#iPPP a la Girl Scouts

Back for #iPPP and it hasn't even been a whole year since my last visit!  Say what?  Only two weeks?  Call Guinness!

Life's been busy, busy, but last weekend, busy also meant tasty.  My sweet girl was working on her Snacks badge for Brownies (Girl Scouts) and got crackin' in the kitchen, creating a sweet treat and a smoothie.

Saturday night, for dessert, she made yogurt strawberry parfaits, layering greek yogurt mixed with a li'l honey, sliced strawberries, and granola.

And while the first set of parfaits were made gluten free, using Udi's vanilla granola, she needed to go one step further for her brother, who can't have dairy,  to join in the sweet treat fun and swapped out the greek yogurt for almond yogurt creating a GFCF parfait delight.  Looks nearly the same, eh?

Can I share the most random and yet helpful thing I learned over the weekend?  Thanks to friend Jenn visiting, I finally learned how to spell dessert and not get it mixed up with desert!  Dessert is spelled with two 's's because you want more and desert with only one 's' because you supposedly want less (since I'm not a fan of the heat, this totally works for me).  Told ya it was random...but, it will save me when spell check isn't nearby!

On Sunday, she blended up a smoothie, using frozen organic blueberries, frozen strawberries, frozen mangoes, fresh ripe banana, fresh baby spinach leaves, and coconut water.  We slurped up smoothie and then poured the left over mix into popsicle molds for desert this week.  Delish.

Coming back for an #iPPP visit with

G*Funk*ified & Jumping With My Fingers Crossed & Angela Amman

#iPPP: Valentine's Day...A Year Later

Holy camole macarole!!!  Looking back, my last #iPPP post was last year, this same week!  I knew it had been quite awhile, but geez!  Um...well, then...hello again. :>

This year, we found some really cute li'l heart printables with the perfect Valentine's sayings for the themed pencils we slid through the cut out hearts on Pinterest, of course.  You can find them on Or So She Says where Sharon, from Lemon Squeezy shared them.  Loved that they were a fun non-candy option!

But, since I've annoyed myself and forgotten to snap a pic, let's move onto what I did remember to document from Valentine's Day.  And that is what has quickly become a favorite tradition:

hubs brings living flowers for me

and for his sweet li'l girl too.

When we keep them alive long enough, they can be planted in the backyard next month.  Sometimes that happens, sometimes it doesn't.  I hear there's this little thing plants like called water???  So far, they're looking good and my girl's old enough now to help remind me of that tiny life sustaining necessity. Fingers crossed!

Finally coming back for an #iPPP visit with

G*Funk*ified & Jumping With My Fingers Crossed & Angela Amman

#iPPP & WW { The Other Woman }

Driving north, the green freeway signs continued to pass on my right, assuring me the small town my new boyfriend lived in was getting closer.

 

I might have been a touch nervous.  My first visit to his place and I had heard all about the other woman who lived there.

 

Word on the street was how fiercely she ruled the nest.  Supposedly, it could get downright nasty if her claws were out.  She never hesitated to tell any female exactly what she thought of them.

I wanted none of that.

 

No way was she going to interfere with my first visit to my new man.

 

Whipping my li'l white car into the driveway, turning the engine off, grabbing my purse, stepping out and squaring my shoulders.  I climbed the stairs, determined.

 

A single knock on his door and there he is.  Leaning in, he tries to kiss me.  No.

 

"Where is she?"

"What?"

 

"You can have a kiss after.  Where is she?"

 

"Oh.  She's over there, on the couch."

 

Without hesitation, I walked away from him and over to her.

 

Holding out my hand to her, I waited.

 

She sniffed.  She gave me the eye.  She opted to play coy and appear bored.

 

But, I knew.  I was in.

 

You see this sweet, nearly twenty year old kitty?

 

This is Bonnie, the other woman.

 

Legend has it, before I came into the picture, this sweet, innocent looking cat would hiss and spit at any female that came over.  And I'm not a fool, I knew who's fur not to ruffle.  While she merely tolerated me in the beginning, there was never a hiss for me and ultimately, she came to know where to get the best cheek scratches.

 

On January 16th, Bonnie passed away in my husband's arms, just like her brother did three years ago.  This photo was taken two days before she left us, happily soaking up sunshine.

 

We miss her.  But, there are so many sweet and often silly memories with this li'l nine pounder.  She was a Manx/Siamese/Tabby mix and high on personality.

 

In her younger years, you had to keep your eyes peeled with this one.  She was the original Stealth Kitty and could jump up, cross your lap and steal a piece of pepperoni off the slice of pizza in your hand and you would never know - until you looked at said toppingless piece.

 

Bottlecaps were prized kitty toys.

 

There was never a sun's ray she didn't like.

 

The same kidlet who sent her running for the hills when he learned to walk as a tyke later became her best buddy to hang with.  They were amazing calming forces for each other and in her last year, when arthritis was hitching her hips, he was her own personal physical therapist getting her to go on "Walk Races" back and forth, until she no longer limped - every single day.

 

And she was the bomb at the photobomb and never failed to get in on everything I snapped out on her deck.

We love her.  We miss her.  We happily remember her.

 

 

Linking up with these awesome sites - come join us!

#iPPP with G*Funk*ified & The Sunday Spill

Word-less/ful/ish Wednesday at Seven Clown Circus, Parenting by Dummies, Project Alicia,  Live and Love Out Loud, Jenni from the Blog

InstaFriday Fun: Moments Captured

It's been a crazy busy week.  Truthfully?  It's been a crazy busy four weeks.  And it's catching up with me.

 

But, taking a peek at moments captured with my ever present phone and shared on Instagram (I'm @timecrafted over there, come say hello!) these last seven days, makes me smile and reminds me where I've been.  Come take a stroll with me?

 

 

Bringing the kidlets home from school, we noticed a solitary water droplet from the morning's sprinklers resting atop a fallen leaf on the edge of the driveway, thought it was beautiful and worth a pause.

 

Our neighbors cut down their large flowering plum tree and we've been amazed by the colorful morning treat we now see...aka, the sunrise.

 

Sweet girl & I wait at the school picnic tables for the big brother after school most weekdays.

 

Last weekend, after celebrating my best friend's birthday several towns away, I took some time to revisit some old stomping grounds from my early teen years before returning home.

 

I tried hopping back into the #fmsphotoaday photo challenge that I enjoyed so much this summer.  The theme was #angle and I snapped the side of my laptop to fulfill the bill.

 

When I got back into town, Hubs & the kids raced to tell me of a surprise in the backyard they discovered while I was gone.  This last summer, we did NOT plant anything new.  Consequently, we only had our existing artichoke and apple tree producing for us this year.

 

However, last year's set aside tomato cages had ideas of their own...and grew a huge tomato plant full of ripening tomatoes!!! These two were ready this week and I expect another several dozen in the next week.  Pretty cool surprise, huh?!

 

What surprised you this week?

 

10 Clues You Are Living in 2012

How do you know you're living in the year 2012?

This is how:

* Pinterest has sucked you in and it's not letting go...thank goodness.

* You're a Droid user and you are finally allowed to play with the cool kids on Instagram.

* Though 365 projects have been around for awhile, finally playing with said cool kids and their snazzy app has you jumping in on the whole photo-a-day thing.

* You open an honest to goodness print book and think Wow, the typeface sure is small... And you're truly not sure if your thinking has skewed you that way because of the number of ebooks you've read this year where you've had the luxury of increasing the font or because you're simply getting older.

It's the ebooks, definitely the ebooks.  No, really it must be those ebooks.

* With the premiere of Breaking Dawn Part Two in November, the Twilight Craze will be coming to an end.

* You have Carly Rae Jepson's Call Me Maybe, Gotye's Somebody that I Used to Know, Kelly Clarkson's Stronger, Maroon Five's Moves Like Jagger or Payphone, Pink's Blow Me One Last Kiss or dozens of others stuck on an endless loop in your head.

* There's some girl named Snooki pregnant and having a baby (or just had a baby) and it breaks into mainstream media...as news.

* You turn on the tv, see a ton of trash talk and when you look at the guide you realize you're not watching reality tv...oh wait, it is reality...it's an election year.

* When commercials for major brands include social media jokes as the vehicle to demonstrate the lifestyle you would have if you bought the car they're selling.

* When instead of consulting your refrigerator for what's for dinner, you post on Facebook, tweet on Twitter, search your food board's pins on Pinterest.

* When you talk about taking yourself, a human being, offline for a day or a weekend and not simply a product, a guitar's amp, a hairdryer, a computer.

Okay, apparently, I got into identifying with this 2012 year since I've got eleven on my list.  Don't tell on me, 'kay? ;>

What about you?  What screams 2012 for you?

WW & #iPPP ~ #photoadayaug ~ Part One

Time to share some #photoadayaug (photo a day August) photos! I'm snapping along with Fat Mum Slim's community.  Here we go...

#outside
Bonnie, the cat, suns the tips of her paws every morning.

#one

My girl completed the local library's summer reading program, which gave her a coupon for one personal pizza from Round Table.  And since she doesn't have any gluten restrictions, she was all over it.  (Don't worry, her brother was having a blast at the pool that day!)

#coin

Grabbed some pocket change...easy peasy.

#somewhereyousat

Reading time.

#logo

Gotta love the irony of snapping a pic of my Nikon camera with my Samsung phone.

#writing

Massive writing block meant time to edit until breaking through.

#8oclock

Right then, I got a newish li'l ditty stuck in my head after hearing it for the first time...a mashup of Carly Rae Jepson's 'Call Me Maybe' and Gotye's 'Somebody I Used to Know' by Pomplamoose.  Like many an other, both songs are often dancing through my brain, why not put them together?!

#glasses

Used my glasses for #photoadayjuly #eyes, so grabbed my clips for #glasses!

#messy

While spending an evening out with my boy, we navigated around one messed up parking lot.

#ring

It was late & I was short a photo.  Thankfully, there's an app for that!  Thanks Skitch & Pixlr-O-Matic!

#purple

Purple cabbage and carrot salad for dinner that night makes me think of the real life fairytale, The Purple Orb.  Happy sighs.

#spoon

Love this li'l demitasse flatware set!

#simple

Simple beauty from an heirloom tomato.  Delicious too!

#arrow

My girl found the arrow on the mountain bike's tires.  Love that.

#ready

The parking garage is ready for flaming catastrophe!  Kidlets and I had just come out of the theater after seeing Ice Age 4: Continental Drift and think my mind drifted to disasters. Oy.

Both kidlets have gotten in on the photo-a-day challenge action around here.  Every morning, they ask me what the theme is for the day.  And I just love the ideas they come up with!  Sometimes I use them, sometimes I go my own way.

And there we have it - #photoadayaug from the 1st through the 15th.  I've been sharing my pics as I take them on Instagram.  You can find me @timecrafted over there.  Come say hello - I'd love to see what snippets are a part of your day!

WW: #photoadayjuly wrap up

Never thought I would enjoy a photo-a-day challenge, but it turns out I do!  I'm playing along with Fat Mum Slim and shared the first half of July's photos last month.  Here's the second half (July 17th-31st):

#plate

Stack o' stoneware in my kitchen cupboard.

#pet

Bonnie was most uncooperative for her photo shoot, but when you're a cat and you're eighteen, you kind of get your way...more than usual.

#eyes

Two of my four eyes!

#9oclock

Movie night for the grownups, a la Netflix.

#upsidedown

What's next to me, right now.

#mirror

Small mirror from my Aunt, on the wall next to the front door.

#stranger

Son has gotten into watching PBS's Nova with his Dad.  This time "Hunting the Elements" provided cool facts, stranger than fiction!

#heart

A family trip to the movies to see Disney-Pixar's 'Brave' was oh so smileworthy!

#sunshine

I asked my girl what we should use for today's sunshine pic - she promptly picked a dandelion and held it to her chin.  The theme might have been #sunshine, but it seems the theme from the day before, #heart, was still running strong.

#ontheroad

Learned something new while taking this pic...when you're squatting in the road and neighbors are driving by, they will stop and ask if you're okay...making today's pic with a more appropriate theme of #lookingoddintheneighborhood!

#cup

My sweet girl was picking more flowers in the backyard again.  And when she put her rose into her old toddler Seattle Seahawks cup, I knew it was time to click.

#lastthingyoubought

Getting ready for school with a new lunch box from Costco for my girl.

#calm

A sea of paint colors to play with...yes.

#toothbrush

Toothbrush?! It was on the list, a new supply just came home from that Costco trip, so I snapped a pic....did I mention it was on the list?!

That wraps up July. It's been so much fun, I'm continuing on with #photoadayaug this month, sharing on Instagram as @timecrafted, come say hello & let me know if you're playing along!