Thursday, December 29, 2016

50 Things I Love

Maybe this blog post will help you get to know me or you might learn something new about me.  Here we go.....
1. Road trips.  I'm like a dog...put me in the Jeep, take me down country dirt roads and let me hang my head out the window.
2. The mountains. 
3. Nature/the outdoors.
4. Tea, hot or iced.  Currently my favorite is loose leaf coconut pineapple. YUM!
5. Cool fall weather.
6. Kombucha! In case you don't know what Kombucha is it's fermented tea. 
7. Camping, tent or travel trailer. Rediscovered my love of tent camping this past summer.
9. My Grand Dog Winnie.
10. Having lunch or coffee in quaint little cafe's. 
11. Spending time along.... yes, I'm an introvert. 
12.  A walk in the woods.  Give me the woods over the beach any day!
13. Trees!!  It's a wonder I don't drive off the road the way I gawk at trees constantly.
14. Circle B Bar... one of my favorite places on earth (nature preserve in Florida).
15. National Parks.... what treasures they are!
16. State Parks.... just as precious as the national parks.
17. Photography.
18. Children's books....  You should see my collection of children's books!
19. Kayaking.  Haven't touched my kayak in the past two years.... I'm ashamed to say.
20. Birds.... Oh how I love birds. 
21. The USA.  I've never had the urge to travel the world but boy do I yearn to explore more of this beautiful country we live in. 
22. Hiking/Exploring. 
23. Lavender.  I don't just love it, it's an obsession.  The smell, the taste, the feel, the color, the bees buzzing around it.  Oh yes, please!
24. Free Little Libraries.  It's on my bucket list to set my own up one day.  I will do it!
25. Grapefruit and turkey bacon (my favorite breakfast).
26. Dimaggio's Pizza.  I request it every year for my birthday.
27. Rain.
28. Blogging. 
29. PJ's.... if I could live in my pj's I would.  I'm all about comfort.
30. Flip flops.
31. Oil of Olay Regenerist Serum... it's the only beauty product I can't live without.
32. Homemade soaps.
33. Farmer's Markets.... Can't wait for them to start in the summer and I'm always sad when the season is over. 
34. Flea Market's.  Wish we had some good ones around us.
35.  Thrift stores.... I'm a thrifting junkie.  I will frequently go on all day thrifting excursions. It's the trill of the hunt!
36. Mowing the lawn.
37. Big Bang... Sheldon, Amy and the whole gang make me laugh.
38. True war movies. 
39. Lighthouses. 
40. Veggies.... I don't think there's a veggie I don't love.
41. Aldi's... why would anyone grocery shop anywhere else?  $$$
42. Wildflowers.
43. Old barns... I can hardly pass an old huge historic barn without stopping to photograph it.
44. Biggby Pomegranate Tea Latte's.  Good thing I no longer drive by Biggby's on my way to work anymore. 
45. Cooking... Love to cook but baking is not my thing.
46. Instagram.... Makes me so much happier than Facebook.
47. Warm fuzzy socks.... I once paid $35 for a pair of homemade alpaca wool socks from a farmer's market.  And if you know how cheap I am that should  tell you how much I love those socks!
48. True crime shows, like Dateline and 48 hours... this is much to my husbands displeasure  :-)
49. Rainbows... they are magical.
50. Sunsets, especially at Silver Lake.


Wednesday, December 28, 2016

Christmas 2016

For weeks Craig has been asking me what I wanted for Christmas.  I really wanted a new laptop MacBook.  My MacBook is about 10 years old and the operating system is so old that it will no longer accept updates and as a result I cannot open google or blog from it.  :-(   I even made a trip to the apple store to check out the new MacBook's.  I left there drooling over the new ones but feeling defeated after seeing the $2,000 price tag.  That was not going to happen.  We've worked too hard at simplifying our lives to allow that to happen.  So then I started researching pc laptops as an alternative.  UGH!  How could I EVER go back to a pc????  We are a Mac family all the way.  But the $300 price tags were so tempting.  So long story short.... here I am a few days after Christmas blogging on my new pc laptop.  Craig got me a Lenovo for under $300.  It's going to do the job and I'm thrilled to have it.  Yes, I still wish I had a MacBook.  This pc is cheap to the touch, the trackpad feels so suboptimal, the screen doesn't do my photos justice.  But I'm hanging in there and as each day goes by I'm learning to like it.  Good points.... I can travel with it, I can upload photos to it, I CAN BLOG with it.  I'm slowly personalizing it and setting it up to fit my needs.  Thank you to my wonderful hubby for wanting me to have things that make me happy.  I'm certainly happy to be blogging from the comfort of my lazy chair. 

And the kids got me a sewing machine for Christmas.  I was feeling the love!  I was shocked when I opened it.  I never asked for it or had a clue.  How did they know that I've been thinking about sewing again lately?  They know me well.  Let the creative juices flow!
But the best gift of all I get to receive every single day of the year..... This family!