Fish Rubbing

Ever hear of it?  I'm a big time crafter and I hadn't heard of it either but it's pretty cool. 

We were visiting with our good friends, Leo and Andi, on Sunday when Leo decided to do some fish rubbing with the kids.

Leo pinned a real fish down on a board and then painted it different colors.

 He then laid a t-shirt over the painted fish and gently rubbed the paint into the shirt.  Here you can see Leo rubbing the shirt as Logan looks on.

 And here is what the finished product looked like. 

 

  Caterina took her turn painting the fish with her choice of colors. 

  And her finished product.

Once your fish print is on, all you have to do is turn the shirt inside out and iron it to heat set the paint.

Very cool craft, Leo!  Thanks for teaching me something new and for the shirts for the kids.

Memorial Day at the Rockaway Beach

After a week of rainy, damp weather, Memorial Day happily brought blue skies and warmer temps.  Unfortunately, it also brought some serious wind.

We were all eager to enjoy some pleasant weather and being that Memorial Day marks the opening of our local beaches, we decided to put that brand new wetsuit our neighbor, Dave, bought Logan to use.  Dave had mentioned he was going to go to the beach so we joined him.

Upon arrival at the beach, the damage created by Superstorm Sandy was apparent.  Many of the houses across from the beach had major damage.  The most stunning site, though, was the missing boardwalk.  I had trouble processing the boardwalk was actually gone.

These are the supports for the boardwalk.   For as far as I could see, there was no boardwalk in either direction.  This is the view to the left of where I was standing at Beach 91st Street.

 

This is the view to the right.  I was also surprised by how high the sand was under the supports.

 

I was saddened to see such damage but there was hope to be seen too as I saw stacks of wooden planks which means they are going to start rebuilding the boardwalk. 

Once we got settled on the sand, Dave and Logan took a walk to see the newly built comfort station.  I caught this picture of them as they were on the way back. 

Logan decided to try the new wetsuit and go surfing.  The water temp was only in the 50's but he was determined.  Jim helped him into the suit.  It was hilarious to watch them trying to get it on.  You can tell from Logan's face, they were working hard.  

Once it was on, however, he looked like a surfer dude with his board in hand.   He was happy to have it on because it kept him warm from the blowing wind.   About that time, I was wishing I had a wet suit, too, because I was freezing.  

I love this shot of him.  The wind had the zipper pull behind him flying.

Here he is waiting to catch a wave. 

Paddling.

Getting up.

He enjoyed surfing but it was just too cold from the wind so we decided to call it a day.  I was so glad as the two towels I had wrapped around me weren't providing much warmth or protection from the wind.  We packed up and headed back to the car.

I'm looking forward to going back later in the summer to see what progress has been made in rebuilding the boardwalk.

Hello, Friends.

I hope you are all enjoying spring.  May has been a lot more like April around here.  We got a lot of rain this month but look what all that rain has done to my plants.

There are some baby orange peppers budding here.

  First tomato of the season is already growing. 

My green pepper plants have grown a few inches too.

I even have strawberries.

This Double Million Bells is simply gorgeous.  I just love this plant. 

This picture doesn't really capture the bright pink tones of this plant.  It's really pretty.

We went to a huge flea market on Sunday where I picked up this blue bird feeder.  I bought some bird seed today.   Jim filled it up and hung it.  I think it's a bit too low so I have to raise it some.

Jim weed whacked the grass this afternoon and I love how nice it looks now.  Seeing all these flowers when I come home makes me so happy.  Although, I think I have to ask my neighbor to trim that tree a bit as it is encroaching on my walkway making it hard to get by.  

My strawberry plants in the center are flanked by flowers.  Well, they will be flowers soon.  I planted these from seed last month and they are really filling in nicely. 

Here's a picture of the porch.  See how it needs one of those 3 tiered pots on the right.  It looks unbalanced but not for long.  That brown potted bush is my neighbor's.

Here's another flower box filled with mixed seeds.  Look how full it's going to be.  I went a bit crazy planting seeds but it was easy to get carried away.  The bag of seeds I bought had more than 50,000 seeds in it.

I spray painted my little bench a bright red.  It's definitely seen better days and winter dulled the color so it needed a bit of refreshing.  I placed 3 pots on it which I planted with flower seeds.  There are sprouts popping up through the soil.  The other four pots to the left were also planted with seeds.  As you can see, it shouldn't be long before some blossoms are showing.  I'm eager to see what kind of flowers will bloom.  I bought a bag of mixed seed so who knows what's going to show.

Jim and I went to Home Depot this morning where he spotted this 3 tiered potting system.  I loved it but wondered how he would mount it to our porch.  Well, it's apparent my doubt was unwarranted because he had these up in no time.  I filled them with Wave Petunias which will cascade downward.  I'm going back to Home Depot tomorrow to get another set of tiered pots and more petunias which he will hang on the other side of my porch.   You know me, I love symmetry.

 And of course, Raven had to get in on the planting. 

 

I'm having fun doing all this planting.   I'm hoping you're having fun too this spring.