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Archive for the ‘Musings’ Category

I don’t know what faulty gene in my DNA makes me love certain things as much as I do, but I have a thing for beautiful stationery and note cards.

Ask Captain Cavedweller. He’ll probably tell you the cupboard where I keep all my stationery supplies is a death trap of paper, boxes of note cards and fancy pens. Sad, but true.

One of my favorite, favorite brands of note cards is Carol’s Rose Garden.

They are high quality, affordable and completely lovely. The envelopes match the cards and most of the cards have some sort of embossing or fun design element.

Can’t you just picture writing a love note to your Valentine on this card?

And how sweet is this? A perfect Valentine’s  gift for a teacher, secretary, or special friend, especially at only $4.95.

 

Although her rose designs are my favorites, she has oodles to choose from including quilts, cats, teacups, pansies, hydrangeas and butterflies, to name a few.

She even has things like mousepads, scrapbooking kits and so much more.

If you like nice stationery and note cards but don’t want to spend a fortune, check out her designs.

She Who Saw Fourteen More Boxes of Cards She Wants!

 

 

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It all started a week before my birthday when a wonderful, sweet friend gave me a new purse.

Not just any purse, mind you, but a Miche Bag.

I’ll admit, I have avoided getting into the whole Miche Bag craze because I didn’t like the size of any of their handbags. Some were too small, others were too big. Then they came out with the perfect size-  the Demi Shell.

For those of you who have not yet been sucked in to the vortex of purse buying madness, here is how this works: Miche created a basic liner that is magnetically held inside a shell. For the fashion forward, this is fantastic because instead of changing purses and finding yourself in line at the grocery store without your wallet which is in your other purse, you just change out the outside shell and never have to worry about leaving something important behind.

Miche Bags come in a variety of sizes with handle and liner options and accessories.

So many, in fact, it can be mind boggling.

I was a bit skeptical at first, when my friend gave me this wonderful black handbag. I’m kind of picky when it comes to the purse I carry, but I loved it immediately. So much in fact,  before another week had passed, I was the owner of this shell.

It is a beautiful, shiny candy-apple red that I proudly carried through the entire holiday season. Evidently, I can be blamed for the madness spreading because when we went to visit family before Christmas my 79-year-old fashionista auntie was so taken with it, my uncle got her a demi bag with two shells for Christmas.

Yep, the addiction spreads like a disease.

For Christmas, my wonderful friend who started all this, gave me another shell.

A simple, silvery shell that I have discovered goes with everything. Literally, everything.

Then, as a final nail in my coffin, the shop manager where I drool over shells came to see me with a new spring shell.

I’ll be picking this one up later today…

Houston, we have most definitely got a problem.

She Who Must Stop Looking at Shells!

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I just read that January is National Hot Tea Month.

Oh, yeah. I can totally get on board celebrating that.

Since I consume at least one cup of tea per day, I am somewhat of a tea fan.

I must confess upfront, though, that I can’t drink tea unless it is sweet. I’ve tried. Honest!

Choose any type of tea – black, green, spice, hot, cold. I can’t drink it unless it is sweetened. And yes, I sweeten it with sugar. Real sugar.

Right now, my favorite tea is Pumpkin Spice from Bigelow.

My favorite nephew’s beautiful bride gave it to me and I love it. It is spicy and rich with just a hint of pumpkin. Yesterday, I sat in front of the fire holding a cup in both hands inhaling the wonderful scent before sipping away.

Another of my all-time year-round favorites is Plantation Mint tea. It is delicious hot and unbelievably refreshing served cold on ice with a mint sprig floating in the glass.

I am also a bit of a pomegranate/raspberry junkie. It’s true!

So in honor of National Tea Month, I think I’ll go home and make a nice cup of hot tea, sit by the fire and have Captain Cavedweller wait on me hand and foot this evening.

Right. That will happen when pigs sprout wings.

Happy Tea Drinking!

She Who Needs to Get Real

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Last week, Captain Cavedweller and I had a few days off and he took me to the big city where there were multiple malls, yummy places to eat and fun things to see and do. It was wonderful.

On the morning we were getting ready to come home, we skipped the hotel breakfast and went to a restaurant around the corner. Walking in the door, I was quite excited by a sign that said they had pumpkin pancakes.

For a girl who loves pumpkin, this was a great way to start off my day.

We placed our orders and sat chatting, waiting for the food to come. Our waitress was friendly and polite, checking on us often to make sure we were fine as we waited.

Then she came bearing a plate full of delicious smelling pancakes with a beautiful ball of whipped butter on top.

Although the next thirty seconds happened too quickly for me to recall the details, Captain Cavedweller seems to be able to recall them with startling clarity. It went something like this:

• The waitress started to set down the plate of pancakes in front of me.

• The butter became airborne. Literally. According to CC – it actually launched off the plate and flew through the air.

• Eyes as wide as saucers, I grasped for the butter, catching the whipped ball in my hand. But not before it had slid down my silk shirt and front of my jacket.

The poor waitress looked mortified as I held the butter in my hand. Let me tell you, there are not enough napkins in the world to make a mess that monumental all disappear. She ran to the kitchen and returned with a wet towel. Afraid to smear in the butter, I carefully blotted what I could, told her not to worry about it and enjoyed some really tasty pumpkin  pancakes with cinnamon whipped cream.

The entire time we were eating, CC had to keep swallowing down his chuckles. When we walked outside, he couldn’t take it anymore and started laughing. “Did you see the butter fly? Man, that was something!”

Right.

Because I was now walking across the hotel parking lot drenched in butter and somewhat annoyed. It wasn’t the waitresses fault, but I didn’t think CC needed to find the whole thing quite so amusing.

Returning to the room, I dug to the bottom of my suitcase to find two Shout wipes and gently wiped off the excess butter. Rolling up my shirt and jacket, I put them in our dirty clothes bag, hoping a miracle would occur and the stains would be gone when we got home.

Lucky for me, we had gone shopping the previous day and I had some new clothes to wear.

When we got home, the butter stains were worse, instead of better. So I whipped out my bottle of Dawn dishwashing liquid and liberally applied it to the butter-stained areas. I rubbed it in gently, rolled the clothes back up and let them sit overnight. I washed them in warm water and voila – the stains are gone!

So the moral of this story is always make sure you’ve gone shopping and have new clothes to wear before you eat breakfast – just in case there is any flying butter.

She Who Has an All New Meaning for Drenched in Butter

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