Not the same old cookie

We had a "Cookie Walk" back in December at the kid's school and a few moms dropped off these Peanut butter, Hershey kiss cookie... you know the one, you've all had or made them. I am not a huge fan of this cookie. That is, until I tried Corinne's mom's recipe!
People told me they were great and I would love them. I scoffed, being the cookie snob that I am. I was so wrong.
Look at this beauty:

They taste better than any version of this cookie that I have ever tasted. I begged Corrine's mom for the recipe and she whipped out a sharpie and jotted it on an envelope for me.
Look at the 3rd ingredient:

Bisquick??? In a cookie??? Are you kidding??? They are moist and chewy on the inside and have a good crunch on the outside. YUM!

business

Bad business!

This is the worst company I have ever ordered from online, and I shop online alot. I was drawn in by their oilcloth that I haven't seen anywhere else and these retro ice bags. They looked like a decent place, they have a good sounding name, everything felt OK. On 11/11/07 I placed a $60.00 order and paid through PayPal, they took my money immediately and then NOTHING. No confirmation email, no shipping email, backorder email, no "drop dead sucker, we took your money and ran" email, nothing. I called and emailed their bogus customer service daily and never spoke to a live person. My account showed that it was processing until 11/27/07 and then it switched to "shipped". I felt relieved for a second until I saw that there was no tracking number. I continued to call and email with no luck. Now I have filed a claim through PayPal. We will wait and see what happens. UGH,I just wanted my damn oilcloth!
In keeping with the business theme:
I was trying to tidy up around the tree (ha ha ha ha ha)and I found this

Julia means business! This just cracked me up for some reason.

More business...
My brand new machine is going back to the store today because it has decided to stop winding bobbins. Unbelievable! They had better give me a loaner or I will be back ranting about JoAnn Fabric's (or whomever it is that sells machines in the store)next.
Happy New Year's Eve Eve.

Things I forgot to say yesterday...

Look what my Bumble found-

The Advent thingy that I had lost and was so upset over a few weeks ago! Julia has been very happy to have it back. Notice all the cards around it...thanks to my kind friends(real life and blog) and family! Each one gave me a HUGE smile on my face when I received them.
Here's last night's accomplishment-

Julia refers to this as "the ultimate girl gift set" and she would know. I almost feel guilty about this gift because the fabric came from the remnant bin and cost less than $2.00, but it is totally cute and appropriate for the recipient.

How's everyone holding up?

I'm doing ok here. I have successfully avoided a major nervous breakdown, I think I will make it to Christmas with my normal about of sanity in tact!
This week has been all about 16 hour days of work, shop, cook, drive, sew. Notice I didn't say anything about cleaning or laundry, that's today.
Here's a sampling of the handmade gifts that I have finished this week.



We had an awesome holiday work party on Thursday. 27 of us went to Chef Silvia's house http://www.chefsilvia.com/ where we learned to prepared a 5 course meal together while drinking wine and exchanging gifts. It was so much fun until we got stuck in 2 hours of traffic on the way home. When I got home Gabby was waiting at the door for me with basketball bag in hand...

Ugh, she had a game. It was a very long day. Great picture of her, huh?
OK, get back to work!

A strange calmness...

...has settled over me. It may be residual effects from the snow day, I don't know.



This little scene from my village makes me happy, I love looking in this little window.
Last night I actually had the mental capacity and 1 hour to figure out the embroidery part of my machine.

This was my test, it's such a cool thing! I doubt that I will ever do much in the way of picture type embroidery but I love having the ability to personalize things. I already have a few jobs lined up!
Speaking of embroidery-
About a year ago Jenny Hart of Sublime Stitch asked for tea towel testers and I was lucky enough to get in on it. Unfortunately, one of the testers flaked out and kept the nearly finished towel and it never got sent back to Jenny. (Grrrrr)Fortunately, most of the original testers agreed to stitch another towel and send it to Jenny because she was very bummed out about it. As my luck would have it, it's my turn- right before Christmas!!! I got started on it last night, I'm keeping it simple and doing pretty much the same thing as last time.

I'll show you when it's done and after I sew some chenille rick rack on it :)

Why Martha?

Why would you trick me in to making these cookies?

I mean they are OK but I would never bother making them again. The dough tasted really yummy but the cookie...not so much. They just sounded so much better than they taste. Now I need to find another kind of cookie to make 12 dozen of by tomorrow night. Oh well.
Happier news:
We had a snow day today!!! Yippee!!! Aside from the wasted cookie time, I had a fantastic day. Just knowing that there was NO WHERE that I had to be all day and night was heaven. I cleaned the disaster that was my kitchen counter, I organized the disaster that was my sewing room spilling into our bedroom, I finished up a few gifts including this one for my sushi loving niece.

I think I will tuck a free babysitting coupon in the oven mitt so they can go out for some sushi.
I hope you are all well and thanks for listening to me whine the other day :)

Ranting ahead...enter at your own risk

I am whiney, crabby, tired, over-worked, under-appreciated,in desperate need of a dye job and an eyebrow waxing.
My calendar sets me spiraling into a panic attack everytime I look at it.

I can only look at one day at a time or I may hyperventilate. This is my kid/school activity one, I have my planner in my purse that's even scarier...it's the mother of all calendars.
*shudder*
Here's where it's gonna get ugly, you may want to leave now, it's ok.
So, the reason I feel like a piece of crap is because:
1-I buy Christmas cards almost every year and never write them, address them or send them. And now because I fail at Christmas cards, I have been removed from almost everyone's Christmas card list. Serves me right. I used to love getting cards.
2-I lost my advent calendar thingy.
Julia is by far the sweetest and most sensitive of my daughters and she LOVES preparing for holidays. She started begging me to get started on it after Thanksgiving and I kept growling at her (from my calendar, no doubt) that I didn't have time yet. She very sweetly said that she understood "but could we at least do the advent calendar thingy on December 1st?" and she would be happy with that.
I lost the advent calendar thingy. I cry every time I think of this. I'm crying as I type this.
3-I missed my cat's yearly vet appointment in September and I haven't rescheduled.
4-Worse than that, is that I put off Sammy's doctor appointment after her scoliosis screening at school... and come to find out she has scoliosis, yep, a 17 degree curve going up her back. We have an appointment with an orthopaedic on Thursday. (It's on the calendar!)I suck.
5-My workload at my job is getting crazy, I'm becoming frazzled there too. It's review time, I'm not sure how that's going to go. I'm sure they would like it if I could work full time hours but HAVE YOU SEEN MY CALENDAR???????

OK, that has just scrached the surface. You guys aren't ready for any of the other layers, I'm not ready for any of the other layers!

Let's change the subject because I don't want anyone leaving here mopey. Has anyone ever done business with this company? http://www.ahmercantile.com/catalog/
I am getting a very bad feeling about an order I placed with them. They will not return my emails or or phone calls.

Thank you!

Look at what came to my door from Old School Acres this week:

Her name is Daisy. Here she is on the tree all by her self...for now

Thanks Laurie, I want to be just like you some day!!!
I also received a very nice surprise from an old Flickr pal

Thanks Leeanne! I can't believe how nice you are to me :)

Here is where I will end this post because it will only turn ugly. I am COMPLETELY overwhelmed and feeling like a terrible mom, wife, employee, neighbor, friend, daughter, citizen, pet owner... you name it, I suck at it.
I'm off to try to change some of it.
Have a great day.

Fear not.

Originally uploaded by cbcyr

I'm still here!
Today I am taking the day off from work to Christmas shop. No fake french accent, no Bumble, no fun.

*****update****
I wore my badge with pride today. I just got off the phone with the evil empire that is WalMart:
me: hi, I was there this morning and I'm pretty sure one of my bags didn't make it in my cart.
nasty customer service girl: uh huh
me: um, it had blah, blah, blah in it
nasty customer service girl:: yeah
me: do you have it?? (annoyed now)
nasty customer service girl: yeah
me:: good! Gee, you'd think when someone is paying $400 for an order the cashier would go that extra mile and make sure you have all your bags.
nasty customer service girl who is chatty now: well you'd think that if someone is paying $400 for an order they would make sure they have all their bags. (I just know her head was going side to side)
me: um, can I speak to your store manager?
nasty customer service girl: CLICK!
UGGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!! I went through a half hour of trying to reach this guy. At one point a young guy picked up the phone pretending to be the store manager. I asked what his name was and he said, "CSS". I screamed, "Your mother named you CSS??? That's your title not your name, kid!" I want to speak to the store manger NOWWWWWWWW!!
CSS told me that the manager was too busy working to speak to me.
Long story short...I finally got him and screamed at him for 8 minutes and I feel better. The bumble needs to go pick up my bag because I fear for my life now.

the good....

the bad.....

and the ugly.......

I know, it's mean to make fun of gifts but honestly! No one has ever seen me or David ever drink whiskey, the applique scarves, sequin sweater and fuzzy-shiny pj's were given to the 2 big daughters who are very much into trendy fashions (Abercrombie, Holister, etc.) and would need to be drunk on that whiskey to ever wear them and then there's Garfield Chia, 'nuff said.
Julia and I were very fortunate to get the lovely Vera Bradley bags, thanks Aunt Debbie!

Moving on

Ho Ho Merry!

Santa brought Julia an American Girl doll and a tent for it

and look who wants to camp!

Can I take the tree down now? Don't get me wrong, I love Christmas and for all the right reasons but I am so done with it (and every other holiday) right after it's done. Get those cookies away from me and put all the decorations back in the attic! Maybe because my house is so small for us and clutters so easily or maybe because I have ants in my pants all the time, whatever the reason, I'm done. I am happy to just have winter now even though the temperature has barely gotten below 50 degrees. I want to make soup, bake breads and sew....ahhhh, that makes me happy. I need to clean up this place and buy some groceries; David's daughter Christina and her boyfriend are coming here for a week. I have no idea where everyone will sit for dinner, my kitchen barely seats us 5, maybe we'll eat in shifts or I'll stand.... I dunno!

mindless rambling ahead...

Hello all. The kids are all sick with coughs, sore throats and sniffles. I have a little stomach bug thing going on, along with a stiff neck...... but I'm still excited about Christmas in two days!
I took my little tree home from work yesterday. Don't you just love how tacky this is??

It was a Target Dollar Spot special and it makes me so happy.
Another thing that made me happy yesterday was finding a new quilt shop that I never knew existed. I was dropping something off to a client and stumbled upon it. I picked up these little goodies.


So, today I am cleaning up my sewing table so that I can get all of my craft crap out of my bedroom (I found the nurse buttons Deb!) and guess what I found out? Did you know that if you send $4.00 and 3 Wright's Rick Rack labels to Wright's they will send you a generous bag of scraps??? Can you even believe that this is true?? Click here for the address. OK, I'm off to the mailbox, I'm gonna get me a generous bag of rick rack scraps!

3 more days!

I had a good time yesterday and managed to spend $478 in many stores within 3 hours. WHEW! I am exhausted. Malling is hard work, I tell ya.I bought more gifts and spent $100 on underwear and bras for myself, I would never do that with my own money....seriously you wouldn't believe how tattered my underwear are!
Did you ever have a favorite bra and the underwire pokes out and keeps stabbing you in the armpit or neck? This seems to happen to every bra I own, no matter the cost or brand! Well, I decided I wasn't going to take it anymore and got out my glue gun. I've tried sewing the holes shut but that wire keeps poking out, so now I put a blob of hot glue over the hole and no more stabbing. The glue only holds up for 3 or 4 washings but it's easy enough to re-do. It's not pretty but it works.
Where was I?
Oh, it's almost Christmas and I'm calm now.... life is good. I'll leave you with kid pictures. This was the best of the 500 that I took. We've got to work on this.

fa la la la la......

....... la la la
OK, I'm on track for Christmas now. That quilt was killing me! I baked some cupcakes for a class party:


cute, eh?
I put together a few gift buckets for the popular 13 year old to give to her friends:

These were cheap and fun; a cute bucket from Target's dollar spot, garland, a jumbo candy bar, a pack of microwave popcorn and a movie rental from Blockbuster- all for around $7.00.

Today is very exciting! I love my job!! I have been sitting on this office secret for weeks now and it was making me crazy. Being the office manager, I had to be in on the secret but I couldn't tell. Today is our office party...with a twist. We (24 of us) are meeting at a diner at 8:30 where we will have breakfast and everyone will be confused and more than a little pissed off thinking that this is the party. The boss will then hand out a very generous gift card to a big mall about 30 miles away. We will have until 1:30 to spend all of it before we meet for lunch at a mall restaurant. The boss will be randomly handing out money if he spots you in the mall and at lunch there will be prizes for the single largest purchase, the most receipts, etc. etc. and then we get to go home. No work today!
I love my job!

I Love Mail!

I treated myself to a few presents, I could hardly help it! I can't wait to make these for Jacob for his birthday

I may have to put some wheels on the robot for mr. cutie boy to be interested in him! UPS just delivered my box of goodies from Barnes And Noble; mostly gifts for other people but I snuck this in for me

I'm not sure why I needed this but I'll figure it out. Speaking of UPS, these little blankets are for twin sons of my UPS driver.

I work so close to home that he happens to have my house and office on his route. He's a super nice guy and is always talking about his 3 year old sons who are crazy about the Cars movie. These blankets are just fleece backed, top stitched and hand tied..... simple!
My niece's quilt is coming along nicely, I think I'll make it!

serenity now

I have no business being on the computer right now but I have a few minutes while chicken is thawing. I have 8 days to finish my niece's quilt; it's her gift for graduating nursing school.....I have it cut and um, 2% of the top sewn. Yeah, I'm stressing out. I think extracurricular activities should be banned during December! Every day it's dance, basketball, cheer leading, clubs, parties and school concerts...when are moms supposed to get stuff done??
At least I have my bumble.

C'mon! You know... the Abominable snow guy from Rudolph? The one who's job it was to put the star on the tree? Yeah, him.
David is my Bumble.
He tries.
And he can reach all the tall stuff.
OK, the chicken is thawed whether it thinks so or not.

December swap goodies!

I barely took my coat off to open up my box of goodies from my bestest swap friend "P".
Everything was packed in this super-cute tote
Here's what was inside
Look at the great Christmas/Winter fabrics

and a special bag of "doodads" loaded with soooo many things, even things for my neglected dollhouse!

That's how "P" and I first met; the Ziploc Doodad Swap on Craftster.org. Good times, good times. We've been swapping ever since! Thanks so much, I love all of it!! You rock!!

19 pounds of love

Yep, he's 19 pounds now. It's hard to believe he fit in my hand when we got him. The vet didn't even say anything about it and he gained 3 lbs. since last year! Maybe he was more concerned with his infected tooth that I knew nothing about, apparently that's why he has bad breath.....I thought the bad breath was from eating cat food. *shrugs* I have to bring him to the kittly hospital in 2 weeks to have the tooth out. Poor Leo.

We've been keeping busy around here but managed to decorate the tree on Sunday. There's something on the calendar every night except Saturday, so hopefully we can put the rest of the decorations up then.
I'll be back with more crafty business soon, have a good week!

reality check

Here I am, wallowing in my petty little miseries....... when life's harsh realities smack me in the face. Our school (it's a catholic school) does a great job in teaching the kids about charity and helping those less fortunate. In fact, I think I do a good job teaching my kids the same thing. So, how come I get all wrapped up in my little world of messy rooms, busy schedule and not enough money? While I've been so busy in my little world, my kids have been busy collecting things to fill stockings for the children at The boys and Girls Village. http://www.boysvill.org/section.cfm?sectionid=24 They have given up some of their own new and unopened toys that they haven't gotten around to playing with yet or that were double gifts. They have filled 4 stockings this weekend! Nice job, girls. I added to their efforts by sewing a few tissue covers this morning.

See, it pays to hit the remnant bins and collect some fabrics that aren't your style!
Let's all step back, take a deep breath and stop and think how fortunate we are and possibly do a little something for someone else.