{explore} mural art in St Petersburg, Florida

If you are in the Tampa/St. Pete area, I encourage you to spend an afternoon touring downtown to enjoy all the mural and street art. St. Pete encourages and supports public mural art in a big way which makes the city vibrant and visitors lucky. The recent Shine festival helped add even more art to the walls. You can read more about the artists and get a tour map here. 

*And for refreshments, we love Bodega and Banyan Cafe.

10 alternative gift ideas

Gift giving season is upon us! Given that we are in a tight economy and many homes are over run with clutter, I wanted to offer a few ideas for the sort of gifts that you can feel good giving and that put your hard earned money to work for a better world.

For the last few years, we have scaled back our gifting and now give a big bag of goodies to each family on our list. The bag is decorated by our children in a theme they think the recipient family will like and then it is filled with a variety of the following:

Our favorite food finds from the year - We love food and always have new finds we want to share, like a certain chocolate bar or mustard or cool pop, and the best part is these items will not add clutter to a house.

Handmade goodies - We make bath salts, felted soaps, picture frames, dog biscuits, embroidered pillowcases, food items, homemade candy and more. Click here to print out my laundry soup and pit paste recipes. Also, buying homemade gifts from Etsy or local artisans directs money into the pockets of creatives (which is where I like it to go!)

Local artisan items - The local farmer's market is filled with awesome gifts. I try to load up on local honey, specialty spaghetti sauces, homemade jerky, knitted items, cutting boards, and handmade soaps. These not only make great gifts for the recipients but pump money right back into our local economy.

Books - For the readers in my family, I love searching for just the right book that I think they will love. 

Gift certificates to local businesses - I am not always a fan of giving out generic gift certificates, but love giving them out to local restaurants or shops. A GC to an independent comic shop or book store would be great for any young teen. We give out gift certificates to the historic movie theatre each year. 

Gift certificates for events - I love making up gift certificates for events. I recently gave my Dad a day trip to a photography museum and craft brewery. Not only did he like both, we have a great memory of a day spent together. 

Board games - A new board game (with lots of fun treats) will offer many evenings of fun to the recipient family, and maybe they will invite you over to play.

DVD of the year in pictures - My husband makes a DVD with music and photos from the year and we give it to grandparents and relatives who are far away. This is always well received.

KIVA loan gift certificate - This is such a great gift for the business man who is so hard to buy for. I gave one of these to my dad a few years ago and it was fun to hear the updates on his borrower. 

An item we already have that the recipient has been eying - My mom and husband have been gifting each other records from their collections on birthdays and "just becauses". Family heirlooms and special items make awesome gifts, especially if it is something the recipient has expressed an interest in.


Please leave your alternative gift ideas in the comments. I would love to hear them!


I am taking off the rest of the week to play with my chickens, eat, rub my belly and write. I will see you next week. 

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And as always, please feel free to email me any questions at amybarbo at gmail dot com.

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spend an afternoon at The Tampa Museum of Art

If you find yourself in the central Florida area and are looking for an attraction to enjoy that is not of the theme park variety, I recommend Tampa Museum of Art. It is the perfect size for a quick dose of culture with kids before you climb onto another roller coaster. 

We have visited several times in the last few months and loved it each time. The building is modern and impressive to kids, offering a big interior staircase and big, open galleries.

The last show we saw was A Hundred Years, A Hundred Chairs. (Locals, this show is running for another month - go!), which was a review of the last century through chair design. We spend about an hour looking through the show and each picking out our favorites and even counting to see if indeed there were one hundred chairs (there were).

One of the things that makes the museum great for families is that in addition to the small permanent collection of Greek artifacts (good for Percy Jackson fans), and the kid friendly cafe, is the proximity to a great outdoor space. Just outside the museum is the Hillsborough river and the Curtis Hixon Waterfront Park. The park hosts a splash pad, picnic tables, big grassy lawns and play structures. 

We planned for a whole afternoon and brought a picnic lunch and art supplies. After the viewing the exhibitions, we settled in to homemade pizza and tomato salad. Then we started designing our own chairs in our journals while our food digested. 

This is such a beautiful area to sit and relax in. Within walking distance is the Glazer Children's Museum, the Florida Museum of Photography Arts, and many restaurants. 

We have really taken a liking to this little area in Tampa, and will be there again soon to check out the Henri Cartier-Bresson show. 

mini maker faire

This last weekend we excitedly attended the mini Maker Faire in Orlando and thoroughly enjoyed it. My kids were entranced by the R2D2 builder's club display, robotics demonstrations, Lego creations, traditional book binding demonstrations and some wild hacked musical instruments. 

The highlight for them was the learn to solder workshop. My 6 year old is really interested in electronics and robotics and has soldered a bit at home, but this little lesson helped build his confidence and skills. The facilitator was really great in empowering and encouraging him.

Outside we looked through an electric (and solar) car display, watched a mini racer demonstration and met a 16 year old student who was building a huge model of this sculptor/engineer's work. 

Mini Maker Faires are popping up all over the country. If you have not attend one - GO! The projects, displays, demonstrations and products highlighted are all wonderful, but the best part is being surrounded by a community of passionate do-ers, builders, and makers. 


Mainstream education should be studying multi-generational community events like this when planning STEM education. The open, playful, celebratory environment is fertile ground for inspiring 
new creators and inventors.

rendevouz time travel

Each year we attend the Alafia River Rendevouz, which is a historical re-enactment camp in central Florida. The participants spend a week together sharing skills and culture from the early 1800's meetups that brought Native Americans, fur traders, merchants and frontiersman together. The last few days are public days and it is as close to time travel as you can get. Luckily, this year we attended on a field trip day, so the crowd was light and was made up of primarily home schooled and a few private schooled kids. 







Before filling up on homemade root beer we talked to several re-enactors who taught us new skills. Like how to haul water with a yoke, how to brain tan leather and how to spin and dye yarn. 

We also learned some Indian sign language and drumming. 




We experienced how loud musket guns are. 




But most of all, after a full day, we came home excited and inspired by all we had seen and done. My daughter is really into chewing on licorice root. One son is thinking about getting a throwing tomahawk, while the other one is practicing his sling shot aim. And this mama has been constantly practicing her flint and steel fire starting skills (no such luck yet - but I am close).


These historical re-enactments fuel creative play (that is basically what is is for the adult participants) for my kids in such huge ways I tend to think of them as a big component of our life schooling "curriculum." 


We also attend a local Medieval festival and loved both Jamestown and Williamsburg in the last few years. And I can not wait to take them to the Tenement Museum in New York.


What about you? Are you a fan of historical re-enactments? Are there some that are not to be missed near you? Please share!

one day vacation :: Gainesville, FL

We had a wonderful day trip to Gainesville, FL this week. We have not been to Gainesville for a dozen years, since before having children, and we have been missing a lot!

This trip was initiated by a homeschool co op trip to the Florida Museum of Natural History at University of Florida (thanks Kim!). The museum was really good. In the last year or so, we have been to the natural history museums in Washington, DC and New York City and while obviously not as big as either of those, it was pretty impressive.  For us, it was destination worthy and we highly recommend it for natural history buffs. We enjoyed the beautiful butterfly garden, even managing to locate the elusive Atlas moth, but even more interesting to our family was watching research students in the entomology lab pinning butterflies. 

I was personally impressed with the fossil collections, especially the huge megashark jaws and the mammoth and mastodon skeletons. We studied the ice age a few years ago, so it was fun to see the fossilized bones of the giant sloth, saber toothed cat and glyptodont (an armadillo as big as a VW bug). 

A special music exhibition captivated everyone for an hour or so. The stone xylophone was a hit!

Lunch was at local institution, Burrito Bros. This is my kind of place! Owned by the same family for 35 years, the burritos are fresh and filling. I loved the red rice and just spicy enough chicken. And what is not to love about a place that lights its neon sign when they have guacamole!

We had to work off that huge lunch, so we headed to Devil's Millhopper State Park for a hike.  At this ancient sinkhole, visitors can walk down a few hundred steps to the bottom and be surrounded by a mini rainforest. Small waterfalls, and lush vegetation, make you feel like you are far removed from the bustling city. 

Our last site to see on this jam packed day was the bat houses at University of Florida. Apparently, at dusk at least 100,000 bats emerge in a very dramatic exit. Unfortunately, it was a bit chilly, so the full explosion of bats did not happen. We did see a few hundred and the camaraderie among the others waiting for the event was fun. 

 This lake across the street from the bat houses was full of alligators and huge soft shelled turtles - all of which have been fed a lot by people, so they were keen to see us. Other than that, this would be a great place to hang out before watching for the bats. Just keep your eyes open :)

On our way out of town, we loaded up on warm, cheesy pizza at another local institution, Leonardo's by the Slice.  The line was snaked all the way through the restaurant, but the pizza was great and well worth the wait. With a big variety of toppings and very friendly staff, we will definitely stop by again when we are in town.

This was such a great day trip from central Florida. And a good reminder, that my wanderlusting soul does not always have to get on a plane to be inspired, amused, educated and sated. 

Lake Morton for the month

There are so many great month long projects out there in November. I contemplated writing a novel. Or joining Shannon in a month of gratitude. What I have come up with is more personalized to my life and callings.

This time of year is gorgeous in Florida. When most people are hunkering down for a long, cold winter, we are finally able to be outside all day long. It is sunny with a cool breeze. A little rain here and there adds to the cozy fall mood. So, my month long challenge is going to involve being outside, writing and photography.

My kids and I plan to walk around our neighborhood lake everyday this month. We walk around it a lot already, so it might not seem like much of a challenge - but I think the daily habit will be transformative.

We are very lucky to live by Lake Morton. It is one of the places I have always loved. As a kid, we came to the lake to feed the ducks, and I always knew that if I were to live here I would want to live near this bird sanctuary that is packed with swans, wood storks, aningas, great blue herons, geese, bald eagles and mallards. So, now I do. For the last 10 years we have lived just a few blocks from it. I walked around it trying to convince my first child to leave the womb; I have walked it with babies in slings and strollers. I remember when each kid could walk the whole mile on their own and now with three big kids, we can stroll the lake with no problem at all.

My husband walks or bikes by the lake on his way to work. My daughter and I used to meet him with a picnic dinner when our family was just three. My son fell in the lake with a freshly broken arm and a stroller filled with books from the nearby library rolled into the lake once. We have seen art, fireworks, and protests all from the shores of Lake Morton.

The secret about this lake (and anyplace in nature) is that it is never the same. We see something new EVERY time we walk around it. Everytime. A new flower in bloom, an alligator that should not be there, a hawk eating a duck, new ducklings and cygnets (their numbers getting smaller as the days progress). Stories and narratives unfold the more frequently we go.

So this month, we will go, and watch, and record and feel deep gratitude for a place so near to our home and hearts.

Is there a place near you like this? A place that is woven into the intimate fabric of your life, but begs to be more deeply regarded?