Hi everyone, it's been a while since I shared with you a crochet project.  I decided to make a crocheted sunglass case.  The yarn I used is Rowan Tapestry that I won from a giveaway that KimM from Wisdom with Needle & Thread had from the Grow Your Blog Giveaway. 


The yarn is ROWAN tapestry SH 174 LOT 409.  I used a H or I crochet hook and I half double crocheted about 6 1/2 inches wide and about 8 inches long.  I then folded the piece up about 2 1/2 inches and sewed up each side.  Then I made on one edge a chain stitch in every other stitch.  For the middle I skipped the 2 stitches to form a loop.  I attached a red button to the middle of the case and I used light turquoise colored thread.

This was such a fun and easy project to make and I enjoyed making up my own pattern.

I'm happy to be joining Amy from Love Made My Home for her Five on Friday Series.

I am taking five minutes of my day to share five things.


1)  I love getting mani/pedi's in the summertime and last week I decide to pick out the color white for my nails.  My daughter had this color on her nails and I loved the way it looked on her.  This is a very popular nail polish color to wear right now.  What I like about the color white is that it goes with everything and I think it looks nice for summer.



2)  This is the lovely view I had last week while I was walking my dog Bosco.  I love taking early morning walks with him when everything is so quiet.



3)  My family and I decided one evening to go to caffe' bene for coffee and cupcakes.  We picked out this red velvet cupcake which was just so yummy.



4)  I love the color of my peach rose that bloomed recently.


5)  I went on a trip with friends from my church to Cape May, New Jersey and part of the trip was a boat ride to see the whales and dolphins.  I was able to get this beautiful shot of the sun setting.  We did not see any whales but we saw a lot of dolphins jumping out of the water.

Hi friends, it's been a while since I've done a makeup post and I wanted to share with you this mascara I bought back in the spring and I never got a chance to write and share about it.

I love trying out all kinds of mascara and I was interested in trying out this brand NYC New York Color as I have never used this brand before.  I found these in the drugstore Duane Reade and it's available at Kmart and you can order online at Amazon.


The first one is called Big Bold Volume By The Lash Mascara.  I really like this mascara and it goes on nice and I only have to use one coat of this mascara.  There was no smudging or flaking and I bought this in the color #857 Black.  The price on this mascara is only $4.99 and I thought that was a great buy for drugstore mascara and I would recommend you try this.




The second mascara I bought is called Sky Rise Lengthening Mascara.  The color I chose is #842 Extreme Black.  This mascara goes on well and coats the lashes but I needed to use 2 coats of this mascara to work well on me.   I found that there was no smudging and flaking by the end of the day.  What I really like is that it lengthened my eyelashes without using an eyelash curler.  The price is only $1.99 which is a great price for an inexpensive mascara and I would recommend you try this out.

Have you ever tried grilling corn on the cob?  Well if you haven't tried it yet, I have this simple recipe to share with you.  



GRILLED CORN ON THE COB 

Hi friends.  We recently took our family vacation to California.  Last year we took a vacation to California and visited and stayed with our friend who lives in Venice Beach.  If you would like to read about that vacation you can click HERE.

This year we decided to visit San Francisco first for a few days and then go to Venice Beach, Los Angeles to stay and visit with our friend.

Here are a few photos I took of our stay while we were in San Francisco.  We stayed in a hotel in Union Square called the Prescott and you can read about it HERE.  Union Square is a great area to stay in as all of the major stores, restaurants, and hotels are right in the area.



Pretty statue of the Golden Gate Bridge.

San Francisco Cable Car.

Entrance to the most crooked street called Lombard Street.


Fishermans Wharf is delightful as there are many stores, restaurants and it's just fun to walk around by the water.

This is a photo of the famous abandoned prison called Alcatraz and click HERE to read about it.


We enjoyed looking at the seals.

The weather was sunny but cold around 55 degrees in the morning and 65 in the day and back down to 55 again at night time.  It gets warmer in September, October and November there.  You can see I'm all bundled up!

I love the old colorful victorian houses.


We took a small bus tour to the Muir Woods National Monument to see the tall redwood forest and trees.  To read more about it you can click HERE.  This was so enjoyable and the highlight of my trip and a must see you don't want to miss.




 We then took the bus to see Saucilito and we enjoyed walking by the water and looking in some of the quaint shops.  To read more about Saucilito you can click HERE.


This is Venice Beach in Los Angeles and this is the second half of our vacation.  The weather was sunny and warm and about 80 degrees every day.

This is our friends beautiful pool which we had fun swimming in.

This is the view of the living room and backyard.

We decided to visit Malibu and have lunch at the restaurant Nobu and we spotted Kenny G having lunch there too and to read about him you can click HERE.  It was so amazing to be eating lunch listening to the ocean.  To read more about Nobu you can click HERE.


I love this back shot of my daughter looking at the ocean.

We visited The Grove for some retail shopping and you can read more about it HERE.


I hope you enjoyed looking at some of my photos of my vacation to California.  I would definitely suggest you visit as it is so pretty and the weather is wonderful everyday.  Thanks.

P.S.  My husband was on the trip with us but is camera shy.

Hi friends.  I recently just finished reading The Mystery Of Lucy and the Dark Woods by D. Diana Kosmoski.  This is the first book that Diana has written and the book is about the adventures of a young girl living on a farm who is able to see things that others cannot.  It's about the difficulties Lucy faces throughout her life and the story takes you from Pennsylvania to Florida to the Midwest.  This book is suspenseful and a page turner and I could not put this book down.  This makes a great summer read and I highly recommend it.

I do not want to give away the whole story but if you would like to read this book it's available through Amazon.  Diana also has a lovely blog called Nana Diana Takes a Break.

Mary and I had lunch together at the Cheesecake Factory in Marina Del Rey, California.  We sat outside and enjoyed our salads.  We had so much fun talking and catching up with each other.  This is my first time meeting a blogger and it's the highlight of my 2 1/2 years of blogging.  I have been blog friends with Mary and it was so nice to meet her in person.  Mary has a lovely blog called My Dogs My Garden and Mary. 

I had so much fun with Mary and the lunch went so fast that I wished I had more time to spend with her.  I am looking forward to meeting up with her again in the future.

I was given a pretty card and little clay pots to use for napkin rings and handmade napkins made by Mary.  I just love the pretty colors of the fabric and they match with my china.