Penny's Passion

Friday, March 17, 2017

Five on Friday - March 17, 2017

Happy St. Patrick's Day!  We are headed to Kansas City to celebrate with our friends.  Do you have big plans?  Eric and I both love corned beef and cabbage so we enjoyed it for dinner one night this week.  Here's some other things we've enjoyed this week and are looking forward to enjoying in the week to come~

1.  Irish Slang
Well horse!  If you are out and about today, I thought you might need to know some of Irish slang.  Good luck sounding a little Irish today. Erin go bragh!

                  c8297b87d6fd0d735cc47391896b23f5

2.  Beauty and the Beast
Excited to see this one in the theaters!  Ian was a baby when the animated version was released in 1991 and when he was little we watched it about 128742874 times.  This version seems a bit more grown up.  Emma Watson was on the Ellen show and she's just darling.  Seeing her made me even more excited to catch this version in the theaters.  Here's a bit of trivia for you ~  Ryan Gosling was offered the role of the Beast, but turned it down to appear in La La Land (2016) instead. Emma Watson was offered the lead role in that film, but turned down that film to star in this one.  Filming was completed by August 27, 2015, more than 18 months before the film's release.


3.  Ritz Bacon Flavored Crackers
Eric brought some of these home and I think they will become a staple in our pantry.  So good!  I have no idea how long these have been on the market, but I'm sure glad we tried them.  I'm thinking of all the recipes I have that calls for Ritz crackers and which ones will be even better now if I use the bacon flavored version.  Oh the possibilities!!


4.  Spring is Coming!
Even though many of us have had to endure freezing temperatures and snow this week - hold on.  Spring officially begins on Monday, March 20!  Bring on the warm weather!  Anyone else out there looking forward to spring and everything it has to offer?!?


5.  Happy St. Patrick's Day!


Have a wonderful weekend and if you are going to be drinking green beer today, please be careful.  I'll see you next week!

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Thursday, March 16, 2017

Friday Favorites - March 17, 2017

Happy St. Patrick's Day!  Have a wonderful weekend and enjoy today's favorites.

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Thinking Out Loud Thursday - March 16, 2017

Happy Thursday!  Another week is flying by - I'm still thinking about how much fun I had Monday night when some friends joined me and Eric for the finale of The Bachelor.  Thought I'd share with you today our hot dog bar!


I love it when we have these viewing parties and the evening is always fun.  It can be a bit challenging coming up with dinner ideas because we start right after work.  It's really just me putting the pressure on myself because none of my guests would care if we just ordered pizza or grabbed fast food, but I always want to make something.  This time we went with the hot dog bar and it was a huge success.  If you are ever in need of a meal that comes together quickly and has a bit of flair, I highly suggest whipping up a hot dog bar of your own!

The sign came straight from Etsy.  Prints by MA design has some adorable printables for all occasions.  For a quick sign, I purchased one for $3, printed and glued it to a piece of card stock that matched my tablecloth.  If you need a sign for your event, check out all the cool options at this shop and use PENNYSPASSION10 for 10% off your order.  


I did a little searching on Pinterest to come up with the toppings.  The list was fairly long and you could definitely cut it down, but the more the better right!?!  Here's a list of what was offered:

Ketchup
Mustard
Relish
Jalapenos
Guacamole
Sauerkraut
Onions
Fritos
Shredded Cheese
Nacho Cheese
Chili
Onion Straws
Bar-B-Que Sauce


I whipped up a couple specialty signs just in case people needed some inspiration on what to add to their dog.




As it turned out, people were quite creative on their own!






My original plan was to boil the hot dogs when I got home, but I had a revelation on my way to cook them on my new grill pan from Pampered Chef.  So much better than boiling them!  This pan is fabulous.  If you're in the market for one, click HERE to check it out.  

We topped the evening off with the Madeleines my friend, Debbie, brought over.  Yum!  She got her Madeleine pan for her birthday and has truly mastered the art of making these French shell-shaped pastries.   A Madeleine pan is going on my wish list!


The food portion of the evening was a hit!  There were mixed reviews, however, on who Nick chose to be his bride!  But that's a blog for another day.

What are you thinking out loud about today?  Link up below and share with us!  I'd love to hear from you.




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Monday, March 13, 2017

Weekending - March 10, 2017

Is it Monday already?!?  After experiencing a few days of sunny, 70 degree weather last week we woke up today to a winter wonderland with snow covering everything. What!  Yep - snow.  This is the view out my work window this morning.  Come on spring -- make a permanent appearance.



This weekend we celebrated Ian's birthday on Friday night by heading to the St. Louis Blues hockey game.  They even made it more fun by winning the game (which I'm sure they did just for us!).  It was a fantastic way to spend time as a family.


Saturday morning Eric and I carried on our yearly tradition of helping with the St. Louis Post-Dispatch Spelling Bee.  Our task is small - we're graders.  Approximately 300 regional winners gather at McKendree University to take a written spelling test.  When the spellers are finished with their 25 word test, we grade their papers to see how many they got correct.  Good thing we have a guide because the words are HARD!  The winners from Saturday will advance to the oral portion of the competition and the winner from that will be headed to the National Spelling Bee.  Have you ever seen this on TV?  These kids are amazing!  So, so smart.


What made the day oh so enjoyable were our fellow graders!  Great group of people!  In our down time, we solved many world problems and set up our bitmojis.  Important stuff like that.


McKendree University is where Ian got his undergrad degree and it's always fun to see his name in the trophy case.


Since one of the words this year was enchilada, we thought it was only appropriate to go out for dinner at a Mexican restaurant.  Chevy's it was!


Sunday was very low key.  After church we prepped for the Bachelor Nick finale tonight.  We have some friends popping over and they are going to get to dine off our Hot Dog Bar.  Easy way to feed a crowd!  I'll be blogging more details on this later in the week.


I'm reading a book that's hard to put down, so several breaks were necessary throughout the day so I could read a few pages before returning to cleaning the house.  The book is This Is How It Always Is:  A Novel by Laurie Frankel.  I was trying to save this book to only be read while walking on the treadmill (motivation to walk on the treadmill technique I'm trying), but this weekend that went out the window and I enjoyed being curled up in my reading nook enjoying the story.  Have you read this book?  I highly recommend it.

This Is How It Always Is: A Novel by [Frankel, Laurie]

And that's a wrap on our weekend!  Today is the Ed Sheeran presale so I'm counting down the minutes until 10:00 am!  Crossing my fingers that we get tickets in St. Louis and Nashville.  

Have a wonderful week!  Hope to see you back soon!

Check out what others were up to this weekend.
Over the Moon

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Friday, March 10, 2017

Five on Friday - March 10, 2017

It's Friday!  Boy, this week flew by.  Before we move into the weekend, let me share my five for this week ~

1.  Daylight Savings Time Begins Sunday
Looking forward to loosing an hour this weekend?  Me neither, but the good side to loosing an hour is it will stay light an hour longer in the evenings.  Now, that is something to look forward to!  So Saturday night before going to bed remember to set your clocks forward one hour.  You don't want to walk into church on Sunday morning an hour late!  Ever wonder who's bright idea it was to start moving the clock hands around?  Blame it on Benjamin Franklin.  He suggested, rather jokingly, to wake up earlier to save candles.



2.  Jackie
I totally missed seeing Jackie in the theaters, but it was released on DVD on Tuesday.  Now I'll be able to watch it from the comfort of my couch!  Yay!!  I'm excited to see Natalie Portman in her role as First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy that got her the nomination for Best Actress.  Maybe we'll try to watch it this weekend.

Jackie (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack)

3.  Victoria
Speaking of laying on my couch watching TV, Eric and I did a little binge watching this week with Victoria.  Did you watch it?  We had taped the series and just got around to watching it this week.  Wow -- we loved it!  If you're looking for something to watch, you might want to pick this up from Amazon.  The whole season is about the price you would pay for a couple movie tickets.  Check it out HERE.

Masterpiece: Victoria DVD
4.  Ed Sheeran's North American Tour
My buddy Ed must have heard my plea last week (or read my blog) to tour in the US because he announced his North American Tour dates this week.  And look - St. Louis is on his list!  Score!!  Have you listened to his new CD, Divide, yet?  I've been listening to it non-stop since it arrived at my doorstop last Friday.  Love it!  I'm going to be glued to my computer when concert tickets go on sale to pick up a couple!
NORTH AMERICAN TOUR DATES
June 29 || Kansas City, MO || Sprint Center 
June 30 || Des Moines, IA || Wells Fargo Arena
July 1 || St. Paul, MN || Xcel Energy Center 
July 7 || Toronto, ON || Air Canada Centre
July 9 || Buffalo, NY || KeyBank Center
July 11 || Philadelphia, PA || Wells Fargo Center 
July 14 || Uncasville, CT || Mohegan Sun Arena 
July 15 || Uncasville, CT || Mohegan Sun Arena 
July 18 || Quebec City, QC || Videotron Centre
July 19 || Montreal, QC || Bell Centre
July 22 || Winnipeg, MB || MTS Centre
July 23 || Saskatoon, SK || SaskTel Centre
July 25 || Edmonton, AB || Rogers Place
July 28 || Vancouver, BC || Rogers Arena
July 29 || Tacoma, WA || Tacoma Dome
July 30 || Portland, OR || Mode Center
August 1 || Sacramento, CA || Golden 1 Center 
August 2 || Oakland, CA || Oracle Arena
August 4 || Las Vegas, NV || T-Mobile Arena 
August 5 || Glendale, AZ || Gila River Arena 
August 6 || San Diego, CA || Valley View Casino Center
August 10 || Los Angeles, CA || Staples Center
August 15 || Denver, CO || Pepsi Center 
August 17 || Tulsa, OK || BOK Center 
August 18 || Dallas, TX || American Airlines Center 
August 19 || Houston, TX || Toyota Center 
August 22 || San Antonio, TX || AT&T Center 
August 25 || Duluth, GA || Infinite Energy Center 
August 29 || Tampa, FL || Amalie Arena
August 30 || Miami, FL || American Airlines Arena 
August 31 || Orlando, FL || Amway Center 
September 2 || Raleigh, NC || PNC Arena 
September 3 || Charlotte, NC || Spectrum Center 
September 5 || Charleston, SC || North Charleston Center 
September 7 || Louisville, KY || KFC YUM! Center
September 8 || Indianapolis, IN || Bankers Life Fieldhouse 
September 9 || Cleveland, OH || Quicken Loans Arena 
September 12 || Omaha, NE || CenturyLink Center 
September 15 || Chicago, IL || Allstate Arena 
September 17 || St. Louis, MO || Scottrade Center 
September 19 || Washington, DC || Verizon Center 
September 22 || Boston, MA || TD Garden 
September 26 || Pittsburgh, PA || PPG Paints Arena 
September 27 || Detroit, MI || Little Caesars Arena 
September 29 || Brooklyn, NY || Barclays Center 
September 30 || Brooklyn, NY || Barclays Center 
October 3 || Columbus, OH || Nationwide Arena 
October 6 || Nashville, TN || Bridgestone Arena

5.  Stay calm....

Enjoy RushWorld boards, LULU'S FUNHOUSE, UNPREDICTABLE WOMEN HAUTE COUTURE and MOOD BUSTERS FEEL BETTER NOW. See you at RushWorld on Pinterest! New content daily, always something you'll love!:

Have a great weekend!  We will be working at a spelling bee on Saturday after celebrating Ian's birthday Friday night.  Sunday I'll be getting ready for our Bachelor Nick gathering Monday night.  Whatever you do, make it a great one!

Linking up with:
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Thursday, March 9, 2017

Friday Favorites - March 10, 2017

Happy weekend!  Hope you enjoy all the features today.  I'm featuring something I'll be making for St. Patrick's Day!

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Please support and follow our lovely blog party hostesses:
Jerri at Simply Sweet Home - Twitter | FB | G+ | Pin | Inst
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Sheree at Stage Presents - Twitter | FB | Pin | Inst | Inst
Lisa at Condo Blues - Twitter | FB | G+ | Pin | Inst
Penny at Penny's Passion - Twitter | FB | G+ | Pin | Inst
Kelly at Under a Texas Sky - Twitter | FB | G+ | Pin | Inst | BL
If you are featured this week, be sure and grab a featured button for your blog!
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Wednesday, March 8, 2017

Thinking Out Loud Thursday - March 9, 2017

Hey there from Thinking Out Loud Thursday!  Glad you popped in and hope you link up below to tell us what you're thinking out loud about today.

Today is a very special day in my life and that's what I'm thinking out loud about today.  Twenty-six years ago I stepped into the most important role of my life.  I became a mother for the first and only time to my son, Ian.


From the moment those eyes looked into mine, I knew my life would never be the same.  Every thought and action since that day I've taken him into account.  

I have to be honest, I miss mothering a little boy.  From the birthday parties to play dates to reading bedtime stories, I miss every second of it.  



Ian has always been by my side.  He stood up with me and Eric when we were married, looking so handsome and proud.


And he has made me over the moon proud on so many occasions!  







The first twenty-six years of his life have been full of fun and rarely a dull moment.




Ian, we are looking forward to the years to come and are sure they will be even better than the years that have past.  Happy birthday!  We love you!


So what are you thinking out loud about today?  Link up and share your thought!




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