College In 1984

There's been some talk going around blogland lately about what people were doing in 1984.  I am proud to say that I was in college in 1984.  Yes, that makes me alot older than some of you.  Before you start doing the math, I'll make it easy for you....I'm 47 years old.  I graduated high school in 1983 and had just started college in 1984.  I liked it so I stayed for a while...for 8 years.  Here is what I looked like when I graduated undergraduate school at the University of Southern Mississippi.

Yikes!  Just look at that big hair coated with hairspray!  And those big 'ole glasses.  Sorry the picture is of poor quality but we were not working with fancy digital cameras back then.  Can you say Kodak film?


I can say this.  The girl in that picture had it all planned out.  Her life, that is.  She knew where she wanted to go and worked hard to get there.  Things don't always go according to your plans though.  If you've ever read my "About" page on this blog, you'll understand.  


Here are some of my favorite things from around 1984.

I loved the original Footloose movie and some of the early Madonna songs.  And who remembers some of this stuff?

Orange push pops were a necessity in the summer and  that film cartridge is to a Kodak 110 (pocket sized) camera.  Everyone wanted a Sony walkman for cassette tapes and board games were the best form of entertainment.  Now, its tiny digital cameras, iphones, ipods and Angry Birds.  


Here are the two things that I miss the most:  communicating without text messages!  In my day, this is how we did it.  In school, we passed handwritten notes.

Or we used a (real) telephone to call someone.  We didn't text, facebook or tweet someone...especially someone sitting right next to us!

Don't get me wrong, I love today's technology.  I just wish people used their brains a little more than Google search.

Sharing with:

A Look Back Link Up

Summer Recipes and All Stars Linky Party Started - Double Exposure!

It's time to start our linky party!  This is a linky party that is shared between two blogs:  In The Old Road and Simply Done Wright.  What does that mean?


When you link up to the linky party on one of our blogs, it will be shown on both blogs.  That means double exposure for your link up!

I will be hosting the food part of the party with my "What's Your Favorite Summer Recipe?" linky party.  I would love to see what your favorite foods and/or recipes are for the summer.  Give me (and everyone else) some ideas!  If you have recently posted about this, link it up.  Old and new posts are welcome :)


Carri, from Simply Done Wright, will host her All Stars linky party which will include crafts, diy projects, decor, sewing, painting, etc.  Your link up will be on both of our blogs!  How cool is that?

So come link up and party with us.  There are no rules but you might want stay in touch with us because...... we have something BIG planned for next week!  Bigger than two blogs sharing a linky party?  YES! We'd love it if you would follow us on GFC, Linky Followers, Facebook or Twitter :)


What Is Your Favorite Summer Recipes? (food links)





All Stars Linky Party (crafts, diy, decor, etc.)

Pin-tabulous Tuesday #4 - Laundry Rooms

Welcome to another Pin-tabulous Tuesday.  Today I'm going to share some of my favorite laundry room pins with you.  All of these pins can be found on my Pinterest  board, "Laundry Rooms".  And, again, I ask that you be respectful to the original owner of these pins.


MPORTANT:  Please do NOT pin an image from this blog post.  The pins (photos) shown on this blog post are NOT my property and should NOT be referenced back to my blog in any way.  Please refer to the original source if you would like to pin an image.




I have dreams of remodeling my own laundry room one day.  I have the whole thing planned out and visualized in my head.  I just have to get motivated to do it.  My inspiration and "dream design" look something like this.

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I love, love, love green, black and white together!  But since I don't have cabinets in my laundry room (just open shelves), these next pins make me think....maybe I don't need them?

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I always like laundry rooms full of bright, cheerful color.  I mean, if you've got to be in there doing laundry, you might as well make it pretty.

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I think I need a chandelier for my remodel.  My husband should love that, lol.

Thanks for stopping by.  I'll be back soon with the start of my next linky party, "What Is Your Favorite Summer Recipe?"  I will host it with Carri from Simply Done Wright.  Yep, a double header...two blogs sharing one linky party.  It's going to be fun...

Memorial Day and a Linky Party Reminder

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Happy Memorial Day!  As I was looking around the internet for Memorial Day pictures, I couldn't help but fall in love with this house.  It's so simple and elegant.  I wonder what it looks like inside...especially that attic room at the top.  Gorgeous windows.

OK, I get carried away looking at all of the pretty decorations during this holiday weekend but I wanted to share two pictures that really got to me.

The first one is of a little girl placing an American flag at the graveside of a soldier.

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The second one is a picture of a young boy looking at a wall with the engraved names of soldiers who fell during World War II.

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Let me tell you why these two pictures are so important to me.  They remind me of what we, as parents, should teach our children.  

Most young children think of veterans and war as it pertains to Iraq and Afghanistan.  They did not grow up during World War II, the Vietnam and Korean Wars.  But maybe their parents, grandparents or great-grandparents did.  I feel that it is our responsibility to tell our children some of the history that we lived through or grew up hearing about.  It's more than decorating graves or looking at engraved walls and memorials.  

Do you have a personal story about a family member or friend that fought for our freedom during those early  years?  If so, tell the story to a young person.  They need to hear it.  They need to learn from it.  Don't wait until they have to hear it from a stranger in history class while in school.

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Let me step down from my soapbox for a second to update you on my upcoming linky party.  There have been a few changes.  But they're all good changes :)  I am now having two linky parties on Wednesday.

Here is how it will work.  You will be able to link up your favorite summer recipes with me (as I explained here).  You will also be able to link up a craft, diy, painting, sewing, etc. project up to Simply Done Wright's linky party.  Confused yet?

Carri, of Simply Done Wright, and I will have both link ups available on our blogs.  So whether you link up here or there, it will show up on both of our blogs.

Don't forget to take some pictures of your Memorial Day celebrations (food, decor, etc.) and come back here or to Simply Done Wright to share them with us.  We want to see everything.

Gather Up Your Favorite Summer Recipes...Linky Party Coming Up!

I wanted to tell everyone about my next linky party...coming up on Wed., May 30th.  I've decided to do this month's themed linky party about summer foods.

So, as you are preparing to gather with family and friends for the Memorial Day weekend, sneak in a picture (or two) of some of your favorite foods.  It can be anything.  The traditional barbeque foods, salads, desserts, drinks, ice cream, etc.  Or new recipes that have a red, white and blue theme.  


If you are new to my linky parties, I allow link ups of previous posts.  For example:  my friend Carri, of Simply Done Wright, recently posted about a blueberry and strawberry trifle that she made.  Major yummy!  It would make a perfect dessert for a Memorial Day weekend celebration.

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And it would be the perfect thing to link up to my Summer Recipes linky party.  Everything is ready...post written and published, photos taken (that's a subtle hint, Carri!)

To give you more examples of "summer food", I'm going to create my ideal summer meal.  All of these photos are from my summer food/recipes board on Pinterest.

I'll start with an appetizer of fresh watermelon and a little cocktail.

watermelon

watermelon daiquiri

I've got to have barbeque but I couldn't decide which one...so I chose both.

barbeque ribs

barbeque shrimp

And my side dishes will be two of my all time favs.

mac 'n cheese

stuffed sweet potatoes

And for my drink:

watermelon lemonade

The best part?  Dessert.  I could list about 50 things here but I'll pick this one.  I've got to have a little chocolate :)

brownie and berry dessert pizza

OK, get the idea?  You can also link up any good grilling or cooking tips.

I'll post reminders about the party on my facebook and twitter pages.  Meanwhile, enjoy your holiday weekend and remember to take some pictures before you "pig out".



Update:  This linky party will be combined with Simply Done Wright's All Stars linky party so you can also link up any crafts or decor you created.

Mom Command Center

Do you have a certain place in your house that you go to every time you walk in the door?  Somewhere that you drop your keys, phone or bag?  I do.  As much as I try to create a "mudroom" type of space in my home, I always seem to bypass it for a certain corner of the kitchen counter.  Here is what that corner looks like in my kitchen.

I call it my "mom command center" because it's where I put all of my reminder notes, to do lists, grocery lists, etc.  This is my little corner and no one else in my family uses it.  If my husband or son needs to leave me a note, they put it there.  It's the first place I go to when I wake up and I use the space to (try) to keep myself organized.

If you've read some of my previous posts, you might recognize the shelf on the wall.  It holds some of my favorite things.  I wrote about it here.

I also recycled another one of my favorite candy boxes to make a clipboard of sorts.  Just to remind you of what the box looked like (and to make you drool over the candy), here it is.

When the box was empty, I covered it with some of my favorite wallpaper and glued some mini clothespins to the front of it.  I use it to clip coupons, receipts and pictures to.  It hangs on the back of a small folding photo screen so I can easily see it.

Some of the other things that I have in my little corner counter space are a small chalkboard (for notes) and a wooden organizer (for mail, pens, etc.).  I have had the wooden organizer for years but have resisted the urge to paint it because it matches my kitchen cabinets.  The folding screen, however did not escape my painting obsession.  I painted it with AS chalk paint in chateau gray (to match the shelf on the wall).


To end this post, I thought I would show you what the front of the folding photo screen looks like.  It has some of my favorite family photos in it.  Just look at those super cute kids :)

REMINDER:  Don't forget to enter the My Memories Suite Scrapbooking software giveaway still going on here.


Linking to:

Share Your Cup Thursday
Feathered Nest Friday
Happy Hour Friday
Catch As Catch Can
Frugal Friday
It's a Hodgepodge Friday
Weekend Wrapup Party
Create and Inspire Party

My Memories Digital Scrapbooking GIVEAWAY

Do you like to be creative with your photos?  Have you ever tried to create a scrapbook photo album?  Scrapbooking has been very popular for several years.  I even tried it myself years ago but gave it up when the "digital age" took over.  I no longer had printed photos to tape or glue to my scrapbook pages.


I have tons of digital photos saved on my computer but I rarely look at them.  Most of my photos are randomly stored in computer files that have no meaning or purpose other than to "save" them.   So when I was contacted by the people at MyMemories.com about their digital scrapbooking software, I was very intrigued.  

The My Memories Suite Digital Software helps you create beautiful scrapbook pages using an assortment of different templates, papers and page elements.  The software is very well designed and easy to navigate.  You can literally create an entire digital scrapbook album in minutes.

I've got to be honest with you.  I meant to write this post days ago but I got a little carried away doing my "research" about this product.  The wonderful people at MyMemories let me try out some of their digital scrapbooking products so I could tell you more about it and share my experience.  I started out creating one digital scrapbooking album but enjoyed it so much that I ended up creating three of them.


Here are samples from those albums.

Not only can you create different albums, you can easily share them also.  My Memories Suite Software allows multiple sharing options in print form or multimedia sharing.  Traditional scrapbooks or photobooks can be easily printed.  Or you can share your scrapbook as a movie or interactive album for your computer.  


I am giving away MyMemories Suite Digital Scrapbook Software (v3) to one of my lucky readers so they can also experience the fun of digital scrapbooking.  To enter this giveaway, simply follow the guidelines set forth in the Rafflecopter widget below.


That's not all!  MyMemories will also provide a $10 discount off of the purchase of the My Memories Suite Scrapbook software and a $10 coupon for the MyMemories.com store - a $20 value!  All you have to do is use this promotion code:  STMMMS81704 at MyMemories.com.


I'll be sharing more of my experiences with this product on my blog's facebook and twitter pages this week.  Join me there to see what else I create :)

a Rafflecopter giveaway

We Have A Winner!!!!

Congratulations to AMANDA for being chosen as the winner of my Shabby Apple giveaway!  The winner was chosen by Rafflecopter and has been informed by email.  Are you Amanda?  Check your email :)

Pin-tabulous Tuesday #3 - Great Ideas

Have you ever heard of a good idea or an easier way to do something and thought "now why didn't I think of that"?  Yeah, me too.  All the time!


Today's Pin-tabulous Tuesday is going to be about just that.  If you have been on Pinterest, you've probably seen a pin showing an easier, quicker way to do something that always seemed difficult.  I've repinned many of them.  In fact, I created a board with nothing but good ideas, tips and tricks, genius ideas, etc....  Call it what you may but I like them.  And a Pinterest board is a great way to "store" them for future reference.

MPORTANT:  Please do NOT pin an image from this blog post.  The pins (photos) shown on this blog post are NOT my property and should NOT be referenced back to my blog in any way.  Please refer to the original source if you would like to pin an image.  

Here are a few of my favorites, some of which I have used repeatedly.  Since we're headed into summer, I'll start with some good ideas that might help you during your summer vacations/staycations.


Going to the beach?  Don't forget to pack the baby powder to get the sand off of your legs and feet...or other body parts.

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Going camping?  Or preparing for hurricane season?  (I'm from the South, y'all).  Here is a good, cheap idea for a portable, battery powered light.  Strap a headlamp, pointed in, around a gallon of water to provide ambient light.

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How about some all-around, good household tips?  Next time you're doing the laundry and need to remove a greasy stain from clothing, grab a piece of chalk.  Just rub it into the grease stain prior to washing.  The chalk absorbs the grease and makes it easier to remove by the laundry soap in the wash.

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Have you ever been boiling water (cooking rice, pasta, beans, etc...) on the stove only to have the pot "boil over"?  Try this.  Lay a wooden spoon on top of the pot.  It won't boil over.  Trust me, I've tested this one.  Just don't ask me how it works. 

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A dishwasher is great for cleaning dirty dishes.  But what about cleaning the dishwasher?  Yes, the inside of dishwashers can be pretty gross.  Just think about what you put in them.  Here is a quick and easy way to clean your dishwasher.  Put a cup (dishwasher safe) filled with white vinegar on the top rack of the dishwasher.  Next, run the dishwasher through a full cycle...using hot water.  When it's finished, sprinkle baking soda in the bottom of the tub and run a short cycle.  When it's done, you will have a clean and fresh dishwasher.

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If you're gardening this summer, here are two of my favorite tips.  I used these ideas a few weeks ago...they are fantastic!


Punch holes in the top of an 1/2 gallon (milk?) plastic container and use it as a watering can.  Cheap, easy and a way to recycle.

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Before you plant flowers in a pot with a hole in the bottom, line it with a coffee filter to keep the soil from escaping yet allowing water to drain.
Update:  A reader just told me about another idea like this...you can also use dryer sheets (already used) to line your pots.  Recycling at it's best! (Thanks, Alma)

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This is something that I need to do right now (or maybe tomorrow).  Clean your ceiling fan by sliding a pillow case over each fan blade.  When you wipe it clean all of the nasty dust will be caught in the pillowcase.

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And here is my "why didn't I think of that" moment.  Use a stretched out paper clip to hold one end of a bracelet when you try to clasp it....Duh!

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I just tried this last tip.  I grabbed one of my old Richard Marx (remember him?) cassette tapes and emptied it of the tape and the paper lining.  I brought it to my teenage son to show him how cool it was to use as an iphone stand.  Awesome, right?

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He just looked at me and said, "Mom, you're so old".  

Really?  I'll bet he was just embarrassed that he didn't know what a cassette tape was.  Kids hate it when they realize that their parents are smarter than them.  I bet he doesn't even know who Richard Marx is either :)