned that in a small town loads of people will know who you are and call you by your name even if you don’t know them.

I learned that surfers will do anything for a good wave.

I learned that people you wrote off can actually surprise you in a good way.

I learned that only children actually like the idea of having siblings. (I’m sure it won’t last long.)

This is a small list and I could go on but I’ll leave it there. It was a nice wedding and we are really happy that his mum is happy.

Going home...

Way down upon the Swanee River,
Far, far away,
There's where my heart is turning ever,
There's where the old folks stay.
All up and down the whole creation,
Sadly I roam,
Still longing for the old plantation,
And for the old folks at home.

Well, if you changed Swanee River (that’s in northern Florida and I’m from South Florida) to the Indian River and the old folks into one sassy momma then this song would depict my desperate need to get home.

Billy and I are already planning what we’ll do during our trip home at the end of June including a game at the Met’s Stadium (it’s minor league baseball except for when the NY Mets come for spring training), loads of seafood restaurant dinners (Billy is obsessed with Grouper where I am solidly a fried shrimp girl), and many, many trips to the beach (it’s a 10 minute ride to the Atlantic Ocean). I am really excited for Billy to experience his first Fourth of July with sweettea, bbq and fireworks because when we do it over here it's just not the same.

It’s funny how excited I am to go to the town where I was born and raised. I was desperate to get out of that town because there isn’t leeway for success if you weren’t born with a silver-spoon (or a citrus-grove) in your mouth. But hey it’s great to visit. I bought some flip-flops yesterday to get my feet used to them because I don’t wear proper shoes when I’m home.

Here’s some photos from my last trip home in December 2009.

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