I’ve left my 𝙷𝚎𝚊𝚛𝚝 ♥ in so many places! East Providence being one of them. I can still remember the smell of my first apartment in college, think old books and cigarettes from my neighbor, a 90 year old chain smoker 😏 Those were the days!!

✨GrafoMap sent me this personalized map to remind me of the special time! You can create and customize your own Map Poster and choose from Hanger, Framed, Canvas, or Metal! Use my code EMELIA15 and save on one for you!! 🤓 click here to visit!!

Perfect for Father’s Day or a birthday gift! Check them out for yourself! GrafoMap

It’s the first weekend of Summer break and also Memorial Day Weekend. To celebrate we wanted to go kayaking!! A couple weeks ago we made a Summer Bucket List and Kayaking was number one on the list.

Weeki Wachee is a favorite and the last time we kayaked we went there, but being the holiday weekend it was all reserved. We decided to try out Werner Boyce Salt Spring State Park And use Salty Dog Kayak Rentals they are offered right in the park, and are very reasonable. James made our reservation at 8:30 and we were in the water by 10 am.

We ended up getting a tandem kayak and a canoe, but 2 tandems and a single would have been ideal. The canoe was a little hard for Liam to manage with James.

The water was calm and we saw lots of wild life! No dolphin this time, but we did see tons of birds, crabs, and fish jumping out of the water.

Have you been to Werner Boyce Salt Spring?

We made it to Fort De Soto yesterday, and it did not disappoint! We headed to the north beach which has plenty of parking, and plenty of space to spread out! The sand is powder white and perfect for shelling.

We found so many pretty shells and a ton of broken sand dollars. Can you believe I’ve never found a whole sand dollar? I’m making it my mission this summer!! The kids even ended up spotting a dolphin ( see below) and we saw a ton of sea turtle nests.

The fun thing about Fort De Soto is that it’s part of the Tierra verde boating community, the kids really enjoyed watching all the boat traffic.

This tidal pool in the middle makes it an adventure to get to the beach, and this is where we spotted the dolphin.

With plenty of beach to spread out, I’m saying Fort De Soto is the perfect family spot. We can’t wait to go back on our next trip and check out the battery and museum. The kids spotted the war cannons and I know they would enjoy seeing them up close. We may even be able to convince James to go camping.

Our kitchen has come a long way from the orange builder grade cabinets and tile floor. I recently moved my rug from The rugs cafe to the kitchen and it got me thinking that I should share with you guys a few recent things we’ve done to spruce it up!

Since Covid, we haven’t really gotten out shopping in store, I definitely love shopping online though. We hadn’t been in an IKEA in I don’t know how long, but I wanted to buy everything! LOL I settled on the barstools, which were a steal at $19 each! They are kid friendly, very sturdy, and wipeable. And at that price I won’t mind replacing them in a few years when the kids aren’t so messy.

Another thing I’ve been wanting to upgrade but at the same time didn’t care either way was the knobs and drawer pulls. The builder grade ones were brushed nickel and I think the black really pops on the white cabinets.

Then I found this beautiful pendant light, it’s so dark in the corner where our kitchen table is so this is perfect. I love the look for less only $39.99!

That’s all for now, but stay tuned! Next we will be stripping and refinishing the kitchen table 🙂

There is nothing better than a popsicle on a hot day!

✨We made Grape fruit pops for the first time and they were a hit! I was pleasantly surprised at how easy they are to make! 😎💜

✨After washing, blend your grapes in a blender then pour into your popsicle molds. Freeze and enjoy! 🤗 The skin and seeds have fiber and nutrients so you want to blend it all together.

Just think how easy it is to blend up any fruit and make combinations! I’m so excited for all the fruity creations we will be making this summer!

Here are some of my favorite popsicle molds

I had fun making this cute Shamrock Rainbow for Harper, it was so easy! I drew the design on my iPad and traced it in Silhoutte Studio. I wanted to share it with you incase you want to make a cute shirt too! click here RainbowClover to download the file is SVG. Happy Crafting!!

If you make a shirt tag me so I can share!! 🌈 🍀

We had a lot of fun playing with the backyard chip! Miles is obsessed, he keeps the net in his room and is constantly making up trick shots

✨Thank you for suggesting Valentine’s baskets 💞 I think they turned out really cute!

🤣 You should have heard me explaining to James what I was doing “You know it’s like an Easter Basket… but for Valentine’s Day… Because we’re not in school so we can’t make mail boxes and have a party”… 🤷‍♀️💕

My Target was wiped out of Valentine’s supplies so I headed next door to Marshalls and I’m so glad I did! That’s where I scored the red Nike hats 😍 Everything else including the baskets themselves can be found at Walmart.

Today we tried our hand at making these adorable stained glass looking cookies. They taste good, look awesome, and you get smash candy with a hammer!

• Here’s the quick easy sugar cookie recipe I used:
• 1 cup unsalted butter softened
• 1 cup sugar
• 2 eggs
• 1 1/4 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 3 cups all purpose flour
• 1/2 cup crushed hard candy we used dum dums

Now you want to make your sugar cookies according to the directions. To get the stained glass effect add your crushed candy 3/4 of the way to fill your cookie cut out. If you add too much it will spill over and you will have a messy cookie.

Harper and I had a lot of fun making these, and we all had fun eating them!!