12.30.2009

There's still time!



Greetings all my scrappy friends! I just wanted to tell you there's still plenty of time to play for this fabulous Nikki Sivils prize at Creative Cookbooking! We want to see your mini albums of 12 favorite Christmas cookies recipes!

Here's a layout I did recently for Creative Cookbooking. Not cookies, but still yummy! We made these several times during the holidays and for as easy as they are to make, I don't know why we save them for holidays. Plus, I like to say they're healthy, because of the Crispix cereal. High in fiber, right? :-D



I will be back soon with lots of new creations I've been working on. And to all of my faithful readers, I hope you have a very healthy, happy and scrappy New Year! :-)

12.24.2009

I believe in Santa Claus

This is the subject line from an email from my Rabbi... and a few of his thoughts. I agree with him. :-)

"I believe in Santa Claus...If we strip away all the commercialism and the kitsch (tackiness) that surround Santa Claus, we can see Santa Claus really reflects the best of what it means to be human...let Santa Claus be our role model during this Christmas season and take this spirit beyond Christmas."

Merry Christmas to all my scrappy friends. Maybe the warmth of the spirit of Christmas be with you throughout the new year.

12.20.2009

Clarification on last post

Thanks for the comments! Just so everyone knows, I DID send the link to my blog post to the Taco Bell website. Their comment section was limited to 500 words, and I'm pretty sure my post was more than that! LOL

It's all about the Roosevelts??

Really, Taco Bell? Really???

To all my scrappy friends, I'm sorry. This isn't even CLOSE to scrappy related, but I have to tell the story. I think it's important, particularly in these hard economic times.

For those who know me, you know I'm big on letter writing. Whether I get very good customer service or very bad, someone at the company is going to know about it.

#1. Some of you may remember my computer saga a few years back. I had a Sony Vaio laptop, called them up to tell them of my issue, and the rep tells me that's considered a major repair so it'll cost me $699. plus tax and shipping both ways. I said "but I can buy a whole NEW computer for that!" And he told me I should. And I did. I bought a Gateway. And Sony execs got a letter for that.

#2. Fast forward to last year, I sent my Gateway in and they did the repair for less than $100. AND I had my computer back in 3 working days! AWESOME, right? So they got a letter for that.

#3. Have you ever gone clothes shopping and picked something off the clearance rack only to have it ring up full price? This happened to my girls at Rue 21. I went to their website and told them, no biggie, BUT, the little girl that was working there was quite argumentative and said that the item should not have been on the clearance rack. Well, guess what. It was. And we don't work there, so one of the employees should be going through to make sure there are no regular priced items on the clearance rack. Two days later, my home phone was ringing with a call from the district manager wanting to make it right. Nice! Love that!

#4. Just last week, because of my poor planning, I ran out of Chanukah candles. Because I live in Alabama, I can't just run to the store to pick some up, I have to hunt for them and maybe I get lucky and find them. In light of the fact that I waited so long, I was in a pinch. Looked at some of the places I'd bought them in the past, but no luck. So I go to my local Publix store, where there is about 2 feet of floor space for Jewish items. Like I said, Alabama. LOL So I go to the customer service desk and asked the manager on duty. First she walked the store looking with me, then she immediately got on the phone and started calling to other area stores. The closest one that had candles was 30 minutes away. She asked if I could wait until the next day for the candles. I said yes. After her shift, she drove 30 minutes to the other store, picked up the candles, and brought them back to my store to be picked up the next day. How inconvenient for her and very convenient for me! SHE got a very nice letter sent by me on her behalf to the home office in Florida.

Okay, by now you get the drift. I'm a HUGE letter writer. And sometimes a tad lazy. Which is why I wanted Taco Bell Friday night. We don't eat out often because 1. it's expensive to feed all these people, so eating out is a treat and a rarity and 2. it's a pain to take the 85 year old father in law out in public. So, the hubs and I had a little "date" to pick up dinner to bring back to the house. The reason I'm having to post here instead of direct to the Taco Bell website is those sites don't allow photos. So, I'm going to post the photo and before you read on, really LOOK at the photo...



Okay, let's review... 2 Grande Meals (20 tacos total + 2 drinks) = $41.46. Whoa! So, the hubs starts going over the receipt with the girl behind the counter. She informs us that because we wanted sour cream and tomatoes, she added the additional $18. Holy CRAP! Are you kidding me? I was hoping to get a photo of an actual taco, but we just have a real aversion to paying another "roosevelt" to Taco Bell. But if you've ever ordered a taco supreme, you know that there are on average 7 pieces of diced tomato on each one and about a tablespoon of sour cream.

Here comes the fun part, math! So, here's a receipt from yesterday from Publix.



First, take note that a standing rib roast that fed all of us not once but TWICE, was $25. Yes, I know, that means we had to prepare it and clean up the mess, but it was WAY better than fast food.

Back to the point... Publix brand sour cream (16 oz.) cost $1.19 + tax. Tomatoes are $3.49 per POUND. Now, I'm estimating here, but I would say at MOST, there were 4 oz. of tomatoes on ALL 20 tacos. So 1/4 of $3.49 comes out to almost .88 worth of tomatoes. So even IF they had used an entire container of sour cream, and assuming that Taco Bell buys their food items from an upscale grocery store, it cost them no more than $3.20 to embellish our 20 tacos with tomatoes and sour cream that they charged us $18. for.

We felt totally raped paying $18. for tomatoes and sour cream! Before we left, we did some more math... The #3 value meal is 3 taco supremes and a large drink for $5.29. We would have been further ahead buying 7 of the meals because we would have gotten 3 more large drinks and 1 additional taco to the tune of $37.03.

As always, Caveat Emptor!

And I promise, my next post will be scrappy related! :-)

12.10.2009

Silly me!

I totally forgot to post the PRIZE that you can win for the 12 Days of Christmas contest that I told you about yesterday! Just in case you needed a little motivation... :-D

12.09.2009

12 Days of Christmas contest!

Creative Cookbooking has another awesome contest! We want to see your mini books of your 12 favorite Christmas cookies! Now don't feel overwhelmed! We don't need photos, just recipes, unless you want to include photos, then thats fine too!

To enter, upload your entries to our gallery and sign up on our sign up thread. Voting will be done by some special designers!

You have until midnight on January 4th to complete your mini book. Come on girlies, show me your minis!!! :-)

Here's a layout that I just finished of Megan and Caitlyn being silly the day the tree went up. They look a lot alike in these photos, doncha think? :-)



I'll have more to share soon! Thanks for stopping by! :-)

12.04.2009

Traditions

Usually this is where I say Happy Scrap Friday! But today, I'm feeling a little merry, and before I wake up my girlies to help me bake, I thought I'd share some ornaments I made for the kids. Every year, we get them a dated Hallmark ornament, but this year, the teeniest of ornaments are ridiculously expensive, so dh suggested that a handmade ornament would be so much more meaningful anyway. Brilliant! Why didn't "I" think of that? LOL So I did. I personalized them to some extent, but they are all dated.

Peyton's favorite color is blue. This week.



Caitlyn is into the vintage look. This week.



Ethan got engaged last month. I don't think it's as glimmery in the photo as it is in real life. Lots of gold glitter.



I had Megan's left to do by the time she came home from college for Thanksgiving, so she picked out her paper and "supervised" me. LOL



Another tradition of ours is that I have the kids put their handprints on the tree skirt and date it. Here is Megan putting it under the tree this year. :-)



Well, I'm off to bake some cranberry bread with the girls. Enjoy your merry moments this weekend! :-)

12.02.2009

Lots of layouts

Some insight as to why I've been a little missing in action recently...

Here are a couple of layouts of Kennedy. She's been spending quite a bit of time here, which I LOVE. She is so happy, always. :-)





And then Thanksgiving. Megan and Ethan and his new fiance stayed for the week, plus David and Kennedy spent the day with us as well.



And last but not least, this. :-/ Caitlyn had her first car accident, in David's car. :-O Thankfully, no one was injured too badly, although Caitlyn and Kennedy both had ER visits to make sure the blood wasn't something more serious.



It's been a crazy month, and this one promises to be equally as crazy. Chanukah is in 10 days, Megan's 21st birthday is in 12 days and then Christmas in 23 days. And I haven't done the first bit of shopping for any of it! :-O Not that I haven't had time, but I needed some creative unwinding after the last few weeks. :-)

Thanks for stopping by! Have a scrappy week and I'll be back soon with some holiday projects. :-)

12.01.2009

Happy December!



As usual, another month has zipped by and here we are at the end of another year! Wishing all my scrappy friends moments this month to enjoy the season. :-)