Friday Funnies

Update

I didn't have any Monday Mysteries.

I didn't have any Tuesday Thoughts.

I could have posted about my trip to St. Louis last week on Travel Tuesday, but I didn't.

I didn't buy anything last week, so no "What I Buy Wednesday" post.

So I guess you'll just have to settle for "A Few Things Thursday!"

I think I'll make this post about food. 

Let's start with my Mother's Day present from Mindy.

 I love peanut butter and have it at least twice a week. Awhile back we were talking about it and about almond butter---which I've never had. So, Mindy gave the pecan butter (along with some jams) for Mother's Day. It's really good. Mindy thinks it tastes like pecan pie. I don't exactly get that, but it's close.

 Speaking of Mindy. We had a barbecue on Memorial Day. Mindy brought this amazing trifle. Not only did it look good, it tasted fantastic! She shared the recipe.

Mindy's Red, White and Blueberry Trifle

10 oz angel food cake, cut into 1-inch cubes*
2 pints strawberries, sliced
2 pints blueberries

FOR THE CREAM FILLING:

• 6 tbsp fat-free sweetened condensed milk, I used Borden Eagle
• 1 1/2 cups cold water
• 1 4 oz package white chocolate or cheesecake instant pudding mix
• 12 oz.Cool Whip
• 
  
• INSTRUCTIONS
• 
  
• Whisk the condensed milk and water in a bowl.

Whisk in the pudding mix for 2 minutes.

Let stand for 2 minutes or until soft-set; fold in the whipped topping.

Arrange half of the cake in the bottom of a 14-cup trifle dish.

Sprinkle evenly with a layer of blueberries.

Spread half of the cream mixture over the blueberries and gently spread 

Top with a layer of strawberries.

Layer the remaining cake cubes on top of the strawberries, then add more blueberries and top with the remaining cream mixture.

Finish with the remaining strawberries and blueberries, arranging them in a pretty pattern.

Cover and refrigerate at least one 1 hour.

So yummy--Mindy used the white chocolate pudding.

Stephanie brought the salad. It was another winner. Unfortunately, I didn't think to take a picture.

Orange, Beet and Arugula Salad

4 small uncooked beets (Steph just bought them already cooked from he grocery store salad bar.

1/4 cup orange juice

1/4 cup shallots, chopped

2 T olive oil

1 T. red wine vinegar

1/2 t. salt

1/4 t. pepper

Mix the dressing and chill

5 oz. arugula

2 medium oranges peeled

If you prefer to cook the beets yourself, go ahead. Toss all ingredients together and serve. You could use any type of greens.

Tuesday night, we had book club. Diane, our British member and friend was back in town. Knowing the tea lover that I am, she brought me this.

 She told me that Rington's tea is very popular in England. It's sold off of a truck that comes around once a week. That reminded me of the Jewel T man that came by weekly with his truck of goodies---from coffee and cookies to snacks. It was fun to see what he had. I'm looking forward to trying this tea and am grateful that Diane thought of me!

I mentioned on a previous post that Stephanie gave me a tea subscription for Mother's Day. Well, I got my first box yesterday.

Getting subscription boxes in the mail is always fun! This one was full of goodies. Plus, I loved the personalized message. I got quite a variety of tea too.

There was this little glaze bag. I was surprised to find disposable tea bags inside. I prefer loose tea, so these little bags are the way to brew. I have never seen them before. They'll be fun to try too.

We leave for London in 3 weeks. With all this tea I've received, I guess I won't be buying tea in London this trip. On the other hand, I don't think I can go to London, visit Twinings, have tea at Fornum and Mason---and---NOT buy tea. I'm sure I will!

Heading to Charlotte tomorrow for Victoria's graduation. This will be a quick trip. We're flying in Friday morning and flying out Saturday morning! Then back next week for Elizabeth's graduation. A lot going on. A. Lot!

Friday Funnies

Let's Take a Walk...

,,,through my garden. There's a lot happening right now.

The peonies are about done. I wish I'd gotten a picture when they were I full bloom. I don't bring them inside anymore due to all the ants.

 My front pots are filled with mandevilla this year.

 The lilacs smelled so good getting in and out of the car. I didn't bring these in either. Just been gone too much to bother.

 There is privet in the side yard---which I think might be a weed. But it smells so good too and the little flowers are cute.

 All of the Kousa dogwoods are in bloom.

 Virginia sweet spire---one of my favorites. The bushes are green year round with these long tendrils of flowers each year---about 8-10 inches long.

 I have new dawn roses along the wrought iron fence around the pool. I paired them with jackmanii clematis. The pink and purple is a pretty combination.

And of course, my new sago palms. They are all over New Orleans which is where I fell in love with them. Here, we have to bring them in during the winter.

 Unlike most dogwoods that bloom before the leaves, the Kousa blooms AFTER the leaves. And they have more of a square flower.

 The roses above the driveway are already in bloom.

 These are the tired ferns (macho ferns) that the sago palms have replaced. I don't know what we're going to do with them. They actually flourish during the summer. They just look this bedraggled after overwintering in the sunroom.

Another shot of one of the Kousa dogwoods.

That's about it for now. We have a lot to do to get ready for summer and summer is already here!!

What I Buy Wednesdays

I finally got my Fitbit up and running. Turns out, you have to do everything from your phone app. Nowhere does is say that in the instructions. I was trying to do it from my computer. Pretty soon, laptops are going to be obsolete. I know my girls use their phones for everything! I will admit, I'm loving this Venmo app!! But, I prefer my computer. If I didn't have that, I would not be doing this blog. There's no way I'm going to try to "finger type" that much!!

Anyway, I quickly wasn't happy with the new Fitbit. The band is rubber and ugly. Add to that, it's hotter than heck. Even having it loose was not enough to keep my wrist from sweating and sticking. So, I did the only thing I could think of. I turned to Amazon. I found a cute bracelet type for $15.00!! It has rhinestones---definitely looks better.

And to top it off, I'm getting another for FREE! A card came in the box with the band that said if I posted a review on Amazon, they'd send me a free one. I did and they emailed me to ask if I wanted the same one or a different one. I chose different. Don't know what that means, but it's free. I'll keep you posted on that.

The other thing we bought---and I say "we" because it's a big purchase---is new pool tile. It's probably been about 10 years since we've re-done the pool. Our pool guy brought out some samples for us.

Are you kidding me? Of course we love this one---it's what we already have that is falling off the pool wall. I was even complaining that someone should have told me when I picked it out that when there are smaller pieces involved, falling off is an issue! No way were we going to pay a second time for what we already have to only last another 10 years. We were sticking with 6" squares.

Our guy brought these. Neither floated our boat. So we went to the tile store and picked out our own. We had it narrowed down to 2---one he loved and one I loved.

He picked this. 

I picked this. 

Here's a close up. I decided he could have his way on this since I pretty much always get my way. We left and were fine about our choice. At least we thought we were. Butch texted the pool guy and he came back with "Well, that one is going to be $1000 more." Suddenly, Butch liked the one I picked out just as well! He said, "I guess you are going to get your way!" Pools are money pits---for sure. It's always something. And it's never cheap.

Anyway, then our guy said we need to pick the grout color. He had left a sample card for us.

 OMGosh! Who knew there were that many shades of grout for pools?

If you look close, you can see what I picked---sea glass. It's kind of a seafoam green. It looks more grey here. I hope that works. Hopefully that will be installed sometime next week. It would have been nice if it were this week since we'll be in St. Louis again.

This is pretty late for us to not be using the pool. I've usually had my friends over several times by now. Soon.

This and That

A week ago, it was time for Steeplechase---big social event horserace where everyone wears spiffy outfits and hats, eats fancy foods and drinks even more,  places friendly bets and gets sunburned . It's usually really hot and sunny---and long!

We lucked out with the weather. It was overcast and even drizzled a little. Actually, that was perfect weather for Steeplechase---to too hot. Nancy's hairdresser insisted on making her hat. It was so heavy that he put two hats together to support it. Too bad that guy is in the background. Fun day with family! Mindy gave me a new nickname: Barbtender!

On the way to Clemson a couple weeks ago, we stopped at a couple little Confederate Cemeteries.

 They are all over---mostly going unnoticed.

 As you can see, this one was right next to the highway, yet we never noticed it before.

When we were going to the cemetery, I saw this. It cracked me up. Look close. The driver door is hanging open. Even the back door is hanging open! I know exactly what happened here. The driver got home and could hardly make it to the bathroom!  There may have been a time or two where you might have seen this at my house!

So this past week, we were rotating all the cars for oil changes and tire rotations. I couldn't believe Mindy's keys. First, I'm pretty sure there are keys on here from cars she doesn't even own anymore. Plus, there are almost more keychains than keys! That's how she rolls! 

 That is one big lizard!!! Freaks me out, at least 24 inches long! Okay, 12 inches. Big, I'm telling you!

This was in the grass. From a distance, it looked like a mushroom. Actually, at first I thought it was an egg. But, since we don't have an ostriches around, I knew it couldn't be that. I had to check it out.

 It was a magnolia bloom that had blown off the tree.

It was really pretty---and wilted pretty quickly. I should have floated it in the pool!

On Sunday, we celebrated Justin's birthday with a game of Laser Tag. OMGosh y'all! It was so much fun! It was my first time. Mindy had rented it out for one private game. Good thing for me as one 15 minute game was enough! My back hurt and my finger hurt! The end results:

I didn't do so well. Turns out, I hit myself more than anyone else. It took me awhile to realize that what I was aiming at was actually a mirror!

I discovered the best time to grocery shop---8:30 a.m. on Saturday!!! Can you believe it? That's my car on the left, parked up close!

Enough for now.