Beautiful Marin

Living in Northern California is a dream...there's so much to see and do for whatever fits your mood.  This morning I took my brother to Muir Woods in Marin, which is just a short drive across the Golden Gate Bridge.  After a beautiful hike through the Redwoods, we stopped by Muir Beach Overlook for gorgeous views of the Pacific.  When planning your trip to San Francisco, be sure to spend an afternoon in Marin!

Tropical Thursday and a Bonus...A Liebster Award!

Today's photo for Tropical Thursday was taken at Ft. Funston Beach just south of San Francisco.  I walk my pups here on the weekends.  This photo was taken a couple of weeks ago.  Isn't just gorgeous?

One of my favorite bloggers, Mallory at Mal-licious, passed along the torch to a newbie blogger like me...it's called the Liebster Award.  What is a Liebster Award you ask?  Well, it’s an award you receive, but it is also an award that you give. If you receive a Liebster Blog Award you are asked to choose 2 - 3 other bloggers and send them one as well. 

These are the *rules*: this award is meant to highlight small blogs.  So, the blogger receiving the award links back to the blogger who awarded him/her, and tags 2-3 people.  For those I am about to award, I should also point out there is no onligation to continue this award if it's not your thing...don't worry.

And here are the winners:

1. Janet of Sunshine Days & Moonbeam Nights is becoming increasingly more popular.  I'm a bit biased because she's my mom, but I really like how diverse her blog posts are!  Be sure to check it out.

2. Cheryl of Cheryl's Shells has a love of the Florida beach as much as me.  Check out her blog to see her creative projects made from shells.  I love her photo frames!

Beachy Tees

Check out these adorable tees just in time for summer trips to the beach!

Seahorse tank from Aerie for $19.50

 

Parrot Tank from Garage for $12.90



Sea turtle "poet" tee from Aerie for $17.50

Seashell "poet" tee from Aerie for $17.50

"Life is a Bikini" Cover-up from Victoria's Secret for $65

"Life's a Beach" Smufette Tee from Tees for All for $26

Pineapple tank from Roxy for $26.50

Bloom Blouse from White House Black Market for $94

Santa Monica Tee from Kitson for $38.00

Aurora Tank from Anthropologie for $68.00

Des Artistes Lobster Tee from Anthropologie for $78.00

Join me at DebbieDoos Newbie Party and meet some fellow bloggers!

Happy Easter from The Coconut Life!

The Easter Bunny and Yellow Duck (aka Bella and Toby) wish you and yours a wonderfully, blessed Easter!

I'm joining in the Pink Saturday party today.  Come join in the fun!

A Place to Rest My Head & Dream of Sun, Sand & Surf

My dream or should I say goal of home ownership is to have a craftsman style bungalow near the beach one day.  We're not quite sure where we'll plant our roots eventually, so for now I have the luxury of browsing through various magazines and websites dreaming of how I'll decorate my future, permanent, non-rented home.  In today's post, I feature some of my favorite interior design jobs for bedrooms I've come across....which one do you like?  The first six pictures are of our bedroom in the apartment we rent in SF.  We have a long way to go to look like some of my favorite rooms, but I think it's a good start on such a small budget. :)

I love the soothing colors of light blue and white. I added a pop of pink to
the room by placing flowers to the right of the bed and on my dresser.

 

Another angle of the room.  The frame on the far right of the photo is a beautiful cross-stich picture made by my Grandmother.  It was our wedding gift from her...such a special reminder of our wedding day.

 

I love pictures and can never seem to take enough.
I wanted a great way to display some of my favorite shots...my dresser made the perfect spot!



One of the bedside tables.  The lamp and sea turtle candle holder are from Target,
the picture frame a gift from my mom and the fake flowers/vase from a craft strore.



I LOVE this picture frame.  It was a gift from my mom when I got married
in Key West 3.5 years ago and matches my bedroom decor perfectly!



We love to be reminded of all of the wonderful, tropical places we've visited.  What better way to display our past adventures than in our coastal-themed bedroom?  I puchased the frames from Aaron's Brothers Art & Framing
and sent the photos to Walgreens to be printed in poster size.
Can you take a guess where the photos were taken?
(Top Row, L to R: Cozumel, Maui/Hawaii, Aruba;
Bottom Row, L to R: Bahamas, Australia, Costa Rica)



Photo by Richard Leo Johnson as seen in Coastal Living

Photo by Dominique Vorillon as seen in Coastal Living

Photo by Jean Allsopp as seen in Coastal Living

Photo by Brian Vanden Brink as seen in Coastal Living

Photo by Grey Crawford as seen in Coastal Living

Photo by David Tsay as seen in Coastal Living

Today I'm linking up to Debbie Doo's Newbie Blog Party.  Join in on the fun! 

Tropical Thursday

Today is a day filled with sunshine for me! It's a day filled with hope, relief and much-needed positive energy.  This picture for Tropical Thursday sums up how I feel.  Yippee!  Have a fun weekend!

Date: Photo taken in June 2010
Location: North Beach on the Beautiful Island of Oahu, Hawaii

Australia - Part 2!!!

This is a rather lengthly post, but I took so many great photos while on the second half of our trip in Australia that I had to share them. We went to Sydney and Cairns, Australia in February of this year and had a blast!  We had a wonderful visit to Australia and hope to visit again one day. These pictures were taken during our stay in Cairns. Enjoy!

Beautiful sunrise outside our hotel window (Hilton Cairns).

Another view outside our hotel window.

Day trip with Trek North Tours to the Daintree Rainforest.
We stopped to take in the beautiful sights on the way.

In the Daintree Rainforest.

The flooded Daintree Rainforest.  It rained 12 inches the night before.   Put a damper on out tour...we were to take a "crocodile sighting river cruise" but it was canceled due to the VERY flooded river.

"Cape Tribulation"...where the river meets the ocean.

Yikes!  These signs were posted everywhere near water.  Thank goodness we didn't see a croc!

We had a crazy tour guide who decided to have our group cross the "Danger: Do Not Enter" signs.  There's a reason these signs are posted.  And let me add that a very bad cyclone hit the area about a week and a half before we arrived which is why signs like these were posted!

This part of the tour included crawling under and climbing over downed trees, bushes and everything else you can imagine.  I was a bit freaked to say the least.....spiders and ants were everywhere!!

This Canadian was my friend for the day.  Neither one of us are the outdoor types.
This photo was taken once we'd almost finished the crazy trek throught the rainforest.

A picture of Mr. H helping people climb over the trees.  It was so bad, you can't even see where we started out!

This was the easy part; however, figuring out where to place your feet on the path was a whole other story.
If your foot missed the path, you were in the marsh!

Suiting up for snorkeling at the Great Barrier Reef.  It was stinger season
so we had to wear the suits for protection...just in case. :) 

Dorks!

Isn't the water so beautiful?  I could look at this photo all day long.

Hang ten!

Michaelmas Cay....a tiny island that's a bird sanctuary.

Check out the rainbow!  A perfect way to end a perfect day at sea!

The beautiful Palm Cove resort area.  Stunning beach!

The only area where tourists could swim...in the netted area safe from jellyfish and crocs.

This freaked me out a bit!  Remember the photo of the netted swimming area?  Well, the day before a crocodile was spotted trying to climb over the netting and into the area where about 20 tourists were swimming.  SCARY!!

My favorite photo....this one is now framed in my coastal-themed bedroom.

Be sure to check-in at Debbiedoos Blog for the weekly Monday, newbie party!