Thursday, April 3, 2025

March by the Numbers

March by the Numbers:

Workouts: 

Only two (one neighborhood walk and one beach walk) but I did get 23 miles in NYC, plus 669 steps in the hotel and 216 steps at the Statue of Liberty. That's great for a week, but the overall month was lacking.


Movies Seen

*****Anora (Academy Award winner—5 times)

*****Last Breath (really good, true story)

***Paddington in Peru


Books Read—14

Sadly, only 3 were 5 star:

Baby Teeth

The Push

Give Me Your Hand


Lunch Out—9


Dinner Out:—2


Documentaries/Movies/Series Streamed 

Netflix : 14

*Instagram’s Worst Con documentary

*****Cowspiracy documentary

*****Just One Look (series—6 episodes)

****The Leopard—6 episodes

****Chaos: the Manson Murders (unbelievable—still)

*****Gabby Petito (3 episodes)

*****Adolescence (4 episodes)—this was heartbreaking. From now on, I’ll be praying for the families of the offenders!

*****Toxic Town (4 episodes)

*****Con Mum

*****The Twister

***The Devil All the Time

*The State of Alabama vs. Brittany Smith

*****The Long Shot

***The Miracle Club


Amazon Prime

*****Food Inc documentary (super interesting and eye-openong)

*Banking on Bitcoin (this was boring and I still don’t know what it is)


Hulu:

*****Ruby Franks documentary

*Scamanda documentary (4 episodes)

*The Real Amish Witches

****The Girl Locked Upstairs

****Maybe I Do


Scrapbook Pages Completed: 

9 double-page spreads


Groceries:

$446.80


Trips:

New York City—23 miles—689 steps in our hotel and 216 steps up to the pedestal in the Statue of Liberty


Mexico Beach—Connie’s place with my "girls"!


Another month in the books!!


Wednesday, April 2, 2025

What I Didn't Buy Wednesday

So, I'm in Florida with my friends. We always do our grocery shopping on the first day. I saw this and thought, "Eww! I have never seen these before. 
Pickled eggs. What? We were at the Piggley Wiggley. How is it that they don't have normal stuff that we are used to, but then have so many random things? Every item on this end cap is weird! I never heard of these before. 

I didn't buy any of it and never plan to!

Tuesday, April 1, 2025

Travel Tuesday

I'm off again! This time, I'm at the beach with my friends.

We're at Connie's beach house (she's on the left). Nancy is on the right. We were at the airport. It was a full flight with 5,000 kids! Apparently it's still Spring Break!
I'm so bad about remembering to take pictures that I handed my camera to Connie to take the one of Pam and I. 

We arrived around 9-ish in Panama City. Our first stop was the Waffle House. It's not my favorite place, but I admit the food is good--and that's what it's all about. We got to Mexico, dropped our luggage, and then headed to Port St. Joe to the Piggley Wiggley for groceries. 

By the time we got back and put groceries away, Pam and Nancy decided to hit the beach. Connie wanted to watch a basketball game--UT girls. I sat on the balcony and read, talked to Butch and napped--a perfect afternoon. Happy hour started at 4 followed by dinner at a pizza place around 5:30. When we got home, we watched 
a show and hit the sack early. 

We have a full week of nuthin' to look forward to! You can bet I'll be doin' somethin', but it will add up to a whole lot a nuthin'!

Monday, March 31, 2025

Monday Mystery

Tulips are a mystery to me.

So. I got this picture yesterday from Nicky. 
Last year at this time, we were with Nicky and Stephanie on our "Tulip Cruise." The Keukenhof gardens were so beautiful. Stephanie and I picked out dozens of bulbs--carefully planning out what we wanted. At that time, she asked me why I never did tulips. I told her that I had, but didn't have much luck. We were both excited about our $500+combined purchase!! We knew exactly what we were getting. What could go wrong? 

I kept the information, so I knew what each of us got. When the bulbs arrived, I knew which were hers and which were mine. The problem is that we didn't know how they were to be arranged. So now it was going to be "hit or miss!" Nicky sent me the above picture wondering if this was the right color palette. Heck if I know!
I was just thrilled that theirs were up and blooming. 

On the other hand, ours...
aren't looking too swift. In this picture, it looks like there are about 6 of them coming up. 
This is the other side doesn't look much better!

Then I remembered another reason I never had much luck with tulips. SQUIRRELS! And we have many of them! 

Steph and I have many more that should be coming up soon. But most of mine were in the pictures above. I wanted them to be bunched together for a beautiful display that I could enjoy from my kitchen window. 

All I can do at this point is keep my fingers crossed!

One thing is for sure, I'm DONE with tulips--and there's no mystery why!!




Sunday, March 30, 2025

Something for Sunday

Do you remember this? This goes all the way back to 2021.
I got this darling, miniature beach house for Christmas.

The level of detail is incredible.
We had so much fun putting it together. 

Well, for Christmas this past year, I got this 
miniature "Shakespeare" book store.


We spent the last two weeks working on it. Okay, Butch did most of it--all the hard stuff. I punched things out and covered dozens of books.

Once again, it was so much fun. There were a couple times that Butch got frustrated and we had to walk away. But he always figured it out. 
It turned out so cute. There's a little overhead light. There's so much to look at. I thought I would put it in the library, but at least for a little while, I'm going to keep it in the kitchen so everyone can see it.

Now I'm thinking I might need to get something else for us to work on. 

Saturday, March 29, 2025

Scrapbook Saturday

While I was in NYC last week, I was already planning my layout. I had a few ideas and couldn't wait to get started.
I had purchased this design from a seller on Etsy a few months ago for $1.99. All I had to do was cut it.
One night, I told Janet that I had an idea for the layout. I wanted to get right on it when I got home so I wouldn't forget my plan. When I was thinking about the fact that we were there for 4 days, my mind automatically organized the layout like this--4 sections--one for each day. I backed the title on black to make a fold-out.
I vaguely remembered these day stamps. They are at least 20 years old and NEVER been used!! I went a step further and embossed them. I don't think I've used my heat gun in 10 years! 
I used yellow and black because of the iconic taxis. 
I just sort of "collaged" the whole thing.
When the fold-out is open--on the left, I told the story of my adventure with Josie and the steps. In the pocket is our itinerary, "peaks and pits," a vinyl sticker and another photo.

The very day I finished the layout--Thursday, I got thank you notes from Janet and each of the girls. That was sweet of them.
But really, the truth is--I'm so happy to have been along! Anyway, the envelope with the notes had that statue of Libery sticker on it. I used a circle punch and added it to that page. It's just a little thing, but still fun to add rather than just throwing it away.

As you are reading this, I am on my way to Mexico Beach with my girlfriends for a week. When I get back from that, I'll be heading back to New York with Sandy, Stephanie, Mindy and Butch.

Then, in just about a month from now, Janet and I will be off again! We're going to England together for a week. 

It's going to be a busy month and will fly by--for sure. 

I hope you have something fun planned for the weekend!