life — Page 333

Scarves and Rocks on a Sunny Thursday

March 15, 2012 at 9:00 am by Claudia

Sssh! Don’t tell anyone, but I snuck outside on this beautiful day to show you how great the scarves look with a T-shirt and jeans. That pop of color is fabulous! These scarves are so much fun. If you’re down in the dumps or in a bad mood, put one on. I guarantee your mood will change for the better.

Thanks for all the support of our shop. We are thrilled and humbled. I have more ideas up my sleeve and hope to bring them to you soon. Remember, if you want a special order, drop me an email. I’ve done several of them already and I know Meredith will be happy to fill a special order, as well.

Because of the shop and everything I have to do before I leave for Hartford in April, I’ve been unable to visit everyone as much as I usually do. When I have a pocket of time, I try to stop by your blogs but I’m not always able to leave a comment. I promise to try and remedy that as soon as I can.

The weather here has been simply glorious. It’s very warm for March and I’m loving every minute of it. The windows are open, there’s a lovely breeze, the sun is shining. Oh my.

Today? More ‘rock lifting’ as I call it. And work on The Tempest. On Friday I have to go into Manhattan to work with a private client. And suddenly, another week will have gone by. Is it just me or does time seem to go by more quickly these days?

I have two posts today. Scroll down for my book review of The Dispatcher and the chance to win a free copy of this edge-of-your-seat thriller. If you’re interested, remember that you have to leave a comment on the book review post.

Have a great Thursday.

Adventures in Hot Chocolate

March 10, 2012 at 10:44 am by Claudia

You all know about my love for hot chocolate during the winter months, don’t you? I’ve written about it many times. I even shared the ultimate in hot chocolate with you when I was working in New York City last year. This rich confection was a treat from the City Bakery:

My favorite? Ghirardelli’s. Umm-ummm good!

But Ghirardelli’s is a bit pricey. I usually find a way to validate my purchase: “I don’t smoke, I don’t drink, I rarely eat out, it’s cold outside. I deserve it.” But as winter is winding down, I couldn’t quite justify buying another tin. I started drinking Mandarin Orange Spice Herbal Tea in the afternoon. Very nice, but not quite the same as hot chocolate. Yes, it has a pleasant taste, it’s hot, it’s in a mug…but it’s not chocolate.

So, I found myself at Trader Joe’s the other day and happened upon a display featuring their tins of hot chocolate. Perfect, said I, perfect! Because we all know part of the allure of Trader Joe’s is the great prices. The price turned out to be considerably less than Ghirardelli’s. Yippee! And why not try another brand? I was expanding my horizons. I was proud of myself.

Fast forward a few days. Don left for work in the late afternoon. I feed the dogs at that point, make some tea or hot chocolate and sit down in the den. It’s a peaceful time that I look forward to. The dogs sack out after they’ve chowed down. The house is quiet. I usually read some blogs and sip on my beverage of choice.

Ah! This was the time to make that hot chocolate from Trader Joe’s. I warmed up the milk – actually, almond milk – and read the directions on the label which said to add 2 tablespoons of cocoa to warm milk. Hmmm. Ghirardelli’s instructions were to add 4 tablespoons. I figured I’d split the difference and use 3.

Off I went to the den, mug in hand, dogs at my feet. I got settled, opened up my laptop and proceeded to take a sip of the hot chocolate.

My mouth felt like it was on fire.

My taste buds were screaming. It felt like someone had dumped pepper in the mug and mixed it with the hot chocolate. It was bad. I almost did a spit take – had I been in a movie, I guarantee the director would have made me do one. What happened? Had I dumped everything into a mug that had something else in it? Unlikely. Was this a bad batch? Had someone, God forbid, tampered with the hot chocolate, like the Tylenol scare of so many years ago?

I ran to the kitchen and dumped it out. What the ???

Then I grabbed the tin for a closer look.

It was ‘Spicy Hot Cocoa.’

Spicy? Who the heck drinks Spicy Hot Cocoa? Well, obviously people do, but not me! When I told Don about it, he imagined the spices to be cinnamon and cloves; gentle, warm, comforting spices. Well, there’s cinnamon in it, for sure. But the main spice? Cayenne Pepper.

Yes, you read that correctly. Cayenne Pepper.

No wonder I ran to the kitchen, mouth on fire.

I immediately found some sort of generic brand of hot chocolate buried in the pantry and proceeded to drink it. I had to erase the sense memory of that nightmarish taste.

Lesson learned. Read labels more carefully. And pay the extra $3.50 for Ghirardelli’s.

Rocks, Pajamas & a Hair Cut

March 9, 2012 at 8:51 am by Claudia

Recipe for an aching back? Picking up hundreds of rocks from my front yard. And there are thousands more, my friends. Talk about a frustrating task! Every time I think I have a little area cleared, as if by magic, more appear. And where the heck am I going to put them all? The larger ones will be used to further define the edges of my garden beds. The little ones? I have no idea!

Though today is about 20 degrees cooler, the last two days have been glorious. Temps in the 60’s, sun shining…oh spring, please come soon! I hope you’ve been having some spring-like weather in your neck of the woods. I have been extolling the virtues of spring so much that I briefly forgot that spring means no more of this:

Oh no! How can I go on? Fortunately, there will still be a few weeks (or more) of cooler temps, giving me more opportunities to wear my flannel pajamas. This is the Northeast, after all.

Thanks for all the wonderful comments on yesterday’s post. A couple of things come to mind: my friend Barbara said that she thinks women have been taught not to ‘toot our own horns’ and I think she’s right. I’ve always had a reluctance to do so and that hasn’t always served me well. I was speaking about those who seem to post only (and endlessly) about their accomplishments. It gets old, fast. But, yes, I could probably toot my own horn a little more than I do. But only a little.

The other thing I want to touch on is that I know many of you must promote your blog business and/or your Etsy shop and that the accepted method to do these things has become social media – using Twitter and Facebook to help get the word out there. That requires a juggling act of sorts, which must be time-consuming. But if you need to promote your business, you have to do it.

I know that writers hoping to get published are told to get a Facebook page because publishers and agents will automatically check to see how many fans or likes they have. That has become the way of the world in this century. The work can’t speak for itself? It all seems so exhausting.

There’s much to think about.

Okay. I’m not tooting my own horn, but you asked for photos of the hair cut.

I took these with my iPhone – always tricky. It’s just a simple cut, but I had about 4 inches chopped off. I feel so much better. And because I always feel awkward having my picture taken:

See? All about me, me, me.

I look rather startled.

And a little nuts.

I am.

Have a great Friday!

Scarves and Rocks on a Sunny Thursday

Adventures in Hot Chocolate

Lambs Like to Party

A Note

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