Five things (Florida edition) + did you win?

Well hey y’all! How have you been? I want to say I’m just home from Florida but truthfully it’s coming up on a week and apart from an event on Tuesday night, I’ve been mostly lazing about the house in my jammies watching the new Queer Eye on Netflix and organizing a few odd things here and there. I’m overdue for check in and thought I’d pick up where we left off with a few pictures from my trip. I also have the potential winners of January’s Thursday Plantation and Sweet Reads Box giveaways to announce so we’ll get to that too. 

My husband’s aunt has a place in Zephyrhills (about 50 kilometres northeast of Tampa) and my mother-in-law is staying with her for the winter so we went down with my brother-in-law and his hubby to visit them and take in some of the area attractions.

Like the Shops At Wiregrass (the palms above line the entrance) and Target and Bealls and Hobby Lobby and just about every outlet store in a 40-kilometre radius. (I tried to restrain myself and leave something in the stores for the other shoppers but let me tell you, it wasn’t easy.) The kids did three days at Disney with their dad, his brother, and my mother-in-law with a day in between to relax and hit the pool.

By golf cart, naturally.

I brought a few books with me, including Mitzi Bytes from January’s Sweet Reads Box. I didn’t get as far into it as I would have liked but I have enjoyed what I’ve read so far.

One Sunday afternoon we drove over to Rhythm & Brews to see uncle Michael’s band and spied this charming establishment just down the street. “At least the sign didn’t say half off,” said my brother-in-law. I mean seriously.

And one day Aunt Marianna took us for lunch at a cute tea room and gift shop over in Dade City. I tried a black tea with vanilla and pomegranate called From Across A Crowded Room and a fresh and beautifully presented salad with grilled chicken. My brother-in-law had the heart-shaped scones with jam and clotted cream and said they were quite good. (They were also super cute. I should have taken a picture.)

For dessert (scones aren’t dessert, are they?) we drove to Plant City for strawberry sundaes at the Parkesdale Farm Market, the largest family-operated strawberry and citrus farm in Florida. If you’re in the area and love strawberries make you sure stop by. The sundaes are worth the trip and the seating area (aka The Garden of Eatin’) is really pretty with all of the different plants and flowers and garlands strung from the rafters.

I think that about covers the highlights (thank you again for your hospitality, Aunt Marianna!) — now for our potential winners! I say potential because each person will need to get back to me in 48 hours and answer a skill-testing question before they’re officially a winner. If you see your name here, 1) congratualations! and 2) I’ll be contacting you directly shortly after this post goes live.

The potential winners of a Thursday Plantation prize pack are:

Lori Butler and Elizabeth Mattheisen

And the potential winner of January’s Sweet Reads Box is:

Kim Patrick

Thank you to everyone who participated (and even if you didn’t participate, thank you for reading!) and keep an eye out for more giveaways soon! I’ve got some super fun things to share with you leading up to Valentines Day. (Which may or may not include chocolate, just sayin’.)

Have you ever been to Florida? What did you see and do? Are you travelling somewhere soon? Tell me more!