Jeannie Marie & Company

Earlier this month my mom, sisters and I took a relaxing cruise on a Carnival fun ship for a few days while my sister Patty was visiting here from California.   The first sea day is always fun and full of anticipation!! Here we are during the Sail Away party! Mom and Patty Karan Having fun! Sailing away We had a nice sea day the next day and then off the ship at Grand Cayman! As you can see, the traffic is set up for left handed driving. It's even a bit disconcerting while walking.  You really have to watch when crossing streets and such. Ruby red tile roofs lined the street! We walked down to the shops in the cool of the morning. They were full of colorful textiles inside and out.   What to do in Grand Cayman?   We discovered that just around the corner there was a national museum inside the oldest building on the island! That was a must see! Admission was quite reasonable at $6.00 ...

I'm usually not interested except for the worst look, but last night it was fun to watch with my mom and discuss the fashion explosion. We generally approved the gowns but did not like the canary yellow dress worn by Heidi Klum. Definitely a bold move but it was a mess of conflicting everything. Was it short or long? Was it one pattern or six? Did it have shoulders or no? Just a mess. I thought the most striking dress was the one Jamie Alexander wore, a colorful beaded beauty that was so elegant it really caught my eye. Not only elegant, but modest. Truly a win/win.  Unfortunately her hair looked like she just got out of the shower. One thing I miss is the jewelry. Very few in these strapless dresses with plunging necklines had anything adorning the huge blank space between chin and navel. Ladies, don't give up the jewels!! I love them! The minimal look was praised to the hilt with a simple bracelet being deemed quite enough, but not for me. Makeup an...

They are everywhere!!  You won't see this hidden Mickey until you look for it. One of the fun thing for a family to do when at Disney World is search their surroundings for Hidden Mickeys. They are everywhere and even small children can find them. Some have even written books on where they are located. New hidden Mickeys are always being added to new places as Disney evolves and changes daily. A hidden Mickey can be any kind of Mickey, but mostly are the silhouette of the mouse himself. This one is certainly hard to see until you SEE it!   At the Animal Kingdom Lodge one of the free games you can play is finding specific Hidden Mickeys. It's like a scavenger hunt. The front desk will provide you with a paper with all the clues.  You do not need to be a guest at the Lodge, any visitor can request this game. Easy peasy but only because I zero'd in on it! Each is written as a riddle so you must solve the riddle first to find the place a...

Disney offers wonderful tours of all three restaurants to anyone who is visiting Animal Kingdom Lodge or who are staying there. There is no registration and no need to call ahead for a reservation.   Just gather here in the lobby of the Boma Restaurant here on the first floor.  Tours are given daily at 3:45 I recommend a mid week tour as the group tends to be smaller.               The fabric overhead in the photo above, is African. It represents the cloth used for different tribes. Behind the colorful pole is a replica of Victoria Falls. Be sure to have a quarter handy to toss in, all change is collected  and donated to African children.  Each item is carefully chosen to represent Africa, like the clay pot pillars and shingled roofs Here the ceiling is a replica of the design of the huts in African villages and  lights that represent the spectacular sunrises and sunsets ...

Many people book the Disney Resorts and then spend all their time at the parks.  They rush out first thing in the morning and then come back to their room so tired they fall into bed to rejuvenate for the next day at the next park...spending upwards of $400 a night.  However Disney invites everyone to come and visit the resort even if you are not staying and many of the people wandering around are visitors. The resort hotels are designed to transport you to another place, so even though you are in Florida you are for all intents and purposes actually have traveled to the western Pacific!   First of all parking is free.  You can park up to four hours for free in the hotel parking lot. Inside the resort there is shopping at the gift shops, restaurants open to all and beautiful floral arrangements everywhere.    The decor and art glass are divine! There are two floors of lobby seating areas where you can enjoy the music and pe...

I have a big job on my hands this Blue Monday! It's time to pay the piper and get the  yard and patio  straightened up. I had a paint can sitting on the table that had rusted, it sat there so long after I  painted my old shed.  So out it went..finally!  It's such a simple thing but it was a hike  to the back of the yard and I haven't felt like doing much of anything this year. I then gathered the two loungers that have been in the yard,  I bought new cushions for them last week and they are still in the trunk of the car,  I have one scrubbed down and looking perfect and will be working on the next one this afternoon.   The reason for all this industry in the middle of the hottest month of the year?   I have company possibly on the way.   My daughter and her family were coming down  from North Carolina but my son in law's service dog has been deathly ill and is just out  of...

Last week we had a very heavy day of rain on Monday after a few weeks of lots of rain. It was apparently too much for this tree at the end of my street. It toppled over, silently apparently, as I didn't hear a thing even though it's only about 100 feet away. I discovered it on Tuesday, the day after the big rain. So what is that saying about a tree falling in the forest without anyone to hear?  The city came out on Friday I  I asked the foreman if the tree was just old and rotted but he said no, it was the weight of the water on the tree and the saturation of the sandy ground from the rain was unable to hold it up. My favorite beach My previous blog post " My Favorite Beach "  is on the other side of this group of trees at the end of my street.   This is what is left today.   When I went out to photograph the stump there was a glorious scent of pine. I wish I could bottle it! Sharing with: Sundays in My C...