Cottage Crazy: Beachie Bottles...will be planning on recreating t...

Cottage Crazy: Beachie Bottles...will be planning on recreating t...: OH so Beachie Bottles. I will be scouting around for the supplies to recreate this look on a budget!

Beachie Bottles...will be planning on recreating this look for Paws & Paddles!

OH so Beachie Bottles.

I will be scouting around for the supplies to recreate this look on a budget!

Cottage Crazy: A few of my favorite pictures from other blogs...

Cottage Crazy: A few of my favorite pictures from other blogs...: Beautiful Patio! I love RED...Jane Coslick used lots of it in this Colorado home. It is both Colorado western and Jane Coslick Tybee...

A few of my favorite pictures from other blogs...

Beautiful Patio!

I love RED...Jane Coslick used lots of it in this Colorado home. It is both Colorado western and Jane Coslick Tybee at the same time...for more photos of this beautiful ranch home check out JaneCoslick.blogspot.com

Frol

Cottage Crazy: Tybee Island Dodges Irene...

Cottage Crazy: Tybee Island Dodges Irene...: All reports via twitter, facebook, and google indicate Tybee Island survived Irene in tact. There may be some beach loss but that is still n...

Tybee Island Dodges Irene...

All reports via twitter, facebook, and google indicate Tybee Island survived Irene in tact. There may be some beach loss but that is still not clear. The surfers were out and had some amazingly large waves at one point. We are thankful that Irene did not come ashore on Tybee. We buttoned up our cottage when we left on Monday and secured all outdoor furnishings in the storage shed. We are still however glued to the weather channel and are concerned about friends with homes on Bald Head Island, Figure 8 Island, Block Island and New York City. Our cousin Carmen is holed up in her 5th floor Manhatten apartment with a friend and loads of supplies to ride out the storm. Fingers crossed all will be spared. We just saw a news clip filmed at Tybee on the Beach and the tide was way up the beach. They are expecting things to be normal tomorrow and the beaches to reopen for swimming. Savannah did not sustain any damages that we have heard. Thankful that those beautiful old buildings are still standing tall with their live oaks dripping spanish moss...so special. The Mermaids are on duty and will have the cottage fluffed and the outdoor furniture back out in time for our Labor Day guests. They indicated zero cancellations due to weather and the Labor Day weekend is sold out. The Oct. Pirate Fest weekend is also almost sold out. We will be there for that this year. Arrhhh...Thinking I need to be sewing up a couple of costumes! We purchased pirate neck ware for Hershey...in black and white. He couldn't wait and wore it back from Tybee Island on Monday...We will have to get pics of all and of some of the local color which is considerable.

We enjoyed the opening of the Dragonfly artist studio last week and purchased a couple of small pieces for the cottage. Nice folks...it always amazes me how friendly and open to conversation the local folks are...very refreshing. I never feel like a stranger. Seaside Sisters a favorite shop is having a big sale over Labor Day. Hope it goes well...sadly they have recently experienced a death in their family. Hoping folks will go out to support them. Friendly, amazing, delightful, whimsical, cute beyond words shop. Mary Kay Andrews the author of Summer Rental has a booth there with items for sale. Just read Summer Rental and it was a great quick beach read. Loved Leah's Journey Home by Gil Balance...our sail boat friend's Dad. It is on Kindle and out now in PaperBack at Amazon...excellent read...about his tough and sassy mother...Gil is 92...so this book goes away back to a very different and difficult time for women...especially for an unmarried mother to be.

North Carolina and Virginia currently have nearly 500,000 without power. Our thoughts are will all who are in the storms path...

Today's paper

Today's paper

Cottage Crazy: What to do in a Earth Quake...NOT what you have be...

Cottage Crazy: What to do in a Earth Quake...NOT what you have be...: What to do in an Earth Quake NOT what U have been told... by Connie Stanley on Wednesday, August 24, 2011 at 5:30pm Where to Go During an...

What to do in a Earth Quake...NOT what you have been told...

What to do in an Earth Quake NOT what U have been told...

by Connie Stanley on Wednesday, August 24, 2011 at 5:30pm

Where to Go During an Earthquake

Remember that stuff about hiding under a table or standing in a doorway? Forget it! This is a real eye opener. Could save your life someday.

EXTRACT from DOUG COPP'S ARTICLE on "THE TRIANGLE of LIFE."

I am Doug Copp, the Rescue Chief and Disaster Manager of the American Rescue Team International (ARTI ), the world's most experienced rescue team. The information in this article will save lives in an earthquake.

I have crawled inside 875 collapsed buildings, worked with rescue teams from 60 countries, founded rescue teams in several countries, and I am a member of many rescue teams from many countries. I was the United Nations expert in Disaster Mitigation for two years, and have worked at every major disaster in the world since 1985, except for simultaneous disasters.

The first building I ever crawled inside was a school in Mexico City during the 1985 earthquake. Every child was under its desk. Every child was crushed to the thickness of their bones. They could have survived by lying down next to their desks in the aisles. It was obscene -- unnecessary.

Simply stated, when buildings collapse, the weight of the ceilings falling upon the objects or furniture inside crushes these objects, leaving a space or void next to them -- NOT under them. This space is what I call the 'triangle of life.' The larger the object, the stronger, the less it will compact. The less the object compacts, the larger the void, the greater the probability that the person who is using this void for safety will not be injured. The next time you watch collapsed buildings on television, count the "triangles" you see formed. They are everywhere. It is the most common shape you will see in a collapsed building.

TIPS FOR EARTHQUAKE SAFETY:

1)  Most everyone who simply 'ducks and covers' when a building collapses is crushed to death.  People who get under objects, like desks or cars, are crushed.

2)  Cats, dogs and babies often naturally curl up in the fetal position.  You should, too, in an earthquake. It is a natural safety/survival instinct.  You can survive in a smaller void.  Get next to an object, next to a sofa, next to a bed, next to a large, bulky object that will compress slightly but leave a void next to it.

3)  Wooden buildings are the safest type of construction to be in during an earthquake. Wood is flexible and moves with the force of the earthquake.  If the wooden building does collapse, large survival voids are created. Also, the wooden building has less concentrated, crushing weight.  Brick buildings will break into individual bricks. Bricks will cause many injuries but less squashed bodies than concrete slabs.

4)  If you are in bed and an earthquake occurs, simply roll off the bed. A safe void will exist around the bed.  Hotels can achieve a much greater survival rate in earthquakes simply by posting a sign on the back of the door of every room, telling occupants to lie down on the floor, next to the bottom of the bed during an earthquake.

5)  If an earthquake happens and you cannot easily escape by getting out the door or window, then lie down and curl up in the fetal position next to a sofa or large chair.

6)  Most everyone who gets under a doorway when buildings collapse is killed. How? If you stand under a doorway and the doorjamb falls forward or backward you will be crushed by the ceiling above.  If the door jam falls sideways you will be cut in half by the doorway.  In either case, you will be killed!

7)  Never go to the stairs.  The stairs have a different 'moment of frequency' (they swing separately from the main part of the building).  The stairs and remainder of the building continuously bump into each other until structural failure of the stairs takes place.  The people who get on stairs before they fail are chopped up by the stair treads - horribly mutilated.  Even if the building doesn't collapse, stay away from the stairs. The stairs are a likely part of the building to be damaged.  Even if the stairs are not collapsed by the earthquake, they may collapse later when overloaded by fleeing people.  They should always be checked for safety, even when the rest of the building is not damaged.

8)  Get near the outer walls of buildings or outside of them if possible - it is much better to be near the outside of the building rather than the interior.  The farther inside you are from the outside perimeter of the building the greater the probability that your escape route will be blocked.

9)  People inside their vehicles are crushed when the road above falls in an earthquake and crushes their vehicles; which is exactly what happened with the slabs between the decks of the Nimitz Freeway.  The victims of the San Francisco earthquake all stayed inside their vehicles.  They were all killed. They could have easily survived by getting out and sitting or lying next to their vehicles. Everyone killed would have survived if they had been able to get out of their cars and sit or lie next to them.   All the crushed cars had voids 3 feet high next to them, except for the cars that had columns fall directly across them.

10)  I discovered, while crawling inside  collapsed newspaper offices and other offices with a lot of paper, that paper does not compact.  Large voids are found surrounding stacks of paper.

Spread the word and save someone's life...

Cottage Crazy: Tybee braces for Irene...just in case she hits Geo...

Cottage Crazy: Tybee braces for Irene...just in case she hits Geo...: We left Monday for the Mountains. We are already looking forward to a trip back for two weeks in October. We met up with the Mermaids and th...

Tybee braces for Irene...just in case she hits Georgia.

We left Monday for the Mountains. We are already looking forward to a trip back for two weeks in October. We met up with the Mermaids and they suggested we store all outdoor items in our storage shed just in case Irene hits Georgia later this week. We closed all of the wooden store shutters and Paws and Paddles was tightly buttoned up just in case. Storm reports are looking currently as if Irene will miss Georgia but anything can happen. Hopefully the storm will be out of the area by the weekend. We are watching the weather closely. Our sailboat friends are in Maine on Lattitudes and they are doing the same. We have friends with cottages on Bald Head and we are concerned for them as well. It would be great if we all just get some much needed rain. More later...

Afternoon storms knock out power for 5,600 | savannahnow.com

Afternoon storms knock out power for 5,600 savannahnow.com: By Savannah Morning News
Storms that popped up in Chatham County this afternoon have left 5,600 people without power.
According to the Chatham County Emergency Agency, strong winds knocking out two power poles on U.S. 80 are the culprits.
Mark Williams, Georgia Power spokesman, said the electricity outages are impacting Tybee and Wilmington islands.
About 1,300 customers on Wilmington Island should have power back soon, Williams said.
He said it could be "a few hours" before power is restored on Tybee, adding that workers are having to make "extensive" repairs.

Cottage Crazy: Hershey...King of the Mountain & King of Paws & Pa...

Cottage Crazy: Hershey...King of the Mountain & King of Paws & Pa...: Hershey enjoyed the trip down to Tybee. He was as quiet as a mouse in his big bed in the back of the HHR. Once in a while he would stand up ...

Hershey...King of the Mountain & King of Paws & Paddles Cottage!

Hershey enjoyed the trip down to Tybee. He was as quiet as a mouse in his big bed in the back of the HHR. Once in a while he would stand up to turn around or you would see his top knot shoot up for a second or two but that was it. He understood what rest areas are for and delivered! He has sniffed or as I say Hoovered everything in the cottage several times over. We took a break in the great room and he promptly found the doggie bed Jane had made to match our chair and plop he was down. The funny thing...he is so darn big he could never quite get all of Hershey on the bed at the same time...but he kept trying. We walked him to the lighthouse and up the boardwalk to the deck and sat with him enjoying the ocean breeze and the view of the water in front and the lighthouse behind us...as the sky darkened. The lighthouse is always a favorite but sitting there watching it's light get brighter as the sky darkened was awesome. Everyone walking by commented on what a beautiful boy Hershey is and so well behaved. He wasn't sure he liked our first take on where he would sleep and around 1:30 I heard him moving around. I got up and spent some time with him and decided he wanted some water and food...his schedule had gotten off a little...just like a 2 year old. After some food and water...he settled down. I moved his big Orvis bed out to the sunroom and I stayed out there with him on the day bed. The ceiling fan was blowing on us both and the next thing I knew it was day break. He went with Mike for his morning walk and was ready for breakfast. We headed for the lighthouse to watch the sunrise. We are reading and playing this morning on the sun porch and Hershey has claimed the daybed as HIS...just like he did our guest room bed on the Mountain. He is laying there now and must be dreaming because his big old paws are just twitching about...King of the Cottage in less than 24 hours...and his paws are crossed so that means he is happy. The Cottage looks great and the furnishing are holding up well. All of my labeling must have helped...the cabinets, etc. are still organized. I am enjoying my chaise on the sun porch and catching up on email, blogs, and new books. Leah's Journey by Gil Balance is the pick for this trip. A Kindle published book by my sailboat friend's Dad. Started reading it and I am hooked...it is very, very, good! More later...Off later to a new art gallery opening...The Dragonfly...they are on FB if you are interested...I love dragonfly's and liked them even more when I read that in Japan they are the symbol for Courage...something to strive for in our hectic and sometimes trying lives.

Cottage Crazy: We're off to Tybee Island for Hershey's First Trip...

Cottage Crazy: We're off to Tybee Island for Hershey's First Trip...: Hershey is bathed, clipped, and quite excited to be going to Paws & Paddles Cottage for a few days of R & R! We have packed his bed, 4 toy...

We're off to Tybee Island for Hershey's First Trip

Hershey is bathed, clipped, and quite excited to be going to Paws & Paddles Cottage for a few days of R & R!

We have packed his bed, 4 toys, 4 ties, his lease, his bowls, his water, his food.  Now I just need to get us packed and off we go this morning.

More when we arrive!

Cottage Crazy: Working on fluffing our Mountain Home in Virginia

Cottage Crazy: Working on fluffing our Mountain Home in Virginia: "The Island Mike created from a thrift store desk! A piece of plywood, (8) 12x12 Granite tiles. He even added wheels so it can be moved anywh..."

Working on fluffing our Mountain Home in Virginia

The Island Mike created from a thrift store desk! A piece of plywood, (8) 12x12 Granite tiles. He even added wheels so it can be moved anywhere we need it inside the great room or even out to the deck...a wonderful addition for less than $100...way 2 Go Mikie!

Larry the Lobster Welcomes our Guests to a Low Country Shrimp Boil.

CAFE CONNIE dinner for 2!

Bee Balm the Hummers Favorite Treat

Do I look excited or what..so many pretty things...

Mountain flowers...

A little bathroom whimsy on the mountain...

Our Mountain is only 8.5 miles from Downtown Roanoke...known as the Star City of the South...we always look for the lighted star when we drive or fly back into Roanoke. When we see it we know we are home. The star was designed by a dear friend's father back in the 1950s as a temporary promotion for the Roanoke Merchants but it became our permanent symbol...some think it is tacky...personally I love it!

I do not complain when it hits over 95 because it is still better than driving down the Mountain in ice and snow. This was taken on December 4, 2010...when it snows I need to be at work Early so snow on workdays makes me quite nervous...

We are looking forward to a long 4 day weekend on Tybee Island... soon.  We have not been back since the first weekend in May.  Hershey will be traveling with us. This will be his first trip and our first time ever vacationing with a pet. We are excited  to see our Paws and Paddles Cottage again...we love our Mountain but we love Savannah and Tybee 2! Will blog about our trip while we are at the Cottage...can't wait...

Cottage Crazy: Cottage Crazy: Watermelon Float...ahhh...summer ti...

Cottage Crazy: Cottage Crazy: Watermelon Float...ahhh...summer ti...: "Cottage Crazy: Watermelon Float...ahhh...summer time! : 'Sharing a Cool Drink idea from Joss...and a photo of a dining room...to dream over...."

Hershey is packing for Tybee...don't forget the Goughnuts!

We are so excited about our upcoming long weekend in Tybee at Paws and Paddles.  We have been rented all summer and this will be our first trip back since the first weekend in May. We wanted to enjoy a bit of summer, cool off in that outdoor shower, and introduce Hershey to Tybee, his bed at Paws and Paddles, and Putty our neighbors beautiful standard poodle. This will be our first ever vacation trip with Hershey and for that matter any pet...we were never able to take our dogs when vacationing in the past. So...gotta help him pack. The list of must takes is getting long.  Wondering if we should take his big Orvis bed...since he loves it so.  Then of course his special senior dog chow, his stainless doggie dishes and stand, his favorite towel, his semi indestructible chew bone, and his Goughnuts are a must!  The Goughnuts just arrived and he is crazy about them. They came with a life time guarantee that if he chews through to the red interior layer they will replace them!  These folks have a hit with these puppies. Hershey can destroy anything in a few minutes. A tennis ball lasts less than 5 minutes! He demolished a rawhide bone seriously bigger than my arm in 20 minutes flat. The gonuts after 3 days...still pristine.  They have a sorta hickory rubbery smell thing going on and he will chew and chew and chew.  One is shaped like...yeah...a donut...and one is like a summer sausage. The both bounce like crazy. We opted for the black ones since they are the most indestructible and so far so good.  We collect his toys each evening and put them in a basket in the Mountain media room. The media room is on our lower level and Hershey's kennel is on the same level.  Each morning after his morning gallop in the yard, our 1.5 mile walk up the Mountain, water, food, and much petting...he then goes to the basket and fetches one of his toys...plays with it for a few seconds or minutes, then proceeds to get each toy out of the basket until they are all spread over the rug. He is exactly like a 2 year old child. It is so funny. Oh, he has a wardrobe of neck wear...so we will need to pack those...whew we may need a bigger car! www.goughnuts.com available on line and at Amazon...

Cottage Crazy: Watermelon Float...ahhh...summer time!

Cottage Crazy: Watermelon Float...ahhh...summer time!: "Sharing a Cool Drink idea from Joss...and a photo of a dining room...to dream over... Well-mixed drinks can elevate a cocktail party from ..."

Watermelon Float...ahhh...summer time!

Sharing a Cool Drink idea from Joss...and a photo of a dining room...to dream over...

Well-mixed drinks can elevate a cocktail party from good to spectacular. We think that every event requires a perfectly crafted signature cocktail. Whether you are relaxing outside simply enjoying the summer breeze, or hosting a lively barbeque, we believe our Joss cocktail, is the perfect refreshing touch. This sparkling watermelon confection tastes like summer in a glass!
Watermelon Champagne Float
Ingredients:
Fresh Watermelon — 1 oz. juice, 3- ½ inch diced cube (additional slices for garnish)
Champagne or Prosecco — 3.5 oz.
Fresh Lemon Soda (Lemonade) — 1 oz.
Pomegranate Juice – splash
Mixing Directions:
Mix watermelon juice, champagne, fresh lemon soda, and splash of pomegranate juice over ice in mixing canister. Stir gently—don’t shake!
Add frozen diced watermelon cubes into a long-stemmed glass (the frozen watermelon cubes are delicious and act as ice without watering down your cocktail).

Simply pour the cocktail mixture and enjoy! Add an additional watermelon or lemon garnish if so desired.

Cottage Crazy: A video of Paws & Paddles Cottage...

Cottage Crazy: A video of Paws & Paddles Cottage...

A video of Paws & Paddles Cottage...