Happy Thanksgiving to all!!

This mostly likely won't be our happiest or most fun Thanksgiving ever ~ I mentioned a few days ago that something sad is going on in our family ~ but I still feel blessed & am very grateful for everything I have. My family (especially the two most awesome kids ever!), my friends (real and virtual), my co-workers (all of whom I consider GREAT friends), my job (best employer of all time!), my health, & my very awesome life. 

Oh, I almost forgot - I'm thankful for Elwood, my 18 year old orange tabby who looks eerily like the one pictured here! Eye on the prize! 

~~ HAVE A SAFE & HAPPY THANKSGIVING  ~~

~ My favorites ~

Well, I totally missed this entire week. Sorry about that. Actually, I received some bad news this week that has shaken my whole world. I'm not sharing right now, it's something my family & I need to deal with ~ but know that my posts will be very sporadic for a while. Yeah, I know what you're thinking ~ "Your posts have always been sporadic" ~ LOL, I know, I kinda suck at blogging!

So ... I missed my usual photo memes & Friday Five this week .... so I have something different. I came across a blog post of favorites, & thought it would be fun to share some of mine. I may have amended the list I saw just a bit, as some just don't apply to me. So here are my favorite .....

COLOR - well, this is vague :)  For clothes, I tend to wear a lot of gray & black. Yeah, I'm that exciting. I do like coral also (the more orange-y coral, not the pink-y coral). For my house, I've pretty much always stuck with burgundy, although lately I'm trying to incorporate some olive green. I think burgundy & olive look great together!

ICE CREAM FLAVOR - Cedar Crest Banana Cream Pie. Very VERY hard to find. First tasted it at our State Fair a few years ago, & they told me it wasn't going to be distributed to stores. Well, ha! I did find it at Woodman's & stocked up. Trust me, if you find it, buy them all. 

ANIMAL - cat, of course. Preferably orange tabbies. They're the best!

CAR - Well, this will out me as a middle aged mom. I LOVE my Toyota Sienna minivan. If given the opportunity to have any car in the world, I would pick the newest model of Sienna. Yeah, I'm a dork. 

TV SHOW - Wow, there have been some good ones. I really miss Friends - thank goodness it lives on in reruns. Also Frasier, which I actually never see rerun. I loved ER - in fact, my mom & I bought all the seasons so we can watch them all again. I'm on Season 10. And my current favorite is Grey's Anatomy. Will be sad when that one ends. 

MOVIE - Comedy, it has to be National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation. I've seen it no less than 50 times, can recite the whole movie, & yet I still laugh through the entire thing. For non- comedy, I would say the whole Avengers series. Iron Man is probably my favorite. Yes, all 3. And it has nothing to do with Robert Downey Jr. :)

VACATION SPOT - Well, I haven't been many places so it's kind of a no brainer. DISNEY!! We went last year & had THE best time ever. My hubby & I went to Jamaica on our honeymoon, & after our trip to Disney I wish we had thought of going there instead. I could go again & again & again. This does include Universal. Nothing like it!

TIME OF DAY - well, I can tell what ISN'T my favorite! Morning! Man I hate mornings. And mine seem to start earlier & earlier. I think my favorite time is the after dinner hour - dishes are done, homework is done, & I can finally relax after a long & busy day.

DAY OF THE WEEK - Shocking, I know - but it has to be Friday. I love my weekends, but the anticipation of the weekend is even better. And let's face it - Sundays are full of "Ugh ... tomorrow is Monday". 

MONTH - I'm kinda partial to August - my birthday month - it's still summer - & the kids are getting ready to go back to school! What's not to love? 

HOLIDAY - 4th of July. What? I know, weird. But - I don't have to decorate, carve pumpkins, put up a tree, or buy presents. And it's the middle of summer. There are parades & fireworks & festivities. Yep, definitely 4th of July. 

PHYSICAL ACTIVITY - I'm sorry, what? Ummmmmm does baking count? 

SPORT - I don't actually play sports, but my favorites to watch are baseball & football. I prefer pro football, but I love to watch my kids play baseball. 

STORE - this is an easy one. Target! And bonus - the Target right near my work finally added a Starbucks!

STARBUCKS DRINK - Since I'm usually at Starbucks after my allotted caffeine time, I would go with Vanilla Bean Frapuccino - it's like a vanilla shake - yum!

HOBBY - definitely a trick question. A year ago I would have said paper crafts. After all, that's why I started this blog. While I do still find itty bits of time to make cards, I'd say I'm more into photography now. I got a new camera last year right before we went to Disney, & I'm obsessed with all things photography now. 

WEB SITE - Toss up between Facebook & Pinterest. Both are time suckers, yet I visit both daily. Because I have nothing better to do. 


How about you?? Care to share your favorites?? If you post your favorites on your blog, let me know - I'd love to read them!

TGIF!

Wow, this week seemed long! My son said last night "I can't believe it's Friday tomorrow already. It seems like yesterday was Monday." And to that I said, "I can't believe it's finally Friday tomorrow. It seems like Monday was 3 weeks ago.". Hmph. I guess High School teenage life is more exciting than working mom life. Who knew?!?

Here are my 5 randoms for the week:

1: They are almost done with our roof. Maybe that's why it seems like the week was long. They were here early Monday morning to get started & they are still here. Really, our house isn't that big!

2: I was excited when I filled my gas tank yesterday for $2.99 a gallon! But, my excitement was short lived when I drove by that same gas station today & it was up to $3.06. It's going back up already? I hardly had time to enjoy it....

3: My hubby got two of these on his way home from hunting Up North on Sunday. There's a gas station about 45 minutes from our house that has an AMAZING bakery. A gas station! Crazy!

Yep, that's a regular size fork, folks. This sucker weights almost 2 pounds! And he bought TWO! What was he thinking? And are they gone? Well of course they are, do you not know me at all? 

4: I have a few friends that are DONE with their Christmas shopping! That annoys me. Even though Christmas music is playing in the stores, & the decorations are all out, I am NOT in the mood to Christmas shop. Can we at least wait until the turkey is stuffed? 

5: Our 18 year old cat still has some frisk left in him. Here he is enjoying his drugs catnip:

and one more, showing the end result of all that action:

Don't worry, Elwood - I can't party like I used to either. 

Hope you all had a fantastic week! If you blog about it, link up with High Five for Friday & Random 5 Friday! 

Surprise!

Ha .... fooled you! You thought I only made ONE card last week when Michael was sick. Turns out, I'm more fabulous than you thought! I made two cards! I don't think I made 2 cards all last year. See what I can accomplish with a little concentration? {& the peace & quiet didn't hurt!}

I have quite a few stamps that I had bought just before I ran clean outta spare time. This is one of the many Tildas I have stashed away. Little did I know when I made this last week, that this week we would actually have snow! And cold! Brrrrr ....

I did revert back to my pencils, which I will never ever part with no matter what. You should see my Crimson Red pencil -- it's now about 2 inches long LOL. I may have used that one a bit over the years :)

I used some old Basic Grey paper - Jovial, perhaps? The sentiments are old Michael's dollar sets - you know, those clear ones that are thrown into a bin? Can't remember the brand, but I know you know what I'm talking about. 

And just to be a total geek, I added sparkly Stickles & some fluffy stuff for falling snow. 

I may as well enter this one into a few challenges as well. Hey, that reminds me - I won the Divas by Design challenge last week! Yay me! I think I'll enter that one again. Yes, I'm aware I won't win 2 weeks in a row .... but my card fits the theme!

Divas By Design ~ Something Snowy
7 Kids College Fund ~ Anything Goes (my favorite theme!)
Magnolia-licious ~ Winter
Simply Magnolia ~ Anything Goes (another one!)

Thanks for visiting! And no .... I don't have a third card done ..... I'm not THAT ambitious :)

But I'm not ready yet!

So I was editing some pictures over the weekend for my post today. They looked something like this ....

and this ...

Since the other day I was saying how I missed the color because I clearly blinked ..... so I was trying to get a few last pictures of fall. 

Then today, this happened. 

{view from our office window}

No no no nonononononooooooo .... it's only November 11th!! Sigh ..... guess I need to shift gears. AND dig out my winter boots & ice scraper! 

So here are some pictures of what Mother Nature left behind today:

 I'm pretty sure the birds were planning on eating those for lunch ....

What's left of my Burning Bush. Cool red berries - perhaps the birds can eat those instead.

This is the same pod pictured above. Except now it looks ..... colder. 

Nope .... definitely not ready ....

My Random Five

TGIF! There's one thought right there! I hope you all had a good week - mine was ..... well here is my week told in random thoughts. 

1: I feel like I missed fall. The above photo was taken 2 days ago. I swear a week ago the leaves were just starting to turn & I was patiently awaiting the color. Either the leaves fell off before they turned .... or I've been asleep all week! 

2: Also this week, my son has been sick. All. Week. I had to leave work early on Monday & I had to call in on Tuesday. I sent him to school on Wednesday (after all -- no fever, no puking) but got a call at 1:00 to pick him up. I feel horribly for him & if I were still a stay at home mom I would have kept him home all 3 days with no guilt. On the other hand, I am VERY lucky that I work for an amazing employer who never ever frowns upon moms (or dads) missing work for family reasons. 

3: Thankfully, he's starting to feel better - but we are faced with a weekend FULL of homework. That's no fun :(

4: My husband went up north to go hunting this week. Which is fine, except he installed a new bathroom faucet right before he left. I give him a D-. We have a bucket under the sink right now. 

5: I'm starting to think nothing good happened this week! Let's see ..... well .... I filled up my gas tank today for $3.04 a gallon! Yep, that's about the best thing happened this week. It was definitely one of those weeks. 

~linking up with A Rural Journal (even though technically she's not doing the linky thing anymore, she's still having everyone join her in Random 5 Friday. You just need to post your link in the comments) & High Five for Friday~

What I did on my day off .....

Kind of like "what I did on my summer vacation", haha. Don't worry, I won't write a whole essay! 

My younger son is home sick today, so after doing the laundry & dishes & other domestic stuff I never have time to do, I did something else I never have time to do. Play with my inks! Wow, I am *really* out of practice. It took me forever to even find the name of the stamp, & while searching I realized I must have missed about 20 Magnolia releases. One thing I can say, I've definitely saved a lot of money in the last year by not stamping! 

So, here is my card using "Witch Tilda & Pumpkins", from about 20 collections ago. Not only did I make a card, but I used my Copics! Yes, I still have some left :)

I have to admit, I did buy a new paper pad. I was in Michael's to buy something for one of my kids for school, & couldn't help but browse through the fall stuff. I love making fall cards, & I found a Recollections pad for about $3. Didn't exactly break the bank with that purchase. 

I kept the card pretty simple because I really like the paper with that big ole label-y type design & didn't want to cover it up with too much "stuff".

Other than the paper, everything on this card I've had for-EVER. The flowers were probably some of my first .... the charm I bought many years ago (bought a ton on Ebay) ...

So there you go .... please be kind .... thanks for visiting!

Entering into the following challenges:

Simon Says Stamp ~ Anything goes

Craftitude ~Anything goes/ Use twine or string (I'm linking to their whole blog, their post doesn't seem to be linkable)

Card Crafters Circle ~ Cute cards

Divas by Design ~ Use orange
7 Kids College Fund ~ Anything goes
Tilda's Town ~ Anything goes
Magnolia-licious ~ Anything goes

Pineapple Zucchini Bread

Happy Monday! Hope you had a great weekend! Today I'm sharing one of my grandma's BEST recipes she ever handed down to me. If you like Zucchini Bread, you will LOVE this bread! 

We kind of got lazy with the garden this year. And that means we had a lot of H-U-G-E zucchini! So I shredded and shredded and shredded some more. I wish I'd thought to take pictures of some of these monsters! 

I have enough zucchini in the freezer to make about 30 loaves of bread, lol. This recipe is just one of about 15 Zucchini Bread recipes I own, but this is everyone's favorite. The pineapple helps make this bread super moist. 

Pineapple Zucchini Bread

3 eggs
1 cup vegetable oil
2 cups sugar
2 tsp vanilla extract
2 cups grated zucchini
1 cup (8 oz) crushed pineapple, drained
2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp baking powder
1-1/2 tsp cinnamon
3/4 tsp nutmeg
3 cups flour
1 cup chopped walnuts, optional (never in my bread, lol)

Beat eggs. Add oil, sugar & vanilla; beat until foamy. Stir in zucchini & pineapple. Combine rest of ingredients & stir into zucchini mixture. Blend well. Bake in 2 greased & floured 9"x5" pans at 350° for 1 hour (or 40 minutes for mini loaves). Cool 10 minutes in pans, then transfer to wire racks to finish cooling. 

All my recipes are easy, lol. I love to bake but the recipe can't contain 25 ingredients & take 4 hours to prepare. I make this bread all the time & could probably do it in my sleep. I love making the mini loaves to give as gifts. With the holidays coming up, these are perfect to give to teachers, bus drivers, co-workers .... anyone you want to give a little something to. Who doesn't love baked goods? 

In other news, I have recently spent a bit of time at my craft table. I did finish something that I will share in the next couple of days,  however I want to prepare you. When someone no longer colors every day like someone used to, that someone's end result kind of sucks. LOL.....just trying to prepare you!

Now ....I'm off to watch the Packers kick the Bears behinds!! Happy Monday Night Football!!

Friday Five

Happy Friday & YIKES I can't believe it's November! Let's get right to my random five thoughts for this week:

1: It's November 1st & as much as I prefer to celebrate holidays in order, we all know that's not the reality. I've been seeing Christmas decorations in the stores for a few weeks now. I'm going to make up a Thanksgiving carol. Don't worry, I'll record it for all of you so you can learn it & sing along. You're welcome.

2: Since it's suddenly freezing outside, I bought this at Target the other day:



Only $10 & it's the softest scarf I've ever felt. And thick. And cozy. And polka dots! I mean, how could I not buy it? 

3: Last weekend I made this:

M&M Nutella Popcorn. Oh. My. YUM! You can have some too! Well, you can't have mine because I ate it all. But you can visit Jocelyn's blog for the recipe. HERE is the recipe for this popcorn, but you might want to grab some coffee before you go because you'll be staying a while. She makes the BEST yummies!

4: We had our Halloween party at work today. Yes, on November 1st. We had a blast! Costume party, sub lunch, a big ole cake for a co-worker who is celebrating 25 years with the company, & a video of a "field trip" we went on a few weeks ago. The boss closed the doors at 12:30 on a Friday  last month & bussed us to a local bowling alley for fun, food & drinks. That was fun, but watching the video of it was even more fun! My boss is the BEST!

5: I stopped for gas today & it was $3.10 a gallon. Hallelujah!

~Linking up with Random 5 Friday~