A Fun Gift - 3D printer style. Lots of pictures.

 Hello & Welcome. - Gosh it's been awhile since I've posted.  The holiday season is so busy and this year has been no exception.  Today though I am sharing some really neat stuff that my awesome brother, Roger sent me.

I'm known as the "crazy cat lady" so be prepared!

Musical kitties

Aren't these hilarious and oh so true if you have cats!

Going to have fun decorating next Halloween with these amazing pictures.

                     Loving the Steampunk look of these.

                      A little Abstract cat art is always fun.

                                 What cats are thinking about.

         

So many different styles of kitties but oh so fun and cute.

He also sent these:

                               Aren't these fun bookmarks!

                             For the corners of the door 

     Simon magnets for the refrigerator. That cat cracks me up.

Some non-cat themed items: Well a couple are cats but they are Big Cats:

He also sent some Christmas ornaments with all our pet's names on them and some cat related ones.  They are already on the tree so I will have to get pictures of them at another time.

Just so you know he did not design the actual art work.  He finds pictures and then chooses the colors and such and prints them off on the 3D printer.  They have great texture to them and are really neat.  I took the photos with my phone so they don't actually show how really cool these are.

Thank you brother, it was a lot of fun opening and unwrapping that box of goodies.

It's a Wedding

 Time goes by way to quickly - This event happened in September and I'm just now getting around to sharing it.

I had the pleasure of attending my nephew, Richie's (aka Cricket) in September.  He's the son of my brother, Richard who passed away in 2021.

Here are highlights from the photo's that I took (on my phone) as I didn't take my big girl camera with me.

                                         The wedding arch

How they honored my brother

The groom waiting for his bride

The bridesmaids

                The groom, groomsmen and officiant.

The flower girl.  The older redhead helping her is the grooms      daughter.

Here comes the bride,  They went by so quickly it was hard to get a decent picture.
 

                                The couple at the arch 

Saying their vows

The Ring (bear) bearer

                                       Exchanging rings

Sealed with a kiss

Newly married couple (Richie and Courtney)

                 Bride & Groom and the bride's son at the reception.

Cutting the cake

Grooms slice

The Brides slice

My favorite picture of them - Her expression is awesome.

Some of the many yummy desserts from the dessert table.    

It was a fun event and I wish them many happy years together.

September Events - Day 1 (Birthday Girl)

Someone turned 4 in September and today I'm sharing a few photos from her birthday celebration.  These first 2 were taken the morning of her birthday.  The rest are from her birthday party later that day.

Some of the many (Under the Sea) decorations that her mom and sister set up for the party.

Waiting to open presents and opening them.  There were lots more but I figured these 2 would be enough to share.

The cupcakes, blowing out the candle and enjoying the cupcake.
 

Grandma and Grandpa playing along with some of the props that were available for everyone to wear and have fun with.

It was 94 out that afternoon so I didn't get many pictures of the kids playing on the playground equipment.  They had fun, we did too but boy was it HOT.  Maybe next year she can have an indoor party.

Book Review - The Merry Matchmaker by Sheila Roberts

Today I'll be reviewing the book,  The Merry Matchmaker by, Sheila Roberts.  I received an unedited copy of the book in advance for my review of this book.

Below is the information given about the book when I requested it.

Inspired by Jane Austen’s Emma, this joyful Christmas romp tells the story of a woman who can’t stop trying to help everyone around her find their happily-ever-after—even when her help leads to disaster.

Frankie Lane knows what’s best for just about everyone but herself. Her divorced sister, Stef, who is too young to give up on love; her shy employee, Elinor; and her daughter, Natalie, who works in Frankie’s shop, Holiday Happiness, and really needs to start her own business selling the delectable chocolates she makes at home; even her best friend, Viola, who is trying to renovate her old Victorian. Frankie knows she could help all of them, if they’d just let her—and if all of her help didn’t end in utter disaster. 

Then there’s Mitch Howard, the owner of the local hardware store. They’ve been friends ever since Frankie opened her store, nine years earlier. He got her through the nightmare when she lost her husband in a freak accident, and he’s her favorite shoulder to cry on. He’s been divorced for years, and it’s such a waste of man! Mitch is the fittest, finest man Frankie knows. He’s easygoing, wise and kindhearted. Mitch needs someone. And she’s determined to help him find that someone—whether he likes it or not.

Here are my thoughts on the book:  The first thing that caught my attention was the fact that this book was set at Christmas time and was a romance story. Two of my favorite things. I thought it sounded like a really fun read.  

It took me a few chapters to start getting involved in the story but once I did I found it to be a very enjoyable book.  I loved the various characters in the story.  They were interesting people and the author made them sound believable.  Frankie, the main character was always trying to match up people or help them out with one thing or another even if they weren't aware of it.  This often caused some hilarious or disastrous results.

A lot of time these romance/rom-com type books seem very stereotypical of Hallmark type stories/movies.  - With this one it had elements of that in it but also was more involved with the different characters so you go to know them as people rather than just a "bit player" in the story.  I wanted to keep reading to find out how things would end up for everyone.

I'm not going to give away how it ended but I will say that it was indeed a fun read that had just the right touches of romance without being overly sappy.

I would recommend this book to those who like clean romance stories and a entertaining cast of characters.  I'd give this a 4 star rating.  The only thing that I'd mark it down on was perhaps that the book was a tad slow to start off and then towards the end of the story things picked up at a fast pace almost as if the author needed to get to the end of the story in a hurry.  That's just how I felt about the story.

Thanks for stopping by to read my review.

Lost and Found - A Tale of the missing coffee mug

 Please Read entire story:

Many years ago back in 1998 (the year my dad passed away) I received a coffee mug from a "Secret Pal" from the women's group at the church I belonged to at the time.  - I loved said cup,  It was black with a red heart rimmed in gold.  A very (artsy) type heart.

One day the cup went missing and I searched and searched for it.  I thought I might have taken it to the Bowling alley and left it but they said no such cup had been found.  I thought maybe my Granddaughter had used it and it was somewhere buried in all the stuff in her old bedroom. - She use to take coffee cups up to her room which is why I thought she had taken it. - It became a long standing "joke" that whenever she was looking for something in her room I'd ask her if she found my coffee mug.  This went on for about the last 8-10 years and she would get very annoyed with me when I'd ask her about finding my cup.

Mike had even said that he thought he had seen the mug somewhere but just couldn't remember where it was. He thought maybe it might have been one that had gotten mold in it up in her room and been thrown away.  She thought it had gotten broken and thrown out.

Sometime last month I was looking for something on E-bay and saw a photo of my mug for sale.  I made a bid and and got the cup.  Then I decided to play a trick on Jupiter by putting the cup in a box in her old room and calling her over to say that I had found my cup at long last (I know, pretty mean) and she fell for it until I started laughing.

Then I had to tell her that it really wasn't my long lost mug that I had just found one just like it and bought it. She had a good laugh about my prank on her.

Flash forward to today...I was out in hubby's office trying to help him find the dog shampoo and happened to look over on his desk.

Do you know where this is leading....

I look over on his desk and see this...I'm thinking why is my coffee mug on his desk.  Then the light bulb comes on and I realize this is the exact cup that I have been trying to find for the last 5-6 years! The gold around the rim and bottom of the cup is gone because it got washed so much in the dishwasher.  Will hand wash the new one now to prevent that.

I don't know how many times I've been out in his office and never once noticed that the cup was on his desk.  Needless to say I felt pretty stupid.  Had to call my granddaughter over and show her.  Then I apologized to her for accusing her all these years of having my cup and losing it.

All's well that ends well I guess.  Both coffee mugs will remain now where they are.