Snack Around the Plate (& Beach Trip Recap)

It’s an especially long SAP today since I’m sharing snaps from last week’s vacay, (and I went down a rabbit hole with PB Kids beach towels) so let’s go ahead and get into it!

What is a “Snack Around the Plate”? Growing up, this was the phrase my mom called meals she would assemble with random favorites when scouring the pantry and fridge. And, while each item didn’t totally go together, assembled as one collective, I loved them! Basically, “Snack Around the Plate” posts are just a smorgasbord of randomness — “a little of this and a little of that” from all things lifestyle. It’s a mish-mosh highlight reel from a favorite recipes to favorite finds.

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May 2023 Lifestyle and Summer Faves

1. PB Kids Towels (ON SALE)

Our favorite kids beach towels are almost all on sale (up to 40% off) right now (HERE)! Eliza was first gifted a Disney Princess towel (the former blue version of Number 3) with her name on it during her first year of life. It was such a special gift (an idea I have since borrowed) and since then, we’ve continued to purchase these towels. They’ve been wonderful quality and I grabbed a few more prior to the season since our pool was under construction. Here are a few of the prints and designs on sale — links for each can be found below the graphic.

PB Kids Beach Towels- SALE

1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16

I had purchased personalized version of Number 10 and Number 7 early this year/last year. And when Eliza saw me researching and putting the above graphic together, she said “Mommy, can I have that shark towel (Number 9) for my birthday? The sweet child never asks for anything so I was touched and immediately ordered it for her in secret. I asked her if she could think of anything else she may like for her birthday and she said “a new Cinderella cup and a Shark cup with my name on them”. I was hoping to get away with THIS Simple Modern Disney thermos from Amazon (that’s MY favorite kind of water bottle for her), but since she wanted them “with her name”, I ordered THIS purple Disney princess one (she recently gifted the pink one and blue one for friends’ birthdays), and the shark water bottle (HERE) that matches the new towel I ordered (HERE). The towel and the two thermoses shipped free, also, and I kept my lips sealed on her pending birthday gifts.

She gets so tickled by her towel choices and loves seeing her name on things right now, since she now knows how to spell and write it.

PB Kids Towels

Mermaid Beach Towel | Dinosaur Beach Towel

Our favorite adult towels are from PB — THESE wide stripe cabana towels that came out in a bunch of new colors this year. They’re thick, luxurious, big, and also make great gifts (we’ve gifted them to neighbors who put a pool in). The striped kids towels (like the whale, Number 6; and the shark, Number 13) would coordinate with the adult versions, if that’s your thing for a matching family set 😉

2. Hair Tool & Accessory Travel Case & Organizer

I purchased nothing new for the beach this year — a major victory! — and it went perfectly. If you missed my beach prep post where I was working to simplify and minimize my packing and prep, you can catch that post HERE. But, it WAS the maiden voyage and first time using THIS hair tool & accessory travel case. Travel and hair stuff has always been a bit of a pain point and never seemed to consolidate inside one bag and I was skeptical… but the multi-compartment travel case worked beautifully and fit everything I needed it to. On the bottom portion, it housed my straightener, three-barreled hair waver, and Dyson hair dryer and attachment (some of which are not small tools). The top portion has a mesh pocket and elastic holder and a zip pouch and it can be found on Amazon in several colors HERE.

Hair Tool Travel Case and Organizer

Hair Tool & Accessory Travel Case & Organizer

Speaking of the three-barrel waver, I am LOVING it for an easy, free, summer wild wave. It’s hard to mess up and doesn’t require perfect curls. It also holds amazingly and even the southern humidity doesn’t make it fall out. You can find it on Amazon for under $27 right now HERE. Eliza wanted me to wave her hair one morning and I don’t typically apply heat to her hair, but I ran it through quickly (and safely) and it was adorable.

Little Girl Wavy Hairstyle

3. New Exterior Paint Colors

I’ve mentioned a few times but this is the year of outside projects and exterior upgrades. Included… getting the exterior of our house painted. We’re also re-staining the decks and pool pump surround and back yard fencing. It took months to determine which direction I wanted to go between light and dark and the biggest obstacle that I was working with was that three sides of our house are hardiplank while the front has zero siding — it’s all stone and brick. And, I don’t love the tones of the stone and brick but also don’t want to paint them. I felt like white would be the safest option, but honestly, it was deciding the color I most wanted in the back around the pool that was the ultimate determining factor. With as much white (or at least white-appearing tile) as we have in the back, I thought if we painted the back of the house white, it would be too stark and too much. I also wanted to lower the reflection a bit. I love the dark gray of my mom’s home and decided that would be the direction I would go.

I tried Sherwin Williams Iron Ore — a soft black/dark charcoal — since I had it on hand from the dining room (see that HERE) but as I assumed, I thought it may be too dark. Then, I tried Kendall Charcoal by Benjamin Moore. Here it is on the side of the house, next to the garage door, on a south facing wall on a cloudy day…

Dark Home Siding Paint Kendall Charcoal Benjamin Moore

The shutters will stay black (we’re using Tricorn Black) and the white trim will be in Sherwin Williams Alabaster. Our decks will be re-stained in Sherwin Williams Charwood, which we’ve used twice before.

Kendall Charcoal Home Paint Exterior

The painters started this past week and the north-facing side will take some getting used to but the back of the house, next to the pool… it’s LOVE. I’ll be sharing more on this all soon! Our roof has had a lot of storm damage too, so roof repairs will be lumped into the outdoor “things to do”, also. That’s been a process to say the least.

4. Madewell Gauze Shirt Dress /Cover Up,

I didn’t buy it for the trip (I think I purchased late last year?) but our beach trip was the first time I wore it. And, it was so comfortable and felt so amazing, I ended up wearing it two out of the four nights out. I have THIS flowy shirt dress (that’s also a cover-up) in black and can’t say enough good things about it. It has multiple layers so is thicker but still lightweight and soft. Almost a gauzy linen that feels expensive. It runs LARGE. I like a cover-up that’s large and I don’t know that it had any reviews when I purchased it so I wasn’t aware and ordered my regular size. I am fine with it since I like an oversized fit — especially in this material for the beach — but if I ordered another color, I’d probably size down one for a still generous fit. It has slits on the sides but isn’t revealing.

Madewell Gauzy Shirt Dress

Madewell Gauze Shirt Dress /Cover Up

5. XL Utility Tote

THIS carry-everything, all weather, HUGE tote with burst-proof bottom and reinforced handles was probably the MVP of our beach trip. I wish you could see just how huge it is and how much it can carry but photos don’t do it justice. It’s the Mary Poppins bag but It’s SUPER lightweight and although I brought a big canvas beach bag for beach days, I should have just used this tote. I know several of you have recently purchased this bag (it comes in a bunch of patterns HERE on Amazon) and already love it, too. Also, the straps are large enough to carry on your shoulder. My mom has the market bag size which I’m convinced I need now, too, for smaller purposes.

Simplifying Preparing for Vacation with Minimized Packing

XL Utility Tote

Before our trip, anything that wasn’t in a suitcase basically went in here, with a TON of room to spare. You can see the details of that in our beach prep post HERE. On the way home, it housed all these items, plus a huge trash bag of dirty clothes. It folds flat for storage and I just can’t say enough about it. After its integral role on this past week’s trip, I had to come back again and rave.

Preparing for Vacation -- Minimalism As it Relates to Packing for the Beach

XL Utility Tote

6. Beach Trip Recap

I won’t give a full recap and instead, share some snaps from our trip, with just a few details. I didn’t get that many shots in, but we had a blast! We went back to Rosemary Beach (almost at the end of 30A) on the Florida panhandle, and the house we stayed in couldn’t have been in a better location. Steps away from the Eastern Green and Walkover C, our beach setup only took a couple minutes to get to from door to chair. One of the pools was also just outside our front door. It was a smaller house with two bedrooms and a bunk setup on the landing but for Dave, Gran Nan, Eliza and myself, it worked perfectly

Where we ate…

  • Old Florida Fish House (twice) (Santa Rosa) — LOVED the fried shrimp, their wedge salad, and the grouper dish!
  • George’s — Alys Beach — Salt & Pepper Shrimp are delish
  • Pescado — Rosemary Beach — Only went for after dinner drinks this time but their chocolate martini was *****
  • Amigos — Inlet Beach — Ordered delivery via Door Dash and the honey sriracha chicken tacos are amazing!
  • Meltdown Food Truck — Seaside — AMAZING! Will definitely be back. My mom loved hers with pimento cheese and I loved my four-cheese. So many fun options and a casual must!
  • We actually preferred our Waffle House meal to Big Bad Breakfast (Inlet Beach) this year
  • Didn’t love Cowgirl Kitchen (Rosemary Beach) the past few times we’ve gone…
  • We grabbed Pub Subs (a couple convenient Publix grocery stores around) for the beach one day, but ended up eating them on our front porch

We spent the majority of our time on the beach and despite being right at the pool, we didn’t set foot inside.

30A Rosemary Beach Vacation Trip

Mesh Beach Collection Bags (set of 3 – on sale for $7.99 on Amazon)

There wasn’t much sealife, but we saw dolphins on two different mornings, which was cool…

30A Rosemary Beach Vacation Trip

J&J Swim

30A Rosemary Beach Vacation Trip

J&J Swim

We typically did an actual breakfast, brought snacks to the beach for lunch, and then headed to dinner in the evenings.

30A Rosemary Beach Vacation Trip

J&J Swim | Lilly Pulitzer Flamingo Personalized Beach Towel

If the huge utility tote was the MVP of the trip, our bluetooth speaker that we hung from the umbrella was our MVP of the beach days.

30A Rosemary Beach Vacation Trip

J&J Swim

The Rosemary Beach community boardwalks are so charming — we stayed in one of these houses and it was perfect. We’ll likely book the same one for next year.

Donuts from The Donut Hole on the porch one morning for breakfast… The strawberry filled is still my fave.

30A Rosemary Beach Vacation Trip

Kids Simple Modern Water Bottle | 24 oz Flex Straw Hydro Flask Water Bottle

Another reason I’ve been looking forward to this trip so much is to reunite with one of my best friends, Sarah (Life On Virginia Street). She and her husband moved down here last year and I’ve been dying to see them again. She met us all for lunch one day…

30A Rosemary Beach Vacation Trip

Oversized Sunglasses

30A Rosemary Beach Vacation Trip

And then we were able to have a date night, one night.

30A Rosemary Beach Vacation Trip

Oversized Sunglasses | Balloon Sleeve Dress

30A Rosemary Beach Vacation Trip

Retro Sunglasses | Knit Dress

30A Rosemary Beach Vacation Trip

Knit Dress

30A Rosemary Beach Vacation Trip

Sundress (now in tan/white)

30A Rosemary Beach Vacation Trip

Sundress (now in tan/white)

This was our first time heading up 30A to Seaside and we loved taking a night to have a casual food truck dinner. Again — those grilled cheese sandwiches! Holy cow! We got there at 4:00 and at that time in early May, had no problem going right up and ordering and sitting down at a table.

30A Rosemary Beach Vacation Trip

Terry Romper (similar)

30A Rosemary Beach Vacation Trip

30A Rosemary Beach Vacation Trip

Terry Romper (similar)

We LOVE going this time of year — the weather is perfect and school isn’t out yet so we can avoid the forthcoming summer crowds.

30A Rosemary Beach Vacation Trip

Lilly Pulitzer Knit Shift Dress | Vineyard Vines Button Down (linen version HERE) | Vineyard Vines Shorts

30A Rosemary Beach Vacation Trip

Madewell Gauze Shirt Dress /Cover Up | Oversized Sunglasses | Vineyard Vines Button Down (linen version HERE)

30A Rosemary Beach Vacation Trip

Lilly Pulitzer Knit Shift Dress

30A Rosemary Beach Vacation Trip

Lilly Pulitzer Knit Shift Dress | Oversized Sunglasses

I grabbed one quick shot of our small, cute house, literally as we were walking out the door to leave.

30A Rosemary Beach Vacation Trip

It was a fantastic trip.

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8 Comments

  1. 5.12.23
    Cynthia G Bennett said:

    Where did you stay in Rosemary Beach? I’d like to book a trip for my family. Looks perfect!

    • 5.14.23

      Rosemary Beach IS perfect, Cynthia! We’ve booked through 360 Blue Properties last year and this year and have been very pleased with the results.

  2. 5.12.23
    Cathy said:

    I am glad you had a wonderful time. Late April and early May is the best time to visit. Your pictures were beautiful. Please tell Dave to be careful when stepping into the pine straw. Small
    Pygmy rattler’s hang out there. 🐍

    • 5.14.23

      Thank you for taking the time to visit, Cathy! We had an absolutely wonderful time and I will certainly let Dave know about the Pygmy rattlers…

  3. 5.12.23
    Amy said:

    Looks like a great trip…thanks for sharing with us! You have a beautiful family!! Also, I follow Sarah’s blog down too. I didn’t realize you were friends 😉

    • 5.14.23

      We had a wonderful trip, Amy, and I was so excited to get to spend some time with Sarah. We’ve been friends for years, but don’t get to see each other enough. I appreciate your kind note so much!

  4. 5.13.23
    Angie said:

    isn’t Rosemary wonderful! I see one of the pictures is in front of Cafe Pardis, make sure and eat there next time…amazing!!

    • 5.14.23

      Rosemary Beach IS wonderful, Angie! We will certainly keep this eatery in mind next trip…I loved the floral archway and couldn’t resist taking a pic. It reminded me of a mermaid’s lair.