State fair

If you haven't seen my other blog, you can check out what I entered and how I fared in the state fair on this post.

awesome thing happened to me today...

I was in Michaels looking to use up the last of my gift card with a coupon. They had bigwigs in today. One says hi and asks if I'm working on a craft project. No, just buying something with a coupon and I need more craft supplies like I need another hole in the head. LOL So I'm looking around and then I'm in the clearance aisle and they have paper 7 for $1 - open stock and Bazzill. I don't see any Bazzill though. I saw the guy again and I asked him if he knew if they were getting rid of the Bazzill or if it was just certain colors. He says let me go check and comes back from the office and hands me an envelope and says here's a $10 gift card for you. He said one of the ladies told him I'm in there a lot. I had to have been glowing as I said, 'wow, thanks!'

I had to go home and get son to drop off at college and stop at the grocery store. Then at home I took a quick shower and made myself fit for public since I wasn't really the first time I was out (I stopped in after dropping hubby off at work.) I grabbed a thank you card I had already made and wrote a note inside and drove back to Michaels hoping they hadn't left yet. I gave him the envelope and told him it was a thank you card and he said I didn't have to do that. I hope my small gesture of appreciation made his day!

I am 'splurging' the gc on a home decor thing next time I go in with a coupon. I picked it up and put it down like 3 times because even half off, it'd be $9. So after I was given the gc, I decided it would be a treat for me from Michaels. I can't wait to get it! Here's a pic taken with my phone's camera (and not a fancy one either LOL). It's going to go on the mantel of my electric fireplace. I'm going to get my little lighthouses and sanddollars that have been packed away in the shed. Hello, summer!

An afternoon in the kitchen....

I like NEVER make more than one kind of cookie in a day. But I had this bright idea I would make a bunch of cookies/candy today. Like other people do. So I set out with this list:
coconut macaroons
sugar cookies
chocolate covered peppermint marshmallows
chocolate peppermint chip cookies
oatmeal cookies
peppermint patties

I haven't made the oatmeal cookies yet. Or the sugar cookies - but the dough is made and in the fridge. I may put the sugar cookies off until tomorrow. Actually, I'm fairly sure I will. My lower back hurts. But I did make the other stuff. I even took count. 19 macaroons, 27 peppermint patties, 44 chocolate peppermint chip, and 21 chocolate covered marshallow poops. Yep, poops, because that is what the little lumps look like.


I will also take this opportunity to say I hate white 'chocolate'. For one, it's not chocolate and I don't like the taste. My son and husband do. And two, it's not chocolate so it doesn't melt as well. It sucks. I tried to make white poops with it and it was not cooperating. Well, it still looks like white poop. LOL But I didn't get it to melt right and the marshmallows wouldn't cover right. I think I'll have to do the stove method instead of the microwave when I make hubby's covered pretzels.

Christmas surprises....

Yesterday I received a wonderful Christmas surprise in the mail from my (online) friend, Rosey. Actually, the surprise part was when she told me she was sending me something - it was too good a deal to pass up. I let her keep it a secret what it was but based on what she said about she'd tell me if I wanted to know and I could cross it off my Christmas list, I had a feeling they were Maeve Binchy books. We talked about them before. She sent me 3 of them - to add to the 2 I've gotten in the last couple of months. Wasn't that so sweet of her? I can't wait until she gets her Christmas card because just a day or two after she told me about the surprise I was in the store and found something I got for myself. And then I thought.... oh, Rosey will like these, too! It's just a very little something but I think (and I hope) it will give her a big smile.

Oh, so yesterday we (or I should say I - hubby was just getting them out of the closet) were wrapping presents. He hands me a box and tells me it's for our daughter (and he also tells me to be careful with it). I just figured it was a bunch of paperback books we got for her (manga). So I wrap it up and give it to him to put a tag on it. Then my daughter comes in and he has her put a tag on it she wrote on. I thought that was weird, having her write her own tag?? So I look - and it's actually for me. Yep, he had me wrap my own present! Then it all came together and I'm pretty sure I know what it is, too, since he told me to be careful. It's a set of pyrex mixing bowls I wanted (from the early 80's). If he hadn't done that I wouldn't have known whether or not he actually got them! There are some other presents I know about because I got them myself. (This usually doesn't happen.) One is a cricut cake machine because it was a really good deal. I'll be using it to cut paper actually - the cricut I have is smaller and doesn't have all the features either. The other is a stamp set because I was telling hubby about it and he said to just go ahead and get it. I'm almost sure there was somthing else that I picked up but for the life of me I can't remember, so if there is, that will be a surprise. And then I'll laugh at myself. LOL

It's here! My new cricut!

I got a cricut cake machine during a special sale. It came with 2 cartridges (one is a bonus) and free shipping. I have just the small original cricut - which will be 5 years old this Christmas, and this is a bigger machine. I'm using it for paper, not food. The cake blade works just fine on paper. Now I can cut stuff bigger than the max of 5 1/2 x 11 1/2 plus the other features it has the little machine doesn't. Woot! Now, part of justifying my buying it was to sell the cartridges it comes with. I have plenty of other cartridges to work with (and 3rd party software) so I don't need them. Selling them will help pay for the machine (or buy other goodies instead! gee, I like my thinking. ROFL) However, it is going under the tree (minus the cartridges). I only have to wait two weeks though - and I did make a test cut to make sure all was well.
If my few readers know anyone who might be interested here's a pic (one doesn't come sealed because it's bundled with the machine but never used - I used one of my own cartridges to make a test cut.) You can find images of the cartridge contents here:
cake seasonal cartridge
cake basics sample sheet
cake basics handbook pdf