Saturday, December 7, 2013

The Brach Candy of my childhood...

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When I was a little girl we would go to Tresslar’s Five and Dime on Saturday morning, and I would look into the Brach Bins, trying to decided what I wanted.  I was a big fan of Brach Bridge Mix, I loved the chocolate covered brazil nuts best and would always eat them first.

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Chocolate covered caramels were a close second, I still love them, never eat them, but they are just so good.

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And chocolate covered raisins, can’t forget those.  They’re fruit, they’re healthy, right?NewImage

And chocolate covered peanuts!

 

 

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And chocolate stars, can’t forget those!

Brachs chocolate covered caramel peanut clusters candy 129757 wAnd a great big picture for you of peanut clusters, can’t forget those!  I think my love of chocolate turtles originated with peanut clusters.

I could go on and on, but I won’t.  I’m getting a sugar rush just thinking about all of this!  You’re probably thinking I ate a lot of candy when I was a kid, and you’re right.  I had a mother with a sweet tooth, it was her one indulgence, and of course I just followed her lead.  That’s what kids do, right, they just do what mom does?  

When a beauty treatment goes bad!

 

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It’s now day two of being snowed in and your truly isn’t handling it well.  I can stay home for days and days, be perfectly content, but just the fact that they haven’t plowed us out yet and I can’t get out and about drives me absolutely crazy.

So I’m schlepping around in my ratty bathrobe, and it ain’t pretty folks.  I look in the mirror, shudder and decide that I need a beauty treatment.  Enter the humongous jar of coconut oil, the very jar that I purchased to cook with for my low-carb lifestyle.  The coconut oil that smells intensely of coconut and ruins everything that I cook in it, because I wasn’t smart enough to buy the refined coconut oil with no flavor.

Well, I replaced that jar with the good non-smelling stuff, and relegated the smelly stuff to my bathroom because it works well for a hair conditioner, and it’s great for your skin. I looked so bad that I immediately grabbed that coconut oil and start smearing it all over my hair and face, hoping for some kind of late(r) life miracle.

Then I walk into the den, hubby didn’t say a word, but his pupils dilated, and not in a good way.  I looked like a badly dressed, coconut smelling, ragamuffin in that gawdawful bathrobe with greasy hair plastered to my head and a shiny face.

I leave it on until I’m about to gag from the smell, coconut is just not my favorite odor of choice, go to the shower, knowing that it’s extremely difficult to rinse it out.  I grab a huge glob of shampoo, put it through my hair and it’s just not lathering.  Oh great, I’m thinking that I really overdid it with that non-beauty treatment, so I grab yet another glob, put it on my hair, and still no lather!

Then I look down, and good grief, I had now put a half a bottle of conditioner on my hair on top of all that greasy coconut oil.   Jeezy pete, what a disaster, I thought  I was using shampoo.  So then I open the shampoo, lather once, then again, and  rinse, rinse, rinse, rinse, rinse.  And how does this all play out?

Well, my hair is definitely soft and sleek.  Oh get real, Jan.  My hair is as limp as a old dishrag.   There is no such thing as a beauty treatment at my age anyway.   Oh, if I only had a brain...

Vintage Budweiser Christmas Commercial

 

This commercial is circa 1987, and one of my favorites.  This is what Heavensville looks like this morning , we had a big snow yesterday.  Unfortunately no live tree or Clydesdale drawn wagon.   I’ll just have to enjoy the magic of the season via YouTube...

Friday, December 6, 2013

What a great Christmas idea...

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I’ve been telling people about this today, and even put it in my Twitter stream, but I need to elaborate.   The huge silver ornaments are actually either bouncy balls or beach balls that have been sprayed with metallic silver paint.

What a unique cheap Christmas idea.  Love this!

World's Biggest Gingerbread House

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It’s still snowing, we’ve got 6”+ and radar shows it still coming for hours.  Not feeling the love, though.  I have a tri-state boom that won’t go away and I’ve ingested so much caffeine that I‘ve got the jitters!   Baa Humbug!!!!

But enough of that, I did find this article, it’s just fascinating. Look at all the candy they used making it.

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Want to read about it?  Sure you do, he’s the click.  Have at it!

Well, we're having weather!

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First we had freezing rain, then sleet, now we’re having snow.  It’s intermittent, coming in waves, and not supposed to stop until tonight.  They aren’t sure about accumulation, we’ll be lucky if we get no less than six inches.

So hubby decides to open the front door, which is frozen solid, so then of course he has to go out and bang on it with a shovel to unfreeze it.  He’s out there in his Santa Claus PJ’s, I’m in the house, worried about him falling, but he makes it back alive!  This isn’t a great picture, the door was steamed, but some things are best seen not so clear, if you get my “drift.”  hehehe

If I were younger I would be enjoying this, but I’m old(er) now, my head hurts, my legs hurt, this front is intense, and I’m not a particularly happy camper.  Maybe tomorrow I will be, or maybe not.  Stay tuned...

Thursday, December 5, 2013

Christmasing with Cristina Ferrare

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I just adore this woman, I’ve always followed her and think that she is just amazing.  She’s the real deal, a caring wife and mother, just a genuinely nice person.  I took a bit of time this busy morning to read this article about her when interviewed by Life After 50.

Just thought some of you might like to read it as well.

Here’s the link...

Monday, December 2, 2013

What's making me smile this morning....

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Memories of a great Thanksgiving in the Smoky Mountains.  We were snowed in from Tuesday until Friday, then literally had to drive on ice covered, steep, steep mountain roads down the mountain to shop.  But we persevered, seriously scary, though, seriously scary.  Ryan and his family were in Washington State visiting Lindsay’s family, so we gathered up the fur kids, John, Deanna, LC and I and trekked to the snow covered mountains for our turkey day, ummm, make that chicken and dumpling day, so much better than turkey.    And yes, it was idyllic until we had to go down that mountain.  But the shopping was great, so it was worth it.

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And a picture of hubby and I that I actually like.  We seldom take pictures together with LC smiling, so this is a keeper, and that snowy mountain is such a good backdrop.  Even little Maggie is festive, all decked out in her Christmas coat.

 

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So now I’m looking at pictures of sweet little Abby visiting her Great Grandma Baron.


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And Ben, sitting on his Daddy’s lap, playing on the cell phone like a pro.  No photos of Lindsay, though, she’s a mom, and moms are always behind the camera. :(
 

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Deanna gave me this cute little snowman mug last weekend to sit on my coffee maker.  I always keep my Splenda nearby in a vintage cottage cheese jar, and now I have hot chocolate in this great little sour cream jar that hubby picked up at a flea market last weekend.  I put it all together this morning, and have a huge smile on my face just looking at it.

I’m thinking of making a sugar-free version of mother’s Russian Tea for the holiday season, but I’m having trouble finding Sugar Free Tang.  Tang makes it, but people don’t drink Tang like they once did, stores don’t stock it and so far I haven’t had any luck finding it.

I posted a really awesome 2 carb, 25 calorie hot chocolate mix this morning on Jan CAN Cook Lowcarb - link to the recipe here - I stirred it up a bit ago, and it  literally took under a minute to make it.  You’re looking at it in my little jar, and it has hubby’s seal of approval.  He loves it, and adding just a splash of half and half really gives it a great flavor.

And I’m happy to say, not that it’s interesting to all of you, but I feel the need to document this, after I gave myself permission to eat Thanksgiving Day and the eve before, I went right back to low carb and made it through the entire trip without gaining any weight.  I didn’t lose, but the fact that I stayed the same was pretty awesome.

So I have a lot to smile about this morning.  Christmas decorating is almost finished, shopping is 75% complete, the family is all safely back home, and I’m listening to Christmas music and looking forward to the holidays.

Hope you’re all enjoying Cyber Monday!!!!  ~ jan

 



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