Pumpkin Spice French Toast

It’s that time of year again. You see everything pumpkin spice in the grocery store except peanut butter and I would not be surprised if they have that too.

I am not a fan of Pumpkin spice but I try. I will try the flavor every season. Maybe one day I’ll acquire a taste for it. This time, the pumpkin spice swirl bread caught my eye. I love this bread in strawberry but I thought I’d give this Fall flavor a try. It was actually good. It was sweet and didn’t have too much spice.

Breakfast is my favorite meal of the day. Waffles are my favorite breakfast food, but French toast comes in a close second. I glanced over at the new bread and knew I had some egg beaters in the fridge. Pumpkin Spice French toast sounded like a great idea.

I pulled the pan from the cabinet and sprayed it with spray butter.
I added a couple tablespoons of liquid egg to a plate. Just enough to coat my bread on each side.

I remember mom used to make french toast and it would have a ruffle of egg on the edges. I would normally use real egg but these egg beaters fit better in my diet.

I fried the toast on each side until lightly golden then topped with a few walnuts and sugar free syrup.

It was delicious and easy.

What is your favorite Pumpkin spice treat? 

The Poncho

As I keep taking a shot of this whole fashion post thing, I have learned that my yard is not as private as I wish. The other day I peeped around to make sure no neighbors were at home so I could take some photos using my tripod and wireless photo snapper. No one was at home so I ran outside to set up my camera. I turned around after a minute and the teenage neighbor across the street was at the end of his driveway snapping photos of me with his camera (not phone camera, but big camera). I just waved at him since he does not understand English and I ran inside. So that's why most of my photos are taken inside the house with no natural back grounds or lighting. I hate it but, I'm a little bashful doing my own fashion show for the neighborhood.

Now to The Poncho:

When I was younger, my mom made me the most colorful little poncho. It was made for me to wear over my bathing suit.

It was brightly stripped with colors of summer and was always too big. It hung off my shoulders and down to my ankles. I always thought it looked like this.......

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Ha ha ha- Just kidding...Not really. 

It was basically a circle of pom pom trimmed terry cloth with a large hole for my head and two small holes for my arms. This was back in the 70’s and I do not remember ever wearing it then, but here it is today.

This poncho has hung in my closet for years. I would look at it and thought I needed a sombrero to wear with it.

I never wanted to get rid of this piece of clothing. There was always something about it that made me want to keep it. 

Maybe it’s the bright colors with the cute pom pom trim.

Maybe it was because it was like a blanket.

Or maybe it was just because my mom made it for me and that's something special.

My daughter would play with this poncho when she was small. She liked to put it on and twirl around while she danced. 

Now when she gets into my closet and sees ‘The Poncho’, she laughs and says “Mom, you still got that thing?"

"Yes, I think I’ll keep it for my grandchildren".

  

This Weekend

This weekend- I am having a little trouble blogging and I’m rather aggrivated. I do all my blogging from my iPad pro. and occasionally from my iphone. Blogger does not support ipad any longer, so I bought an app called “Blog Touch Pro”. It links to my blogger. I can write a post from there and it is just like writing one on blogger. If I need to work with my blogger settings or layout, then I have to go to my desktop computer in the other room. It’s frustrating sometimes but I’ve adapted pretty well and happy with the app now for a couple years. HOWEVER, when my ipad did an update to IOS 12.0, the blog touch pro crashes and will not stay on more than a second. I have contacted them and they are aware of this and are in the process of fixing it. I wish they would hurry. I could be using the desk top computer now but im Blogging from an iphone, that’s where my photos are.

This weekend- We did some shopping for a couple last minute birthday gifts for my daughter. I saw a lot of things I wanted for myself but held out for another day.

I seen these little wizards things at Belks and fell in love.

I wanted one so bad but not at $30.00. I’d rather put that toward a pair of Fall booties. I shopped for those too but could not find the ones I want.

Then I saw this little biscut can thingy.

I just had no idea what I needed it for. I just liked it. I can’t afford things I “just like”. I have to save for things I “need”, like shoes and pocketbooks. 

Girls, you get it.

I went to the dollar store to get wrapping paper and grabbed these two adorable kitchen towels.

One for me and one for my daughter.

This Weekend- We got out early Saturday morning to the YMCA to watch my little 4 year old nephew play his first ever soccer game. 

He is number 4.

Those kids are just the cutest things. Some played their little hearts out and some stood on the field and cried for their moms. Here is number 4 and his poppy consoling a little boy that was upset.

During the game, you would find some players picking flowers and some doing cartwheels. They were just so funny. The coaches were worn out.

Number 4 was asked to block the goal. Here he is doing just that.

This weekend- We took our daughter out for her birthday dinner with family at the Thia House.

She was showered with gifts, cards and birthday wishes. 

It was a great ending to a long weekend.

Now its back to work. It’s going to be a long day on Monday as I have had some computer and employee problems to deal with, but I will get through it. I always do.

Cherry Cups

I'm fixing to share with you a sweet and simple recipe you can whip up in a jiffy.

I had a package of tortillas in the breadbox that seemed to be ignored. I did not want them to go stale so I decided to make some sweet crispy cinnamon cups. Oh this so easy, your kids could do it. 

Here is what did.

I sprayed a muffin pan with cooking spray then placed a flour tortilla in each muffin cup. 

Then I used some spray butter and coated the tortillas. Then sprinkled with a mixture of cinnamon and sugar. You can do both of these steps before you add them to the cups if you wish.  

Bake 350 for about 15-20 minutes or until brown and crispy. 

That's it! Now go find some ice cream, baked apples, or......

Cherries! 

Cherry is my favorite flavor of anything from candy to doughnuts. When I saw a can of cherry pie filling in the pantry I knew cherry cups would be born.

I spooned a glob of cherry pie filling in each cup. I would normally top with whip topping, but I was out. That was probably a good thing because I did not need the extra calories. 

Each one of these cups are approx 120 calories each.

Your turn...Go experiment. There is so many things you can make with those flour tortillas, besides tacos! 

Check out a couple other recipes I made using these little floppy pieces of Mexican dough!

HERE↓

cinnamon doodles

mini taco salads

Enjoy!

Vintage Cape

Today I’m itching to share this handmade crochet cape with everyone. (No pun intended). This cape is actually soft and not itchy the way I imagine most crochet is. My skin in sensitive to anything made with acrylic or wool, like most vintage yarns, but this seems to feel ok.

My mom gave me this cape (or shawl) thinking it might be something I would like. Well, truth is, “not really” but this vintage piece is growing on me. Even though I do a lot of crochet, I do not like to wear it. Does that even make any since?

This cape is over 50 years old. My moms mother gave it to her. We are not sure if my grandmother actually made it or if someone else made it for her. Either way, I am actually beginning to like this thing. It sort of brings out the boho chic in me (or is it hobo chic?). I like how it goes with my distressed jeans and last years Fall booties.

I’m not really sure if this is called a cape or shawl, but it hangs over the shoulders with waist length arm openings. The arm holes sit at the perfect length so I can slip my arms in and use my hands freely while keeping the cape from falling off. 

It has multiple different crochet stitches that add a delicate touch. With the wide collar, long fringe and crochet buttons down the front, It definitely has that 70’s look. 

Will I ever wear it? I’m not sure at this point. It's possible but I’m not sure how I feel about it. I would definitely wear it open and not buttoned. It rarely gets cold enough here to enjoy the warmth anyway, but who knows? I may bring the 70's back. 

        

What do you think? 

Is this a shawl or a cape? 

Olive suede booties can be found at Old Navy.

Hurricane Florence- Monday

Good morning. It’s monday morning and hurrican Florence has finished making her rounds (no pun intended). 

The morning is still and quiet. It looks gloomy outside but no rain or wind. I think the sun supose to come out today. 

One of my blogging friends lives in South Carolina and has written an update on the hurricane in her area. You can read about it here.

Yesterday was a long one as we sat in the house all day with no TV or internet due to a broken cable line somewhere up the road. As of this morning, we are still without it. I hope they fix it soon. It rained constantly so we were not able to go out for a walk. There was no thunder or lightning so we could have walked in the rain but Nick is fighting off a cold so I do not think that would have been a healthy choice. 

We made a trip to the grocery store and to the Mexican restaurant for dinner. We did not see any flooding. We seen a couple tree limbs that had fallen around the area but no serious damages. However, we did hear of a fatality when a tree fell on a trailer. There were more damages and fatalities in other parts of the state. Lucky for us, we are on higher grounds. Trees are our only threat right now.

My brother in law made it back to his home at the beach. A four hour trip took him seven hours. There were several roads closed due to flooded bridges. He had to take unkown detours. He said the beach was a ghost town with everything closed ups. Things should be getting back to normal today.

I’m heading off to work now. I hope everything continue to stay still and safe around here. 

Playing in the rain.   

Hurricane Florence- Sunday

Good morning yall.

It’s Sunday morning and its not too bad but we are now getting some mean wind gust from time to time from hurricane Florence here in the Charlotte area of North Carolina.

We had a good day yesterday with hardly any rain or wind. We actually went for a nice walk in the mist. I spent the rest of the day cleaning and catching up on laundry. 

This storm is only moving 2 miles per hour. That means lots of rain for a while but forcast shows sunny on Wednesday.

Here is the forcast at 10:00 am this Sunday morning.

• We still have power 
• but the internet and cable are out across the neigborhood. 
• Churches have cancelled services this morning.
• We could hear the rain hitting the gutters during the night and gust of wind blowing through the attic vents.
• There is a creek behind our house that will often over flow in a big rain but it has remained low and calm and we have not see any trees down. 
• Only leafy branches spread across the yard from the neighbors trees. 
• We do not have any trees in our yard execpt a dogwood in the back and a butterfly bush in the front. Both are doing fine. 
• I worry about some of the neighbors with towering penoaks and pines.
• Got word that the campground were we camp and store our camper at the beach is ok with no damage. 
• We have someone that will be checking on any damage to our camper in the morning. 
• My brother in law is headed back today to his home on the beach. It was spared. They lost power but no damages.
• Without internet or TV we are bored. The stores around here are closed for safety of their workers.
• Its raining too hard to go for a walk and all my cleaning is done.
• Gonna try and talk Nick into putting on rain gear and going for a walk anyway so he will stop walking circles around the house. 
• And I have eaten all my hurricane snacks.

“It’s a gully washer” as my dad would say.

More later

Stay safe. 

Hurricane Florence- Saturday

Today is Saturday and they expect the Hurricane Florence to hit my area this morning. Despite what you see on tv, the weathermen are playing it up in some areas. They have been seen faking heavy winds and bad conditions. It’s giving them more views but giving people loss of security. However, there are some that are really getting pounded by this storm right now and my prayers are with them. Where I live, the winds are picking up and the rain just started coming down at 8:30am. Here is the most recent forcast image of my area (Charlotte). 

For my family and followers, I plan to keep you updated on the hurricane each day until it passes. That means I plan to have an updated post each day for the next two or three days. (as if your not seeing enough on TV already).

We were actually going to take a beach trip this weekend but shes coming to us instead. Our next trip down will be to check on damages to our camper.

I live in the Charlotte area, 200 miles from the coast. We are expected to have lots of rain, downed trees and power outages. However, people here are really freaking out and the grocery stores are out of everything. We are not stocked up but have enough to get us by if we are stranded in the house for a couple days and we can walk to the nearest grocery store. I doubt it will get to that point though. 

This storm is coming in sooo slow. We have been preparing for the worst all week. It’s tiring.

This is the Apache Pier on a calm day. It's well known, so a lot of news is being reported from there. Two years ago, hurricane Matthew took that owning off like a hat and also tore the end of the pier off. It has since been rebuilt. We can see the pier from where we camp a mile away.

My brother in law lives and works at the Apache Camp Ground. He and his wife and daughter have evacuated and hope they have a home to come to when they return next week.

Here is a photo from Wednesday.

This is a pier at Atlantic Beach, North Carolina.

The swells were getting big and the wind was picking up and shaking the piers.

The end of the pier did not make it through the night.

And here is what it looks like from my front door this morning.  

More tomorrow. 

We are hunkered down!

Uptown

So this past weekend we visited my daughter and walked two miles to the Greek Festival going on nearby. You can read about that here.

After we left the festival she wanted us to see where she worked. Each morning she will get on the monorail and ride into town to work, but since she is only a little over a mile from uptown where she works, we decided to walk. We wanted to get our exercise in and walk off some of those sweets we ate at the festival. 

As we were walking we could see the Bank of America Stadium in the distance. Home of the Carolina Panthers.

It was a nice little walk into the city. The streets were busy and I saw lots of street vendors, beggars and homeless people sleeping on benches. I live in a town full of homeless people, but most are just drug addicts looking for a fix. Here in the big city, they looked really homeless sleeping on benches without shoes. Everything they owned was stuffed in trash bags and used as pillows. It broke my heart. 

I told my husband that we only live 20 minutes from uptown and in 49 years, I have never been on the streets of Charlotte. I have never seen inside any of the buildings. My daughter was exited to show us where she worked so she took us on a tour inside some of the buildings and I was in awe. 

They were as beautiful on the inside as they were on the outside. I would love to show you her offices but for her protection, I’d rather not. They were very modern and looked like something out of a magazine. I could only dream of having an office like hers. 

These little scooters were everywhere. 

You download an app on your phone, scan the code on the scooter and it will charge you 2.00 to ride until you put the kickstand down. Then it’s free game for someone else to grab. So if you take it to a store and park it, most likely it will not be there when you come out. No worries though, you can just use the app to locate the nearest one. They were just all “Grab and go”. I though it was just the funniest thing. 

People were riding them everywhere and they were pretty fast. I could not get Nick to try one. (For the record, neither did I).

I gave this man some money while he played a tune on his guitar. 

As I walked away, I looked back and saw him lay the guitar down, but the playing kept going. Why? Because he wasn’t even playing! It was all on a music box. I was tricked! But he was obviously getting rich from it. I had sucker wrote all over me. 

We spent almost all afternoon exploring uptown and all it had to offer but I still would not want to live there and I still fear for my daughters safety every single day.

Before we headed home, we stopped at the ice cream shop for a snack. 

I order a scoop of blueberry cheese cake and Nick had the Pistachio flavor. My daughter walked next door for a smoothie instead. 

It was a fun day and I walked 10.23 miles and 21,615 steps that day according to my fitbit. 

GoodWill Fashion

As I have said before, I am a big thrifty shopper. I do not hesitate going to the local thrift shops or heading straight back to the clearance racks at my favorite stores. I never wear anything for long. I am never in need for anything expensive and my job does not require any dress code. It’s only me in a small office where I am not exposed to other people or sunshine.

I know a lot of people that will snarl their nose up when I mention used clothes. I understand and I am picky about what I touch and what I bring home. However, if you take the time to look, you can find some nice items that still have the tags attached. Some items you can just tell they were taken care of or rarely used. That's what I look for. Think about it... You buy new clothes from a department store and there is no telling how many people have tried it on. I also make it a rule to not buy anything that I can't wash regularly in the washing machine.

Today I would like to show you my latest find from the GoodWill Thrift shop. I found this Mudd cross front bodycon dress for 4.99.

I fell in love with this dress the moment I saw it on the rack. I love the colors. Though its not quiet Fall yet, this will be perfect once the weather starts cooling down. 

I usually stay away from these tight fitting dresses because they show every muffin top and ripple I own. However, this dress was not tight, though it looks like it is. There was plenty of wiggle room and the poly blend fabric is super soft and light weight.

I like for my clothes to have special details and this one has it. The crisscross front says sexy while staying modest. This dress will be perfect for church or nice dinner out. I’m calling this one a win.

One is sold at Kohls by Mudd.

One was found at GoodWill.

And

One is a professional model 

One is definitely not 

Greek Festival

Our daughter wanted us all to go to the Yiasou Greek Festival this year. Every year the Holy Trinity Greek Orthodox Church puts on this festival full of dances, music, choir performance, re-enactments, food and more.

We arrived at her apartment (free parking) and walked two miles to the festival. It was a nice walk but hot as the temperatures were in the 90’s again. It would cloud up for a few minutes like it was going to rain, then the sun would come right back out. It beat having to sit in traffic, try to find a parking spot and pay outrageous prices to park. We were there in no time and our walk was faster than the traffic line. 

Once we walked in, I was a little disappointed that it was not that big and everything was jammed together. We are not big fans of crowds so this was an uncomfortable moment at first. It turned out to be not so bad after all. You can see the Greek Church in the photo behind me. 

We saw a lot of merchants selling hand made jewelry, clothes and crafts. You could see little children walking around dressed to perform traditional dances and play instruments of their ancestral villages. It became more interesting to me when I saw a Greek Warrior. 

I think I left my husband and daughter behind at the first glimpse of metal and red cloth beaming through the crowd. I should have warned him that if I see a man in armor, I will head straight towards him. I was able to snap a photo through the crowd and we moved on. Well, he moved on and we headed to the food. 

Our first stop was at the bakery area. There were about twenty rows of tables under tents, full of different breads and pastries of nothing I can pronounce. I have always liked Baklava. Since I have been dieting, I didn't realize how sweet that stuff was, so one bite was all I could handle. I ended up grabbing some other interesting goodies to take home. 

It was lunch time so we stood in a 30 minute line to grab some authentic Greek food. I purchased a few spinach/feta cheese pies and Greek fries for me and Nick and my daughter purchased a Souvlaki Stick (pork on a stick). There was no open tables to sit, so we squatted on a curb in a shady corner like little peasants and ate lunch. 

After lunch we took a walk inside of the cathedral. The Holy Trinity Cathedral was built in 1954 and consist of beautiful Byzantine and iconography architecture. It was absolutely beautiful as we slowly walked through with amazement.

Before leaving Nick nick disappeared under a crowded tent and emerged with a plate of Loukoumades (Greek Donuts) to share. I think I liked these best. They tasted like little funnel cakes. Yes, my husband photographer had to take this shot while I had my mouth full. He gets a kick out of that. You should see some of the ones I deleted. Ha ha

After the festival we headed back to my daughters place and took even a further walk uptown. I'm saving that story for another post. 

Do you like Greek food? Have you ever visited Greece? If so, what are some of your favorite things to eat, see and do?