AMANDA'S BASKETS: FRIDAY'S ADVENTURE! WHEW!

Monday, December 8, 2014

FRIDAY'S ADVENTURE! WHEW!

Why the 'whew!'? Well, I walked just around 10 miles that day! It was cold, misty and windy for most of the day. I did have fun...well, until it was time to look at apartments.

First let me tell you about the rest of the day. I headed to MOMA to see if I could get into the Matisse exhibit. The lines were so long that I knew I would not have time to walk through the exhibit and then to get back to 102nd street on the west side to see the first apartment.

I did go to the museum store. Wrong move. I bought some holiday presents. The only reason I didn't purchase several books was because I knew I would be carrying them all day long. What a wonderful place.

So next I went to visit Patience and Fortitude, the two lions guarding the front of the main NYC library. I did take a couple pictures of the tree in the main room...

(My phone is really getting bad...can't wait until the new one gets here!) Next I walked to Rock Center and saw the tree with lights...(again, picture not too great)...

From there I saw five apartments on the east side. None of them were the one place I wanted to see on the west side. And four of them weren't anything I would live in.

The last one was a great studio apartment but it was on a main thoroughfare and I really wanted to live on a residential street that had main thoroughfares on either side. Am I being too particular? No, I decided I want to live in a place that I want to live in and not settle...does that make sense?

And I didn't even get to see the one apartment I wanted to...things didn't quite add up for me at this point. So this week I am looking on my own for apartments instead of relying solely on my agent. Several of my friends said that they wound up using several agents to find a place. (You only pay the agent who shows the apartment that you choose.) Have no fear, I will get an apartment, eventually. Wish me luck...

This weekend I took down my fall decorations and put up my holiday ones...

Chip and Dale have been very lazy...

And since it's been too cold for them to go outside I can understand why they are so bored.

Thanks for visiting...
There's a new weekly journal prompt posted. Be sure to check it out.

CRAFTING IDEAS

I am always looking for a small piece of paper to write down something which will later be disposed of. I decided to use some of the scrap paper of which I have a ton. I mostly use the paper for glueing projects. I decided to cut the paper into a small size. (Six pieces from a piece of copy paper.). But just having them sitting on my desk would get messy without a container. So, using a cardboard box, I cut it down to size and using a hot glue gun I glued the ends together. Using a picture from a magazine cut into pieces and stick craft glue, I glued the pieces to the box inside and out. I also used some decorative tape for the outside edges. And to finish the top corners which were not covered, I used straight pins with colorful tops. Looks nice and works well.

MAGAZINE IDEAS

(New) One article in the Farmer's Almanac 2024 is a list of trends. One I knew about is the trend to downsize in just about every area. Another trend that I was surprised about was called ''The Human Library' which offers people on loan to talk about specific subjects. Finally, more folks are adding pets to their family and as a result, stores are adding more pet food, toys and medication to their offerings. There's also a nice garden article which suggests mixing vegetables and flowers together for success.

RECIPE IDEAS

Have you every made Cherry Dump Cake. It calls for 2 cans of Cherry Pie Filling (21 ounces), a white cake mix, 1/4 -1/2 cup butter, melted & 1/2 cup coarsely chopped pecans. In a 9 by 13 pan, spread both cans of cherry pie filling. Add the melted butter to the cake mix and break apart the resulting mixture and crumble it evenly over the pie filling. Sprinkle the pecans evenly over the mixture. Bake in a 350 degree oven for 35 - 45 minutes until the topping is golden brown. Serve with vanilla ice cream. Fast, easy and very delicious.

THOUGHT FOR THE DAY

What if you want to establish better habits, then decide what habit you want to work on. Again, try an easier one first for that good feeling of success. Let's consider more exercise. Start small. Don't try to run a marathon right away. Set the amount of time, the type of exercise and when to do it to begin making sure that it is within your reach. If it works for you each week add a bit more. Walking is one of the best ways to get good overall movement but there are many exercise videos on YouTube of varying lengths and difficulty to check out. Change your exercise routines to eliminate getting bored. For hardcore exercise with weights, give yourself a day in-between to recover. Even on days you would rather not exercise, do it and see if you feel better. It takes an average of 66 days to establish a habit. Just think 66 days to establish a good habit for a lifetime. Sounds like a good thing to me...how about you?