…and Blue Sky

 

 

Happy Friday, friends! I’m finishing this post up in between a busy morning of writing work and a trip to Target. (YAY!).  It’s supposed to be **92** tomorrow, so I’m REALLY happy that I’ll be working at the thrift store, since I don’t have air conditioning at home. #WillWorkToAvoidHeatStroke. If that kind of weather continues, I’m going to have to go back to writing at the library, which is kind of the worst because I have to put on pants and they frown upon bringing a cat for company.

Anyway, here’s what I’m digging right now!

 

1. I go in phases when it comes to food. I spent the last coupe of weeks eating way too much Tasty Bite, now I’m back on Morning Star black bean burgers. Sometimes I’ll put those big pickle slices from the refrigerated section on them, but mostly it’s just burger, cheese, bun, BBQ sauce. Given that it’s less than $4 for a four pack of black bean burgers and buns and cheese are super cheap, you’ve gotta love a meal that comes out at like $1.25!

 

I always seem to get on a burger kick this time of year. Anyone else? Are there any other good black bean ones I should know about? (Most veggie burgers seem to be mushroom-based, which… NO THANKS.)

 

2. I’ve only got about 10 pages left in my Morning Pages notebook, so I’ve been looking out for a new one. I was so excited to find this one at Walmart!

(I love that you can see cat food & coffee in the cart… I feel like I buy those two things every time I shop!)

I LOVE dragonflies, and I’m totally into this pattern & colors, so I’m looking forward to writing in this. They come in 3 different colors/patters, and there are also full-size one subject notebooks in similar prints.

One of the other options

 

3. I’ve been decluttering and yesterday that involved finally flipping through some free newspapers I picked up on my last trip down to Eureka Springs. I’m SO GLAD I DID, because I found these gems.

First, I discovered that the Eureka Springs Independent has a “Constables On Patrol” section. The one about the lamb is my favorite:

 

 

Second, I came across this amazing typo:

 

4. Y’all know I loooooove Chris Hayes:

 

Well, he has a new podcast! I finally found time to listen to the first episode, and as expected, it’s really good.

 

5.  This last one is kind of a favorite, kind of not. I’d been looking for a really pale purple nail polish with glitter, and found this one. It looks awesome for the first day or two, but then it starts looking REALLY bad.

 

Important question to end on: What’s on your summer/beachy playlist? I need new music!

 

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1. Okay, first things first:

 

2. Okay, now that we have that important note taken care of…

I used to spend a LOT of time entering giveaways and sweepstakes and such online. A few year ago when blog giveaways were at their heyday, I won things pretty often – some cute flip-flops, my beloved hiking shoes, several gift cards, jeans, etc. I still enter a few when they pop up in my email or blog feed, but  I don’t devote anywhere near as much time to it as I used to.

So I was pretty surprised to get an email a couple of weeks ago that I’d won the grand prize in a recent giveaway – any pair of Christian Louboutin shoes of my choice under $700.

 

 

The challenge was that there aren’t a lot of shoes on the Louboutin site that are under $700, except for the flats, which I never wear in general, but in the case of this particular brand seem like a waste since you can’t see the red bottoms. I finally picked the Miss Gena slingbacks pictured below, which come in at a mere $675. 😲

 

So, here’s my conundrum: Having super fancy designer shoes is freaking cool. I can’t think of any time I’ve ever spent more than like… $60? on a pair of shoes. (And that was a pair of Kenneth Cole heels I’d been lusting after for ages that I got on ebay. They got destroyed two years ago when my sister left my apartment windows open while I was in Florida and molded everything.) And I can’t imagine ever spending this kind of money on shoes – even if I had way more than I needed, I’m pretty sure it would still go towards practical things, travel, or charity before I’d feel comfortable blowing almost a month’s rent on shoes. So winning fancy shoes is basically the only way I’m ever going to own them.

THAT said… I need to get some super expensive dental work done ASAP, and let’s be honest – how many occasions am I going to have to wear these? I picked a pretty sensible heel height (about 3.4 inches), but still, $700 shoes don’t really fit my lifestyle – especially my current life in middle of nowhere Missouri. If I was back in Orlando I could imagine a few occasions each year where these would be great, but here? Nada.

So… do I keep the shoes, since when am I going to get such expensive shoes ever again? Or do I sell them on ebay or Poshmark or something and get several hundred dollars to put towards much more needed things? There’s the practical choice and the fun, indulgent choice. I know which one I’m leaning towards, but I don’t think I’ll be sure until my shoes actually show up. What would you do? (And hey, maybe I’ll win a ton of money in the meantime and not have to decide!)

 

3.

These are so good. That is all.

 

 

 

4. When this cat food came up as an option for this month’s Chewy Influencer review items, I was intrigued because I’d never heard of the brand before. It ended up being a perfect choice, and not just because my cats absolutely loved it. The meat is in tiny (minced) pieces with a fair amount of gravy. My cat Remy had managed to hurt his mouth fighting with his brother the day before this arrived (nothing serious, but it was definitely uncomfortable for him), and I’d been trying out different foods to see what was the easiest for him to eat. Big chunks and shreds seemed tough for him to chew, but he wasn’t interested in pate or liquidy things… but this worked *perfectly*. Probably not a situation that’s likely to pop up in your life, but if you do have a kitty who is having trouble chewing bigger pieces (maybe a senior cat or kitten who is new to solids?) this cold come in handy.

Even without the weird situation that made it perfect for that week, the other cats loved this food so much that I’d definitely recommend it. We got the Poultry & Seafood variety pack, btw, and Chewy currently has a promotion going where you can get your first case for half price!

I was just looking at their products on Chewy.com and now I really want to try the dry food, too. Look how cute the package is!

 

5. This is kind of a two for one, but I picked up this acai flavored lip balm and oatmeal soap on my last trip to Lcky’s Market, and I’m loving both. The soap isn’t entirely fragrance free (fragrances are my arch enemy most of the time), but the scent is so soft it’s not a problem, and the built-in oats offer some exfoliating action. $2 for the soap and 99 cents (on sale) for the organic, fair trade store brand lip balm = a lot of good stuff for three bucks! I’d recommend both if you have a Lucky’s near you.

 

I’m getting ready to run to the DMV (ugh) and Target (yay!), then work all weekend. Hope your weekend is full of adventure or relaxation, as your mood dictates!

 

 

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Happy Friday, friends! I’ve been super sick the past couple of days, so I’m just finishing this up on Friday evening. As soon as it’s posted, I’m going back to reading Harry Potter and resting!

Here are my highlights from this week:

 

1. Almost two months after I donated to Liz Warren’s re-election campaign (that’s a normal thing to do when you live like 1,500 miles from the state she’s senator for, right?), I finally got my bumper sticker in the mail!! SO EXCITED.

Speaking of which…

 

2. TARGET HAS ELIZABETH WARREN SHIRTS – THIS IS NOT A DRILL.

I actually gasped out loud when I was looking through the graphic tee section of my local Target and spotted this!!  I’d suggest checking your local store before buying online, because the ones I saw were varying degrees of what I think was supposed to be purposely distressed? (Mostly ragged collars). Target’s site currently only has XL and XXL, and they run big. (Wearing a medium in the photo and I’m usually L or XL in juniors sizes, which this is supposed to be.)

I didn’t end up buying this one from Target, because although I’d like to give them the feedback (aka money!) that carrying something so awesome is appreciated, I’ve seen several on Etsy that I REALLY love and would  like to support an independent artist even more.

 

3. I went down to Eureka Springs on Wednesday to enjoy the beautiful weather (it was in the mid 70s!). I did my usual wandering around downtown, but I think I’ve hit the point where I’ve been there so many times in the past couple of years that the novelty is wearing off. I need to see if I can find a new tour or something to do on my next trip! (I’ve written about the Downtown n Underground tour, which is such a fun way to learn the city’s history, and the Crescent Hotel ghost tour, which taught me so much about the hotel’s crazy history. I think the Basin Park Hotel has a ghost tour, too, so maybe that will be next? I wish there were more history tours!)

A few pics from this week’s trip:

Fresh Harvest Tasting Room is almost always my first stop because I’m addicted to their amazing olive oils. They had almond and pumpkin seed oils, too, this time, but I only had enough $ budgeted for olive oil, so those are definitely on my list for next time!

 

One of the parking lots downtown is always lined with works by local artists. Loved the juxtaposition of these two, especially against the wooded backdrop!

 

Spotted in another parking lot.

 

This staircase is allllll over Instagram, but most people bump the saturation up to crazy levels.

There are tons of staircases downtown (each street is on a totally different elevation), I’d love to see at least one more become a work of art!

Amusing thing that comes with the staircases – addresses that look like they came straight from a Harry Potter book.

 

I made a friend! This is to illustrate the down side of the staircases; I had to just stand and wait for a few minutes until this guy got tired of sunbathing because he was blocking the way to Main Street. (I didn’t want to go all the way back up the stairs and down a different staircase, and trying to jump over him seemed like it might end in disaster!)

 

Just random downtown awesomeness.

 

4. My original plan was to go hike the 4 mile trail around Lake Leatherwood, but I ran into a few obstacles. First, my kitten knocked a space heater on my big toe right before I left the house, creating a huge bruise. Second, I’d planned to start by going counter-clockwise around the lake since I haven’t been that way before (I’ve done the first mile or so going the other direction), but it was flooded in several places and although my hiking shoes are water resistant, the water was deeper than just my feet so I didn’t want to get my socks and jeans soaked. (I almost face planted trying to use a log as a bridge, too, which sealed the deal on not going that direction!)

 

Started at the green, went down to where that red line ends before giving up on going that way, turned around and went back the other direction to reach the dam that runs across the top (according to the pic) of the lake.

A few pics that I instagrammed (Hover over the first one to get the arrows to appear): the 4th one is taken near the red dot and I’m pointing to the dam that was my destination. I’m not in great shape for this kind of thing, so I was pretty proud of myself for making it out there and back, which wound up being almost 4 miles!

 

A post shared by Crystal Ward (@crystalward11) on Apr 13, 2018 at 10:56am PDT

5. .0000000000000000000……………

^ One of my cats typed that for you guys while I was out of the room, so I’m just going to leave it.

But also, let’s finish the list with my favorite tweet this week:

 

Happy weekend!

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A super late in the day Friday post, but better late than never, right??

 

1) I use Padmapper and Hotpads to browse Orlando houses for rent, but this week I randomly decided to see what the most expensive rentals in Savannah, GA looked like, and I was not disappointed. (Looking at the most expensive Orlando rentals isn’t fun because they’re all boring McMansions.)

First, this feels like the most Savannah-y house to ever exist, and b) I need to live in it. (A mere $3,200 per month!)

Looooooook at those floors and that light and the fireplace! I need dis.

 

2.

A post shared by Crystal Ward (@crystalward11) on Apr 5, 2018 at 1:27pm PDT

Last week I had to cancel riding due to non-stop rain, but yesterday’s riding lesson was perfect. I wanted to work on really strengthening my position so we did a lunge line lesson where I did things like go over trot poles in jumping position with one hand behind my back to help my posture.

 

There’s nothing better than this.

After the lesson, I took Folklore out for a walk along the driveway to cool down and then let him graze for almost an hour. He was a happy horse!

 

 

3. I’ve been re-reading Harry Potter yet again, and it’s a struggle to not just do that all day every day.

 

4. Ruby summarizes my entire life.

5. I’ve mentioned that I’ve started working at a thrift shop on the weekends as a break from writing. I keep meaning to share photos of amusing items I come across, but today I found one so great that it MUST be shared. I pulled this out of a donation box like “Who would want an old dog trophy?”

 

…but then I saw the inscription.

Who WOULDN’T want this??

 

I’ve been considering sharing links to cool giveaways I’ve found around the ol’ internets lately. Is that a thing you guys would be into? One I came across this week: Win a trip to Santorini (ends 5/1)

The forecast is calling for an inch of SNOW tonight. Go home April, you are drunk. May you guys have an awesome (and frost-free) weekend!

 

 

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