Meet Me on Monday Mug Shot

Welcome to Monday – Kick off the week with a Black Forest Cake Pop!

Yes, a before and after title! I’m combining a new meme with an old favorite, bringing back a popular feature at The Chronicles of Nani and inviting new regulars at my Coffee Shop on the Information Superhighway to grab a mug of their favorite web surfing beverage and stay a moment.

What do you think of the cake pops? I've been really thinking of getting a cake pop pan to either make cake pops or cake balls, same thing without the sticks, for Christmas Davinities this year. I love the Starbucks Cake Pops. Just enough for a treat at smaller amounts of sugar, fat, calories & Weight Watchers points, At Christmas it means you can sample more things without filling up or feeling the slightest bit guilty! Still just thinking about it, though. The cake pop pans are NOT cheap!

Okay, let's get this post started!


5 Things Monday

1. Are you excited for the holidays or are you dreading them?


Golly, that’s an interesting one this year. I love the holidays and I’m always excited. I do my Davinities Holiday Baking and host UNO and the Fabulous Dessert Bar, so it’s an exciting, but there is much work, cleaning, putting up the tree etc… The last couple of years I’ve been progressively less mobile and it’s harder and harder to be able to do it physically. But, I utter a prayer for strength and find the things necessary to accommodate me and with David’s help, I know I’ll be fine. So there is a little trepidation, but all in all, I’m as excited as I always have been.

2. Do you hit the snooze button or get right up?


More often than not, I get up before the alarm.


3. Do you still have your tonsils? Yes

4. What was the last piece of candy that you ate?


Mellow Crème Pumpkin, last night

5. Do you shop at thrift stores?

Not really. I went a few times with my Mother.







Monday Mug Shot


The mug reads: “It takes a long time to grow an old friend.” This was the mug that I bought for my BFF, Kelly, last October when she spent the better part of a week with me. This particular mug is the one she bought for me! Kel and I trade identical mugs whenever we get together. With her in Missouri and me in Ohio we don’t see each other all the time, but when we do get together, it’s an event, one that’s always worthy of a mug. We make it a point to pick out our mug together. Then we both buy the same mug and trade them. The mug trading ceremony is half the fun!

We found these ones at The Andersons in Maumee. We went there to buy flower bulbs. Kelly is my platonic soul mate. We’re the same in many ways, but where we are different, we really do balance each other. Kel has the green thumb I’ve never even come close to.

I wanted to dig up and get rid of most of the flower beds on the side of our house by the side door and driveway. They had a few crocuses in the spring and a couple gladiolus and a ton of weeds with a couple of the nastiest out of control roses. With the exception of those few mighty blossoms that thumb their stamens at winter and the long stemmed blooms that occasionally adorned the vase on my desk at work the summer before I moved to Toledo, I hated those beds. Kelly explained what needed to be done to save them and off we went to get the supplies.

We got plastic lining to cut down on the weeds and mulch. After digging up the ton of weeds and getting those awful rose weeds out, we aerated the soil and laid down the plastic and mulch. The idea was to cut through the plastic where the bulbs would be planted.

On our trip to The Andersons when we got our mugs, I picked out more crocuses, tulips and daffodils. I opened and put the bulbs in piles where I wanted them planted. There were TONS of bulbs. I wanted my side beds to be just full of color. It took pretty much all of Sunday to get the beds ready. I had a chair, so I could, while not falling over, work on the weeding and digging. We broke for the day and had homemade soup that I’d made before she got in. Kel told me she’d start the planting while I was at school on Monday and we’d finish it when I got home. Except that when I got home from school, she’d already finished!

When I drink out of this mug, even in the middle of winter, it makes me think of how beautiful; and full of flower that side bed is through the beginning of summer now. That makes me think of my beautiful sister, Kelly, our beautify project in October 2010 and how blessed I am to have such a wonderful bond that knows no limits to the love we share as best friends!

Nani & Kelly October 2010