Lovely Bath

Today I'm finally sharing my photos that I took during our recent trip to beautiful Bath. It was a bit of an overcast day and near the end it rained, but that city is a gorgeous place to visit in mostly any weather. There are many things that I love about Bath...it's architecturally beautiful, it's just the right size, and I always feel a difference when I visit. I'll explain. I've been living here for a bit over six and a half years now, and even though it is great to live here, after a while I've gotten used to it because I'm living a normal life everyday. I know that it's a treat to get a chance to live outside one's homeland, but for me when I'm let's say, washing dishes, I could be anywhere as I get dishpan hands :-) I guess that what I'm trying to say is that after this while and simply getting on with life, I don't think daily about the fact that I live in another country. But from time to time, when I'm least expecting it, I have this realization that "hey, I'm in a totally different country". And in those moments I'm truly grateful for the opportunity to have this experience. I try to be grateful generally in my life, but I do get those moments when I stop in the middle in my life and take a look around. I guess you could say that momentarily I stop and smell the roses. When I have those moments I tell myself that I have to take notice more...I'm working on it...I'm a work in progress :-) Anyway, back to my story. So when I'm in Bath I have those moments of realization and I feel the difference, like "yeah, I'm somewhere else". Bath is probably my favorite place so far that I've visited in England.

We went to Bath that day to simply have a lovely day out and it was great! Brit Boy and I always enjoy having a stroll around the city and this is where Brit Boy attended university, so it holds a special place in his heart. Since I've been so wordy already, I'll just make the rest of this more of a photo post with very few words ;-)

Left: This is a rather blurry pic that I took from the car as we were waiting to get off at the exit. Bath is beautifully laid out within the rolling hills.

Right: The view as we drove along into town to get to the parking. I love the way the houses hug the curve of the road.

           

                 




        Left: The view driving into town and down the hill

Above: I love the shape of this building

Above: Street Scene...Bath is full of cozy little areas like this

Above: Pretty side street. I don't know the name of the church, but I love how it is nestled just right there

Above: A view of Bath Abbey and to the right are the Roman Baths

Above: Which way do we go???? LOL

Above: My delicious lunch...a spinach & cheese ravioli garnished with cheese and salad and the glorious bread. Yum!!!! Wish I had some now! It was SO good! We ate at a department store restaurant and were floored that the food was so nice and tasty and reasonably priced!

Above: Brit Boy's lasagna

Above: Last but not least, the sweet shop where I got my Nerds candy that I mentioned in my previous post. It was such a cute shop...old fashioned and just perfect!

And that's all folks! I have about a thousand more photos of Bath because every time we go I just can't help myself. It is that beautiful! I always feel at home there. And I LOVE getting the chance to share it with all of you. I will share some more photos in the future because I want everyone to get the chance to experience this interesting place. So I hope that you'll indulge any future photo posts that I do ;-)  These photos don't even scratch the surface. More to come...

If you'd like to know more about Bath, just let me know in the comments. I could talk about it forever and I'm not being paid by the city, I just love this beautiful place. LOL.

Until next time...

Happy Thanksgiving

This year Brit Boy is taking the actual day off so we won't have to celebrate it before or after the day. That makes me very happy! I am grateful everyday, but it's just really nice to celebrate collectively along with others back home :-)

I'm looking forward to Skyping with my family and having some good laughs together! That's always fun!

I wish a wonderful holiday to all who are celebrating!!!

Love

This is another one of my posts about my life or about something around the house. This is the view in my kitchen window today. It's a grey, windy, cold day here and these beautiful roses are on the drab and dead side now too...or so it seems. I say or so it seems because to me they are still as beautiful and alive as the day that my husband gave them to me. Several days ago now, he was outside cutting the grass for one last time this year and trimming things back. I was inside doing something else and I heard a tap on the back window...and there he was with this little bunch of roses for me :-) I've often shared photos of these beautiful roses at their height of blooming and these were the very last ones for the year.

 

These faded roses will probably sit in the kitchen window in some form or fashion for all of the fall and winter and into the spring...probably always. I think that I'll pluck off the deadest bit right in the center and keep the buds for a very long time and let them dry out. I always want to remember the beauty of them in full bloom on the day he gave them to me and I want to remember the love that surrounded the giving in the first place, so faded or not...I love them! :-)

 

Have a great weekend everyone!



Dreaming of Future Vacations

Ever feel like you need a vacation? I know I do right now, and Brit Boy and I were talking about just that over the weekend. Not that we are actually going anywhere, but it’s nice to dream once in a while, don’t you think?

One destination that came up during our conversation was Canada. I have visited our neighbors to the north once before, but Brit Boy has never been. I don’t suppose that we will be visiting there anytime soon since flights to Canada from UK cities are about the same price as flights back home to Georgia, and if we are going to spend that kind of money then I think I would prefer a trip home right about now  :)

Anyway, as I said, I have visited Canada once before, about 10 years ago now. I went with my sister and niece; driving up from Georgia through half a dozen other states on our way to Toronto. It was an amazing trip, watching the various landscapes, both rural and urban, pass us by on the way. We went up there to see a concert, and drove all the way back again the very next day, so you could say it was a fleeting visit! It was the ultimate road trip!

I would love to go there again someday with Brit Boy and have a proper visit. It would be great to see some more of the glorious scenery and sights that such a huge country like Canada has to offer.

I have never been skiing before, though Brit Boy has, so maybe a winter sports vacation would be in order. I’m told it is good fun!  I do believe that it could be a great place for us to visit together!  I look forward to visiting again one day  :)

Beautiful Food

Hello! :-)

 

I hope that everyone had a great weekend. As I mentioned in a previous post, I want to start sharing some photos again like I used to. I still love taking photos, but I've been falling way behind on sharing them here. Like I said the other day, my photos aren't groundbreaking...they're simply snapshots from my life here. I know that when I go to other blogs I always love looking at the photos that people post of just the simplest things. It's a very human thing...you know? :-) So I'm going to do my best to share some pics here. As Brit Boy will tell you, I'm ALWAYS snapping photos, so I have loads to share!

 

Today's photo is a food shot as you can see. I love photographing food and it's getting around to the time of the year when I do a lot of baking and special cooking for the holidays, so I'll be a picture-taking fool. LOL.

 

Anyway, this is a little snack that I had over the weekend. I love kiwifruit!!! They look too pretty to eat, but I did ;-) When I see kiwifruit it just reminds me of the beautiful things that nature can produce.

 

 

Have a great day everyone!

 

Dori ~ From a Yellow House



Olympics Excitement

Hello! It's a rainy Monday morning, but I'm feeling pretty good! Just to follow up on the latest news around here...we finally got our washing machine fixed last week. Yay!! And so far it is working okay...fingers crossed.

As I'm sitting here writing this, I'm watching Serena Williams playing against Yaroslava Shvedova at Wimbledon. I'm not actually there, but I'm planted here in my comfy chair in Wiltshire as I glance at the television periodically. Thankfully it's not raining there :-)

This sporty talk goes along with another thing that I'm thinking about...and that is the Olympics! :-) I can't believe how close the Olympics are now. I'm so excited! Over the weekend, Brit Boy and I had a bit of a messy situation with our accommodations for our time in London though. We had a call from the people that we were supposed to be renting from during our Olympic trip and basically they had pushed us out of the way in favor of some bigger spenders...typical! They offered us some other place to stay, but we had a look at it online and it was a mess. We paid good money to these people five months ago and they have had the audacity to push us out after they were all too glad to take our money back then. I would say that we were surprised, but we're not sadly. I will spare you the long story and their response to us wanting what we paid for. Lousy, lousy, lousy customer service!!! I'll just say that we asked for a full refund/compensation and will not be using their pathetic service ever again! We found somewhere else to stay, and it wasn't easy because it's so close to time now, but I'm glad we have somewhere to stay again. I get so tired of people thinking that they can take your money and not provide the service that they are supposed to be offering. I know that this happens way too much these days, but I'm done with just accepting it! End of vent.... ;-)

On to more positive news, as I said at the beginning, I'm feeling pretty good, despite our accommodation speed bump. Brit Boy and I won't let all of that craziness get us down. We haven't been away for this many days for a long time, so we're really looking forward to the chance to have some fun! I was reading online this morning about the US Olympic Trials and I read what my friends were saying on Facebook yesterday. It looks like there is going to be a really good group representing the USA. I'm happy for all of the athletes from everywhere getting their chance to compete in the Olympics and it will be great to see everyone participate. However, I'm going to be cheering on the USA team since I'm a USA girl and I hope that they can do us proud! Brit Boy will of course be cheering on Team GB (Great Britain). We respect both teams in the Yellow House, as I mentioned in this post four years ago :-)  And in the event that "our own team" isn't playing, we gladly cheer on the other one and it works. It's always fun ;-) And if neither of our teams are playing, then we're just gonna cheer on everyone because we're happy to be there! What a blessing...

So we're counting down the days until our Olympic trip and I'll definitely be sharing some photos here...

See ya next time...

Repair Sagas and Taking a Break

Hello there! I'm sitting here at the dining table as I tap away at my alive and kicking laptop again. Yay! :) As I look across the room I'm getting an interesting view...it looks like October outside. LOL. It's a kind of odd scene...we have a couple of pretty pink roses that are peeking into the window and most of the backyard is green, but it's all being battered by fierce wind and rain. It's been like this off and on for days and days and days. I know that it's scorching back home and I know how that grueling summer heat can be, but right about now I'd take a tiny bit because wearing wool coats and sweaters in June is just so wrong!!! LOL. It's all good though ;-)

Anyway, as I mentioned, I'm back in possession of my laptop and I'm finished with my exams. Yay again! So now my attention has been turned back to the business of running this house and giving some quality time to blogging. The latter is much easier because I'm here back in the blogging saddle, but the former is a mess! As I mentioned in my previous post, I was expecting a visit from a repairman the next day. Well, he and his assistant showed up after a month of wrangling with our landlord. Our landlord loves to NOT get things fixed and some may say, well that's just the way some landlords, not all are, but I say it's still not acceptable when we pay our rent for service and don't get it. The repairmen came to fix our hot water heater and to fix a faucet that was past the point of dripping and just running in a trickle that we couldn't fix.

So after explaining the situation to the middle men on a regular basis for a month, whilst I was trying to study for exams, we FINALLY got these two things fixed this week. In addition to this, we've also been trying to get our washing machine fixed and that is still broken a month later. Arghhhhh! Here's the craziness that is our landlord. These repair guys were sent out to assess things a couple of weeks ago and they were also asked to check to see if the lack of hot water was affecting our washing machine. So these repair guys reported back and told the landlord that the washing machine is a cold water intake and it has nothing to do with the hot water heater. However, our landlord didn't believe them!!!! What? So they sent out yet another repair guy and he goes back to report exactly what the other guys said...that the hot water heater had nothing to do with the washing machine. But the landlord was still not believing!!!! From experience with the landlord I can tell you that this was not truly due to his disbelief...this was good old-fashioned cheapness. We've been down this road before and I'll tell you, God willing, this is the end of the road for us at the end of our lease in several months. We are grateful to have somewhere to live, but we are past tired of dealing with this every time. No two day repair should take 4, 6, or 8 weeks! But don't worry...this won't be the end of the Yellow House by any stretch of the imagination, because the Yellow House for us is a state of mind and it's not about the structure. We will carry the Yellow House with us always!  :-) Plus, even though our experiences have been messed up, we will always have a soft spot in our hearts for the first house that we shared as a married couple...and that is something more powerful than any physical structure because it's about LOVE! And anyway, we've already decided that when we build our house in the future, it's gonna have to be yellow in some way...the Yellow House is just us...me and Brit Boy! :-)

So the middle men/property managers saw our side in this and have told the landlord that they are not upholding their end of our contract. This got the ball rolling...ever so slowly. But as I said we are still waiting on our washing machine to be repaired and I'm still breaking my back trying to wash everything by hand...not fun! I'm just glad that the hot water and faucet are finally fixed. Maybe by the time of the Olympics we will have a washing machine again ;-)

And that's my mini vent about our ever continuing repair saga...the condensed version! Thanks for indulging me! I'm going to do my best to relax some this weekend and just forget about the washing machine. I also want to relish in not having to study this weekend after this long while. Woo Hoo!

Next time, I'll be back to happier topics. I'm going to share this great book that I've read recently. It was a fun read! And I hope that everyone has a great weekend! :-)

Cranky Computers and Hitting the Books

Hi there! I just wanted to check in and say hello. I'm currently in the middle of studying for my exams, so I'm not able to post here like I wish I could. I'll get my other photos up that I promised to share very soon. By June 15th I will be finished with my exams and then I will be a posting fool :-) Of course there's also something else keeping me from posting, even if I didn't have exams. You see, my laptop has decided to stop working, so I can't get to my photos and things. So please wish me luck that we can get my laptop fixed and that all will be well. I'm using Brit Boy's laptop right now, so I have a small bit of internet access. Yay!

Anyway, I look forward to getting back here soon with my laptop and photos all in tact. Now it's back to studying. Thanks for continuing to visit me here!

Until next time...

Olympic News and Weekends

Hello there! This is a short post just to check in and say that I hope that everyone had a great weekend. Mine was good after a frenzied week of trying to write my umpteenth essay for school ;-) I gave myself the gift of a break this weekend before I plow headlong into more studying and writing. It has been hard I will admit, but it will be rewarding in the end. I know that I'm doing just what I need to be doing at this point in my life :-) I'm way behind on basically everything it seems including tending to my blog which I love. Thank you for continuing to visit me here even though I've been quite sporadic lately. But I know that once I get past this next month, I will be able to come here and hang out more.

So many things have passed by that I wanted to write about here, including the lighting of the Olympic flame in Greece the other day. I know this may seem like a random thing to want to mention in the scheme of things, but I want to mention it because Brit Boy and I are going to the Olympics in London. We're both looking forward to it and this will be my second time going to the Olympics. I was lucky to get to go to the 1996 Olympics in Atlanta and it was fantastic and I got to enjoy it in my home state. So now, I think it's such a wonderful thing to be getting the chance to go again. It was hard to get tickets, and it's been a long time coming, but we finally got some tickets after a couple of tries. I will most definitely be sharing some photos of our adventures in August.

I didn't want to let that milestone of the torch lighting get too far in the past, because I wanted to share my news and let you know that I'll be sharing some pics. I'm really grateful to get this chance again. I look forward to it.

Now it's back to my school work. One more thing though. Brit Boy and I went for a walk this past Saturday and I took some nature shots of those beautiful green woods that we saw. I will get the pics up this week and share a bit of Wiltshire, England here on my blog.

Have a great day everyone and I'll be back with the pics !

Until next time...

Salad Talk

I got up this morning with the thought that I wanted to start the new month off right with a new post on my blog. The trouble was that I couldn’t think of anything to talk about. LOL. I have some thoughts about future posts, but those thoughts haven’t gelled fully in order for me to write about those things. So I just decided to let it go, because I knew that something would pop into my head even if it is just one of my random posts. Fortunately, my inspiration came in the form of lunch!

This is the salad that I had for lunch and it was SO tasty!

Every since I’ve been having to study so much each day for school, I have sometimes ended up skipping lunch or eating whatever is around. But that way I ended up either starving or sick from eating something weird. Lol. So over the last few weeks I’ve been trying to make a better effort at making lunch for myself. I always eat breakfast, usually cereal or oatmeal, and then I make a decent dinner for me and Brit Boy, but I was neglecting lunch. I knew that I had to do better when I found myself eating dinner like a cavewoman because I was famished. Lol. It was not pretty. So I decided to rescue my poor stomach and make a more regular lunch for myself. You’ll be happy to know that I’ve learned my lesson! It’s all good now. I’m remembering how I was raised ;-)

You know I love blogging about food, so I’ll share what it consisted of.

My ingredients: mixed lettuce, scallions/spring onions, a few chunks of cheddar cheese, and some beets on the side. I splashed it with a little bit of vinaigrette dressing after I took the photo.

This whole salad talk has got me to thinking about a conversation that I had with my sister on Skype the other day. We were talking about our love of salads and she said that she could eat salad everyday if she had to. She knows how to lay out a salad! We’re gonna have to have a nice salad together on my next visit home :-)

I will say this...I could definitely eat a salad just like the one I had today several times a week. I do like this lunch thing...I wonder what I can have tomorrow????

Until next time...

Happy Anniversary

HAPPY WEDDING ANNIVERSARY TO US TODAY!

The Colors of Nature

I was going through some of my photographs this morning and I came across this one that I like a lot. I took it last summer while Brit Boy and I were out around Wiltshire. I took it from the car as I am fond of doing when we are out and about :-) It's rather blurry, but I love the colors of nature and it was just a beautiful day that day. Seeing this photo again instantly takes me back to that day and how I felt as Brit Boy drove along. I look forward to getting some more photos like this hopefully this summer, and if I do, you know that I will share them here! :-)

Have a wonderful Thursday!

Happy Easter

Happy Easter from the Yellow House, to all who celebrate this glorious day!

And to everyone, Brit Boy and I wish you a wonderful Sunday! :-)

Rejuvenating Sundays

I had a good weekend. How was yours? :) We went into town to do some food shopping on Saturday and then Sunday, Brit Boy and I enjoyed our separate pursuits.

Brit Boy went to a football/soccer match on Sunday and I got the chance to have a Sunday like I haven't had in a long time. We love each other and enjoy spending time together, but as you all know, it's nice to have your own 'me' time sometimes. I was happy that he was able to go off and have his sporty day with his friends, just like I loved my day of doing just what I wanted to do...even if that was enjoying doing nothing ;-)




The photo above shows you a bit of my day...a little snapshot (things landed on the table in shifts, but here's a bit of what lived on the table for a bit of the day). I sat here in my favorite chair and had this little table beside me as I painted my nails, listened to my ipod, watched tv, had a snack, and kept my notepad nearby to jot stuff down. I like jotting stuff down in notebooks. I always have :-) I sometimes just draw a little picture or write a snippet of something I hope to turn into a story someday...I just love having a notepad nearby so that I can doodle or whatever...it's one of my things that I like to do. Having this time on Sunday made me realize that I need to hang out with my notebook a bit more ;-)

Anyway, I thoroughly enjoyed my Sunday with no need to cook lunch or dinner or plan anything. It was a good rejuvenation and I needed it! By the time Brit Boy returned I was renewed. He came back home in the evening and had enjoyed the day out in London. And after having separate pursuits for the day, we were able to come together once again in the end...

I hope everybody enjoyed their weekends too! :-)

Blue Shimmery Cake

Okay...so I’m finally getting here to post about my blue food. Sorry for the delay, as I mentioned in a previous post :)



Above is a lovely “I Love You” cake that Brit Boy made for me here at the Yellow House. He made the cake and the decoration turned into a collaborative effort. The cake was a devil’s food cake with vanilla icing and it was so yummy! I love baking as you know and it was really fun to collaborate with Brit Boy on this cake.

I love the color blue, and as you can see, the cake features that color prominently...so there’s my blue food ;-)

Some of the decorations are courtesy of a great company called Silver Spoon, makers of the Askeys brand products. The good folks there sent me several of their products to try out since I love baking and creative cooking ;-) You may remember my post from back in November, when I was experimenting with the Askeys brandy snap baskets as a substitute for mini pie shells. Check the post out here.

I wasn’t familiar with the Askeys brand before I tried their brandy snap baskets, but they make really excellent products that can help you create some tasty desserts.

Silver Spoon also makes wafers, cones, topping sauces, sprinkles, and various icings. They boast an impressive range of products in their Cakecraft range for all of the bakers out there.

I received a variety of products, so I will be presenting a couple of other posts in the near future, highlighting what we’ve made around the Yellow House when we decide to have a treat again. I look forward to sharing what I’ve come up with as I present the other products.



So, back to our cake :-) In order to decorate our cake, we used these blue shimmer balls by Silver Spoon along with some other flowers that we had on hand. The blue shimmer balls were an excellent accent to the flowers and just made a sweet looking little cake. Also, the decorations actually tasted good, so that was a plus!

The folks at Silver Spoon also sent along a couple of products from their Cakecraft range.



They sent some strawberry and lemon icing sugar that I haven’t tried yet, but I’m sure that they will both get a whirl too. I have to spread out my baking though...we can’t have treats like this too often ;-) But that’s what makes treats like this special...you don’t have them every day. I'm excited that I have two flavors to try since I’ve never tried these before. I look forward to getting creative with these!

And that’s my blue food story. Okay...so it was more blue-adorned, but blue just the same ;-) And most importantly, Brit Boy was kind enough to make it for me and that is a wonderful thing!

Until next time....

Disclosure: I was sent these products by The Silver Spoon Company and received no money for this post. All views on these products are my own as always :-)

Christmas at Salisbury Cathedral

Hello everyone! :) I just wanted to share some pics from Thursday night. Brit Boy and I went down to Salisbury to attend the Carol Service at Salisbury Cathedral. We have gone before, but we missed the last time due to bad weather. However, this year we were able to be there and it was just as beautiful as I remember. I'll tell you, hearing those young voices echoing around the cathedral is something to experience at least once in your life :) Sitting there and taking in all of the beauty of the singing and the cathedral is just an extraordinary experience! I hope that you enjoy looking at a few of the pics that I took. I wanted to share some of what I saw with anyone who takes the time to come and visit me at my blog. I truly appreciate it! So these pictures are for you...my wonderful readers!

Below: These first two pictures are of the Old George Mall, all decked out for Christmas





Below: The next three are street scenes in Salisbury





Below: This is the Guildhall in Salisbury



Below: Another street scene in Salisbury



Below: The High Street Gate leading to Salisbury Cathedral



Below: The next two pictures are of the inside of Salisbury Cathedral right before the service




Below: The next three are pictures of the West Front of Salisbury Cathedral





Below: And finally, this is a picture that I snapped of the cathedral from afar.



Merry Christmas to all of you who celebrate!

On the Eve of Thanksgiving

Today is a good day at the Yellow House. As many of you know, tomorrow is Thanksgiving in the USA and even though I’ve been living here for five and a half years, the tradition is still very much celebrated in this little house. Brit Boy loves the holiday too, and has always been a very willing participant in the celebration. So it is nice to share this holiday with him and embrace the gratitude and connection of the day together.

We’re actually going to celebrate on Friday because Brit Boy won’t have the day off on the actual Thanksgiving Day tomorrow, since the day isn’t celebrated here of course. He is having the day off on Friday so we can have a long weekend together though. So that will be nice. It’s going to be great no matter what day!

My thoughts are all over the place today, but in a good way. I’m having a hybrid of memory and new traditions going through my mind. Today I’m remembering the last Thanksgiving that my siblings and I had with my mom six years ago. And in the spirit of gratitude, I’m so grateful that we were able to be together like that, with her sitting at the head of the table at my sister’s house and giving us that beautiful smile of hers. I remember a lot of Thanksgivings fondly, but that one stands out to me more than any of them and it will stay with me forever. She was happy and that is the way I remember her. She loved the holiday season, so Thanksgiving and Christmas were her times. Right after Thanksgiving she would pull out her Christmas music and sing her way around the kitchen all the way up until Christmas. It’s interesting when you look back at a person in all of their glory and you really ‘see’ them. I realize now that besides all that she taught me in being my mother, she also taught me a lot about being a human being. My mother didn’t have the easiest life by any stretch of the imagination, but she had the greatest joy for life and she lived in the moment. I loved that about her...

Later this evening, Brit Boy and I are heading to the supermarket to pick up some ingredients for our Thanksgiving dinner on Friday. I’m making some of the standard traditional dishes that I grew up with, but I’m going to attempt to make a new dessert. I know that lots of people make pumpkin pies, but in our house it was always sweet potato pies. That's what I love though...there are traditional foods that we all share in common on that day and then there are regional variations. Variety and tradition living side by side is a beautiful thing. I’m still going to make regular sweet potato pie, but I’m going to try this recipe that I found for these mini pies with a cream cheese type topping. They looked good when I saw them on the Food Network last year, so I’m gonna give it a whirl. Wish me luck! ;-) If I go ahead with trying it, I’ll share how they turned out...for better or worse. Also, it’s usually a customary challenge to find substitutions for some ingredients here. But after these past few years, it’s become a standard part of my life, so it’s kind of like a game now. Lol. It should be fun! I embrace the challenge!

Tomorrow I will get my dessert making done so that I won’t have that to on Friday. And hopefully if I get it all planned out right, I’ll be able to check in by Skype with my niece and have some laughs. We did this last year and it was fun to have virtual back home Thanksgiving. I got the chance to check out their food and it was a good time. My niece is twenty-one, but you would think that we grew up together because we laugh at the same stuff and have a good time on Skype. So I’m looking forward to that with my sisters in the background :-)

It’s getting very thankful around here and I’m looking forward to it all! I want to wish a Happy Thanksgiving to everybody out there who celebrates the holiday and a great Thursday tomorrow to one and all!

Child's Play and Ringing Food

So I mentioned in my last post that I would share two other things that I bought on Saturday when we were having our Saturday shopping trip. As I mentioned then, I felt like a kid again when I was playing with the games and things on display in some of the stores. Well, I had to bring a little piece of that gaming fun home with me and it's very old school and I love it! Here is thing #1 :



They are jacks and I haven't played jacks since I was a kid and I haven't seen any in a store in forever! So I had to have them. As you can see from the photo, they are suitable for eight years old and up, so I think I qualify ;-) I have been a jacks playing fool every since I got home Saturday. LOL. I tried to play with them on our table, but after I got a splinter twice I moved to the kitchen counter. I think that I'm going soft though. I told Brit Boy that when I was a kid we used to play anywhere so if you got a splinter or scraped your knuckles while trying to pick the jacks up, it was like...'Oh Well' and you kept on playing. Gotta get that edge back ;-) So these jacks will be mini therapy for me and it's still fun to play! These are good for the kid at heart that I still am sometimes.




The second thing is above and it's something that Brit Boy and I will share. We needed a kitchen timer and hey, who doesn't need a ringing hamburger. This will definitely come in handy as I plan out my Thanksgiving cooking schedule and also, a regular timer just wouldn't do. Lol. I wasn't looking for it, but when I saw it I told Brit Boy that we'd met our timer and he agreed. Gotta love a man who doesn't mind a ringing burger ;-)

So as I said in my previous post, it was just fun to have a day out together on Saturday and along the way we picked up a few little things. Simple pleasures are the best...and I'm glad that I could share mine here! Have a great Monday!

Saturday Treats

Brit Boy and I had a good time yesterday. It was like our Saturdays of old when we went into town more often. We've been affected by the recession and its aftermath just like everyone else, so those trips into town have been strictly for the bare essentials. We're not big shoppers anyway, but it was fun to do something different :-) So yesterday we went into town to do some Christmas shopping and managed to get all of our gifts. We figured that it would be good to spread our shopping out so we bought a few things last week and then this week we finished. We didn't have to get too many gifts. It will be a frugal Christmas, but that's not a bad thing at all. It's the thought that counts, isn't it? :-)

The fun of yesterday though was just the chance to hang out together. We had the most fun when we went into this store that had lots of little gifty things and I turned ten years old. LOL. I had the best time playing with the little games and things they had on display.

We came home with a couple of trinkets for ourselves and mine were fun stuff that made me remember being a kid. I'll share the other two things tomorrow, but for today, I want to share this...traditional slab toffee. I love that it came with its very own little hammer to break it up. It reminds me of the little rock hammer that the main character used to escape out of prison in the movie Shawshank Redemption. I love it.



This is so wrong but so right, but everything in moderation is cool. LOL. I was salivating when I saw it and I will force myself to eat it over a while and not in two days. So far I've done pretty good and only had a little bit. It's really rich so that's the only way for me to survive and not pass out in a sugar coma ;-) It's called toffee over here, but for my readers from back home in the USA it is very reminiscent of caramel candy to me actually if you're wondering what it tastes like. It reminds me of a Sugar Daddy and I don't mean that other kind of sugar daddy ;-) But anyway, the toffee is so good!!! And it has brazil nuts in it so I'm extra excited. They had the plain kind, but I like my crunchiness!

But I know some of you may be saying...hey don't rush Christmas on us and you're right. We've got to have Thanksgiving first and my mind is certainly on Thanksgiving today. I was sitting here thinking about my menu. I was on Skype with my niece the other day and we were discussing Thanksgiving and I started salivating. I salivate a lot I guess. LOL. The food is fun to think about and eat, but my favorite part is the love and gratefulness behind the day. I'm planning on getting on Skype again with my niece and whoever is around that day. It will be fun to have virtual Thanksgiving. Brit Boy won't be off on that day, but we will still celebrate as we always have together. He has the day off on the next day, so we'll just roll all that fun into an extra day :-) Yay us!

Therefore, I'm in menu planning mode. I'll have my recipes in one hand and a tiny piece of toffee in the other ;-) Just kidding. For real though, I'm planning out my menu and you know me...I love to photograph food, so I'll show the good, the bad, and the ugly. So watch this space.

Tomorrow I'm gonna share my other two little things that I picked up yesterday. Simple pleasures....Have a great Sunday and I'll be back tomorrow with my other two favorite things!

Study and Writing Week

I hope that everyone's weekend was good. Mine was good. I took a trip into town with Brit Boy on Saturday and it was fun to get out and window shop. Other than that, we hung out around home and caught up on some television and in between I finished up some reading for school.



The photo above shows my continuously growing pile of books, notebooks, folders, etc that I use for my schoolwork. I figured that I'd just post a photo that illustrates what my week will be all about ;-) I'm looking forward to a bit of freedom on Friday and being able to do a proper post here. I have some photos that I want to share when I can put the time in on Friday. So I hope that you'll stop back by to visit me! I just wanted to drop by to say hello and thank you for still coming by here even when I can't do a full post sometimes because of my studies.

In other news, we're headed into the holiday season, so I will definitely be sharing some cooking triumphs and mess-ups on here. I love photographing food...LOL. Maybe I'm just hungry ;-)

Anyway, I'm headed back to the books and I'll see you Friday. Until next time...