Category Archives: Real Life

09.21.12

East Coast Road Trip - Virginia is for Lovers

Posted by Christina // 2 Replies

For our second day on the road, we decided we wanted to head out to Virginia.

I won’t deny that reading Young House Love and 7th House on the Left every day had something to do with this destination pick. They just always make Richmond and Virginia look amazing. Does that sound stalkerish? I mean we didn’t hang out at their local Home Depot for five hours with a dream in our eye or anything. Please understand my sarcasm….don’t email them a warning cry.

Actually, since it was Nascar weekend in Richmond we just kind of waved as we rolled through and mosied on down to Virginia Beach….but not before Tim’s charm scored us an amazing hotel deal. I am keeping him around for all my vacations.

We did see some pretty sights on the drive.

We wanted to explore Richmond, but we were aching for a beach. So even though it added two hours onto our drive, and we could only play in the sand for about three hours….we packed up and headed to Virginia Beach.

Worth it.

Just to get my tootsies in the sand.

Poor Tim was stuck on the beach taking business calls while I frolicked in the monster waves. Seriously, they were large and in charge.

While he was working….he snuck some of these, maybe he really does love me.

It was totally worth the drive to sit on a beach with my man and soak up the sun.

After kicking sand at each other, we played tourist and went to all the little boardwalk shops. It was such a great time.

It was so tough to leave, but since we couldn’t wiggle our noses, or flap our arms and land in DC we had to get to gettin.

Here we are driving off into the sunset, or something.

Until tomorrow friends….

09.20.12

East Coast Road Trip - Gettin Lucky in Kentuc...

Posted by Christina // 5 Replies

I wish my home state rhymed with something cool.

Anywaaaayyyyys….the best part about this trip was that we got to see so many friends. Most of our friends have abandoned us to move back home, or away for jobs, or possibly to get away from this Missouri humidity.

We miss them, way too much. So we figured this is a great time to go see them all.

Our first stop was in Kentucky.

One of T’s best friends, Greg, calls Louisville home. They met while Greg was going to school in St. Louis, and became the three best friends that anyone can have….minus one.

We totally understand why he boot scooted back home…because Louisville is incredible!

There was a beautiful river with lots of gorgeous bridges.

I know boys don’t talk about stuff like this….but Tim was a ball of excitement to see his buddy. They had not seen each other for years, which I fully intend to make sure that doesn’t happen again. Hi Greg….can’t wait for the Derby!!!

Apparently, when I was in this state of mind….

I realized that Louisville was the home of the Kentucky Derby. It must have been all the horse statues, paintings, signs, and memorabilia. I also decided at that time that we absolutely, positively NEED to go next year. The boys thought that was just a drinkity pipe dream….but I remembered.

I never forget guys, and I am holding you all to it.
I already have my big, floppy hat picked out!

How did I get to that drinkity state you ask……Fourth Street.

Please don’t notice the bed and pillow reflection…this was taken from our hotel room.

It is a street in downtown Louisville, KY that is like a mall of restaurants, bars, and fun. Since we were there on a Wednesday it was pretty low-key….which is just our scene.

So we explored, and had some dinner and drinks.

The handsome guy on the left is Timbo, yours truly, then Greg’s twin brother Mitch, and then Greg himself.

Here we are proving how awesome we are….our waiter was impressed to say the least.

No one was prepared when after the customary documentation photo I yelped, “No one move….it’s time for a funny face”. Well, no one except Greg…is that not the best zombie impression you’ve ever seen? I’m taking notes Gregory!

Here is a terrible video….where I thought Greg was still sitting in front of me. Instead, he was sneaking off to pay the dinner bill that we had in our hand…you tricky trickster. But it does give you a sneak peak of the awesomeness that is Fourth Street action.

Things to ignore:
The awful buzzing sound
Tim ignoring his loving girlfriend
My slightly intoxicated giggle

I really wish we would have had more time there….but we will make up for it come Derby Days.

See you soon Louisville!

09.19.12

The East Coast Road Trip 2012

Posted by Christina // 1 Reply

You may have noticed a hiatus here at Homemade Ocean.

If we are facebook friends, then you know we took the ultimate relationship test and drove across the country together. For the last two weeks. In a car. Together. For two whole weeks. Ya dig?

If we are not facebook official….well let’s do this so that you are never in the dark again.
Just click here.

So the long story short is:

4,030 miles on the rental
13 days with my love
85 driving hours
16 states got to see us
185 expensive gallons gone

and a partridge in a pear tree, or something.

However, I feel like if you are here….reading this….then you don’t want the long story short. You want pictures.
Well, I aim to please. We are going to relive our vacation in real time. That’s right…..we are going on a virtual vacation, here’s your plane ticket.

Today I just want to show you the overview, where we went and the simple road trip details that I love….

That is pretty much the break down of everywhere our tires touched. Some of them we just drove through ~~screaming in pain while our ears pop~~ enjoying the scenery.

I never thought I would like the East Coast, I just figured that I hadn’t been there and I ought to see things like our nations Capitol, where Forrest jumped into the reflecting pool. But this crazy, unexpected thing happened while we were rolling around the East side of America….we fell in love. Especially with the North-North East, like Vermont and Maine. We are already saving for a summer home, truth. The big cities just are not our cup of tea….probably all the honking, or the dreaded tolls.

Y’all we had no clue about tolls….you can’t find them in Missouri. Let me tell ya, if the price of gas didn’t break us then the tolls did. Not to mention, we don’t carry cash…..ummmm yea drama. We probably won’t be back anytime soon, but we have lots of cherished memories.

Don’t you worry your pretty little head, we are diving into each destination later….you will get all the juicy details.

Here are some of the little details that caught my eye and made me smile.

I just love the simple things, and I wanted to remember them for always.

I will say, this being our first road trip together….we may have overpacked. Look at all that luggage for two people.

There was a pajama bag, an undies bag, a shower bag, a shoe bag, a full suitcase, a full overnight bag, a computer bag, a camera bag, a charger bag, an accessories bag, and of course….two snack bags. Seemed logical, till we had to haul it all in every day. For twelve days. Bananas.

On a side note, can you tell I worked at Vera Bradley? You should see what’s inside those bags….Vera paradise.

Those are the basics of our trip. Oh yea, and the fact that we actually are still together after twelve days of getting lost.

Shocking, eh?

Dueces….see you tomorrow!

09.04.12

How we got addicted....

Posted by Christina // 5 Replies

We like to think of saltwater tanks as our healthy addiction.

Some of you have wondered how the heck we got into this hobby, well here is your answer.

We have both had fishies in our lives since we were knee-high to a grasshopper. In fact, I once had a Goldfish…yes a Goldfish….that lived for four years. Which is a peculiarly long lifespan for a Goldfish, just call me the fish-whisperer. We both had our share of Betas, and we both had freshwater fish tanks that we were mesmerized by as kiddos.

When I met T, he had a 125 gallon freshwater tank.

Once we started dating, Tim started mentioning that he wanted to get into saltwater aquariums. Me, wanting to be the supportive gal that he would want to marry eventually, told him that was a great idea. In fact, it became a huge conversation piece.

I talked him into DIY’ing a stand…

…and he called me yelling about the live rock that “was dying” as we spoke because it got delivered while he wasn’t home.

It didn’t die…drama queen…so then he sent me pictures of all the critters he found in the rock.

The first tank was basically our bonding. On our first real date, he showed me his beautiful empty tank.

Then I helped him fill it. One of our first dates happened to be to a fish store!

That is the first set of goodies we took home. It was super exciting.

The tank was a sixty gallon, glass beauty with old metal halides and a canister filter. For our non-tank friends, that means it was pretty basic and not exactly easy to take care of. However, saying we were obsessed is an understatement.

It doesn’t look like much to us now, but we used to stare at that tank for hours upon hours.

This is the first video I ever took of the tank, and even though today it looks sad and empty to us….at the time I thought it looked amazing with the five corals and few fish we had.

We learned so much with that tank, but the main lesson….we needed a bigger tank! We started the 60 gallon in July of 2011 and bought the 210 gallon in December 2011. Yea, fast movers fo’ sho. After we got the big tank, the little one didn’t get as much attention. Mainly because it was a lot more work to take care of, so in the Spring of 2012 we actually bid our first saltwater tank farewell. She was a good first tank and we will remember her fondly. So it wasn’t exactly a show tank, but it spawned our crazy addiction so we have to be thankful for that little skunk of a tank.

08.31.12

The place Dori Dos calls home....

Posted by Christina // 2 Replies

We recently got asked about where Dori Dos lives. Hi Gabby!

She does indeedy live in the very same tank that Dori OG lived in. You can read about that tragedy here.

I don’t want to risk jinxing Dori Dos, so this post is not about the fish.
It’s just about the tank.
Ok fish fore fathers who curse my fishies, ya listening? Please don’t jinx my fish.

When we started this hobby we had a 60 gallon tank, which you will learn more about next week. That tank lived in our office, and it was so nice to be able to work and fish-gaze at the same time. Then we bought the big tank, and eventually we sold the 60 gallon. But I really missed having a tank in the office, so I got this guy.

Please don’t judge the paint, and the general mess. The office is at the top of our To-Do list.

I wanted a little tank to call my own and put pretty pink corals and fun little fish in.

Once the tank was ready for fish we put Miss Holly in with a little Goby.

But she always was hiding, and I had a thing for little Damsels. We didn’t want to put Damsels in the big tank because they can be territorial and eat corals. But this little tank was perfect for them. We moved Miss Holly into the big tank and loaded this guy up with Damsels.

And I liked them, for about a week.

The problem was, they didn’t have much personality. They were boring. In fact, I just tried to find pictures of them. I never took any, and I take pictures of everything. I hate to sound picky or mean, but Damsels weren’t my thing. So they went into the sump. Before anyone flies off the handle and calls the fish police, the sump is our filter for the big tank.

Then this tank sat empty, because I just wasn’t sure what I wanted.

Then came the Dori’s. And my heartstrings are pulled as tight as ever.

The tank they call home is just a 12 gallon Nano Cube. I gotta tell you, if you are considering getting into the hobby, a Nano Cube or Biocube is the way to go. They have everything you need. Built in lights and filtration make it super easy to set up and take care of. I will warn you though, it isn’t big enough and you will fill it in a month and want something bigger. But that is the case with every tank once you’re addicted….T and I are already talking about a 600 gallon built-in basement tank. It’s a sickness.

What is under the hood…let me show you.

See…everything you need.

The reason it is such a good starter tank is because the maintenance is just enough to expose you to what you are in for but not enough to overwhelm you. If I can take care of it, anyone can.

If you take a look around you will see that no one is sponsoring this post. I just really love having a little tank on my desk.

Now then, if you want to see the super cute inhabitant….check this out.

And for those of you in the know, the hermit crab that chowed down on Dori OG…..is now battling the big boys in our 210.

Have you entered our $50 Gift Card Giveaway?
Click here to enter.

08.30.12

Blogging....for Dummies.

Posted by Tim // 7 Replies

*Don’t forget to enter to win a $50 giftcard in our One Month Giveaway*

Blogging has consumed our lives… Blogging for breakfast, blogging for lunch, and blogging for dinner. I really had no idea what to expect when we bought our first domain name. Once we decided upon a name it has been a whirlwind of blog posts. At this point, everything we do is blog related, but in the best way possible. Except for on weekends of course, those are still ours…for now.

We decided a long time ago that we needed a way for our friends and family to check in on the things we do and see what we do every day, no matter how boring it may be. We did not expect everything that went into maintaining a blog.

Since we have been at this for a whole month now I wanted to fill you in on the work that we put in every day. Hopefully, this will give everyone just one-tenth of an idea of how much goes into preparing a blog post and getting it ready for the inter-webs. Early on, we choose to each take a role. Since I am not much of a writer I chose the more technical, web design, layout, NERDY aspect of it all. In addition, I was forced chose to take on the semi-professional photographer role.

We spend most of the time taking photos, posing for photos, editing photos, and re-taking photos when we don’t have the shot we need. Christina does all of the wonderful, funny, witty writing that you folks get to enjoy every day (this really is Tim and I really did write that). I do take part in all of the writing though by proof-reading and correcting all of the errors, and trust me there are many errors. I had to get a jab in there somewhere so her head would stop swelling.

Then it is time for the layout, this includes the resizing of everything, inserting all of links for any product or reference we use, and placing FB and Pinterest links. Once everything is in place and has been looked at one million times it gets published. Ok so that doesn’t sound like much work, but when was the last time you resized and edited 60 photos.

We really do enjoy blogging and keeping everyone in the loop with all of the fun stuff we do. We stay up very late to make sure everyone gets a laugh the next morning. We really do appreciate everyone who reads even just one post. In conclusion, thank you everyone for being with us for the first month and reading our blog. We will have many more posts to come and hope you will stick with us through the years and we will do our best to keep you entertained.

-T