Forgive Me Bloggers For I Have Pinned

How about you, have you started pinning yet? If not you must rush right over and get started!

Pinterest is a virtual pin board - you create your own pin boards, browse through things others have pinned and add your favorites to your own boards, or pin up anything you find that you love from blogs or anywhere on the Internet!

For example, the bracelets below are one of the things I came across that I totally adore. I added these to my Personal Style board...

                                                                           Source: imgfave.com via Martha on Pinterest

I had seen Pinterest around quite a bit on blogs lately, I was very pinterested ::hehe:: My friend Cindy finally inspired me to go check it out after sharing some wonderful things on her blog Gemini Wilder from her finds there. Now I'm hooked. I really, really love it. I need an intervention - or maybe we should call it a pintervention ;-)

It can definitely be very addicting and yet another way to procrastinate and waste time on the computer - I say after creating 18 boards and over 450 pins already. At the same time, it's a great way to find out who you really are. After looking at the boards I've created I actually said to myself  "So that's who I am!" It's so much fun and so liberating!

I guess the cool thing is that's it's a place to put together our own wants, likes, needs, styles, and loves all in one place without considering others opinions. Of course we can create special boards for things for our loved ones too if we want to. The individual boards we create are only limited by our own imaginations.

Pinterest has been really helpful for my upcoming redecorating too. I have so many different likes and styles that I didn't know which direction to go. My thoughts on things were all just all over the place and mashing together. Pinterest really helped me to separate and organize the chaos, and given me some really great ideas.

If you're pinterested (oh my I must stop with the pinterest humor!) stop by my boards using the button below and then just click on each board to see details...



If you want to start pinning too just let me know and I'll send you an invitation (pinvitation, lol), otherwise you have to sign up and wait for an invite. Hope you'll come over and join me in my latest addiction :-)

Beach Party ~ Catch Up Time

Grab your beach chair and a cold one from the cooler, it's that time - yep, time to kick back and relax, it's time to get our beach party started!

I seem to have caused some confusion by hosting the beach parties with a shared linky here and also at my food blog Seaside Simplicity. The parties have been all about the food there for the most part - food for the party is great, in fact that was and is still part of the party plans, but the main idea of these parties is to catch up with what's been going on in each others lives just as we would if we were really getting together for a real beach party. So this week I'm only hosting the party here at Menagerie, we'll see how things go, maybe I'll alternate - any other suggestions?

~ What's been going on in my world lately ~

Last week I was back to the 10 hour workday schedule, almost 12 if you count my commute. It's been so tiring, but only one more week to go on that schedule, and then finally a couple weeks off!

Besides work my world has been filled with construction. We've been doing renovations at both homes going on 6 months now, and doing it all ourselves. We have tons of different projects going at once and living in such a huge mess! Here's a little peek at the latest photos taken today...

This was my mother's house which we are planning to move into this summer if  we can ever get things finished up! We refer to this house at "The Mansion" since it's so much larger than our house. We call our house "The Beach House" now. Yes, we are pretending we are rich people - Dahling shall we spend the weekend at the mansion or the beach house? Hey, we have to do something to keep our sense of humor!

Today I had to get the POD storage unit (photo above) emptied by myself after getting a notice from the homeowners association that it had been there too long - gotta love deed restricted communities. The guys were busy with bigger things, so the POD was my baby to handle in the scorching Florida heat. I'm totally exhausted!

I had to do just what I swore I wouldn't do and move all that stuff back into the house. It was supposed to go from the storage to the garage until I could sort through it and deal with it, but as you can see the garage is still construction central. I had to take one room that was completed to use for a storage area for now. The hardest part is that so many things will have to be moved again and again and again by the time everything at both homes is completed! 

I am dealing with renovating two homes at once, trying to move from one to the other, trying to set one up as a furnished vacation rental, and dealing with sorting and storing the contents of my daughters apartment, a huge amount of my mother's belongings that I wasn't able to donate in the original clean out, and our own stuff that has gotten totally out of control compliments of my pack rat husband - love him dearly but sure don't love the stuff.

Right now I don't feel like I'll ever have things in order again. Realistically I know I will eventually, it's just not going to happen anywhere near as quickly as I'd like. I hate to say it but it could literally take years - very frustrating!

~ What's been going on in my blogging world lately ~

At Seaside Simplicity I have a Theme of the Month Recipe Round Up going on. This month's theme is salads. At last count there were 59 different salads linked up! Be sure to pop over to link up if you have a great salad posted or just to get some great ideas.

Other than the food I have posted for the Beach Parties, the only other recipe I have up this month at Seaside Simplicity is my Lime Herb Chicken with Garlic Parsley Potatoes...

Then over at MM's Missions I posted my June Mission - Focus on Fitness only to be followed up by my Murphy's Law post - It really figures!

Speaking of MM's Missions, I'm closing up shop there. Any of my usual content there will be brought over here including my participation in Laura's 52 Weeks of Organizing! Hey, it's not called a "Menagerie" here for nothing you know!

Now I want to hear what's been going on in your world!

Sunset Reminders

Hurry on over to The Beach Party it's almost time to watch the sunset!

Lyndsey from The Tiny Skillet brought us a pitcher of cool, refreshing Agua de Flor de Jamacia and she didn't forget the rum!

Photo Credit - Lyndsey

I have to leave the party just after sunset tonight to get home and ready for my fun filled new schedule at work for the next couple weeks: 10 hour workdays - fun, fun, fun!

The Beach Party continues without me after sunset until midnight on Thursday. Hope you'll have a chance to stop by. Cheers!

Beach Party - Changes

I don't know what I was thinking when I decided to try to get these weekend beach parties started. My life has been so hectic and complicated lately that I barely have time to to catch my breath on Friday nights once I'm finished with work for the week - and then bright and early on Saturday mornings I move on to very busy weekends, and I'm not talking fun kind of busy.

I really thought doing these posts would be a relaxing and enjoyable thing to do on my Friday evenings, but instead I find myself feeling like it's just one more thing on the list I need to do. All of us who blog strictly for pleasure know that if it feels like work instead of fun it's something we shouldn't be doing.

I love the idea of the virtual beach parties, I just don't have the time or energy to do it every week. I made a decision last weekend that I was going to do anything within my power to take demands off my time and simplify things as much as possible during this crazy time in my life. 

So here's the deal - I don't want to do away with the beach parties, but don't want to feel obligated and probably won't post them every single week. They are officially random for now instead of weekly. Everyone good with that? 

Enough complaining, I'm ready to get this party started - how about you? Come on, your friends are all waiting down at the beach!

This week I'm bringing some bacon wrapped stuffed jalapenos for our party buffet...

These are simply jalapeno peppers cut in half, cleaned and stuffed with cream cheese, wrapped in bacon and secured with toothpicks. Bake at 350 until bacon is crisp and cheese slightly browned. I've found that partially cooked bacon (or the kinds that come precooked) work best if you like your bacon nice and crisp.

These are super simple but so good! Go ahead and try one, just be sure to have a nice cold drink to go with it!

I can't wait to spend some time catching up with all of you!

Who Needs Opposable Thumbs Anyway?

I wanna be a kitty - one of my spoiled kitties anyway. I think kitties probably wanna be a people. Doesn't he look like a people? Can you tell that he's just being lazy, demanding snacks and telling me to turn the TV to some kind of sports? If only he had opposable thumbs things would be so different. On second thought, he already knows just what to do to make me do whatever he wants. He probably laughs at the mention of opposable thumbs. Who needs them when you have servants?!

Party time!

Time to grab your virtual beach towels, put on your virtual flip flops and head over to the beach! What's this all about you ask? Check out the Weekend Beach Party link at the top for more info.

Close your eyes for a few minutes and imagine you are heading down to the beach. It's almost sunset, friends are waiting. Back at the picnic area there's good food on the grill, nice cold drinks, and a great spread of appetizers, side dishes, snacks and desserts. You're welcome to bring something to add if you'd like.

Now it's time to mix, mingle and fill each other in on what's been happening in our lives lately while enjoying the weekend at the beach. Create your post telling us all about what's been going on and then head back over to link up. That's what these virtual beach parties are all about. There are no rules, just relax, enjoy, and make some new friends while you're here.

Last weekend I brought pizza and beer (well duh, nothing new there ;-). Other friends brought margaritas, sangria, great music, BBQ, desserts, and we even had a nice breakfast buffet provided for the next morning. Hey, it's a weekend long beach party, we need all kinds of goodies!

Now that you know all about what's going on here it's time to get our beach party started!

My week was a busy one! It was the last week of school so things were very busy at work. I'm a little sad tonight because I'm going to miss the seniors that are graduating this weekend. I've become so close to some of them, especially my student aides. It's like seeing my own kids graduate and move on into their adult lives. The big difference and saddest part is that most of these students I'll never see again. Every year they take a little part of my heart when they go, but this year my aides have been even more special to me and we've been through a very difficult and tragic year together. I won't get into detail here but just trust me on that one.

Things have been really busy at home too with my own children's end of the year activities. My oldest son returned at the beginning of the week from a five day trip to New York City! He went there with his high school chorus to sing at Carnegie Hall - opportunity of a lifetime! My youngest son enjoyed his last week of middle school, he's off to high school next school year - my babies have all grown up way too fast! I got a text message from my daughter this week telling me she had passed me up and now has six cats and one dog ::rolling eyes:: Hubby has been sick this week and I've just been completely exhausted!

Enough about my week! Here's what I'm bringing to the party buffet for this weekend...

Nothing fancy, just your typical Toll House cookie recipe. I think we all know that one without repeating it here. Go ahead and have one while they are still warm!

Join us each weekend for the party at the beach, and remember - what happens at the beach stays at the beach! Pass me another cold one will ya?