Where Have I Been?

I have been to the beautiful Gulf of Mexico….

Panama City Beach, Florida…

Isn’t it beautiful?

To those of us familiar with the beaches in this area of the United States…..there are none more beautiful than our sugar white sandy beaches…we love it….

Panama City Beach has been very fortunate…they have been spared the horrid oily mess….so far….

So far we have been able to go there and swim, and parasail, and bask in its beauty….

We saw these guys walking by everyday….they are the spotters….

They wore heavy shoes and boots….

Some wore long sleeved shirts and hats to protect them from the sun….

The walked by once or twice a day…they were looking for signs of oil, tar balls, a sheen on the water….

And at night?

We saw this from our balcony….

These are not children with flashlights looking for crabs…

These were men and women out on the beaches when the tide came in…looking for oil…signs of oil…

It was an eerie sight….surreal….

this couldn’t happen here…not to beaches that we love…that we have vacationed on for years….brought here by our parents as children and now we bring our children….these beaches which have given us so much joy and so many wonderful memories…

Our sister beaches in Alabama, Orange Beach, Gulf Shores…Louisiana…have been affected horribly by the BP oil spill…the thing that we never thought would happen…has happened….

My family and I decided to forge ahead with our vacation…to support the Gulf and go anyway, amid the fears of oil on the beaches….we decided if the oil came, we would sit at the pool and face the beach….but, we were lucky…

Panama City Beach so far, has dodged the bullet…

Linda at Coastal Charm lives on the Gulf and she and so many others are feeling the consequences of the oil spill…this tragic, tragic oil spill, which is affecting lives, livelihoods, wildlife, marine life…everything…

Please visit Linda’s blog…she has phone numbers listed that you can call to urge and BEG the President to waive the Jones Act for the duration of this crisis.  This would allow foreign vessels into our waters to aide us in the oil clean up.  Skimmers that are capable of doing so much more…to help clean up our Gulf….

Please help!

So these beautiful beaches will  be there for our grandchildren….and theirs….

much love to each of you….

God Bless and Keep those affected…..

The Cabinet Project

Well, sometime on Saturday I decided I was going to go ahead and paint my kitchen cabinets.  Now, mind you, I have wanted to paint them FOREVER!!  HOWEVER, my friend Jamie, said “OMG!! I CAN’T BELIEVE YOU WANT TO PAINT YOUR OAK CABINETS!!!”

So…I got scared and didn’t do it!  That is how I roll….I want EVERYONE to be on board!  Crazy, I know!!

So every time I have seen a kitchen cabinet reveal in the blog world, I would think, I wish I could paint my cabinets…then last week when I saw Ruth’s cabinets at The Beautiful Life, I decided I was going to do it!!  Ruth gave me tips and suggestions AND encouragement, so I just made up my mind right there like a big girl!!  I mean, they are MY cabinets and Steve was totally on board.  SO!!!  IT.WAS.ON!

Went to Home Depot and got Behr Premium Plus Paint and it is THE BOMB!  Two coats is all it took!  The color is Oyster..

Before…oak cabinets…nice, but not me…

 

ALOT of doors….

I did have to take the doors off, which I was hoping I would not have to do, but my hinges are hidden and I couldn’t paint behind them unless I took them off…bummer…so OFF they came…

The ATFER…as you can see over on the left, I ain’t done yet!  I still have five MORE doors to paint!

I really do LOVE it!!  I am pondering wiping a stain on….or not….  We are getting new countertops and I am leaning towards a black granite looking laminate that I found at Home Depot…

Steve turned the panel on the dishwasher around to the black side. (Insert Darth Vader voice here)

I also spray painted all the knobs and handles oil rubbed bronze.  That part was REALLY easy!

Rhonda at Blue Creek Home also gave me great advice, encouragement and COURAGE!!  She even sent me some photos of cabinets she has done, which were gorgeous!! Because, I was thinking, what if I do this, and DON’T like it??

But I LOVE LOVE LOVE it!!

What do you think??  Glaze, no glaze?  Leave it alone? Or not???

I will say that I started painting these hummers at about 1:00 ish on Sunday and at 11:00 p.m. I was washing out my brushes and hobbling to bed…started back at about 2:00 ish yesterday and at 10:00 I was washing out brushes and I am not done yet!  I was doing it by myself so it took longer, but People, I am OLD and rickety and all that up and down and in the floor and up on the ladder  and bending over the island painting those cabinets….Lord have Mercy!!  I am in some PAIN today…

Steve’s great advice was….get ready for it….

“You need to pace yourself.”  Seriously??? Did he say that?  Pace myself????  I looked at him like he had THREE heads and said, “You know what, I want to get them FINISHED!  And it would have gone ALOT faster if you had helped me!!!”

He looked at me like, well, I never thought about that!

MEN!!!

I am linking up with sweet Chelsea  at Room to Inspire for Be Inspired!

Thank you so much for stopping by!