Fun Friday!!!

Yes, for 2 days now I have driven to Mountain Home...3 hours round trip.  Nothing tires me out like shopping and driving but I have to say it is a beautiful drive....lots of great scenery.  When I was going across the bridge over Norfolk Lake there was a rainbow colored sailboat and of course lots of other boats.  The weather here has been beautiful and the trees are turning color and the leaves are starting to fall so it was gorgeous driving, I must say.
Lowe's was supposed to have the sample roof shingle for me today but when I got there the guy said he hadn't been in yet.  So, he called him and the guy said he couldn't make it today.  Really?  I just drove 1 1/2 hours to pick it up!  So, wanting to turn a negative into a positive I gave my sample shingle to the Lowe's 'pro' with my name and phone number.  I told him when the sample arrives to see if it matches and to call me and if it does (which I feel very positive it will) then I will order it over the phone and he can call me when it comes in and I will come and pick it up.  Problem solved!
So, not wanting to waste a trip to Mountain Home......I drove on over to Hobby Lobby and picked up a few things that I had on my 'never-ending list'..........can you guess what these supplies are for?

Yes....another new project...or 2!  I'm going to be trying my hand at making my own soap and my own lip balms!  After that I will be moving on to body butter and who knows what else?  There's goat milk soap base, lip balm containers, a soap mold, almond oil and shea butter plus some colorant.  Stay tuned!!!
 I also treated myself to a Starbuck's Pumpkin Spice Latte...which means it is officially Fall regardless of the temperature............it was wonderful!

and since I had the last of the soup last night and knew I would not be in the mood to cook when I got home...........I stopped at Buffalo Wild Wings and got one of their pulled barbecue pork and slaw sandwiches with some potato wedges.............yum!  I ate half for lunch and the rest I'll have for supper....although I am still full actually! LOL!

 Yesterday when I went to Lowe's I picked up a few other items that had been on my 'never-ending list'....not very glamorous purchases but much appreciated none the less...........a new toilet seat..............which I have yet to install.........

and a new garbage can that is a 64 gallon 'tough' one.....now I can throw out my other broken ones.........can you believe this thing cost $65 and that was on sale from $75!!!  But the 32 gallon was $50 so it was a no brainer to go with the 64 gallon.....oh well, it's only money but this will probably be the last garbage can I ever have to buy.......

I also picked out a sample of the laminate flooring I would like to get....down the road...............
not too dark and not too light....dark shows the dust and light shows the dog hair! 

That 's all for Fun Friday, although I do have an Amazon order on it's way but I'll save that for next Friday.  Now, I think I'll 'kick back' and try out my new cross stitch/embroidery hoop! Oh, I forgot to show you....here  it is....one of those new fangled ones..........anything's got to be better than my old wooden ones!

 Have a great Friday night............Happy Trails!!!

Wednesday and Thursday combined..........

Wednesday is supposed to be decorating and indeed I did but 'the roof boys' came by and my afternoon went by also!  They needed more shingles so I had to try and match with what they brought from the local lumber yard....well.........that wasn't doing it and I was pretty sure my son said they had gone to Lowe's and found them.  By the time they left my afternoon was gone and I was beat since I get up about 2:30 or 3:00 now a days.  So, needless to say...I did not get my blog post done.  But before they came I had painted the rest of the entryway closet alcove............here it is!

 I still have the floor to do.............gray porch paint on the plywood.............

 I also need to paint the shelf which I sort of forgot...why I don't know as it was right next to it!?!?
 So.........there will be more decorating next week for sure!

 Meanwhile....Thursday is cooking day although actually this cooking took place on Sunday and good thing because I had to go to Mountain Home today to match the roof shingles....they are ordering a sample which will be in tomorrow so I have to go again tomorrow!  If it matches then I will order and have to go back and pick up next week!  Crazy huh?  But this is my life! LOL!
But I do have some 'keeper' recipes for you...........this may not look like much but trust me it was/is delicious!  I went back to All Recipes and I had wanted to either make a tortilla soup or some white chili.........I ended up with this white chili recipe because the tortilla soup was an 8 hour crock pot recipe and it was a little late in the day.  I'll be trying that one later.

  To go with it I spotted a Krusteaz cornbread mix at the store and I grabbed it.  I usually don't 'do' mixes but Krusteaz is very good so I thought I would try it and it did not disappoint!  I  used to use Jiffy but then went to making them from scratch but this was heads above both...more expensive yes, but I'm worth it! LOL!
 This was my 'prep' before making it all..............

  Here's the cornbread muffins when they came out of the oven............and they were very good!  Also, see how you actually get 12 full size muffins!  Amazing!

For breakfast this week I made some blueberry muffins to go with my soy yogurt that I eat.  This was another All Recipes recipe.  Now, granted, neither the soup or the blueberry muffins are exactly 'healthy' recipes but dang they were good!  I need to start looking at the 'healthy' section of All Recipes!  By the way, All Recipes has recipes for diabetics, gluten free, healthy and all kinds of other categories so you can really customize your browsing for recipes.  Here are the blueberry muffins

Okay!  So hopefully now I am caught up with my blog schedule..........tomorrow is fun and shopping and I have a bunch to tell you about there! So exciting!  For me anyway! 
Happy Trails!!!

Tuesday - Cleaning and Organizing....still!

I bet you wondered what happened to me...well...I was either glued to the t.v. trying to keep tabs on Irma or I was getting ready for my garage sale which was Saturday.  It was a big disappointment...maybe $20 tops.  But the good side is I spent a lot of time and energy cleaning and clearing out the garage.  There's still more to do but Golly Miss Molly....I got rid of so much stuff!!!  Granted, it is still in the garage as garbage day was today but 80% rain and wind leftover from Irma.....needless to say it has not been windy nor has it rained a drop!  They are so bad here about predicting weather!  I could have taken lots more out to the street but I have cardboard boxes full of stuff and if it was going to rain it would have been a real mess.....so I declined.
The garage is looking better despite the fact that the sale stuff is still in there and the garbage....but you be the judge..........

 below is a before picture........

 here is an after picture with sale stuff on table and freezer........whatever didn't sell is either going to Thrift, metal collector man or garbage...it is NOT coming back...lol!

I got most of that shelf cleaned and cleared off and now it holds my gardening supplies but there is a piano in front of it that I couldn't get all the way behind.....the movers left several pieces of furniture in my garage instead of putting them in the house and there they sit!  As soon as I get it cleaned out I am going to hire some local movers to move them into the house where they belong!

The ladders (tall extension ones are going) and so much more!  The screens are from the porch where the roofers were working so I took them out to the garage but back they went to the porch now!

This was part of the sale..............

and this.............

and this............

This is all the garbage except for the 2 tables which will go to the Thrift Store..........

more sale stuff on my new shelf..........

I got all around the garage except for the back wall which is mostly hardware that will go with the metal man when he comes...........those shelves will come down and I will have a work bench back there with my tools..........

I just got to the corner there when I quit and I didn't do the shelf yet....I was exhausted and filthy!  But the whisk broom was my friend for getting cobwebs etc. off of the wood and items.  I have quarter round and some wood pieces that I will save and I whisked each and every one of them and got them off the floor. 

I have my old wagon wheel pot rack my son made for me and my old screen door...now those are precious items!  I unearthed some other items I've wanted to use but they were buried amongst the junk! LOL!  So, that's what I've been up to and Sunday was recoup and then yesterday was laundry and make a dinner so who knows where the time goes but I know a lot was spent checking on Irma!

I hope you are all fine and dandy.  Oh, Irma has finally arrived here.....it's sprinkling! LOL!

Happy Trails!!!