Category Archives: Diversions

The stuff that didn’t fit elsewhere.

Bandwagons, National Blog Posting Month, Photos

Hey hey it’s picture day

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Today is #OneDayHH day on instagram. It’s the brainchild of Laura Tremaine of the Hollywood Housewife blog, which isn’t actually a blog any more, but she’s still around and so is her yearly photo hashtag adventure.

The idea of #OneDayHH is that you spend the whole day sharing glimpses into your life, however mundane or exciting they might be. This is the fourth year I’ve participated (2014, 2015, 2016). We’ve eaten out on three-fourths of my #OneDayHH days, and I’ve eaten cake on half of them. That could turn into three-fourths of them, but I don’t anticipate a cake materializing for me before midnight. But a girl can dream.

This year’s #OneDayHH project started earlier than usual, because I’ve been getting up to help Pete get ready for school and weirdly they make those kids start really early.

6:35am | I still haven’t taken them all

Good morning, friends! Good morning, #onedayHH! Good morning, #fishoil and #vitaminD and #loratadine! I woke up with a headache, so I also added an ibuprofen to the mix.

7:20am | Goodbye, gents

Marsha T. Cat and I bid farewell to our gentleman, who were off to work and school. Neither of us are generally as perky in the morning as that ear might suggest, but some geese performed a really tight Flying V maneuver over the house this morning and we were both happy to see it. #winteriscoming

8:20am | Organizational efforts

I was trying to get Poppy’s work for the day ready and get my ducks in a row before heading out, and that was more difficult than normal because I needed to leave early.

9:20am

I had to leave early to catch a very patriotic Veteran’s Day performance at Pete’s school. The kids did a great job.

11:20am | I love homeschoolers

We crafted haiku at homeschool co-op. We also talked a bit about musicians we like today, and the following conversation made me laugh:

Me: What kind of music do you like?

Child 1: I like Dusty Springfield. And Nina Simone, and James Brown.

Child 2: I like Taylor… what’s her name? Taylor Swift.

Child 1: Who’s that?

1:45pm | #YayFriends

A post shared by Nichole (@nicholebutterscotch) on

It was hang-out-with-Rachel time at co-op! #yayfriends

2:40pm | Formidable flora

A post shared by Nichole (@nicholebutterscotch) on

I wandered around a parking lot waiting for the eldest to finish her video production class, and I’m thinking it’s probably getting too cold for this guy.

3:45pm | Art in progress

Our friendly neighborhood video store was getting a new mural! Boba Fett was in the works when we stopped in later. I tried to take a better picture, but my phone died just as I was about to take it.

4:57pm | A treat for the Potterheads

After being out for most of the day, I was not amused when I realized that I’d forgotten to take our overdue books back to the library. But when I got there I realized it was the last day there for the librarian with whom Poppy has been volunteering, so I was grateful for the chance to thank her in person for being so good to Poppy. As for the photo: Our library has the first signed US edition of “Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince” — which they won in a contest from Scholastic — and it’s always fun to visit.

5:50pm | Downtime

I’d planned to have roast chicken and sweet potatoes for dinner, but oops I read a book instead of starting it. Sorry fam. Let’s go get some tacos. (The fam was not terribly upset.)

6:30pm | A little spicy

I opted for chicken tortilla soup. 🐔🍲 #soup #dinner #ididnotmakeit #notataco

7:29pm | Insta Blog Inception

Blogging in the gloaming. #nablopomo #onedayhh #instabloginception

8:23pm | Tim Gunn time

Poppy and I like to watch “Project Runway” together. We’re an episode behind, so no spoilers.

9:35pm | Stranger Things

This was a very TV-heavy day for us. All of Poppy’s friends watch “Stranger Things,” and Rockford was thrilled that she finally decided to watch it with him.

9:55pm | A cake manifests

A dream is a wish your heart makes, and a mug full of cake is a wish your tastebuds make. This means 3/4 of the years I’ve participated in #onedayhh have included cake.

11:30pm | Bedtime for Bonzo

And just like that, another fine #OneDayHH is in the books.

Diversions, National Blog Posting Month

Gaining momentum

I was early to pick Poppy up from her classes last week, so I took the opportunity to visit a new art gallery that a friend’s family recently opened. I don’t go to art galleries all that often, but I think maybe I should. It was a lovely space, and being there was pretty soothing.

A lot of the artists at Momentum Gallery are local or have some kind of local connection, and I recognized a few of the artists who had work on display there. Hoss Haley, for example, makes large metal sculptures that I’ve seen around town before. They kind of looked like balled-up pieces of paper, and if I had a lot more money than I have I’d buy one for my yard. I’d also buy his “Blocks No. 2,” but that would require a lot of money and some larger walls.

The more I looked at it, the more off-kilter it made me feel, like I was Alice about to tumble into another wackadoodle adventure.

"Blocks No. 2" by Hoss Haley
“Blocks No. 2” by Hoss Haley

My favorite piece at Momentum was Mariella Bisson’s “Waterfall in Three Parts,” which would also require a lot of money — $24,000, to be exact — and a ginormous wall were I to make it mine.

Her paintings are really textural, and from a distance they look like you could step straight into them.

"Waterfall in Three Parts" by Mariella Bisson
“Waterfall in Three Parts” by Mariella Bisson

They also had a good number of Andy Farkas Prints. He does a lot of paintings that feature woodland creatures in anthropomorphized situations, which you may not be shocked to learn is right up my alley. Happily, his work is much more affordable than Bisson’s, and I am going to have some of his trash pandas on my wall in the near future.

If you’re in or around Asheville NC and you’re looking for something unique to grace your walls, you should stop by Momentum (24 N. Lexington). They have some really interesting work, and the people who run the place are both nice and local.

menu plan Monday, On the Road

What I Did On My Summer Vacation 2017, and Also What I Ate After My Summer Vacation

Hey everybody, welcome back to Butterscotch Sundae Dot Com.

Here’s a TLDR of my Summer Vacation: It started with a theft and ended with a shooting.

I used Priceline for the very first time to book a room. I’d never stayed at a La Quinta before, and for some reason my impression of it was that their properties were a bit run-down and sketchy. But the Priceline thing was nonrefundable, so we were going to stay there. They put us in a smoking room first and then moved us to a room with a moldy tub, and then we got to the car the next morning and discovered that someone had stolen my laptop, Rockford’s headphones, Poppy’s headphones and all of our road snacks. We were not blameless in this situation. We shouldn’t have left anything in the car in the first place, and the lack of damage to the car would indicate that someone forgot to lock the car. But it wasn’t a great way to kick off our vacation, and it solidified my belief that La Quintas are a bit run-down and sketchy.

The rest of the week was a maelstrom of swimming and movies, baseball games and family time, and septic failures and driveway replacements. My in-laws had to break the lock on our storm door to get into our house while we were gone, my dad wrapped up the week with a kidney stone, and Rockford heard a shooting near our house about 20 minutes after we got home.

It was a weird vacation.

Monday: Crunchwraps
Rockford loves them, and we haven’t made them in quite a while. I’m hoping they’re just as good without cheese.

Tuesday: Orange chicken meatballs
This Just A Taste recipe is sufficiently tasty, and it’s a hit with most kids.

Wednesday: Shake ‘n’ Bake chicken
I’m endeavoring to teach Poppy how to make a few meals on her own, so she’ll be making dinner on Wednesday.

Thursday: Undecided
Poppy has a dentist appointment, so she’ll be on Soft Foods for the evening. She’ll probably have mac ‘n’ cheese.

Friday: Pizza
We haven’t been doing family pizza night very often since I quit eating dairy. I bought a soy cheese pizza from the Amy’s collection this week, though. Hopefully it’s decent.

Hungry for more? Check out the Menu Plan Monday linkup at OrgJunkie.

How’s your summer going?