Favorite Friday

Happy Friday peeps!!! What a beautiful day.......and lately I've been loving starting my day with my new fav creamer. It's Walmart's store brand, Great Value Cinnamon Vanilla. For anyone who knows me...I don't really like coffee all that much. It's really just creamer with a splash of coffee. And I look forward to the change of season's when Coffemate introduces their seasonal favorites like Pumpkin Spice :)

I was at the checkout a few weeks ago and saw the lady in front of me getting this, and tucked it in the back of my brain for my next trip.....well, I looooooove it!!!! Just a little splash goes a long way, so I feel like I'm drinking less calories too. I think my body got so used to the French Vanilla I've use for years that I was putting sooooo much in. It is yummy!! And while I'm at it....this is a favorite coffee mug too :) Cubby made it for me for Mother's Day this past year at the local pottery painting place in town. Everything and anything my kids make me ( and with the teenagers now, it's about zilch) I looooove. Treat yourself to a new creamer, I know you'll like it. Have a terrific weekend.

U2

U2 360tour. The final stop of U2's 2 year, 60 show tour was in Pittsburgh last night....and it couldn't have been a more perfect night! The weather was amazing and the 60,000 fans at Heinz field were ready to ROCK! Chip and I have had our tickets for months and this was one truly one of the highlights of my summer. We have friends that we go to lots of concerts with and they hooked us up with terrific seats in the club level, as well as planned a limo ride for us too! Look at how excited I am :) I couldn't sleep for two nights...getting up at 4:30 a.m. two days in a row. I felt so giddy!!




My husband Chip's great friend was picking me up at our house at 2 p.m. to go to his house were the pre-party was and where the limo was picking us up. Well, a few weeks ago Chip put two and two together and realized he made plans to travel for business and wouldn't be arriving in Pittsburgh until almost 5pm. I couldn't believe it! How could he not remember we were going to the concert that night???! Anyhoo...when the phone rang I could tell by the ring he had missed his flight and sure enough he did!!! I freaked a bit, but recovered nicely...consoling myself that I wasn't going to miss out on any fun :) So here I am with our other friend Pat....who by the way claimed me as his date a few nights earlier when the boys had their "planning meeting" at a local watering hole.....looks like his premonition was right!



Well, here you can see my Hubs Chip finally showed up about a 1/2 hour before show time....so date night with Pat was now over :) And hubs was trying hard to catch up on all the fun he had been missing out on.



Look at how crazy the stage and sound systems are????????? It was truly unreal how cool everything was. This picture doesn't do it justice.



Here we are when we just got through the gates. I couldn't wait for the concert to start.



Look how cool it is....the energy and excitement were amazing. They played tons of great stuff and we didn't sit down all night.



The night flew by....by the memories will last forever!

Favorite Friday

Happy HOT Friday to you!! I'm a weather girl junkie, and as far as I can tell there is no place anywhere that will be less than 100 degrees today.......YIKES!! Well, if you're new to my little blog I do a thing every Friday featuring my fav thing of the week.......this week it's a shout out to my sister. And for the most part, I call her Sister, and she calls me sister too :) She treated me to a super fantastic trip out to Colorado to visit her for five days this past week.....I didn't really know how much I needed it. It was sooooooooooooooooo nice to just relax, exercise, knit a little, read a little, shop, eat, talk, get pampered and not have to do anything at all for anyone else. Now THAT was a treat!!! Even the plane ride back and forth was a treat :) Here we are at dinner at a little favortie place in Vail...La Botega. We had a wonderful night at dinner and a little walk through the village.

Thank you so much Sister.......I truly appreciate it!

A Visit to Vail

This post is being written by a very spoiled Treatgirl. I was treated to a wonderful getaway weekend to Vail, Colorado by my sister. She lives there when she isn't traveling to New York, London, or Dubai. And can you believe these cupcakes were my very first treat???? Our first stop, before even going home, was a favorite place of hers called Eat! Drink! It's a little shop where half of it is a wine store, and the other half has a terrific selection of cheeses, olives, oils and cupcakes!



We picked out some yummy things....I've noticed that since my sister isn't married and has no kids, she often had just olives as her meal.



We stopped home, dropped our bags and walked into town for an outdoor concert along the banks of Gore creek. We met a few of her friends and shared some cheese, olives and wine together. A really nice night.



Here we are.......we call each other "sister". With different emphasis on the syllables for different emotions. Happy, mad, disbelief etc.......



Here is the view from an upper balcony of her place.



And this is the view the other way....it's just so pretty. I could get really used to it every day.



Friday night we went into Vail village to have dinner at a favorite place, La Botega. We ate outside on the patio.....look at the sky....soooooo colorful and pretty.



Doesn't it look like we're in Europe???

We shopped around a few outdoor markets that are popular on the weekends, I got a manicure and pedicure, and Sister treated me to an AMAZING facial. We also worked out with her trainer at the gym two mornings...to work off all the cheese :) Her friends hosted us for dinner Saturday night...the entree was an Iranian dish. Her friend lived there until she was 7 years old...it was wonderful!



Here is a little bridge that crosses over Gore Creek in the middle of Vail.



And here's another view of the creek. I remember when the kids were little they used to cool off and play along the shores here.



On my last afternoon we walked through Vail and browsed around the outdoor market. I picked up a few treats for the kiddos....and a few for me too. What a wonderful weekend...Thank you again, Sister!!!!

Favorite Friday

Are these summer weeks flying by....or is it just me????? I can't believe it's Friday already! Luckily I am never in short supply of something I love, to feature on this Favorite Friday post :)

This week I am LOVING my new shoes for the gym. I am always partial to Nike's...they always fit well and hold up well. These are their Pegasus 27 Trail shoes. They are super comfy and REALLY springy.



I just thought the colors were so summery too. And for me a new pair of shoes jump starts my workout a bit too :) Have a terrific weekend!

This is Going to Take Me a While

I have been knitting for about 35 years now...and besides a few baby blankets, I have never knit an afghan. It just never really came about. Until now.



I was originally going to make a "stash" blanket and use up tons of yarn that I have from leftover projects. But I came across this pretty green yarn at Michael's and so the stash project will have to wait. With our 10 hour drive to and from the beach a few weeks ago, I thought that it would be the perfect time to start. But first I had to find a pattern. There are no less than of a zillion of them I think. But I settled on the "Linus". It is only a 3 row pattern that is pretty easy to remember.

In case you're interested..... You need a worsted weight yarn and a size 10 circular needles.

Directions: For a large afghan cast on 210 sts., for a small one cast on 144 sts. Pattern is a multiple of 11 sts. + 1.

Row 1: K1, *yo, K3, K2 tog, K2 tog, K3, yo, K1. Repeat from* to end.

Row 2: Purl

Row 3: Knit

Repeat rows 1-3 until desired lenghth.

I actually didn't start it until the ride home. And after an hour or so, had only an inch or two done. My hubs made the comment that he thought it was going to take a long time to finish. Ya THINK????????? I'm am knitting away on it, a little bit every day....I still don't know who I will give it to, or maybe I will keep it for myself???? That would be a major treat!

And They Came...Two by Two

They keep coming in pairs.....now I have a pair of hermit crabs and a pair of dwarf frogs. REEAAAAlllYYYY....At this point I'm just going for the Mom of the Year Award. Do you remember the pair of baby ducks I had???? Well, they are gone...Chip released them and hopefully they are paddling around a pond somewhere. And they have been replaced by the crabs we got at the beach and frogs.



Cub is thrilled and is taking very good care of his crabs. Misting their shells, putting them on the carpet for some exercise, and seeing to it they have food and water. The frogs are very easy...he only has to feed them once a week and change the water every 2 months. ?????????? He sits on a little stool in front of them and watches them. He also made a mobile for them to look at. I can't complain....I just hope he's making happy childhood memories :)

Peanut Butter Cup Pie

If you're looking for a super easy dessert that every chocolate peanut butter lover will like......look no further. I've had this recipe for the longest time and just tried it for the first time yesterday when I had my husband's sister's family over for dinner. It literally took 15 minutes to put together....then just 4 hours to chill.

Here's what you need:

1 package (8oz.) cream cheese, softened
1/2 cup, plus 1 Tbsp. creamy peanut butter, divided
1 cup cold milk
1 package (3.4 oz.) vanilla flavor instant pudding
2 1/2 cups thawed Cool Whip Topping, divided
1 Oreo pie crust
3 squares Baker's Semi-Sweet Chocolate (I forgot to get this when I was at the store...so I used about a 1/2 cup dark chocolate chips that I had on hand and it worked out fine :)

How to make it:

1. Beat cream cheese and 1/2 cup peanut butter until well blended. Add milk and dry pudding mix; beat 2 minutes. Whisk in 1 cup Cool Whip; spoon into crust.

2. Microwave remaining Cool Whip and chocolate in microwave bowl on high about 1 min. 30 sec., or until chocolate is completely melted and mixture is well blended, stirring after each minute. Cool completely.

3. Spread chocolate mixture over pudding layer in crust. Microwave remaining peanut butter in small bowl about 30 seconds, stir. Drizzle over pie. ( I put it in a small plastic Ziploc bag and cut the corner off) Refrigerate 4 hours or until firm.

Really.....believe me, this is super easy and really yummy...it tastes like you really slaved over it.

I'm linking up over at my friend Jennifer Juniper's great linky party....if you have something to teach her, stop over and link up too!

Favorite Friday

I'm so excited to share my favorite thing with you all this week......my O Cedar Promist mop.....Yup, a MOP!! Can you believe the Treatgirl has never owned a mop??? I have been washing floors on my hands and knees FOR.EVER. When the WetJet came out several years ago, I was a smidge tempted to try it just for little spills etc...but never did. Well...I've had my eye on this mop for a few months now, and I actually asked for it for my birthday. When my mom was in town visiting she treated me to it. It's been in my laundry room for several weeks now and I actually just busted it out this week.

I loooooooooooove it and give it 5 stars! You can mix up whatever cleaning solution for the refillable bottle that you like, and the cleaning cloth is washable up to 100 washes. It velcros onto the bottom of the mop... you can also use Swiffer cloths on it...so it does double duty. I'm convinced a woman invented this. It is totally my new best friend. Get one!!! Be happy with me!!!

Topsail

The Treatgirl and her family slipped away to the quiet beach of North Topsail, North Carolina last week. It was our first time there and it was lovely! VERY quiet....and the beach was gorgeous! I loved running in the morning along side the shrimp boats and dolphins has they bobbed just off shore. (And trust me...the Treatgirl isn't big on running....so it had to be amazing to get me out there!!!)



Cub barely got dry the whole week......the waves were PER.FECT for being out on his boogie board.



We were so happy to spend the week with my cousin, her husband and little girl. We all had fun doing a tye dye project and the little ones made stepping stones. Also, Scrabble Flash was always out on the table in the kitchen for the adults to play. There was also plenty of time to build sand castles.



And of course they spent hours with the Daddy's and a net collecting little sand crabs. They had zillions of them in this bucket.



You can just see the fishing pier beyond me in the background....I couldn't get over how those fishermen were out there morning, noon and night. Our bedroom was on the the ocean side and I'd peek out there and see them fishing at all hours of the night. CRAZY??!!

Topsail is very tiny....Just a few shops, a Food Lion, and a restaurant. I was searching for a new favorite long sleeve t-shirt, like this one I got at my mom's last year, but even the t-shirt selection was remote :)



Tish and Cub had a fabulous week together....playing and splashing at the beach and the pool.



A last glimpse of the beach before we headed home. It was such a nice week to be with my family all week....just us. Now it's back to friends, activities, work and all the other stuff. Happy summer!!

An Official Member

Casey Anthony is now an official member of the O.J. Simpson club. May little Caylee rest in peace.

Favorite Friday

My favorite this week is this view from the deck of our house at the beach! The Treat Girl has been away relaxing with her family this past week....and I just couldn't get enough of the beach... It was perfect. More on that...next week.....Have a terrific holiday weekend everyone!!