Shine a Little Light

Shine a little light on me!
Who loves a chandelier?? 
Me, me me~my hand is raised high!

The first chandy we had in the house was in our dining room.
It's rubbed bronze and even though it's 10+ years old,
it's still a favorite!

Talia Chandelier

I decorate it with ornaments and beads every Christmas!

When we fixed up Maddie's bedroom over 11 years ago
 (is it time for a re-do?)
we found this most adorable one from Pottery Barn!
So sweet and girlie - just like sweet M!

Chandy in Maddie's room!

The Mister and I had been chatting a bit about

changing our foyer lighting fixture.
We both had our own ideas as to what would work

in our nearly 100-year old house!

I was leaning toward a vintage crystal chandelier

from a local re-use store - Out of the Box.

The Mister was leaning toward a flush-mount glitter ball!

Seriously!  

A Vegas-looking glitter ball in our traditional old house???

What had he been smoking?????

Well, once I explained to him the error of his ways

and we visited Out of the Box Together,

he saw the LIGHT!

And he loves it too!

Bye bye glitter ball!

Hello lovely vintage crystal chandelier!

The Never-Ending Winter . . .

Unfortunately, this year we seem to be stuck

with a never-ending winter!

I've heard of never-ending french fries (from Red Robin)

AND

never-ending Root Beer Floats

(also Red Robin)

and I'm in favor of both of those!

YUM YUM!

BUT  . . . this never-ending winter

with over 50 inches of snow

this season is really too much! 

The snow-packed and ICY streets are frightful

(and so is my driving)!

Please Mother Nature -

  have pity and send us

some warm temps to melt away the ice and snow!

Florida on Friday!

Wow -- February is just zipping by -

if only the snow would stop and go away - 

it would be a perfect month!

But, we were lucky and escaped winter for a few days!

Pool at our resort!

We had a perfectly wonderful quick trip

to Florida!

Most of our time was spent at Universal Studios -

which is a real departure for us as we

are generally diehard Disney World fans!

Happy Panda!

One of our favorite rides is a bit of a hidden

secret -- Jimmy Fallon's Race Through New York!

We liked it so much, we went on it two days in a row!

I must admit I hated the Jurassic Park movies when they 

came out as dinosaurs totally creep me out!

Something creeping up on us - about to nudge Connor!

Connor and Maddie talked me into visiting a Raptor Encounter!

Who's that coming up behind us????

EEEEEK!

Blue, the only Dinosaur remaining (according to the handlers),
 was in rare form that day!

I think she wanted to munch on my hair and take

a little bitty bite out of Maddie!

HELP!!!!!

What a blast!

Stay tuned! 

More favorites and photos to come!

Five on Friday

Trying something new  -- here's a

"Five on Friday" list.

1.  The Weather  -- Our Scottie loves the snow -

me, Maddie and the Rickster -- not so much.

By February, we are definitely ready for warmer temps and green

grass!

2.  Super Bowl Food -- Can I get a Yum!

We love Mexican dip for the Super Bowl (but, wasn't that game a snoozefest??)

or a salsa dip from Trader Joe's called Cowboy Caviar -- mix it with

some cream cheese and heat it up! It's so good and

has a real cowboy kick to it!

3.  Trees -- There were (operative word is "were" - they are all gone now)

 some huge evergreen trees behind our fence.  

Last week, the utility company sent some incredibly

brave and talented men to cut those trees down so

the power won't be affected during storms with

tree branches falling.

They did an amazing job!

4.  Jane -- A couple weeks ago, we took Jane (almost 9!)

out for her Xmas gift experience.

We went to Barnes and Noble and then to Scooters!

She picked out a book and then a yummy smoothie and a scone!

The boys' experiences will be coming up in the future.

Each little got a coupon for a special fun time

with me and Maddie!

5.  Cookies!  

M and I bought one of these little bitty cookies in a skillet 

mixes at Christmas.  I bought it as a gift and gave it to myself!

We baked it and maybe we did it wrong

as it turned out really dry! 

 Edible and so cute - but dry!

Ever since then, I've been dreaming of baking chocolate chip

cookies!

Have a fun weekend!!

Hello February!

Bye Bye January!

We survived the long, cold and snowy month of

January.
I won't go into too many details, but we had more snow in January
than we've had in some entire winters!
Plus, the temps were at record lows for days on end!
Can you say BRRRRR!

Having two days off school for snow/ice/polar vortex helped.
 But . . . 

it was still a long and painful month!

We are jumping into February feet first!

Making it through January always, always, always

puts a spring in my step and a smile on my face!

And so does Miss M! 

I love her fun and happy spirit and joy!

We are counting down the days  - 12 to be exact --

until we head to a warmer locale.

And some fun rides!!!!!!
Yikes -- SCARY rides, I mean!

Happy February!!