Pink Saturday - Valentine Night Light

Today is Pink Saturday hosted by Beverly at How Sweet the Sound

I have taken one of those large glass blocks and drilled a 1/2" hole in the side with my drill press. I then stuffed inside white lights with a white cord (not the green one's at Christmas time). Every holiday I change the ribbon bow on top to match the holiday. I keep this night light in my guest bathroom.

Here it is with pink and red ribbon for Valentine's Day!

For more Pink Saturday posts, please go visit Beverly at How Sweet the Sound!

Show and Tell Friday - Vintage Valentine Planters

Today is another Show and Tell Friday hosted by Kelli at There's No Place Like Home

Last Valentine I started collecting these really cute Vintage Valentine Planters. They are from the 1950's and I have been finding them on ebay

I just love the way they look! They each have a planter in the back to put a plant or flowers in it. They are so 50ish looking!

Here's some close up shots of each one of them Their little faces are so sweet!
On the back of each one is a planter to put a plant into it! For more Show and Tell Fridays, don't forget to go visit Kelli's House!

Bloomin' Tuesday - A California winter Garden

Today is Bloomin' Tuesday hosted by Jean at Ms Green Thumb Jean's Blog. This is my first Bloomin' Tuesday of this year. All these pictures were taken today in my garden

Living in Southern California, we have blooms all year round. Last week it was in the 80's but this week it's back down to normal temperatures around 65 degrees. Since it was in the 80's, some of my plants think it's spring time! They seem to be really confused but I am loving it!

My Alstroemeria plants, also known as Lily of the Incas or Peruvian Lily are blooming like crazy. They usually bloom from spring to summer, but for some reason this year I have had them all year round!I have the pink and purple ones growing. They are taking over one area by our swimming pool. I have hundreds of them, they multiply like crazy and when I have friends come over I am always trying to give plants away!

I also have a area where I have planted ornamental cabbage. I have purple and white ones growing. They like cold weather and do not tolerate heat. They will last till the beginning of summer for me or until the rabbits notice them

Here's a close up of the purple ones, I think the colors are so pretty! They are about 12" wide
Here is a close up of one of the white ones
I also have some very confused Purple Bearded Irises blooming too. They usually bloom in spring but only about 5 of these plants are blooming right now. I was really excited to see some paper white narcissus blooming in the garden today too
I am so behind on trimming my rose bushes. The ones I have not gotten to yet are still blooming!

Angel Face Rose

Iceburg White Rose
Double Delight Rose

For more Bloomin' Tuesday Posts, please go visit Jean at Ms Green Thumb Jean's Blog!

Blue Monday - Ocean Blue

Today is Blue Monday hosted by Sally at Smiling Sally's Blog. I have missed Blue Monday for the past month, but now that I am back from vacation, I am excited to participate again.

While on our cruise, I noticed the water was so blue down in Central America.

Here are some humpback whales that were playing next to our ship in the very blue ocean!The water and sky outside Cabo San Lucas was such a beautiful blue

Here are some Cliff Divers in Acapulco jumping into the blue ocean and wearing of course blue speedos! They were jumping off dangerous cliffs 130 feet tall and they get paid $300 a month to entertain the tourists!

Here is a picture I snapped somewhere outside Guatemala

I woke up one morning as we were pulling into Costa Rica and I was in awe over this hazy blue reception

For more Blue Monday pictures, please go visit Sally at Smiling Sally's Blog!

Pink Saturday

Today is Pink Saturday where we are to show things that are PINK!

The weather has been nice here and my garden flowers think it's spring time!

The first thing I did today was go out in the garden and pick a fresh bouquet of PINK flowers for my kitchen counter

I have these flowers growing wild in one area of the yard. I have them in pink and purple. They are suppose to bloom from spring to summer but this past year I have had them all year long. This is a close of some of the plants. They seem to multiply like crazy. After the flower blooms it turns into a pea pod looking thing and it's full of seeds and it actually pops and spreads the seeds everywhere. On a hot day you can actually hear them pop!

I still have some PINK roses blooming today too

I love PINK Geraniums. This one is in a basket in my patio

Here is a cute Cup Cake Ornament with PINK frosting

This is a Cup Cake Magnet with PINK frosting. Both of these Cup Cakes I received in a PINK Christmas Swap this past Christmas

During our recent Cruise, I bought all our sweet little Grand Daughters one of these embroidered dresses. This one has lots of PINK

Here is a close up of the embroidery work
For more PINK Saturday posts, please go visit Beverly at How Sweet the Sound!

Show and Tell Friday - Yard Decorations

Today is Show and Tell Friday. I have missed the past 4 weeks because I have been on vacation. It's good to be back and Kelli at There's No Place Like Home is such a great hostess!

The weather has been warm here this past week. In the 80's. Today we are expecting rain but I won't hold my breath.

These are some yard decorations I bought in Guatemala on our cruise. I just love them because they will remind me of our tour of the Mayan ruins. They look great on my fence! They are large and very heavy. I also sprayed them with sealer so that they can last longer!

For more of Show and Tell Friday, please go visit Kelli's House at There's No Place Like Home!

Our Panama Canal and Central America Cruise

For the past 3 weeks my husband and I have been on a wonderful cruise. We were on the ship Rotterdam. We started in Fort Launder dale, Florida and ended up in Los Angeles.

The kids were happy that we are home. Everyone got some kind of souvenir.

One of the stops we made is Cartagena, Columbia. The old buildings and history were really nice. However, there was a lot of poverty.



A lot of beautiful churches and missions

This is a old fort where they use to fight the Spaniards

I made the BIG mistake of taking this lady's picture. She actually chased me and followed me until I gave her money.

The pan handlers were horrible. About five of them at one time would get in your face. At one point I had to run to the bus to escape them. When I sat in my seat I looked out the side window and they had actually ran over to my window and continued to harass me through the window!

There was military guys with guns on every corner. They would stand guard for us in every building we would enter.

I can now say I have been to Columbia. Been there, done that......

Our next stop was cruising through the Panama Canal. This should be on every one's Bucket List!

The ship would go into a lock, they would close the gates behind them and fill it up with water

This is the above picture filled up with water. The ships keep going into these chambers until it reaches the level it should be. Its amazing!

You pass a lot of pretty building along the Panama Canal. Here is a picture of the Panama LDS Temple. I took this picture from my balcony in my Suite as we passed by.

This is a picture of Panama City off in the distance. Look at those huge tall buildings. The city was beautiful and is growing so much!

Our next stop was Costa Rica. What a beautiful country. The people were so friendly and they seemed so happy.

We took a Jungle Cruise down a river in a Mangrove. It was just like the Jungle Cruise at Disneyland except the animals were real and could eat you!

Here is a Crocodile sitting along the shore line just waiting for his next meal. They seemed to line the river's edge!

The water seemed muddy but I loved seeing Scarlet Red Macaw Parrots flying around the trees. They were to fast to get a picture.

We also took a train ride back to port on a old train. It took us through the beautiful farmlands. The people and children would hear the train and run to the tracks to wave to us.

Another stop we made was Guatemala. This was my favorite stop. There was 12 of us that chartered a small aircraft that flew us to Northern Guatemala.

We arrived in Peten' and then we got on a bus and went to an area called Tikal where all the Mayan Temples and Pyramids are deep into the Rain Forest. It was so awesome!

They told us in this area there are over 250 temples. Only 20% have been excavated! We climbed to the top and looked in every direction and all you can see is tops of buildings every where!

This is all I will post today of my trip. I will save my other pictures for another time. I just loved our cruise, but there is no place like home...................