Wednesday, November 4, 2009

What I'm Loving About November




It is early days in November but so far I'm loving this month. October was so busy that it almost seems like a little reprieve before the holidays begin. Things I'm loving this month are leaves even though there will be raking involved. I love seeing them piled below a tree. I'm also loving Gingerbread Lattes, I had my first of the season today. Yesterday was the day that Carrie Underwood's new CD was available and it is so good. You've got to listen to Temporary Home, it's a tearjerker. I love this CD. Days like today are just blessings.

Sunday, November 1, 2009

Sometimes Winning Doesn't Involve a Trophy

October was so busy with football games and band competitions. My younger son's band worked so hard this past month in anticipation of the big competition which took place yesterday. You may remember last years post in October when they won the competition so there was a lot of excitement this year among the kids as well as the parents. This one didn't end up quite like it had been envisioned but may be one great life lesson for us all. We all thought they did a great preliminary performance but the judges did not place them in the top 8 who went on to compete in the evening. All of the other bands who did not place were able to leave in the afternoon but our band because they won last year was expected to play The Star Spangled Banner prior to the final awards. That meant staying and watching the other bands. The kids were amazing. Sure there were a few tears shed but they quickly disappeared and they sat in the stands and cheered on the other bands with great enthusiasm and when it came time to march in and play they did so just as if they had won the competition. I think they won a great deal more and I am so proud of each and every one.

Thursday, October 22, 2009

Fall is here!








Fall is my favorite time of year. I love the weather, the leaves, the food, and the clothes. I spent the past few days changing out my wardrobe from summer to winter. Even with a stuffed to the gills closet (I do live in an older home with small closets) I am still thinking of new sweaters. After perusing the Anthropologie site I have attached a few that caught my eye. If money were no object my whole wardrobe would come from that store but unfortunately I have to wait until the items are deeply marked down. And what are new sweaters without new flats so here are a few unbelievably cute ones. Now I need to find the skirts and slacks that will go with my fantasy sweaters and shoes. What fall clothes are on your mind?

Tuesday, September 15, 2009

Innocence Lost


I know by now this subject has been hashed and rehashed but every time I see the clip of sweet Taylor Swift having the microphone taken away during her speech I am just appalled. I have since seen scenes of the culprit (will not give him the honor of having his name in print by me) swigging from a bottle of Hennessey at the awards. I am in hope that this kind of behavior will not be tolerated anymore. There is no excuse that is plausible for what happened. I know that Taylor will go on from this and become even greater than before but she has also lost a little of her innocence because of the incident and she can't get that back. That's what makes me so sad. There is so much in our society that causes our young people to lose their innocence earlier and earlier. I hope that we will all take a stand and do what we can in our positions to make a change in the world for good.

Sunday, September 6, 2009

I'm Back


I can't believe I have been gone so long. I have had a blogging block of sorts. I have had lots of things in my head that I want to write about but somehow just couldn't make myself push those keys to bring it to the blog. I have continued to read all my favorite blogs and marveled at how those delightful people managed to make it happen almost every day. I decided that part of block had to do with the fact that my blog does not exactly have a theme like crafting, baking, celebrity gossip...you get the picture. It is just a mishmash of a lot of things that just happen to be in my world. After some soul searching I decided that's pretty much me. I have a lot of interests so find it hard to really stick to one particular theme. If you could see my IPOD playlist you would see a very diverse group of music. I have to credit the recent book Blogging For Bliss for pushing me back to putting my thought out there.
Here are some other inspirational blogs I visit frequently:
www.aliciapaulson.com
http://www.self.com/fooddiet/blogs/eatlikeme
www.acottageindustry.typepad.com/
www.blogdorfgoodman.blogspot.com/
lillyella.blogspot.com/

So anyway this is just a blog about me being 50 something and hoping that maybe any who read can relate.

Friday, April 10, 2009

Ugg boots not good for your feet. What?




I just heard on a news report that Uggs are not good for your feet. Apparently it has something to do with the lack of arch support. I have had my Uggs for probably 3 years now and they are the first thing I put on the mornings and in fact wearing them right now. I have never cared if they are considered ugly, it's all about the comfort. The report did say that if you insert an arch support they would be better for your feet. I am lusting after the boots on this page, what could be better than Uggs and flowers. Along the same vein I also love my Mary Jane Crocs. I was never a fan of the original Croc but did fall for the Mary Jane. In fact someone recently told me they had heard they were going to stop making the Crocs so I had to order another pair of Mary Janes, the very ones on this page. The company where I ordered from, www.surfanddirt.com, was amazing. I had the shoes the next day after I ordered them and they were on sale.

Friday, April 3, 2009

New York, New York, Part 2 or Planes, Trains, Taxis and Buses

My second trip to the Big Apple took place in the summer of 2000 with a friend and her teenage stepdaughter. We stayed with the friend's family in New Jersey but went into Manhattan most every day. The one major mistake of this trip was trying to save money and fly into Islip, New York and take the train into NYC. Once you land in Islip you have to get a taxi to get to the train station which means transferring your luggage several times. Once we got to Penn Station we had to haul our luggage around Manhattan to find the Broadway theater where her brother was working. This was not the fun part and unfortunately we had to do the whole process again in reverse only this time the train had a problem on the way to Islip so we had to get off the train and haul our luggage onto a bus that took us to the train station where we then had to get a taxi to go to the airport. It definitely had the makings for a bad movie. Fortunately the rest of the trip was good. This trip we took the boat around the island of Manhattan and you truly do get a whole new perspective including the reason they can build so many huge buildings in such a small geographic area is that it is made of rock. We were fortunate to see the show Footloose from the second row. The stepdaughter was not thrilled about having to do so much walking but other than that it was a great trip.

Saturday, March 21, 2009

New York, New York Part 1

I have always had a fascination with New York City and have been blessed to visit twice before my most recent trip. Each time has been a different experience and each just as special. The first time I went, about 11 years ago, was by myself to a conference. I know this sounds strange but I am so glad that my first time was by myself so that I could selfishly choose exactly what I wanted to do and just how long I wanted to spend in each place. This visit was in September and the weather was just perfect. My hotel was one block from Times Square so I was right in the thick of everything. I visited some of the sights but also just immersed myself in walking in the different neighborhoods. It was everything I imagined and more. I kept asking myself why it had taken me this long to get to this place. While I missed my family and wanted them with me I could easily imagine us living here in this wonderful city. I know a lot of people say they love to visit but wouldn't want to live there but I knew I could live there. Each night after I got back to my hotel I would pore over the maps and information to decide which way I was going to walk the next day (after the conference events). I must have walked 50 miles while I was there. As they say all good things must come to an end so did have to return to reality and home but was then able to visit again 2 years later in 2000........to be continued

Saturday, February 21, 2009

New Clothes from Old Clothes


I am all about clothes but with this economy I almost feel guilty for wanting and buying anything new. That's why when I saw an article in the paper announcing an event where you could take some of your gently used clothing and swap for someone else's clothing, I hopped right on this opportunity. It was so well organized and just fun. I ended up with 4 great items (dress, top, sweater and purse) and cleaned out 4 items of mine that I just didn't wear for whatever reason(too small, not me). Before the swap began you were given 30 minutes to peruse the clothing but could only look. That gave you the chance to scope out sizes, styles,etc. Then everyone had to go to the front of the space where the event was held and wait until they gave the word to shop. I was fortunate and was kind of at the front of the pack so went directly to the items I had spotted. There was only one sweater that I had wanted that was already taken. The brainchild behind the event, Sunny, plans 3 more of these events throughout the year with one being dedicated to vintage clothing only.
P.S. Don't you just love her event logo.


Don't shop; swap clothes instead to save some bucks
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by Barbara Mathieson | February 7, 2009 at 05:23 am
102 views | 20 Recommendations | 7 comments

At the beginning of the new year, Sunny Becks-Crumpton made a promise to her husband that she would not buy any new clothes for the entire 2009 calendar year.

Her "nothing new'' challenge was inspired by a piece in the news about such a pledge in London, and she decided to go for it in the name of saving money and going green.

Honestly, it doesn't sound so bad when you consider that even with a moratorium on shopping for new clothes, you could still frequent consignment and thrift shops to get your shopping fix.

And to make it even easier, she's holding what she calls an "eco-chic clothing swap,'' where interesting women (hopefully) bring a handful of the best clothes they no longer want and swap them for other people's good giveaways.

"It was a way to bring my goal to me,'' she said, laughing at the notion of creating her own personal "swapping instead of shopping'' event to make her "shopping used only'' mission a piece of cake. "And now that it's public knowledge, I will really be accountable,'' she said.

Saturday, February 7, 2009

Beautiful Words

An e-mail came to me recently that included the authors list of their 100 most beautiful words. I have always thought that I had a pretty big vocabulary but I must confess that I had never heard of some of these words. Examples are adumbrate which means to very gently suggest and jejune which means dull or childish and sempiternal which means forever and ever. While I did think that a great many of the words were beautiful, I'm not feeling the other ones whether I had heard of them or not. I am not sure what it took to make this list of beautiful words but I know a few of my favorite words either because of what they represent or just the way they roll off the tongue. Here's some from my list:

Aroma
Ethereal
Versailles
Machiavellian
grace
hilarious
diaphanous
aromatic
verve
plethora
holiday

And I could go on and on because there are a lot of words out there. Now here are the 100+ words that I referenced.



The 100 Most Beautiful Words in English

Here are the 100 most beautiful words in English. How do we know? Dr. Goodword (Dr. Robert Beard) has been defining words and writing poetry for 40 years. For five years he wrote the daily word sent our as the Word of the Day at yourDictionary and since 2004 he has been writing the Good Word at alphaDictionary.

Over the years he has collected these words, with the help of the word colloquium at the alphaDictionary Alpha Agora. Now, here the most beautiful words in sounds and meaning are for you to enjoy. Stay tuned: in a month or two you will be able to download the entire list as defined and discussed by Dr. Goodword in the form of a Microsoft Word document or PDF file that you can print or view in an e-book viewer. Click the linked words for examples of the fully defined words.
1 adroit Dexterous, agile.
2 adumbrate To very gently suggest.
3 aestivate To summer, to spend the summer.
4 ailurophile A cat-lover.
5 beatific Befitting an angel or saint.
6 beleaguer To exhaust with attacks.
7 blandiloquent Beautiful and flattering.
8 caliginous Dark and misty.
9 champagne An effervescent wine.
10 chatoyant Like a cat's eye.
11 chiaroscuro The arrangement of dark and light elements in a picture.
12 cockle A heart-shaped bivalve or a garden flower.
13 colporteur A book peddlar.
14 conflate To blend together, to combine different things.
15 cynosure A focal point of admiration.
16 desuetude Disuse.
17 diaphanous Filmy.
18 diffuse Spread out, not focused or concentrated.
19 dulcet Sweet, sugary.
20 ebullient Bubbling with enthusiasm.
21 effervescent Bubbly.
22 efflorescence Flowering, the opening of buds or a bloom.
23 elixir A good potion.
24 emollient A softener.
25 encomium A spoken or written work in praise of someone.
26 ephemeral Short-lived.
27 epicure A person who enjoys fine living, especially food and drink.
28 epiphany A sudden revelation.
29 erstwhile At one time, for a time.
30 eschew To reject or avoid.
31 esculent Edible.
32 esoteric Understood only by a small group of specialists.
33 ethereal Gaseous, invisible but detectable.
34 etiolate White from no contact with light.
35 evanescent Vanishing quickly, lasting a very short time.
36 exuberant Enthusiastic, excited.
37 felicitous Pleasing.
38 fescue A variety of grass favored for pastures.
39 foudroyant Dazzling.
40 fragile Very, very delicate.
41 fugacioius Running, escaping.
42 gambol To skip or leap about joyfully.
43 glamour Beauty.
44 gossamer The finest piece of thread, a spider's silk.
45 halcyon Happy, sunny, care-free.
46 hymeneal Having to do with a wedding.
47 imbricate To overlap to form a regular pattern.
48 imbroglio An altercation or complicated situation.
49 imbue To infuse, instill.
50 incipient Beginning, in an early stage.
51 ingenue A naïve young woman.
52 inglenook The place beside the fireplace.
53 inspissate To thicken.
54 inure To jade.
55 jejune Dull; childish.
56 lagniappe A gift given to a customer for their patronage.
57 lagoon A small gulf or inlet in the sea.
58 languor Listlessness, inactivity.
59 lassitude Weariness, listlessness.
60 laughter The response to something funny.
61 lilt To move musically or lively, to have a lively sound.
62 lithe Slender and flexible.
63 loquacious Talkative.
64 luxuriant Thick, lavish.
65 mellifluous Sweet-sounding.
66 missive A message or letter.
67 moiety One of two equal parts, a half.
68 mondegreen A misanalyzed phrase.
69 nebulous Foggy.
70 niveous Snowy, snow-like.
71 obsequious Fawning, subservience.
72 odalisque A concubine in a harem.
73 oeuvre A work.
74 offing That part of the sea between the horizon and the offshore.
75 onomatopoeia The creation of words by imitating sound.
76 paean A formal expression of praise.
77 palimpsest A manuscript written over one or more earlier ones.
78 panacea A complete solution for all problems.
79 panoply A complete set.
80 pastiche A mixture of art work (art or music) from various sources.
81 peccadillo A peculiarity.
82 pelagic Related to the sea or ocean.
83 penumbra A half-shadow, the edge of a shadow.
84 peregrination Wandering, travels.
85 petrichor The smell of earth after a rain.
86 plethora A great excess, overabundance.
87 porcelain A fine white clay pottery.
88 potamophilous Loving rivers.
89 propinquity A nearness, similarity, or kinship.
90 Pyrrhic Victorious despite heavy losses.
91 quintessential The ultimate, the essence of the essence.
92 redolent Sweet-smelling.
93 rhapsody A beautiful musical piece.
94 riparian Having to do with the bank of a river or other body of water.
95 ripple A small, circular wave emanating from a central point.
96 scintillate To sparkle with brilliant light.
97 sempiternal Forever and ever.
98 seraglio Housing for a harem.
99 serendipity Finding something while looking for something else.
100 surreptitious Sneaky.
BONUS WORDS
101 sussurous Producing a hushing sound, like flowing water.
102 symbiosis Interdependence of two different species.
103 syzygy The direct opposition of two heavenly bodies.
104 talisman A symbolic object believed to have magical powers.
105 terpsichorean Related to dance.
106 tintinnabulation Ringing.
107 umbrageous Shady.
108 vestige A small fragment.
109 whisper Speaking without vibrating the vocal folds.
110 zyzzyva A kind of beetle.
For the 100 Funniest Words in English, click here

*

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Saturday, January 31, 2009

Another one bites the dust!

I must confess that I love reading material whether it be books, newspapers, or magazines. I have a picture of me when I was probably about 3 asleep in my crib surrounded by books. If you could see my bed today you would find a stack of books and magazines by my side of the bed. I subscribe to all sorts of magazines so am sad when some of my favorites have called it quits due to this stinking economy. First it was Cottage Living, then Country Home and now Mary Englebreit's Home Companion. I have loved all three of those magazines and have found so many great ideas and recipes. I may be in denial but I am hoping that they will be like Victoria magazine that was out of publication for a few years and then started back up last year. I realize that they are just magazines but you also have to think of the staff that went into creating those beautiful magazines who have now lost their jobs. I am hopeful that this too shall pass. Meanwhile I will just have to content myself with Country Living, Southern Living, Better Homes and Gardens...you get the picture.

Sunday, January 25, 2009

Details!



Isn't it amazing that you can live so many years and suddenly just have an epiphany, but it happened to me. I just realized that I love details whether it be in the books I read, the conversations I have or just in my new paper towels with teacups and teapots.I love to know what was she wearing, what did they eat, where did they go, all those kinds of things. I guess I've always known that it was important in some area of my life but now I know it is important in all areas of my life. The problem is that my guys are not so big on details, in fact, they really dislike the details. Questions like who are his parents, where do they live, what did you eat for lunch are really irritating in their world. I am blessed to have a sister, friends and a few coworkers who also share my love of detail so they are who I go to when I need that fix.
I always enjoy a good book full of detail and I just finished a book that fits that bill. The unusual thing is this book is by a male and not trying to be sexist, it is usually the female authors who put in the details. The book is The Lucky One by Nicholas Sparks. I have always enjoyed his books and this one I could hardly put down because I just wanted to see what happened next.
I also love Anthropologie clothing because of the detail. You don't just find a t-shirt, you find one with detail that sets it apart from all the others.
I know that I am happiest when I have attended to all of the details in my life and have also stopped to enjoy the details in my life. So here's to more details.

Thursday, January 1, 2009

Happy New Year

Well it is my resolution to be more diligent with writing on my blog. I truly have a lot to say but just don't make it a priority to write it down (not that anyone else may want to read my thoughts). Call me Pollyanna but I just feel like this is a new opportunity for all of us to do things differently, if we choose, and make this world a better place starting with our own little space on this planet. I wish for any of you reading this a truly wonderful, peaceful New Year with amazing experiences. I plan to have many and hope to share them along with all my other interests; cooking, reading, gardening, traveling, crafting,family, fashion and beauty products.