HAPPY BIRTHDAY JOE!

Can you guess how old Joe is?
Nope......No......Not even close.......!
He's 57, Unbelievable right! Proving life with me must be pretty good! Barely a gray hair in sight & still strong as an ox! I'm one lucky lady!

Things I learned on my vacation....Driving

We had heard that Ireland had the highest accident rate in western Europe but for some reason that didn't bother us, until we got in our tiny rental car & hit the road! Life altering to say the least, I aged 10 years from the airport to the hotel. We alternated between cursing & laughing so hard we could hardly breathe. Don't underestimate the learning curve of everything being opposite, even the gas guage works in reverse. We did have GPS, a few flaws with that were we had no idea what distance a kilometer or meter is so when instructed to turn in 250 meters we were at a real disadvantage. Also the streets are not clearly marked with standard signs, in standard places, like on a corner, like we're used to. The GPS spent more time "re-calculating" than anything else. We had also read that while the roadsides are beautiful they tend to be narrow & curvy, that was the biggest understatement of all! We had to back down a windy road until we came to a driveway to go in so a truck could pass us, another day a car had to back off a little bridge so we could pass. The highways are roomier but they have these things called "roundabouts", the name says it all! Now when all is said & done and we swore never to drive in another foreign country we were quite proud of overselves for not adding to the high accident stats!

I'm Baaaaaa Baaa Back!

Things I learned on my Vacation...Fly Direct!
Just got back from Dublin with a few new rules for traveling. Most important new rule is to only fly non stop from now on! Last night on our incredibly long journey home we flew over New York (Home) and 1 hour 40 minutes later landed in Atlanta Ga., 4 hours later got back on a plane to New York & 1 hour 40 minutes later landed in NY! INSANE!!!!
To pass the time on the plane I read Kathy Griffin's Memoir which I very much enjoyed, unfortunately I finished it before I hit Atlanta (oh No!) She had a line in the book that totally spoke to me.... "Even vacations start not to feel like vacations after 5 days: They become the thing that keeps me from working." It's good to be home & back to work!
More rules & photos to follow soon!

ATLANTIC ANTIC STREET FESTIVAL BROOKLYN NY

These are the treasures I picked up at the fair.
The adorable card is made by fiskandfern
The christmas ornament is by delongceramics
The silverware piece is made by a guy who's name I didn't get but he did say that he is usually set up in front of Whole Foods by Union Square in NYC every Sunday.
I had to include this photo, this is a bus I remember riding as a kid (my age is showing again!) The transit Museum had a bunch of old buses that you could check out and board.
Did you ever want to do something but then didn't because you didn't want to go by yourself? Well I found out this morning that this fair was today but for a variety of reasons my choice was to skip it or go alone. It was a beautiful day out so I went alone, and I'm glad I did! Granted it would have been way more fun with company but it was very liberating. It was in an area I wasn't familiar with so when I got off the subway I had no idea where I was, but I found my way & when all was done I found my way back! This fair was HUGE, there were a ton musicians playing all kinds of music, there was a stage with a belly dancer and another with go go dancers! There was a great variety of food, my treat today was a potato on a stick, tempting as it was I didn't have any fried oreo's! There are a lot of antique shops on Atlantic Ave so there were many fun things for sale like the robots in the photo, there were even big inflatable things for the kids to bounce around in. Something for everyone. For me it's all about the local artists and craftspeople, GREAT stuff.
For more info on the Atlantic Antic click here