Category Archives: Me stuff

Sep16

Cupcake selling could be a profitable business venture

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Yum-cupcakes!, originally uploaded by DianthusMoon.

This is a vendor(it’s funny as she has her hand in the money box-goes with my title!) from the mushroom festival. I don’t know about you, but I sure remember the day when cupcakes were about 50 cent each. Even today down at the Giant, 6 of them are around $3-4 in the little plastic boxes-NOT $3.50 for one cupcake like this place. I ‘indulged’, let’s put it that way. And when the woman (not this one) handed Bri the container, he took it and let it drop in the bag-you guessed it-the icing all stuck to the lid and I have to fix it when I got home. They were good, but I was expecting spectacular! Mine-a Strawberry Lemonade was a bit on the dry side. I got Sean a coconut one and he liked it. As they were so expensive, I promised Bri I would make him a flavor I know he would enjoy-espresso-got to get out the Martha S. cupcake cookbook!
I’ve been cleaning and sorting. Found a lot of stuff for the #2 yard sale-purses, shoes, tops, etc. Seems that is what they like, but I was hoping the guys would sort out their stuff more. I’m going to go look in some more boxes.
A third even-more public is in early November-can’t beat $10 a table-so will probalby do that. In general the house is in an uproar, but I don’t care. I’ll even add some stuff from Bri’s dad and also Mom’s jewelry. Wish us luck!
Keep ‘someone close’ (don’t want to say who in case the wrong people read this) in your thoughts and prayers. They had a phone interview with an very popular internet company that we have utilized in the past and it is a $$ saving ‘deal’ company. They need a rep for Wilmington, DE.and this person just may fit the bill. I know they got a call back because of experience.

Sep14

44 yrs

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Could I possibly be ‘that old’ to be in a photo like this? At least I’m a little 7 yr old…

That’s my youngest brother Ken-so cute. I still wear headbands too. : )
Yesterday found me going through bag after bag of my mom’s jewelry. She had brought out this huge container filled with sandwich bags of it. Some had prices written on them, others didn’t. Seems they(brother and her) put ‘all’ the jewelry in bags which is inpractical to me. I think she needs a rake hanger! I kid you not! On Pinterest they use an old rake head for the necklaces. I actually made my own with a foam board-shared that several years ago.
I went throught most of the stuff and some stuff was silver or too nice for what the price said. I put them in a bag called ‘keepers’.
I cut back the games on Facebook to see if I can get more done around the house. I do play games with Sean like ‘Who Wants to be a Millionaire’ and ‘Family Feud’ which take only a few minutes to play and use more brain power that some of the games. I played ‘Farmville’ for over two years and am growing tired of it. If you love it, by all means keep playing. I just needed a break.
Still looking to have another yard sale as the stuff is still in the living room. Brian’s dad sent some over last night-more ‘stuff’ to go out. That’s what I will do tomorrow-look through more clothes and boxes. I see a dent in the basement. ; )

Is this a busy time of the year? I hardly have anyone talk to me here (thanks to my few faithful readers) or on Facebook. I keep telling myself though I love to get comments, this blog is for me first. I think you all feel the same way about yours?

Sep10

Good yard sale

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For 5 hours ‘outside’ work, we made $80! Brian gave up his childhood desk that for some reason he had stashed in the basement bathroom. We had mainly people looking for clothes. I had a lot of craft books out, but no one out of about 10 or so cars really looked at them. I am trying to sell my Shaker style desk-I believe one woman got out of her car to look at it, but decided she didn’t have room for it-or didn’t feel like stripping it down. Do you remember when the Nordic track machines (like ski machines) were the rage back in the early 90s? Brian bought one and as the space shrunk and he stopped using it and it was getting in the way. He brought that up, but no one hardly looked at it or the Shaker desk. I am half tempted to go through my summer clothes early and toss some of them on a table. I may look in the boxes left over from when we had the kitchen remodeled-yep, still have a lot of them. I missed my intended audience-middle aged women who like to craft and like knick-knacks-makes sense-lol. I decided stuff that was marked $1 or less is going in a bag to the Goodwill. Oh and my mom came out with little bags of her costume jewelry (really too much) and only made $7. The heavy container is stuck in the back of my car now to return to her. I think she should have used different boxes and tagged the stuff with a red sticker for $1, etc. People love to touch stuff. We’ll see about tomorrow.
Photo share…
Here’s another view of the pretty stores in Alexandria, VA
Pretty store fronts

Sep8

Souvenirs of the trip

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I had to be selective here….they had $50 t-shirts! Crazy! The one I did buy with the 4 ‘mop tops’ was a fraction of the cost, but it’s a little tight, but so was the Paul McCartney shirt I bought last year and it fits now. I bought bookmarks, a pen and the cute Yellow Submarine totebag. Also had to get the ‘Baby you can drive my car’ for the Cruiser. But actually no one is allowed to drive it-I kid you!  The styrofoam cup holder was free with a donation for a sick person. There was a ‘Peeps’ store and they were giving away the hat, so I’ll give that to Tori or her little cousin. I thought the memo pad was too cute-‘Give Peeps a Chance’ and it had that moving action to it. There’s a little box of cherry mints in that cute tin. I also got White House socks as I couldn’t find the ones I wore down there.

 

 

 

 

 

 

The gorgeous sheets of paper from ‘The Paper Source’ in Alexandria. Snip, snip, glue, collage!

 

From the Godiva store-worth every penny for these-eating in teenie, tiny pieces. : )

 


And the cake dish/cloche with the chip-you can kind of see it in the back. No credit for that store. Geez.

 
I’m gearing up for a yard sale on Saturday. I dragged a lot of stuff out of the basement and am still going to look for a few more things to sell-like for Halloween and Christmas. I have nothing really wiped down or tagged-soon! It’s been so rainy this week, I have had time to do this. Yesterday I went for a follow up to the eye doctor and she says my right eye is much better but still irritated, probably from allergies. I have my car at the station for inspection, hope they can do it and nothing is wrong.

Sep5

Sunset and Sustenance

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NatlHAlex 044, originally uploaded by DianthusMoon.

Thanks to a lady for posting her own sunset photo on Pinterest, we found Sauciety( http://www.saucietyamericangrill.com/) right on the waterfront to get our own sunset photo, a good meal and a bit of a discount on the meal! It was the restaurant below the Westin Hotel. I booked an online reservation and mentioned a code word to get 20% off the bill. Anyway, we got a glass of wine (Brian and me) which shot the price up.
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The three of us chose a three course, prefixed meal and that saved a bit too. We had huge bowls of spring mix salad with raspberry vinigrette dressing, crusty bread with olive oil and some with sun dried tomatoes for dipping. Brian had salmon and asparagus:
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And Sean and I had lobster ravioli:
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How do you like the dishes?
And we had a creme brulee type custard for dessert
Crème caramel with fresh fruit
and Bri had bread pudding (not shown).
The prefixed price was about $35 each.
Us at dusk on the boardwalk:
Brian and Dianne on the boardwalk
Dusk sky over the harbor
And my favorite guys:
My guys on the boards at National Harbor

Sep5

All you need is Love

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Oh Beatles, we honor you! ; )
English Garden in front of the hotel:
Lovely English Herb Garden
Heading for concerts

Brian, Sean and me had a nice weekend down off the Potomac River at the National Harbor (also known as Oxion Hill, MD). Sean didn’t go to the concerts, but explored the little ‘boardwalk’ town and took a water taxi to Alexandria, VA. He wasn’t sure if he wanted to, but he finally made up his mind to do just go! We went there by car on Sunday and ate, shopped and walked around there.
It was a bit muggy but there was an occasional breeze off the river. The group pictured here is called ‘Brit Beat’ from Chicago. They dress and perform in four different ‘Beatle phases’. This happened to be the Sargent Pepper era. They were great. It was awesome as there were bands from all over the world! We especially liked the band called ‘Old Brown Shoe’ (from a George Harrison song) from the Netherlands. Another cute band was ‘Jukebox’ from Puerto Rico. There were some issues with waiting for bands to set up and then this one band ‘Norwegian Beatles’ didn’t play as they had equipment issues. We mostly enjoyed seeing a new place and sitting and listening to some of best known songs in the world. Some didn’t just play Beatle songs-some Rolling Stones and a few others, even the band’s original songs were tossed in the mix.
And the place we stayed, The Gaylord is the biggest non-gaming hotel on the east coast! There are 2 thousand guest rooms and at least 5 restaurants (we ate breakfast in one). They have an Olympic size pool (Sean stuck his feet in the water). If he had sat in a lounge chair right outside the pool area, he could have heard the music for free! It’s kind of hard not to hear it anyway.
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More later!
By the way-used a mesh back support thing I got in a Dollar Store which helped me most of the time, but the chairs provided were metal fold up chairs-ugh.

Sep2

Great chicken recipe

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You don’t even have to write it down. I think I have it memorized after making it a few times. Get a pound or so of extra thin sliced chicken breasts. Mix up two egg whites with two teaspoons of cornstarch with a little lemon juice (the secret sticking ingredients). Then roll them in breadcrumbs, parsley, salt and pepper and grated lemon peel and fry up in olive roll. I did this entire ‘plate’ in 15 minutes. Enough for leftovers!

We are getting ready for our weekend excursion to National Harbor. Never been there, but pretty close. I believe I just read our hotel is fairly new. Sean isn’t sure if he wants to go because of having school work again. I said he could sit in this lovely area and do work as well as he could at the end of the sofa. Sometimes he gets a bit grouchy as he thinks the trips should revolve around him. He threw cold water in my face when we were in Chincoteague a few weeks ago as he thought the area was boring. He got to have his fun the night before. And I remember I stopped going on family trips when I was younger than him! He’s not paying anything this time around. I plan to be listening to music the entire time. Please send some good vibes as my lower back has been bothering all week. It’s awful in the morning and is better as the day goes on. I alternately use heat and ice. Crossing fingers!

Aug30

Longwood Bruce Hornsby concert

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Longwood Bruce Hornsby concert, originally uploaded by DianthusMoon.

Brian and I had a nice time at this concert. It was the perfect evening, just cool enough to be pleasant. Bruce sang the songs I knew ‘The Way It Is’ and ‘Mandolin Rain’ near the end. I didn’t know many of his newer songs, but he has a great band. I saw a h.s. pal at the end when we had gotten up to leave and he came out for an encore.

Aug29

For you

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These were some of the sparse flowers I grew from seed. With the unusual growing season, only certain things (thinking tomatoes and zucchini) shot to stardom in my garden.

I had a few visitors on this Monday; our parish priest and a house painter, though not at the same time. Father only stays for about 5 minutes for family updates. We talked cars a little since he drives a Chrysler Sebring (a gift from the parish a few years ago). He asked if my car was a ‘mustard’ color-I replied ‘Inca Gold’.
The painter’s sign was seen up in Kennett-we need the short sides painted and over the roof. I hope he’s not too pricey as the paint is peeling over the roof.
Brian is over with his dad as he couldn’t get his cell phone to work right. We go to the concert tomorrow night. It’s a bit cool tonight, so I better take a jacket with me tomorrow. Can’t wait. I love to go to at least one concert a year.
It was a glorious day here and will be for a few more days.

I put up a sunflower wreath and added the sparkley metal one to it:

I’ll be taking down the beachy decor soon, but since I just dusted it, I took a few shots of it:

Aug28

We survived Hurricane Irene!

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It’s been a tense few days, but when we woke up with power and less rain we were very happy! According to the weather people, Hurricane Irene made landfall around 5:30 am in Little Egg Harbor, NJ, south from here, about 2 hours or so away. Unfortunately, my mom lost power around 10 pm or so and they think they heard a transmitter blow. Mom is more suburban than us. We do have a little water in a few places in our basement, but very manageable. Because it didn’t rain as much as they thought, that saved us. Also we put plastic around outside. Brian and I are dopey from nerves and achy from doing stuff outside. Thank goodness he cleaned the rain gutters out more as that probably helped too. Whew!

Now to look forward to the Bruce Hornsby concert on Tuesday and the Beatlemania trip on Saturday. No more hurricanes for my last hurrah of the summer. ; )

Update: 11:14 am is history-she’s a tropical storm now!