Family Night Out POTD

Jim, Cassie & I went out to our absolute favorite restaurant tonight & all of my POTD's revolve around our family night out. The first one above is of the sunset we saw coming through the window at the restaurant. I just happened to have my DRebel in the car, so I left the table to go out & get some pictures of this gorgeous sky. I just love sunsets & always try to capture them whenever possible. I was going to put my camera back in my car, but figured I might as well take it back in the restaurant with me to show Jim & Cassie the pictures. And now I'm glad I did because I ended up taking more pics inside.

A little background.....everytime we go to this restaurant, we ask for this specific waiter & will purposely sit where he's working because he's so nice & he always brings us a basket full of rolls, sometimes even before we have a chance to sit down. While we were waiting for our food to arrive, I jokingly told Jim that I should take a picture of our waiter. So what does Jim do? He calls him over to the table & tells him that I have something to ask him.....needless to say, my face turned red & I was totally embarrassed! So I asked the waiter & he said sure, but I decided not to post his picture on my blog.....not sure if he would like that or not :) So on to picture # 2. This is of Jim eating his Canadian Chicken.....one of his favorite dishes there.

Jim & Cassie both thought I was nuts for taking the next picture.....a picture of my food.....pizza! What can I say.....I just love the pizza at this restaurant & I order it every single time we go there & the same way.....light sauce & bacon. Cassie then asked me if I was going to take a picture of the rolls, too. I think she knows me too well :) But I decided not to.....didn't want the people sitting next to us to think that I have totally lost it, lol.

As we were getting ready to leave we saw Gary, the owner & I asked him if I could get his picture. He said sure & then said "let's take it together", so I handed Jim the camera & he snapped our pic. I'm not going to post that one either, though because Gary even said to me "this isn't going to end up on the internet, is it?" LOL I said "no, but it may end up in a scrapbook layout." Which it will, along with all the other pics I took tonight.

The final picture is of the restaurant's sign.....couldn't leave without getting a pic of that to scrap, now could I?

I tried taking the picture in auto mode, but it didn't turn out very good, so I switched to night mode & this is the best I could get. Probably would have turned out better if I would have had a tripod. The white sign actually has words on it, but the light overpowered them in the picture.

Ah well.....there you have it.....our family night out. Lots of fun, lots of laughs & too much food! BURP! :)

I'm off to bed....have a great night,
Benita

Wednesday POTD

I'm actually cheating a little for today's POTD because I didn't take this picture.....my sister did. This is her new puppy that she just got the other day. His name is Toby & he's 5 months old. She just had to have her other poodle Cindy put to sleep a few weeks ago because her health was really declining & she couldn't even see anymore & she literally kept walking into the walls. Cindy was almost 16 years old & she originally belonged to our Grandma & Grandpa, but when they had to go to a nursing home, Donna offered to take care of Cindy for them & she ended up getting very attached to her. She emailed me this picture today since we live 500 miles away from each other, but now I can't wait to get home & see this cutie in person! Here's another pic she sent of him looking at her through the gate & sticking his tongue out at her:

I've never seen a poodle that was both black & white before....thought that was really neat. I just know this is going to be one very spoiled dog. But I'm glad that my sister was able to bring herself to get another dog after having to put Cindy to sleep.

Tomorrow, my dh is taking a personal day at work & we're going to go do some Christmas shopping together. I will definitely be taking my camera with me & may end up having more than one POTD to share tomorrow :)

Until then, have a great night,
Benita

My Kitchen POTD

(click on picture to enlarge)

Erin over at the Pub on 2 Peas posted a question this morning about the color of our appliances & also asking us to post pictures if we could, so I thought that would give me the perfect POTD for today. I have this love/hate relationship with my kitchen. I love my granite countertops, I love the plum colored walls, I love all my grape decorations (even though I don't even eat grapes), I love the centerpiece that a dear friend made for me & I love my kitchen when it's clean....and yes, I did clean it just to take this picture ;). But I hate cooking! I admit it.....I am sooo NOT a cook! And I probably never will be. I hate it when my kitchen is dirty & it seems like my island is always cluttered.....no matter how many times I clean it off, by the end of the day, it ends up being the 'catch all' for everything from the mail, newspaper, keys, my purse & Jim's backpack that he takes to work. I keep saying that I'm not gonna let it get cluttered again, but that just never works. We've done a lot of remodeling to our kitchen since we purchased our home 5 years ago. We had the granite countertops installed 2 years ago along with a new black sink & chrome faucet, the tile floor & backsplash were just installed 2 months ago, we hung up a pot rack above the island, painted the kitchen twice & changed the border 3 times plus we purchased a new fridge & stove. Sometimes I wish we could change out the cabinets, too, but I don't see that happening now after getting the granite. Ah well.....it's my kitchen & I love/hate it :)

Here are some pics of my bottle collection that I have on the top of my cabinets. Our downstairs ceilings are 10 feet high, so I love having all this space above my cabinets to display things:



I just wanted to take a moment to say thanks for all the wonderful comments on my POTD's. I really enjoy reading them!

Off to do some scrapping & more cleaning.

Have a great day,
Benita

Monday POTD

If today's POTD looks familiar, it's because it is :) This is the same tree that I took a picture of on Friday, but this morning, it looked so much more orange with the way the sun was shining on it. I was afraid that after all the wind we had yesterday that there wasn't going to be any leaves left on this tree. But when I drove by it this morning on the way to take Cassie to school, it was still just as beautiful. Here's another pic that I took this morning:

Sunrise coming through some trees (different trees than in the above picture).

I have some errands to run today, so who knows, I may end up with a few more POTD's :) This has been so much fun & very addicting! Kinda like Pringles.....you can't take just one photo of the day, lol.

Have a wonderful day,
Benita

Sunday 'Boring' Sunday POTD

Think maybe I listen to U2 too much by my title for today? :) Yeah, I know, it's supposed to be Sunday Bloody Sunday, but I had to change it to boring because that's basically what today has been. And today's POTD proves it. This is a picture of my newest luxury item.....the controller to my Select Comfort Sleep Number Bed. Jim & I have been talking about buying one of these for years, but it was one of those things that we just kept putting off......BIG mistake! I really wish now I would have bought this bed years ago! We have been through 4 mattress sets in the past 15 years & that's not counting our waterbed we bought when we first moved in together. I've had back problems since I was 17 & I've never been able to find a comfortable mattress. We purchased this bed towards the middle of August right before we went on vacation, but it was going to take 2-3 weeks to be delivered, so we had the delivery set up for right when we came home on September 3rd. Wow, what a difference! Everything they say about this bed is 110% true. I now feel like I'm sleeping on a cloud & my back pain has really improved. I will never go back to an innerspring mattress again! The funny thing is, Jim & I have our sides set at the same number.....50. And he's even noticed a difference in his sleeping......that's hard to believe from a man that could sleep on rocks if he had to, lol. You can also see part of my Glynda Turley Rose Rhapsody bedding. This set used to be sold at JCPenneys, but it's been discontinued for a couple of years now. I will never part with it, though, even if I ever do decide to change my bedroom.

Well, there you have it.....my boring photo of the day for a boring day :) Hopefully I'll have a more exciting pic to post tomorrow. I did manage to do a layout today, though & I really like how it turned out. Be on the lookout for that on 2 Peas sometime tomorrow.

Have a great night,
Benita

Saturdays POTD & Shopping

Jim & I went to the mall tonight & stopped in at Ritz Camera to look at some lenses, but instead of buying a new lens right now, we came home with these.....6 filters for my DRebel. They were on sale buy 2 get 1 free, so I decided to splurge since I've been wanting some filters for a while. Now I gotta practice with them & see what kind of fun things I can do. The neat thing is they will also fit the small lens to my Nikon 35mm film camera, but I need to buy a different size for my 300mm lens. Here are 2 pics I took tonight using my new filters. The first one is of some potpourri that I purchased tonight at Pier 1 Imports. I added the bigger wicker balls to it.


This is a picture of my ceiling fan in my sitting room that I used the Cross Screen filter on. I'm gonna love this filter come Christmas time!

We were going to go to a Craft Show today, but by the time we got there, it was almost over, so we decided to skip it. Instead, we stopped by an Open House in our neighborhood on the way home & looked at 2 homes right down the road from us. I really liked the second one we looked at.....it had 5 bedrooms (4 upstairs & 1 down) & I was already planning where to put all of my furniture :) But then Jim woke me up & told me that the next time we buy a house, it's going to be one we build. He's got a good point cause even now in the house we do own, I still feel like it's someone elses house even after being here 5 years now & doing all the remodeling we've been doing. I wonder why that is?

Not sure what I'll post as my photo for tomorrow, but I'm sure I'll be having lots of fun with my new filters :)

Have a great weekend,
Benita

Four For Friday POTD

I tell ya, this challenge has been so much fun that I couldn't post just one photo today :) The first one (above) is of what will probably be my final fall rose. I planted this rose bush in our front yard a couple of years ago & I thought it actually died last year because we didn't get any blooms on it at all, but this year, it's just been blooming like crazy! And the scent of these roses is truly wonderful.

The next pic I took this morning on my way to take Cassie to school. This tree is right by the entrance to our subdivision & it's just gorgeous right now:

Next is a picture of a burning bush in our front yard......this is Jim's baby:

Told ya you'd be seeing a lot of fall pics during this challenge :)

The final photo for today is one I thought would fit perfectly since we bowled tonight & I kicked Jim's butt again ;) This is my bowling equipment.....my new ball & shoes along with my Mongoose wrist support, which I can't bowl without:

After bowling like crap on Tuesday, I'm glad to report that I actually bowled pretty good tonight :) My games were 237, 188 & 151 for a 576 series. Yep, I choked the last game. Seems like I can never bring 3 decent games together, but I'm still happy.

That's it for now.....check back tomorrow for a new POTD.

Benita

Bling! POD # 3

(click on picture to enlarge)

My photo of the day for today is the results of the jewelry party I went to last night. I didn't buy this all last night, though.....she had another party last year where I purchased most of it, but the 2 necklaces & the earrings that are hanging on the card in the back of the picture are new. I also purchased some angel earrings as Christmas gifts for each of my sisters since I love the pair that I bought for myself last year (you can see them inside of the silver & purple drop necklace above).

Cindy, owner & creator of Foxglove Designs, is a very good friend of mine that I've known for about 7 years now. She started making jewelry about 2 or 3 years ago & she just found out last week that she's going to be laid off from her current job of over 18 years, so now she's going to be putting her jewelry business into full-swing. I went over to her house one day last week to help her for her show last night & I had a lot of fun making some bracelets. It really got me to thinking about my own goals in life......is scrapbooking really the only thing I should be doing? Should I maybe start expanding my horizons a little? Quite honestly, I don't even feel like I'm a very good scrapper anyway, especially since I still haven't been published. I know we're our own worst critic, but maybe scrapbooking just isn't really my thing afterall? God gives us each a talent (or two or three), but I honestly don't think I've found mine yet. How does one find out what their talent is? I know while I was growing up, I wanted to be either an Architect or an Interior Designer, but I never went after either of those goals. People tell me all the time that I have a nicely decorated home, but I honestly don't know if I could decorate someone else's home to their tastes. I know I am a perfectionist (part of being a Virgo), so that could be a good thing......or not, lol.

I'm rambling now......seems like my mind is going a mile a minute with everything I'm thinking about. Thanks for all the suggestions on what to do with those canisters I purchased......I have decided that I am going to alter them. But now I just have to decide what paper & embellishments to use on them :) Once I get them done, I'll be posting a pic.

Have an awesome fall afternoon,

Benita

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ETA: A perfect ending to a beautiful day......a gorgeous sunset! The high temperature today was 71 degrees.....not what I would consider fall at all, but I'm also not going to complain one bit because I know that colder days are just right around the corner. I definitely love these Indian Summers! I took this picture from my scrapbook room window (again) so it's not the best pic, but I just knew I had to capture this sunset today:

And now I'm off to bed. Be sure to check back tomorrow for the next Photo of the Day.

Night,

B

Target Find - Photo A Day X 2

Today's photo a day is of a pair of canisters that I found at Target on clearance for less than $4.00 each, regular $14.99. I saw these a few weeks ago before they went on clearance, but didn't know what I would do with them, so I didn't buy them. I still don't know what I'm gonna do with them, lol, but I couldn't pass them up for the price. I may paint them & just use them in my kitchen. Or I may alter them with my scrapping supplies & use them for storage in my scraproom cause we all know we can never have too much storage. Seems like I'm collecting a lot of things to alter lately......now I just need to get busy working on them!

As the title states, I decided to post 2 photos today as I couldn't resist not posting this one that I took on the way home from Target. I pulled off to the side of the road as soon as I saw these gorgeous trees & snapped a quick picture:

I love fall, except for the fact that I know winter isn't far behind! I could just snap picture after picture after picture of beautiful trees, so you may end up seeing a lot of them during this photo a day challenge :)

Tonight I went to a jewelry show that a good friend of mine was having, so tomorrow's blog entry will be filled with lots of bling :)

Off to bed,
Benita

Photo A Day

I signed up for a photo of the day challenge over at 2 Peas & today's picture is of the sunset looking out from my scraproom window. Not the best picture in the world, having to take it through the window & the screen, but I still like it.....I wish you could see the maple tree in my neighbors yard.....it's a beautiful shade of red right now. Maybe I'll have to take another picture looking out my window during the day. Now if I can just get used to the sun setting at 6:00 every day. That's one thing I dislike about the winter months besides the snow.....the days just seem way too short & it takes my body a few weeks to adjust to the time change. The first night after setting the clocks back, I wanted to go to bed at 8:00pm!

I really bowled like crap tonight :( I just cannot seem to figure out these lanes for some reason. I had several hits right in the pocket that ended up being splits! ARGH! I won't even post what my games were because they're too embarrassing.....I didn't even get a strike until the 5th frame of the second game.....now that's sad! I'm gonna ask Rich, our bowling partner on Fridays, if he'll start giving me some lessons. I need to do something & quick because after tonight, I wanted to quit bowling!

It's been a week since I last updated my blog. No reason, really. Just didn't really have much to say. But now since I'm doing this challenge, I'll probably be updating it every day this month. So be sure to check back for tomorrow's POTD.

Until then,
Benita