Five Things Friday: just five things I’m thinking about or things that made my week, or things that I otherwise feel like sharing.
This was a really nice short (work) week for me. Since July 4th fell on a Tuesday, I took Monday off for an extra long weekend. It was nice. Since we’re not planning any vacations this summer, I am taking the long weekends where I can get them. I feel quite lucky that I can work a flexible 4/10 schedule and because I get (most) Fridays off, I have longer weekends most of the time. But it was nice to extend it even further!
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I attempted making some homemade frozen yogurt this week (because do you know how freakin’ expensive even froyo has gotten? It’s insane, that’s how expensive.) I do not have an ice cream maker, but found a recipe that said you could do it without one and I have to say, I was pleasantly surprised. It really worked quite well. I love me some tangy frozen yogurt as a summer treat, and now I can make it fairly cheaply at home and know what’s in it! Win-win!
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Speaking of summer treat, I also got a watermelon for the long weekend as we were ‘treated’ with triple digits here in the Central Valley. It has not been fun, friends (too hot!), but I do enjoy some ice-cold, juicy watermelon when it’s a gazillion degrees outside. Elisabeth had a fun post about her top/bottom five fruit earlier this week, and while I generally love most fruit, I agree with her about not being a fan of melons. Like Elisabeth, I only make an exception for a sweet and juicy watermelon in the summer. (I have yet to try it with salt!)
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App recommendation of the week: my friend Kate recently posted a list of apps she uses frequently and I was especially intrigued by the UVLens app that she recommended. As a fair-skinned person that burns easily but spends a fair amount of time outdoors, I think this app is super-helpful. It lets you know how bad the UV rays are at a given time of the day in your area, and which precautions you should take based on your skin tone and other factors. I use sunscreen quite religiously, but it’s still good to know when to be more careful. I thought this might be a useful little app for some of you, so I wanted to pass on the recommendation.
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Tile saga update! I know you didn’t think you’d see the day. After another three weeks of radio silence, our landlords texted today. I guess they were busy picking out flooring. I am starting to get cautiously optimistic about the work being done soon. They sent us a link and asked us for input on a preferred color. They picked out vinyl flooring that looks like wooden floors. Does anyone have “wood-looking” floors in the kitchen? What color looks best? Should I suggest “matching” it (as closely as possible) to our wood floors in the living room, or would that look weird and a contrasting color would be better? Any or all thoughts and insights are welcome!
What’s new with you this week?
Beckett @ Birchwood Pie
July 7, 2023 at 1:37 pmI got really disoriented by the holiday so I’m still not sure what day of the week it is….
Yay for tile updates! I can’t give you any advice about the color, but I had vinyl “wood” flooring in my single gal house and loved it. It looked great and was easy to clean.
San
July 7, 2023 at 7:27 pmI am really excited that you love your vinyl “wood” flooring. :)
NGS
July 7, 2023 at 2:13 pmI feel like I’ve been confused about the day of the week since the start of June, so I’m with Beckett on finding the holiday really disorienting in terms of schedules!
We have some wood-colored vinyl in our mudroom. It’s a light color “wood” and is easy to clean. We have super hard water and I will say that water drips (from our dog drinking water) show up on the light color. I imagine it would be worse with a dark color, though!
San
July 7, 2023 at 7:27 pmNothing can be worse than cleaning the broken tiles in our kitchen – I mop 2-3x per week if I have to LOL
J
July 7, 2023 at 3:35 pmWe had a similar conundrum regarding the flooring…we had a leak a few years ago and they had to jackhammer through our laminate floor to get to it. Of course, the exact color we have is no longer made, so we have to put in new flooring. We have considered doing a contrasting color or something to differentiate between the kitchen and the dining room, but our floor is all laminate and could use replacing anyway. Of course, if we are going to replace the downstairs flooring, we should probably replace the carpet on the stairs and upstairs, which is very old and stained (most recently with stains from Mulder’s chemo, you can imagine…) The problem is that we have so much furniture up there (since I work from home, and my home office is in our bedroom) and some of it was assembled in our bedroom, and the idea of trying to deal with it just overwhelms us. So we do nothing. We bought a kitchen floor mat to cover the hole, and we ignore it. If we had a landlord, I guess they wouldn’t be able to get away with that.
That’s a long way of saying not much about your situation. They aren’t about to replace all of the flooring for you, so it would match exactly, are they? Can you find images online that might give you some idea of how it would look with a contrasting color/pattern? Whatever happens, good luck!
San
July 7, 2023 at 7:31 pmOh, I remember you mentioned your conundrum and I understand the frustration… esp. if fixing one thing will trigger other things that need to be fixed.
They are replacing the whole kitchen floor now (thank goodness) but there is hardwood floor in the living room and they going to border each other. I mean, anything will look batter then what we have now LOL so I am not too concerned, but they did ask us for input. I pulled up the link and put the “images” of the floor colors directly on the hardwood floor to see which one would match the closest.
Elisabeth
July 7, 2023 at 6:29 pmYay for delicious summer fruit!! My parents had fresh-picked strawberries this week – such a treat!
So we have a light laminate floor (“blonde”) in our kitchen (installed by the previous owners. I get so many compliments on the floor, but it is SUCH a pain with drips. It shows everything. Five minutes after mopping my floors look dirty. Argh. We have a dark reddish-brown vinyl (we installed this after moving in) in the basement and I love it. It has a wood grain AND a surface texture and it doesn’t show dirt and dust and it’s easy to mop. So I’m a huge fan of vinyl and definitely would opt for something that isn’t “blonde” – but vinyl cleans better than laminate so even a light vinyl likely wouldn’t show dirt like my laminate does!
I’m so excited for this to get fixed, San. Three cheers <3
San
July 7, 2023 at 7:32 pmThanks for the input, Elisabeth. I am excited to hear that people are so happy with vinyl “wood” floor. Nothing can be worse than cleaning the broken tiles in our kitchen – I mop 2-3x per week if I have to LOL
Suzanne
July 8, 2023 at 2:18 pmWe are replacing the flooring in our new house and are planning to go with the “wood” vinyl! I am so hopeful for you that your saga is nearing its conclusion!
Love that your homemade froyo experiment worked out! I think it’s so fun to make summery treats like that.
And what a nice way to add a little extra relaxation to your summer by taking extra long weekends! So great that your work allows for that.
San
July 9, 2023 at 2:21 pmYes, I really love the flexibility of my work schedule. It’s probaby one of the reasons I stuck around for so long ;)
Nicole MacPherson
July 9, 2023 at 6:26 amThis is many years ago, but at the office I worked at they had vinyl plank flooring in the kitchen that looked like hardwood, and it was awesome. So durable! In our new house we have something similar, it looks like hardwood but is so durable. We figured we would need it and that was even before we had Rex. So I am very happy to have this as in our current house we have hardwood and to be honest, it looks like shit. It’s so scratched and looks dirty five minutes after washing.
San
July 9, 2023 at 2:22 pmOh, thank you, Nicole, it’s great to hear that you’re so pleased with the vinyl flooring. It sounds like a good choice from what I hear.
Coco
July 9, 2023 at 5:52 pmI don’t like many fruits but love watermelons! Every day here that I finish a sweaty run, all I want is juicy water melon.
I’m also enjoying my favorite food here, corn and kabocha! Have to have them every day copious amounts!
San
July 13, 2023 at 10:36 pmOh, watermelon is so good after a run!
Lisa of Lisa's Yarns
July 12, 2023 at 8:08 amI had vinyl flooring in the condo I owned and my parents have it at their lake home. I would not try to match the other flooring because it can be very very very hard to find a good match. I think a distinct color might be better? I am glad this saga is coming to an end finally!
San
July 13, 2023 at 10:36 pmThanks for the feedback, Lisa!
Tobia | craftaliciousme
July 22, 2023 at 9:09 ama tile update amazing. I am so looking forward seeing the kitchen when it is done. I guess my input doesn’t matter anymore – not that I had any good one – as I hope you have already decided and set a date to have it finally done.
Anyohow. I do love myself some water melon. Haven’t had any in forever. Might have to change that. And I also want to write a post about my top/flop fruits now.
San
July 23, 2023 at 7:19 pmHaha, I am also looking forward to the kitchen when it’s all done ;)
Anne
August 3, 2023 at 12:38 pmGosh, I hope the flooring works out!! Can’t wait to see the finished product.
And, San? You can’t say that you made homemade froyo and then *not share the link*!?! :)
(Can you please share the link? I am similarly ice-cream-maker-less…)
San
August 6, 2023 at 7:45 pmThere is no real recipe. I just looked around online… and the simple answer is: if you’d like froyo, just mix Greek yoghurt with a bit of honey and any toppings (I used chocolate chips) and freeze for about an hour, stir it up with a spoon, freeze again for 0.5-1 hours and then enjoy. If you store it longer, it will start to crystalize. It’s still edible (and enjoyable), but it’s best to eat it on the same day that you make it.