DIY - Vacation Momentos

If you're like me, you like to bring stuff home from trips.  I tend to save almost every stinking little thing - from boarding passes to the little luggage stickers.  Do I do anything with those?  Let's just say I have good intentions!!  I do like to dream about projects for the more fun stuff you find on vacations - like sand and seashells.

My first project was a photo box that I found on Pinterest:

Image Source

My supplies - I got the glass block from Hobby Lobby ($6 after the 40% off coupon); shells and sand from Mexico :)

I got a Cricut for Christmas, and the main reason I wanted it was to be able to do all the fun vinyl projects that are floating around Pinterest.  So, I already had the transfer tape, and I bought some white vinyl. 

 I cut out the letters and put the transfer tape on them and centered it on the block towards the bottom where the sand would be, and would allow for the picture that I wanted to put in it.  There was something about the vinyl that I bought that made it extremely difficult to get all of it off my Cricut cutting mat. It just took a little extra time and effort - otherwise this project could have been done in about half an hour total.

Then I started putting the sand in the block.  You can kinda see how clumpy the sand is, which I think adds to the character of this project.  I also put a few shells on top of the sand. I put in enough that you could see the letters over the sand, and still would have more for the other projects I wanted to do :)

I picked out a few pictures from the trip to print off, and then realized that my block was considerably smaller than a 4x6 picture.  So that helped me pick out which picture I could put in it - whichever would be easy to trim and still look good.  

And here's the final product!!

I love how simple and inexpensive it was to make (when you factor in that I already had the transfer tape and got to use the 40% off coupon for the vinyl and block), and I'll get to enjoy it on a daily basis :)

Project 2

I loved this globe with sand and shells and a candle that the hotel had sitting out, so I decided that I would make one when I got home :)

Again, I bought my globe at Hobby Lobby (it's semi dangerous that I live only 2 miles away haha!).  J picked up some shells in the ocean that seemed to have been recently vacated by the wildlife.  When I pulled them out of the plastic bag they traveled home in, they still smelled fishy and had some lovely algae or something growing on them.  I soaked them in a 50/50 water/bleach mixture for a while and then scrubbed them with a toothbrush and they came out looking pretty good.

 And viola!! The finished project.  I played around with how I wanted to put the shells in it, and opted for the simple big shell with a candle in it.  But I have options for when I want to switch out the shells.  This one couldn't have been easier!!

Holbox Vacation - the last part

It was bittersweet to start thinking about heading home.  We'd had such a good time all week, but there were definitely things about home that I missed:

- Showers - the shower was at least fresh water and not salty, but the water pressure left a lot to be desired.  The temperatures were very fickle - it took what felt like 10 minutes for the water to get hot, and then it was too hot, and took about 5 minutes to cool back down to a reasonable temperature.  And then the water pressure....a shower took double the time than normal, and you still didn't feel like you'd washed and rinsed off all 5 layers of sunscreen, 3 layers of bug spray, the saltwater residue, and the sand.

- Bug levels - yes, there can be a lot of bugs here in Oklahoma, but NOTHING like the ones we had down in Mexico.  Hence the 3+ layers of bug spray, and it was usually more on the plus side.  The bugs even got so fierce that they were going for our eye lids because they didn't have bug spray on them!

- Consistent air conditioning - We at least had an air unit that we could turn on at night, but it took quite a while for it to cool down to a temperature that was comfortable enough to sleep with.

- Addie and Amelia - the two dogs on the hotel property made me miss my two sweet puppies....so I'm glad to be back home :)

I know that I've shared several pictures with you, but I've saved a few of my favorites for this last post - some of the pictures that capture some of my favorite things about my vacation.

We loved the hammocks so much, that we bought one while in Mexico.  Can't wait to try it out!!

The clouds here are real - there's no way I could have made those up.  It was a breathtaking sight and the light reflected off the clouds was illuminating the island.

The sunsets were so peaceful.  The ones in Oklahoma are beautiful at times, but I'd never seen any as beautiful as here.

The sand at Holbox Island was full of shells and we saw several little things in the sand, so I decided to make one too :)

Our last sunset on the island.....again, so peaceful.

Me & J waiting for the taxi before we left.  I think I finally got the hang of taking pictures backwards with my dSLR :)

You can read more about our Holbox Vacation here:

Back to the Real World - Holbox Vacation Part I

Holbox Vacation Part II

Holbox Vacation Part III

Holbox Vacation Part IV

Holbox Vacation, Part V

The day before we left, we took an island tour with another couple visiting the hotel.  We found out about the tour from yet another couple that was visiting and it sounded very interesting.

Our boat wasn't very big, especially given the size of the waves we went through.  Yes, went through. And since I had just finished reading Life of Pi, I was a little nervous about being in a boat haha!  As soon as we got on the boat, I was looking for life jackets, and didn't see any.  I'm sure there were some - but they were not in plain sight.  Thankfully, we didn't need them :)

So back to the tour.  Our first visit was Passion Island - where the flamingos and pelicans (both local Mexican and Canadian) lived. (I wish I had taken my better zoom lens...but hopefully you can still get the idea...)

On our way down the docks to the boat, with the couple from the hotel.  It was nice to be able to go on this tour with people we somewhat knew, and most importantly, we could speak in English with them :)

We drove out into the lagoon, dodging sandbars, and this was what we got to see.  The flamingos living with the pelicans in a shallow area of the lagoon.  

Cheese!!! :)

This is the cenote, or natural spring, that we got to swim in after we left Passion Island.  The water is a beautiful blue color, and if you look in the middle of the photo you can kinda see where it bubbles up from the bottom.  The word to use is "refreshing" when you jump in - that is, if you can catch your breath.  I might have had a minor panic attack after jumping in, in addition to the coolness of the water taking my breath away.  Needless to say, I was the last one in and the second one out. (I made J go ahead of me to see how slimy the ladder would be on the way out ha!)

There was a neat tower that overlooked the cenote on one side and the country side on the other.  Our first thoughts were that it looked like the Serengeti.

This is the dock as we're leaving.  Kinda eerie looking island, right?  It made our friends think of the movie A Perfect Getaway or the flesh-eating island in Life of Pi.  I'm glad they didn't mention that until we were on our way out of there! 

We went back to Passion Island and actually got out of the boat this time.  The Captain had some tortillas that he threw out to what seemed like an open space, but then all of those iguanas came out of nowhere for their tortillas.  Watching them run to the food was fairly entertaining because they run bow-legged. :)

Just a view of the birds from the top of the tower on the island.

This is a horse shoe crab.  Very interesting creatures and we'd never seen one before.  Our Captain just pulled it out of the sand by its tail.

It didn't appear to have any pincers like the other crabs we'd seen, and the Captain just put his hand right in there.  Both of the guys did the same.  I touched his nose on the outershell, but that was as close as I'd get to the thing.

The Banana Boat (pun intended haha)

After we finished at Passion Island, the Captain drove us around Holbox Island on the north side, which opens into the Gulf and the Caribbean.  These birds were just out flying, enjoying the sunshine.  

It was a beautiful ride - and I really wish my camera could have accurately captured the colors of the water.  They really were breathtaking.  

You can read more about our Holbox Vacation here:

Back to the Real World - Holbox Vacation Part I

Holbox Vacation Part II

Holbox Vacation Part III

Holbox Vacation Part IV

Holbox Vacation, part IV

There was something about this vacation that made me want to capture some of the smaller details.  Maybe it was the fact that I absolutely fell in love with this place, or the fact I'm starting to really enjoy photography :)  Either way, there were a lot of pictures I want to share, so I hope that you enjoy them as much as I do!

This is the sign from the first little restaurant 

Both outside lights and the sink were similar patterns - I love how everything was so colorful here

This was hanging on our balcony - just a neat little coconut I guess

A seashell windchime outside our window - it actually made a beautiful sound

I forgot my charging cord for my e-reader, so I found this book in my room (one of the few books on the place that were in English :) )

This little guy was guarding the pool

The "welcome" sign above the kitchen

You can read more about our Holbox Vacation here:

Back to the Real World - Holbox Vacation Part I

Holbox Vacation Part II

Holbox Vacation Part III

Holbox Vacation, part III

We made a total of 3 treks into town during our vacation.  It was about a 15 minute walk up the beach to get into the town - so not too bad.  The first time, we left mid morning and walked around for quite a while and found a lunch place and some homemade fruit popsicles. It was hot in town, so the ice cream was definitely a treat. We even got the same ice cream when we went into town a few days later :)

The town was neat and you could tell it had been there a while.  Something that we found odd about the town, and even throughout our drives through Mexico, is the number of abandoned buildings.  They could be old, new, or under construction - and they are just abandoned.  People abandon buildings and homes here in the states, but it just seems so prevalent there.

Anyway, here are some photos from our treks into town.  I was busy trying to dodge the puddles / lakes so I didn't get a lot of pictures in town, but these can give you an idea of what it was like.

A basketball court in the town square - quite colorful and in disrepair

The little cafe we had lunch at while in town - the only meal we didn't eat at our hotel

Looking down a street - those puddles are actually getting smaller :)

You can see down the street to the ocean!

The fist view of town (or last if you're on the way back to the mainland on the ferry)

They had two varieties of road signs - rusted or painted on wood

You can read more about our Holbox Vacation here:

Back to the Real World - Holbox Vacation Part I

Holbox Vacation Part II

Holbox Vacation, part II

I left my first vacation post and the end of our first day, which was mainly travel.  We arrived in the evening, so there wasn't a lot of day light left for exploring.  We arrived at the same time as another couple that was celebrating their honeymoon, and we visited over our welcome empanadas, which were our first taste of Estella's cooking :)

The next couple days were spent on the beach.  We lounged around on the daybeds, hammocks, or the beach chairs, and switched back and forth from the pool to the ocean.  As promised, here are some pictures of the grounds of the hotel.

Looking towards the hotel kitchen and dining area at night

There's a sailboat that docked off in the distance for a couple days during our stay

One of the 2 daybeds

The tower was connected to someone's room, so we didn't get the chance to go up :(

The hotel's sign and one of the dogs from the hotel

How peaceful is this?!

You can read more about our Holbox Vacation here:

Back to the Real World - Holbox Vacation Part I

Holbox Vacation Part II

Holbox Vacation Part III