Five Things Thursday

1. I think this is pretty awesome. I know that there are other artists that do this---like Garth Brooks. What a thrill for the people who had the worst seats to suddenly get the best seats in the house.

2. This totally creeps me out. I wouldn't go to a theater that had beds. Believe me, my friends can tell you that I don't need a bed to fall asleep in the theater!!

3. Oh my! Apparently, this was discovered in some guys attic after he passed away. I think it looks beautiful, but it seem like it would be too hard to get to the books.

4. I want someone to try these and let me know if they are good. I'd do it myself, but I'm going to be on salads for the foreseeable future.

5. I love this! Now, this is my idea of a great dog. The story is that the owner of this dog always picked up trash while walking her. She took it upon herself to come home with "stuff" for his owner. Hmmm. Sounds more like a cat bringing home its trophies!

I'm Off Again

Today, I leave for our scrapbook retreat at Kentucky Lake. I have planned and planned. I'm ready. I have layouts and kits all ready to go. 

This is the end page of the Christmas album I'm doing. I've already done the title page too but forgot to take that picture. 

I did these in advance because Jeanne and Janet are also making this album. So, they'll have something to work on while I design the next page.

I'm pretty excited because I've done some sewing--remember those round pockets? I've also planned out a few titles on my Cricut. Can't wait!

Travel Tuesday

So, for the past 5 days, we've been on our ski trip with the grands. I don't ski anymore, I cook and chauffeur. It's always a fun time. 

They couldn't have asked for better weather. Mitchell and Olly just wore jerseys since it was so warm. Butch only brought his ski jacket, but he just had a shirt underneath.

Morgan and Olly.

Sisters!

Robbie, Jordan and grandpa.

Sisters.

This was the night that I surprised the "kids" with a sleigh ride dinner. We had done this about 25 years ago. 

Jordan and Morgan posing with one of our horses. 

Same food as 25 years ago. It was just as good as I remembered. We all had so much fun. The entertainment wasn't quite as good as I remembered. All those. years ago, we had a singing cowboy. 

This time it was a very nice middle-aged woman, but she wasn't the greatest. After she sang about 10 songs, she said that she had come to the end of her list! She ad-libbed after that. Apparently, all she could come up with for her final song was "Winter Wonderland."

Jordan complimented my hat. I gave it to her. I really like it, but it was way too big on me (see photo above). It looks really cute on her.

This just goes to show how much skiing takes out of them! This does not look comfortable!

We have this ski thing down to a fine science. While Butch took the "kids" to get their skis, Robbie and I did the grocery shopping. I keep the food pretty easy and simple. I made grilled ham and cheese the first night. I made scrambled eggs and biscuits for one breakfast. After that it was bagels and spreads, English muffins with peanut butter or cereal. One night I made shrimp fettuccine with garlic cheese bread and a Caesar salad. I made a hot cherry cobbler with ice cream for dessert. We were here for the Super Bowl. We just had snacks and then sloppy joes at half time. 

Morgan is already planning next year! I said, "What's to plan? Y'all said you love this house, so I'll just reserve it again!" 

One of my favorite things is that there's not many "kids" who can say that their grandfather taught them to ski! 

The place is really big. It has 4 bedrooms and with a set of bunkbeds downstairs and a pull-out couch, it can sleep 12. So I have a problem with that. If you advertise that you can sleep 12, then why wouldn't you have places for 12 to sit? Since there were only 7 of us, we had seats around the table. But there were not enough seats in the living room. We had to use a dining room chair. 

Also, this was a problem:

They had a huge tangle of pots and pans--that kind I hate--stainless steel. In this day and age, why wouldn't they have non-stick cookware? Also, if you advertise for 12 people why wouldn't there be some really big pots? I had to use two pots to cook the pasta. There wasn't a big colander to strain it. Nor was there a pasta server. The dishes and matching coffee cups were not dishwasher safe. There weren't enough of them anyway. I ended up buying paper plates. There were no scissors to open food packages either. Oh well...

Our condo at the beach used to be for rent. I made darn sure that there was every single thing anyone would need. It's just too hard to cook in an unknown kitchen!!

Until next year's ski trip...

Monday Mystery

Okay, I don't get this:

After our Christmas discussion when all the younger boys couldn't understand the problem here. They said it was an "Eads girl" thing to be so particular about. I could not wrap my brain around it. 

It's very obvious that this is the correct way to "clip" a bag--fold both sides in and roll down. It's not that hard. Really, isn't it obvious? Well, apparently that's not the case for "someone" in our house. And I think you know who that "someone" is this time!! 

So, I guess it's not much of a mystery, but that's all I've got!!

Friday Funnies

Five Things Thursday

1. Valentines Day is right around the corner.

I found these cute plates at Michaels. You might think that the smaller plate with the heart is a small cake plate. Actually, I'm not quite sure what it is. It's about 4" in diameter. 

So cute! Yet, I resisted buying them. I have quite a huge paper plate collection. I can't think of anything else to call it. It's too much! Yay me for resisting.

2. I thought this was a clever idea--I've seen it before. 

The problem is that I do not save empty tissue boxes. Recently when I was sick, I just used a plastic grocery sack for my used tissues. That worked out just fine.

3. I thought these were interesting statistics:

 Around 14.4 million visitors came to Nashville in 2022, up 13% over 2021, and generated a record $8.8 billion in visitor spending.

4. I don't think this is a new concept, but still a great story.

Vanderbilt has the same sort of deal. 

5. In the vein of Valentine's Day, this is kind of a great idea!

Tuesday Thoughts About...

...mall shopping. I don't do it. Or, I should say, I rarely do it. I don't really like shopping at all anymore. Plus, I am such an impulse buyer, I'm better off staying away.

Recently, my friends were talking about all the stores that have closed in the mall. I can't really remember which ones, but they were big---and popular---or so I thought. Really, I think it's online shopping doing them in. I do most of my buying online.

A couple weeks ago, I had a return for Pottery Barn. As I was walking through the mall, I noticed all the new stores I never heard of before. Also, I noticed the Apple Store is still bustling---there are always a lot of people in there. Then I came across this store:

What the??? Psycho Bunny?? What does that even mean? And more importantly, who would want to shop in a place named that? It appears to be a clothing store of some sort. Either they sell a lot---although I didn't see a single soul in there---or they only have about 10 different items to sell. It was nearly empty of goods. I cannot imagine what the rent must be. I didn't check to see how expensive the clothes were. Just the name alone turns me completely off!

The name made me think, so I had to look it up and find out the story behind it. Really, what lunatic thought that up??

There doesn't appear to be a story behind the name. Here's their slogan:

"There are people who are classics. Then there are the classics who imagine what's possible." 

I cannot make sense of that at all! Then there's the logo:

Another quote: "Just look at our logo. It's unconventional and we're proud of it--4,000 stitches and infinite character."

Okay, well the stitching part intrigues me a bit. I looked at some of the shirts. T-shirts for $75.00 and polos at $150.00. There are some things higher and lower, but this seems to be the average. 

All I've got to say is that seems like an awful thing to do to a cute little bunny!!

As you are reading this, I am at this very mall---but not for shopping! I'm taking a Pickleball lesson with Connie and Nancy. They have a court there that is free. This is our first time, so we're trying it out. Connie said she would never play at the mall because she might see people she knows. Heck, I don't care about that. I just want to give it a try. That's all we hear about, Pickleball, Pickleball, Pickleball! I want to see what all the hubbub is about. 

I've always been pretty athletic and I am competitive. But, I'm planning to be really careful. I want to play, but I don't want to hurt myself. We'll see......oh, and Mitchell gave me a Pickleball set for Christmas. I do need to at least try it out!