Friday Favorites

I forgot how much I enjoyed chronicling life and things I like here in my little corner of the internet.  Right now I am baking my birthday cake.  I have grand plans for a fun look.  I'll be sure to share the wins and losses on that next week.  

1.  Speaking of baking, I had some spent vanilla beans so I dried them in the oven and ground them up.

 Looks like dirt or coffee grounds, right?  It's vanilla bean powder.  I could mix it with something to make a paste or just use it dry.  So far, dry is my plan.  I mixed it in my vanilla cake and I could tell the difference in the vanilla flavor.  Vanilla beans are so expensive that I had never purchased beans until recently to make my own vanilla.  Because I hate to waste anything I had to find out if I could use those beans.  You can also put them in sugar or salt to make them vanilla scented.  

2.  Check out these flowers!  Matt came home with them after a night of working the census.  He went to a home that had a vineyard and event space.  They were going to open up this summer for weddings and events.  Too bad, it sounds like a nice space.  He said the owner thought they'd just wait until next year.  The owner gave him this huge bundle of lillies.  

3.  Voting is more important now than ever I think.  I choose not to affiliate officially with a party because I think we need both sides.  We need them to quit bickering and come together for our nation.  Here's my obligatory Instagram photo of me after I voted in the primary.  I guess most states are the same in that during a primary you have to choose a party.  But there is always a non-affiliated or non-partisan ballot.

4.  I took a half day on Monday and the weather was like early fall.  Warm, not hot, bright sun.  I grabbed Pickles and went to the living history museum.  We walked around there and I finally found the trail so we walked there too.  She was a big fan of all the old buildings.

5.  I have a new toy.  It's a bug zapper racket.  When the gnats were really bad I needed something to get rid of them.  I tried indoor and outdoor sprays and essential oils.  They helped but didn't get rid of them totally.  They get zapped into oblivion which is fine by me.  

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