GIVEAWAY!! FREEBIES!!! FINALLY GETTING IT TOGETHER!!! TOO MANY EXCLAMATION MARKS!!!!

OOOH, HOW AWESOME IS THAT?!

Big-hearted Cindy from Pine Branch Designs has agreed to offer TWO more prizes for the giveaway I've been promising!!!!!!!!! She's going to give away a $20 certificate PLUS one of her awesome pieces of magnetic jewelry!! THAT MEANS WE WILL HAVE FIVE WINNERS!!!!!!!!!

I'm really excited about it and I want to take the time to do a decent post and also to give you the drawing date. In addition, I'll add some entry details so that you can change enter to win her items or you can change your "vote", if you've already entered and would rather have one of hers!! I have just been swamped with orders, which is a good thing. But still...swamped, LOL!

In the meantime, CLICK HERE to go cruise around Cindy's shop so you can plan how you'll spend your $20 when you win!! Wooo HOOOO!!

Your In Trouble With The Grammar Police

Hah, that title is a JOKE.
YOU'RE, not YOUR. I know.

And YES, you do. You know you do.


Grammar errors make me crazy (okay, crazier).
I found this on Pinterest.
Take notes. Test tomorrow, LOL!
And I apologize for the fact that
the graphic is running into the right margin.


Like this infographic? Get more copywriting tips from Copyblogger.

Pnterest and Giveaway - Hope You're Not Offended

By my Pinterest find.
If you are, I'm sorry.
But the sentiment does
have some truth to it.


Can't please everyone.
So you gotta please yourself.
(Another oldie song.)

I have a TON of order to do,
but I'll try to pop in soon
with a more normal post.

And maybe some word, finally,
about the GIVEAWAY!! Sheesh.

Pinterest Pix - Allllmost Wordless Wednesday!!

More reasons I like animals
better than most people I know.


They don't worry about whether their butts look big.




They make good lookouts.




They don't care if you think they look tacky.

GIVEAWAY and YUM, Meatless Mexican Pizza

Woo-hoo, Cindy, the owner of Pine Branch Designs (CLICK HERE) wants to add an item to my GIVEAWAY!

(CLICK HERE TO SEE MY PRIZES)!!

She's at a conference right now (she's a special ed teacher, coincidentally), so I should have pictures and details about her amazing prize and how to enter for it (including a date for the drawing) by mid-week or so!

And now YAY!!

Another meatless Mexican dish!
Vegetarian, but not vegan.
I can only do so much.

I love this recipe - it's so forgiving.
You can add stuff you like
and eliminate stuff you don't.
Ingredients don't have to be exact -
it will still turn out delicious!

Mexican Pizza Casserole
2 Morningstar Farms fake chicken patties
(technically called Chik Patty Originals)
1 cup sour cream (regular, fat free or light, whatever)
1 10 3/4 oz can condensed cream of mushroom soup
1 cup milk (2%, whole milk, skim, whatever)
2 cups shredded cheddar cheese, divided
1 cup black beans (low sodium is great)
1 7 oz can chopped green chilis
1 small can sliced black olives
1/3 of 16 oz bag frozen corn
1 small onion, diced
1 clove garlic, minced
handful of fresh mushrooms, sliced
margarine
fresh ground black pepper to taste
about 1/4 large bag of plain tortilla chips

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees.

Zap the fake chicken patties in the microwave for just long enough to soften them a little. Cut them into roughly 1/2" pieces and set aside.

Plop some margarine in a pot. Saute the mushrooms, garlic and onions for a few minutes over medium heat. When onions are translucent, dump in frozen corn, stir and turn off heat.

In a large bowl, combine mushroom soup, sour cream, chilis, milk, pepper and about 1 1/2 C of the shredded cheddar. Stir to combine. Dump in the fake chicken, beans, olives and corn mixture.

Crush up some tortilla chips (I usually just put them in a baggie and smoosh them with my hand) and add to the mixture in the bowl. Keep crushing chips and adding them till the mixture seems about the right consistency - not soupy and not too dry.

Spread in a greased 11"x13" pan. Sprinkle the remaining cheese on top.

Bake for about 45 minutes. Allow to cool slightly before serving. YUM!!

Stolen from Pinterest - Another Great Idea!

Well, more like borrowed and tweaked.

I saw this done with scraps of yarn.

I knew the birds (and squirrels!)

would like fabric scraps just as well.
Especially Michael Miller scraps, LOL!

Brilliant!

YAY, It's the WEEKEND!!

I'm hoping to do a regular post sometime this weekend. Again, things have been really hectic. I will be adding some new items to Etsy this weekend and I have some orders to fulfill...besides the usual "excitement" of laundry, washing floors, etc.

I also have not forgotten that I have totally dropped the ball on the

GIVEAWAY!! CLICK HERE

if you still have not entered to win one of my three prizes. I will TRY to get it together enough to at least set a date for the drawing!!

At least spring break is coming...maybe I can finally catch up.
Thanks for visiting!

Why I Like Animals Better Than Most People I Know

So I have this board on Pinterest called Why I like Animals Better Than Most People I Know. It's pretty self-explanatory. CLICK HERE if you wanna see.

In honor of Allllmost Wordless Wednesday, here are a few of my pins, along with the captions I've created. Enjoy!

They don't care what you're wearing or what you do for a living.


They understand camouflage.


They don't need to pay a lot of money to get a gorgeous long white train.

Birthday Ramble

Errr, to ME, actually!
Is it sad that I'm wishing it to myself?? LOL
At least it falls on a weekend this year.

I have several orders, so I'll be sewing up a storm, and I made something ADORABLE and am hoping to get some pics up. That is actually fun for me. We did the birthday dinner thing on Friday and I'm going to make that Mexican Tater Tot Casserole that I liked so much.

AND, WALKING DEAD IS ON!!
WALK-ING DEAD!!
WALK-ING DEAD!!!!
(It's a chant.
Say it in your head.)

Yeah, she's sick alright.

Here's kind of a cool thing I happened upon yesterday.
You can actually drag and drop a picture into Google and it will give you the original source. Well, it will give you ALL the sources it can find that match.

Basically, click on a picture and save it to your computer. (Make sure you know where it went, LOL.)
Go to Google.
Click on Images (upper left).
Open your folder where you saved the pic.
Drag the pic to the search bar.
A rectangle will pop up that says
Drop Image Here.
Drop it there.
That's it! The search is incredibly fast.

Here, if you are more of a visual person, The Graphics Fairy did a tutorial...CLICK HERE.

Oh, and HEY, CLICK HERE FOR OUR GIVEAWAY! Thanks for stopping by!!

Stuff that Makes Me Mad, Part Two - Cheap Knockoffs

I have a friend I've never met. (Actually, one of my very best friends is someone I've never met, and NO, she is not imaginary, LOL.)

Anyway, this particular friend's name is Jane and she has a shop on Etsy called SnoopCattyCatt (CLICK HERE to see), which I think is unbearably cute to begin with.

Jane makes cat clothes. Not clothes with cats on them. Clothes FOR cats. One would not think there would be much of a market. Till one saw some of her creations.

Like this.And this.

Isn't her model the most GORGEOUS cat?! His name is Salvador and I just love his expression, which, to me, borders on minimally-veiled disdain, LOL!! Anyway, so I was puttering around on Pinterest yesterday and happened upon a pin by a woman who also likes cats. It was SALVADOR. In fact, it was this exact tuxedo pic, with one exception - NO WATERMARK. NO CREDIT GIVEN TO JANE. Or to Salvador, for that matter.



So I immediately went to Jane's shop on Etsy and found this watermarked pic of Salvador and pinned it, asking everyone who had seen the other pic to use this one instead. Then I contacted Jane about it and this is really the point of this whole rant.

Jane says she had not originally put watermarks on her pics because...well...she hadn't seen the need. After all, she's making bow ties and "shirts" for cats and didn't think anyone would even really be interested. Then someone downloaded a Salvador pic and put it on LOLCats. From there, it went viral and is now on a BUNCH of sites, with no credit given to Jane or Salvador.

Here's the crux of the matter. Jane is 100% positive that with all the exposure her items have gotten, it's only a matter of time till someone in some factory starts cranking out cheap knockoffs. I can just picture Jane's idea made in some crappy, cheap fabric and available at your local WalMart and PetCo.

This is not limited to Jane and her adorable cat clothes. Cheap quilt knockoffs REALLY devastated the American quilt market for a while. Like the cheap quilt sets pictured below.

GUESS WHAT THE MINIMUM ORDER IS??!??
Two thousand sets.
TWO THOUSAND SETS.

There are still many people who don't know and don't care about the difference between QUALITY quilts made by HAND versus something cranked out in a factory overseas somewhere. In fact, fear of the cheap knockoffs is what has prevented me (thus far) from making quilts to sell on Etsy.

Don't get me wrong. I'm not anti-WalMart. In fact, we'll be there, shopping for groceries as soon as I hit "Publish Post". I'm not even so much anti-some-other-artist-copying-my-own-work. Like, if I post a pic of a quilt I've made and some quilter recreates it, giving it her own spin, then more power to her.

It just makes me sick, though, to think of someone's original idea being cranked out by the millions by an assembly line of machines in some factory. It makes me really sick to know that Jane herself is thinking of going into mass-production so that she at least benefits from her own ideas.

So PLEASE, if you happen to see some cheap imitation of Jane's (or any artist's) handmade work...PLEASE think of Jane and Salvador and DON'T BUY IT.

GIVEAWAY DRAWING EXTENDED!!

GIVEAWAY drawing extended!

CLICK HERE!!
WOO-HOOOO, more time to enter!

If you haven't entered,
WHAT ARE YOU WAITING FOR?? LOL

ZZZZZZZZZZZZZ Is It Friday Yet??

THIS IS ME:

Well, not really. That could be dangerous in a kindergarten classroom. Kindergartners are like the ocean. Don't turn your back on them.

However, that IS how I feel after:
Meeting Monday night until 7 PM.
(That made for an 11-hour day.)

Meeting Wednesday night until 6 PM.
(Obviously, 10 hours.)

Parent/Teacher Conferences tonight till 7 PM.
(Today will SEEM longer than 9 hours.)

AT LEAST we get off half-day tomorrow.

I am thinking of extending the GIVEAWAY (CLICK HERE),
since I've done almost nothing to promote it.

AWWWWW Wordless Wednesday

Don't forget to register for our GIVEAWAY!!
CLICK HERE!!


There are lots of these guys
serving a life sentence at the SPCA.
ADOPT, don't SHOP.

GIVEAWAY!! FREEBIES!!! YAYYY!!!! CONTEST CLOSED :-(

GIVEAWAY FREEBIE TIME. YAY!!!
THREE prizes, THREE winners:

Live Laugh Love Wine Sleeve
in a Soft, Mossy Green



Puzzle Ribbon (Autism Awareness)
Tooth Fairy Pillow with Red Pawprint



Pink Ribbon
Tooth Fairy Pillow with Pink Heart



FOUR WAYS TO ENTER:

Winners will be drawn by random.org
FROM THE COMMENTS ON THIS POST.

If you go do one of these things
but forget to come back to comment,
you won't be entered.

No one wants that.

Each comment MUST include what you did to get an entry, your name and WHICH PRIZE YOU WANT...Wine Sleeve, Puzzle Tooth Pillow or Pink Tooth Pillow.

1) Follow me on Pinterest AND COMMENT HERE TO LET ME KNOW. I need to know your Pinterest name. Just click the little red Pinterest button in the right column of this blog and then click Follow All. If you already follow me on Pinterest, just comment here to let me know.

(Note, you must follow ALL of my boards in order to show up under Followers on Pinterest.)

And just a side note...following someone for a giveaway and then unfollowing after the drawing is...well...it's just tacky.


2) "Like" our FB page AND COMMENT HERE TO LET ME KNOW. Again, I need to know your FB name. Just click the Follow On Facebook badge in the right column of this blog and then "Like" Soggy Bottoms Baby Duds FB page. If you already "like" me (awww, thanks!), just comment here.

And again, a side note..."liking" someone's FB page for a giveaway and then "unliking" after the drawing is both sad and tacky. I lost 13 "Likers" yesterday after I posted our Spring Sale pics. They didn't really like me to begin with and they are not my friends.


3) Follow this blog AND COMMENT HERE TO LET ME KNOW. Please comment using the same identity as you used to Follow, so I can figure it out. Just click Join This Site in the right column. If you already follow this blog, just comment here.

And again with the following/unfollowing tackiness.


4) Put me in your circle on Etsy AND COMMENT HERE TO LET ME KNOW. For this, you need to have an Etsy account and I need to know your Etsy name. If I'm already in your circle, just comment here.

And please don't circle/uncircle me. Really. That is just sad.


You can do any or all of the above. You can request a different prize for each entry, or the same prize for every entry you complete. I plan to keep drawing for a prize until random.org chooses someone who wants that particular prize. So if you REALLY want a particular prize, you'll improve your chances by listing it for each of your entries.

I will draw for the three winners on Monday, March 12 at 6 PM Eastern and will announce the winners in a blog post. If you are no No Reply, I will also email you. WINNERS HAVE 24 HOURS TO CLAIM THEIR PRIZES BY EMAILING ME. Otherwise, I'll redraw on Tues, March 13.

OH, and I just found out that Blogger no longer allows numbering of comments, so I guess I'm counting by hand. Repeatedly, until I get winners who want each of the prizes. Free shipping to US and Canada. All others pay actual shipping.

I hope this all was clearer than mud. If you're confused, let me know and GOOD LUCK in advance!

CLEARANCE SALE SALE SALE!!!!!! HALF PRICE!

The CLEARANCE SALE IS OPEN
and things are going FAST!

CLICK HERE TO SEE!!!

EVERYTHING IS HALF-PRICE!
MANY THINGS ARE ONE OF A KIND,
so when they're gone,
they're GONE!

Pop over to see what's up.
We'll be adding items as we go.

I'll be posting the GIVEAWAY
either today or tomorrow!

SPRING CLEANING SALE AND GIVEAWAY!!

WOOO-HOOOOO!!!!
Fun times this weekend!!
We're having a SPRING CLEANING SALE
over on our Facebook page AND
we're announcing our GIVEAWAY right here!!

The SPRING CLEANING SALE will
be one-of-a-kind items
at HUGE savings!
First come, first served!
Once they're gone, they're gone!

The giveaway will be have not one, but TWO
prizes and there will be several ways to win.
Check back tomorrow!!

(And for the record, YES, I know
it's not technically spring yet.
But it sure feels like it
here in balmy VA!