Tag: design

Week 39: Farewell to My Fabulous Fifties

Sometimes I really do have to pinch myself to see if I’m dreaming. The weather has been fabulous all week here in Florida and the weeks go by so quickly. My days have been filled with appointments for the house, visits from friends and dinners out. It’s been a wonderful whirlwind that shows no signs of slowing down. It seems Wednesday has become my preferred blogging day down here. So if you happen to be following me, look for Wednesday posts from now on.

So let me dive right into my bucket list. Item # 20 (Entertain friends and family in our Florida retirement home.) We had a fabulous time with our friends from Michigan. They were staying with our friends Dave and Kim but we were able to spend a lot of time together. We had lots of delicious dinners out, fun girls’ shopping day and relaxing by the pool. We were sad to see them go. I also was blessed to have Sammi’s boyfriend Andrew’s parents over for a visit during their stay on Sanibel. It was great to meet their sister and brother–in-law and I had fun showing them around. I also had a visit from another Belleville family who is in the process of building a home in Florida so they popped in with Dave and Kim to check out our house and pool. I really enjoyed everyone’s visit. My daughter Jenna and her husband Kristianth are driving down and arriving on Friday evening. Kristianth will be flying back and Jenna will stay behind for a month with her two dogs. She works from home and she is about to “work from pool.” And bonus: Kobe will be so happy to have friends to hang out with. Mike returns next week and my parents will be coming for a long weekend as well. It has been so nice seeing everyone and I was happy to discover that I really love the way the house lives. The big kitchen island is nice for putting out appetizers and the large doorwall really makes the lanai part of the living space.

#16 (Decorating our Florida home.) Kim and I have done a lot of shopping in search of the perfect home accessories. I think we’ve canvassed most of southwest Florida! It’s been fun but I still have a lot of artwork to select. I did manage to find a nice vase for the front bedroom dresser and some cute desk accessories. I also ordered a digital photo frame online. Digital frames have sure come a long way. It has it’s own email address and friends and family can send photos that you can include in your frame. It can play music, tell you the date and the weather as well as showcase your photos. I plan to fill this frame with photos of friends and family that visit us here so it will be a rotating gallery of memories made in our Florida home.

Digital frame by Pixstar.

#6 (Keep my Duolingo streak intact.) #10 (Keep attending classes at the Alliance de Francais.) I thought I would have a lot more time to devote to French here but it has proven to be the exact opposite. I have managed to keep my Duolingo streak intact though. I am on day # 909. My treat for making it to day #900 was watching a French film. I watched Sarah’s Key on Netflix, which was a combination of French and English. It is based on a book I read a few years ago by the same name. It was good but the book was better. Isn’t that usually the way of it? My FaceTime French classes continue weekly and I am enjoying conversing, however limited my abilities. What an awesome opportunity to have a native French speaker be able to answer my questions. The French that is taught and written isn’t exactly the French that you will find spoken if you are lucky enough to go to France. One funny thing I learned this week is the French term for a six-pack (the abs version) is le tablet du chocolat. I would much prefer a bar of chocolate to a six pack of beer, so I embrace and salute that terminology!

#13 Meditate daily #18 Read 50 books in 2019. I am combining these two because I have been having trouble getting my meditation in and I am reading “10% Happier: How I Tamed the Voice in My Head, Reduced Stress Without Losing My Edge, and Found Self-Help That Actually Works.” That is one heck of a long title. It’s by news anchor Dan Harris. He relates how he had an on-air melt-down and how he subsequently found inner peace, despite his initial skepticism. I am half way through and enjoying it tremendously. I am hoping it will re-motivate me to get my daily meditation sessions in as I definitely feel more focused and productive when I do. That alone doesn’t seem to be motivation enough though so I am hoping this little book will work some magic for me. This is book # 11 of my 80 book goal for 2020 putting me 2 books ahead of schedule.

#7 (Lose 10 pounds) I am sticking with Noom and am STILL 1 pound over that goal. I’ve been walking a lot, regularly exceeding my daily goal. I also squeezed in a work out at the clubhouse. I hope to do a lot more working out when Jenna comes down.

I promised to update you on the landscaping. It’s done! It was done in a day and a half. Here are a few photos of the job “in progress” and a few “after” photos. I added a couple of potted plants which I will plant outside once we close up for the season. The red plants on the side between the houses is Red Tie. It is native to Florida and will grow to be tall enough to provide us with some privacy on our lanai. We also will be adding lanai lights to finish off the space and make it more usable in the evening.

I posted this last week, but thought I’d repost for anyone who didn’t happen to see it.
Work in progress
From the right side,
The view from the inside.
The pots I added with Salvia.

I am going to wrap it up here because I have a little online shopping to do! One of my favorite home accessory stores, ZGallerie, is having an online sale. I hope to find a few things to share in a future blog. Have a great and productive week.

Week 34: Farewell to My Fabulous Fifties – Welcoming 2020 from Florida

I am currently writing to you from Florida though I will be back in wintry Michigan by the time you’re reading this. We loved kicking off the New Year here in Estero! I am happy to report that I’ve checked off item #20 on my bucket list: Entertain friends and family in our Florida home. I hope this is just the beginning of many more wonderful times shared together with our family and friends here in sunny Florida. We gifted our children and their spouse/significant other with a trip down here as part of their Christmas present. They all stayed at our home in Belleville overnight so we could make a 6am flight on December 31st. That left us pretty tired for ringing in the New Year that same evening but we managed. Our clubhouse had a ticketed event with the popular theme of Roaring into the 20’s. We all dressed as flappers and gangsters. We didn’t quite make it to midnight though and ended up heading home a half hour before the clock struck 12 where we rang in the New Year in our jammies. It was a lot of fun.

My daughters and I flappin’ it up!
The gentlemen.
Mike and I ready to ring in 2020. We were teasing Mike that he was a cross between a gangster and an Amish Orville Reddenbacher.

I will share a few of our activities in case you are ever in the Estero/Naples area. We hit the Miramar Outlet Mall which is maybe 10 minutes from our house. It is a very pleasant little outdoor mall with a lot of great shopping options, like Kate Spade, Vineyard Vines, Ann Taylor, Loft, Banana Republic and more. The next day, we did a little shopping in Naples, stopping to dine al fresco at Barbatella’s, a cute little Italian place which served the best Caesar salad I’ve ever had. Then we headed over to Naples Beach, which was crowded, but not unmanageably so. We ended the day with ice cream. We enjoyed walking around old Naples and the newer areas of Naples. We still have so much to learn and discover here and I am very much looking forward to it! The kids took a day trip to Universal Studios which was about a 3 hour drive each way. They loved the new Harry Potter ride, Hagrid’s Magical Creatures Motorbike Adventure, despite the long wait in line. On their arrival, the wait time for this ride was over 6 hours. They managed to get in line later when it was a “measly” 2 1/2 hour wait. They said it was worth it. While they were busy having fun, we ran errands and met our dear friends for dinner at Cirella’s Italian Bistro and Sushi Bar (IKR? Italian AND sushi!) topped off with liquor infused ice cream (say what?!) from the Tipsy Cow. This little shop had super cute branding and the ice cream was yummy. They also had a non-alcohol option. It’s something we will definitely do again!

We also enjoyed having Mike’s mom over for a nice visit. She came bringing Mike’s favorite home-made cookies, which of course were a big hit. We brought her out to lunch and the kids had fun quizzing their Grandma on what kind of child their dad was: a good one, much to their dismay.

The girls with Grandma Barb

Mike’s thoughtful team gifted us a Tiki cruise departing out of Naples. I can not recommend this enough! It was one of the most memorable parts of our trip. The limit is 6 attendees so we were a perfect group. We elected to do the sunset cruise departing at 4:30. We boated past fabulous multi-million dollar homes while enjoying a cocktail or two. It is BYOB and we brought a nice selection with us. Captain Steve was experienced and an enjoyable narrator. The highlight of the trip though was spotting a couple of dolphins just swimming around. We were able to follow them for a bit. It was relaxing and enjoyable. We followed that with dinner at Watermark Grill which was also very good!

The gang ready to set sail
Sunset Cruise
We hooked up with another tiki bar boat to borrow some bug spray for Jenna who was the only one getting bit!
Just one of the beautiful homes we saw along the way.
Dolphins for the win!

In other activities, the guys got in some golfing and we ladies did some shopping. We enjoyed spending time with our long-time friends who started the ball rolling by building down here in the first place. We squeezed in a few work outs at our amenity center and Mike and the kids enjoyed laying by the pool. All in all it’s been a fabulous time. We’ll be back in wintry Michigan soon enough though.

Here is a link to my original bucket list, if you want to have a peek. As far as item # 16: decorating our Florida home, our sectional was thankfully delivered the day of our arrival, along with our den desk and side tables. We are still awaiting our barstools which will be delivered on our next trip down. Mike and I also bought table lamps for our living room and our bedroom. The last layer of decor will be fabric selections for the all of the bedroom and bathroom curtains. I have an appointment with our awesome designer, Janet set up to select fabrics on our next trip down. We will need paintings, decor, and outdoor furniture for the lanai, once the pool is complete, which will hopefully be sometime during our next visit. It seems to go quickly once they begin each phase. They laid our patio pavers in one day while we’ve been here. Next up is the cage and gunite for the pool and hot tub. I am really looking forward to utilizing the outdoor area!

Living room sectional has arrived. It is large and comfy and allowed our group of 6 to watch TV with room to spare!
The den has a pull out sofa to accommodate overflow guests.
Pavers in, awaiting phase 2 of the pool installation.

Moving on to other bucket list items, my year-end wrap up on reading for 2019 amounted to 72 books, which totaled 27,143 pages. Of the books I read, Goodreads rated the most popular at The Great Alone, which I also highly recommend. The highest rated book that I read was The Hate U Give. I exceeded my goal of 50 books by 22 books. I hope to have more time to read in 2020 so my goal will be 80 books. I am currently reading my first book of the year, The Guardian by John Grisham. I hope to finish it on the plane.

I am still on track with Duolingo. My streak is 872 days, I learned 10,301 words, completed 2,943 lessons and spent 197 hours on the app this year. I will be starting private lessons via Facebook live after the holidays through Alliance De Francais as I will be spending a lot more time in Florida and unable to regularly attend classes.

The unfortunate topper to our trip was a calf injury my husband Mike sustained while playing pickleball just hours before our scheduled departure. My son-in-law made a quick trip to CVS for crutches and with a little help from ice, an ace bandage and a wheelchair, we managed to catch our 9pm flight. I am still working on convincing him to go to the doctors but at this moment on Monday morning the man has hopped off to work with a swollen ankle and the inability to bear weight on it. I am working covertly with his amazing office manager Cathy to get him to go to Urgent Care at the very least. Not the best way to end our trip, but certainly a memorable one.

On to happier things, aside from my reading and language goals, I am still thinking over what I want to accomplish in 2020 and that is where I will leave it for now. So far my “lesson” has been to expect the unexpected! Happy New Year all! I hope the coming year brings new goals, new insights and amazing opportunities for growth and happiness to you all.