I Do Your Grocery Shopping Again. You're Welcome.

I have told you before about my love of going to the grocery and the cool new products I love to find and I am back to share with you my latest finds.

Have you SEEN these? Tom is seriously addicted to the Honey Maid Honey Sticks so I have to pick some up every week and right next to the honey sticks were these fabulous little darlings. Yes, they are S'MORES. In a teeny, tiny cracker of deliciousness. Go buy some immediately.

A few weeks ago, I found these Country Crock Scalloped Potatoes on sale for buy one, get one free. THANK GOD I bought them. I was unsure, basing my scalloped potato experience on those truly gross boxed mixes, but these are delicious. They taste like you just whipped 'em up yourself.

Then, the next time I went, while looking for the scalloped potatoes, I found these. Also delicious. And now I know they have other side dishes and I will be looking for those, I can assure you.

I found these the other day while looking for chocolate chips and was thrilled to find sugar-free chocolate chips! I just ate a handful, strictly for TESTING PURPOSES, you understand, and they taste exactly like regular chocolate chips.

What about you? Any new products?

Check out my Herald-Leader blog and the new post at: The Dance of Joy

FREE Business Cards - ONLY $50.00!

So, I decided I needed some new business cards. I'm writing for a professional blog now (see? over there on the right? at the top? Yeah. I'm a little excited about it) and I thought I might actually need to act a little professional sometime in the future and might need to be able to hand someone a business card.

I remembered that I had gotten some free business cards a while back to hand out when I was presenting at conferences, so I just looked up "free business cards" on the good ole Internet and Vistaprint popped up. After attempting to create an account, vistaprint remembered me as a customer and I was able to log in and look at all the free business cards. They actually are free; it's not a scam of some sort. You just pay for shipping. (although I do think the shipping is a little high)

But I didn't love the free ones, so I checked out the ones that were only $3.99 and found the PERFECT one with two women on a patio. OK, click, order 250 of those. It popped up and offered me a business card holder for only $6.99. Now, I have to admit that I already ordered one of these the last time I got the free business cards but I have absolutely no idea where it might be. So I TOTALLY needed one. I can't just throw those cards in my purse, can I? My lovely FREE cards might get crumpled.

So, now we are up to $11.00. I kinda want them right away so I chose Priority Mail. Another $13.00. Up to $25.00 with tax.

Now, even before I get into the rest of this story, I am looking at those figures and realizing I probably could have gone to a local printer and gotten some cards much cheaper than that. But these were FREE!

When I pressed the order button, a message came up and said to wait, to be patient, not to click the order button again and IF YOU DID (because of course people do) just go back and check to see if the order actually went through before you order again. I waited patiently and then the screen that was counting down just clicked closed.

I hesitated because I am nothing if not obedient to instruction, then clicked to see if the order had gone through. It had not. It was still in the shopping cart.

So, of course. I ordered them again.

Can you see where this is going?

About three minutes later, I got an email confirmation of my order. Then, a few seconds later, a confirmation of my second order. $25. Twice. $50. For my FREE business cards.

I frantically went back to the site and began clicking, trying to cancel one order. But, alas. A message came up saying that everything was automated, you could not cancel. But there was a phone number! Relief! I called it. And proceeded to wait 15 minutes on hold. I firmly believe they thought I would just give up and take both orders of my FREE business cards, but no. I waited. And waited.

The phone was finally answered by a lovely, friendly and polite gentleman from India. Or possibly Mars. Either way, we had some small degree of difficulty in communicating. But he finally got the message. And he canceled one order.

So, my free business cards on on the way.

My free $25 business cards.

What a deal.

But I LOVE Going To The Grocery

I have never understood people who say they HATE going to the grocery. I LOVE going to the grocery. Now, given, it can lead to situations where you are wandering through the aisles eating Pop-Tarts, but those situations are rare. Actually, eating a Hostess Fruit Pie is much more common.

Wait.

Did I say that out loud? Forget I said that. I would NEVER eat an entire Hostess Fruit Pie while grocery shopping. And if I did that, say once, I would totally pay for the empty wrapper.

How can anyone not get excited about going to the grocery? There's all this cool, cool stuff there. And new products. Oooooh, I LOVE me some new products. Or even old products that probably everyone in the whole entire world has been using for years and I have just recently stumbled on.

Like these.

I know you have read about my picky, picky childhood wherein, if someone had tried to force me to eat a tomato in any form except Campbell's tomato soup, I would have spontaneously combusted from the heartfelt anguish, but now I am a big, huge fan of the tomato. I, however, had never eaten canned tomatoes. It took a while for me to get over my qualms about chunky things in my sauces, but once I got over it, I got over in a big way. Onions? Bring 'em on. Green pepper? Pepper me up, baby. And tomatoes? Oh my, yes. But who knew you could get luscious, diced up tomatoes in a can? Even flavored and spicy?

Oh. Everyone already knew? Well, what about the fire roasted ones? Did you know about those? Mmm hmm. I thought not. Try them. They are goooood.

And now, in the realm of products which are still fairly new. Have you seen this cheese? It's like the canned Parmesan cheese only NOT. Because it is FRESH. And you grate it yourself. With the handy, dandy grater built into the package.


Is that not absolutely the coolest thing you have EVER seen? And, why, yes. Those ARE scallops, olive oil and Alfredo sauce in the background. Because I am rather a gourmet chef.


OK, not. But when I told Tom I was going to put some Alfredo sauce and some cheese and some bacon on those scallops, do you know what he said?

"Well, you can't go wrong with cheese and bacon."

I love that man.

And he is SO RIGHT. Any recipe with cheese and bacon is automatically excellent. Except for fish chowder. But that's another post.

A Tisket, A Tasket, A Green And Yellow Basket

Baskets work for me.

I love baskets. AND I love a great deal. I find baskets at second hand stores and dollar stores all the time. Tom says I have way too many baskets, but really, what is too many? As long as I have room to store them, it's not too many, right? As long as you can walk in the storeroom, that should be fine. If you have to turn sideways to get through there, well, that's just fine also. I NEED my many baskets. I use basket to store stuff and I use them to make up gift baskets for friends and family. Baskets are wonderful.

I have summer baskets.

And winter baskets.

I use them for parties.

And I stick flowers in them.




I put books and magazines in them.

And bath supplies.

Toilet paper.

Bubble bath, bath gel and lotion.

I put bread in them.

Even my sink strainers have their own basket.


Really, why would anyone use anything else to store stuff? Baskets are so great. Cheap and cute. What do you put in them?

Chocolate+Cherry=Ecstasy

So, have you tried the new Chocolate/Cherry flavored Diet Dr. Pepper?

Oh. My. God.

This stuff is SO GOOD.

Now, granted you have to like Dr. Pepper and it would be beneficial if you also liked cherries. And, obviously, chocolate. But, really. Who doesn't like CHOCOLATE?

The nice thing about this drink is that it can actually serve as a snack when you are craving something sweet. And you don't even have to eat Crack Cookies with it. It's like a snack all by itself. Because when your brain is saying "Hey, I didn't actually have any FOOD with that particular snack", your mouth can say "Hey, yes you did! Because I have a CHERRY taste in here and also a CHOCOLATE taste and that means we just had something really good. You dork." (Because. You know. The brain can be kind of stoopid sometimes.)

So your mouth can totally FAKE YOUR BRAIN OUT. And then you don't actually eat anything at all.

And this is a good thing.

Works For Me Wednesday: Mrs. Who's White Elephant Blog Giveaway

What works for me is fabulous second-hand stuff. My house is full of it. Baskets, trinkets, tablecloths, silk flowers, you name it. I LOVE shopping, rooting and digging at Goodwill, the Salvation Army, garage sales and flea markets. You can find the most interesting things. Once I started selling on Ebay, Goodwill and places like it became my shopping mecca. I find all kinds of things.

But I am constantly finding just the cutest, kitschiest, darlingest things that are absolutely not right for me. I have no room, I have no desire to dust it or clean it or store it, I just quite simply don't need it. But I just know that someone out there does. Because it is SO FABULOUS.

So I am stealing an idea from Shannon over on her Bloggy Giveaway blog and I'm going to start just GIVING STUFF AWAY. Because, you know. One man's trash is another man's cute little candle holder shaped like a daschund. Or something like that.

So, today I'm going to give away a White Elephant item to get the ball rolling and, then starting on Monday, February 11, every Monday I'm going to have something interesting to give away. Something I think is interesting anyway. Maybe you won't think it is interesting at all.

In that case, I will just take my fabulous plate with the raised image of the Statue of Liberty and keep it all to myself. My preeeecioussssss.

OK. You know I don't actually have that candle holder or plate, right? Because those were just EXAMPLES. The stuff I have is much more fabulous than that. So. I will post pictures and a description and, if you want to have the fabulousness of this item in your very own home, you will need to make a comment. You can comment on the wonderfulness that is me or you can say something like "I want that." Either is fine. Just comment.

Then I will take the three ten one hundred many, many comments and randomly choose the lucky winner. We may end up with just three comments from my family members and that's fine. Saves me shipping costs. These first few times, I will give everyone until Friday night to comment. Then I will email you for information and ship your package. If you do not have a blog link in your comment, you will need to leave an email address so I can contact you. Are you ready?

The excitement is palpable.

Mrs. Who's White Elephant Blog Giveaway

White Elephant: Something of dubious or limited value (value being in the eye of the beholder)


Today, I have a set of darling pudding/jello/ice cream/whatever you want to put in them dishes/cups that I found. They are plastic in peach, light green, dark blue and hot pink colors. I think they look a lot like depression glass and would be just fabulous with whatever you want to put in them. If you think your kitchen will not BE COMPLETE until you own these dishes, make a comment. This could be your lucky day. Remember to check back on Monday. I have the CUTEST...well. you'll just have to wait and see.






Remember to comment if you yearn for these cups with every fiber of your being. And remember to check back on Monday. Good luck!

Works For Me Wednesday

Shannon over at Rocks in My Dryer has a weekly happening in the blogosphere where bloggers can contribute something they have done that works for them. I now have something to contribute. But I have to say. When writing a blog post about something takes longer than actually DOING something, that says something about the blogger. I'm not sure what. I'm afraid to think about it.

Wes has lots of toys at our house. Toys, books, cars, games, you name it. And they have sort of...taken over. When he comes over, we have to dig through the boxes and piles to find the things we want to play with and that just eats into some serious tummy tickling time. I didn't like that. I like things ORGANIZED. (Now, at this very moment, Tom is saying how I don't mind things WITH A LITTLE DUST ON THEM. And this is so true. But they are ORGANIZED.)

This is NOT ORGANIZED.

So I decided I needed a shelf of some kind. A shelf with some kind of bins in it. I had a mental image. Always a bad thing to do. But I finally decided to check the Mecca of shopping, according to bloggers - Target. And I found the perfect thing. PERFECT. And, in my ignorance, I thought it would just pop out of the box like a little, angelic genie, already assembled. Because I have a tiny bit of difficulty with assembly. When I put together a high chair for Wes, it was absolutely perfect. Except the shelf for his little feet was on the back of the chair. Hey! It shouldn't fit together that way if it's not right. Now, you may be thinking I have a husband who is very handy. He IS very handy. He is also very lazy. And I am very impatient. I was things done NOW. He thinks in a few days is just fine. So. I have to put things together myself. Anyway.

The almost perfect shelf.

Apparently, it will not pop out fully assembled. Damn.

I'm a little afraid now.

Man. Look at all those pieces.

Now, I'm just saying. Don't the directions for Step 1 and Step 2 look JUST ALIKE?

Uh. Maybe I can do this.

Sure I can.

Am I good or WHAT?

Where is a magazine photographer for the perfectly assembled item when you need one? And, Voila! We are now ORGANIZED. And dust-free. For the moment.

To complete this transformation yourself (and buy it for less than I paid at the store, even with shipping - how annoying is that?) go to: Target Toy Storage Shelf. You can get it in white or light colored wood. If you need any help putting it together, give me a call. Because you know. I'm an EXPERT. And it's not even put together BACKWARDS.