Answers to Susan's Questions!

Susan, from Between Naps on the Porch posed these questions and I thought it would be fun to share my answers with you!

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1. Favorite place to vacation: Cape Cod and the Caribbean

2. Favorite Perfume: Donna Karan Cashmere Mist

                                   

3. Favorite show you’re currently watching on TV, Acorn, Netflix, or whatever: The Real Housewives of NYC and Beverly Hills

4. Guilty pleasure you allow yourself once a week/month: Almond Joy Candy Bar

5. Favorite way to unwind if feeling stressed: Being all alone for an hour.

6. Something you cook or bake that’s always a big hit with friends/family: Too many to mention!  But they always expect Harry and David dip!

7. 3 places you would like to visit when travel is safe, easy, and fun again: Croatia, St Kitts, Cabo San Lucas.........and return to: Kotor, Montenegro and Tokyo, Japan

8. The last book you read that made you laugh: Elin Hilderbrand's Golden Girl made me smile a few times!

9. Small goal you’re currently striving to reach: purge/donate items I no longer use.

10. Big goal you’re currently striving to reach: lose weight

A walk down memory lane...

As a child I would always try to collect mementoes while on vacation, sometimes they were as simple as a shell from a beach or a paper napkin from a restaurant.  I saved my birthday cards, friends' school photos and letters from relatives.  They were little things to help keep the memory of my wonderful childhood alive.

In my teen years I saved movie ticket stubs, concert tickets, and love notes passed in class.  In my college years I save menus, cards from boyfriends, I pressed flowers they sent, saved matchbooks from special restaurant dates and collected more movie ticket stubs.  Many of these treasures went into scrap books that were piled high in my closet.  

When my father passed away, and I sold the home in 2007, I spent an afternoon going through these scrap books, teary-eyed at some memories, laughing hysterically at others and enjoying every minute of walking down memory lane.  And then I placed the scrap books in the recycle bin and said goodbye to many years of little treasures. 

As many of you, I am spending my self-isolation time cleaning, organizing and trying to be productive.

While cleaning out the large drawer in my hope chest, I came across a bag filled with matches.  So many restaurants and clubs used to have these by the door.....

 .....looking thru the little collection offered me another trip down memory lane!

And then I pulled out the bag full of swizzle sticks - and oh boy, did that take me back to my college days!

The Night Clubs in Framingham and Boston, many vacations and road trips with friends, beach trips to Cape Cod, date nights and lots of restaurants....

and I even saved some from our wedding:

One thing I have learned for sure, during this time of self-isolation, is that I need to weed out a lot of these little mementoes.  I think if we had cell phones back in the 70's I wouldn't have saved all of these, but would have photos of them instead!

But....I am not ready to part with these yet, so they all went back into the drawers to be saved for another walk down memory lane in the future!

So far the snow storm has missed us.......

Tea for me....

I had a little tea party this afternoon at three.

’Twas very small, three guests in all,

Just I, myself and me.

Myself ate all the sandwiches, 

while I drank up the tea;

’twas also I who ate the pie and 

passed the cake to me!

J.N.North

Aug 23 and a trip to Canada....

Our 39th wedding anniversary was Aug 23 and we spent the day in the Thousand Islands.....

Our day began with a 3 mile boat ride out to Dark Island to tour Singer Castle...

And then a drive onto Wellesley Island to the Thousand Island Park to visit the historic homes....

A few hours in the late afternoon were spent in Canada in Gananoque and then Brockville, Ontario:

One of the highlights was discovering this Railway Tunnel....

...an underground tunnel that is now a 1/2 mile long walkway under the center of town....

...that has a great light show and soothing music....

...it was such a unique walk from the waterfront under the city...

...with the colors changing constantly...

If you are ever in Brockville, you must find this hidden gem!

It was a fun day celebrating in two countries!

I remember when....

I started this blog on March 6, 2009, a little over 10 years ago.  My goal was to "journal"....sharing my everyday life, talents and ideas.  I have followed bloggers who got married, some divorced, and a few remarried.  Babies were born to a few who didn't want children, and they became great moms!  Lots of grandmothers shared their little blessings!  Some lost their spouses and a few bloggers even passed away.  I was saddened by some with illnesses, others who struggled with personal problems and a few who felt hopeless.  

I watched homes be decorated in a variety of styles, learned myriad of crafts and tried numerous recipes.  I made "friends" with bloggers from all over this country who have enriched my life.  Some I communicate with regularly, some I have had the blessing to meet in person, and others who probably don't even know that I exist (but I feel that I know them personally!)  

I watched some succeed professionally: books have been published, businesses have been created and products have been designed.  It is so exciting to walk into a book store, see a book and think "I know this blogger", or to walk into the hardware store and recognize a brand name as a blogger I used to follow!

There were many times I found myself feeling like I could never be good enough, rich enough, smart enough, happy enough, skinny enough, cute enough, clever enough, or creative enough.

So, I simply unfollowed.

I hope that my posts never made my readers feel that way!

 Blogging has certainly changed in the 10 years.  I have stopped following many due to the fact that numerous "ads" pop up, other pop ups ask you to sign up for their email list, others do not return to visit my blog (which used to be a courtesy) and some are not as "positive"  or enjoyable as they used to be.  

Recently Link Parties seem to be used only to "drive" traffic and not to create connections or friendships.  A few bloggers "fell off the face of the earth" and some pulled the wool over my eyes and cheated me.

I learned to make wreaths from the pages of a paper back book, I glued glass bowls onto candlesticks to make pedestal serving pieces, I covered lampshades with fabric, I used tutorials to learn how to paint MacKenzie-Childs black and white checks, I tried many decorating styles and so on.  I was inspired by many!

I just don't seem to have the time to read as many blogs as I used to and I have lost touch with many.

My point to this is to share what happened recently. 

 My husband and I took a trip to Virginia from NY. to see our daughter and SIL who recently moved outside Washington, DC.  While traveling on a back road, in VA, not far from the Maryland border and the Potomac River, we came to a red light.  A large building sign caught my attention: LUCKETTS. 

How did I know that name?  

And slowly it came to me.....

Marion from Miss Mustard Seed had a booth there and I watched her business grow as I followed her blog years ago.  I lost touch with her throughout the years, but we had to stop to visit the shop!

After my visit to the store, and for the last 30 minutes of our drive,  I reminisced about my 10 years of blogging and thought about those of whom I lost touch, those who stopped blogging and those who are no longer with us.

I also tried to remember the names of some of the old blogs who were "bookmarked" on my old computer. It was so much fun to reconnect with Miss Mustard Seed's blog, read some of her posts from the last few years and to learn that she moved away from the area and no longer had a booth at Lucketts.  She is someone who probably never knew of me, but certainly had an impact on some of my creative endeavors years ago!

Blogging has been a rewarding 10 years for me and I look forward to many more years of sharing my adventures with you!  It has been a creative outlet, allowing me to share my creativity, everyday adventures and family with you and I appreciate you following along with me!

 Thanks for stopping by!

My garden....

As you might know, I hate to garden!

You can refer to these posts for a review of my lack of gardening skills:

HERE and HERE

Because I hate dirt, worms, bugs, frogs and especially those little garden snakes, I just bought the Keter elevated garden pot:

My father loved to garden and could grow any type of flower or bush, often starting by scratch, rooting broken branches and planting seeds. Apple trees and peach trees produced an abundance of fruit in our yard and the berry bushes flourished.  

My grandfather was always in his huge vegetable garden, and had no problem tucking a garden snake into his pocket while he weeded, so he would kneel on him!!   My grandmother spent the fall canning vegetables that would last all winter!

I did not inherit a "green thumb" from either of them and I am thrilled when my Basil plant lasts til September!

So far, so good.....

....herbs are pretty easy to grow, I will admit...

,,,but I added a tomato plant a bell pepper plant and a banana pepper plant and some cilantro....

...with the hope for fresh salsa in August!!  Of course there is a "Mojito Mint plant" for a summer night beverage....and some lemon thyme for chicken and veggies!

I do have great success with chives and oregano - probably because they do not require any attention!

And I even have a cute watering can to help me out!!

Wish me "growing" success this summer!

 Thanks for stopping by!