This is me, according to Little Guy.

I blame Irish Girl; she’s the one who brought this cookbook into our house.

Little Guy is obsessed with this cookbook. I don’t know if Irish Girl meant to leave it with us, or if Little Guy hid it so she couldn’t take it home with her. I suspect it’s the latter.

He’ll spend forever aka about an hour, which is like forever when you’re four paging through the cookbook and pointing out recipes he wants me to make for dinner.

Silly boy, he forgets that Teacher’s the cook in this family.

He especially likes the Funny Food Faces page.

On the day he made me in food he actually started out making Bert. He put his hot dog bun horizontally across the top of his plate, then put the hot dog vertically down the center. The oranges he set aside, then used tator tots for the eyes and mouth.

Next he made Ernie: he removed the hot dog bun, ate about half the hot dog, added the oranges for ears, and made the tator tot smile bigger.

Finally he ate all but one bite of his hot dog, put that in the center of his plate, and said “This is you, Mom; cuz you have a little nose.”

I’m flattered by the nose comment, but am wondering about the ears.

They seem awfully big, and kind of monkey-ish.

Do these earrings make my ears look big?

Between birthday parties and holidays we host a lot of parties each year! Over time we’ve discovered some quick and easy tips for hosting a fun party without going crazy or spending lots of money.

Even better, if you visit the page before December 31, 2010, you can enter a sweepstakes to win a $100 Visa gift card. Wouldn’t that be a great way to start planning a party?!

Enter now, and good luck!

Christmas and New Year’s Eve are coming – are you ready?

If you’re planning a party check out my Holiday Party Tips and Sweepstakes for hints on how to plan a stress-free party without breaking the bank. Plus you could win $100.00 from BlogHer!

Good luck!

Peanut likes loves yogurt, and shared some with Bear. Aka “Grrrr” in Peanut-ese.

Bear doesn’t like yogurt.

At least, that’s my guess from the expression on his face.

What do you think?

Don’t forget to enter the first-ever-in-my-whole-life sweepstakes, sponsored by BlogHer! All you need to do is leave a comment at the end of the sweepstakes post; how easy is that?

On December 31 I’ll use random.org to choose a winning comment, so don’t forget to enter!

Good luck!

Many people think that being happy is something they have no control over; it either either happens or it doesn’t, but that’ not true! Being happy is a decision we make, and people can actually learn how to be happy. Even if you’re not feeling happy, acting as though you are will eventually make you happy – the old “fake it until you make it” strategy.

Here are some suggestions on how to practice being happy- try some today and see what happens!
- Smile and say “hello” to a stranger.
- Take a weekend afternoon nap.
- Be brave enough to say “I’m sorry” – even if you were right.
- Be loving enough to say “I forgive you” – even if part of you doesn’t.
- Don’t interrupt.
- Smile and wave at children as you pass by.
- Leave everything a little better than you found it.
- Really listen to your children.
- Eat chocolate and don’t count the calories.
- Keep your promises.
- Do nice things anonymously.
- Be a good loser and a gracious winner.
- Remember other people’s birthdays – and send them a card.
- Refuse to gossip.
- Be generous.
- Never give up; miracles happen every day.
- Say please and thank you – a lot
- Let someone else go ahead of you in the check-out line.
- Sing in the shower – loudly and off-key.
- Let the other car have “your” parking space; the exercise will do you good.
- Do more than is expected.
- Be there when you’re needed.
- Thank a veteran or service member.
- Be kinder than necessary.
- Make a difference in someone’s life.

I wish you happiness every day,

Photo by Jude Doyland

This is my brand spankin’ new purse; made by my friend Shadow.

Shadow owns Felt Fusion, and one day while I was browsing her gallery I fell in love with this purse. Well, not this particular purse, but one just like it.

I first “met” Shadow several years ago when she purchased some of my cloth diapers. When I started making Dundies she purchased those from me too. These are some of Shadow’s Dundies – just like me she likes stripes, dots, and bright colors.

I asked Shadow if she’d make a fairy for me, except bigger and with a shorter strap. She agreed, even though she’d never made one the size I wanted.

It’s needlefelted, which I don’t know much about except that it uses wool yarn and seems like a LOT of work. I don’t know what I expected, but it’s soooo much softer than I expected; I can’t stop petting it! I added the snaps so when I pick up my purse upside-down and that’s a definite WHEN, not IF it won’t scatter my lip balm, coupons, tissues, gum, wallet, and other miscellaneous junk across the floor.

That’s not a stain inside the purse, just a spot where the yarn is darker.

The colors are what first caught my eye, but the fairy captured my heart. Shadow even included some iridescent fibers in the fairy’s wings – she knows how much I love sparklies!

My brother Jay’s girlfriend, Dee, has become the official Dessert Maker for our family gatherings. She likes to make desserts, is good at it, and since she doesn’t have kids she can make the cute desserts the rest of us don’t have time to make.

We recently went to Jay’s house to celebrate his birthday and Dee brought “Jay Desserts” – apple pie, funfetti cake with vanilla frosting, and Rubber Duck Cupcakes.

Jay was obviously dropped on his head as an infant, or maybe he and my real brother were switched at birth, because “Jay Desserts” means NO CHOCOLATE. I don’t know how a brother of mine could NOT like chocolate!

Hmmm… now that I think about it, neither of my brothers likes chocolate. Maybe I was switched at birth!

Dee got the Rubber Duck Cupcake recipe from iVillage, and they were simply adorable – at first. For the head she attached a donut hole to the cupcake with a pretzel stick, and put a marshmallow opposite it for the tail. Then she frosted them, made chocolate chip eyes, and formed beaks from orange Flavor Rolls aka the grossest candy on the planet.

Unfortunately Jay’s house was too warm for the poor little duckies because they quickly started to mutate – the one in the back is looking particularly unwell.

This one looks like he’s puking.

And this one has lost his beak entirely.

I don’t know if it’s the prospect of eating a rubber duck-shaped cupcake, or eating a mutant duck that upsets Peanut, but she’s not too thrilled. She quacked at the duck, then poked it, saying “Ucky, ucky!”

Little Guy has no qualms about eating it, and snarfed it down so quickly Dee was afraid he’d choke.

Poor, sad, Peanut-rejected duck.

I’ll bet I have nightmares about mutating ducks tonight.

Don’t look now, but there’s something creepy about the one on the right. Do you see how his eyes follow you, even when you move from side to side?

I didn’t eat any of your friends, I swear – I had funfetti cake!

He’s definitely coming after me tonight.
If I don’t post again you’ll know the duck got me.

By the way, I’m in NO way criticizing Dee – she did an awesome job with the cupcakes! It was just so darned funny to watch them mutate from cute little duckies into misshapen zombie-ducks that I couldn’t help sharing. Don’t be upset, Dee, we love you despite the mutant-duck cupcakes!

I’ve always been a procrastinator. I can remember my dad lecturing me when I was thirteen about how I had to set my priorities, stop procrastinating and get things done on time.

Now it’s mumble years later and I’m still struggling with this bad habit, but I’m ready to make a change. I’m tired of feeling like a hamster on a wheel; WARNING: there’s sound! running like crazy but not getting anywhere.

I’m ready to stop procrastinating.

Seriously.

If you’ve known me for a while you’re probably laughing right now, but I really mean it.

I realize it won’t be easy because old habits are hard to break, but I also know that I’m stubborn as a mule bull I am a Taurus you know, and can do anything I put my mind to.

Not only do I believe I can do it, I’ve already started! I was going to make anti-procrastination my 2011 New Year’s resolution, then I realized that was procrastinating to wait until then so I kicked myself in the butt figuratively, not literally and decided to start today.

How am I going to break this bad habit? Well, I’m actually not sure. It’s deceptively easy to say “I’ll just start doing things right away” but if it were that easy I wouldn’t be a procrastinator, right?

The first step is to create accountability – that’s partly why I’m writing about my new goal – I can’t very well continue boldly procrastinating if people know I’ve vowed to stop, right? If you see or hear me procrastinating please smack me upside the head gently and kindly remind me of my vow- if that doesn’t work, go ahead and smack me.

Next I’m going to make a list of the things I’ve been putting off: cleaning the refrigerator, organizing the fruit cellar, taking the boys’ summer clothes to the attic, etc. Once I decide when I can do each task I’ll think of a little reward for when the task is done. Like reading a chapter of my new book when the refrigerator is clean. Hopefully each reward will be enough incentive for me to get the job done.

And that’s where I get stuck.

Aside from the list and relying on sheer stubbornness I’m not really sure how to break the procrastination habit. I know ways to STOP doing things, but how do you make sure you START doing things?

I think I need some help.

Do you have any ideas?

Have you ever procrastinated?

What tips or techniques help you stop procrastinating?

Photo ©captainmcdan

At our house more often than not the question “What’s that smell?!” doesn’t have a happy answer.

Luckily this is one of the few times it does.

A delicious smell wafted from the closed box, and got stronger as I opened it.

Right on top was a handwritten “Thanks for your purchase” card, and hidden among the packing peanuts…

Hooray – it’s my new tarts!

I’m totally addicted to wax tarts. From the moment the windows are closed in the fall until they are reopened in the spring I have a tart in the warmer. Obviously I love food scents, especially “comfort food” and bakery scents, but not citrus or berry ones. I can’t stand “fresh” or floral scents either – I have no idea why.

These came from Black Mountain Candle on Etsy, and smell just as luscious as their names suggest. I bought a “sampler” package so I could have a variety of scents to choose from.

So far I’ve tried Fudge Brownie – which smells exactly like brownies fresh from the oven, Pumpkin Pie – which smells almost like the pumpkin pie I made this week, and Snickerdoodle – which I think smells just like my favorite cookie but Princess says is more like frosted cinnamon rolls.

In any case, they all make our house smell delicious! A vast improvement over the “eau de poo” that sometimes lingers near the changing table.

Not only do they smell great, they’re really pretty too. The last bunch of handmade tarts I bought were just small squares – yummy to smell but not as nice to look at.

Since I turn the warmer on first thing in the morning and don’t turn it off until I go to bed, my tarts usually only last two days but these are soft enough to easily cut in half, and scented enough that just half a tart will still last two days. Gotta love that!

I wonder how long a quarter tart would last…

Do you like tarts? What are your favorite scents?