Scenes from Philadelphia

Guy and I took a quick business trip to Philadelphia in late December to look at some equipment for his shop. And while we were in that lovely city, we enjoyed the food and art a good bit!

It started with the window boxes on the street. So very pretty! We took a lovely stroll down a street and around a corner with 2 great restaurants:
- The Belgian Cafe
- OCF Coffee House
We had a very relaxed and delicious breakfast at the Coffee House, went to see the equipment, toured a historical prison (Eastern State Penitentiary) - which was surprisingly interesting, had a lovely lunch at The Belgian Cafe (best vegetarian burger I have had in my life and LOVELY desserts).  

I really should have paid attention to the name of the street because while Philadelphia has beautiful murals on many walls, the one on that street was exceptional. The mural appeared to be a garden! It was a full block long and wrapped around the end of the block. It actually looked very life-like!  (Also, notice the cobbled streets. Aren't those awesome?)

We also went to the Viking exhibit at the Franklin Institute, which was fascintating. Great place to take kids, lots of hands on activities. And I made Guy pose for a picture! Or two.

We stayed at a lovely hotel as well. Which was amazing considering Guy didn't make a reservation. I can now, whole-heartedly, recommend HotelTonight.com - we got a great deal and stayed right downtown at Le Meridien.

Getting there was interesting as we passed THROUGH mountains! Blue Mountain, Kittatinny Mountain, Tuscarora Mountain, and Allegahny Mountain.  Which made me wonder how we name these things....

Side note - we also discovered I hate driving on curvy roads. 

Take-away - Go somehere new. Take someone you love. Have an adventure. (Picture from a zoo trip a few years ago. It's my motto!)


Other posts you might enjoy:
- Musings - October 2018
- A Texas Weekend
- And Again, Please
- The Crescent City

All photos by moi! And you can tell...

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Musings - October 2018

Hello! This month included the most beautiful skies - whether over Michigan or Puerto Rico. I'm always in love with October blue.


Books: It was a decent month for reading, due in part to the business trip to Puerto Rico. Sit down! I avoided the airport bookstore!!! (Mostly because my bags were already super heavy on the way there with business stuff.) But since we took a few days extra vacation, the resort allowed me to "little free library" a book from their collection - which is dense reading and I'm still working on. (It's amusing that I borrowed a harder book than those I brought!) Check out the On The Shelf area of the blog for good quotes. Enjoy!

I did manage to finish 3 books a week (keeping up the streak) over the month:

- Get Rich, Lucky Bitch by Denise Duffield-Thomas  - this was a good self-improvement read. Perfect for a beach! (I took a picture with it off the beach from a cabana at Rio Mar in Puerto Rico)
- It's Not About You, It's About Bacon: Relationship Marketing in a Social Media World by Brian Basilico by Laura Shapiro - has held up to the test of time
- The Greensmith Girls: A Supernatural Witch Cozy Mystery by Raven Snow (Kindle Unlimited)  which is about the most perfect cosy mystery ever. 

With these three, I've clocked in 47 books for the year.

Gratitude: Tropical rainforests. Vacations. Apps that are fun to use. Bacardi Mixology training and certification. Being treated as though I matter by people I love. Corn mazes - and I still want to know why they aren't Maize Mazes. Purring kittens. Gorgeous full moons.

Listening: All the podcasts. Dave Ramsey podcasts. Chalene Johnson's podcast. Duct Tape Marketing podcast. Marketing Over Coffee podcast. Christy Wright's Business Boutique podcast. Susan Hyatt's Rich Coaches podcast. NPR's Money Planet podcast.

Perfume: Two things -  Diptyque's Ofresia. It's  reminiscent of a garden.  I do like French perfume. And a simple Caroline Herrera body cream called Good Girl which I got as a free gift from Ulta. I find hot places with multiple showers a day (Puerto Rico tourist adventures) not good for perfume but a bit of scent with lotion works well.

Recipes: The Freezer Cobbler was made about 3 times this month at the kidlets' request. It is our go-to quick dessert.

I also dreamed up a casserole. (It might be a Midwestern thing.) I'm not sure it qualifies as a "recipe". I basically lined a glass pan with overlapping rows of Mrs. T's Pierogies and then added chopped peppers and onions.Then covered it in Garlic Cream of Mushroom soup (a la Green Bean Casserole) and baked for 30 minutes at 350 degrees. In the last 5 minutes, I covered the top in bacon. This is not a healthy recipe nor vegetarian. But, it's warm and filling for the fall months and super easy.


Self-Care: Last month I mentioned my slight soap obsession (hello, Villainess Soaps). Well, I opened up the full sizes last month with Pearl Diver. This month it was Krakatoa. (I have a tropical theme happening - the book I borrowed is about Hawaii.) The scent is GORGEOUS. And the soap lasts a surprisingly long time - like a MONTH per bar!

And this month I continued to try face oils on a schedule. (I tend to just try whatever I feel like that day.) Specific oils for evening and morning. Every day. It's a continuation of last month with just a few additions and a switch out.  For the month. I grouped them in the photo but the Facial Mist goes with both:
- Day -I'm sampling Juice Beauty's Stem Cellular  Anti-Wrinkle Booster Serum around the eyes. The rest of the face was like last month:  Physician's Formula oil + TonyMoly Green Tea Lotion (both grocery store bargains) until the Green Tea ran out mid-month. Then I switched out to H2O+ Beauty's Infinity Youth Serum with the oil and Juice beauty product. (I got the H2O+ on clearance with a coupon for $21 - which I don't mind spending to try something new!) It's all okay. None of it is a miracle in a bottle, so far, just nice to use. 
- Night - Little Barn Apothecary oil + a bargain bought Lumene Vitamin C night cream over a layer of Predire Eye Care Ant-Aging Night Serum. (And NO, I did not pay retail for it! I picked it up for about 1/10th that price on a Vegas business trip last fall.)


Things 12 said: Make more cobbler.


Watching: Bull. Blackish. Fresh Off the Boat. American Housewife. Orange is the New Black. (Best quote from Kate Mulgrew, formerly of Star Trek - "We are living in the future.")

Random: Dog is re-trained. It took a few days at the vet and a food switch! Boom! He also got a great new haircut.

Fun fact: Neck wrinkles on women used to be called Venus lines. 

Take-away - Life is largely what you allow. If you don't like something, you need to change it. (Small changes count.)

Original musings posts you may enjoy:

- Musings - September 2018
- Musings - August 2018
- Musings - July 2018
- Musings - June 2018

- Musings - May 2018
- Musings - April 2018
- Musings - March 2018
- Musings - February 2018
- Musings - January 2018

- Musings - December 2017

- Musings - November 2017

- Musings - October 2017

- Musings - August 2017
- Musings - June 2017
- Where Did March Go?

- Musings - February 2017
- Musings - January 2017

- Message in a Bottle (2016)

All photos by moi! And you can tell...

Juice Beauty is a staple in my beauty cabinet. I stray, I try other things - but it's my favorite "foundation" (I used the CC Cream) and great skin care. If you like Juice Beaty too, here is a link. I do get a small commission (at no cost to you) when you use these links which helps support this blog.

- Skin Care by Juice Beauty

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A Texas Weekend

Austin is GORGEOUS. (As a friend said - the vibe is just indescribable.) I think of Texas as flat and dry - I've visited Houston, Dallas, Fort Worth, Laredo, Waco and other dry Texas places in the past. I'd forgotten that Austin is in hill country and has rivers. No lakes - although Lady Bird Lake is a piece of the Colorado River. We went in mid-June for a weekend get-away/meeting a few of Guy's friends for a birthday event - Mike's 50th as seen below with Guy and Mike, the birthday boy! (He still looks 47, right?)


And I remembered Austin was hill country after we accidentally walked 9 miles the first day! We are such Midwesterners - it's only 1/2 mile, of course we can walk that! Do that a few times and BOOM! 9 miles just happens. (As do ginormous blisters but that is another story.)

There is art literally everywhere in Austin! They make art of nearly everything - witness the Hope Outdoor Gallery which was once a burgeoning condo development. You can't walk down a sidewalk without seeing art! Improvised spray paint art or gorgeous planned mosaics. There is no end to the creativity you see in Austin!



The food in Austin is out of this world. I did not have a single bad meal! The food was good for me (vegetarian, lactose intolerant, and gluten sensitive freak) and him (just loves good food). The funny thing was - we did no research and picked nothing in advance. We just stumbled upon places as we explored. A few times we used my Happy Cow app to find a place near us, due to ALL the walking blisters. Because I'm a serial sharer... here is my rank ordered list of AMAZING Austin food:

- The Peached Tortilla (Asian/Mexican fusion)
- Blue Dahlia (fresh, seasonal- and the menu is the most beautiful blue which they make the dye for in their own kitchen!)
- The Clay Pot (date night Indian and very large cocktails)
- Koriente (fresh, reasonably priced Asian)
- Frank's (gourmet hotdogs and amazing brunch - pictured is my plate of veggie Eggs Benedict)
- The Goodall Kitchen (a touch pretentious with a limited menu but the art is absolutely museum worthy)
There were likely a dozen other places we could've easily tried - and might next time!

We stayed at The Pearl Vintage Inn Hotel which is wonderful location. A touch off the beaten path but close to downtown. Magically lit up at night  - like when we arrived - with tiny fairy lights on the trees. Private entrances for many of the rooms. In some ways it felt like a bed and breakfast. It's amazing - comfortable and quiet. We stayed in the Far East room which was Asian elegant and had wonderful furniture, plus included its own outdoor balcony where Guy took his morning coffee. (I sooooo wanted to have a reason to use the lovely outdoor bar on the 1st level.Would've been fun to host something there!) My only complaint was that the owners were obviously not foodie people. The "breakfast" offering was cut-up, store-bought pastries, sad granola, and overripe bananas + grocery store tea. No. But the room was beyond amazing - so win! (I got the fancy $20 bill chocolate at the airport store for a joke.)

During our wandering tour on Saturday, we stumbled into a African-American Writers event at the George Washington Carver Museum, which had the most lovely bathroom I've ever seen in a museum. And got a real sense of Texas history at the Bollock Museum. We also wandered around the capital building being totally tourists and taking pictures of various statues. Hats off the the Austin Parks Department - we found the Old Bakery Emporium which was so cool! Tiny shop (all things made by local artists over 50), a mini art museum, and a small history museum in one location near the capitol building.


I also happened upon the ModCloth Fit Shop in Austin! I'd literally seen a ModCloth dress on Instagram that week which I loved - and while at Sunday brunch at Franks, we spotted the shop on our phone maps within walking distance. Sadly, the dress was not what I expected (way more formal fabric and 3 skirt layers!) but I did find an adorable skirt - with pockets! While you can't walk out of the store with what you love, they will ship it to you for free and because you can try it on - you get the right size every time.

And since it was me traveling, what travel story could I tell that wouldn't include the gorgeous flowers? And a mystery. 

This pink flower was a tree that grew to our balcony and flowered.


This orange and yellow flowering bush was on our walk. I'm not sure what it is but I recognized it. Last year when i was in Tucson on business, there was one of these outside my hotel room which attracted various butterflies.

We passed several of these profusions of orange flowers on our walks. 

This blue flower looks like Phlox - but not quite - to my eye.
















Last, but not least is this weird tangle of twig or vines is my mystery flora. I saw them in a number of trees - clustered like flowers. (This one had fallen - that's how I got the close-up.) When I first spotted them, I thought birds nests! But in looking at the fallen one, nope. Something else. Still not sure what as I wasn't sure what to search to find them and my flower identifying app has fritzed out. (If you know a good app for flower identification - please let me know!)

And that, my friends, is a 4 day weekend to remember. Time together, time to explore, time with friends, time to relax/recharge. What else could you ask for?

Take-away - Take time. Make memories. They are what lasts in relationships.

All photos by moi! And you can tell...

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Vegas in the Winter

Recently I spent a few days in Las Vegas on business. Despite the rain and chilly weather, it re-affirmed my love for multiple word cities that start with 3 letters: New Orleans, Las Vegas, etc...

I stayed at the beautiful Four Seasons, right on the strip. My first time at that particular Las Vegas property. (I used to go to Vegas on business regularly and have stayed at a number of Las Vegas hotels over the years.) It didn't take long for me to decide I quite like the Four Seasons and would love to stay there whenever possible. The question now, how can I make it more possible?

And Again, Please

The human male and I are currently plotting our next vacation - probably next spring. This April we took a trip to "paradise" aka Tulum, Mexico on the Maya Riviera for 9 days. It was a space and time to decompress. Something I didn't even know I needed.

As an adult, I'd never been on a vacation before. Vacation =  go somewhere exotic, do not work, do interesting things you've not done before, and do nothing. I learned several things.

The Crescent City

New Orleans is one of my favorite US cities - the music, the history, the food, the cultures! The Crescent City is beyond compare. Luckily, last fall, I had a work thing in New Orleans (NOLA), and we decided to make it a working vacation. We tacked on a few extra days and stayed through the weekend.

Why?

• He loves NOLA (as do I*)
• We really needed a break