Penny's Passion

Friday, June 23, 2017

Five on Friday - June 23, 2017

Hello Friday! Three cheers for the weekend! Summer weekends are the best and I'm so looking forward to starting this one. Want to see my five for this week? Here you go ~

1. Coffee Nut M&Ms
Are you or someone you know a coffee lover? Bet they would love this M&M flavor! They've been around for about a year and I'm just now learning about them. Where have I been?!? Have you tried them? "Coffee Nut M&Ms are made with coffee flavored roasted peanuts, coated in real milk chocolate and surrounded by a colorful candy shell." If your store doesn't carry them, they are available on Amazon (HERE).

2. Liter Sale at Beauty Brands
It's shampoo stock up time at Beauty Brands! They are having their annual liter sale and, man, can you get a great deal on shampoo. Pop in a store near you and grab some. Oh, by the way, if you get their flyer there is a $3.50 coupon on the back. Clip it or print one HERE. Take it in with you and use it on the liter sale items. What a deal!!

$13.99 Liters

3. Corkcicle Wine Canteen
The summer heat is upon us and this baby is the perfect vessel to tote your beverage to areas like the pool that do not allow glass. I'm planning to go listen to a concert in a park that doesn't allow glass containers and guess what I'm putting in it - WINE! It keeps your cold drink cold for 25 hours and hot for 12. It has a leakproof cap so you don't have to worry about spillage. They come in a ton of cool colors. Click HERE to check it out.

4. Acure Travel Pack
Ever since I received a sample of Acure's day cream in one of my Birchboxes, I've been absolutely hooked on Acure's products. I was so excited to run across this travel pack on Amazon! Acure products use plant and food based natural and organic ingredients and pure essential oils. You won't find any gluten, animal testing, parabens, sulfates, phthalates, petroleum silicone, synthetic fragrances, harmful preservatives or artificial flavors in any of their products. And these are the perfect size for your carry on luggage. What some? Click HERE.

5. Don't lie....

Now go have a fabulous weekend! I'm going to be finishing up some decorations for a baby shower and then enjoying a girls afternoon out on Sunday. The weather is supposed to be wonderful, so I'm hoping to soak up some vitamin D too. See you next week!

Linking up with:

The Peaceful Posse

Amanda at Meet At The Barre

Erika at Little Bit of Everything

Simply Sweet Home
High Five for Friday
5 on Friday
Oh My Heartsie Girl
This post contained affiliate links. I may receive a small commission if you click on the link and purchase. Thanks!

Thursday, June 22, 2017

Friday Favorites - June 23, 2017

Happy Friday! Hope you enjoy all the features today. If you read my 2017 Summer Bucket List (HERE), you know that one of my items was to decorate for 4th of July. Well, my feature today from The Scrap Shoppe Blog is going to help me do just that! Check it out below.

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photo Friday Favorites Featured Button.jpg

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Thinking Out Loud Thursday - June 22, 2017

Welcome to Thinking Out Loud Thursday! Hope you link up below and share what you're thinking out loud about today.

Before I get into today's thoughts, I want to thank everyone for their comments yesterday. I posted my summer bucket list and loved hearing your inputs, suggestions and comments. If you missed my list, you can catch it HERE.

When I was putting my bucket list together, I put a lot of thought into each item and tried to figure out how I was going to make each one happen. Today I'm thinking out loud about one of the items on my bucket list - Reading a few good books.

Here are the books I mentioned yesterday that are definitely on my summer reading list ~

Camino Island: A Novel by [Grisham, John]

Click HERE to purchase

Into the Water: A Novel by [Hawkins, Paula]

Click HERE to purchase

Lilac Girls: A Novel by [Kelly, Martha Hall]

Click HERE to purchase

Let me just say, I love to read books! We have carved out a couple places in our home that are perfect for getting cozy with a good book in hand. Unfortunately, for varies reasons, I don't take as much time as I'd like to actually sit down and read. Pair that with the fact that I'm a fairly slow reader and it keeps my "Books I've Read" list pretty small. Which made me start thinking how I could take in more books this summer. I'm hoping the answer is with Audible by Amazon.

A few months ago, I downloaded Hands Free Life - 9 Habits for Overcoming Distraction, Living Better and Loving More and listened to it each morning when I was getting ready for work. It was the perfect way to multitask while curling my hair and putting on makeup. I don't know why I didn't get Audible immediately after that and keep listening to books! But it's not too late - I'm going to get it straight away!

Now I'm thinking of all the other times in my day listening to a book would be a perfect way to absorb some of the items on my TBR list. I could be listening while taking a walk, cleaning the house, or working in the yard. With Audible, I'm feeling like I'm going to nail my "reading a few good books" bucket list item!

Interested in trying it yourself? Click HERE and download 2 free audiobooks to see if you like it. Do you already have it? When do you listen to books?

So that's what I'm thinking out loud about today. What's on your mind? Link up and share!

An InLinkz Link-up

Enjoy more Thoughts for Thursday at:

Home of Malones

East Coast Chic

Thursday Favorite Things Blog Hop

This is How We Roll
This post contained affiliate links. I may receive a small commission if you click on the link and purchase. Thanks!

Wednesday, June 21, 2017

2017 Summer Bucket List

Happy first day of summer! I'm joining a great group of bloggers today sharing our summer bucket lists. The days go by so fast, so I need to keep this list front and center to stay focused on getting it accomplished! For me, if I actual write something down, I'm a whole lot more likely to get it done. So here I am, not only writing it down but sharing it with you in hopes I will be even more accountable for accomplishing these summer goals!

Make donations to a summer lunch program
Last week I blogged about a summer lunch program we are having at our church. If you missed it, you can catch it HERE. We would like to drop off a donation each Sunday we attend church.

Get emails under control
Holy cow -- guess how many messages I have accumulated between my work and personal email accounts - 19,475. Not kidding. That's about 19,000 too many! I'm going to make a true effort to knock that number down significantly.

Read a few good books
Here's a few on my list ~

Click HERE to purchase

Do you have any good books you would like to suggest I add to this list?

Decorate for 4th of July

Since we've moved into this house (which has been many years now), I've wanted to hang flag banners on the front porch for the 4th of July. This year I really, REALLY am going to try to make that happen!

Click HERE to purchase

Work on our French

Eric and I are getting pretty excited about our trip to Paris in August! Ian and Kayla gave me some tapes to learn French for Mother's Day and we have been listening and learning a little each week. I don't expect to be speaking fluent French by the time we leave, but I am hoping to know how to ask how much that dress is and be able to order a bottle of wine by the time we land in the city of lights.

Drop a few pounds
Wish me luck on this one! I love food and hate exercise - not a great combo.

Add items to my Etsy page
I've had an Etsy page for quite a while now, but haven't really worked on adding any items. Hopefully this summer will change that! One of the items I'd like to add is fabric banners. They are so fun to make!

Learn more about my new camera
This new DSLR camera owner really needs to spend some time figuring out exactly how her new camera operates. I've figured out how to aim and shoot, but that's about it.

Get together with my friends in KC
Who doesn't love a girls weekend?!?

Go to an outdoor concert
We have a fantastic venue for watching concerts under the stars. It's one of my most favorite things to do in the summer.

So that's my top 10 bucket list items for this summer. What's on your summer bucket list? Feel free to link up below and share your ideas. Don't forget to check out the other links too!

An InLinkz Link-up

Tuesday, June 20, 2017

Weekending - Father's Day 2017

Did everyone have a great Father's Day weekend? We started celebrating on Friday and carried on into Saturday!

Friday I took a day of vacation so Eric and I could spent the day on an adventure with my parents. We picked them up in the morning and headed to Arrow Rock, Missouri (population 56). I had literally passed the exit off highway 70 hundreds of times and had never even glanced over in Arrow Rock's direction. I never knew what I'd been missing - what a quaint little town! From their website, "The entire village of Arrow Rock has been designated a National Historic Landmark recognizing its association with Westward Expansion, the Santa Fe Trail and artist George Caleb Bingham."

We spent a couple hours meandering in and out of the shops along Main Street, then did a driving tour of the state park.

For our next stop, we headed to Les Bourgeois Winery in Rocheport, MO. This winery sits just off Interstate 70 midway between St. Louis and Kansas City.

Tours are typically given on the weekends, but I had called ahead to schedule one for us. It was fun seeing exactly how the grapes turned into wine and was then bottled. Well worth the $5 tour fee.

My friend Linda happened to be driving back to Kansas City from a speaking engagement so she was able to pull off the highway and join us for the afternoon.

Image may contain: 2 people, people smiling, people sitting, drink, sunglasses, table and outdoor

Image may contain: 2 people, people smiling, people sitting, drink, sunglasses, table and outdoor

When the tour was complete, we headed to the tasting room for samples. We chose two of our favorites and ventured to the A-Frame. There we enjoyed a picnic I had packed for us and the views of the Missouri River. What a great way to spend the afternoon!

We said our goodbyes to Linda and headed East to get to our next stop which was a balloon glow in Fulton, Missouri. Eight balloons were unloaded and assembled as we looked on.

As the sun went down, the balloons began to glow and light up the evening. The weather could not have been better! It was truly a wonderful way to celebrate Father's Day with my dad.

Saturday we met up with Kayla and Ian to celebrate Father's Day for Eric. We had decided to do a movie and dinner. Wonder Woman was showing in 3D at the perfect time so that's the movie we watched. Thumbs up from all of us. The message at the end is perfect!

We ate dinner at Porter's Steakhouse. Porter's is known for their pepperloin steaks and we hadn't had them in years.
Image result for porter's steakhouse in collinsville illinois pepperlion

Image result for porter's steakhouse in collinsville illinois pepperlion

Sunday after church Eric had to get to work and I had some things to get done around the house. I did, however, make time to finish reading The Dry. Guys, I could not put it down! So today I'm operating on very little sleep, but staying up to finish the book was so worth it! If you are looking for a great summer read, check it out HERE.

I'll be sharing a recipe later this week that you won't want to miss - Garlic Parmesan Roasted Cauliflower! Hope to see you soon!

Friday, June 16, 2017

Five on Friday - June 16, 2017

Raise your hand if you are excited it's Friday!! I'm so pumped about today! I took a vacation day and Eric and I are going to pick up my parents for a little day of adventure. You'll have to check back next week to see how it all goes down. We're headed to Arrow Rock State Park and then to a winery in Rocheport, Missouri. The night will be capped off in Fulton, Missouri at a balloon glow. And the best part is I get to do it all with my parents. I'm giddy with excitement.

Before all that action, let me share my five for this week ~

1. Cars 3 - Driven to Win
Disney's next blockbuster is opening this weekend! Cars 3 is opening today - just in time to wrangle the entire family into the car and head to an air conditioned theater to take a break from the summer time heat. Here's what Movie Insider says about this episodes of Cars - "Blindsided by a new generation of blazing-fast racers, the legendary Lightning McQueen (voice of Owen Wilson) is suddenly pushed out of the sport he loves. To get back in the game, he will need the help of an eager young race technician with her own plan to win, inspiration from the late Fabulous Hudson Hornet, and a few unexpected turns. Proving that #95 isn't through yet will test the heart of a champion on Piston Cup Racing's biggest stage."

Image result for cars 3

2. Rust-Oleum Hammered Paint and Primer
Did you see the before and after pictures of our painted patio furniture HERE? This is the paint that made our chairs look brand new. Eric sprayed all five our chairs and table with six cans of this magic stuff. The finish looks like a faux job that took hours, when in reality it was just an easy single coat of paint. I'm dreaming up more projects for him to do with some of the other colors this paint comes in. We got ours at Home Depot. Amazon also carries it HERE.

Rust-Oleum Universal 12 oz. All Surface Hammered Rosemary Spray Paint and primer in 1 (6-Pack)

3. New Heinz BBQ Flavors

Have you checked out the BBQ section at the grocery store lately? Heinz have three new flavors and I can't wait to try them. The new flavors are Kentucky Bourbon, Hawaiian Style and Carolina Mustard. Ideas for all three of them have been popping in my mind! Which one sounds like it could become your new favorite?

Strip Steak with Bourbon Onion-Mushroom Sauce

20-Minute Grilled BBQ Pork Chop Sandwiches

4. The Dry

The book sitting on my nightstand right now is The Dry. Guys - I can barely put it down. I'm loving this novel! Goodreads says this, "When Federal Police investigator Aaron Falk returns to Kiewarra for the funerals, he is loath to confront the people who rejected him twenty years earlier. But when his investigative skills are called on, the facts of the Hadler case start to make him doubt this murder-suicide charge.

And as Falk probes deeper into the killings, old wounds start bleeding into fresh ones. For Falk and his childhood friend Luke shared a secret... A secret Falk thought long-buried... A secret which Luke's death starts to bring to the surface... " Interested in adding it to your library? Click HERE to check it out.

5. Yes, I'm a procrastinator...

Hope you have a great weekend and Father's Day. I feel so lucky to be able to spend Friday with my dad. Cheers to all the fathers out there!

Linking up with:

The Peaceful Posse

Amanda at Meet At The Barre

Erika at Little Bit of Everything

Simply Sweet Home
High Five for Friday
5 on Friday
Oh My Heartsie Girl
This post contained affiliate links. I may receive a small commission if you click on the link and purchase. Thanks!