…and Blue Sky

Happy Friday, friends!

.I’ve been SO busy with my new job this week that I haven’t had much time for anything else, but I’m excited about all of the fall stuff that’s showing up in stores!

Here’s what I’ve been loving lately!

 

 

1. I finally gave in and started playing the Hogwarts Mystery game last week, and of course I’m totally addicted. I am, of course, a Ravenclaw.

 

Nerd.

If you do play, be sure to connect the game to your Facebook profile. I’d been playing about a week and finally looked up tips online and saw that the game apparently has a huge tendency to randomly reset, so when you open it to continue your game, it instead acts like you’re starting a brand new game. I’m SO glad I read the tip, because I’d just connected my account on Monday morning, and when I opened it again a few hours later, it opened to the character creation screen. I would have been so sad to lose an entire week of progress!

Do any of you guys play? Any fellow Ravenclaws in the house?

 

 

2. Speaking of HP, Pottery Barn has a whole new Harry Potter-themed collection, and I need so many of the items in my life ASAP.

 

 

Glow in the dark Marauder’s Map pillow? YES PLEASE.

Of course, Pottery Barn gonna Pottery Barn, so everything is super expensive (as in $30 for a pillowcase). And then you get gems like this:

 

Hello, please admire my $200 beanbag chair. 

(If you scroll down, you learn it’s $139 if you just want the slipcover, $239 if you want the beanbag insert inside. I’m pretty sure you could just buy some nice gold fabric and a regular beanbag chair and make your own for like $50 at the most.)

 

3. PUMPKIN SPICE IS HERE.

I tried to make my first PSL of the season pic more interesting with a rad robot background, but I’m still pretty basic. Oh well.

 

4. Allow me to present the best image I encountered on the internets this week:

 

Apologies for not knowing the original source.

 

5. I don’t have a #5 yet and I need to get ready for work, so shoutout in advance to the huge amount of sleep I plan to do when I finally get a day off!

Hope your weekend is lovely!

 

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Happy Friday, friends! It’s been such a busy week here! I missed posting last Friday because I had a job interview. After an 8 year break from the hospitality industry, I’m working front desk part time again! I’m still writing, but the rollercoaster of freelance income has been so stressful lately that I realized that getting a “normal person job” a couple of days a week would save me SO much financial worry. Today is my third day of training, so still a lot to learn. A lot of it is the same no matter where you work, it’s mostly a matter of learning a new computer system and that particular hotel’s way of doing things. Having an income I can count on and plan around is going to be such a nice change!

If you missed it, I posted last week about my visit to Fantastic Caverns in Springfield, MO. I’d love for you to check out the post!

 

 

1. As you probably know if you read my Friday posts, I started taking English riding lessons last November. I still love it (although I haven’t had the time or money for them this summer, which I’ve been kinda ok with since it has been a million degrees), but oh man do I miss riding Western sometimes! I’ve been craving a good trail ride so I freaked out when I found Pot A Gold Stables on Instagram a few weeks ago. They’re brand new to the Branson area (opened just a few months ago) and I’ll be writing a whole post about them soon, but there’s no way I could do a weekly favorites post without mentioning the nicest part of my week! The scenery was gorgeous, the horses were great, we saw tons of deer, and just getting to go on a relaxing trail ride instead of working my bootie off in lessons was such a nice break! Big thumbs up! I’d love to go back for one of their sunset rides sometime – if the ride was that pretty in the middle of the afternoon, can you imagine golden hour light and sunset views? It must be beautiful! (As I’ll also mention when I do my full post, they did hook me up with a complimentary ride in exchange for spreading the word, but including them in this post is entirely just because I had such a great time!)

 

2. I usually buy gallon jugs of spring water since I go through it so quickly, but it looks a little weird to lug a big jug around with you. I found this cute water bottle at Dollar Tree last week, which yes, means it was $1! It holds quite a bit of water – more than a standard water bottle but not quite a liter, I think. Love having a better option than just re-using my single use plastic bottles!

 

3. Can we take a moment to appreciate how great Captain Kitten is at modeling the products we get to review for the Chewy Influencer program?

That tongue! He knows what happens when he’s done modeling: time to sample the food for reviews!

This month, Chewy was kind enough to send us a variety pack of the Science Diet Adult Savory Entree wet cat food. The description says the food is minced, but it’s really more of a super moist, nice quality pate. Our variety pack had three flavors: Turkey, Chicken, and Turkey & Liver. As usual, most of the cats were down for anything, but Tennyson – the pickiest of eaters – wan’t into the turkey flavor. (Turkey & Liver was gobbled up, but plain turkey just wasn’t his thing. Cats are weird.)

 

I’ve worked with Hills a few times outside of the Chewy review program, and I’m always so impressed by them. They make high quality food that my cats love, and they give back to animal shelters. Gotta love that! This particular food is made in the USA from natural ingredients, and enhanced with vitamins, minerals, and amino acids for a healthy kitty. It’s also designed to support their metabolism and maintain a healthy weight. Chewy also sells 24-packs of the individual flavors that are included, so I’d suggest starting with a 12 can variety pack to see what your cats like the most, and then if one flavor is a clear winner, you can order multi-packs of just that one, and if they like all three equally you can stick with variety packs to keep their dinner routine interesting.

 

 

4. I stopped by Bath & Body Works last week to redeem one of the free mini product coupons they send out every few months, and freaked out over how cute all of their new Halloween stuff is! The temptation to buy everything with a black cat on it (and every fall-scented candle they had) was huge, but I held off for now. There’s now way I’m making it through the season without at least picking up a cute Halloween themed hand sanitizer, though.

 

 

5. Speaking of Halloween… HALLOWEEN OREOS ARE BACK. The limited edition flavors they’ve been coming out with are fine, but these are the real MVP. The package claims they taste the same as regular Oreos, but I think we all know that’s a lie. These are the best! Now please excuse me while I go eat 20 packages of these before they go away again.

 

That’s it for this week! I’m still adjusting to having a whole new work schedule and trying to fit my freelance writing and blog stuff and like, remembering to feed myself around it. Seriously looking forward to having a few days off the beginning of next week! (And now that I don’t need to write 99 hours a day, I can actually take the occasional day OFF from everything! That’s super exciting for someone who is used to going months without a totally work-free day.) Hope your weekend is fantastic!

 

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Happy Friday, friends! Here’s what I’ve been loving this week:

 

 

1. I learned about the Potterless podcast this week and have already binge listened to like 35 episodes. (EEP.) It’s a podcast by a guy in his early 20s (he’s 23 at the beginning of the podcast but 25 by now) reading the HP series for the first time. If nothing else, I highly recommend episode 0 to Potter fans, because it’s only about 10 minutes long and he lists out everything he “knows” about the series based on memes and seeing the first few movies long ago. It’s a really fun podcast and it’s both interesting and hilarious to hear him trying to guess plot twists and get things terribly wrong.

 

2. I asked my cats to review the Fancy Feast Gourmet Naturals dry food that we got for the Chewy Influencer program this month, and I think that their review translates to “IT SMELLS SO GOOD WE COULD NOT WAIT UNTIL YOU GOT HOME.”

 

 

The Chewy box arrived just as I was about to leave the house, so I opened it to double check what was inside (I get to choose the complimentary products we review each month, but my memory is pretty terrible), and then left the house for a couple hours. I came home to the above. Clearly, the cats investigated what was in the box and were like:

 

(I haven’t used that meme in a couple years. Feels good to bring back a classic.)

Despite the original, um, enthusiasm, the food got kind of mixed reviews from the cats. They were excited about having something new at first, but most of them preferred their regular dry food if they were offered both. That said, I do love the move towards more natural and sustainable ingredients. We got the ocean whitefish flavor, since their usual favorite flavor for dry food is seafood. Now I kinda wish I’d picked the Filet Mignon and Seafood flavor, which I *almost* picked because it sounded like something they’d be into,  but I switched to Ocean Fish at the last second. Maybe next time!

 

4. I’ve had deer in my back yard multiple times a week lately. Probably because it hasn’t been mowed in a million years, but why mow when you can get your lawn professionally manicured by deer? I actually had TWO deer back there yesterday evening, but I couldn’t see them well through the trees. Still – makes me feel like a Disney princess surrounded by woodland friends.

 

5. Tennyson turns five years old tomorrow! I can’t believe I have a kindergarten aged son. (This pic is from his first birthday, but he basically hasn’t changed in appearance at all.)

 

I’m about to head to the living room for some hot vacuuming action – I know how to party on a Friday! My to-do list has been such a heavy weight on my shoulders lately that I’m hoping a couple of days of hard work will lighten the load a LOT. Speaking of shoulders, I have an appointment with a new chiropractor on Tuesday and I am SO EXCITED. This is how you know you’re old. (Well, not really, since I’ve been getting adjustments since I was 16, but still.) My whole body is so out of whack that I’m legit daydreaming about how much better I’m going to feel.

Go forth and have an awesome weekend!

 

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Happy Friday! I can’t believe it’s already August. Pumpkin spice everything is just around the corner!

Here’s what I’ve been loving this week:

 

1. Sabra has a new black bean dip that is so good! It’s not super spicy, just right.

I just ate it with tortilla chips, but I just realized how amazing it would be paired with a cheese quesadilla. I need to test this theory ASAP.

 

2. I’m getting a pretty noticeable flip flop tan line. I consider this a sign of a life well lived.

 

3. I got a new notebook! And it was 88 cents! Yassss. I’m still using the dragonfly one that’s been literally falling apart since like the third day of use, but I’m excited to switch to this one ASAP.

 

4. This article on Vulture was a fun read! Writers from Sex & the City plotted out what current-day episodes would look like, from goat yoga to #MeToo.

5. I don’t really have a #5 this week! I just finished invoicing writing clients, and I’m getting ready to head over to the thrift store where I work on Saturdays to pick up a couple of hours. Our electricity went out in the middle of the afternoon last Saturday, and it turned out that it was out for the entire town – stoplights and everything! So we wound up going home at 3:30 instead of 6:30. I’d normally just pick up extra writing work to make up for those missed hours, but it’s been a slow week for that, too! (Ok, TBH there’s been plenty available, but I’ve been sick and haven’t been able to talk myself into doing much.) A couple of hours is barely going to feel like work (hopefully), and then I get to come home and work on a post about the cave I visited earlier this week! And then soooo much sleep, because these antibiotics are kicking my butt.

Not the most exciting favorites this week unless you’re like me and get excited about hummus and a notebook.

Hope your weekend is lovely and filled with adventure!

 

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Happy Friday, friends! I’m late finishing this up (it’s almost 10 pm. on Friday, eep!) so I’m just jumping straight to my favorite things this week!

1. If ever a shirt was made for me, it’s this one:

Fount it at Kohls – it’s available online here and on sale for $10! They’re junior sizes but I’m broad shouldered and booby and the Large worked for me, so it’s not the usual teeny tiny juniors sizes.

 

2. Speaking of the meowers, they’ve been hard at work reviewing food sent to us by Chewy.com for their Chewy

Influencer Program. This week, they tried out the Victor Turkey & Salmon Dinner Canned Cat Food. I’d never heard of this brand before, but the can says they’ve been around since 1950. We got a 24-pack and most of the cats were fans. This is a pate, but it’s a little more moist than your average pate, which I think contributed to the cats liking it.

 

 

3. I spotted these on my last trip to the good Target in Springfield and grabbed them on a whim. I love Sweet Earth but it’s really hard to make a good frozen quesadilla. These are SO GOOD, though! The “meat” is vegan, but the quesadillas contain cheese so they’re actually just vegetarian. I made them on the stove instead of in the microwave, which I think made a big difference. (The package says they take 5 minutes but I definitely spent at least 10.) There are 4 other varieties but they all contain ingredients that just don’t appeal to me (SUPER bummed about the mushrooms in the Tuscan one!) I’m guessing they must be new? I’ve definitely never seen them before now, and I pay close attention to the healthy frozen stuff section.

 

4. When I got home from my thrift shop job last weekend, I set a bag of clothes I’d scored at work that day down for ONE SECOND and this happened:

 

This is why I can’t have nice things.

 

5. Best tweets this week:

 

Me in high school: I’m really anxious about midterms.

Me in 2018: I’m really anxious about midterms.

— OhNoSheTwitnt (@OhNoSheTwitnt) July 20, 2018

“Open the sarcophagus,” you said. “What’s the worst that could happen?” you said. https://t.co/qHkcEh7m9J

— Madeline Ashby (@MadelineAshby) July 20, 2018

 

Have a fantastic weekend!

 

 

 

 

 

 

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