Love Shack Nonsense

Finding Inspiration for the Holidays

Wow...where on earth did November go?  I know...it has gone with the wind...caught up in the tail wind of my downsizing and blogging all about The {31} Purge ;}  Followed by a week of traveling and spending time with family for Thanksgiving.  So now it is December 1st...and I'm suddenly realizing that...I have little to none...motivation for Christmas...but I'm trying Denyse ;}

Now that it's all over...I'm just spent in the energy department :[   Let alone the fact that my Christmas decorations are stuffed way in the back of my new, downsized storage unit.  There is no way that I'm going to kill myself digging anything out this holiday season.  SEE all those blue plastic bins stacked way in the back...kapeesh!

So this year I've decided that I'm just NOT going to get all caught up in the commercial chaos and expectations that seem to pile up for the holidays.  Instead I'm going to keep it simple sweetie by following these few steps:

{Inspiration Workshop! — week #9, the beach} Daytona Beach

WHAT IS THE GUSSY SEWS INSPIRATION WORKSHOP!?
The Gussy Sews Inspiration Workshop!is a weekly link-up party hosted by Gussy to create further connections with her online community and to encourage inspiration among her peers. 

♥ This week’s prompt is THE BEACH. Are you a beach babe? Are you a summer cottage lover? Does your heart flutter when you see beach-themed decor? Share with us below your take on the prompt by linking your blog post.

So I thought this was an excellent time to share our Daytona Beach vacation with you all...since it is already the end of July...and I'm afraid that my memories will soon fade if I don't record them now!   It has come to our attention that, from approximately June 15 through July 15, we were only home for 6 out of those 30 days...wow ;}  Part of it was because we had to do some business travel for DH...then we had an un-expected family get-together for the holiday weekend...and then...add to that our two-week vacation that began with a few days in Savannah before we headed on down the highway for a week in our condo on Daytona Beach Shores followed by four days in Charleston. 

Update: last night I was finishing up this post and LOST my internet connection...and with it...everything that I had written! 

Totally my own fault, I know, for not saving my work as I went...lesson learned ;}  Talk about being bummed...I was in tears (hormones ;) so I put my laptop away for the evening until I could think straight again...oh my!  So now I'm here this morning trying to re-capture the moment and finish this post so that I can join the party...thank goodness Gussy leaves the link up for a few days!

This year when we were planning our beach vacation our intentions were to enjoy the simple pleasures.  To be in the moment as they say and to not take any of it for granted.  When I was working on my Summer Travel Journal I had gathered some ideas of the things we wanted to do when I selected photos from our previous travels that reflected these simple pleasures.  So I printed these images in large, sepia photos as background pages for my journal as gentle reminders.  Some things are always more obvious than others so we were making a big effort to appreciate it all!

Things like arriving in Daytona in the middle of a late summer afternoon thunderstorm and finding the beach completely empty...except for the lonely lifeguard that is.  Some people may think...why would you be thankful for summer rain?  Well because in Daytona you come to expect them and welcome them because they cool things off somewhat and they get you off the beach so you can go clean up for your evening's activities.