It’s all coming to an end…

The fleurs on my patio are still going gangbusters.  If you look closely at the impatiens below, you can see a boxwood peeking out the top.  That was my bright idea this spring, plant boxwood with impatiens surrounding it.  Well, that didn’t work out so well, did it?  The flowers just totally outgrew the boxwood.

And hubby has been busy getting Butterbean winterized.  He has an area to escape to where he can get away from the elements, and we will tent the sides for him soon so the air doesn’t get to him. Then buy him a winterized water bottle and a heating pad and he’ll be good to go.  The herbs are still growing, there will be fresh sage and thyme at our house this Thanksgiving.  Hopefully I can winter my rosemary over again, just depends on how harsh the weather is.

Poor hubby has a job ahead of him, disposing of all these plants and ferns and raking the leaves.  We usually wait until the frost nips the plants. It’s too bad somebody can’t use ferns.  We have so many and they are just huge.  It’s such a shame to throw them in the trash. *sigh*

I Married Who? Coming Saturday, Oct. 20 to the Hallmark Channel

I’m a sucker for cheesy  movies, probably a result of all of the sappy romance novels I read, and Hallmark Movies seem to be a cut above Lifetime.

This one, I Married Who, with Kelly Martin looks pretty entertaining.  A bit young, but still a cute movie…

 

And then Saturday, October 27th, The Good Witch’s Charm premieres.  This is the sixth movie in this series, their most popular movies ever.  Here’s a link to information and a video…

Why do I Tweet???

My friend, Nisha, and I had a conversation about Twitter last weekend.  Here’s how it went.

Nisha:  What exactly is Twitter?

Me:  Uh, it’s random thoughts in 140 characters or less that I post.

Nisha:  Why?

Me:  I dunno, because I don’t have a brain, maybe? My Twitter feed is on my blog, in the right sidebar, don’t you look at it?

Nisha:  Uh, no…

Which got me thinking, maybe nobody looks at it.  So why do I post to Twitter a badzillion times a day?  Who the hell knows why I do anything.  I don’t even know why I do it.  I guess I think it, I say it.  Hoof and mouth disease.

But my Twitter feed has been broken.  It wasn’t showing posts.  So Mikey found a new one, it has a scroll bar, you can scroll down and read lots of my Tweets, you can even “load more” of my older Tweets.  When I post pictures it shows up in the feed. You can click on the little icon that says  “Follow @jansdailydish”  to subscribe and follow my Tweets.  You can also click in the little box at the bottom of the Twitter Feed that says “Tweet to @jansdailydish” and respond to one of my Tweets and it will show up, and you will be famous.  Okay, so you won’t be famous, but you might like looking at what you type.  Okay, so you won’t.  But you have to admit, my new Twitter feed has lots of bells and whistles.  I love bells and whistles, did you know that? 

You:  Uh, this is pretty lame.  Why would I want to take the time to follow you or Tweet to you, most of what you have to say is downright stupid. 

Me:  Uh, I know I’m pretty boring, don’t worry about it, it was just a passing thought...

Okay, okay, do you want to know why I really love Twitter?  It’s their little bluebird icon, it’s the cutest thing!  I’m a sucker for a cute bird. 

And yes, that really is my eye staring at you beside my Tweets.  You didn’t ask, you don’t care, I don’t blame you.  I think I saw somebody else do it and thought it was a good idea at the time.  And now it’s a few years later and my eye is more wrinkled and droopy, so I’m not changing it!

That is all…

HAPPY BIRTHDAY VERONICA JEANNE!!!!!!!

It’s a milestone birthday for my buddy!  This dear heart is turning 50. 

Happy Birthday sweet, V!  You’re the BESTEST!

Nothing like this little Beagle to brighten your day…

Sharing the good stuff..

It’s been awhile since I’ve shared my favorite new finds and today’s the day, ladies.  So here we go…

 

Pantene Ice Shine Shampoo and Conditioner

I don’t know how I missed this all these years, and only heard about it because Pantene was discontinuing it and women threw such a fit that they brought it back.  I’m always skeptical about anything that promises to give your hair shine because nothing seems to work on over processed hair, but this product delivers!  You can’t expect dazzling shine, so be realistic, but you will see a definite improvement.  My hair is shinier and silkier than it has been in recent memory, and it doesn’t strip color.  This is a “must have” from now on in my shower!

 

Green Mountain Hot Apple Cider

If you use K-Cups and you like hot fall beverages, this is another winner.  The trick is to make it using the 6 oz. setting on your Keurig/Cuisinart Coffee Maker, so you don’t over dilute it.  It’s a cup of warm, spicy, apple goodness.  The only drawback, it’s 80 calories, due to the brown sugar.

QVC Purse Organizer

This is a repeat, well worth repeating because it’s the handiest organizer I’ve ever had and these things make great Christmas presents. I’ve bought these for gifts, told friends about them, every single woman that has this loves it.  It has a badzillion compartments, you can totally organize everything that normally flops around in the bottom of your purse in this one organizer.  No more digging for car keys, they fit right in this organizer.  There are lots of pockets for lipstick, compact, gum, mints, tissues, lotion, cellphone, the sides unzip and expand, the middle is open and will easily hold a long wallet and eyeglass case. 

When you need to switch purses, you just pull this up and plop it in another purse.  Presto, you’re finished. It’s soft sided, so it fits in most purses.  And everything stays organized, it really does, take it from someone who was a former president of the messy purse club.  I’ve had mine for two years now, and the inside of my my purse hasn’t been a disaster since I got it!

And the price for this is awesome!  $20.00!!!  These make great gifts, trust me on this one, this thing rocks!  Here’s a quick link if you want to order.

 

Camera+

If you have an iPhone and you don’t have this app, you’re missing out.  It’s far superior to Instagram, and blows the built-in default iPhone camera app out of the water.  It’s simple to use, has so many effects, it’s just amazing how you can clean up your pictures after you take them, brighten them quickly with my favorite, the Clarity setting, one of many settings including, backlit, darken, cloudy, shade, sunset, portraits, scenery, food, nighttime, cloudy day, etc.  You can add text to your pictures, apply lots of special effects, then put great edges and borders on then with this little $.99 app.

You can tap in one or two areas of the picture you are taking to make the lens focus on those specific objects, also.  So cool!  And uploading them to Twitter or Facebook or emailing them is just a simple click.  It was voted App of The Year for 2011, and well worth the hype.  There are videos on YouTube to help you better utilize this.  You can read all about it here!

They’ve just introduced it for the iPad, too.  This one is another winner.  I had no idea I could take such great pictures with my phone!  If you scroll down to my Hawaiian Pancake picture, I edited it using Camera+.  It took a ho-hum picture and made it look spectacular, sez me, bragging.  Well it did!!!!  I’m in love with this app!!!!

 

Word Solitaire

And last, but not least. Word Solitaire.  I’m not a gamer, but this is positively addictive.  It’s available for your iPad and iPhone, it’s like solitaire, but with words.  It’s so much fun, you can waste countless hours playing this.  It’s cheap, also, $1.99 in the App Store.

Are my jeans tight? Or how I managed to gain 4 lbs. in 3 days…

Okay, so these pancakes aren’t the entire reason I gained 4 lbs. in 3 days.  It was also, fish, fries & hushpuppies, broasted chicken, a baked sweet potato, Pizza King Pizza, and best of all, that I didn’t take a picture of, a spectacularly yummy sandwich that I’ll be recreating at home. 

We went to Concannon’s Bakery, Café & Coffee Bar, and I ordered their turkey sandwich and baked potato salad.  It was thick slices of homemade potato bread, and sandwiched inside was shaved turkey breast, a big pile of it, fresh spinach leaves, and the bread was spread with cranberry sauce, instead of mayo.  Oh my…

But back to these pancakes.  We went to Sunday brunch at Eva’s Pancake House, where Nish and I shared a biscuit and bowl of gravy, because biscuits and gravy are quite possibly one of the seven wonders of the world. Let’s just say it was kind of an appetizer, ya, let’s just say that.  But front row center on the menu were the Hawaiian Pancakes, and I looked no further, they were calling my name. This plate of decadent goodness was composed of strawberries in syrup, pineapple, bananas, chopped walnuts, honey and whipped cream.  Aren’t they the most delectable looking things, possibly ever?  Of course it was all amazing, and was the weight gain worth it?  Oh heck ya it was.  I also neglected to mention fistfuls of Peanut M&M’s, a huge cone of cherry chocolate ice cream, and another huge cone of one of the the best ice creams I’ve ever put in my mouth, salted caramel.  Let’s see what did I leave out, oh, I forgot the coffee cake Nisha served, it was so good, that I bought one, froze it, and brought it home to take to the kids for Thanksgiving.

I guess that about covers it, but I’m sure I left out a few things.  And now back to reality.  But I did get on the scales this morning, and that 4 lb. gain didn’t even make me cry.  Maturity, maybe?  Nah, it was just that totally sated, satisfied feeling.  I haven’t had it in so long, I forgot how wonderful it was!

OMG, O.M.G!!! I forgot the best part, how could I do forget this, the biggest blowout of it all.  Okay, so we’re on the way home, going thru Amish country, and we stopped for lunch at an Amish restaurant.  The parking lot was packed, it had to be good, right?  Oh, absolutely!  It was a trough, you can’t go wrong with an Amish trough and a full parking lot!

And what did yours truly have??? I know you’re dying to know!  I’ve told you everything else, I might as well fess up to all of it.  Okay, are you ready for this?  Noodles, puddled on a big ole’ pile of mashed potatoes, dressing, corn, a piece of fried chicken, homemade bread, cucumbers in sour cream, ambrosia salad (2 kinds) and for dessert, the piece de resistance, a huge wedge of pecan pie.  But I did drink unsweetened iced tea.  *blush*

So yes,  Miss Piggy deserved each and every one of those four pounds!!!

Grandma’s talking about the grandkids…

Lord help, old(er) women get names wrong, and can you imagine how this worked out for me this past weekend.

We were visiting my friend Nisha and her husband Charlie for a long weekend.  We both have granddaughters and grandsons.  First came my Abby, then Nisha’s first granddaughter was Gabby.

Then she got a grandson, Finn, and I got a grandson Ben.  So, we have Abby and Gabby and Finn and Ben.  We got everybody’s name mixed up, we couldn’t even carry on a conversation.  But give us a break, what are the chances of grandchildren’s names rhyming like that?  It was interesting, to say the least,  hearing us talk, actually it was pretty funny.

And now we’re home, and I’m trying to get back in the saddle again.  But right now, I’m going to watch my taped Pioneer Woman.  I’ll be back tomorrow…