Myrtle Beach in November

Over Thanksgiving Break, we drove up to Myrtle Beach. It was our first time there. The weather was icky - cold and rainy for the whole trip. We ended up coming back a day earlier than we planned. November is off season for Myrtle Beach and a good number of businesses were closed for the season. With all that being said, it was still good to get away for a while.


We stayed in this condo right on the beach. It is an older building & being renovated but it was okay. The indoor pool & hot tub were being redone, so we couldn't use them. It was fun being right on the beach.

View from our 2nd floor unit.

We went to Patriots Point Naval & Maritime Museum outside of Charleston. This was a fabulous outing. Here we are in front of the USS Yorktown.

Checking out some of the exhibits.

Chris out on the upper deck.

Hannah enjoyed sitting in the bridge. 

It was beginning to get dark when we went to see the US Clamagore. At this point, I was in desperate need of a women's room & chose to skip the submarine. I didn't think I would survive all the climbing!

The kids thought it was fun pulling themselves through the doorways. My bladder was glad that I decided to skip this!

Hannah's legs peeking out. After seeing their pictures, I was really glad that I skipped this! I've been through a couple different submarines before - been there, done that.

There was a neat Vietnam exhibit. Here's Hannah sitting in one of the helicopters in that section.

 

 

Hannah & Chris did some running on the beach. 

 

 

 Hannah spent as much time as she could on the beach. Here she was writing all of the names of her friends in the sand for an Instagram post. When we went back to it, other people had added their names, too.

We explored an outdoor shopping center one evening. We made the kids pose for a picture.

We went on the marsh walk at Murrell's Inlet.

Stopped and did a couple of Geo Caches, too.

Not sure if we'll try to go back to Myrtle's Beach during the peak season. It was very touristy had a lot of the same things that are in other touristy destinations.

Lavender Pillow Spray Mist

Hannah asked me for some pillow spray recently. I had a bottle of "Sleep" from Bath & Body Works which I was going to let her use, but when we tested it there was no scent at all. It was at least 5 years old, so it wasn't a big surprise.

I had recently purchased some Essential Oils & decided that I would try to make my own Pillow Mist.

I found an easy recipe on Food.com.

In a small container, mix 1/2 cup water with a 1/2 tsp. of witch hazel.

Then add 4-5 drops of Lavender Essential Oils. Here's a picture of the Essential Oils kit that I ordered off of Amazon. It was a little difficult to control the amount of drops, so mine was more like 6 or 7 drops of Lavender.

I mixed it all together, then used a funnel to pour into my 1 oz. spray bottles  that I had purchased on Amazon. This made enough to make 3 bottles this size.



The finished Lavender Pillow Mist smells AMAZING! I am so happy with it. It smells just as good as the Bath & Body Works brand. The Lavender Essential Oil by itself doesn't smell like the lavender scent we are accustomed to. But somehow, the combination of the witch hazel and water makes a huge difference. Nor does it have a witch hazel scent. It smells just like the traditional lavender scent. I've been spraying this on my pillows every night!

Sweet dreams.....

What am I Reading - September 2014

What did I read in September? Evidently not very much!!

I did read a couple  of books, just not as much as I think I should have!


Anouska Knight's Since You've Been Gone was such a cute story. It's about a woman whose new husband dies and she's coping with that loss and running a bakery. And of course there is a handsome guy who has his own problems who helps her get on with her life.

And a new Janet Evanovich book came out this summer. Typical Stephanie Plum adventure. I liked it a little more than the last one. It wasn't quite as ridiculous - I'm referring to the giraffe running around New Jersey in the last book.

That's all I read last month. Yikes!

Atlanta Maker Faire 2014

Back in August, we drove up to Athens to attend the Athens Maker Fest. This past weekend, the Maker Faire, a much larger event, was in Atlanta. Of course, we had to go check it out. So on Sunday, we drove to Decatur for the event. The weather was perfect for an outdoor festival! And Decatur is such a charming city!

A couple of views of the streets to give you an idea of the set-up.

A functioning bike made out of wood. The builder did confess that it wasn't very comfortable. He said he's gone as far as 4 miles on it.

 

 

Chris & Hannah both tried out this Oculus virtual reality headset. 

Hannah & I made some lip balm at the Georgia Tech Urban Honey Bee Project tent.

Of course there were several 3-D printers to check out.

Any thoughts on what this is??? Well, I will tell you. It's a homemade "Segway".

There were a couple of different Robotics groups.

Some quirky modified bikes.

Hannah rode the Flying Pig bike. She said it was a bit difficult to maneuver.

 

 

We walked a couple of blocks for a lunch break at the Raging Burrito. 

 

And enjoyed a delicious lunch out on the patio. 

Back at the Maker Faire. This giant head was pretty cool.

This is what's going on inside the head. "Ideas" and such.

Here's a blacksmith making tiny swords out of nails. James thought this was pretty cool.

James bought one of the swords for $1.

I took a picture of these garden containers in hopes that Chris will build one for me.

We ran into Ryan, a former scout in James' Boy Scout Troop who is now attending Georgia Tech.

The skirt of this dress is covered in LED lights.

There was a racing event of modified children's cars. There's Herbie.

I've decided that Chris is a Hacker & a Tinkerer.

Hannah was drawn to this booth by the unicorn. She purchased some handmade soap.

This display was made from a little camper. Very cute!

Rocketry

Hannah made a small project out of LED lights at the Intel tent.

Here's her finished name badge.

Some creative chairs.

An underwater vessel.

Here Hannah is learning how to pick a lock.

This was lots of fun! A great day with the family.