I keep telling myself, "this will be the day I will start blogging regularly again," and then the day is over and I didn't write a thing. So even though I don't have a great post today, I figured I needed to make an effort to write something. Anything. Just to get back into the habit. I miss blogging, but I struggle with wanting to write something that is interesting to others and wanting to write for myself about the mundane, ordinary things going on in my life. So I've got to find a balance between the two. I remember reading somewhere that some well-known blogger ( I can't remember who though) said that voice is more important than content, I take that to mean I should let my voice be heard, even if what I'm writing is not important to anyone else. As Cyril Connolly said, "Better to write for yourself and have no public, than to write for the public and have no self." So if you find what I write boring, go away. It won't hurt my feelings.
I'm not going to try to write everyday, that would just be setting myself up for failure, but I am going to try to write more regularly.
Thanksgiving and Christmas and the whole holiday season was pretty good for us. I do have to admit that I'm glad it's over now though. We spent a lot of time with family and were out of town a lot, which I enjoyed, but it'll be good to get back into some kind of regular routine again.
I'm behind on blog reading again, but I'm slowly catching back up, and I'll try to start leaving more comments again. I hope you are all doing well, and staying warm in this cold weather.
Thursday, January 7, 2010
Sunday, December 20, 2009
Cheap Patterns at Joann
Sorry I've been so long without posting. I guess I've had blogger's block or something, but I just had to let y'all know about this deal in case anyone was interested.
We're visiting Mom and Dad McHacker in Meridian this weekend and I decided I wanted to check out the new Joann Fabric that opened up last month. So I got online to check the sale ad and saw on page 14 of this week's ad that Butterick patterns are on sale for $1.99 each through the 24th, with a limit of 10. This is a GREAT deal. I've been wanting some more apron patterns and some bag patterns, and this was the perfect opportunity to get them. I picked up 8 patterns for less than what one would have cost at regular price. Regular price before tax $128.15, sale price before tax $15.92! The deal is in-store only, which kinda stinks, but if you have a Joann's near you, it would be worth going.
These are the patterns I got:
1950's Vintage Apron B4087
Apron pattern B4945
Waverly Apron pattern B5263
Apron pattern B5302
1954 Retro Apron pattern B5435
Vintage Apron pattern B6567
Handbag pattern B4822
Waverly Totes B5267
We're visiting Mom and Dad McHacker in Meridian this weekend and I decided I wanted to check out the new Joann Fabric that opened up last month. So I got online to check the sale ad and saw on page 14 of this week's ad that Butterick patterns are on sale for $1.99 each through the 24th, with a limit of 10. This is a GREAT deal. I've been wanting some more apron patterns and some bag patterns, and this was the perfect opportunity to get them. I picked up 8 patterns for less than what one would have cost at regular price. Regular price before tax $128.15, sale price before tax $15.92! The deal is in-store only, which kinda stinks, but if you have a Joann's near you, it would be worth going.
These are the patterns I got:
1950's Vintage Apron B4087
Apron pattern B4945
Waverly Apron pattern B5263
Apron pattern B5302
1954 Retro Apron pattern B5435
Vintage Apron pattern B6567
Handbag pattern B4822
Waverly Totes B5267
Sunday, November 15, 2009
Pink stuff FAIL
"Pink Stuff" is what we call strawberry congealed salad in our family. I hate the word congealed. Anyway...
Here's a recipe for it:
Small container of Cool Whip
Small container of small curd cottage cheese
Box of strawberry Jell-o (don't make the Jell-o, just dump the powder in)
Can of fruit cocktail, drained
Mix the Jell-o powder into the cottage cheese, add the fruit cocktail, and fold in the Cool Whip. You can add nuts if you like. Sometimes I make it with orange Jell-o and mandarin oranges. You can pretty much come up with your own combination of whatever flavor Jell-o and fruit you like. Easy-peasy.
Except, somehow I messed it up. This is the email I sent to my mom-in-law last night, I thought you all might enjoy it.
Hey Mom and Dad,
I just had to share this with you cause I know you will get a kick out of it. Last night I made some "pink stuff" and it still wasn't firm by tonight. I've made it dozens of times and never had this happen. I think there was too much liquid in the cottage cheese and even though I drained the fruit cocktail, I think it had too much liquid as well. So we decided to make smoothies out of it. The texture is a little funny, but overall, not too bad. So jello salad fail = smoothies win. :-) Oh, and it's such a pretty color of pink. Love y'all lots, Crystal
To make the smoothies, I just threw a bunch of ice cubes, a little milk, and about half of the failed mixture into the blender and used the ice crush setting. I think I'm going to throw a banana in with it when I mix up the rest of it. I guess this is just one more example of how I hate to waste anything!
Here's a recipe for it:
Small container of Cool Whip
Small container of small curd cottage cheese
Box of strawberry Jell-o (don't make the Jell-o, just dump the powder in)
Can of fruit cocktail, drained
Mix the Jell-o powder into the cottage cheese, add the fruit cocktail, and fold in the Cool Whip. You can add nuts if you like. Sometimes I make it with orange Jell-o and mandarin oranges. You can pretty much come up with your own combination of whatever flavor Jell-o and fruit you like. Easy-peasy.
Except, somehow I messed it up. This is the email I sent to my mom-in-law last night, I thought you all might enjoy it.
Hey Mom and Dad,
I just had to share this with you cause I know you will get a kick out of it. Last night I made some "pink stuff" and it still wasn't firm by tonight. I've made it dozens of times and never had this happen. I think there was too much liquid in the cottage cheese and even though I drained the fruit cocktail, I think it had too much liquid as well. So we decided to make smoothies out of it. The texture is a little funny, but overall, not too bad. So jello salad fail = smoothies win. :-) Oh, and it's such a pretty color of pink. Love y'all lots, Crystal
To make the smoothies, I just threw a bunch of ice cubes, a little milk, and about half of the failed mixture into the blender and used the ice crush setting. I think I'm going to throw a banana in with it when I mix up the rest of it. I guess this is just one more example of how I hate to waste anything!
Wednesday, October 14, 2009
Cork board cake
This cake is for a faculty meeting for the computer science department at MSU. Mr. McHacker helped me come up with the idea of making it look like a cork board with calendar pages tacked onto it. I think it's pretty cute. Hopefully they'll like it.
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I'm heading down to Lucedale tomorrow to do a wedding cake, cupcakes, and cookies for this weekend. I'm gonna be so busy, I'm not really looking forward to all of the work since my back has been bothering me a lot, but i promised to do it, so I am. I'll post pictures of everything next week.
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I'm heading down to Lucedale tomorrow to do a wedding cake, cupcakes, and cookies for this weekend. I'm gonna be so busy, I'm not really looking forward to all of the work since my back has been bothering me a lot, but i promised to do it, so I am. I'll post pictures of everything next week.
Saturday, October 3, 2009
Windmills
I saw this segment on Good Morning America last week and I just can't get it out of my head. They had an interview with a young African man named William Kamkwamba, who built a windmill to produce electricity for his family's home. At the time he was 14 or 15 years old and couldn't go to school because his family couldn't afford the $80 a year tuition. So he went to the nearest library and borrowed books about physics and generating electricity and taught himself. He built a windmill out of junk parts he could find lying around. It just amazed me that this boy who had nothing, had so much initiative that he would do whatever it took to make his family's life better. It's such an amazing and heartwarming story.
On this page at Good Morning America's website, there is a link to the video of the interview, I think it's the 4th link listed. There is a feature length documentary about William, called Moving Windmills, in production now. You can watch an excerpt of it here. I hope you will take the time to watch the videos, they're about 5 or 6 minutes each.
He also wrote a book, with co-author Brian Mealer, called The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind.
I'm not trying to sell anything, and no one asked me to write this. I just saw this young man's story and it touched my heart so much that I had to share it with y'all. We always hear about so many bad things happening around the world that I thought we all could benefit from an inspiring story such as this. I hope you are all having a great weekend!
On this page at Good Morning America's website, there is a link to the video of the interview, I think it's the 4th link listed. There is a feature length documentary about William, called Moving Windmills, in production now. You can watch an excerpt of it here. I hope you will take the time to watch the videos, they're about 5 or 6 minutes each.
He also wrote a book, with co-author Brian Mealer, called The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind.
I'm not trying to sell anything, and no one asked me to write this. I just saw this young man's story and it touched my heart so much that I had to share it with y'all. We always hear about so many bad things happening around the world that I thought we all could benefit from an inspiring story such as this. I hope you are all having a great weekend!
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