What's on My Kitchen Counter

Hello friends.  Sharing my current reading list along with my morning coffee in my favorite mug.  Three books are missing as I have started them and left them in various places like my car, hubby's truck, and the bedroom.  I almost have the 13 1/2 Lives of Captain Bluebear done - it is fun and whimsical and very strange.  I started T he Visitors yesterday.  It was recommended by my sweet friend, Jayne.  Not sure what it is totally about yet, but right now the main character is in Cairo in the 1920's when archeologists were hunting for the tomb of Tutankhamun. Very interesting. I finished Love and Other Words Sunday night - I stayed up late to finish it which I rarely do.  I think it is my favorite book I have read this year.  I loved the characters.  Not sure I have ever read or known people who were more soulmates than those two.  It is going to be the book I recomend to every one for a long time.  My daughter is always amazed that I read multiple books at the same time. I

Yay! We had the first few stirrings of fall yesterday.  Don't get me wrong, it was still hot enough for heat stroke here in Central Alabma, but we felt a few breezes and the mornings were tolerable.  I have been waiting for this since May!  Looks like we may actually have a day or two in the 70s this week. Praise the Lord! To celebrate I bought this super fun Mummy cup at the grocery store yesterday.  Isn't it adorable?  I have a mummy loving grandson that is going to flip over this.   I bought myself a few fun fall items at the grocery store too.  Pumpkin ale and pumpkin spice creamer.  These are my tickets to Elizabeth's T-day party where we share some drink related fun every week (everyone is welcome - you just need something about drinks in your post - can even be one of your favorite movies with a drink of any kind in it).  Happy T-day friends! In celebration of fall, I also painted up this lovely card.  I followed THIS fabulous tutorial on YouTube.  After an early m

Hello friends. Our local rural grocery had some super fun beer so, of course, I bought it even though it was horribly expensive.  Seriously, who can pass up beer made from moon pies? The beer is made by Naked River Brewing Co. out of Chattanooga, Tn. It is 8.5% alcohol (probably part of why it is so expensive), and the can says it is actually made with fresh baked moon pies in collaboration with the Chattanooga Bakery (where the original moonpies became famous).  I could not pass it up.  It was awesome!  I will buy it again if I ever find it again.  Our grocery usually only buys a few of the fun beers and when they are gone, they are gone.... This is my ticket to Elizabeth's T-day party where we all share something related to a drink (of any kind and in any media).  I am a day late, but yesterday was a birthday day in our family so we had to do some party prep to try and make it special - so hard to do birthdays during football and fall ball seasons.   Some art from this week.  Th

Happy T-day friends!   The wine of the week for me was The Uprising.  Such a fun name.  It was pretty good - I would buy it again if it comes back on sale.  Isn't the label fun? I am having a glass of it right now while watching a wine themed movie on Hallmark called Paris, Wine and Romance.  Such a sweet movie, and how wonderful to see the glimpes of Paris.  I want to try her pinot wine they are all chatting about in the movie.  Wish it was a true story.  I am not normally a Hallmark movie fan, but I am totally enjoying this sappy happy treat.  The wine and the movie are my ticket so I can hang out with the T-day gang at Elizabeth's.  Art for the week. Today's technique and CAS challenges on Splitcoaststampers.com were about back to school and lots of ink colors. The sentiment is from Riley & Co and the ruler is from DRS Designs. The ink was applied using reinkers applied directly to a sponge - fun technique.  Played with some new to me dies from Spellbinders. I waterc

Hello friends! Happy T-day to the T -day gang over at Elizabeth's blog where we share some type of drink in our posts.  After the Cousin match up which you can read about HERE if you missed it, Alex and I headed to the Mexican restaurant.  We ordered Corona Lights to go with our chips and salsa and shared the new Texas Surprize dish (shrimp, chicken, steak and veggies over rice and topped with cheese dip - yum, yum).  We split it but I ended up with enough for lunch the next day too. I forgot to get a picture of that - it was late and we were tired and hot.  I was able to make some fun art over the long weekend.   This one was for two Splitcoaststamper.com challenges - I had been playing around with 3-D ice cream sandwiches and made this fun card for my sweet but stressed daughter.   This was for the CAS challenge on Splitcoaststampers.com - we were to come up with a fun frame of some kind.  I used leftovers from my next creation to make the frame. Stamps are from Stampendous and

Hello friends. This week our Grandsons all played each other in a scrimage game - the midgets from two neighboring and rival towns.  Two of them play on one team together.  It was super exciting and fun.  We were lucky it was tie as there was a little trash talk before the game, and we were hoping it wouldnt get too bad after the game. LOL. I cased a layout from this week's Featured Stamper on Splitcoaststampers.com - THIS is the fun card I used for my inspiration. I kept her bordered panel and the stars, but made the rest my own.   The bulldog is from Deep Red (Bulldog Portrait) - I colored him up to match the colors on the team. I plan to do another page for Patton's scrapbook with a lion for the image.  Fun memories. This was also inspired by Neet's September **Art*Journal*Journey challenge of Fur or Feathers .  Hugz 

I was lucky enough to get to hang out with my work family last week.  Here are some pictures of a few of them. Those pictures are all as we were just arriving and sitting down.  We had an all day meeting and then we went to Dreamland Barbeque again.  It is an easy place to go to with a large group so we default to that place when we have limited time to plan.   Here is my drink - I got the chocolate oatmeal stout.  They brew it in the restaurant.  The location was a brewery several years ago, and they kept the equipment and continue making the beer.  The chocolate oatmeal stout is one of the best I have tried and you all know I have tried a bunch!  LOL.  This is my ticket to the T-day party over at Elizabeth's blog.    I also got to spend some time with one of my daughters and my three grandson's last week.  We went to an interactive museum in Birmingham, Alabama.  Here they are right before we went in.  I love this picture!  You can see the Alabama Theater sign and a bit of do

 So what did I buy at the Haunted Bookshop ? I bought all these books except the top one.  I added the top one because I just finished reading it, and I loved is so much that I wanted to recommend it.  I think I cried at the end of it more than I cried with any other book.  Not even sure why I cried. I think it was over the lost opportunties we all have in life and for all the deep losses we all experience or will in the future.  It was a great book.  I finished murder at Mardi Gras a few days ago.  It was written by a former Mobile police detective so I wanted to support a local writer.  Great story and great insight into the workings of a police detective and the politics involved in the police world, but the writing style was hard to work through.  It was a bit formal and dry. Still, I don't regret buying it or reading it.   I am reading Anno Dracula now.  Evidently (according to the Haunted Bookshop staff), if you like vampire stories it is supposed to be one of the best and so

 I am always on a mission to find a fun new-to-me beer.  This weekend, I found this fun espresso porter from Palmetto Brewing Company at Squid Ink.  Squid Ink is a restaurant in downtown Mobile, Alabama.  It is a fun restaurant where you can sit outside or inside. We tried outside, but the wind came up and we ran inside. This is my ticket to T-day over at Elizabeth's Blog .  If you want to join us post something about a drink (movie, book, actual drink, poem, etc. - can be any type of drink).  Allie (Alex) had a Queen Victoria - something with peach, cucumber, mint and other fun things. We were celebrating Allie's new big girl car.  And visiting the famous Haunted Bookshop .... Definitely worth the visit.  The people who work there know their books and can recommend something you will absolutely love.  I bought 7 books and a T-shirt.  Allie even bought a book. Fit in some art this week too - mostly scrapbook pages.  This was my favorite as I adore that little trailer I got from

Hello friends! I discovered a fun beer this week at my local rural grocery store (still surprizes me that they find such interesting beers!).   It is a coffee milk stout from Wiseacre Brewing Company in Memphis, Tennessee.  The name and the can are creative and the beer was outstanding.  I looked them up online and now I want to go visit and try a bunch of their beers - check them out HERE .  They have a restaurant and store too so I am feeling a weekend trip may be in the cards for me after peewee football season is over - lol! This is my ticket to T-day which I totally missed but I am going to link up anyway and check out what all the other T-day gang has been up to over at Elizabeth's blog (our clubhouse) .  A little art from the week to share too. Back to school card for my youngest grandson to give to his teacher - I did some stamp surgery on a Sassy Cheryl image and added in his little face from a recent picture.  Had to make another one for another grandson: A cute cat and d

  Every once in a while, I have a day at work that rivals my best day at work.  Last Wednesday was one of those days.  We had one of our sales teams come in for a visit and they were the nicest, most humble, interested, and interesting people.  They made giving our presentations fun.  Then we all went out to dinner at Dreamland Bar-B-Que in downtown Montgomery (one of the best bar-b-que places in Alabama) and had even more fun.   I asked the bartender to give me the coolest wine or beer they had.  She let me try her two favorites and I settled on the oatmeal stout.  The few oatmeal stouts I have had before had a bitter aftertastes, but this one was sweet.  I loved it, but forgot to ask the brand. This is my ticket to T-day at Elizabeth's blog where we share drink posts every Tuesday. I talked the bartender for a few minutes after deciding on the beer (she was soooo nice).  I  glanced up, quickly and thought the sign over the bar said "no farting." I didn't have my gl