Me on Monday

So, on Saturday night, I had my first slumber party since I was a teenager. Heck, why not?? 

Butch was at the beach with Stephanie, so I decided to invite my friends for a sleepover. It had been a rough couple of weeks with the passing of a dear friend. We just needed some "girl time!" When I told Stephanie and Mindy about it, they were telling me all kinds of things that we needed to do. So--many--things! My head was spinning. There really wasn't enough time for everything, but we did quite a lot!

We started with "happy hour" at 4 p.m. on Saturday night. I made a run to the liquor store.

I might have overdone it, but you know about my multiples problem! Plus, when I discovered that we can now get Sipsmith lemon gin and Tanqueray Lime gin, I just had to get it. Our friends, Diane and Gren have been keeping me supplied for years--bringing it straight from England. Diane just brought me the Tanqueray Lime when she came in May. Last week, I discovered that it was almost gone! Nicky likes the flavored gins too. Now I won't have to be hoarding it! I'll admit that perhaps the wanting of it has to do with the lack of availability. Now that it is, yahoo!

Here we are from left: Susan, Pam, Karolyn, Nancy and me. We also decided to have AYM--we are very far behind this year. I was hoping we could get caught up, but that didn't happen. Maybe next time.

Of course, I had an itinerary. Around 5:30, we did face masks to replenish our skin:

 We ordered Chinese food for dinner and started watching "Nonna's" with Vince Vaughn while we waited. The movie was "cute" which is how I describe movies that basically are a waste of time. We paused it when our food arrived.

Once the movie was over, we headed to the pool for a night swim. The girls got on the floats, but not me. I knew that even though it was really warm out, it wouldn't feel like that once you were wet. I just stayed under the warm water. 

We were out for about an hour and a half. Everyone put on their pajamas. Karolyn had brought fresh fruit and amaretto dip which we used as our dessert after the pool. We talked for about another hour. Everyone went to bed around 11 p.m. I stayed up with Nancy for another hour and watched an episode of The Twilight Zone. I was nodding off. I cannot remember the last time I stayed up until midnight---probably New Year's Eve!!

The next morning, we had breakfast and did more talking. Around 9 a.m. I said, "Well, unless we're getting back in the pool, this party is OVER!" I've been saying "this party is over!" for years. No one ever wants to be the first one to leave and break up a party. I'm not shy about doing it! It's sort of become a joke!

We have been friends for 35+ years. We've seen it all and been through it all--together! A slumber party with your 70-something besties is a ton of fun. Young people--and by that I mean our 40-50 year old "children" think everything we do is so "cute"! You know--as in old people are so "cute!" I'm perfectly happy to be considered old and cute. We are still having a lot of fun! 

Maybe we should make this an annual event! 

What I Buy Wednesday

So. I love fresh fruits and vegetables. But, oh, are they expensive!

What we have here are 3 small zucchini, 1 red onion, 3 tomatoes, about 2 cups off fresh lima beans (so delicious), 1 cucumber, and a watermelon. You are looking at $32.68 worth of produce. It's worth it to me! Still, that seems like a lot.

Tuesday Thoughts About...

...continued aging! I know, I know, nobody wants to think about it. But that's the problem. There's so much to think about! 

When I was out walking, I noticed this:

Our neighborhood is 40 years old. Most of the front walks never had handrails. More and more people are adding them, but this is ridiculous!

Most people are doing nicer ones in keeping with the neighborhood.

This is our front steps. I am very careful when I'm going up or down--which is every morning when I walk. But this one is our next door neighbors house.

They are new and just moved in about 2 months ago. Recently, I invited Francesca over for a glass of wine. After awhile, she invited me to her house to meet her aunt--about my age. I ended up having another glass of wine there. It was near 6 p.m. when I announced I had to get home because I only had about 10 minutes to get in my pajamas! This was after 3 hours and 4 glasses of wine. When I was leaving, I told Francesca that I needed to take her arm as I started my "free-handed" walk down her long flight. 

I'm very careful and not afraid to ask for help!

Which leads me to "footwear!" If you are unsteady in your shoes, get rid of them!!! It's not worth a fall! Here's the story:

Friday night was poker night. We were at Jack & Connie's. Before I arrived, Connie actually fell into the couch by tripping in her sandals. Everybody was laughing as they told me. I started in on my lecture about being safe! Connie said, "But they're so cute!" 

She just laughed. It wasn't 15 minutes later that she stumbled and nearly fell again! I told her that "That's it! We're not taking you with us unless you change your shoes!" Or something like that. I could just see her falling on concrete downtown on our way to dinner! 

I know all about falling. But, the truth is, Connie is falling the most! She doesn't need to be tempting fate!

I recently gave up a really cute pair of shoes when I discovered that they were "slippy" when it was raining. I'm taking no chances!

At our age, you have to go for stability and safety! No shoes are cute enough to risk winding up in a cast---which is the least cutest footwear of all!!

Be safe out there ladies! Whether it's handrails or footwear--every thing can be treacherous these days!

Me on Monday

June by the Numbers

Books Read—12

5 star books:

Ask Not

Big Dumb Eyes

Criminal Conversations

Bits & Pieces

Podcasts—9 

Lunch Out—5

Dinner Out:—2

Bridge--5--I'm thrilled to be playing regularly again!

Documentaries/Movies/Series  

Hulu:

*****Paradise (2 episode)

Max

*****The Price of Glee (3 episodes)—I was a superfan—Gleek!

*****The Dark Side of Kids TV (5 episodes)

*****Spacey Unmasked (2 episodes)

*****Pee Wee Herman (3 episodes)

***A Body in the Snow (5 episodes)

****The Fall of Diddy (5 episodes)

***My Mom Jayne: A Film by Mariska Hartigay

Netflix :

*****NIckelback

***Nate Bergatze

Prime:

****Anne & Mary: a tale of two sisters

****The Fergie Story: Paradise Lost

***The Duchess of Windsor: the woman who stole a king’s heart

****Cursed Bloodlines (13 episode)

*****Ethel Kennedy

*****Forgotten Ellis Island

*****Bertie & Elizabeth

*****The Better Sister (2 episodes)

*****The Judd Family (4 episode)

*****Queen Victoria: Secrets of a Queen

*****Princess Alice: Mother-in-law to the Queen

*Medieval Mysteries

*****My Foolish Heart—my favorite movie of all time!

*****The Levy’s of Monticello

*****The Last Band on Stage (Chicago)

****G 20

***The Bondsman (2 episodes)

*****We Were Liars (4 episodes)

Peacock

Law and Order Organized Crime—1 episodes

Scrapbook Pages Completed: 0—zip-zilch!

Trips & Events:

Paris w/three girls and the sons-in-law!

Sisters weekend—7 of us!

The Barnsley Resort & Spa

Boozy Bingo

Scrapbook Saturday

I don't have much to share this week as I haven't gotten much scrapbooking done for the past few weeks. But, I was excited to cut this Eiffel Tower with my Cricut to act as the "A" in my Paris title. But, it took me 9 cuts to get it right!

So here's how it works. You find the image you want to use and add it to the mat. Then you size it to whatever size you want. Now you are ready to cut. So, I did. 

I decided that I wanted the silver on top. I kept messing up and cutting the black part--which is supposed to be the shadow--too small. 

Finally 45 minutes later, I finally got it right! I might still figure out a way to use the other cuts. I do love my electronics, but they can be so frustrating. It's not the electronics--they know what they are doing. It's me! As they say, "user error." And I seem to have a lot of those!!

Speaking of "flub ups"--I made one on this June monthly recap. The photo on the flip up on the upper left is upside down. I didn't realize that until I noticed it in the picture. I've fixed it now, but it wasn't exactly easy. There was more to it than just pulling it up and turning it around. I had already taped everything together, so the tap ripped part of the picture. That meant I had to cut a bit off and re-tape it. 

See what I mean about how frustrating scrapbooking can be? Makes you wonder why I keep doing it. Sometimes, I don't know myself!

I am really enjoying doing a monthly recap, but I have to admit, it's challenging to get all of the information I want in such a much smaller format! The book is a 6x8. Still it's a lot of fun.

Friday Funnies

Five Things Thursday

Let's talk BOOKS!!

Words of Wisdom Wednesday

This pretty much "nails it!" I'm happy to have grown up in a large family!

Monday Mystery

We've had this plant for a very long time. I have never liked it. It had about 3 or 4 of the tall leaves for years. I've really always hated it. I thought Butch liked it since he brings it in every year. Neither of us have any idea where it came from. I always thought he must have bought it because to me, it's a "guys" kind of thing. Definitely not my vibe. But he says he didn't buy it. So there's that mystery--where the heck did it come from? And then, the next mystery. What the heck is it??

So last year, I decided to figure out what it is. Using my plant identification app, I

found that it was a bird of paradise. This year, I decided to fertilize it. Suddenly, it's going gang busters. Butch thought it was something other than a bird of paradise. I tried my identifier app again. This time, it says it's a banana plant. That makes more sense to Butch. I don't know why. 

Anyway, I guess we'll see what happens and then decide. Here's a bird of paradise picture from the web:

And here is the banana plant:

I guess the only way we'll know for sure is if it every produces a bloom or bananas!

It's a mystery for sure! I'm still leaning towards bird of paradise. We'll see. 

I'll keep you posted!

A Little Something for Sunday!

Well, it's about that time to share a few garden pics. 

This is a month ago when we got everything planted:

And just 5 weeks later:

Last year was the first year that we decided to go with all of the same color flowers.

I had half a thought that each year, we would pick a different color. But, we loved the RED so much that we decided to stick with it. It's so bright and cheery and shows up so well. We just love it. We sit outside every afternoon with a cocktail--or not--and just admire everything. We are diligent about watering, dead-heading, and removing dead leaves. It's a lot--especially the watering--every day. The pruning aspect only takes about a half hour/forty five minutes twice a week. I actually really like dong it. It's my favorite part of gardening. I pretty much hate the hauling,  the planting and the ferilizing. But the fertilizing is crucial! As you can see, everything is about twice the original size. 

It's red. And we're loving it. 

Scrapbook Saturday

Yesterday, I spent the 4th of July sorting through my two 12x12 storage boxes full of travel scrapbook supplies. I used one box for road trips, hiking, Disney, beach and anything else regarding travel in the U.S. The second box contains all general travel supplies as well as internationally themed things and travel stamps. It took me 3 hours!! I have a lot of stuff. 

When we went to England at the end of April, I knew that I would be making two layouts for that trip. One would be for the first part of the trip with Janet and the last part of the trip with Butch.

I made the cute luggage tag on the Cricut. 

The flag on the left with a picture of Big Ben is actually from a bag that came with something I bought. I made a pocket to hold Butch's 20+ page journal. He's started to add photos to it. I told him that officially he is now a "scrapbooker!"

I cut the crown on the Cricut too and used another bag as part of the title for my page with Janet.

The ribbon across the bottom was something that was tied around some towels I bought. That what I call a "two-fer!" The towels and then a bonus for my scrapbook. 

The title block opens to reveal another picture.

I used an insert to hold more pictures. also, I use a library pocket to hold the itinerary and journaling. 

I'm so happy I got all of my travel supplies sorted. Now I can plan for my Paris layout(s). I'm planning on doing 3. "Paris", "Disneyland (Paris)" and "Food, Flowers and Tea." I've already planned the titles on the Cricut--I just have to cut them. Plus, I pulled out all the supplies I have for Paris. I'll put papers and several things together to make kits. It's always easier to start with a kit! A little pre-planning goes a long way. It's much more fun to sit down to create when everything is together. 

Friday Funnies