What's Up Wednesday: October 2021

It's the last Wednesday of the month which means it's time for What's Up Wednesday with Sheaffer & Shay.  
What We're Eating This Week: I just published our menu for the month yesterday! We ate well this month.  My favorites we're eating this week are the chicken/ orzo one dish and the Tuscan chicken pasta.  YUM!





What I'm Reminiscing About: My husband brought me home some roses the other day out of the blue and I was remembering the times he sent me flowers in high school (and I was called to the principal's office to pick them up!) and the time he sent me a huge beautiful bouquet at work when the kids were all little...  






What I'm Loving: Our "new" bathroom! We put in a second shower head and repainted the whole bathroom a lovely pale seafoam blue. 




What We've Been Up To:  We had a fabulous month filled with beautiful hikes; though my favorites had to be the hiking we did in New Hampshire! 








We did lots of yummy baking this month too!  We made pumpkin scones, some apple pies cookies, apple pies, and a delicious chocolate raspberry cake.










We had a great time at our zoo's lantern festival.





What I'm Dreading: The time change next weekend. 

What I'm Working On: My Christmas list and cards!  I like to start early and try to have most things done by Thanksgiving so I can relax and have fun in December. 

What I'm Excited About: Our Halloween movie night this weekend... though we haven't settled on a movie yet. I'm voting for Casper!  Any suggestions?? (though I should mention my boys HATED Hocus Pocus)

What I'm Watching/Reading: We watched The Other Two (HBO+), Sopranos (HBO+), The Duff (Netflix), & The Vow (Hulu).  I began watching Castle (Hulu) and Gossip Girl (HBO+).  

I read 9 really good books this month (I shared a summary and my ideas on them all Monday): 




What I'm Listening to:  I have old episodes of American Housewife playing in the background while I type this up. I love that Katie Otto! 

What I'm Wearing: All sorts of outfits... we have had weather that is all over the place! 











What I'm Doing This Weekend: We actually have a party we're going to where we get to throw hatchets... something I'm kind of nervous about since I tend to be a bit accident prone!  

What I'm Looking Forward to Next Month: Thanksgiving! I love Thanksgiving so much. 

What Else is New: 

Linking up with:



Comments

  1. HollyOctober 27, 2021 at 5:35 AM

    Ok I really think you and Alec should start a business or bakery- you would make a killing! Your desserts always look delicious and SO professional! Anyway, I love American Housewife- do you know if it is coming back? I miss Katie Otto!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Joanne October 27, 2021 at 12:44 PM

      LOL! Thank you. I don't think American Housewife is coming back; I'm pretty sure it was the series finale.

      Delete
  2. NatashaOctober 27, 2021 at 5:57 AM

    Ax throwing is so fun!!! Enjoy!!! And I think I will bake your pumpkin scones this weekend. They sound so good and I need a festive treat. And you are right -- the October weather has been all over the place.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Joanne October 27, 2021 at 12:44 PM

      I am hopeful that it will be fun and I won't get hurt at all. I hope you enjoy the scones.

      Delete
  3. Andrea NineOctober 27, 2021 at 7:16 AM

    Oh friend, the food, your flowers, your fashion! Everything looks so good girl! and FUN!

    ReplyDelete
  4. Memphis BridgesOctober 27, 2021 at 7:51 AM

    Sounds like a fun, stress relieving weekend! Always enjoy seeing the beautiful scenery and food you share. I am going to research those pizza pork chops!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Joanne October 27, 2021 at 12:46 PM

      I found them here: https://showmeandsweettea.com/2020/05/18/monday-meals-pizza-pork-chops-with-orzo/ and they were so simple!

      Delete
  5. Tamar SBOctober 27, 2021 at 8:45 AM

    What great hikes!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Joanne October 27, 2021 at 12:46 PM

      We had some really wonderful hikes this month!

      Delete
  6. EllibelleOctober 27, 2021 at 9:02 AM

    Your scenery pictures are always so beautiful! And such pretty roses!! How cute and romantic that he sent you flowers to high school back in the day!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Joanne October 27, 2021 at 12:46 PM

      Thank you! Yep, he was really romantic back in the day. I often tease him that he's outgrown that as he's gotten older.

      Delete
  7. Lindsay's Sweet WorldOctober 27, 2021 at 9:15 AM

    Love the double shower head!! And the new paint color on the walls looks great, too.

    ReplyDelete
  8. TorontoSAMOctober 27, 2021 at 10:42 AM

    The icing work on that cake is awesome!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Joanne October 27, 2021 at 12:47 PM

      Thanks! I did that; I don't often get to work with icing anymore.

      Delete
  9. Dara @ Not In JerseyOctober 27, 2021 at 11:45 AM

    I love your nature and outfit pictures!

    ReplyDelete
  10. Beautifully CandidOctober 27, 2021 at 2:03 PM

    Flowers just because are some of my all time favorite to receive! Your foliage pictures are so pretty and I am loving your fall outfits.

    ReplyDelete
  11. Sparkles and LattesOctober 27, 2021 at 2:13 PM

    We watched the Duff too. It was cute. I will look into some of the other shows you suggested as we just got HBO to watch Succession.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Joanne October 27, 2021 at 4:19 PM

      I've heard a lot about that recently and hope to start watching that next.

      Delete
  12. Kim CarberryOctober 27, 2021 at 3:01 PM

    Aww! Those roses are beautiful! How thoughtful of your husband. Your bathroom looks gorgeous! Great job x

    ReplyDelete
  13. Jodie's Touch of StyleOctober 27, 2021 at 8:41 PM

    I have to admit, that I'm so happy that AZ doesn't do that time change thing. It's still hard to figure out everyone else's time though.
    Love the poncho...thanks for the reminder to pull mine out.
    XOXO
    Jodie
    www.jtouochofstyle.com

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Joanne October 28, 2021 at 6:12 AM

      I bet that must be so hard to figure out everyone else's time!

      Delete
  14. MarshaOctober 27, 2021 at 11:44 PM

    Wow! That was a full month! I love how I can tell what your weather was by your clothing! Mine would be something like shorts, sweats and sweatshirt, shorts and tank, back to sweats and sweatshirt! Those baked goods look extra yummy!

    http://marshainthemiddle.com/

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Joanne October 28, 2021 at 6:14 AM

      It has been crazy this month trying to figure out how to dress for the weather. Evenings and mornings are quite cool but mid-day is usually very warm. But we're slowly moving to cold weather all the time.

      Delete
  15. LyshaNovember 1, 2021 at 10:18 AM

    Gorgeous hiking photos.

    Your bathroom looks great!

    ReplyDelete
  16. Laura BNovember 2, 2021 at 5:52 PM

    I love the color you chose for your bathroom! It is so pretty! I need to check out your meal planning post, too! I'm always looking for new recipes to try!

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Favorite TV Shows Growing Up in the 80's and early 90's

Image
Do you remember the TGIF lineups on Friday nights? I can remember planning sleepovers and time with friends around TV Show lineups of our favorite shows... or else trying to set the VCR to record our favorite shows if we weren't going to be home. And through the years I had SO MANY favorites! Growing pains aired in 1985 which put me around age 8 and it stayed on the air until I was 15 or so; I'm pretty sure most people in my age group watched mostly for Kirk Cameron and all his antics.  I still have a soft spot for family sit-coms!  The Facts of Life aired when I was just 2  and stayed on the air until I was 11 so I'm sure the episodes I remember so fondly were either some of the later ones and then reruns shown later on when I was old enough to watch from the beginning. I think everyone would have loved an Edna Garret in their lives.   Benson another sitcom that began airing when I was just 2 and was done by the time I was 9 (another one I must have watched mai...
Read more

Things That Make Me Laugh

Image
I loved the challenge of this week's list for our 26 lists link up.  I don't know about you but I really need to laugh more lately.  It's such a great stress reliever. 1.  Books-- I love a good funny book that makes me laugh out loud.  I haven't read one in a while but if you have any recommendations I'm all ears.  The last book I can remember making me laugh was the Un-Honeymooners. 2  The boys being silly. 3.  Watching shows like America's Funniest Videos or Family Feud. 4. My husband.  Most people don't realize it but he's actually pretty funny and often makes me laugh. 5.  Whenever my sisters/ family get together and we get to reminiscing (particularly if my Aunt Elaine is around) we end up laughing so hard at all the old family stories that we are all in tears by the end of the night.  It's fabulous. 6. Movies like Mom's Night Out, Christmas Vacation, and Grown Ups make me laugh out loud. 7.  When my ...
Read more

Making Gift Card and Money Holders Using Scrapbooking and Cardmaking Supples

Image
I don't tend to keep a lot of crafting supplies on hand so when I saw this month's de-stash challenge I wasn't sure what I was going to make.  I finally realized that with so many of my Christmas gifts being cash and gift cards this year that I needed to make up some fun paper crafting/ creative ways to gift them.   I still want my nieces and nephews to have something to open so I pulled out my papers and stamps and made up some cute little money/gift card holders. They were much easier to make than I thought.  The first one I worked on was to hold some oversized Nintendo gift cards.  I made a standard sized card and folded down one corner of the card front.  Then I ran my double sided tape along the bottom an 1/2 way up the side creating a cute little pocket.  Finally I added some cute embellishments and ribbons.   Voila! A simple and easy gift card holder for those larger sized gift cards.  The bulk of the tweens and teens on my list j...
Read more

Making a Sugar Cookie "Gingerbread" House

Image
 Alec really wanted to try making his own gingerbread house this year without using a premade kit.  We talked about how we never really eat the house since they don't taste very good.  Years ago we gave up on the frosting that comes in the kit and began making our own so we thought perhaps we should try making our our house too. Only problem is that no one in the house likes gingerbread.  We talked about trying to make the house using a sugar cookie recipe.  Alec was so excited at that idea since he just LOVES sugar cookies.   He found a recipe online for a simple sugar cookie recipe and mixed up the dough.  He rolled it out an cut it to the size of our cookie sheets-- we had read that it's easiest to cut the house pieces out after the dough has been baked and is still warm and soft because then you don't have to worry about any of the pieces losing their shape while baking. I had picked out a simple cookie cutter set on Amazon and as soon as the ...
Read more

52 Book Challenge of 2024; How I Did and What I Read

Image
 I finished up the 52 Book challenge by mid-July this year despite reading lots of other books along the way.  1. Locked Room Mystery--  Daisy Darker by Alice Feeney-  2. Bibliosmia: A Smelly Book-- Heidi by Johanna Spyri  3. More than 40 chapters -- Betting on You by Lynn Painter 4. Lowercase Letters on the Spine-- The Book Proposal by KJ Micciche (read in Jan) 5. Magical Realism--   The Wishing Game by Meg Shaffer 6. Women in STEM-- The Women by Kristin Hannah 7. At Least 4 Different POV-- A Fatal Affair by A. R Torre 8. Features the Ocean-- Blue Hawaiian by Carla Luna 9. A Character-Driven Novel--  Girls in White Dresses by Jennifer Close 10. Told in Non-Chronological Order-- The Heiress by Rachel Hawkins  11. Title Starts with the Letter "K" -- Key Lime Garden Inn by Annie Cabot-  12. Title Starts with the Letter "L" -- The Last Love Note by Emma Gray 13. An Academic Thriller -- One of Us Is Next by Karen McManus (read in Jan) 14. ...
Read more