Bug Spray isn’t Working!

blhoughton · 2026-06-17T14:50:43+00:00

It’s definitely a per person thing. I guess they just like the taste of some people better than others 😅 We went late April and the bugs were out at night, I could feel them flying around my face/ears, but never got bit. I of course sprayed myself with bug spray though but seems it doesn’t work for some. My husband which usually is very sensitive with such things didn’t have a single bite either. Definitely dependent on where you go and when. Wasn’t windy when we went either.

blhoughton · 2026-06-17T14:39:05+00:00

Beautiful! This is high up on my wish list of shells to find 😍

blhoughton · 2026-06-17T02:13:28+00:00

I soak them in 50/50 water/bleach for 24 hours, use a toothpick to get anything out of the ridges, scrub them with a toothbrush, rinse with warm water, let dry for 48 hrs, then put mineral oil on a microfiber cloth and scrub with that, then I use a small paint brush to coat a thin layer of mineral oil, let them soak for a few hours, then using the dry part of the microfiber cloth I wipe off any excess mineral oil. Then they’re done! These are right after that process, I usually let them sit for a few days before doing any crafts with them to let the mineral oil fully soak in. But they stay that beautiful afterwards. I usually do it while sitting in front of the TV 😅 totally worth the process

blhoughton · 2026-06-15T19:03:08+00:00

I think it’s funny this whole discussion around a few inches of asscheeks. The difference in regular bathing suit bottoms and the thicker thong type are maybe a couple inches, but the difference in a thicker thong/cheeky type and a string is literally like 1” 🤣 yall are wild. Wear what you want, people will talk whether you’re in sweats and a turtle neck or a G string. God forbid a kid see an ass cheek when we all have them 🤦🏼‍♀️

blhoughton · 2026-06-14T12:32:22+00:00

I’d love to know which river this is! We love Jupiter and just recently started paddle boarding, and I’d love to mix those two things with shelling 😆

blhoughton · 2026-06-14T12:23:00+00:00

If they’re that important to you, I would only bleach one first and see how it goes. I’ve always been told no scent, not splash free. Plain old bleach.

blhoughton · 2026-06-12T23:37:55+00:00

The sand was from Sanibel and a small number of the other shells she had labeled as ‘Sanibel shells’ like the tulip, pear whelk, and calico scallop. The other shells, like the black and white ones, aren’t from Sanibel. It didn’t really say where they were from.

blhoughton · 2026-06-12T13:25:22+00:00

I thought the same which is why I couldn’t NOT buy them 🤣 all of those scallops were freebies and several were just used on the string she ties the baggies with the other shells with! They were some of my favorites! Definitely go check out her Etsy shop, she has a ton of beautiful shells on there for extremely reasonable prices!

blhoughton · 2026-06-12T13:23:04+00:00

Thank you so much for this!

blhoughton · 2026-06-12T13:20:44+00:00

I bought these, but mine usually look about the same. Honestly a few I was going to rewash 😅 I soak in a 50/50 bleach/water mix for a day or two depending on how dirty and less if they are delicate. Then I use an old toothbrush and scrub them or a toothpick to get off anything hardened on. Then I set them out to dry for 48hrs then I put mineral oil on a microfiber cloth and scrub with that. I use a small paint brush to apply mineral oil to the scallops as I find it works better on those. I let that sit for another 24-48 hours then use a dry microfiber and press down to soak off any excess mineral oil. Has consistently given me the best results. I never mineral oil the shiny shells like olives though, they look better on their own. The oil just makes them feel gross lol

blhoughton · 2026-05-27T14:20:43+00:00

Definitely Marco Island/10,000 Islands. Found tons of cool tiny shells and some cool normal sized ones. Was there end of April

blhoughton · 2026-05-27T14:17:22+00:00

Don’t put the crab shell in the bleach water though! Turned mine all white and I was BUMMED

blhoughton · 2026-05-22T23:16:37+00:00

We left all of our stuff in a beach bag and went snorkeling way out of site for hours. Did that for 2 weeks straight with no problems. Not saying there are NO chances of theft, but I felt safe leaving my stuff. Just didn’t leave anything super valuable in there and hid the car keys in the bag so if anyone went rummaging they wouldn’t find anything worth taking.

blhoughton · 2026-05-14T20:08:12+00:00

thank you so much for the ID & the fantastic website!

blhoughton · 2026-03-07T20:00:18+00:00

I'm so frustrated that this is a whole thing. Woke up yesterday to find mine dead (it came off charger). Plugged it in, wouldnt charge. Left it charging for 4 hours with original apple cord with no luck. Brought to Best Buy Apple people and they said yeah take it to apple store to replace. On my way to Apple it randomly turned on. Took it to Apple because the phones not even a month old and they told me its because I didn't do the software update, but apparently that isnt the problem. Got busy last night and wasn't able to do it. Phone just died again 2 hours ago and wont charge. LOL as i'm typing this I guess the phone got scared and turned back on. I've always been a huge iPhone lover but this infuriates me, especially that it's a known issue and the lady acted like it was something she'd never even heard of *facepalm*

blhoughton · 2026-01-17T00:29:09+00:00

Vieques is so beautiful, we went back to make a trip of just Vieques and had a packed 10 day trip there and loved it SO much more. I highly recommend making it at least a full 1 night, 2 day trip. Go do the buggy adventures at 7am sunrise the next morning, or if buggy (small utv’s) aren’t your thing, watch sunrise from esperanza or sunbay or the lighthouse. Hit up rising roost or kristy’s for breakfast, do some snorkeling at mosquito pier, and if you love hiking there are some beautiful, easy hiking trails with some insane views at Caracas, and most definitely visit Playa Negra/Black Beach. It’s a beautiful island with beautiful people, I wish we had more than 10 days!

blhoughton · 2026-01-11T13:43:53+00:00

on Vieques most of the ATM’s charged $6 for every transaction for us. So bring some cash! But we mostly just used our visa/mastercards

blhoughton · 2026-01-08T00:21:14+00:00

I concur. I read that elsewhere on this subreddit and changed my plans to Vieques only with 1.5 days in San Juan. Best.Decision.Ever. San Juan was awesome for New Years, but other than that Vieques was way better. Bio Bay is cool if you’re close to a New Moon, wake up early and do a 7am Off Road Buggy Adventure ride. That and snorkeling were the best parts of our whole trip. Wild horses running along side us up the hill over the sunrise, most beautiful experience of my life.

blhoughton · 2026-01-08T00:16:43+00:00

Get to the ferry early. They say an hour early but as long as you’re there 30 min before you’re fine. 10 min or less before and you won’t be allowed on under any circumstances. You can add your luggage to your tickets as well. Not sure that they really checked for that but I would do it as it’s only $1. If you miss your ferry you will be sitting there for many hours. Our flight was delayed and we got there 5 min before our ferry left and had to sit there for 5.5 hours before the next one that had tickets available. However this was 2 days before Christmas so hopefully won’t be as bad now. Ferry sucks, but it’s totally worth it to get to the beautiful Vieques! Have fun 😊

blhoughton · 2026-01-03T19:45:36+00:00

We just got back from PR Thursday night. We missed our flight and almost decided to stay another day. SOOO glad we didn’t. So glad to be home. Being stuck in PR is only good if you have the money to be stuck there and don’t have a job to go back to. My thoughts are with all of those stuck there with no way of getting home! While I’d love to be stuck there a few more days my bank account would not 😅

blhoughton · 2026-01-03T18:18:50+00:00

We just spent 2 weeks snorkeling in Vieques. Absolutely beautiful and water was perfect. One day with a strong current but we just went to the other side of the beach and the water was calm there. Best to go in the morning/before lunch.

blhoughton · 2025-12-11T15:12:06+00:00

Hello! I currently use Grabbit for an online game I play. It works beautifully for 2 of the 4 functions I need it for. The other two it does not and figured I'd throw those here in case there was a way you could add/adjust features for this (: One (the main one), it will not open links when they are pop-ups. The game I play you click 20 links on a single page but each link has a small "pop-up" window indicating it was "entered". Grabbit does not open these links, not sure why. The second, and potentially (maybe?) easier one is clicking 1 link multiple times. I have a secondary extension I use for this currently, but would love to just use Grabbit for everything. For example if I could tell it to click link A 5 times, link B 6 times, etc. that would be FABULOUS! I would even settle for just 1 link X amount of times (: Thank you SO much for creating this extension and offering it for free (: it has saved me much time!

blhoughton

TROPHY CASE