Living Happily Ever After...one year at a time

Friday, February 23, 2024

Thursday, February 22, 2024

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!

Wednesday, February 21, 2024

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?

Tuesday, February 20, 2024

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!!