Category Create

2024 STARTS… Make things happen!

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It’s a NEW YEAR, I’m excited. Time to Make Things Happen!

This photo is how my brain works. A vision board full of sticky notes, depicting all the exciting, creative and crazy ideas going on in my brain. What I like about sticky notes is that I can move my ideas/goals around. If a goal is not going to meet a particular date/time, no problem, move it to bottom of the board. Focus on what I will accomplish by deadline, then circle back to the goal I moved to the bottom of board.

Years ago, I worked for a man who thought like I did. He was big on white boards. Every office had huge white boards. Whenever we had a meeting, everything went on the white board. Discussing root cause analysis on a product failure was great. One person wrote on the board, everyone chimed in, it was easy to erase, move text over, etc. When we filled up board, someone took a photo. THEN we erased and continued. Later someone wrote up the notes and sent to all the attendees. My type of meeting!

So here’s to MAKING THINGS HAPPEN in 2024!

From Bavaria, Christmas decorations…

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Walking in Rothenburg ob der Tauber, they had so many beautiful Xmas scenes in the windows. Look at this one of the Angel orchestra, how clever.

Another nice touch, they decorate with small Christmas trees outside their homes. They have electric candles on the trees. In the old days, they actually used real lit candles.

Here you have stuffed bears in the windows. This was a Teddy Bear shop.

This was such a simple tree. I’ve always liked hearts, what a great idea! The red felt hearts stand out because of the light wood. I would do this.

This was interesting, so earthy the way they decorated their window with wood, etc. The cakes, I didn’t touch them, but they look like hardened sand, clay or concrete? 

I fell in love with their door stops. I haven’t seen these in America, but I don’t think we have as heavy doors as they have. Where we stayed, in a charming old home, they had different door stops on each door. This HOME was on ours, but there was a cat that I liked.

As I walked the neighborhood, I came across a sewing store. She had patterns of a reindeer door stop. Of course, I had to buy it and a pattern for a cute bear, I bought that too.

So, there you have it. Another quick visit around Rothenburg ob der Tauber.

I have to say, it did get me in the mood to decorate, make Christmas fun in a NEW way!

Have a great weekend!

Merry Christmas! 

WordPress: When a new feature isn’t that great.

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Hello fellow Blogger, A Grace Full Life, I hope you don’t mind, I am using your Blog post as an example to discuss a new feature WordPress has come out with in our Reader view. Have you noticed the Comments in a post are now showing up in the Reader?

I used this as an example, because the comment was so long that on my Ipad, it took up my entire screen. I used to see just a thumbnail of each post, so I could quickly scroll through and my FOCUS was on the Blog post writer, NOT on the comments that are left on each site.

Has anyone else noticed this.

Thoughts… Like it or not?

I’ve written to the Happiness Engineers mentioning my displeasure with this new feature. Also, asking if there is a way to turn comments off, so they don’t show up. If you are like me and not a fan of this new development, you might want to send them an email.

Baseball – What do you think, a vintage Cubs hat?

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Baseball season is in full swing. I’m not a huge sports fan, meaning I’m not watching every game or anything like that. However, I do support our team, the Cubs.

I was visiting a friend, walking the neighborhood and stopped in my tracks when I saw this tree. How clever. This art creation of a Cubs fan took effort. It’s so funny, looks like an older man. Profiling here, tall and a bit chubby, holding a beer, maybe with shirt too tight? We have to go older since the hat looks vintage.

Looking at the hat. What is that to the left of the “C?” Is it meant to be a drawing of a player with helmet on, bat in hand?

Maybe that hat is the colors of the Cubs, but it’s not an old Cubs hat. Any Cubs experts out there or OLD ENOUGH to know logo changes, LOL.

What do you think?

When a PICTURE makes you THINK of pasta!

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When I was at the grocery store, I saw Pierogi, so many choices. I have a friend who gets in the mood for them. It’s interesting, because they are like Italian ravioli. Then, I thought, you’ve got the Asian pot stickers. All a little different, but the same idea with a different name.

Do you have a preference for any of these? I wonder, do the Germans/Austrians have something like ravioli or pierogi? I know they make great dumplings.

Thinking of dumplings, I’m getting in the mood for Matzo Ball soup now!

Best Snowman of the Year!

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This past weekend Chicago was hit with a lot of snow. It was fun to see a father with his child building a snowman. The hat is so perfect and the green scarf lovely – the perfect photograph!

It’s an artistic snowman. I like how the bottom spreads out, but somehow they made the stomach area look really round. Look at those sticks for arms/hands. This snowman makes me smile.

For me, so far, this is the Snowman of the Year! UNLESS, we get another snow storm, then let’s see what happens.

GUESS WHAT – Feb 2nd is Groundhog Day. Will Phil Punxsutawaney, the groundhog, see his shadow??? It’s a silly tradition. Has anyone ever checked to see if the yearly predictions were true?

Holiday Decorations – Great marketing idea!

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This was an interesting Christmas display. I had a funny marketing idea. The only one missing from this photo is Goldilocks. They could put these three bears in the bedding department with each bear standing by a mattress. The baby bear could still be hiding behind the Xmas tree and find Goldilocks in HIS bed.

The marketing message would read…??

I have to say, I would probably try out the three beds!

We need some humor in sales!

Fall – What’s your favorite home cooked meal?

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Fall started over night. We had pleasant weather this past weekend and suddenly the temperatures dropped to the 50s. I had to pull out the long john’s, find my winter shoes, and sweaters. Oh boy, it’s COLD. I got a kick out of a lady who still wanted to wear her summer dress and added a parka to it. REALLY, I think it’s time to retire summer clothes to the back of the closet.

Of course, Fall weather has us wanting home cooked comfort meals. I was at the store, they had a special on asparagus. I really like asparagus. My ex/mother/n/law was not the greatest cook. She’s German and cooked a lot of potatoes. In fact, to this day, my ex/husband does not want potatoes. Ah, he’ll eat french fries, but NO BOILED potatoes, NEVER. She didn’t enjoy cooking, but she ALWAYS, and I mean ALWAYS made asparagus soup for ALL holidays. So, in honor of my ex/mother/n/law, I made asparagus soup. Sent picture to my ex/husband and daughters saying, “THINKING OF OMI.”

Next in line, boiled chicken. In cold temperatures, I really enjoy Matzo Ball soup. I’m not Jewish, not sure when I started liking this soup, but it’s a favorite. Soups are so healthy for us.

My Italian mother always made bean soup. She didn’t really venture off from this. It’s a good hearty soup, no question about that. I guess next in line would be chili. I like it OCCASIONALLY, but it would not be my “go to” comfort food.

A woman posted her meal with delicata squash. It looked good, I want to try it. I admit, I’ve never been drawn to the squash family of vegetables. I need to venture out a bit, right. A lot to choose from. Winter varieties include butternut, acorn, delicata, pumpkin, hubbard, kabocha and spaghetti squashes.

So, here’s to FALL and home cooking. Memories from childhood.

What’s YOUR favorite comfort food in cold weather?

Eating Healthy: Oatmeal or Cream of Rice

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Do you eat a lot of oatmeal? This morning, in memory of my ex/father/n/law, I ate oatmeal. He was a retired Doctor from Germany. He LOVED oatmeal! He had his ritual. He would microwave a packet of oatmeal, stir in one packet of sweetener (yellow one) and then add cream on top. FINISHED – nothing else, ie fruit/nuts, etc. Toward the end, at 99, all he would ask for was “oatmeal.”

My Italian mother, on the other hand, preferred cream of rice. Probably because it reminded her of polenta. Although, she never made polenta for us. She would cook cream of rice (for 4 kids) and stir in one raw egg. Since the cream of rice was hot, stirring in the egg cooked it. Voila – breakfast served.

My mother enjoyed something else. She would take a raw egg, some sugar and whip/whip/whip it with a fork until it was creamy like a custard and then she would eat it. Did she cook it? I don’t remember seeing her cook it, I will ask her, but I remember thinking how “odd” that was and worried she’d get SICK!

So, WHAT was IT in your house growing up — OATMEAL or CREAM of RICE?