Silly Saturday...

This week I also received the Sunshine award from Just Another Tired Mommy, I must admit, I do love getting them but I am a little slow on getting them posted. Here are the rules for the award:

There are five rules that go along with accepting The Sunshine Award and they are:

1. Include the award's logo in a post or on your blog.
2. Answer ten questions about yourself.

3. Nominate ten to twelve other fabulous bloggers.

4. Link your nominees to the post and comment on their blogs, letting them know that they have been nominated. (I just passed on two other awards so I am going to let you decide if you would like this beautiful award for your site, all my readers add sunshine to my blog every day so you all are equally entitled to it.)

5. Share the love and link the person who nominated you.

Here are the 10 questions:

What is your favorite color? Green in almost any shade.

What is your favorite animal? I love all animals I even let bugs and spiders out of my home with safe passage. If I am pressed I would probably say bunnies or bats.

Favorite non-alcoholic drink: I love to make my own Italian sodas at home, just a shot of flavored syrup and charged water, sooooo much cheaper than pop and a million times tastier.

Favorite number: Not sure I have one, I tend to pick 4 when people ask me to think of a number.

Facebook or Twitter: I use Facebook a lot and love Farmville.

My passion: Narrowing this down is hard. I love to travel, scrapbook and spend time with my friends, one of best things ever is traveling with my friends and taking tons of pictures to scrap latter. When I travel I love seeing new things and finding new favorite places, just this Christmas hubby and I went to Colonial Williamsburg and I would love to go back again this Christmas.

Favorite pattern: I love the pattern on the leaves of ferns, its something I have taken countless pictures of over the years. I also love the pattern birds feathers make when they are laying flat. Nature is so cool!

Favorite day of the week: I don't have one, they are all nice to me.

Favorite flower: I have a couple, peonies and carnations. I love the scent of both of them.

Have a wonderful weekend everyone!

C.Q.

Two new awards...

Today is my Birthday and I was trying to figure out if I was even going to do a post today or just be lazy, then I got a very sweet post from Beth Ann over at Its Just Life that she was awarding me two new awards.  *insert girly squeal here* FUN!  So here we go...

Kreativ Blogger Award Rules:

1. Link back to the one who gave you this award

2. Share 10 random facts about yourself

3. Pass the award on to 6 other people

4. Follow the persons blog who sent you it.

My 10 facts:

1) I recently started a blog hop and am really surprised at how fun it is to meet a new blogger each week.

2) I can trace my family tree back to Cork Ireland and visiting is on my bucket list.

3) My dream would be to live in Chicago, but its not gonna happen since hubby is a country boy and I don't want to have to keep him medicated ;-)

4) My dream job would be to own a small boutique hotel

5) My dad was a professional football player in the Pacific League; back when they wore leather helmets.

6) My favorite place to eat in the world is Lawry's ~ I don't care if its Dallas, LA or Chicago, OK, maybe I care a little, I do love Chicago.

7) I was lucky enough to go on a cruise with my folks in the 80s on the Queen Elizabeth 2 (QE2) before it was decommissioned on November 27th 2004, a day that made me actually cry.

8) I grew up with parents that lived by the rule "try it, if you don't like it you never have to eat it again" and to this day I will still love try new foods and am so grateful to them for this philosophy.

9) I have a little love affair with my camera and love photography.

10) I am very blessed to have several best friends that I can spend hours with.

The One Lovely Blog Award rules are:

1. Link back to the one who gave you this award.

2. pass the award on to 15 other lovely bloggers. (I know I only did 5, I am a trouble maker like that)

3. Follow the person who sent it to you.

I would like to do the same thing Beth Ann did because otherwise I will be stressing all day and pass this along to 5 fellow bloggers:

Colleen over at Shibley Smiles

Alicia over at McCrenshaw's Newest Thoughts

Melissa over at The Mommyhood Chronicles

Katie and Bernie over at the new community We're Not Mommy Blogs

Jenn over at The Thrift Shop Romantic

Thank you again to Beth Ann for thinking of me, it was such a lovely surprise today! :-)

C.Q.

2011 in Review...

Java over a Never Growing old is taking today off for New Years so I thought I would share some of my favorite posts with you from 2011.

In January I went with a friend of mine to Minneapolis so she could have some medical tests run and found some great information on hotel shopping that I passes along in Hotel Happiness, I also found a new blogger friend Meg Hart and her great book Housecat Confidential, a view of life from a cats perspective, that I posted in my Sunday's media madness.  If you get a chance you can check out Meg's new blog at Hart Stories, she is a terrific writer and I highly recommend her book and her blog.

In February I started getting a little antsy to play in my garden and a friend sent me some info on hay bale gardening that I passed along because it is easy and inexpensive and a great way to have a garden quick in an area that may not have an easy place to plant stuff.  You can check that out at Hey! Hay! Hay! Garden the easy way...

March brought two awards that I received, one for the Cherry on Top award and one for the Incredibly Sweet blog award, both required me to share some information about me which was fun, with the Cherry on Top one I also shared a favorite picture of my grandmother.

In April I shared a great recipe for my favorite Easter treat, Hot Cross Buns together with a little history on them.  I also started doing posts called Saturday Sojourn that were a lot of fun for me and included tips on saving while traveling.  One of my favorites was the one I did for Saint Paul, MN since we were heading there ourselves for a short vacation. 

May brought the release of a book from a series that I love by Jess Loury so I was able to do a little review of the book Octoberfest to share with my readers, May also marks Memorial Day and I was able to thank our armed services folks and post two great old pictures of my grandfather and my dad looking very dapper in their uniforms from WWII.

In June I had two great guest bloggers while I was on vacation for my 25th anniversary, the first was Alexis from from Simply Beautiful Veg.  and her great post on ways to organize, including a great pocketed organizer project you can make yourself.  My other guest poster was Nina from The Adventures ArtsyNina.  She did a wonderful post on making a Pallet Kitchen Cookbook Shelf, a very cool and extremely inexpensive project.

In July I stopped doing the Saturday Sojourn's and replaced them with Silly Saturday, my first one I loved because it emphasises simplicity.  I also love this time of year when all the fruits and veggies are getting ripe and took the opportunity to share a wonderful no bake blueberry cheesecake for everyone.

August was a great month for my Media Madness section for me, I found a couple of great apps, Uno and Conde Nast Traveller Magazine, that I love and use all the time.  The other was for the book The Help, which was wonderful and I would recommend to anyone looking for a good read.

September was a moth of highs and lows, the low being the sadness that came with the 9/11 memorial ceremonies I watched that day, the high was going on vacation to Chicago with two of my best girl friends and being able to share a bit of what we did and how we saved a ton of cash along the way.

The October posts were where two of my favorites are, one is one of my many favorite pictures, this one was of a small grey tree frog in our backyard that I used on the Thursday's picture perfect deal, the other was one of my favorite Silly Saturday's featuring a great photo shopped scene.

November was all about sharing my favorite things, including a list of movies, a great app called Flipboard and a recipe I always make for Rosy Fruit Salad, a wonderful frozen concoction that is from the 1950s.

December was all about relaxing and getting ready for the holidays and vacation, but in between that I was able to post one of my favorite ever pictures of my dog Tucker loving the first snowfall from last year.  Java also posted a wonderful Meet Me On Monday with 15 questions to tide us over until after New Year's, and being a good bit Irish, I couldn't end the year without and Irish Christmas Blessing to all my readers.

Thank you to all my readers for reading last year, I am looking forward to 2012!

C.Q.

Meet me on Monday...

I apologise for not getting the blog up yesterday, I was out of town with friends all day and left too early to put it out.  I am back on schedule now and ready to roll.

I won an award this week from Measuring Flower, its the Butterfly Award and I am supposed to tell you 7 things about myself.  This worked out prefect since Java is taking a break from the Meet Me On Monday hop until September.  So here it goes...

1) I am a foodie and get excited when I get to try something new or have something wonderful, it can be gourmet or everyday, as long as its good I will get in line. Today I am off to have Sushi with some friends and am looking forward to the deep fried tempura lobster roll...AWESOME!

2) I consider myself bless with friends and relatives, epically since I spent more that a week straight visiting with friends and family.  Sometimes its easy to fall back on the "no one really likes me" sword, then I have fantastic weeks like this.

3) I have been married 25 wonderful years, and although not all of them easy I wouldn't change any of them.  They have helped make me who I am today and shaped our lives together so they work in perfect synchronicity.

4) I love to travel and am looking forward to many trips in the future with my husband and friends.  Ireland is on my Bucket list and is a must, after that I want to see India, Egypt, Spain and Paris, and I would love to go back to London, Scotland, Greece and Italy.

5) I love to decorate and am really bummed that my house is done and all decorated, I would love to build again so I can do it all over but I think my husband would have a stress aneurysm.

6) I really love to scrapbook and am the type of scrapper that has everything you could need to scrap almost anything, not the type like most of my friends to get just what they need for one project.  I have a whole closet full of just paper and paper pads of various sizes.

7) I enjoy reading and have eclectic taste in books, so much so that I thought it would be no problem to finish my reading challenge on my blog.  However, even though I have read way more books than required they are the wrong genera's and I am beginning to wonder if I will complete it at all.

Next I am supposed to answer the following Questions:
Name your favorite color: Green
Name your favorite song: House Rules by Christian Kane
Name your favorite desert: Creme Brulee
What wizzes you off? Ignorance, it breads hate
When you're upset you _________? Loose myself in music, books or a movie
Your favorite pet? I have had many over the years and I love them all very much.
Black or white? I like both.
Your biggest fear? Having no one visit me when I get old.
Best feature? I think its my positive attitutide
Everyday attitude? Positive
What is perfection? Something that to strive to get closer to but remembering its unreachable
Guilty pleasure? TV on DVD

I am supposed to pass this on to 15 bloggers, however, the bloggers I know do not accept awards for their pages so I am passing it on to Bernie from One Mixed Bag, it will look great on her award page.
I hope you are all having a great start to your week.

C.Q.

Meet me on Monday...

I was honored to receive an award from Caren over at Cat Chat with Caren and Cody the other day!  I figured that since one of the requirements of the award was to tell 7 unknown facts about me that you may or may not know that would qualify as a "Meet Me on Monday" post.

Thank you again Caren and Cody!!  Here are the 7 facts:

1) I was quite shy as a child and forced myself into situations when I got older to over come it, including taking a public speaking class in high school.  Now a lot of my friends will agree that I never shut up.

2) I adore traveling, it is fun to go back to places I love and to learn about places I have never been.

3) I have a Welsh Corgi named Tucker and a striped cat who is officially named Mrs. Murphy.  They are named after the Corgi and the cat in a series of mystery books by Rita Mae Brown and her writing companion Sneekie Pie.

4) My family tree includes a famous outlaw family on my dads side (the James' and the Youngers), a Canadian boxing champion (my dad's dad) a professional football player (my dad) one of the first State Troopers for Minnesota (my mom's dad) and a beauty queen (my mom). 

5) When I was younger I went to Arizona with my folks and found a rock I cleaned up while we were there,  by the time I got home I had a weird burning rash between my fingers.  The Dr. realized the rock I had was radioactive and I had gotten burns from it, he made me give up the waaaaaay cool rock.  Now days I try to keep X-rays to a minimum. ;-)

6) I tend to be a person who is "in for a penny in for a pound", when a friend finally got me to "try" scrapbooking I bought everything I may ever need and filled an entire closet in less than a week, with blogging I went from writing once or twice a week to every day in a mater of a couple weeks.  I tend to jump into the deep end when I do stuff, thankfully it usually works out fine.

7) I have very eclectic taste, so much so that my husband had to have a separate iPod, he couldn't stand listening to something from a classical piece to rap or hip hop, then to country, then Irish folk, then something by Ozzie or Marilyn Manson, it drives him nuts.  (My reading is the same way, mystery, biography, history, vampire fiction, travel, romance on occasion, suspense and some horror)

Now, I am supposed to give this award to 15 bloggers who I think are "Irresistibly Sweet":

10 Steps to Finding Your Happy Place (and Staying There)
Cat's Thoughts
Colie's Kitchen
Doodle Dollies
High Heeled Life
Inside of a Dog
Luxury Living Frugal Style
Marsha's Spot
Mika's Pantry
Mystery Lovers Kitchen
Never Growing Old
One Mixed Bag
Sew How's This
Simply Beautiful Veg.
Sky! My Camera

I wanted to also give the award to Tourist Cup but he already received it. But I wanted to include his blog because the pictures are so beautiful.

Have a great week everyone!

C.Q.

Tastefully Tuesday...

I know, its Tastefully Tuesday, but I have something fun to share, which after yesterday will make me smile.  Don't worry, nothing tragic yesterday, just a good reminder lesson in manners.  In a nutshell, if you call on Friday to make an appointment to look at a house on Monday afternoon, don't put an offer in on a DIFFERENT house on Saturday then call on the said Monday to cancel the showing.  We spent all weekend cleaning instead of having a nice Easter. I wasn't in a really great mood yesterday, but on the bright side we have a nice clean house where you can eat off the floors if you want.

So here is the part to share, Bernie over at One Mixed Bag and I were chatting one night about awards and how fun they are to get but that they are a bit of work and we giggled that it would be fun to get one that required the recipient do nothing in particular, totally their choice, then it hit us, well gosh, why can't we make that happen?  So here is it folks, the No Hoops Award.  We are giving it to the blogs we read a lot, and in my case some I read but don't comment on a lot because I have been so busy.  When you get your award you MUST do what ever you feel like, you could sing a little diddy, whistle a little tune, dance the happy dance or nothing at all, its your choice.  You can pass it along or just post it on your blog, or you can ignore it, anything goes.

So here are the blogs I would like to give this award to, in no particular order (OK you caught me, they are alphabetical), and if your new here today feel free to grab the award and pass it on to someone or just keep it for yourself.

A Long Way From Texas (She makes me want to move to Ireland... most days)
10 Steps to Finding Your Happy Place (and staying there) (I do try but some days its hard, she helps)
Bags Books and Bon Jovi (Even the name is great)
Cat Chat (I know she is an award free blog space but I wanted her to know I was thinking of her and Cody)
Cat Thoughts (Who's reading is making me sooooo jelous!)
Dogs, Cats and Other Crap I Talk About (One of the best advocates I know for animal rights)
Egg and Twig (Who is causing me to drool almost everyday I read her posts!)
Facing 50 with Humor (I am right on her heels!)
Housecat Confidential (Fin is a great author, and I can't wait for the next book!)
Its a Keeper (Another blog trying to keep my weight up, they even weed out the bad recipes!)
Kat Happy Haven (Because she works harder than anyone I know to take care of injured critters)
Life with Dogs (Who doesn't need a little unconditional love?)
Meet Virgina Designs (Fashionista extraordinaire and fun to read!)
Never Growing Old (Best blog hop host-er ever!)
Photographing New Zealand (I love seeing places I have never been in beautiful pictures)
Shibley Smiles (Great coupons and blog hops!)
Simply Beautiful Veg. (I love reading the adventures of College life and a new appartment from such a nice lady)
The Thrift Shop Romantic (She makes me want to go looking for treasure!)

Have a great Tuesday everyone!!!

C.Q.

Yup, its all about me...again...

Another beautiful award this week, its a little embarrassing but really nice to be recognized.  This one is also from Bernie over at One Mixed Bag, who has the funniest blog in the world!  Thank you to her for thinking I am still special, I am betting that will wear off in time. ;)

I am supposed to share five random facts about me:

1) My dad was a professional football player back when they were called Leather heads.  Because of that I grew up knowing how to play the game and could out play the boys, even the ones on the Football team in High School which non of them liked when we did that part of gym class.

2) My mom was Miss Robbinsdale in Minnesota and one of the court for the Minneapolis Aquatennial, so I have absolutely ZERO grace and poise that was passed on to me, not sure what happened there, must be a recessive gene. ;)

3) I love to collect things, perfume, tea pots and cups, miniature shoes, Pez dispensers, books and DVD.  I draw the line at husbands though, one is enough to deal with, they are kinda demanding. 

4) I love to travel and explore, I have 4 trips this year that I am looking forward to and I will have books read and lists made for every place we are going long before we leave.  Sometimes I start putting stuff in suitcases a month in advance.  Yup that's me, a little obsessive compulsive about traveling.

5) I am an on again off again mystery shopper.  Usually its fun and I have one coming up on Tuesday that I can bring a friend with for lunch,  I am thinking my friend Jen and I will get to go to Sam's then lunch that day. :)

The second part of the award is to pass this along to five other bloggers. I read so many great blogs that its hard to narrow it down to five.


Simply Beautiful Veg.
Meet Virginia Design
Housecat Confidential
Dogs, Cats and Other Crap I Talk About
Cat Chat with Caren and Cody

I hope everyone is having a great weekend!!  Is anyone doing something fun and exciting?  I would love to hear your plans.

Oops I did it again...

Bernie over at One Mixed Bag awarded me the  Cherry On Top Award!  Thank you Bernie. :) 

In order to accept and keep it I have to post three things I love about myself and post a picture I love.

1. I love love love to find the perfect gift for my friends. It thrills me to no end to watch people open something I find for them.


2. I have a knack for decorating and I love it.  I can design and decorate almost any style, even the ones I don't care for, I should probably look at doing it for cash someday but that may make it less fun.

3. I love to take pictures and started scrapbooking last year.  Its a thrill to take a ton of pictures and find that one gem in with all the others.

The picture is from the late 50s, its my grandma at her sisters cabin pretending to be a Coke girl.  It was a weekend get away for her and grandpa and my great aunt and uncle, probably celebrating that the kids had all moved out. ;)

I hope everyone is having a great weekend!!

C.Q.

I won an award....

Last night while going through my blog comments I found that one of my readers, Helen, aka Rumtruffle (don't you just love that name!) over at A Crafty Kind of Truffle picked me as one of her choices to win the 'Stylish Blog' award!  If you get a chance please go and check out her blog, it is so full of great crafts and today she has up some really cute pictures that started my day off with a good chuckle.  Thanks again Helen, I am glad you enjoy my blog!!

There are 4 duties to perform to receive this award:


1. Thank and link back to the person who awarded you this award
2. Share 7 things about yourself
3. Award 15 recently discovered great bloggers
4. Contact these bloggers and tell them about the award!

OK, 7 things about me that you don't know:

1)  I am eclectic in everything, food, music, TV, movies, reading, travel, you name it.  I am a true believer in "variety is the spice of life".

2)  I Love photography and will find ANY excuse to take a picture, I also love to see others creative photography.

3)  I am a stay at home mom of three cats and a dog.  The dog we drove down to southern Wisconsin for, the three cats all arrived via the cat stork right to my back door.  Just call me the crazy cat lady.

4)  I am related to Frank and Jesse James on my dad's side of the family, my dad was their 2nd cousin and when I am really cranky I blame it on the "outlaw gene".

5)  I am not afraid of spiders, snakes, bats, rats or mice.  I love every critter, no matter how "creepy" people think they are.

6)  I got an iPad for Christmas and love it, I am looking forward to taking it on vacation instead of lugging the laptop around.

7)  I am, on rare occasions, a mystery shopper and its really fun to get paid to go eat or watch a move or go shopping.

 I would like to pass this award onto the following:

Three Acre Homestead  10 Steps to Finding your Happy Place  The Blogger Brodcast  Cat Chat  The Cottage Bookshelf  Fabulous Frugalista  Freaky Frugalite  Inside of a Dog  Joanies Random Ramblings  Karen's Journal  Marilyn's Money  One Mixed Bag  Sky my Camera!  Thrift Shop Romantic  Wendy's Photos

I hope you all have a fantastic weekend!

C.Q.