I LIKE Thursday.#291

Another gem from Nanea Hoffman of Sweatpants and Coffee.

I joining LeeAnna at Not Afraid of Color for this weeks conversation about likes. Lee Anna suggested this conversation starter:

what back to school supply would you like to have now as an adult? Fresh new notebooks? markers or new crayons? fat pack of ruled paper? lunchbox?  LOL  tell us your fave    I guess my answer would be pens and fine line pencils. My accumulated stash of ball point pens has dwindled in recent years. I got used to gel pens when I worked. But now I like different colored pens. Now’s the time to buy them. I’m definitely going to stock up. I did notice that when we did our absentee ballots for Tuesday’s primary, the instructions specifically stated no gel pens and only black ink. 

 Not much time at the sewing machine lately, but as I was arranging yellow and aqua (from July’s RSC) 2 1/2” squares for my 16 patch stars, I discovered a really good use for the plethora of political ads we received in the mail. I used them for dividers between the  blocks on my portable design boards. LOL They were sturdy card stock and plenty big enough to keep the pieces separated! 

On Sunday our granddaughter and her kids spent a few hours with us. Our youngest great grandson, took much pleasure in noticing “that he was finally taller than me”. Indeed he is. His 13th birthday is early September. 

His little sister, 10 years old, isn’t that far behind. 

We took a mixed up stair step photo in front of our stair railing!  😄

We have been watching the new seasons of Lioness on Paramount+, and Reacher on Prime. 

I’m still working on CIRCLE OF DAYS by Ken Follett. And listening to THE BOYFRIEND by Freida McFadden . 

I’m also embroidering pincushion with initials. The next one is for MJ, then S, D, then A. . 

Did I show these last week?  I think I did. 😟

They are fun to do.

Stay Busy and Stay Happy and Healthy and Hopeful. 

i LIKE Thursday! Last of August!

I'm joining LeeAnna at Not Afraid of Color. LeeAnna keeps a list of fellow bloggers that like to post about good things happening. maybe vent just a bit, but mostly focus on the positive. Come join us. 

This week, from last Thursday til today, was a sort of "blah" week. But I won't focus on that. I'll try to find the highlights. 

Thursday the 24th I stitched with several friends at our local library. They have meeting rooms there that we so appreciate having access to. To have a place to meet, that doesn't require a fee these days ,is a blessing. 

There were lots of fun stitching going on. I didn't take photos.   Dang it. 

Friday: Mr. Busy was getting ready for his Fun Fly. It's kind of like a retreat for radio controlled aircraft enthusiasts. I did laundry and straightened my sewing space. 

Saturday was the Fun Fly. I had intended to go out to watch and encourage. But it was very windy and I knew that Mr. Busy would not be putting any planes in the air. I didn't sew, but I did do some stitching on the sunflower sampler.

And I did a second batch of chokecherry jelly that did not set, so now it's syrup.  I had the labels already made, so they have been edited. That'll teach me to plan ahead!  😁

Sunday, we got a call from our son. We did lots of catching up and I always feel better after talking to him. He is happy and therefore I am happy. 

Monday the 28th was another ordinary day. It is the anniversary of my mom's birthday. I went through some old photos and reminisced. I'm missing her lots lately.

Tuesday I got my hair cut.   Nope, no selfies, but I'm happy with it. And I baked a cake. Maybe you remember I made a rhubarb cakes using 1/2 of a yellow cake mix. Well, I had the other 1/2 in the cupboard and ran across an idea on Facebook. An apple dump cake. 

I used 1 can of apple pie filling in a 9x9 square pan. Added a generous sprinkle of apple pie spice blend , sprinkled the remaining cake mix over the top ( dry), drizzled with 1 stick of butter, melted, topped with chopped pecans. Baked at 350F for 35 minutes. I checked it with a toothpick. I'm at a higher altitude, so baking sometimes takes a bit longer. Check it at 25 minutes.  The photo has two pieces out of it already.  Yummy!!

We have been streaming some shows. We do one episode of S.W.A.T, we're up to Season 4,  one episode of Virgin River, also Season 4 and we've just started watching Special Ops: Lioness . Intense!  It stars Zoe Saldana, Nicole Kidman, Morgan Freeman, Michael Kelly. and others. 

My wasp traps are working!  I won't gross you out with the photo of them as Mr. Busy takes them down and dumps them. Ewwww!  But here is what they look like hung back up. I think the red coloring attracts them, also the sweet smell of the applesauce and water. 

This is the brand of the small yellow funnel thingy inserted in the empty liter bottle . Purchased at Harbor Freight!

I'll leave you with this photo that tagged my granddaughter on Facebook.  I know nothing about where the photo was taken or what was happening, but it looks like everyone was having a great time. 

I've circled my granddaughter and her fiance.  Great big happy smiles!!!

Stay Busy and Stay Happy and Healthy and Hopeful!

I LIKE Thursday ~ August 17th

I’m joining LeeAnna and others at Not Afraid of Color to share the good stuff and maybe even a bit of the not so good!

Last Saturday I attended the Herb Festival sponsored by our County Extension Office and the Master Gardeners. It was great fun and very informative!

We were given some springs of Dill(always in abundance this time of year) and some Rosemary. Then after the walk they had a table set up to make these cute little herb dryers! A small wooden embroidery hoop, some netting or tulle, 6 pieces of string and a hook. Three strings to hang the hoop, 3 to tie up bunches of herbs! 

And they were showing how to take a marigold flower , smash it onto a piece of muslin with a rubber mallet and use it as the base for a flower drawing.This is one my friend Linette did, but it made me think of LeeAnna and Joy and their journaling artwork! So pretty! ⤵️

Sunday my friend called and asked me if I wanted some chokecherries of course I said yes. So, Monday I washed and cooked two batches of chokecherries into 2 quarts of juice. Isn’t it a pretty shade of magenta?

I haven’t processed it into jelly yet, because my kitchen is in a bit of a disarray.  My microwave door won’t close!  ( some of the not good stuff I was mentioning at the beginning). It’s above the stove. A repair person was called, but can’t come until the 24th.  So Mr Busy aka Mr Fix-it, decided to watch YouTube videos to see if he could fix it! It’s apart and in pieces as we speak!  No jelly making in the near future!!

We’ve started watching Virgin River on Netflix!  I know, Season 5 is about to start, but we didn’t see it earlier. It’s kind of a “chick flick” , but Mr. Busy is watching with me. So it’s not too “sappy”! 😊

If the actress oops familiar, it’s Alexandra Breckinridge. She was also in This Is Us, as Sophie! 

Stay Busy and Stay Happy and Healthy and Hopeful!

I LIKE Thursday ~ Ice Cream

Good Morning! Today is a day to share the good things happening! LeeAnna at Not Afraid of Color organizes all of us who want to participate. Her Thursday post lists those bloggers who are grateful, thankful and just plain hopeful!

Entertainment: 

We are sad the regular TV shows that we watch are on summer break! But it does give us a chance to catch up on other ones. Since we cut the cable we only see CBS prime time, because we subscribe to Paramount+.  We also have Peacock until August, when our special price expires. Not sure what we will do about that, but we can catch some NBC stuff there.  Mr Busy is watching tons of YouTube channels. If you find a good something, ( not Vice Grip Garage, or Bad Chad, please share!)  🙂

The Bridal Veil spirea at the corner of our house is gorgeous this year. Probably from all the rain. The other foundation planting, not so much! I’ve got weeds to pull and some pots to plant. Now that the chance of frost is gone, I need to get busy!

This week is an important one for us. Tuesday was our youngest granddaughter's birthday. Wednesday was a nephew and niece-in-law's anniversary, today is my brother's birthday and tomorrow is our 59th anniversary. I think Hallmark was glad to see me last week! 

I got happy mail yesterday! Look what Flat Chuck brought! 

2 yard cuts from MSQC. Mostly neutrals and 4 yds of tossed confetti. Good backing for my ZigZag quilt! 

And, I had my first lunch on the deck yesterday! Yea! Summer!

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Prompt June 1, 2023

what is your favorite flavor of ice cream at the moment? who makes it? do you have more than one favorite?

soft serve or dipped? Do you buy it in the huge box or a pint at a time?

Great questions! I'll take them one at a time. 

Favorite flavor ALWAYS is Coffee. Any brand will do. Our locally owned Ice Cream Cafe  has a Coffee Bean flavor available all the time So good, with espresso beans and chocolate chips! In a homemade waffle cone, yes please!

It's made by Dee and Lee and their daughter Andrea.  Side note, I first met Dee and her mom Donna through the quilting community. Donna is 83 and attends our Thursday Stitchers group. 

At home I'll take plain ol' vanilla! I can add anything I want. Chocolate syrup, strawberries, banana slices, chopped nuts,whipped topping............Lately though, regular ice cream is a treat for me. I’m on the WW program. I’ve found that Halo Top Vanilla Bean light is pretty darn good. 1/2 cup is 2 pts. Add bananas ( zero pts) strawberries (0), any fruit(0)! I’m not fond of zero sugar Hershey’s syrup, so I’ll just do fruit! 

Of course, invite me to go to Dairy Queen, I'll accept and have a Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Blizzard or a Dilly Bar. ( I’ll have to eat salad the rest the day, though! )Oh, and we have an A&W combined with a Long John Silvers here. They have medium sized soft serve cones for 99c all summer. (at least they were 99c last summer!) That's a  date night destination. 

We have ice cream in the freezer at all times. Just the store brand, but hopefully Vanilla Bean. If not, then plain old vanilla. For a treat,  a new favorite of Mr Busy's is Kroger's Triple Treat Brownie.   Do you sense a theme........vanilla and chocolate.  Mr Busy will chose Cherry Nut at a specialty ice cream shop and we have visited a few. 

WE JUST LIKE ICE CREAM!

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Stay Busy and Stay Happy and Healthy and Hopeful!

I LIKE Thursday May the 4th be with you!

Happy “I LIKE Thursday” and May the 4th Be With You!



Joining up with others who find the good things in the everyday! Go check out LeeAnna’s blog for links to other bloggers “shares”.


LeeAnna’s prompt for this week:




do you like to sing for yourself?


I used to, but not any more. Even I don’t like my voice now!

For others?       Oh heck no! See above!

or has anyone said you're not a singer? do you sing to babies?


This makes me think of a favorite story. When our first grandchild was a baby, she and her mom lived with us for awhile. Sometimes when her mama was working, I got to put her to bed. She was maybe 7-8 months old. ( ps, she’ll celebrate her 38th birthday, the 21st of this month) I was rocking her and singing a lullaby. She reached up her hand, patted my check and said, “no,no, no!”. I think she just didn’t want to go to sleep, but Grandpa says, to this day, that she didn’t want me to sing! 😄😳🎵🎶



other suggestions: do you make up songs during the day? Are you more comfortable singing high or low…… if I sing at all, I sing low! As my dad used to say, “ Sing low, so low no one will hear you!” 😳




Entertainment:


The Diplomat with Keri Russell. It’s on Netflix and know that there is another drama with the same name, a British political series, airing on Alibi.

This is a really good one. Slightly political but in a fun sort of way! I scoffed and giggled more than once. And be warned, adult language and brief nudity are involved!

We watched the second episode of Rabbit Hole on Monday night! We again came away at the end saying, “What??” It’s a thriller alright.


Spring has finally, just maybe, sprung in Wyoming. Not all parts though…this video from the Montana Highway Department

 

The Beartooth Highway is actually US Hwy 212, that runs from Red Lodge MT, to the northeastern entrance to Yellowstone National Park in Wyoming. It’s a fabulous drive in the summer!


Other miscellany


I received some Happy Mail on Monday. For signing up for Hands 2Help at Confessions of a Fabric Addict. It’s called the Nest! I am excited to use it and it’s PURPLE!

I was so excited that I started to open the packaging before I remembered to take a picture. 

  

There is a large horizontal space/slot, maybe for a rotary cutter! 

I’m going to use it to park my phone! I’m always laying down and forgetting where!

And Saturday, Cathy K @ Crazy by Design announced that I won a PDF copy of Preeti Harris’s new pattern A Fishy Story. Have you seen it? It’s awesome. Tuesday , the pdf arrived by email! I am going to have to look for some awesome fabrics like Preeti and Cathy used. So gorgeous!


Not much else going on here this week, except an in home visit by, not one but two, health insurance agents. They saved us $$ though, so we are happy!

Stay Busy and Stay Happy and Healthy and Hopeful!

I like Thursday ~ foreign language?

ME GUSTA LOS          EL JUEVES

I Like Thursday in Spanish.  and  French

j'aime le jeudi

I'm joining LeeAnna at Not Afraid of Color. and others today for a chance to answer the prompt about if a speak a foreign language. And also to share some things in my life that I like or am grateful for.  If you want to join in or just look to see how other bloggers answer, go visit

No, I don't speak a foreign language. I took 2 years of Latin and 2 years of French in high school. They didn't offer Spanish then, only French and German. I can count to ten in Spanish. I can decipher some French and Spanish words due to the rules I learned in Latin class.  I  learned that I like words. Oh,  how I wish I was bilingual. I wish I spoke Spanish. When our kids were 6 and 3 we spent 8 months in Nogales AZ while Mr Busy worked for a company across the border. I felt very out of place and wished then that I could speak the language spoken there.  Now I think our country is diversifying quickly, and I have had the chance to know several people who are bilingual in English and Spanish. Our school system has one elementary school that is a dual language immersion program school. Most of you are probably already aware of this idea, but if interested here is a link to our school.  As I understand it, 50% of classes are all in English and 50%  are in Spanish. I have 2 young mom friends whose sons are attending that school. I think there is an application process, not everyone gets accepted. 

I finished listening to Watership Down. I enjoyed it very much. Have you read it? I see that there is an adaptation of the story on Netflix. I wonder if it is any good. 

Next on my reading list is:

    The Silkworm by Robert Galbraith

and another essay or  two of Ruth Bader Ginsberg's.  "My Own Words"

Mr Busy and I watched Season 3 of Tom Clancy's  Jack Ryan. We binged it all in about 3 nights!! 

And we have just started Rabbit Hole with Keifer Sutherland.  We have only watched the pilot, and boy were we blown away!  And hooked!!

In March my brother and sister-in-law took a learning trip to New Orleans.  I think it was called Road Scholar. At least that what she hashtagged in her Facebook and Instagram posts.They took some cooking classes at the New Orleans School of Cooking......and shared a recipe which needed this ingredient. I. ordered some and am looking forward to trying to make Shrimp Etouffee in the coming weeks. 

I'm also anxious to get the grill back out on the back deck and ready for  BBQ weather. Burgers and brats inside are just not the same. 

I'm participating in Sandra Walker's Rainbow Neighbourhood QAL. My blocks so far:

It's going to be a fun little quilt!  My photos make the houses look wonky, but they are not. They are 16.5 inches square. ( Now that I have gotten the  grassy strip the right size! ). LOL!

Stay Busy and  Stay Happy and Healthy and Hopeful!

I LIKE Thursday ~ Music

Last Saturday we drove toward Klamath National Forest to cut a Christmas tree. Without too much trekking or trouble, a tree was found. I stayed near the vehicle…I can’t do the uneven terrain , let alone with calf deep snow. I took some photos of the surrounding flora. Oops, looks like a got a couple of tree cutters, too!

Sunday we drove to Etna, CA for brunch! I showed other photos Here, but these were on the highway between Yreka and Etna. 

Just a short distance there was snow. When we got there, no snow and the sun was shining and warm enough to stand in the parking lot and visit with friends. 

We finished watching The English , on Prime Video and also watched Ticket to Paradise on Peacock. It starred Julia Robert’s and George Clooney. We all enjoyed it! 

And I’m getting caught up with New Amsterdam. DS finds it for me on one of the streaming services he has. I don’t watch it at home since we “cut the cable”! 

Tomorrow is our daughter’s birthday. We will call and visit with them ( DD and her daughter and grandkids) when they gather to celebrate and decorate the Christmas tree there. 

Today’s Prompt:  MUSIC 🎶🎵

I miss school Christmas programs. When my kids were little, Mr Busy would take them shopping for my gift. They always brought back a LP of Christmas music. Frank Sinatra, Perry Como, Barry Manilow, Elvis. It didn’t matter. I don’t have a turntable any more, but I have cassettes and cds. Now, I have old Country Western Christmas music: Dolly Parton,  George Strait, Glen Campbell and a mixture of Josh Groban, John Legend, Enya, Ed Sheeran. Several years ago Mannheim Steamroller played at our Events Center. I have several of their CDs too. They play the traditional carols too! Hark the Herald Angels Sing, Away in the Manger, Silent Night! 

Nowadays, I just say, “Alexa, play Christmas Music!” , and let her pick the artists and the songs. I like them all, EXCEPT Grandma Got Run Over by a Reindeer. 

Wishing you all a good week full of your favorite Christmas music! 

Stay Busy and Stay Happy and Healthy and Hopeful! 

I LIKE Thursday. Vacation spots!

I LIKE Thursday! 

LeeAnna's prompt for this week was:  

 

a place you always go to in the summer... a vacation spot, a cabin or town, camping location,  in childhood or nowadays

tell us why you like it, what it's like, how it makes you feel is it relaxing or exciting or both. If you can find pics all the better. 

ok well....As a kid we camped a lot! My parents had access to a cabin in the Black Hills of South Dakota so many weekends and vacations were spent there. I don't have photos, but picture two rustic cabins, no electricity, no running water, heat only from a pot belly stove in the middle of the room. My mom cooked on a kerosene stove. It was very fun. There was a stream nearby that was deep enough to wade up to your knees, but not too deep. My dad owned a roofing company, so we didn't go far away for vacations. But when you live and work in the Black Hills of So Dak, you aren't far from vacation.

When I graduated high school and got married. my DH and I camped too. In fact ,our daughter was born in December and that very first July, she was barely 7 months old, we camped with family for the 4th of July.. Later as our kids grew we acquired a pickup camper and then a boat. We spent most weekends at Pactola Reservoir in the Black Hills. One October we took our PU camper to Bozeman MT to visit DH's brother and family. We also drove home through Yellowstone National Park. A perfect time to see the sights there. Not too many visitors in the fall and the colors are amazing. 

Later after out kids left home, we purchased a Gold Wing motorcycle and spent many summers riding with friends to rallys and vacations spots across the US.  We went to Canada, Montana, Washington, Idaho, North Dakota, Colorado, New Mexico. Also to Minnesota, Wisconsin, Indiana, Niagara Falls, And lots of states in between. 

(All of my photos of those early years are not digital , so no pics! Sorry)

We have also vacationed in Mexico, Arizona, Nevada, Nashville, and the Bahamas. My retirement gift from my employer was a Caribbean Cruise. I love to do that again.

After we retired,  we purchased a used 5th wheel camper. 

We spent lots of weeks in our favorite place in the Black Hills. 

This is the best part about camping! The campfire! 

If you waded through this “wordy” post, here are a couple of LIKES! 

My daughter and I have been watching, Only Murders in the Building on Hulu. A funny, sometimes silly, but well acted comedy starring l to r, Martin Short, Steve Martin and Selena Gomez. 

I’m also reading: Family Jewels by Stuart Woods. I’ve not read Stuart Woods books in the past. This is number 37 in the Stone Barrington series. I normally don’t read books out of order, but these are simple enough, fluffy enough that I haven’t missed anything except Stone’s other former sexual exploits! It’s OK though! A fun easy read! 

This is number 13 in my Goodreads 2022 Reading Challenge. 

 I didn’t set a high bar. 12 books in 12 months. 

https://www.goodreads.com/user_challenges/33561170

Now go on over to  Not Afraid of Color  and check out links to other’s vacation favorites! 

Stay Busy and Stay Happy and Healthy!