Candy
A Spontaneous Splurge
My BFF and I only went down to “that store” a couple of weeks ago (see Festive Tasks: Gifts post), but we decided before another wave of restrictions is going to hit in light of the rising infection figures and the new variant, we might as well go back to stock up on essentials. The […]
Read More
Festive Tasks: Door 17 – Holiday Food (Tasks 1 – 3)
Festive Tasks Master Update Post HERE As for the other squares where I’ve completed several tasks in a single post (Gifts, Holiday Shopping, and Correspondence), I’m dividing this into several pages, one per task. Task 1: What’s your favorite seasonal drink? Can be alcoholic or virgin, complicated cocktails, festive punches / noggs or just […]
Read More
Festive Tasks: Door 7 – Gifts
Festive Tasks Master Update Post HERE Task 1: Are you a fan of gift giving, or is it a burden? Have you figured out a way to balance the commercialization of the season with the desire for a sense of meaning (whether religious or not)? Tell us about it and, if you want, […]
Read More
An Alphabet of My Likes and Dislikes: “T”
This is a post belonging to a new blogging project — the title is pretty much self-explanatory, I think; the project’s introductory post can be found HERE. Credit for the idea: BeetleyPete. As always, the only thing linking the two items mentioned in this post in my mind is that they both start with the […]
Read More
Staying Zen in Stressful Times
24 Festive Tasks: Door 12 – World Philosophy Day, Task 2: How do you stay zen / sane over the holidays or in other stressful periods? And / Or: How did you manage to stay (more or less) zen throughout 2020 … if you did? This, too (like my favorite rainy day reads can easily […]
Read More
Donna Andrews: The Gift of the Magpie … and Yule Candles, Candy, and Other Christmas Cheer
24 Festive Tasks: Door 1 – Winter Solstice (Yule – Dōngzhì – Soyal – Yaldā Night), Book, Task 1 and Bonus Task #2: Book: Read a book that takes place in December, with ice or snow on the cover, where all events take place in a single day or night, that revolves around the solstice, […]
Read More
A Cup of Christmas Goodies
24 Festive Tasks: Door 3 – Melbourne Cup Day, Task 4: Prepare your favorite dessert – in a cup! Post a photo of it for us to enjoy vicariously. I’m clean out of energy to prepare any (even simple) desserts or other dishes, so here, in lieu of a New Year’s Eve toast, is the […]
Read More
Creature Comforts
24 Festive Tasks: Door 9 – World Philosphy Day: Task 3 How do you stay zen / sane over the holidays or in other stressful periods? My only salvation in stressful times: Creature comforts. Lots of them. And BookLikes! 2019 was a hell of a year in virtually every respect, and I don’t mean that […]
Read More
St. Nicholas’ Day Goodies
24 Festive Tasks: Door 14 – St. Nicholas’ Day / Sinterklaas, Task 2: In the Netherlands, ‘Sinterklaas’ is celebrated with ginger biscuits, marzipan and hot chocolate with cream; in Germany, it’s St. Nicholas’ Day with gingerbread, chocolate and / or nut or almond cookies, chocolate candy, and tangerines (or oranges). Choose one or more of […]
Read More
A Book, a Mug (of Tea), and Chocolate Truffles
24 Festive Tasks: Door 24 – Epiphany, Task 4: In Ireland, Epiphany is also sometimes called “Nollaig na mBean” or Women’s Christmas. Traditionally the women get the day off and men do the housework and cooking! It is becoming more popular and many Irish women now get together on the Sunday nearest Epiphany and have […]
Read More
KitKat Flavors
24 Festive Tasks: Door 2 – Japanese Culture Day, Task 2: Try a flavor of KitKat other than chocolate and report back if you liked it. Umm, alright, I admit I already bought these last week, but I swear I only opened and tried them today. They are, in no particular order: Ruby Peanut […]
Read More
Halloween Bingo 2019 PreParty — Question for 08/14 (Day 14): Halloween Bingo Reading Snacks and Drinks … Part 2: The Snacks
So, I had to go down to Frankfurt yesterday, and as I had hoped when composing my original post for this prompt, I managed a small side trip to that store. This year’s Halloween snacks now officially include: Orange chocolate / cocoa truffles White chocolate and almond truffles Cocoa and dark chocolate coated almonds Chili, […]
Read More
Halloween Bingo 2019 PreParty — Question for 08/14 (Day 14): Halloween Bingo Reading Snacks and Drinks?
I don’t know how much reading I’ll be able to get done at home during this year’s bingo, and doubtlessly part of it will be in bed before going to sleep, where I don’t eat anything (and the only drink allowed is mineral water). That said, as we established last year, tea is kind of […]
Read More
Holiday Treats
24 Festive Tasks: Door 15 – St. Nicholas’ Day / Sinterklaas, Task 3: If your holiday family traditions should include bowls or plates filled with gingerbread, cookies, oranges / tangerines, chocolate, nuts and the like, share a photo with us! Here’s my assortment — this year’s edition: The traditional Christmas-y stuff: “Christstollen” (Christmas loaf cake), […]
Read More
Fancy Food Shopping Splurge; or, the Cats and the Candle
My BFF and I took a trip down to Frankfurt yesterday, to stock up supplies at our favorite tea and spice store; and while we were there, we also took a look at Frankfurt’s newly-restored (pseudo-)medieval quarter (whose medieval buildings were destroyed in WWII and were now finally restored from scratch, some 70+ years later […]
Read More
Be good to yourself, they said.
It’ll make you feel better, they said. So this morning, my BFF and I hit the road and drove through this sort of landscape — (note: these are NOT my own photos — I was driving, so I couldn’t take photos at the same time; these do depict places along the way and the sort […]
Read More
Summer Splurges (AKA: Be Good to Yourself)
Largely inspired by Samantha Wilcoxson’s recommendations following up on my read of her books Plantagenet Princess, Tudor Queen and Faithful Traitor – as well as looking forward to book 3 of her Tudor Women trilogy – I’ve been on a minor shopping spree lately. Not all of these are Samantha’s recommendations, but that’s the way […]
Read More