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It’s time for another Thursday Thoughts! If you are participating make sure to throw your link in below. I’ll be making my normal rounds later in the day to visit / comment (*) and see what everyone is thinking about today! And if you want to participate, but have no idea what a link-up is, you can check out my explanation of it here.
~My mom and I (and WB) are headed to The Cheesecake Factory for lunch today! We’ve been wanting to go since it opened, but don’t really want to wait two hours to eat, so hopefully it’s not too bananas. We do plan to do a little shopping as well, so I guess it’s no big deal if there is a wait.
~I pulled the winners of a few giveaways last night and want to say congrats to Marietta Tis***e who won the November PopSugar Must Have Box, Nina and Hope and Evian who won the MunchPak giveaway and Diana W**e. who won the Birchbox Snowday Limited Edition Box! If you didn’t win, don’t worry, I have a few other giveaways up here. And of course I have some in the works as well. Also, I had no idea everyone was going to be so excited about the Allure Winter Beauty Box giveaway! OMG have people been entering! That makes me even more excited about it and so glad I decided to give mine away.
~It’s not for a few weeks, but I am already excited about going to Painting with a Twist. We got a gift card last year from my parents for Christmas and I have been stalking the website for just the right picture on just the right day / time. We will be painting “Winter Night” and I cannot wait to see how this goes down. Has anyone ever been? What’d you paint? And how’d it go?
~On pretty much everyone’s recommendations, I bought some (crunchy) cookie butter from Trader Joe’s this week! And you are right – it’s good. I don’t just want to eat it with a spoon though. I think it’s too rich for that. But on apples, so good. I’ll get the regular next time, but L opted of for the crunchy on this trip. Also while there it reminded me of how much I used to love their “Better n’ Peanut Butter”. I should have grabbed some.
~I had big plans this weekend to hit up the Pottery Barn Outlet (in search of superhero things for L’s room redo) before the holiday madness started. And then I realized that I have a mini photoshoot scheduled for the boys on Saturday morning and B and L are going to the Lions game Sunday. I need to rethink this. Maybe he’ll want to do dinner in Frankenmuth and entertain L doing something while I’m shopping. That might work actually. And be fun for everyone.
~It was suggested that I take a poll to see what percentage of people had already started decorating for the holidays and I am super curious myself, so let’s do it! I personally have not started yet, but I want to. I just haven’t had the time yet, but if I get a bit of time this weekend, it’s on! And not only do I want to decorate, I want to do some holiday crafts. My mom and I need to make more ornament wreaths and I want do to something fun and crafty with the boys as well!
Sorry, there are no polls available at the moment.
That’s it for now! What’s on your mind today?
(*) I have solved my problem of not being able to comment on blogger blogs. I still can’t do it in Safari no matter how many times I reset Safari, clear my cookies, etc., but it works fine in Firefox so I’m just going to use that!
I have done two of the paintings here in Columbia. It’s really relaxing, in my opinion. For me it’s just nice to sit and do something pretty mindless while no one is asking me to do anything for them.
What did you paint??
Painting with a Twist is awesome. I’ve about 5 paintings I’ve done there. The teachers guide you through the steps so that even though no one’s paintings look exactly like the original you still end up with something you’re proud to put on your wall. One time my Mom and I took my younger brother with us. He works in drafting and informed the teacher that the bridge we were painting wasn’t structurally sound. He then made sure his bridge had all the supports needed.
On a side note, received the Advocare Spark I ordered from you yesterday in the post. Looking forward to giving it a try today around 2 o’clock when I hit my midday slump. 🙂
I can’t wait to hear what you think of the spark!!
What’s been your favorite thing that you painted so far??
I tried the Citrus flavor first on the Spark. I heard it is the worst tasting of the group so I decided to get it over with. It wasn’t as bad as I expected, and I felt really good energy-wise afterwards. Today I’m trying the Fruit Punch flavor. I plan to bring a pack to work each day.
The five paintings I did were Cherry Blossoms and the Moon, The Sword in the Stone, Monet’s Waterlilies, Vango’s Stary Night (over water instead of a city), and the Bridge. I think Waterlilies looks the best of the lot. But I had the most fun painting Cherry Blossoms as my Mom, Grandma, Brother, and I all went together for it. Even though we all followed the same directions none of them look anything alike. The Sword was the hardest as it was a pick your own class. You pick any painting, but don’t get as much instruction as the teacher is walking around helping everyone individually instead of as a group. Also, if something happens to one of your paintings they have a touch up class to fix it. My nephew knocked one of them off the wall and it got cut, I patched the back with a bit of tape and took it to the repair workshop and we were able to fix it so it looks good as new.
That’s a great idea! Fruit punch is my favorite.
Oh I bet the you pick your own would be hard! I need all the instruction I can get.
We don’t have a Trader Joe’s down here so I’ve never been. But every time I see something about it I get so jealous! I hope they move south soon!
I didn’t know they didn’t have them down there!! I hope you get one soon too!
Frankemuth! I saw that comment and was instantly transported back in time. We always went there when visiting my grandparents in Saginaw. Loved the the family style food, loved visiting Bronners, just such a great place to visit. Someday I need to get my kids up there.
You do need to get up there! We haven’t been there in like a year!! The kids love it!!
Is it just me, or weren’t there supposed to be 3 winners for the Munch Pak giveaway?
And personally, I think the creamy cookie butter is way better than the crunchy. That could be since I like creamy peanut butter better too.
And the Cheesecake Factory is awesome (when you can get in without a ridiculous wait)!
You are so right!!!!!! I just pulled and added! That’s what I get for doing that at 2am!!
Yea for comment fix. That is so weird. I have issues sometimes when I’m on Ms computer but that is usually because he is still logged into google and I’m trying to comment with a different account and it does not like that at all. What superheroes are you looking for? I got the darth vadar pillow for N at the outlet and it was so much cheaper then the regular store. My outlet the day I went didn’t have much else though when I was there. 🙁 I need to make a point to go when I’m down at my moms one day. My dad wants to do something with just us so maybe I can get him to take me 😉 LOL
I know. It was so weird. It still doesn’t work but at least I have Firefox!
And I’m thinking batman / superman kind of stuff. They had a great batman lamp for cheap next time but of course I didn’t grab it.
Trader Joes Speculoos Butter is no joke!! So amazing! Have you tried their speculoos cookies? Awesome!!! Christmas decorating???? Girl, we’re not even past Thanksgiving yet!!! psstttt!!! lollolol…have a good weekend! xxoox
lol!!!!! Thanksgiving is so late this year! It doesn’t mean I’m less thankful!
Enjoy the Cheesecake Factory, I am so jealous! 🙂
I’m so excited!!!
I reeeeeaaaally want to decorate for Christmas right now- but we’re between two moves (moved 10/25 into a temporary apartment and then will move 12/12 to our new house) so I’m waiting until the 2nd move to actually unpack the decorations. It’s bumming me out though, and I’ve bought a few things just so I can put them out. I say go for it!
As soon as I can find some time I’m
On it!!
This is my first link-up, so thank you! We are just getting our first Trader Joe’s in Denver down the street from my house. It will be opening in January, and I drive by making pointed eye contact with the construction workers so they know to hurry. I know I’m not the only one. Can’t wait; that cookie spread looks delicious.
That made me laugh! Hopefully they hurry up!!!
THANK YOU so much for explaining link-ups! I have seriously been wondering how it all works. I will have to link up with you in the future!
Not a problem! It finally occurred to me that not everyone knew!! Happy link-up’ing!
We got the speculoos twist with fudge last time. SUPER good 😉
No Christmas decorations here until after Thanksgiving.
I bought that too!! I haven’t tried it yet though.
We decorate the weekend after Thanksgiving. That has been our tradition for years.
House lights and all 🙂
The weekend of Thanksgiving
We usually do too. I’m just in the spirit super early!
We did painting with a twist for my birthday last year and it was awesome!!! You can bring drinks and snacks and they walk you through step by step so everyone is Picasso (OK not that good but you will feel like Picasso after your cocktails) its a blast!!!!
I am so looking forward to it. I’ve never seen an awful painting, so I am guessing mine won’t be either.
I just did a Paint Night thing for the first time last month. She had a fall picture with a pumpkin, apples, etc. It was a lot of fun! They all come out so differently it’s funny! I instantly wanted to go again ASAP but then wondered, what am I gonna do with all these canvases?! I still might do a winter one and swap out the fall one. She does a paint your pet night too, but again, where would I hang that?!?!?!
I’m headed to TJ’s tomorrow thanks to you and everyone’s comments about this cookie butter, apparently I need to get some!
What are your thoughts on the December Julep choices? I can’t decide but I’m sorta leaning toward the Boho Glam one!
Okay, I SO want to do the paint your pet one. I think I am going to make B go to the next one and we can paint Buddy and Baxter. I am going to hang them in the playroom! Or the basement.
I like the glitters. I am such a sucker for the glitters. I really like that silver glittery one in Boho Glam!
At first I didn’t care for the Trader Joe’s Cookie Butter but it is sooooo good on hot toast so now I love it!
I need to get the regular stuff soon!!
So jealous you’re going to the Cheesecake Factory! I’m dying for some of their crab cakes right now!
I didn’t get crab cakes, but OMG I love them.
I have never been to Painting with a Twist, but I have always wanted to do something like that! I don’t think we have them around here, but I also didn’t know they were called ‘Painting with a Twist’ either. To the yellow pages!
I didn’t know we had them either! And then once last year my Dad had a work event at one!!
Frankenmuth is like 15 minutes from me! Going to the Ice Shows is amazing! And Christmas at Crossroads has been something my family do every year, when my brothers were younger we would get yearly passes and go all year round! The main tree in Crossroads was knocked over and destroyed by the crazy winds Sunday night 🙁
Oh no!!!! Is that the huge huge tree that they light up? That’s so sad!
I wish I had more time [and energy] — I am waiting to decorate until next Friday, but have so many projects for around the house th at I’d love to be working on. ::sigh:: The cookie butter sounds similar to Biscoff spread. Yummy!
Oh I have SO many things that need to get done around here. All in good time!