Sad but TRUE

And that should say,
"What my husband KNOWS I do."
He has seen the receipts, LOL.

Allllmost Wordless Wednesday!!

Receipts are done:
$-45.75 to glue on hair I've pulled out!
(KIDDING. Calm down.)

Income taxes are filed:
$-113.97 for TurboTax, e-filing fees!

Feeling like I can breathe again:
PRICELESS!

RECEIPT HELL - Tax Time - FREE GIVEAWAY SOON, I PROMISE

That is where I am.
EVERY YEAR, my friend Linda and I
vow to do better.
I have NOT done better
AGAIN this year, Linda.
Have you??

Maybe I need a new filing system.

Hopefully soon I can talk about fun stuff,
like the Mid-Atlantic quilt show.
And my upcoming double giveaway.



Till then, think of me...

Up Close and Personal with NICHOLSON'S Teeth!

Tilt your head to the right.
It's Nicholson's teeth.
On a QUILT.




That's the rest of his mug on
Sandy Curran's award-winning quilt
at the Mid-Atlantic Quilt Show.
He just makes me smile.

The quilts were stunning
and I took over 300 pics.
Check back for more quilted awesomeness!!

OH, and I'm having another giveaway SOON!

Allllmost Wordless Wednesday!!

OMG, click on it to enlarge!!
It's PERFECT!!!!!!!!!!!

Teachers or former teachers...
TRUE OR NOT TRUE?!?

That's a PARTY!

Hi, my name is Robin.
I have storage issues.

Specifically, I have a rickrack problem. When I opened the jammed container, rickrack would pop out like a nest of snakes. It was easier just to buy more than to rummage through the mess. Which is why I have yards and yards of rickrack in some colors and not a speck of the color I actually need.

Yesterday, the answer hit me!

WA-LA!!
My husband took one look and said,
"That's a PARTY!"

It's easy to use, I can tell at a glance what I have and best of all, I love looking at it. So simple - I just looped each "hank" onto a large binder ring and hung them from a cute hook.

Here it is on my studio wall,
next to one of the two ribbon racks
my husband made for me.
Don't you just LOVE it?!

Move Over, Darth Vader! And thanks for the EGO-CRUSHER, Little Dude!

So at school the other morning (Valentine's Day, to be exact), I was walking across the classroom with a little box of chocolates that a colleague had given me. Here is the conversation that followed with one of my adorable kindergarten angels:

Nathan (not his real name):
"Wow! Candy!! Where did you get that?!"

Me: "My friend gave it to me."

Nathan, after a puzzled pause:
"You have FRIENDS??"

Joys of Motherhood 1

"Oh NO, she found the butter!"

YAY for Abe (and grouchy George)

Abraham Lincoln was apparently a great guy. He is reported to have had a great sense of humor. He told jokes and funny stories. He liked kids, even when they sent his stovepipe hat flying and his important papers blew all over the place. And he was, arguably, the first freedom fighter.


George Washington is apparently largely misunderstood. In his pictures (paintings, since the camera had not been invented), he always looks grumpy at best. From what I understand, he was in a LOT of pain - first with his rotting teeth and then with his painful dentures that were made of ivory (NOT wood). His mouth hurt and that's why he looks like that.

Thanks to those two (and the fact that school will be closed for our Presidents' Day holiday to honor them), this will be me on Monday:

I was going to say that THIS will be me, but then I thought it looked like she was going to Heaven and I didn't want to give the wrong impression. Not that I don't want to go to Heaven. Just not on Monday.

AWWWWW Wordless Wednesday

I Made You Something!

Okay, so I didn't really MAKE it.
Doris Day is not here at my house.
Happily, she IS still alive and kickin
at the ripe age of 89.

But I did 'photoshop' it for ya!
Here's the original pic of the
legendary actress/animal activist.

Have a great Valentine's Day and
be kind to animals.
Or else.

Thank GOD and Logitech!

If you've been reading this blog for any length of time, you've definitely heard me whine about the fact that we don't get to see our grandkids often. Pop-Pop and I are literally stuck in the middle, geographically, about 500 miles away from everybody we love.

It's a dilemma because we feel if we move in one direction or the other, it's sorta like choosing between our kids/grandkids. Ever the teacher, I made you a visual aid to illustrate this concept. (Rachel and Travis have 3 dogs + Avery, so they've dubbed the new baby #5. That's TEMPORARY, so don't get worked up.)

So now you feel my pain.

I cried for a hundred miles
the last time we left SC.

So ANYWAY, we "visit" via our Logitech webcam a lot. Last night, Rachel and Travis called to ask if we'd like to sneak in a quick webcam before dinner. I dropped the super-secret sewing project I was working on, turned off the burner under the homemade veggie soup and we plonked ourselves down in front of the computer.

AND GUESS WHAT?!?!????
WE GOT TO WITNESS A FIRST!!!!!!!!!

As he's done hundreds of times,
Travis said, "Avery, what does the cow say?"
Before we could all chorus the answer,
Avery said, "Mmmmmmmmmmooo!"

We all sat there in stunned silence before breaking into a round of applause. Travis got him to say it over and over. Avery was so pleased with himself that he was shrieking in delight.

If you're not a grandparent, this might all seem pretty mundane. If you're a grandparent who sees your grandkids daily, it might be hard to relate. But for us, it was like witnessing a MIRACLE! Thank God (and Logitech) for our digital miracle!

Twilight Zone / Not Just No, but HELL NO / People Scare Me

I couldn't decide on a title. Scroll down for a link to my Pinterest board called 'Not Just No, But HELL NO'. And this post is not about the actual Twilight Zone. It's about the fact that sometimes I feel like I'm in a bad episode.

A big goal in my life is to avoid
becoming possessed.

Another goal is to avoid
being a sucker who gets conned
into spending her money
on stupid things.

Reasonable, right?
You probably have
similar goals.

Then WHO would buy
THIS thing on Etsy?!?!!!!


Here's the actual title:

Pentagram Is Ruining My Life please only purchase if you can harness what this Thing is putting out I Am Telling You Up Front This Thing Is Possessed And Has supernatural power

THE DOLL IS NOT INCLUDED.
AND IT'S ONLY $200!!!!!!!!!!!!

CLICK HERE
to see my pin on Pinterest.
Once you're there, click the pic
and it will take you to the
actual listing on Etsy,
in case you wanna buy it.

At least the seller does urge us not to give it to our mother-in-law. Hey, if you buy it, let me know how the exorcism went, LOL!!

Mexican Tater Tot Casserole

I'm always excited when a new recipe is a "keeper"! I found this on Allrecipes.com, and changed it around to suit our taste. I'm a vegetarian, so I realize that you may be puzzled by the ingredient called "Crumbles". They're a meatless alternative that looks a lot like browned ground beef. They really just add texture and they take on the flavor of whatever you put them into. If you're interested, check them out in the frozen food section - they come in a bag that's equal to a pound of browned ground beef.I use Crumbles for everything you would put browned ground beef into- nachos, homemade veggie soup, spaghetti, chili, lasagna. One Super Bowl Sunday, I made a big pot of chili with them and Trevor's friends each scarfed down two bowls! Hmmm...maybe that's due to the bottle of beer I use in my chili, LOL.

Anyway, this is easy, fast and yummy (but it's not health food, LOL). I served it with a plop of lowfat sour cream on the side. Just thought I'd share...

Mexican Tater Tot Casserole

Ingredients

• 1 pound Crumbles
• 1 small onion, diced
• 3 cloves garlic, minced
• 2 Tbsp ground cumin
• 2 Tbsp chili powder
• 1 (16 ounce) bag frozen style corn
• 1 (12 ounce) can low sodium black beans, rinsed and drained
• 1 (12 ounce) bag shredded Mexican cheese blend
• 1 (16 ounce) package frozen tater tots
• 1 (12 fluid ounce) can green enchilada sauce

Directions

1. Preheat an oven to 375 degrees F (190 degrees C). Prepare a 9x13-inch baking dish with cooking spray.

2. Add the onion, garlic, cumin, chili powder, frozen corn, and black beans to the crumbles in a pan; cook and stir about 10 minutes. Set aside to cool slightly.

3. Combine the crumbles mixture in a large bowl with about 3/4 of the Mexican cheese blend and the tater tots; stir to combine.

4. Pour about 1/3 of the enchilada sauce into the bottom of the prepared baking dish. Add the tater tot mixture to the baking dish; lightly pat the mixture down into a solid, even layer. Pour the remaining enchilada sauce over the tater tot layer.

5. Bake in the preheated oven for 40 minutes. Sprinkle the remaining Mexican cheese over the casserole and return to oven until the cheese is melted and bubbly, about 5 minutes more.

You can sub in a pound of browned ground beef, but you really do owe it to yourself to give Crumbles a try.
YUM, I LOVE this recipe!! Need to make this again, SOON!

HUGE NEWS!!!!!!!!!

LOOK TO THE LEFT!!
LOOK TO THE LEFT!!!!!!!!!!

The creepy floating
baby ticker is BACK!!!!!!!!!

Avery is going to be
a big brother!!!!!!!!!!!!

OMG, Nannie and Pop Pop are so excited!!!!!

CONGRATS TO
RACH AND TRAVIS!!!!!!!

Wordless Wednesday

Happy Wednesday,
Cat Lovers!

NEW!! Silly MonsterTissue Holder!

An itinerant preschool teacher contacted me the other day with a desperate request. She travels to people's houses to work with their preschoolers one-on-one and had FINALLY gotten tired of watching parents watch their little ones kids wipe their noses on their sleeves!

EWWWW!!!!!!!!!!

She'd seen a tissue holder on Pinterest and wondered if I could make her two, although she thought they were not as cute as our Silly Monster Coin Purses that she'd ordered. Turns out that these were a free tutorial from
Totally Tutorials, with no restrictions on making these to sell. I "cuted" them up and made two for her.

And here they are with the matching coin purses:

I think I love them!

A Little Bit Like Goldilocks

So our microwave died. There's no shame in that. It originally belonged to my mother, who passed away in 1991. The light had not worked in years and it easily got overheated and shut itself off. It looked a lot like this - ugly fake wood grain and all, LOL!
I don't know about you, but I use a microwave several times a day, so it didn't take long for me to go into microwave withdrawal. However, all I really use it for is to zap frozen veggies and reheat my morning coffee to scalding. Oh, and for making popcorn, of course. I do not zap giant pans of lasagna or whole turkeys or anything. I knew I wanted a microwave with a decent amount of wattage, NOT a huge one, NOT a teensy, dorm-looking one. And not ugly.

I had to run to four different stores to find one that fit the bill. They were all either too big, too small, too weak or just plain ugly. I finally found one I could live with...of course, it was at WAL MART. It's nothing fancy...it's a medium-sized, white one with 1000 watts of power and it has a handle on the door. Works great on coffee.

Gotta run. My coffee's cold again!
Ahhh, technology!

Not So Wordless Wednesday

I thought you might appreciate if
THIS picture came up
when you clicked on my blog,
instead of that creepy Sleepwalker.

Back with more soon.
I am swamped with orders,
which is a GOOD thing.