Friday, June 23, 2023

Happy Friday! It’s time to link up with Andrea and Erika to share our favorites from the week.

The card we got Tom for Father’s Day was too perfect. Sunday he had to spend 3 hours fixing his car. We have also had our garage door opener motor break and that is on his agenda for this weekend. I am ready for our stuff to work! It feels like a long year of things breaking. When it rains, it pours!

My favorite is how handy Tom is. He really can fix so many things. He is very calm about the process, too, and just jumps in and does it. I felt like we put a spell on him by giving him this card and then him having more stuff to fix.

My kitchen is absolutely horrible so this is a hard picture to show. We are replacing all of our flooring on our main floor to the darker hardwood in our bedroom (we already have all the flooring in our garage) and painting the whole house next and then we will finally tackle the horrible kitchen. My kids are finally getting into cooking and it has been fun teaching them. They baked with me all the time when they were young, but cooking has been a different story. This was us making Sunday night’s dinner for Tom.

Monday morning was rainy and one of my favorite types of summer mornings. I took my stuff out to my covered patio and did my quiet time, my blog reading and blog writing there.

The rain kept up off and on all day and did change my plans for a pool day with Elizabeth who was off for Juneteenth. We pivoted and she came over for bougie grilled cheese and white wine. And, Erica was able to join us because something got cancelled. It was so fun and felt so summer and carefree! One of my goals was to have people over, so this was great!

Elizabeth brought her dog Banana. She didn’t bring her dog a banana; her dog is named Banana. She is so chill and just happy to be a lap dog.

We had French white wine because of the french fries and I guess because the grilled cheese was on brioche bread. I have found the best brioche for a fancy grilled cheese. It is in the Kroger deli and it is the perfect thickness. I made Caprese (tomato, mozz, balsamic, basil), traditional with Swiss and American, and one with green chili jam, turkey, and Swiss. We just mixed and matched.

We really liked this French white:

I bought iced coffee cups from Amazon and they came in this week. I love them!

Tuesday I ran in to our new J.Crew Factory store because it is next to Trader Joe’s.

They had some amazing clearance deals and I came home with a blouse and a pair of sandals.

We have also been on a Naan bread pizza kick. I have been making these for my kids when they are home.

The kids had a friend over Tuesday and I made bowtie alfredo for them and then our dinner that night was…

Pioneer Woman’s beef enchiladas:

Ok, I finally finished this. It was slow and melancholy but it did pick up about 3/4 of the way through and I did like the ending. I guess it was about how Book Lovers was, which I didn’t love. I did love the first Emily Henry book I read – Beach Read. I don’t know – maybe it’s me and not the book. Beach Read was probably my favorite book of the summer a couple of years ago.

Next up is a recommendation from Jennifer:

Most days I go to the gym and then have my coffee on the patio. I noticed that on Tuesday I took all 3 meals on the patio, too. Ah, summer. And, I feel like I have to soak up the wonderful weather we are having. Even though we had a lot of rain, it has been so mild out.

My car turned over to 111,111 miles recently. I love my car so much and hope it keeps on ticking.

Look what popped up on Facebook:

He must have been about 4 months old here. He was never tiny. He was the chubbiest of the litter and his full name is “Ernesto Gordo” which means “Fat Ernest”.

Wednesday I had my friend Beth over for breakfast on the patio.

Luckily, it only lightly rained so it was fine. I turned on the patio lights because it was a grey day.

We had an egg bake with a bunch of vegetables, everything potatoes, Trader Joe’s mini croissants, bacon, and…

a fruit cup.

For dinner Wednesday, I used my farmer’s market grape tomatoes -seriously the most tasty I have ever had! I have got to get more! I made a big salad but had no meat to go in it.

I wanted to try the KFC nuggets so I ran up and got some of those. They are really good, in my opinion. Have you tried them? They taste just like their fried chicken, but in nug form. That might have been a really dumb comment, but it won’t be the first time I have made one and it won’t be the last.

I got myself a free trial of HBO Max and started watching BamaRush and the Sex and the City reboot? Just found out that I am a year behind, but oh well!

On the longest day of the year I made sure to go outside and enjoy and look at the lightning bugs. I am from Indiana and we call them lightning bugs. I never said “firefly”.

I changed out to a blue pedi done by yours truly.

Thursday was hair day. I was kept busy answering Sp;anish questions from niece Mia who is taking an online summer school Spanish class. Love it!

And, my final favorite is going to blow your mind. I found this at Fresh Market. My friend Jasmine served this in champagne years ago and i have been meaning to copy it. It is hibiscus flowers in syrup.

OMG – it looks gorgeous and tastes amazing. The jar is about $8 but so worth it. I am already thinking of other cocktails I can create.

It’s been a quintessential summer week. I didn’t get to go to the pool, but I spent tons of time outside reading and enjoyed showing hospitality and cooking for people!

I also got my 4th Walmart Plus delivery this week – Tuesday was the day. I am loving it. It’s really working for me this month and I’m finding it so nice to already be at home, making space in the fridge and pantry, in anticipation of the new stock of groceries. Anyone else trying it?

This week I wrote about my weekend in Hello Monday here, my clothing purchases of the last three months here, my Summer List here, and my Fashion Files here. Remember that you only have to click on the red font to be taken to those posts. Also, please utilize my search bar if you are looking for something specific. That’s as technical as my blog gets!

Speaking of my Summer List, I was surprised by the comments that my list seemed like a lot or too optimistic. I think it seems simple and maybe that I am not doing enough! Isn’t that funny? I guess that is another reminder that we all have such different perspectives. One comment was just to stay in pjs and have a totally lazy day and I do agree I need to add that!

I hope you had a great week! Tell me a favorite of yours!

Amy

24 thoughts on “Friday Favorites”

  1. That looks like such a delicious week! I loved Happy Place but I think part of that was that I was reading it while IN Maine and near so many of the places they were talking about.

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    1. Thank you! It has made it hard to stay on track, but I am giving myself some grace. Oh, that would make a difference. I didn’t hate it, but it was slow, you know?

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  2. I love reading all about your summer fun. I had a chuckle reading about the cute dog named Banana. Our cat is named Sushi and that sometimes confuses people or they think it’s a bit odd. The Amazon coffee cups look great, I love the lid! A friend of ours served the hibiscus flowers in champagne a few years ago and it really did blow my mind. I had forgotten about them until I just read about yours. They’re really sweet and delicious too. Have a great weekend!

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    1. Well, thank you, Ruth! Ha! I love the name Sushi. I love the new Amazon coffee cups, too. It’s pleasant drinking out of a glass straw, too. The flowers would be so great for a girls’ lunch or tea party.

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  3. You are killing it with having friends over and entertaining on the patio. I love it! We have had lots of rain lately, really strong storms so getting outside has been tricky but I am hoping to spend some time on my patio this weekend!
    xo,
    Kellyann

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  4. So many good things here today! That hibiscus flower syrup is intriguing. I bet it would be so good with seltzer water or in a gin and tonic. Maybe? I’ve only had one G & T, and it wasn’t made very well, so it wasn’t my favorite. I hope you like that book as much as I did! I think it may be one of my favorites I’ve read this year. Thanks for the shout out! Your week of hosting sounds like a blast…I love when things work out like that!

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    1. Thank you! It is so good. A tiny bit of that syrup makes prosecco (what I tried) taste so good. Oh, it totally would. I am trying to embrace gin and rum more but I only have a small thing of gin right now. I haven’t played with cocktails as much as I thought I would.
      I hope I do, too. They just arrived in Italy so I haven’t gotten far. It has been fun and reminded me that I love cooking for people that are not in my family. I hardly hosted anyone this past school year!

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  6. The food, friends, and family all sounds like a great week! A favorite of mine was having my oldest daughter home for a night. Enjoy the weekend!

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  7. I like the iced coffee glasses with straws and lids. I wish I had room for them in my glass/mug cupboard! It’s time for a big declutter! I have some mugs that my husband uses when he makes me coffee. He’ll put my coffee in a huge candy cane striped mug! In June! Sometimes to be funny or to annoy me, lol. I’m spoiled, I guess, but that mug has overstayed its welcome! I like the idea of slow days reading outside with a cup of coffee and a candle burning. I couldn’t get into Emily Henry’s books, but I’ve been on a roll lately with some good books. I joined NetGalley and was able to get some advance copies. It’s hard to get chosen at first, but I was able to get a copy of The Breakaway by Jennifer Weiner. It was pretty good. The Whispers by Ashley Audrain is out now and is so so good! I don’t know if you read her earlier book, The Push, but it was excellent. I highly recommend both!

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    1. I am super picky about my mugs, glasses, cups. I really like drinking out of these. I have put seltzers in them, too. Same for us but I am so sentimental about my cups! Weird! I have cups from college and from Spring Break in my early 20s. I will check out that author – Ashley – have not heard of her!

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  8. My parents waited until we were grown and out the house to re-do their kitchen, so this feels familiar you saying that you’re tackling one project at a time.

    Scott fixes everything, so I get that too! He just knows how? Our well literally stopped working a few months ago. He dug up the whole backyard and had it fixed in like 6 hours.

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    1. I wish we could have done it earlier, but it just didn’t work out. Glad to hear we aren’t the only ones. Same with Tom – he did work construction through college and learned a lot. He helped a mechanic neighbor a lot. He’s just been around a lot of handy people. I will say he about lost it at the end of the day Sunday and said he needed a weekend day where he didn’t have a project. I am hoping that happens for him soon. Summer is very busy at work for him, too, because he is in the construction business.

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  11. I love the baby Ernie photo! I can’t believe the temps and rain this week but I’ve appreciated the front porch weather. I saw lightning bug too! I hope you have a great weekend.

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  12. I got my dad a very similar card for Father’s Day, he is a fixer too.
    Good luck with tackling the kitchen, I would love a new one but I think we’re just going to have to give it a lick of paint.
    It sounds like a lovely evening on Monday, the grilled cheese sounds amazing!
    Have fun catching up on the Sex and the City reboot. I don’t like what they’ve done with a few characters but it’s still good.

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    1. Awww so sweet. My dad tried but wasn’t quite as handy as Tom. Tom is also a perfectionist and we laugh at some of the ways my dad made things work.
      I am dreading a torn up kitchen!
      It was really nice.
      I am loving the reboot. It was fun to discover the HBO free trial. I think I am going to keep it for summer.

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