Vacation Spot: Balmorhea, TX

I have been MIA lately, because we ACTUALLY went away for spring break. We don't normally take little vacations or long weekends, but I told the hubby that I really wanted to take our little travel trailer out on the road for my birthday. Destination: Balmorhea State Park

WARNING: This post has a million annoying family pics. 

Balmorhea is home to the worlds largest spring-fed pool.

 The water stays about 74-76 degrees all year round, so people do go there in the winter for a swim.

The pool is FULL of wildlife. There are turtles and tons of little fish.

  The pool goes from 3ft to 25ft. The water is so clear and is a popular spot for scuba divers in the area. This pic was taken from the side of the pool, looking down 25ft below. 

The campsites were clean and they all had a picnic table (most were covered). The cost for a site with Water and Electric was $14/night. If you want cable, it is $17/night. If you want to camp in a tent, the price is even cheaper. You don't have to camp there in order to enjoy the pool. The cost of getting into the pool each day is $7/person. Kids 12 years and under are free. Be aware that the summer is a busy season and there are times that they have to turn people away, because they are too full.

My whole world right in front of me.

One of the best parts of the park, were their bridges. There is a creek that flows all over the park and they have many bridges around the park. I didn't get pictures by all of them (just 2).

My kids visited these bridges every day. There were dozens of little black catfish, other small fish, and even turtles swimming around.

Next to the campsite, there was a viewing area where you could watch some of the wildlife. My kids only cared about the turtles, though.

We visited the town of Balmorhea a bit and even drove half an hour to a larger town, Pecos. Balmorhea has a population of less than 500 people, so there is no grocery store. The closest thing is a little gas station that has a few groceries and a tiny convenience store, so it's better to bring everything you need with you. We enjoyed going to different parks in the 2 towns. I won't bore you with those pictures, but here are a few more by the pool.

Doesn't she look so stinkin' adorable?!

Laughing while telling stories about their belly flops and "face" flops. HA

Hmmm....many people may be thinking, "you didn't take any pictures of the BABY?!"

Oh, she has a million. I will only share some of my favorites, though.

Peanut butter Princess

Honestly, you can't tell that you are swimming with fish unless you are being very still. They tend to stay away from you while you are moving, but the kids and I liked having them around us. If you sat with your feet in the water, they would nip at you a bit. By that, I mean you would feel a very small poke (almost nothing). My Ruby is so sweet, she was like sugar to those fish. They would follow her and nip at her sweet little toes. She would giggle and it was soooo cute! She probably had close to a hundred fish following her.

Balmorhea has been good to us. We had fun. Some places just aren't that great for so many little kids, but this one was pretty great. I probably won't ever come during their peak season (way too hot and a bit too busy for me), but we will have to come back again. After....we have a few more adventures elsewhere.

Goodbye!

Little Boys

The girls have been sick most of the week. They both went back to school for the first time yesterday. Since all they wanted to do was lay on the couch and watch tv, the boy needed something to keep him busy. 

 So we brought out the broken blender. I have done this for him in the past (last time it was a blow dryer).

I love letting him do this, but parent supervision is pretty important. Both the blow dryer and blender had some pretty sharp parts inside. We removed those for him when we saw them.

 We retrieved the blender's jelly bean!

 He did tell me that this was the problem. :) I'll have to look into that.

Aztec Upcycle Tutorial

GrayScale has hit a milestone! My first ever Clothing and Upcycling Tutorial!

I saw this cute fabric and knew that I had to come up with something fun for it, so I grabbed some extra supplies as well. This tutorial DOES NOT use all this stuff. Haha! I went a little crazy, but I know it will get used. After all, I bought 2 yards of fabric and have only used a tiny corner so far. It can all be justified. ;)

This upcycle is perfect for Spring, because we get to chop up some old jeans or capris and convert them into shorts. So we need:

Old jeans

Fabric paint
Paintbrush

Plain tee

Iron-on Studs

Fabric

Fabric for lining

Grab your jeans and figure out where you want to make the cut. I kept some extra room, because I knew I wanted to fold them a couple times and still have Bermuda length shorts (so keep folds in mind). If you would like a shorter, cut-off style, then you can do that also. 

Next up, grab a seam ripper, exacto knife, or a small pair of scissors, and take apart that side seam all the way up to the pocket. Don't worry, we will stitch it back...easy peasy.

Now, that your jeans are ready, grab your fabric and lay it on top. Use a pencil or chalk to trace around half of your leg. Make your fabric is a little larger than the piece by leaving about 1/4" extra on all your sides and cut out your fabric. You will need that space for the next step. My second picture didn't have the 1/4" seam allowance. I was on the fence about how I was going to make these and forgot to take a pic of the RIGHT way. Sorry, but the picture still gives you an idea of what you are doing.

Place your piece face down on the fabric that you are using for your lining. If you have muslin or plain colored cotton, that is perfect. Cut out an identical piece and sew them right sides together. You can leave the bottom and side seam open (like I did). After you have sewn them together, turn them right side out and press with an iron...making the piece look nice and crisp.

Pin your fabric panel to your shorts and topstitch the top and along the inside seam of your shorts.
Turn your shorts inside out and pin the edge of your side seam and fabric panel together (along with the pocket you took out), and stitch that up too.

Now, when you took the side seam out, the edges were serged together. This prevents fraying. If you don't have a serger, zig zag stitch along the edge of the fabric after you do your topstitch. This pretty much works the same way.

 If you wanted your shorts folded, make your folds and do about 4 little stitches on each leg (see pic and include one on the back side) to keep your folds in place.
If you would prefer the cut-off look, then I would recommend doing 2 rows of topstitch about half an inch from the bottom. Make the rows about 1/8" apart. It will fray after you wash them.

Had enough of me yet? Well, TOO BAD! Here comes the fun and easy part:

You will need some arrows. There are a couple ways to go about this. You can decide on some images and free-hand it on some cardstock (what I did), or you can find some images and print them out on cardstock. The one thing you need to keep in mind is their simplicity. You will be cutting these images out to make a stencil, so you need them to be fairly simple. Here is where people get confused...do NOT worry about perfection. Look at a lot of prints with arrows. Many of them are not perfectly straight, so don't think that yours have to be.

Cut those babies out and tape them to your shirt. Make sure you have another piece of cardstock or a piece of cardboard inside your shirt (just in case the paint goes through). Grab your fabric paint and paint away!

 Your arrows will look like this. Don't worry about perfection here either. You don't have to have perfect coverage. After I started, I realized that I liked the more distressed look and I stopped worrying about perfect coverage. I recommend not putting a TON of paint on it. It dries pretty quickly.

Now that your arrows are on your shirt and the paint is dry, you are ready for the final thing. Your studs. I found mind at Hobby Lobby. I have made 2 of these shirts already and I still have quite a few studs left. I can't remember the price, but I THINK it was $5.99. Grab that handy 40% off coupon and go to town (if you didn't use it on your other stuff). Follow the directions on the package and you are done.

 You are now dressed to impress. You could have went to the mall and bought a similar outfit, but why...when you can make it. My daughter thinks she needs these sunglasses for every photo shoot now. I think it's cute.

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