Cricut Chirps

This is contest entry for those crazy folks at TodaysMama and Cricut. Be sure to check out Cricut's cool new cartridges and the chance at $30,000 in travel for you and your friends at the Great Gypsy Escape site! http://bit.ly/FWcud

Great Escape Meme
1. If you could escape to anywhere in the world where would it be?
Ireland

2. What song do you play when you are by yourself in the car?
Anything by Alison Krauss

3. If you had a night to yourself, and money was no object, what would you do?
Get a massage, a pedicure and a whole "What Not to Wear" makeover

4. What is your guilty pleasure?
Chocolate hidden where the monkeys can't find it

5. What is the farthest place you have traveled away from your home?
California

6. Last book that you couldn't put down?
Pride and Prejudice

7. When you want to escape into another time, what movie do you watch?
Pride and Prejudice with Colin Firth

8. What is your favorite local escape?
The Bon Bonnerie

9. How do you escape on a budget?
Take day trips to favorite places or just browse the remnant bin at JoAnn's or cruise St. Vincent dePaul's thrift store.

Best food you've ever had while on vacation.
Umm, really good prime rib; such a splurge!

I'm a Winner!

Last weekend-actually May 27th-Sew Mama Sew had a big giveaway day, where lots 'o blogs had giveaways of stuff. Well, I mesmerized the kiddos with videos and spent 4 days, intermittent with food, diapers, dishes, etc., going through over 400 giveaways and signing up for what looked good/interested me. And I won! I won three new bags, two I've already received.

I won this beautiful bag from RadSeams. Holy mole! It's so adorable and her workmanship is perfect-definitely professional. I love the combination of dark denim (not dense like jeans but beautiful denim fabric.) with the bright red birds. I love birds, too! (Not the alive kind, though. They give me willies.) And the red thread? Wow! Love it!! Thanks, Amy, for the gorgeous bag and sharing your talents with me! (Photo lifted from RadSeams.)

And I won this reversible bag from ikat bag. The pictures don't do the size justice--it's actually so much bigger in person! It's made from a sturdy canvas and an adorable blue plaid-I love it. And Lier's workmanship is perfect, too. I sure lucked out with these wins. (Photos lifted from ikat bag.)

And lastly, I won a bag from Green Bag Lady, although it hasn't arrived yet. Her patterns are super simple and I bought a cute, sturdy shower curtain this weekend (from my favorite thrift store, of course!) to make up some for me. I'm bored with the ones you buy in the store so I'm making some new ones.

I'm looking forward to SewMamaSew's next giveaway day and I plan on participating as a giver, too!

Those Odd Posts Below

I had a blog elsewhere that I didn't like using, so I've copied over the posts I like. I've got the date there so I can remember when they were really written.

July 1, 2008-I Need A Cure

So while reading a new favorite blog, A County Doctor's Wife, it reminded me of my attempts at gardening Friday night. J and I had a fabulously fun Friday night of feeding the horde and watching TV until bedtime. I'd HAD IT with all of them, the monsters! and so went outside to weed the pitiful landscaping out front of our house. J hates yard work and I don't mind it but can't likely do it without reinforcements to keep an eye on my PMS while doing so. So we look total white trash with the black plastic layer (to prevent weeds) blowing in the wind and weeds everywhere. Crappy plastic trash bag stuff doesn't even work. We need mulch in the worst way, and some sort of design scheme. The plants are so random. I have no earthly clue what I'm doing or what plants to plant and J's only criteria is "cheap" so it's a chaotic hodge podge of plants.

So I pulled every flippin' weed out there, pretending to myself it was P's smart mouth (and he's only 5!) and M's screaming sass (she's a total princess, and 2 1/2). I felt such accomplishment! Look at that big ol' pile of weeds there! I can get something done. The landscaping looked a bit better, just pitiful plants and no weeds. Yea!

And then I discovered something. I am ever so sweet and tasty to mosquitoes and other icky bugs and weeding on a humid Southern summer evening is not smart, no no. At recent count there's over 30 chigger bites, all between my neck and mid-thighs. Yes, 30. I thought it was mosquitoes but it's chiggers; they like to find warm moist crevices, like arm pits and private, and bite there. Yep, your imagination is correct. I do have chigger bites "there." And poor P, he had a bite on his boy parts, proceeded to show me multiple times, and ask how to get rid of it. Sorry, bud, like me you just have to scratch and wait.

July 1, 2008-Got Any Midol?

So S had his 2 month check-up yesterday and got 4 shots.

Poor guy, and poor me for trying to snuggle a grumpy baby while chasing P and M around. I waited until J got home from work to go to Sam's to get a few things and it was torture, for both of us. His comment, after trying to control P and M at Sam's while I pushed the massive cart around 15 times just to get the 3 things we needed: "Hate can't even begin to describe what I feel about taking them out in public." Pretty sad. And we prayed and welcomed them into our homes, wanted them fiercely. Imagine all the money we'd have if we hadn't procreated, and I'd still weigh 113 pounds. We could take trips to exotic locales, like Cincinnati or Gatlinburg, TN. Man, makes me want to pick up drinking.

After we decided to name #3 S, I realized my kids' initials are P-M-S. Quite appropriate, actually. My life at home, trying to control the chaos, stopping fights and kissing boo boos, keeping P and M from loving S to death, fixing a meal, cleaning up after a meal and then immediately fixing the next one--it's like a constant, chronic state of PMS. Sums it all up perfectly.

June 10, 2008-Bread Pudding

So J loves bread pudding and I saw this recipe from Alton Brown while bored browsing online. We had some leftover buns and I tried my hand at it. The verdict: needs denser bread and maybe fewer eggs. After chilling overnight, it was firmer and a bit better, but I thought to try it again with different bread.

So for Sunday I tried it again with a 12" loaf of Italian bread (crusty) and added 1 tsp cinnamon and about 1/2 tsp fresh nutmeg. I got the cinnamon and nutmeg from some recipes at allrecipes.com. Much better! So this is it! My go-to bread pudding recipe, though I might try it next time with just 4 or 5 eggs rather than 6--it seemed a bit scrambled egg to it. I also didn't add the raisins the second time; J liked them but I didn't.

Now as for the sauce, I substituted 1 tsp vanilla for the rum since we don't drink, but followed the rest of it. Awesome! Doubled it, of course, and it made the pudding even better. So this is my new favorite dessert; it's yummy and super easy.

I need to break out my other favorites, but probably shouldn't. S is six weeks old tomorrow, so I should start worrying about getting this weight off. I've been at this number for a few weeks now and need to focus on cutting down the calories and stepping up the activity.

On a side note, does anyone actually read my blog? If you do, please leave a comment and I'll post more often. Though I don't know if I have much to say that you can't find elsewhere and funnier in blogland.

January 9, 2008-Two More Places to Visit

Well it was a busy, crazy, horrible 2007 summer...partly why it's been a while since I've visited. My dad died suddenly, unexpectedly, shockingly on May 30th. That shock sucked up the whole summer and we continued trying to conceive. Baby #3 started in early August and I quickly lost any interest in anything besides sleeping, napping and when I could doze again. Things have picked up a bit; I'm a less tired and I've actually started glancing back through my crochet magazines.

So here's 2 sites I also like to visit:First is Rostitchery's blog. She has good instructions on making your own pillowcase dresses for little girls and instructions for making nursing tops and shirts. Check this out, too.

Second is Mavis' blog with tutorials and her crafting adventures. Here's the tutorial for making hooter hiders--which, if I can make them successfully, will be shower gifts for the near futures. I'm making the first one, trial one, for myself of course.

So that's it for today. Why does it seem like I'd be best friends with the women who write these blogs? If only we all lived closer to each other...and they didn't think I was some weird, icky stalker that found them online and just want to be close to them. Eww. I'll just admire silently from afar, reading their blogs and sucking up their expertise without bothering them.