Friday Favorites

Happy Friday friends. I am sad to say that I am battling poison Ivy. I got into a patch of it at work. I was thinning some irises and I noticed a bit growing near the irises. I am very allergic and I know better than to even be that close to it. I wore gloves and long sleeves but I still broke out in a couple of spots on my wrist and that soon spread to a couple of places on my stomach and then my leg. But that brings me to my first favorite of this week. Iva Rest. It is the best for poison Ivy break outs. This is the best stuff I have found.

I have been trying to find some cleaning supplies that will make my work easier. I saw the next two items in a fellow bloggers post. I can’t remember now who posted it but she was really impressed. The first one is this dusting wand. I got this from Amazon and I love it. You can clean the tops of cabinets or under appliances. I can think of many many places to use this thing. You can take the cover off and wash it. And you can order additional pads for it. This was around $22.00.

Next, also from Amazon is this plastic razor thingy. I hope you do not have soap scum anywhere in your bathroom room and if you don’t then good for you. But soap, lets calm it residue, an build up fast without you noticing. This rubber scraper is perfect for cleaning it and getting it off of you tub, shower walls or sink. I think this was about $10.00

Last Sunday my sister invited me over to her house for a small Mother’s Day get together. They ordered pizzas and I made a chocolate chip cookie cake and decorated it with icing I made. It was so yummy. My nephew made a yummy banana pudding. My family doesn’t like the huge chunks of banana in our pudding and my nephew Chris knows just how to make it. It is so good. I didn’t get a picture of the banana pudding it was a favorite and went fast.

Since I finished the Temperature blanket I have had more time to get back to my other projects. I dug out this sock that I had started back several months ago. I started working on it again. Man I had forgotten how tiny those little double pointed needles were.

The Day Lilies and the Tiger Lilies are blooming now and they are some of my favorites. They make me happy just seeing them.

Last week I watched a movie called A Man Named Otto. It is from the book A Man Called Ove. I really enjoyed Tom Hanks in this movie. It does deal with suicide so there are some trigger warnings. Otto has lost his wife and his will to live. Tom Hanks is Otto. His neighbor, an adorable woman, and her family bring out the best in him and help him to see that there are lots of things left in his world to live for. There has been a lot of controversy about this movie, because of the suicide issues, but I really liked it and I liked the book, A Man Called Ove, when I read it last year.

A few of my favorites from this week. How has your week been? What were some of your favorites?

Always remember

Love your day your way!!!

What Is A Mother?

Yesterday was Mother’s Day. Happy Mother’s Day to everyone who is a mother in whatever way you are. I was not blessed to be a mom, mama, mother, ma, mommy or any form of the word. Not technically anyway. I do believe that Mother’s Day is for many different types of mothers. Aunts, sisters, grandmothers even friends can be a mother figure in your life. And though I have no children of my own, through the years I have had the pleasure of mothering many many people. If you have your own children you are going to tell me it’s not the same. That is okay. That just means that you know something I don’t and I know something you don’t. How do I know this? My nieces and nephews for starters. I babysat for many of them when I was barely a teenager. I also took care of my great nephews quite often. So I have never been without baby snuggles and cuddles at just about any given time.

I have also mothered lots of my younger coworkers. Some of them I just felt needed a little more coaching and mothering. I remember a young worker came to me and said he was sorry his shirt was missing a button but his mom had just died and she had always taken care of his clothes including sewing on the occasional button. I couldn’t imagine being without my mama at that age or any age for that matter, and because I always kept needle and thread and safety pins in my desk I was able to fix him right up. I also showed him how do do it himself the next time. I have attended their weddings, birth of their babies and sadly a few of their funerals.

My pet babies have also given me an opportunity to love and be loved unconditionally. I am proudly their mama.

In life I feel like we are put in positions of mothering or taking care of people at the exact time they need it. That gives some of us a chance to reach out and help in any way that we can. I think God puts us exactly where we need to be at times like this and helps us to be what we need to be.

I can’t let Mother’s Day slip by without telling you about my own mother. I happened to have been blessed with the best mother in the world. I always called her mama. I know you may think your mother was the best and she may have been to you, but my mama really was the best. She was an amazing woman. I have been without her since 2003. She died on Valentine’s Day. My dad died in 1998 so we always like to say he finally got his Valentine back. They were married for 52 years.

I miss my mama every day. These are just a few of the special things I love to remember about her.

She had unconditional love for all of her seven kids. Yes I said seven. And she thought we could do anything in the world.
She wore red lipstick and face powders and smelled of Jergens lotion.
She loved to read and could read a book in a day.
She cooked meals every single day for all of us.
She could fix anything around the house when it was broken.
She loved Bob Ross and loved to watch him paint.
She worked really hard crossword puzzles with a pen.
She played games with us and was never too busy to make us a treat.
She (when I was in first grade) carried me to the school bus in the winter wrapped up in a quilt. She knew the bus would be cold.
She was the best cook in the world.
She babysat for many of the kids in our neighborhood. She was always in demand.
She was very thin and loved to wear skirts and sandals in the summer.
She could whip up a meal in the blink of an eye.
She hated having her picture taken. We were always sneaking pictures of her.
She loved orange slice candies.
She was a lady through and through.
She could grow any plant. And had them all over the house.
She was so much fun!!! She loved to laugh and lived to be with her family.

This is a picture of my mama when she was only 16 years old.

Me and my mama a couple of years before she passed away.

I hope your day was wonderful no matter what type of mother or mother figure you are.

Always remember

Love your day your way!!!!!




Friday Favorites

Happy Friday. Wow has this been a long week. It simply flew by and here it is the weekend again. The weather has been a little cloudy but very mild temps. Nothing too crazy going on at work or at home and that is a good thing. Here are some of my favorites to share with you this week:

Look at this Flamingo clock. My niece got it for me for my Birthday. I just love it. I put it on the old antique sewing machine we have upstairs.

The blackberries are blooming. That means we will have blackberries in about four to six weeks. I love to make blackberry cobbler for my husband. Not a big fan of it myself but he loves blackberries. We have a nice little patch of them on our road and it is usually just enough to make a cobbler or two.

One of my coworkers brought in these tortilla chips. I have had this brand before but I had never seen the cilantro lime flavored tortillas. They are so good. Just by themselves or with dip or nacho cheese. You can get them at most grocery stores.

I am so easily influenced but sometimes it is a good thing. I saw this eye cream on TikTok. One of the women I follow swears this makes her eyes look so much brighter. I ordered this from Amazon and it is really good. It is fairly cheap less than $10.00 for this little pot. You put it on just after your makeup right under your eyes. It really does add a little brightness and gives your face a fresher look.

A couple of weeks ago I got a notice at work that one of our local billboard companies, Lamar Advertising, was having a special during the month of May. This is in honor of National Pet Month. First you submit a picture of your pet and the region you live in. If they approve the picture your pet will appear on the billboard for fifteen minutes. The picture rotates every few seconds. I had a hard time picking a picture and choosing only one of my babies out of the five. Gus and Kitty Kitty are the most photogenic so I submitted a picture of Gus and Mark submitted a picture of Kitty Kitty. So our babies were in the limelight for a short time. I think Lamar is doing this all month if you want to submit a picture. It is LamarLovesPets.com.

Most of my orchids are blooming. This is Ophelia and she is just beautiful right now. Seeing all of my orchids blooming makes me so happy. But I still love them even when they don’t have a bloom on them. That is just part of them.

Gus and Kitty Kitty love to play and chase each other. I am glad we have two inside kitties because I think they keep each other company. I know Gus is considerably larger than Kitty Kitty but he gets nothing over on her. She is just as tough with him. But they love each other and they love to play together.

When my sister and I were at Kohl’s last week I happened to spot this cover up or whatever you want to call it. It was on clearance for $5.00 and I had a 30% off coupon. Score!!!! I love wearing these over a bathing suit or jeans and a shirt. I also like to wear them when I wear shorts because they come down over the back of my shorts. I don’t know why it was on clearance unless it was left over from last year. And I hate to tell you this but a few stores I have been in are starting to put out some of their fall clothes. WHAT????

What favorites are you enjoying this week?

Always remember

Live your day your way!!!