Five Things Thursday

I love tiny houses. But, I don't want it as a house. I want it as my scrapbook get-away. I'd love to just be in it scrapbooking, reading, taking naps until I got tired of it. Some of these look like dollhouses!

OMGosh! This gorgeous garden--I want my garden to look like this!!

What I Buy Wednesday

Since I was scrapbooking this past week, I didn't really do much shopping. But, yesterday, I made a stop at The Dollar Store while running errands.

It might be called The Dollar Store, but it's now the Dollar and a Quarter store. Still, I got quite a few bargains for 15 bucks!!

Dessert plates, sandwich bags, Paris stickers, a pair of wine glasses, several cards, a lighter and some rhinestone numbers. Quite a haul for fifteen bucks, wouldn't you say??

Remember last week I shared my purchases from Pop Shelf? Well guess what, I opened the little stamp set I got and...

It was USED!!! I would never have paid $5.00 for a used product. I would go back and complain, but it would cost me more than 5 bucks to get there.

Oh well, you win some, you lose some!

Me On Monday

Just got back yesterday from out scrapbook retreat. As always, it was so much fun. 

Susan, Jeanne, Pam, me, Karolyn and Nancy

Janet was taking the first picture, so Jeanne took this one so Janet could be in it.

We always go to Kentucky Lake since it's about halfway between Nashville and St. Louis. This time, we were a little closer to Nashville (about 15 minutes) since we were in the land between the lakes (Lake Barkley and Kentucky Lake). The house that we rented had 5 bedrooms and 4 baths. Just perfect for us. 4 people get private rooms and baths while 3 of us (Pam, Karolyn and me) share a larger room with 3 beds. We're used to sharing a room, so that works out just fine. 

We do have to drag a lot of tables and tools, but it all works out!

We divvy up all the meals and have "happy hour" every day. We have a good variety of food and use our last day as a "leftover" day. We definitely do some good eatin'! 

The funniest moment of the weekend: Karolyn was searching for her glasses.

Turns out Susan had them on top of HER head!! You can see her glasses on her shirt! We are all having senior moments for sure!! Someone's is a lot more pleasurable than the rest of us!!! Okay, that's an inside joke that perfectly fits the phrase: "whatever happens at Kentucky Lake stays at Kentucky Lake!" Right Jeanne??

Several things came up regarding our photos. Since I took an extensive course last winter, I thought I would go ahead and share some of the general info here:

First let me say that I only know about the iPhone and iPhotos. 

1. If you have multiple photos in several albums, they DO NOT take up storage space. The actual photo is only stored once on your phone and does not impact your storage. 

2. Any changes you make to a photo such as edits will appear across all places the photo appears. 

3. You can delete photos from albums and the photo will still be in your library. But, if you delete it from your library, it will be gone for good. You will no longer have it in any album.

4. It is possible to have two or more of the same photo if you received it from different places. For example, if several people share the same photo, you would have it more than once. That does take up storage. 

5. Since our phones are so smart, it detects duplicates. To eliminate them, go to your pictures on your phone. Tap on albums and scroll down to Utilities and find "duplicates." There will be a number there telling you how many you have. When you tap on it, you will get all the pictures that are suspected of being duplicates. Just choose "merge" to get rid of them.

Something for Sunday

This.

This is brilliant!

A new house is going up. I love this. What a great way to see what your choices are going to look like on the house. There's another across the street from Connie's house. 

In a way, it's kinda' sad. It represents a dream unrealized for me. I've always wanted to build a house where I got to pick out every little detail! It's a little too late for all of that now. Besides, I'm overwhelmed at the thought of moving anyway. 

I'll just be satisfied that I've been able to change out most of those insignificant details in our own house. Like, replacing all of the electrical outlets and light switches from builder's beige to white. And, I've replaced ALL of the window latches, and door hinges and handles not once, but twice. It's the only way to keep a 40 year old house looking like new! 

Yeah, I'm satisfied with that.

Scrapbook Saturday

So, I haven't scrapbooked this picture yet, but I will be doing it soon! We were invited to the Dominican Campus for a little photo shoot. We were interviewed for an article that is coming out in the Harpstrings Magazine for St. Cecilia Academy. 

Ten years ago when Jordan and Morgan were in high school, I was writing a check for senior pictures. It got me to thinking about all of the students who are there on financial based scholarships--more than 40%. Tuition is $22,800 plus books and course fees. That might sound like a lot, but it's pretty low for Nashville where most private schools range in the $30,000 to $40,000 range. 

I wondered how these scholarship students were paying for things like AP courses, senior rings, senior pictures, club and trip costs. With Butch's full encouragement, I started "The Lagniappe Fund" which means "a little something extra." I've spent my whole volunteer school career in fund raising, so it was a natural for me. I called on family and friends to donate so that the students who couldn't afford the extras could enjoy the full SCA experience. 

I'm talking about this now because I want to retire at last from fund raising! I have a dollar amount that I want to reach before I'm finished. So if anyone is inclined to donate, don't hesitate to contact me!! I'm hoping that once the article comes out, we'll reach our goal. I'm looking forward to being finished asking people for money!!

Now on to the pages:

Friday Funnies

Five Things Thursday

When you are reading this, I will be on my scrapbook retreat with my sisters, Jeanne and Janet from St. Louis and my friends from Nashville--Nancy, Pam, Karolyn and Susan. We'll be on Kentucky Lake in Grand Rivers, KY. We go twice a year and really look forward to some solid scrapbook time.

For today, here are some beautiful "before and afters." I could move in to any of them!

What I Buy Wednesday

Of course there was some shopping happening in Chicago. I didn't really need anything, but I did need lipstick. I've been to Sephora with just about all of my granddaughters were teens. But, I never bought anything thing there. 

So, it's taken me until I reached 72 before I made my first purchase. 

There was one problem. I kept forgetting which one each smear on my hand was. I finally settled on two of them. I bought a Revlon lipstick at Target recently for $14.00--and couldn't believe that price. It was horrible--all sticky. 

I was happy that these from Sephora were two for $30. I have to admit, I think the two colors that I bought--although different--are very close to the same!

On Monday, Karolyn planned a "gift shop" tour. We started in East Nashville for our first stop. After the first shop, it was already time for lunch.

We went to Fatbelly Pretzels. Pam and I shared a pretzel sandwich that was delicious. As much as I liked it, I doubt I'll go back. I do not like hightop tables with stools. They are not comfortable for me. But, the food was really good!

After lunch, we stopped for a photo. Nashville is full of murals--it's the thing to do is have your picture made. 

From East Nashville, we went all the way to Murfreesboro--about and 45 minutes away. We stopped at a store called Pop Shelf. It was a neat store with a little bit of everything. The prices are very good. 

Our next stop was Franklin. We went in the most circuitous way to get there. But it didn't matter considering it's just fun being with your friends. We stopped at Sonic where Pam treated us to drinks. 

We stopped at a cute place---I cannot remember the name of it. I picked up a surprise for someone in the family. Our last stop was at White's Mercantile. We started out at 10 a.m. and finished around 3. 

Here's my haul! Pop Shelf had some odds 'n ends scrapbook things. The wrapped package, is the surprise. There is a vintage Valentine's decoration that I got for 75% off. I spent about $60 for everything. 

It was a fun day and we can't wait to do it again. There were several places that we didn't get to, so we have unfinished business. I was most happy that Karolyn planned it! I love it when someone else takes the lead once in awhile!!

Oh, I did buy one more thing this week. It's a pink jacket from Walmart to go with jeans. I couldn't resist when Sandy's favorite influencer modeled it. You can find her on Instagram at "My Big Texas House." She has a whole line of home decor items at Walmart. She also buys clothes there and everything looks good on her. You can't beat the prices. After all, it is Walmart! 

What have you bought this week?

Travel Tuesday

On Friday, I flew to Chicago to spend the weekend with Morgan. I got there about a half hour before she did. We met at The Drake Hotel where we had a light lunch.

Then we decided to go to Water Tower Place to do a little shopping. On the way, I had a little mishap and almost gave Morgan a heart attack. I had a fall! I wasn't watching where I was going and tripped on a cobblestone that was sticking up. Of course, everyone around us gasped and came to my aid. I was fine (well, sort of) and was able to get myself up. People want to try to help by grabbing your arms and pulling. That just hurts! I shut that down right away by saying that I could do it myself, and I did. Good thing I'm doing that practicing every day!!  We continued on our way and shopped for a couple hours.

After a brief rest, we went to Sushi San for dinner. We each got a sushi roll and shared the Lobster rice. It was delicious. I don't get the raw sushi, but as far as the cooked goes, I've never had one I didn't like. Sushi has become one of my favorite foods.

Chicago was cold. Very cold. So we really didn't waste any time walking around. That wind! We spent the rest of the evening just chatting about anything and everything in our hotel room. 

The next morning, we had 8:30 reservations for the Disney 100: the Exhibition--the purpose of the trip. 

The exhibit was amazing. There were so many awesome, original things, like drawings, concept ideas, costumes, tons of original props and many, many interactive things. One of our favorites was the sound effect department. Who knew that by rubbing bamboo, you could get the sound of fire sweeping through a city? Or that brake drums sounded like a clock chiming? We couldn't get over the sounds that department was able to create with ordinary things. 

There was so much to see that we were there a couple of hours. If it comes to your city and you love Disney as much as we do---it's not to be missed! My only complaint is that there were no places to sit for a minute. At my age, I need a rest now and then!

We had planned to go for brunch after the exhibit. Since it was 11 a.m., we decided that it would be too much food since our reservations for tea at The Drake were at 3:30. So instead, we went to where we were going to shop--I'm not sure what it's called, but it was where the Bloomingdales is right across the street from our hotel. We had a tea--me--Morgan had coffee and a muffin (she had a ham & cheese croissant) to hold us over. 

We went to each floor and walked around. Morgan ended up finding a few things. 

We returned to the hotel with a little time for a nap. Then it was off to tea. The place was packed. If you didn't have reservations, you weren't getting in!

We had a lovely tea. All of the tea treats were delicious. Mindy would be happy to know that there wasn't a single one that contained mayonnaise! The scones are always my favorite. It's an "all you can eat" type of thing, but we only ordered an extra scone and smoked salmon tiny sandwich. That was really good! We ended up taking the sweet treats back up to the room for later. 

Then it was off to see The Blue Man Group. We had both seen them years ago, but since our Broadway Show plans didn't work out (long story), we opted for it again. We got back to the hotel around 7:30. Morgan ordered Chicago pizza to be delivered to the hotel. We weren't all that impressed, but we weren't starving anyway! 

We had a great time and plan to do it again. There really is so much to do in Chicago, but we just mostly hung out. I enjoyed having so much one-on-one time with this little sweetheart! Okay, she's not so little anymore--soon to be 28. Where in the heck has the time gone!

I love you Morgan!!

Me on Monday

Upon being a snob...

I don’t think I am a SNOB! 

Well, maybe I am a “tea” snob since I prefer loose tea. 

And, I just might be a “purse” snob since I like fine ones.

But I am not a regular snob! To me, a snob is uppity—thinking they are better than other people. I don’t think like that. 

Does it make me a snob if I don’t like foul language?

Does it make me a snob if I won’t wear t-shirts outside of working out?

Does it make me a snob if I like to look nice?

Does it make me a snob if I like the theater and want the best tickets?

Does it make me a snob if I don’t like beer?

Does it make me a snob if I’m a rule follower?

Does it make me a snob if I want to dress nicely while on trips?

Does it make me a snob if I don’t like party boats?

Does it make a snob if I don’t like bars?

Does it make me a snob if I only want really soft sheets and am willing to pay for them? 

Does it make me a snob if I want to dress nice on planes?

Does it make me a snob if I like a restaurant with a tablecloth?

Does it make me a snob if I don't like noisy restaurants?

I don't think so. Furthermore, can I even be a snob if Target is my favorite store?

Rather than calling me a snob, how about “prissy.” I can accept that. 

Scrapbook Saturday

It's hard for me to believe that in a little over a week, Ronnie will have been gone for 6 years. That just doesn't seem possible!