I found this when I was searching for holiday diffuser blends during Christmas in July. It was from The Cents'Able Shoppin blog, but I can't find the post so I'm not sure what oils she's using. I think you can find these oils pretty much anywhere - Melaleuca, doTERRA, Young Living, and others.
Do you use diffuser blends for the different seasons?
It's Wednesday, time to join Joyce over at the Hodgepodge. Copy the graphic and the questions, answer them on your blog, and then link up to the party.
1. What is one cliche you think is nonsense? What's one you think holds truth?2. What's the last thing you broke and how did it happen?
No idea how it happened but I broke a scrapbooking punch - a row of clouds which I used all the time! I just picked it up off the shelf and it came apart in two pieces. When I searched our scrapbook company's website, I found quite a few complaints of the same problem. I contacted customer service and they gave me a credit for the cost of the punch as it isn't available any longer.
3. Are you a fan of s'mores? Have you had a s'more this summer? Last thing you ate that you wanted to ask for 's'more of'?
I love s'mores. When I got together with a group of girlfriends from our kids' toddler days, we stayed at a cabin that had this in the kitchen along with a basket of all the fixings:
I'm thinking about putting this under the Christmas tree for the three of us to enjoy.
4. A mode of transportation you've never tried? Will you someday?
Spaceship? Not likely.
5. Believe it or not, next week's Hodgepodge lands in a brand new month. What's your happiest memory from the month we're bidding adieu?
Having Vic home for the first month of his leave before his official retirement date of 1 October. We slept late, stayed up late, had endless coffee breaks, shopped, ate out, submitted plans for the new deck, played with Malone, and just enjoyed our time together. We're doing it all again next month!
6. Insert your own random thought here.
Practicing for Paris! Loving Duolingo.
I don't know how I stumbled across these post box toppers, but they are just the cutest things. According to the Royal Mail, they have been around since 2012 but have exploded on the scene in UK cities and villages with the Platinum Jubilee of the late Queen Elizabeth II, Her Majesty's 90th birthday, her death in 2022, and King Charles III's coronation in 2023. Add in the Paris Olympics and the creativity of local knitters and crocheters knows no bounds. The pandemic created a surge in post box toppers as knitters and crocheters worked overtime during the lockdown.
It's wonderful to see the creativity and dedication of individuals in celebrating special events, and Helene Buttifant from Wells is no exception.
She has spent over a month creating a knitted postbox topper to commemorate the coronation of King Charles III, which is currently adorning the postbox next to the Bishop's Eye.
The topper features all of the big players in the historic event, including King Charles III, Queen Camilla and the Archbishop.
"The topper took me over a month to complete as there are so many small components to each figure," Helene explained. " It took me a whole day just to crochet the triangular pennants around the topper and add the gold tassels and lettering and crowns."
The piece has already had a gentle re-sew ('The Archbishop looked like he'd had too much communion wine', Helen said,) and has been met with delight from residents and visitors to the city.
"Lovely piece of work. Well done," one resident wrote on a Facebook post, before adding: "Almost makes me forget I can't stand the pair."
Another wrote, simply: "Absolutely beautiful."
"I just love creating these toppers and am overwhelmed by the community spirit and kind comments received from everyone who has seen it," Helen said. "I just hope our British weather is kind to it as we have gales forecast this week - so fingers crossed it stays upright!"
From the Wells Nub News, 17 April 2023
Through reading about the post box toppers, I found the Facebook group, UK Post Box Toppers and More Group, which has almost 88,000 members. The photos are amazing!
I'll leave you with this, since you all know how much I love Christmas.
2. Your top five snacks?
Salt and vinegar chips; chips and guacamole; chips and salsa; any kind of hot dip like artichoke or crab with pieces of crusty bread; little sweet things like madeleines or mini-tarts.
3. What smell always brings back some type of memory? Elaborate.
Burnt toast. My aunt (in England) had an eye-level grill, something like this:
I struggled with whether to use burnt or burned and resorted to Google to check it out:
4. What's something you learned from the last book you read?
I learned that there were women in World War I who traveled to France for the express purpose of setting up libraries. Here's an excerpt from this article:
In 1930, Anne Morgan’s wartime headquarters, the Château of Blérancourt, became a national museum dedicated to Franco-American cooperation and friendship. The legacy of the reconstruction work carried out by Morgan and her tireless cadre of librarians endures and resonates well beyond the borders of Picardie, and Bibliothèque Fessart, with its stacks-lined reading room on the ground floor and children’s room upstairs, is a treasure today.
5. What's the next thing on your to-buy list? Will you make that purchase before the end of the year?
Right now, it's the building materials for the deck. We're holding off on the big purchase until the permit is approved and we know exactly what will be required. One big purchase, one delivery. After that, I think a new fence is on the schedule but probably not until the spring.
6. Insert your own random thought here.
Who remembers these kids TV dinners? My sister and I looked forward to the couple of times a year when my parents had to attend a command function, and we had a babysitter and Kid Cuisine TV dinners. Life was so much simpler then and treats were small and infrequent.
A little of this and a little of that last week. Monday and Tuesday were quiet days but then Wednesday kicked off another round of gathering information for the deck project. In the process of calling the Call before you Dig folks to make sure all utilities were accounted for in the dig zone, we found out we need a public health clearance because we have a septic system. The detailed plans Vic submitted to the county had to be modified to comply with public health guidelines. The size of the document was different and what had to be marked out was different. Really, this is the county and the county public health department, and they couldn't use the same drawings? Fortunately, public health stamped the clearance approved as soon as we took the new documents into their office; we're still waiting for the county permit before we can begin.
In the meantime, Vic decided to install cabinets in the garage. He has as many tools as I have craft supplies, so it was time to get them organized. That involved removing odd pieces of wood that were nailed on to the drywall, insulating, installing new drywall, mudding, sanding, and painting the areas in preparation for the new cabinets.
On Friday, I tuned in to the December Daily live on Instagram for some of the details of this year's release. More to come.
The album designs for this year were released and they are gorgeous!
Happy 74th Birthday on August 15 to Her Royal Highness Anne, The Princess Royal. **
The Princess Royal started undertaking public work at the age of 18 and has established significant and ongoing relationships with a number of charities and organizations across the Commonwealth and has one of the busiest working schedules of any member of the Royal Family.
Her Royal Highness has been President of Save the Children UK since 1970, and it was the first major charity with which she became closely associated. Her Royal Highness is involved in over 300 charities, organizations, and military regiments in the UK and overseas, and devotes a large part of her working life to official engagements and visits.
The Princess Royal is one of the few women in the Royal Family who regularly wears a military uniform. She was given the honor of riding behind the Gold State Coach carrying the newly crowned King Charles II and Queen Camilla as they traveled down the Mall in 2023.
A keen equestrian, Her Royal Highness competed in the 1976 Montreal Olympic Games and is a member of the International Olympic Committee. Her Royal Highness is President of the British Olympic Association and was a regular fixture at Team Great Britian events. At a meeting with athletes at the British Embassy prior to the Paris 2024 Olympics, she told them:
"I hope you will feel that this is the environment which encourages you to perform at your best, although you won't know that until it happens, but if it's a personal best, you can be imminently proud of what you've achieved because you will know you couldn't have done any better."
She added, "It requires such inspiration and innovation to maintain those levels of excellence for an Olympic Games that says something enormous about your achievements and your skills. Thank you for your commitment and your support and I just wish you every bit of success and that it goes as well as you hope in every way."
**Princess Royal is a style customarily (but not automatically) awarded by British monarchs to their eldest daughters. Although purely honorary, it is the highest honour that may be given to a female member of the royal family. There have been seven Princesses Royal. Princess Anne became Princess Royal in 1987.
I haven't put up a Life Last Week post since before Christmas in July. It's been a relatively quiet week for me - a haircut and a Zoom for the Creative Memories Croptoberfest launch were really the only things on my calendar. Vic's been busy working on the deck demolition which is complete. Now the building will begin. All of the debris was dropped at the transfer station for disposal. We're still waiting for the permit to be approved before we purchase all the materials. I don't doubt that we will get approval; I'm just not sure if there will be any other material requirements and we wanted to do one big order (with one delivery) from the lumber yard. Had to dig through the photos of when we bought the house to get a full view of the deck so here's the before and after so far.
Deck before
Two calendar highlights - a memory popped up on Facebook that it's been a year since I booked our Hallmark Channel Christmas Cruise and hot on the heels of that was the announcement of the upcoming release of the December Daily 2024 products.
We took a break on Friday to join our friends at a local resort and spa for a birthday celebration. It was a lovely drive, along the Hood Canal, and a beautiful venue. Lunch was delicious.
I watched the Olympics Closing Ceremony yesterday afternoon. A little underwhelming I thought but the Tom Cruise segment was entertaining. I did enjoy the headlining French band, Phoenix, and it was lovely to see all the athletes celebrating their victories and each other.
It's August and we're talking about what we're currently loving, looking forward to, things we're scheduling, buying, and gearing up for. Pop on over to Jennifer's blog and join us.
loving // having Vic home. He's using up his leave on the books before his official retirement date of October 1 so we're sleeping late, staying up late, and taking a LOT of coffee breaks while he's been endlessly planning our new deck. We finally finished up all twenty seasons of Grey's Anatomy and will be looking for a new series to enjoy in the evenings. Update: Just read that Season 21 of Grey's is in the works!
looking forward to // our new deck. Vic is demolishing the old wooden one and replacing it with composite materials. It's a lot of work but he really wanted to do it himself. I can't wait to see the finished result.
things we're scheduling // Vic's new career adventure! We only have his start date - October 7 - but no other details yet. I know he'll have a week of new employee orientation and then some training specific to the engineering department. He's going back to his electronics/electrical roots in his new job.
buying // Wood, composite decking, railing, all the things new deck.
gearing up for // fall!
If you're new to my blog, you won't know that our daughter, Sophia, has been riding for 20 years - first in private lessons, then in 4-H and on a high school team, and then at the collegiate level.
We have avidly been following the equestrian events at the Olympics and you couldn't ask for a more incredible venue than the Palace of Versailles.
