Thai Spices on Instagram

There's a Thai restaurant close to my workplace and I go there a couple times a month for lunch. The food is oh-so-yummy, and I crave it if it's been too long since my last visit! And with the exception of one time when my friend Barbara joined me for lunch, I dine there alone.

I love that the sweet server knows my regular order and doesn't even bother to bring me a menu. It's a shame that I've dined there so many times and not asked what her name is! I'll remedy that next time.*

Anyway! When I go to Thai Spices I always take a photo and Instagram it. It's become a semi-regular feature in my Instagram feed, and many times I'll tag Barbara saying I wish she was there with me. And I joke about it myself as I post yet another photo from that same restaurant, while my blog friend Ginger plays it up like she misses it if I don't Instagram Thai Spices for a while.

I love that my nieces and nephews follow my Instagram feed, and I laughed last weekend while we were in California when my 17-year old nephew randomly mentioned it. He put his arm around me and lifted his chin up a bit as he mockingly said, "You at Thai Spices, Aunt Deb?" Haha. I love that kid.

And I love Thai Spices Restaurant and the little gal who serves me there.

I order Pad Kee Mow every time. Mild. And a glass of water.

Mmmmm, I'm in the mood for some Thai food now.

Thai Spices, coming soon to Instagram...

♥

* Her name is Anna. :o)

My 3-Day Weekend in Instagrams

Carrie and I went to California to visit family;

My girl C and me;

My grandma and me;

My niece Presley; and

Home sweet home.

♥

 

What a fast and busy weekend we had. We soaked up

some family time, some love, and some sunshine.

I hope yours was lovely too.

 

PS#1: Word art on first and last photos is A Beautiful Mess app

PS#2: Join me tomorrow (5/29) for Cate's Bloggy Baby Shower :o)
PS#3: Join me this Friday (5/31) for "Just a Quote" photo challenge.

The Book of Instagrams

I love Instagram.

Like, I'm kind of seriously hooked on Instagram.

♥

I love the ability to take a photo with my phone, quickly add a filter, and then

share it in that format with a much smaller, more intimate group of friends

{as opposed to Facebook where lots of people see it and know my business}.

 

When I posted an Instagram picture a couple of weeks ago of a book of Instagrams I'd had printed {See? I told you I'm hooked!}, several of my Instagram peeps wanted a closer look. So today, I give you my book of Instagrams.

 

 

I was on Shutterfly one day, putting together a book of photos from our trip to England, when I noticed a tab for "Instagrams" in the photo upload screen. When I clicked on that tab, I was asked to enter my Instagram log-in information and ta-da! There were my Instagram photos, ready to be pulled into Shutterfly for printing and/or project making. So, I made a book!

 

I kept the format very basic - chose a white background and the same page layout throughout the book. And the captions I used were the same as the ones I had used when I posted the photo on Instagram.

I also included some hashtags and user names (i.e. @carrierosalind) whenever my original Instagram photo included such. This will really confuse my grandmother later this month when she has a chance to look through this book! {ha!}

The book is 8" x 8" and I love having these photos printed and available to browse through whenever we want. It's a fun little collection of the great trip that Carrie and I had together.

So, how about you?

Do you use Instagram?

Do you like my book?

:o) ♥

PS: You can follow me on Instagram if you'd like. My user name is PaperTurtle.

First Autumn Weekend Recap

Greetings, friends.

We had a lovely and busy weekend, and I have a few photos to show for it...

Friday evening we had friends in town that we hadn't seen in about 6 years. They arrived for dinner and we talked and laughed and ate and drank until midnight. And took not one photo! The only photo I have is this one that I took before they arrived - part of a table centerpiece for the evening...

After our friends left and I realized I hadn't taken any photos I was pretty bummed, but then I realized - hey, we had so much fun and it was so good to see them that I didn't think about anything other than enjoying our time together. That's a good thing - and I don't need a photo to remind me of that. {But it sure would have been nice for my Project Life book...}

And speaking of Project Life, I actually created a few layouts for my book this weekend.

And this one with lots of 2"x2" photos from my nephew's birthday party {page protector is for coin collectors but worked out great for all these photos!}.

Yesterday morning Carrie and I participated in the National Ovarian Cancer Coalition's Walk/Run to Break the Silence event. It was a beautiful morning for a walk, and for a great cause too. We thought about my mom every step of the way!

After the walk we had breakfast together, and then a fresh teal pedicure {although in this photo they look blue so you'll have to trust me - they are teal!}. You can read more about teal toes here.

Don't you just love sweet surprises? Like the inside of this little watermelon with its natural heart shapes inside? :o) ♥

And with that I'm off to conquer the last week in September. Can you hardly believe it? I've been seeing Christmas-y posts here and there and you just know that will be here before we know it. With all the stuff I have going on in my head these days, I'm not sure there's room in there for Christmas yet, so this should be an interesting Autumn. And winter.

Oh well, I'll deal with it.

And be blessed along the way.

♥

Labor Day Weekend Recap

Hey there, friends!

♥ !

This particular Monday morning finds me leisurely sipping my second cup of coffee and planning how I'm going to spend this glorious {Hi Beverly} day off. Some of the exciting things on my agenda are: grocery shopping, laundry, and litter box duty. Do I know how to have a good time or what?

Anyway! Even though my weekend isn't technically over yet, I'm giving you a look at how things were over the past few days...

A sweet work-friend brought a little cup of jasmine blossoms for me to enjoy on Friday. So lovely!

And, as previously blogged about here, Carrie and I got Teal Toes on Friday night. {How sweet to see our friend Ruth join the party too!}

Saturday morning = totally excited for the calendar to read September 1st! It has been so stinking hot here on my piece of the planet, and I'm ready for fall. Now. Please. 

Doug was out of town for the weekend and I was left to my own devices. I was also left with some beautiful flowers {aka "Hunter's Guilt Bouquet"}. Thanks, Doug! ♥

With three days off work, I had big plans for a few sewing projects. One such project is making vallances for our kitchen windows. The biggest part for me is choosing the style and fabric so I at least got that part done. Now I just need to execute...

Right, so...being left to my own devices, and the third night in a row of not fixing a proper dinner, I made chocolate chip cookies and proceeded to eat way more than I should in any one sitting. I did have a nice big glass of milk as an accompaniment. That has to count for something...right?

The sunflowers that I planted in our backyard have been such a happy distraction this past month. This new round that's blooming is the perfect segue to autumn. I totally dig these colors!!!



And with that I'm off to conquer a few loads of laundry and a lengthy grocery list.

Here's wishing you a week full of blessings and things to smile about.

♥

Warm Weekend Recap

Zzzzzzzoooooom!

It's Monday again!!!

I took a lot of photos this past weekend, both with my big camera and

with my phone. Today I give you the usual Monday fare: Instagrams.

♥

Big news this weekend is that our medium sized sunflowers are blooming. There's even a red colored one getting ready to open! :o)

My nephew Stone is turning four in a few weeks, and my sister is having a cowboy themed party for him. I spent some time on Saturday making a bunting for the party. 

I had lunch with my girl C on Saturday, and afterwards we did a little shopping. This little sparkly Buddha in a snow globe caught her eye and I thought she had to have it. {The blue earrings are mine!}

Hahahahahaha... Oh my gosh, this cracked me up... 

Last fall I when planted some tomato plants, I also planted a jalapeno pepper plant. It was so close to not surviving that I almost pulled it out of the ground several times. At one point a bug or something had eaten it down to just a little green stick. I put this little turtle rock by it and what do you know? A few months later and we have a thriving little plant. I love stuff like this!

Doug was out on Saturday and I hadn't expected him back by dinner time. He ended up home early, so I pulled together a quick plate of grilled cheese sandwiches. He had no complaints. ;o) 

We woke up yesterday morning to a broken air conditioning unit - ooh it got hot in our house by the time the repairman arrived at 2:00 p.m. Here's how Whiskers passed the time: 

And that was our weekend - a mix of fun, creativity, laundry, and heat.

The good news is that September is JUST around the corner and summer is almost over!

We have a busy week ahead, and a 3-day weekend to look forward to.

Let's do it!

♥

Mid-August Weekend Recap

Monday morning greetings, dear friends.

I hope each of you had a great weekend.

Here's a look at mine...

♥

I spent a bit of my time working on a little surprise for my mom. {I'll show you the full deal once she's received it in the mail...}

Doug went to the Cardinal's football game on Friday night, and I spent my time gathering photos for the project I was working on for my mom.

Enjoyed an amazing sunset behind my ninth and final sunflower of the season:

Had lunch with Carrie on Saturday and enjoyed some beautiful puffy clouds...

We changed out Rexy's water source with a more shallow pan {easier to clean}. I think he looks good in orange...

:o) ♥

This will be a busy work week for me - lots of check-lists and

projects to take care of - it will be Friday again before we know it!

Here's wishing each of us a week full of amazing things!

♥

Fly-by Weekend

Good day, blog friends!

I hope you had a fantastic weekend!

Mine was good and busy and hot.

Every year around this time we know it's coming, but somehow everyone acts surprised {and highly annoyed} that we have record-breaking temperatures day after day. It's just darned hot here in August. {115° = 46 celsius}

Friday was my grandma's 92nd birthday. I posted this photo of her grandmother {my great-great-grandma} Delila on Instagram. I bet she was happy on that day 92 years ago!

I'll admit that I've been feeling pretty sorry for myself these days. My mom is really sick, and try as I might I just can't seem to think of anything but her. I stopped at the grocery store on my way home Saturday evening and bought myself a cheery bouquet of flowers.

We have a big project happening at work and I spent Saturday and Sunday at the office. {What weekend?} I was productive and purged a bunch of stuff, leaving a huge stack of file folders and paper to recycle. I couldn't stand seeing all that paper go to waste! So, I made stuff...

The original plan was to be at the office until 5:00 p.m. both days, but the work crew finished early yesterday {hooray!!!}. I hooked up with my girl C and we had pedicures, then walked around Whole Foods for a little while. We both took a picture of the cherry tomatoes, but all we bought was a bottled water - just not in the mood for shopping. {Crazy, right?}

And with that it is Monday and time to start again.

I'll be focusing on putting one foot in front of the other...

Keeping my chin up...

Carrying on.

♥



What's in an Instagram

for Rinda

{scavenger hunt item #8 ~ statue of an angel}

♥ 

Instagram, Instagram, Instagram.

I know, I talk about it a lot. I use it a lot. I love it a lot.

Wanna' see why?

Ok, if you aren't familiar with what Instagram is all about, I thought it would be fun for you to see what I've been doing with it. It's pretty basic really - you take a picture with your phone, pull that picture into Instagram, crop it, choose a filter, and share it. Other Instagram'ers can see your photo, like it, and comment on it.

All of the photos in this post were taken with my iPhone. The photos on the left are before, right side after editing in Instagram.

Really cool, huh? I confess to trying every filter available on most shots before I settle on the one I think looks best. You can see how much it changes the look and feel of the original shot.

One little tip I would offer for Instagram is to bring it in close. When I pull a photo in and crop it I go super close, then work my way out until I have what I want in the frame. This next shot was also edited with PicFx to get the bokeh in the mix.

Super cool, right?

How about you? Are you using any photo editing tools on your phone?

If you have Instagram on your phone look me up!

I'm PaperTurtle.

:o) ♥