Fabulous Friday and the Weekend Ahead

I had a great day today, starting out with my Weight Watchers meeting. My recorded loss this morning was 4.8 pounds, which was for two weeks because I didn't go last Friday. My scale at home this morning showed 207, so I am confident that I can reach my short term goal of being under 200 pounds when we go to Florida at the end of the month. The WW scale runs about a pound heavier than mine at home, but that's okay, because it's consistent. This is a page from my official membership book where they record my weight. Anyone reading this who goes to Weight Watchers, knows how coveted (and motivational) those 5-pound stars are!! I am .8 pounds from getting to my 10% goal, so next week I expect to come home with the even more coveted 10% keychain!!

After my meeting I met James for lunch so we could drop off the Mustang to get new brakes. I don't normally get to eat lunch with him these days, because he works about a half hour away. Before we moved, when we both worked for the same company, we were able to enjoy lunch out together on a regular basis. So now, I consider it a special occasion, and I think I appreciate and enjoy it more. Unfortunately this evening he has to attend a funeral with several co-workers, and tomorrow he has to be at work at 5:30am for an annual event. Another short weekend for us to spend together, but we have plenty of work to do at home once James finishes up with his "real" job.

Today I went to a nursery, Pike's, which was absolutely breathtaking. What a fabulous place, I have driven by it many times and always said "Gosh, I'd like to stop in there" and today I did!! I told James, with all the flowers, butterflies, bees, fountains, birds, wind chimes, even music piped in- I felt like I was visiting a botanical gardens or arboretum somewhere. I can't go to a place like that without opening up the wallet, so I came home with several plants for the yard, one for inside the house, some ceramic house numbers, and a birdbath. Yikes. (This was after I'd been to the wild bird store.) Below are a few of my purchases.



Above is the hydrangea I will be planting in place of this little tree James will be removing this weekend. We'll probably replant it somewhere in the back yard, but it's right at the front door and I can foresee it growing up and out of control. I'm not sure what it is, I think it's a little cedar tree, but as you can see in the photo the trunk is split and it's growing in two different directions. I'm not even certain if it's salvageable, but we'll try. I have a big brown thumb when it comes to plants, but I'm going to try my darnedest at this new house to hopefully improve the color to green. I wanted something out front that will attract butterflies, and hopefully the big blooms of this hydrangea will do the trick. Below are a couple of little flowering shrubs I will be planting in a few of my huge old ceramic pots, which are currently on the new back patio.



When James isn't home and we aren't working in the yard, the photo below is the current state of the art studio as of today. I am still digging through 20+ years' worth of boxes full of craft supplies. The mess scattered across the floor would be some of the things I made to sell at flea markets in the previous decade. What to do with them? I certainly have no use for them. Sell them on eBay? Donate them to charity? Throw them away?



One of the other projects for the studio is the repair and repainting of this old bookshelf. It used to have glass doors on the front, but I removed them in order to have open storage. This piece was in my sister's apartment during her years at The University of Alabama, back in the 1980's. I inherited it, and back when it had the glass doors, I kept it in the kitchen to display knickknacks. I'm sanding it, removing old hardware, and soon it will be painted in bright shades of turquoise, to remind me of the Caribbean colors of the sea. I'm going to put it up in the studio to display some pieces in my art collection. Right now it's down in the basement, and I only work on it a few minutes here and there, but I would really like to finish it soon.



Last but certainly not least, we are still filling boxes down in the basement for Goodwill, and I plan to continue throughout the weekend working on this. I thought it would be easy to just throw unused items in there, but I find myself holding a stuffed animal or a Tupperware container thinking "hhhmmmm". It's hard to let go of things, at least for me, I've always struggled with that. It usually takes James' rational mind to convince me that I don't need to keep that set of Christmas potholders from my ex-mother-in-law that I've never used (she used to give me a set every year with Looney Tunes characters on them?????- I hate Looney Tunes). Trust me, if it were up to James, it would ALL go to Goodwill. Wow, remind me to never leave him home alone for too long...



Everyone have a lovely Friday night and a wonderful weekend!!