Wonderful Wednesday Blog Hop - August 14, 2024

Welcome to the Wonderful Wednesday Blog Hop!  We are so glad that you stopped by.

Here you will find inspiration from dozens of bloggers including recipes, home DIY, gardening, decor, family fun, traveling, fitness, and so much more.

A friendly reminder to our guests that as a courtesy to the hosts, we ask that you follow every host on at least one social media channel.

If you are a blogger, then be sure to link up below. You may be our next feature! 

Before we get this party started, let’s meet the hosts and check out this week’s featured favorites.

MEET THE HOSTS

1. Bev – ECLECTIC RED BARN | FB | IG | PINTEREST
2. Penny – PENNY’S PASSION | FB | IG | PINTEREST
3. Sinea – DUCKS ‘N A ROW | FB | IG | PINTEREST | X
4. Tammy – MY LIFE ABUNDANT | FB | IG | PINTEREST | X | YOUTUBE
5. Denise – THIS IS MY EVERYBODY | FB | IG | PINTEREST | X | YOUTUBE

TOP VIEWED

Transform Your Garden with DIY Water Fountain Planters

VERY POPULAR

Prime Purchases

Dinner at Eight:  Tea and Muffins on the Bistro Table

EDITOR'S CHOICE

Banana Pudding Poke Cake

LET’S GET THIS PARTY STARTED!

Please follow all hosts on AT LEAST 1 of their social channels.

Add as many family-friendly posts as you would like to. NO Etsy shops, adult sites, or blog parties please.  Visit others. Caring is sharing. Like, comment, and pin posts.

Party entries appear in REVERSE. This way your entries 

will be seen no matter when you arrive. Please TWEET our party and invite others to join.

Let’s Party! 

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter

Sunshine Shroomscape

I have been a little lax changing the decor on our tiered tray, but this weekend I managed to put away our Let's Go Places items and update to Sunshine Shroomscape!   

My friend Jill and I went on the hunt for more sunflower things, but found the most adorable mushrooms at Hobby Lobby.  Mushrooms and sunflowers go together, right?  Each layer of the tray hosts both!

The Sunshine Shroomscape captures the brightness of sunflowers and the whimsical nature of mushrooms.  

The welcome sign rounds out the warmth of the sunflowers and the charm of the mushrooms.  

Standing at our sink and looking over the window will fill me with smiles until it's time to bring out the pumpkins!

Five on Friday - August 9, 2024

Hope you're having a great Friday!  I'm so happy you stopped by to see my five for today.  Let's take a look ~

1.  Yuka app

I might be the last person on earth to learn about this app, but just in case you haven't heard of it I want to share.  Yuka is a free app that allows you to scan the bar code from any food or cosmetic product and get an instant item rating.  It rates the item on a scale from 1-100 and says whether it's excellent, bad, or something in between.  There's even a breakdown of why it was rated the way it was.  Yuka is a 100% independent application.  This means the product analysis and recommendations are entirely objective.  They receive no funding from brands or manufacturers.  I've been a scanning fool this week and I don't see it slowing down anytime soon!

2.  It Ends With Us

Colleen Hoover's best-selling book It Ends With Us is making its movie debut this weekend!  I for one can't wait to see it!  The leading lady, Lily, is being played by Blake Lively.  If you see the movie and haven't read the book, there's a second book in the series titled It Starts With Us you might want to add to your reading list.  Here's the summary of the movie ~

IT ENDS WITH US, the first Colleen Hoover novel adapted for the big screen, tells the compelling story of Lily Bloom (Blake Lively), a woman who overcomes a traumatic childhood to embark on a new life in Boston and chase a lifelong dream of opening her own business. A chance meeting with charming neurosurgeon Ryle Kincaid (Justin Baldoni) sparks an intense connection, but as the two fall deeply in love, Lily begins to see sides of Ryle that remind her of her parents’ relationship. When Lily’s first love, Atlas Corrigan (Brandon Sklenar), suddenly reenters her life, her relationship with Ryle is upended, and Lily realizes she must learn to rely on her own strength to make an impossible choice for her future.

3.  T-Shirt Dress

There's a new dress in my closet and I love it!  The fabric has a nice breathable, comfortable feel.  It can be worn with sandals, heels, or sneakers.  As a bonus, it has one of my favorite features - POCKETS.  I'm going to be wearing it on repeat for the rest of summer and into the fall!  There are a ton of colors available so I'm sure you can find one perfect for you.

Available HERE

4.  The Bookshop: A History of the American Bookstore

My love for bookstores runs deep!  I try to find an Indie bookshop in every city we visit.  So, when I saw this book on bookshops coming out this week my interest level was high.  Here's the summary ~

An affectionate and engaging history of the American bookstore and its central place in American cultural life, from department stores to indies, from highbrow dealers trading in first editions to sidewalk vendors, and from chains to special-interest community destinations.

Bookstores have always been unlike any other kind of store, shaping readers and writers, and influencing our tastes, thoughts, and politics. They nurture local communities while creating new ones of their own. Bookshops are powerful spaces, but they are also endangered ones. In The Bookshop,we see the stakes: what has been, and what might be lost.

Evan Friss’s history of the bookshop draws on oral histories, archival collections, municipal records, diaries, letters, and interviews with leading booksellers to offer a fascinating look at this institution beloved by so many. The story begins with Benjamin Franklin’s first bookstore in Philadelphia and takes us to a range of booksellers including the Strand, Chicago’s Marshall Field & Company, the Gotham Book Mart, specialty stores like Oscar Wilde and Drum and Spear, sidewalk sellers of used books, Barnes & Noble, Amazon Books, and Parnassus. The Bookshop is also a history of the leading figures in American bookselling, often impassioned eccentrics, and a history of how books have been marketed and sold over the course of more than two centuries—including, for example, a 3,000-pound elephant who signed books at Marshall Field’s in 1944.

The Bookshop is a love letter to bookstores, a charming chronicle for anyone who cherishes these sanctuaries of literature, and essential reading to understand how these vital institutions have shaped American life—and why we still need them.

Available HERE

5.  Definitely me...

Make the weekend great!  I'm so excited to be attending the Pink concert!  We will also be saying goodbye to the Summer Olympics.  I'm not sure what we will do with ourselves next week when there's not some random sporting event to watch.  See you back next week.

What We Did in July 2024

Hello!  Thanks for stopping by Thinking Out Loud Thursday.  It's a day I share something I'm thinking about and invite you to link up and do the same.  Today I'm recapping our July activities.

The month kicked off with a 4th of July celebration at our friends' house.  Dave and Penny host an annual party and we were lucky to be able to attend this year.  Their neighborhood puts on an amazing fireworks show!  The evening was beautiful and a treat to sit around their pool and watch the show in the sky.

Eric and I celebrated our 23rd wedding anniversary in the middle of the month.  Looking back, the years have truly flown by!  We celebrated by going to one of our favorite restaurants, 801 Chophouse.  

We picked up our niece and nephews to spend a few days with us.  You can read all about their visit HERE.  Hosting three eight-year-olds and a five-year-old was fun, tiring, challenging, and wonderful!  They definitely kept us on our toes and it was way too quiet after they went home.

I met my friend Sharyn for dinner to celebrate her birthday.  We've been friends for over 50 years!  It was a joy honoring her special day!  

Barry Manilow was in St. Louis and a group of my friends and I couldn't miss seeing him!  We met for dinner then headed to the concert.  Listening to him sing his hits brought back so many memories!  

We wrapped up the month by visiting Eric's sister and her family in Memphis.  They were fabulous hosts!  While in Memphis, I was hoping to visit the shop of John Mark Enterprises.  I follow him on Instagram and geeked out a bit being in his shop!

Every week, John Mark hosts a bow-making tutorial.  Stepping inside his ribbon room was pretty exciting for me!

We also shopped at the most adorable bookstore - novel.  Besides all the books, this shop has a bar and many, many awesome gifts.  

We were so excited to meet the newest member of the family!  Our great niece is as cute as can be and we soaked up all the cuddles we could get!

For dinner, we visited The Lookout at the Pyramid.  Coolest place!  They have an observation deck where you can see the river and beyond.  It had been overcast and rainy most of the day.  Just before sunset, the clouds broke and we experienced the most beautiful sunset!

On Sunday before heading home, we played a few games of Quixx.  Our great nephew was the best little helper!

It was a weekend full of memories!  On the way home, we added one more activity to the weekend.  Chester, Illinois is the hometown of Popeye.  We've driven by several times but never stopped to look at the statue of the famous icon.  Cross that off the list!

Now it's your turn - what are you thinking out loud about today?  Link up and share!

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter

Wonderful Wednesday Blog Hop - August 7, 2024

Welcome to the Wonderful Wednesday Blog Hop!  We are so glad that you stopped by.

Here you will find inspiration from dozens of bloggers including recipes, home DIY, gardening, decor, family fun, traveling, fitness, and so much more.

A friendly reminder to our guests that as a courtesy to the hosts, we ask that you follow every host on at least one social media channel.

If you are a blogger, then be sure to link up below. You may be our next feature! 

Before we get this party started, let’s meet the hosts and check out this week’s featured favorites.

MEET THE HOSTS

1. Bev – ECLECTIC RED BARN | FB | IG | PINTEREST
2. Penny – PENNY’S PASSION | FB | IG | PINTEREST
3. Sinea – DUCKS ‘N A ROW | FB | IG | PINTEREST | X
4. Tammy – MY LIFE ABUNDANT | FB | IG | PINTEREST | X | YOUTUBE
5. Denise – THIS IS MY EVERYBODY | FB | IG | PINTEREST | X | YOUTUBE

TOP VIEWED

Front Porch Early Fall Door Basket

VERY POPULAR

Cajun Cabbage

End of July (Home Ideas and Hot Weather)

EDITOR'S CHOICE

Waldorf Salad

LET’S GET THIS PARTY STARTED!

Please follow all hosts on AT LEAST 1 of their social channels.

Add as many family-friendly posts as you would like to. NO Etsy shops, adult sites, or blog parties please.  Visit others. Caring is sharing. Like, comment, and pin posts.

Party entries appear in REVERSE. This way your entries 

will be seen no matter when you arrive. Please TWEET our party and invite others to join.

Let’s Party! 

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter

Five on Friday - August 2, 2024

Happy Friday!  It's been a full week over here and I'm ready for a weekend.  And how about those Olympics!  We've been staying up late trying to keep up with all the action.  I did take a break to write my Five on Friday post.  Here they are ~

1.  Elizabeth Taylor - The Lost Tapes

Elizabeth Taylor has always captivated me. HBO has a new show premiering Saturday about her that seems quite intriguing.  In 1964 she recorded 40 hours of interviews, and now we get to hear them.  Here's the summary ~

Elizabeth Taylor: The Lost Tapes allows Elizabeth Taylor’s own voice to narrate her story, inviting audiences to rediscover not just a megastar of Hollywood’s Golden Age but a complex woman who navigated lifelong fame, personal identity, and public scrutiny on a global stage from an early childhood. Through newly recovered interviews with Taylor and unprecedented access to the movie star’s personal archive, the film reveals the complex inner life and vulnerability of the Hollywood legend while also challenging audiences to recontextualize her achievements and her legacy.

HBO Documentary Films presents Elizabeth Taylor: The Lost Tapes, a Zipper Bros film, Gerber Pictures, Sutter Road Picture Company, and Bad Robot production in association with House of Taylor. Director, Nanette Burstein; producers, J.J. Abrams, Sean Stuart, Glen Zipper, Bill Gerber, and Rachel Rusch Rich; executive producers, Nanette Burstein, Barbara Berkowitz, Tim Mendelson, and Quinn Tivey. For HBO: executive producers, Nancy Abraham, Lisa Heller, and Sara Rodriguez.

2.  The Wedding People

Say the word "wedding" and I'm all ears.  So when I saw the title of this book I was immediately intrigued.  I was even more intrigued when I saw it was a Today Show #ReadwithJenna Book Club pick.   It was released this week and here's the summary ~

A propulsive and uncommonly wise novel about one unexpected wedding guest and the surprising people who help her start anew.

It’s a beautiful day in Newport, Rhode Island, when Phoebe Stone arrives at the grand Cornwall Inn wearing a green dress and gold heels, not a bag in sight, alone. She's immediately mistaken by everyone in the lobby for one of the wedding people, but she’s actually the only guest at the Cornwall who isn’t here for the big event. Phoebe is here because she’s dreamed of coming for years—she hoped to shuck oysters and take sunset sails with her husband, only now she’s here without him, at rock bottom, and determined to have one last decadent splurge on herself. Meanwhile, the bride has accounted for every detail and every possible disaster the weekend might yield except for, well, Phoebe and Phoebe's plan—which makes it that much more surprising when the two women can’t stop confiding in each other.

In turns absurdly funny and devastatingly tender, Alison Espach’s The Wedding People is ultimately an incredibly nuanced and resonant look at the winding paths we can take to places we never imagined—and the chance encounters it sometimes takes to reroute us.

Available HERE

3.  Oversized Sweatshirt

Even though our temps have been in the 90s, I've been thinking about Fall.  I saw this oversized sweatshirt on sale for under $10 at Amazon and bought one.  The price was low and so were my expectations, but I was very pleasantly surprised!  It's the perfect weight for those cool evenings.  I'm not sure how long it will stay on sale, so grab it while you can!

Available HERE

4.  Pants Hangers

Is your closet getting a bit cramped?  Sending a kid off to college and knowing their closet space is limited?  A few years ago I purchased these pants hangers and they saved so much space!  Each hanger will hold 5 pairs of pants.  This pack of three will let you hang 15 pairs of pants!  The swinging arm makes getting your pants on and off so easy.  Love them!

Available HERE

5.  Yep...

Now it's back to the Olympic events!  We've got a fun weekend ahead.  Tonight we're going to our small group Bible study and then on Sunday, we're celebrating our daughter-in-law's birthday.  See you back next week!

What I Read in July 2024

It's August!  Where has the summer gone?!?  Today for Thinking Out Loud Thursday I'm sharing the books I read in July.  Hope you share what you're thinking about today at the end of the post.

After meeting the New York Times bestselling author Kristy Woodson Harvey in person, I couldn't wait to read her newest book A Happier Life.  It did not disappoint!  This was a fast read because I couldn't put it down!  Here's the summary ~

The historic houses in the seaside town of Beaufort, North Carolina, have held the secrets of their inhabitants for centuries. One of the most enduring refuses to be washed away by the tide: What happened to Rebecca and Townsend Saint James on that fateful night of their disappearance in 1976?

Now, the granddaughter they never knew, Keaton Smith, is desperate for a fresh start. So when her mother needs someone to put her childhood home in Beaufort on the market, she jumps at the chance to head south. But the moment she steps foot inside the abandoned house, which has been closed for nearly fifty years, she wonders if she’s bitten off more than she can chew. Wading through the detritus of her grandparents’ lives, Keaton finds herself enchanted by their southern traditions—and their great, big love. As she gets to know her charming next-door neighbor, his precocious ten-year-old son, and a flock of endearingly feisty town busybodies, Keaton begins to wonder if the stories she has been told about her grandparents are true.

Keaton’s grandmother, Rebecca “Becks” Saint James’s annual summer suppers are the stuff of legend, and locals and out-of-towners alike clamor for an invitation to her stunning historic home. But, in the summer of 1976, she’s struggling behind the facade of the woman who can do it all—and facing a problem that even she can’t solve.

As Keaton and Becks face new challenges and chapters, they are connected through time by the house on Sunset Lane, which has protected the secrets, hopes, and dreams of their family for generations.

“The novel to read this year” (Annabel Monaghan) explores the power of family, the boundless nature of love, and the idea that discovering where we came from just might lead us to A Happier Life.

Available HERE

The Reading List was our book club read this month.  This book had been on my list for a while.  It started a bit slow for me and it took me a beat to really get into the story.  Overall I thought it was above average, but not necessarily one I would enthusically recommend to others.  Here's the summary ~

Widower Mukesh lives a quiet life in Wembley, in West London after losing his beloved wife. He shops every Wednesday, goes to Temple, and worries about his granddaughter, Priya, who hides in her room reading while he spends his evenings watching nature documentaries.

Aleisha is a bright but anxious teenager working at the local library for the summer when she discovers a crumpled-up piece of paper in the back of To Kill a Mockingbird. It’s a list of novels that she’s never heard of before. Intrigued, and a little bored with her slow job at the checkout desk, she impulsively decides to read every book on the list, one after the other. As each story gives up its magic, the books transport Aleisha from the painful realities she’s facing at home.

When Mukesh arrives at the library, desperate to forge a connection with his bookworm granddaughter, Aleisha passes along the reading list…hoping that it will be a lifeline for him too. Slowly, the shared books create a connection between two lonely souls, as fiction helps them escape their grief and everyday troubles and find joy again.

Available HERE

Kristen Higgens' book Out of the Clear Blue Sky had been in my Kindle for a while.  It was published in 2022 but was one I hadn't read before.  This book had moments that made me laugh out loud and also nearly brought me to tears.  Here's the summary ~

Lillie Silva knew life as an empty nester would be hard after her only child left for college, but when her husband abruptly dumps her for another woman just as her son leaves, her world comes crashing down. Besides the fact that this announcement is a complete surprise (to say the least), what shocks Lillie most is that she isn’t heartbroken. She’s furious.

Lillie has loved her life on Cape Cod, but as a mother, wife, and nurse-midwife, she’s used to caring for other people . . . not taking care of herself. Now, alone for the first time in her life, she finds herself going a little rogue. Is it over the top to crash her ex-husband’s wedding dressed like the angel of death? Sure! Should she release a skunk into his perfect new home? Probably not! But it beats staying home and moping.

She finds an unexpected ally in her glamorous sister, with whom she’s had a tense relationship all these years. And an unexpected babysitter in, of all people, Ben Hallowell, the driver in a car accident that nearly killed Lillie twenty years ago. And then there’s Ophelia, her ex-husband’s oddly lost niece, who could really use a friend.

It’s the end of Lillie’s life as she knew it. But sometimes the perfect next chapter surprises you . . . out of the clear blue sky.

Available HERE

 

Funny Story by Emily Henry finished out my reading for the month.  I loved this book and the main character Daphne!  It had a couple of twists I didn't see coming and kept my interested to the end.  Fun book!  Here's the summary ~

Daphne always loved the way her fiancé Peter told their story. How they met (on a blustery day), fell in love (over an errant hat), and moved back to his lakeside hometown to begin their life together. He really was good at telling it…right up until the moment he realized he was actually in love with his childhood best friend Petra.

Which is how Daphne begins her new story: Stranded in beautiful Waning Bay, Michigan, without friends or family but with a dream job as a children’s librarian (that barely pays the bills), and proposing to be roommates with the only person who could possibly understand her predicament: Petra’s ex, Miles Nowak.

Scruffy and chaotic—with a penchant for taking solace in the sounds of heart break love ballads—Miles is exactly the opposite of practical, buttoned up Daphne, whose coworkers know so little about her they have a running bet that she’s either FBI or in witness protection. The roommates mainly avoid one another, until one day, while drowning their sorrows, they form a tenuous friendship and a plan. If said plan also involves posting deliberately misleading photos of their summer adventures together, well, who could blame them?

But it’s all just for show, of course, because there’s no way Daphne would actually start her new chapter by falling in love with her ex-fiancé’s new fiancée’s ex…right?

Available HERE

August is off to a good reading start.  I'm currently about half way through two books that I'll be telling you about next month.  If you have Amazon Prime, don't forget to make your free selection from the Amazon First Reads.  

Now it's your turn.  What are you thinking out loud about today?  Link up and share~

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter