The Nifty Foodie's Life

Do you ever get ready for bed thinking where did the time go? I especially have this problem after work.

Here’s my timeline. On a normal work-day, I get home around 4pm. I usually don’t head to bed until 10:30pm or so. So, there are 6 hours and 30 minutes that I have to make things happen.

I don’t make much happen.

I usually lounge around watching TV, surfing the Internet and playing with my dog. Before I know it, it’s time for dinner, and THEN it’s time to wind down before bed.

SERIOUSLY?

I have 6 hours and 30 minutes. I’m sort of mad that I let that time just fly away. I could have a clean house, projects done, feel accomplished…but instead, I feel lazy.

A while back, I read this post on Claremont Road. She was experiencing the same exact thing, and the Pomodoro Technique she mentioned just stuck with me. While I’m not willing to work 25 minutes, then just have a 5 minute break (you know, since I’m home from work by now and don’t want this to be too daunting), I figured I could make a goal of 6 tomatoes a day. (6 25-minute sessions of being productive at home)

So, here’s my new idea. 6 tomatoes a day. That’s 6 tasks getting taken care of each day! What I might do is try to bust these out before dinner so I can be a lazy bum after and enjoy some time with my husband and the pup.

Have you ever heard of the Pomodoro Technique? What do you think?

When I was very young, I used to watch my mother in admiration. She would go through spurts of different crafts, and did such magnificent work. My motor skills at the time were limited to coloring outside of the lines and combining colors of play-doh until it turned an ugly brown color. I never thought that I could do half of what my mother did.

I remember her spurts…she made bread dough ornaments, homemade wreaths, acrylic painting and of course, sewed. My mother, to me, is my crafting inspiration.

I found that I’m a lot like my mother. I craft in spurts too, and actually share some hobbies that my mom has.

When I was in 5th grade, I got HOOKED on making friendship bracelets and hair wraps. Anyone remember hair wraps??

In middle school, I saw my friend making cross-stitch and got into that. I remember spending WEEKS making a huge magnolia flower for a contest for my school’s BETA club. I was so upset when my BETA club sponsor didn’t load it on the bus. UGH..it never got in the contest. My mom still has it hanging in her house, though.

In high school, I dabbled into scrapbooking. I absolutely LOVED scrapbooking…glitter glue, stickers, fun bright papers and PICTURES?! Yes please!

When college hit, I started knitting. I had a mad addiction to knitting with fun fur. I’m pretty sure every girl in my family got a scarf made with fun fur at one time or another. I was ::way:: cool, right?

After graduation, I suddenly wanted to sew. I wanted to make my own clothes, sew a t-shirt quilt and make other fun knick-knacks. My grandmother gifted me with a Singer a year later, and I was SO intimidated. I’m still learning about sewing, but I can say this craft is one of my favorites. I find myself attracted to making things with bright, fun fabrics, and I don’t see this hobby ending anytime soon, since sewing is so practical! I make my own PJ pants, for example, since I’m 5’10″ and stores don’t make PJ pants for the tall (at least from what I’ve seen).

Heh. Like I said…spurts. It sort of makes me wonder what craft is next for me. I’m pretty sure it’s crochet, since I want to learn that before I have a kid. (No worries…won’t be anytime soon!)

What crafts are you into? What got you into it?

• I really had no idea how much work an Etsy shop is! I’ve been busy busy busy making new templates/patterns for items in my shop (hello holiday rush!), and then I realize I don’t have many bandannas on the shop. It’s work, y’all, but I’m liking it so far!

• I’ve only lost 7 lbs. so far in this weight loss challenge. I only have a little over 5 weeks left. It’s time to really kick it in high gear. Did y’all know that since the weight gain, I don’t fit in a pair of my jeans anymore? I miss my jeans.

• Millie has the fastest growing fur ever. Just recently I started noticing she’s slipping on the wood floors more often. Reason? The fur on her feet is too long, and because of that, she’s losing traction with the floor. Sad. She’s getting a haircut on Sunday though. Wahoo!

• I really should spruce up the garden, but I’m feeling a little lazy. It really looks bad. Thank goodness the weeds aren’t growing anymore, though. Maybe I’ll do that next week when I have Veterans Day off…sigh. :\

• I also need to paint the shutters. They are still that ugly dingy dark green that was originally there when we bought the house. Time for dark grey. Shutters are just so TEDIOUS though…erg.  

• Would it be a bad thing for me to dig up the Christmas tree in the attic this weekend? Ok, maybe I’m just kidding about this one. Maybe.

Hope everyone has an awesome weekend! What are y’all up to?

Is it a little too obvious that Beyonce is on my playlist right now? Man, her music makes me get up and dance around. The dog is usually scared at this point…she probably thinks I’m ill or something.

I still can’t believe how fast the holidays are approaching. I plan to send my holiday cards in less than a month…eek! I started sending Christmas cards to family in college. I propped my Canon SD200 on my chair, sat down next to my little 3 foot tree in my dorm room and smiled…alone.

The picture turned out super cute. In fact, the hubs still has that Christmas card in his cubicle. I ordered the cards from Shutterfly, and everyone who received one thought it was a sweet gesture since I wasn’t really near my family in college.

This year, our card will have me, the hubs and sweet Millie in it. Not so alone anymore!! Of course, Shutterfly came to mind when I started browsing for our Christmas cards. Boy, have the designs gotten awesome! I remember having about 40 choices 4 years ago….this year, they have HUNDREDS!

Here’s a few cute ones that caught my eye….

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As you can see, they cover religious, modern and traditional card types. After a good bit of browsing, I am totally getting this.

Image Source

I just love how fun this card is…from the fonts to the colors. It’s classic, but fun and a bit modern, don’t you think?

These are very simple to make too. All you have to do is upload your picture(s) and place it in the card! Then, wait anxiously in the mail for your holiday goodies to arrive.

Also, if I were hosting a Christmas party this year, I could see myself mailing these invitations out. Easy peasy and very cute…just sayin’.

Now, if you blog like me, Shutterfly is generously offering 50 free photo cards if you blog about what cards you would send this year! Just fill out this form and wait for the email confirmation about the details for what to include in your post!

If you don’t blog though, these cards are extremely affordable, and sometimes, Shutterfly even has coupon codes to make them even more affordable!

Do you send out holiday cards?

FTC Disclosure: This is a sponsored post, but opinions about the brand are my own. I will be receiving 50 free photo cards from writing this post.

You might already know this, but I enjoy blogging. I find it so neat that I can just write about random topics on my mind, and about 5 (or more) people are actually interested in what I have to say!

I also enjoy reading blogs. I find so many other bloggers to be the coolest people ever. In fact, as much as I’d love to go to get togethers or conferences to meet other bloggers, I have a feeling the introvert in me would show up and make me a quiet, starstruck weirdo. It happens. I sort of think of bloggers as mini celebs. Y’all are crazy cool!

Anywho, lately, I’ve noticed that I’ve gotten a bit of a stage fright in my blogging. I start writing and wonder if y’all will hate me or find me lame. After looking through old entries and thinking about the fundamentals, it made me remember that I blog because it gives ME the warm fuzzies. If people grow to hate me, they can simply unsubscribe, right? It’s not like y’all will throw my gym bag in dog poop…heh.

So, this month, I’m going back to the basics. I’m blogging everyday this month, since it’s NaBloPoMo (National Blog Posting Month). I hope my AP English IV teacher never finds my blog though. I think she enjoyed writing large “C”s or “D”s on my papers. Sorry Mrs. Thompson…my below average writing has made its way on the Internet.

Hope y’all don’t hate me after this month. I have quite a few great bloggity ideas in store!

Another reason I love blogging? The freebies/giveaways!

Y’all…before blogging, I never really won anything. Ok, I lie. I won a $25 gift certificate to a local restaurant in 5th grade, because I made the winning poster for nutrition awareness month in elementary school……

Ok, ok.

And maybe I won kids bingo ONCE at my Dad’s company bingo day. $20 Walmart gift card…mmhmm! I bought some major Jane make-up with that…anyone remember that line?

Anyway, since I got into reading the 241 blogs that I read regularly, I’ve gotten hooked on entering giveaways. It’s free to enter, and EVERYONE has the same chances, so why not?!

October was a pretty lucky month for me! I won two pretty awesome things…Christmas in October, for sure!

Check this out…I won a RoadID bracelet from Krista of Commitment is Liberating. RoadID offers bracelets and other items to help ID you in case something bad happened while you were exercising outside. I like to always prepare for the worst…I’ve been known to pass out in high heat, so this was a wonderful prize to win. Thanks Krista for hosting!

You didn’t think I’d leave my information on the Internet, did ya? Ok, well I’ll away that I’m O neg….no worries, I donate this ”universal donor” blood regularly. Good karma. 

As you may know, I don’t necessarily run marathons, but I am getting back into an exercise routine and just having this on me will make me feel a little more safe while exercising in the great outdoors.

I won another giveaway too, though. Complete opposite of fitness…baking goodies! I read a blog called Baby Loving Mama. It’s a pretty huge blog, where she gives away items ALL.THE.TIME. I started reading when she gave away a Coach bag around last Christmas. I’m not into designers, but I figured I’d enter and just probably would have gifted this to my Coach obsessed sister had I won. (Sister of the Year award, anyone?)

Anyway, she had a LIVE giveaway last week. Neat idea…all the readers comment back and forth (this time it was about Halloween baking, since it was a Wilton giveaway) and you have to be a certain commenter, like commenter #100. I didn’t think I would win, but I thought I’d start commenting about royal icing and other fun cookie things. Lo and behold, I won the first prize! Look at all of this baking stuff! Most of it will have to wait until next year…sadly I was sick towards the end of last week. No baking for me.

Or maybe coworkers will get super late Halloween baked goodies…hmm.

What do y’all like about blogging?