A Little Bit of Sweet for a Great Day

Awhile ago someone noticed that I bake for comfort... well tonight I decided that worked for me. I had a wonderful day, went to a friends house and a couple of her friends came over and I had my first pinochle lesson. It has been a long time since I sat around and played cards with friends. This is a game that I grew up watching my parents play with their friends, which makes me now feel like I have grown up since I am playing it. I had physical therapy this morning.. she worked me pretty hard this morning and we tried a couple of new things, one of them was not a good idea. I am hurting tonight, sore muscles and sore shoulder. So I baked!

I follow some amazing bakers on Facebook. Java Cupcake always is posting amazing recipes that I love to try. One of the other people I follow is The Piecycle who I think is just amazing. They make pie and deliver them at night on Friday and Saturdays. You just call or text your order to them.. $3 a slice or $20 a pie. Some night I am going to go find a parking spot in their delivery area just so I can order some and have it delivered. I think it is a great idea... and I LOVE pie! Until then.. I will make my own pies.

Mini Black Berry Pie Bites from Berries my son Picked

I Love Getting Mail

I was so happy to get the mail today, I had a package in there :) I knew it was coming and I couldn't wait to open it. Wrapped up so pretty!

Let me back up here... awhile ago there was a giveaway on a fun blog called Lavender Rabbit Hoppenings to win this beautiful necklace called Pearl. I found this blog because it was advertised on my blog in the project wonderful ads over there ----> on the right hand side. I have found some of the best blogs and shops because they advertise there. I signed up to win and spent some time exploring her blog and reading about her rabbits, they are so cute.

I am guessing you have figured out I won the necklace "Pearl" Turns out Dot picked my name *thank you Dot* I wonder if Dot knows how much I love the beach and all the time I spend down there... I have yet to see an octopus but now I can always have one with me!

Thank you! Necklace is on and I plan on wearing it a LOT!

Supporting each other Locally

The Crab Cracker is a local magazine that comes out every couple of weeks here on the island (and in Stanwood too) I am always in line waiting to get my copy, I love it. It covers all the things going on locally and has the typical classified stuff. Has an Artist of the week, local tide table ( love this ) stories from the community and so much more.

This last one.. has one of my stories in it! The post I wrote here a couple of weeks ago about the Gray Whales, they saw it and asked if they could put it in the Crab Cracker and I could not say yes fast enough. I know the little Crab Cracker is not like a big national magazine... but to me.. it is even better. It is local and about all the things that are important to those of us who live here. I feel so honored to be included. Thank you!

The Crab Cracker ~ Website ~ Facebook ~ Twitter

There is another amazing local site that I have been on. They added one of my recipes from my other blog Coffee Tea and Recipes the Chocolate Peanut Butter Brownies. This site is Camano Community. They are very active on twitter and also have a FaceBook. They are all online and another wonderful resource for what is going on locally and who is who and they also have a lot of stuff from local people. I am really enjoying getting to read about and talk with local people and business that I am connecting with because of this site. The guy that runs it is super nice and friendly. Thank you!!

There is a new blog starting up that is a lot of fun Snohomish County Blog Girl ( she includes Camano ) She is out and about shopping and eating and enjoying the area and sharing her reviews of places.

There are so many more wonderful local sites and blogs. I have started a list on the right hand side of this blog of all the wonderful ones I find. I am looking forward to the list growing and growing! The Rely Local is a great site too, all about supporting local businesses. This one is in the Arlington Marysville area, but that is not too far for us on the island, since Dave works in that area I consider it very local for us.

Thank you to everyone who supports me in any way, in what I make and what I write and in who I am. I am grateful for all of it and hope to be able to share more than I receive. Support is a wonderful circle to be in.. the more you get the more you seem to have to share! Thanks!

Low Tide and Sunshine

Headed to the beach today at low tide.. it was way out there too... almost a -1 .. I had not been to the beach when it was this far out for awhile. Today I just mostly walked.. and watched the water for whales.. did not do much treasure hunting. Found some Big rocks covered in Lots of shells and barnacles.

Lots of people on the beach, some clamming some walking and some just sitting watching. I did some visiting with some of them. I learned that years ago it used to be that when someone on the beach would see one of the whales that they would ring a bell on their porch and that you could hear the bells ringing down the beach as the whales swam by. I wish they still did this.. makes me want to get a big bell and ring it when I see a whale.. though with the luck I had last time I am just hoping to hang onto the camera long enough to get a picture when I see a whale next!

I am not sure what this is... I thought it was a cup cake paper someone had thrown on the beach so I bent over to pick it up and take it to the trash.. and it felt just like a star fish... but all one piece, no tentacles and it is the size of a cup cake paper. It was also pretty stinky.. well.. beach smelling.. so I just left it alone and took some pictures, will look into what it might be.

Today was a nice relaxing day on the beach, the news had said we would be aiming for 60.. but according to my house we made it past there and to 65.. I know it was
t-shirt weather at the beach today and I Loved it!

Spring Cleaning the Blog

I follow some really awesome blogs... and have a lot of favorite sites, but trying to find the one I am looking for when I need it in a timely fashion has become a joke. So I have decided to do some house keeping in my blog. I have a million bookmarks.. and folders full of them.. and that works pretty good for a lot of sites when I am home on the computer.. but I am not always on my computer. So I am going to be putting the ones I use the most and want to be able to find onto my blog. I am also weeding through and deleting blogs that no one writes on anymore or ones where there is NO interaction. I do not expect 110% interaction... but every once in awhile a little something sometimes. I do not mean that I am only going to follow people who interact with me.. I do follow blogs and comment on them when they do not even follow me... what I mean is that if I have not read a blog in 6 months to a year and I am not interacting with them, then chances are we have gone in different directions, which happens regularly with all of us I think.

I am going through the blogs I do follow and I am putting them in categories on the right hand side. There will be local sites and blogs, food ones, Rv'ing and traveling ones and I am not sure what other categories there will be as I am still sorting and working on this. I am hoping this will help to find what I need.. and to share with my readers places they may like too. I know for myself when I do not have to weed through stuff I have no interest in... that I love exploring things I do find interesting.

These are the first flowers to bloom in my yard every year :)

I would love any feedback on this, I would also love to see more comments. I have taken off all the anti spam stuff and you do not even need to be signed in to leave a comment. I know this is something I am going to be working harder on doing myself. I read a lot of blogs and often do not take the moment to leave a comment. I am going to try to leave more comments and go back and see what is happening on the posts I enjoyed. I am thankful for the blogs I read, for the information, ideas and encouragement that they share and I want to make sure they know that and keep writing.