Friday Favorites

Happy Friday. I am so happy to see you Friday, it’s been a long week.

I actually took today off to take my sister to Knoxville for bloodwork, and possibly a shot to boost her white and or red blood cells. Her bloodwork looked so good she didn’t need either. So that is just about the best favorite thing that could happen. She has finished two chemo treatments and will have her third one next Friday. She will have a total of six.

I made a butterfly tree on Sunday. I saw this on TikTok or Pinterest. I thought it would make things look like spring and it does. I made a snowflake tree a few years ago. I will try to find a picture of that. I bought these butterfly cutouts at the Dollar Tree. There are quite a few in one pack. I had lots left over. I hot glued them to a branch that we had at work that we had used as a display for our jewelry tree. Some of my co-workers were throwing it out last week and ask if I wanted it. They had heard me mentioning a butterfly tree and that I was looking for some nice branches to use. I put it in one of my crocks. I love the way it turned out.

Another favorite this week is the weather. It has been unseasonably warm. Of course this has caused so many trees and things to bloom out and allergies and sinus issues are through the roof. The temps are supposed to stay warm most of next week. I always worry when things bloom out too early and then a cold snap happens and ruins them.

I posted a few pictures last week of some of the Easter decorations at T.J. Maxx but look at these I found at Walmart. Ok those different colored bunnies are all the rage on TikTok. I don’t quite understand it. They are cute and fairly large but my husband is sort of creeped out over anything without eyes. So I probably won’t get any of these. But as you can see Walmart has a decent selection of items if you are in need. I am not. I have plenty. I think I will do a little Easter decorating this weekend.

These eggs were like $1.99. That is a fantastic price.
I love this bunny picture. I may have to add him to my Easter decorations.

These cute containers could be used anytime.

A highlight of my week was getting to see a friend from Florida, Debbie, sadly I forgot to get a picture but we had a long lunch and spent time catching up and solving all the world’s problems. She is one of those special friends who, even if you haven’t seen each other in years you just pick up where you left off.

Have you tried these Hershey’s Drops? They are so yummy. You can also put them on cakes, cupcakes or just about anything. They seem to fit especially well in my mouth.

Remember my disaster with the piping bags when I was decorating the Birthday cake a couple of weeks ago? Well I decided to order these disposable bags. I watched a couple of cake decorating videos and one of the cake decorators used these bags. 56 bags for $11.99 and no worries about cleaning or storing them after each use. I just got them a couple of days ago and haven’t tried them. I will let you know how they work. They seem very durable.

So other than my sister’s great report on bloodwork this morning, the best favorite of this week is that it is Baby Kay Day. Twelve years ago today I donated a kidney to my husband. Because we sort of share the kidney we named it Baby Kay. If you haven’t read the full story here is a link I posted last year with a little more information. We are both doing great!!! I often forget I have only one kidney.

What are some of your favorites from this week?

Always remember

Love your day your way!!!

Friday Favorites

Happy Friday!! How was your week? I have a few favorites from the week to share with you.

First meet the beautiful Simone. She is a new addition to our orchid family. I bought Simone yesterday at Trader Joe’s. They have some of the most beautiful orchids. I have bought several there and have had really good luck with them. I told the other orchids, who are all currently without flowers , not to be jealous of Simone because they will all have blooms very soon.

The next thing I am loving right now is this brow color by LA Colors. You may look at LA. Colors and think it is cheapo but it is not. I have found several things from this brand that I love. Remember the eyeshadow I showed you? This is a small pot of eyebrow paste? Whatever you want to call it. It’s tiny but a little goes a long way. It comes with an applicator that has a brush on one end. I got the dark brown and it is perfect. It lasts all day. The amazing thing is that you can get it at the Dollar General Store for like $3.99 or at Walmart for $8.99. Walmart had more colors. But what the heck!!!!! Is that not awesome. Trust me on this one and use sparingly to start with.

For Valentine’s Day I told my husband that he should not get me flowers. I know that flowers are wonderful and a treat but goodness they are expensive!!! I suggested that I pick out a new purse, I did need a new larger one, and he could get me that. He did and it worked out perfectly for a fraction of the cost. I love it!!! I made him some chocolate covered strawberries and he has eaten all of them. Okay I may have eaten a couple of them.

Look what my sweet coworker made for each of us for Valentine’s Day. She made a bunch of these bags full of goodies and delivered them all over town. She is truly special, one of a kind, and everything was delicious!!!

Yesterday I took an extra day off from work and met my niece in Knoxville. She had to take her car into the dealership for a recall. I picked her up and we went shopping while her car was being taken care of. We went to Red Lobster for lunch and it was Lobster Fest so we had the Lobster Dip. It was so yummy. We had such a good time. I will show you some of my other purchases next week.

We also went to T.J. Maxx and just look at all this Easter goodness.

I also knitted this headband ear warmer thingy. It is a fast knit. I love it!!! I am on my second one now.

And my happy place. Cat hair and all.

What were some of your favorites this week?

Always remember

Love your day your way!!!

The Homer Simpson Chronicles

I think that with age comes wisdom, confidence, positivity, achievements. But I also think that with age comes feelings of insecurity, doubt, negativity and indecision.

Since I am getting ready to turn the big 6,0 this year I have noticed a lot of changes within myself. Yes the usual things that come with age like watching body changes hair changes, wrinkles etc etc but also some things that have been quite unexpected. For instance I don’t always feel confident in myself and it’s hard to be positive a lot because a lot of crap has happened in a short period of time. Life is freaking scary. And I hate to use the D word but often I feel just plain dumb. Sometimes I feel like I can’t do anything. I feel like Homer Simpson.

Photo credit Matt Groening

If you’ve ever watched TV you probably know who Homer Simpson is. He is a cartoon character, always screwing up and doing dumb things. Nothing ever seems to go right for Homer. Lately I have started to identify with Homer a bit more than I would like. For instance:

A couple of weeks ago. I had to make a cake. I have made hundreds of cakes through the years. I used to make wedding cakes. But through the years I stopped making as many as I used to. I don’t seem to have the time for it or the patience or quite frankly the skill.

The wedding cakes were the first cakes I stopped doing. I would be a nervous wreck putting the cakes together. This seemed to get worse as I got older. So for my sanity, and my poor husband’s, as he was the only one at home with me when I was in panic mode over a cake, I stopped doing the wedding cakes. I did continue to do cakes for special occasions and for all of my family’s Birthdays, anniversaries and things like that.

A couple of weeks ago, my nephew’s wife had a birthday and we were planning to get together and celebrate. At the last minute the plan to meet was changed to the following night, moving the celebration up a couple of days. So I had to make a cake that very night after work. I decided to do a layer cake. I would make two layers and then split them and it makes the cake have several layers. I have made these many times.

As soon as I got home from work I made the cake, it was in two round cake pans. Of course I had to let it cool and that does take a little while. I could have stuck it in the fridge or freezer for a bit but I felt like I had plenty of time to let it cool on the counter. It was only about 5:30 when I took it out of the oven. At 7:30 I checked on the cake. It was almost completely cool or so it seemed so I started making the icing. My cake icing recipe is simple but so good and fairly easy to make.

I use a cake slicer that has something like a nylon string that actually glides through the cake and makes two layers out of one. Because the cake was still so fresh, from having been taken out of the oven only a couple of hours before, it was a bit crumbly. When I started to put the icing on the cake a rather large chunk fell out of the cake. I have had this happen before. Not a big problem. I just stuck it back in place and slapped some extra icing in that area. The last time I used by piping bags I decided to store them in a larger plastic bag down in one of my cabinets. When I took the piping bags out of the plastic bag, I saw there was mold on the bags. I must have put the bags up when they were still a little damp!!!! I had to dump those in the trash. Now what could I use to decorate the cake? I tried cutting off the end of a sandwich bag and using that, no luck. I tried using a freezer bag, no luck. I was in a panic. I told my husband I might have to run to Walmart and get more piping bags. It was 8:30 PM and Walmart is over fifteen minutes away, it was not looking good. Suddenly I remembered I had bought new bags and stuck them in the hall closet. Of course getting to those involved digging half of everything in the closet out and putting it in the floor. I turned over some cleaner and had to stop and get that up immediately before Gus could get to it.

By the time I got all of this done the icing for the cake had gotten really soft. I also realized that I wasn’t going to have enough icing to do the rosettes all over the cake the way I had planned. And let me mention I had already started putting the rosettes on the cake. I would either have to stop, now it was almost 9:30, and make more icing or come up with plan B.

Suddenly I was overcome with hysterical laughter. My husband cautiously yelled from the other room and asked if everything was okay. I was laughing so hard I sputtered the words out. “On my goodness!!! I am Homer Simpson!!!! I can’t do anything right!!! The more I thought about it the funnier it was. I put the cake in the fridge along with the icing, this would help it thicken, and took a breather. I decided to take the icing off of the cake and not do the rosettes. It was late and I was tired so plan B it was. I redistributed the icing and made it smooth all the way around. I would buy a Happy Birthday sign from the Walmart next day to put on top of the cake. And you know what? The cake was fine and it was delicious.

But the thing is when I started making the cake I had self doubt and I just didn’t feel like I would do a good job. It was okay but it wasn’t the exact cake I had intended to make. I don’t like having negative feelings and I think it is just something I will have to put out of my mind. Easier said than done of course. I guess Homer isn’t so bad maybe I should think about what Homer would do and then do the opposite.

I also think that our bodies and minds are a work in progress until the day we leave this world. Things change and feelings come and go including feelings of insecurities and doubt and intellect. It’s okay.

So if you happened to see me at Walmart last weekend, and I was bent over my cart and couldn’t stand up because my clip to my small purse hanging around my neck had gotten clipped onto the cart and I couldn’t for the life of me get it undone, then you know I was having a Homer Simpson moment. DOH!!!!!

Always remember

Love your day your way!!!!!