Random

• Weight loss is steadily going well. It’s very slow weight loss, but hey, at least it’s not a gain. I’ve been going to kickboxing classes every week, and walking the dog around a bit more since it’s warming up a bit. I’ll probably update y’all in a couple of weeks with pictures (where you probably won’t be able to tell the difference much) and measurements! (Yeah, I need to measure myself…oops…)

 

• I got a new sewing machine. This one, to be exact. It works like a dream so far and is WAY lighter than my old one. I’m trying to get used to having no auto-tension, but I pretty much love it. 🙂

 

• We’re slowly but surely decluttering the heck out of our house. We’ve come to realize that we’re accumulating a huge amount of crap again, and we just need to get it out! (Please don’t call Hoarders on us…) I see a garage sale in our near future! I’ve already filled up a Rubbermaid container with nothing but craft room stuff I want out. Eesh!

 

•  I saw Cadbury Eggs at Target yesterday. Crap….it’s that time of the year already!? Speaking of Easter, look at this super cute basket! Adding that to the “to-do” list now, since Joey, Millie and I don’t really have Easter baskets. (and yes, our dog gets an Easter basket)

 

• I’m going to need that baby on “Raising Hope” to stop being cute. She’s giving me a raging baby fever, and it’s just not fair. Does anyone else watch that show? I’m starting to like it more than Glee!

 

• I went to Tallahassee this weekend with my mom and sister. My youngest sister is a super talented musical theatre student at NOCCA, and ::gulp::, she’s going to college next year. We went to Tallahassee for her to audition at FSU….she’s been actually doing auditions like crazy since the holiday season ended, and this was her last one. Fingers crossed that she gets into a great program!

 

•  I hate junk mail. Hate it.

 

• I also hate washing dishes.

 

• Oh man, y’all. I tried knitting on the road trip to Tallahassee. It’s been SO long since I’ve knit, that I almost forgot everything. I’m super sad about this…I used to knit so well! Lesson learned: once you learn a craft, keep practicing!

 

• I need Louisiana strawberries to be full-force in season again. I’m craving them like crazy and every place that carries them is sold out (since it’s super early in the season)!

• Since when did it get to be that Thanksgiving is next week? Uhm, seriously had to buy up major amounts of butter and cream cheese to prepare myself!

• I’m very excited about working on my quilt block swap project. I might surprise some of y’all with what I have in mind with these beautiful blocks!

• My dog is precious. She runs to the door whenever she hears the doorbell ring in a commercial, and will not get away from the door until I open it to show her that no one is there.

• I have a set of nasty hiccups right now. I hate having the hiccups.

• Why is it so hard for owners to leash their dogs out in the open? It makes walking my dog VERY difficult when a dog is dashing towards her and she can only move if I move with her. Ask me how many times I’ve almost face-planted in the neighbor’s grass because of this.

• No matter how well Michael Vick plays football, I will always think of him as a dog killer. He shouldn’t be playing for the NFL since those players are role models to most children. What example is the NFL showing our youth allowing criminals to play? (and yes, I know there are more criminals than Mr. Vick playing for the NFL.)

I haven’t gotten a blog award in a long time, but Kaelin over at The Plaid Scottie decided to pass on the torch to me. 🙂

By the way, Kaelin is a WAY talented sewer/quilter and she’s in NOLA. I love it when I find a fellow Louisiana blogger! 🙂

I also need to pass this to 5 bloggers. So, here goes:

His Birdie’s Nest
She Likes Ruffles, He Likes Truffles
Bien Living
Marissa Makes
This Casita

Since the torch has been passed, that means I get to share with y’all 7 things you probably don’t know about me. 🙂

1. I’m left-handed. The only thing I do with my right hand (over my left) is move a computer mouse. I had to learn that way in school, and I just sort of adjusted to it. I understand what it’s like to be in art class, only to find that the left side of my left hand is full of marker smudges at the end of class. I also slant my paper at almost 90 degrees clockwise when I write. 🙂
2. I used to be petrified of dogs. Yes, this dog obsessed person was PETRIFIED. When I was really young (like barely out of diapers young), apparently my neighbor had a bunch of pitbulls unleashed (and we believe this neighbor was not a very good dog owner) and one of the dogs ran towards me. What did I do? I ran and fell. The dog was literally over my body when my Dad shoo’ed him away. Scary, for real. My parents’ and neighbors helped me get over my fear very slowly. I’m talking in my teenage years….it took me a long time to ever approach a dog again. Now, I love ’em to pieces. 🙂
3. I was a big time major-changer in college. I started in pre-med. I wanted to be a pediatrician…I love kids. However, Biology 1201 did NOT love me. I flunked it, and decided to change over to education. After two years of doing that, I really didn’t see myself staying up late, writing lesson plans and watching as school systems throw a huge emphasis on standardized test scores. It wasn’t for me. I went back to a passion I had when I was 8. Weather. Side note: When I was 8 years old, I had a journal of highs/lows/weather conditions. I did this everyday for almost a year. I loved weather, especially cloud types. I actually took pre-reqs to get into broadcast meteorology at Mississippi State. After Calculus 2, I was done with the math. It didn’t come naturally to me, like it did to most engineering students. That B in Calculus 2 was the hardest B I ever worked for in my life…I just couldn’t do it anymore. So, I leaned back on the degree that I was working towards (Geography Sciences)  and put more emphasis on cartography in the end.
4. I used to love to read. When my family moved closer to the public library, I was SO happy! Then, I found out there is more than a 2 book limit on rentals, so I rented all the time. I tried to read 1 every 3 days, and was SUPER competitive during Summer reading months. Honors English in high school killed that love. I don’t like being forced to read, and I haven’t touched a novel in years because of it. I’m not sure if I’ll ever get back into reading either. 🙁
5. I’m not much of a traveler. I’ve only been out of the country once, and that was on a tour of Ontario in 8th grade. The farthest west I’ve been is Salt Lake City, Utah. I’d love to travel, but the cheap person in me always tells myself that the money is better spent elsewhere.
6. I am very, very shy in real life. If you met me, you wouldn’t think I’m the same person at all. It takes a lot for me to introduce myself to someone, and sometimes I don’t even do it. I actually went to a local Twitter GTG, and introduced myself to 2-3 people. There were a LOT more people there though. However, once I warm up, I’m a chatterbox like my mother.
7. I don’t keep up with current events very much. When it comes to politics, I don’t really care either. I know I’m an adult and should care about these things, but the news is rarely uplifting, so I really try to avoid it.  

Are any of y’all surprised with these? 😛

It’s been a while since I’ve done one of these, but I have a good bit to share. 🙂

• I’m sort of happy to finally see the end of the tunnel in a sewing project I’ve been working on. The pattern had terrible directions for a key component and I somehow rigged it. I can’t wait to blog about it.

 

• My original Etsy name was taken. I checked about a month ago and no one had it. Well, lo and behold, someone bought the dang site and I had to think up (with the help of very creative friends) a new name. I’m waiting for biz cards to come in so I can ::finally:: open shop. 🙂 I bought the URL, got the Etsy shop username and the gmail. No one better try to pull a fast one on me. I’m keeping the official shop name a secret until the shop opens! I cannot wait. 🙂

 

• Pretty soon this blog will have a new name, but I’ll keep the old URL to reduce confusion. The name “Nifty Foodie’s Life” is getting fairly boring to me, and I’ve always wanted to keep food/life blog separate. I’m fairly certain the name will change to my Etsy shop name, so I can have a shop blog and continue to blog about random life stuff too. 🙂

 

• My Aerogarden is going to be growing salad greens next. I’m so excited about this, especially since the Junk Food Detox is still happening. 🙂

 

• Speaking of Junk Food Detox, I’ve given up snowballs, ice cream, candy and fried food. I’ve only cheated twice! 🙂 I had a Snickers bar and Arby’s curly fries. Fully admitting to my faults, but it’s WAY better than where I was about a month ago! I’m 9.3 lbs. down so far too. WOOT!

 

• Food blog blurb: Some of you may know this, but I’m in a great contest called Project Food Blog right now. I’d really appreciate your vote to move on to round 3! Here’s my round 2 entry! 🙂

 

• I have a sad sad addiction to fabrics. I am on a fabric buying fast until I bust some of this yardage into gifts/shop stuff. I told myself I won’t buy more fabric than what will fit in a wicker laundry basket that I have. It’s overstuffed right now…oops! I can’t let it get out of control…I just don’t have room for it. 🙁

 

• I’m a little sad all of my shows are back. I was enjoying the “free” evenings, in a way, and now I have to schedule things around my TV schedule. Bummer.

 

• It was in the 60s this morning. It gave me my first goosebumps in a long time. Thank you FALL!

How are things going for y’all? 🙂

I think I’m going to make this a usual thing. I have so much on my mind, and I think this is a great outlet for it.

• News stations: 5 years after Katrina, and you still have it ALL wrong. People didn’t stay in New Orleans by choice, (for the most part). Rather, our unorganized local/state/federal governments had no means to evacuate the tens of thousands of people who needed to get out of town. Again, this was NOT by choice…and for those of you saying you’d get out if you had to (HUGE eyeroll to you), well, imagine how that would go if you didn’t own a car. Good luck with that. Oh, and even if you did have a car, in evacuation scenarios, it takes 8 hours to get somewhere that usually takes 1 hour, even with contraflow (which is where they make the interstate system one way…out of the city). ::side eye to the media and their inaccuracies::  Shame on y’all.

 

• I’m craving fajitas right now, dipped in queso blanco with a frosty large strawberry margarita.

 

• We’re remodeling our bathroom counters. They were a f-ugly 1980’s pink formica. This project is way harder than TLC and HGTV makes it seem like. We are DIY tiling…my poor hubs is really working hard on this, and I feel helpless since I’m scared of power tools with blades. There will be a post about this, but I’d rather it be a before/happy after post.

 

• Two days after posting, our first group of the Christmas Quilt Block Swap was full. We decided to keep sign-ups open until September 15th anyway in case a group 2 fills up. We have 3 people interested. If you are interested, please let me know…we still have 9 spots and would hate to turn away anyone from the swap!

 

• My library is my favorite resource for books. I don’t buy cookbooks or how-to books anymore, since my library has an awesome selection for free, and also, those books don’t end up taking up permanent space in my home. Free/non-cluttering. Win!

 

• Coasters seem to disappear in our house. Either the dog is stashing them in a hiding spot or they have grown legs and walked away. I’m totally making these for our house. I’m tired of paying oodles of $$ for them, and I think these would be adorable! 4×4 tiles at the store are 25 cents. I won’t be super bummed if they grow legs and walk away now. 🙂

 

• I still can’t believe it’s less than 4 months until Christmas.

What’s on your mind? 🙂

I think I might start posting about things that are on my mind, but the subjects alone aren’t worthy of their own post, if you know what I mean.

• Blogs usually have a niche…this blog doesn’t. I don’t expect to ever have a huge following, because I can’t find one thing to write about and roll with it, life-wise. One week, you’ll get a post about sewing, the next, a post about how my dog ::dings:: wine glasses before every meal. It’s just random, and I’m sorry there’s no overall theme here. (Thanks for reading…)

 

• Why do failed politicians write books? Do that many people really care?

 

• I won a yard of fabric from here. I’m pretty darn happy, but how in the heck will I choose just ONE!?

 

• I’d love to go to BlogHer some day, and just be a starstruck crazy blogger gal trying to fit in. I think I’d be a babbly mess around the Pioneer Woman, but she’d love me, right? I mean she did tweet to me, once! We’re totally BFF’s!

 

• I entered to win some free pet photography from this amazing photographer in Baton Rouge. Feel free to enter, but don’t beat me, OK? Millie needs pretty pictures!

 

• Right now, I want to make a weekend of canning food gifts with summer produce like Tracy of SugarCrafter is doing, but I don’t know where I’d store all of the goodness right now.

 

• I want to own an Etsy shop at least half as successful as Gussy one day.

 

• I bought 1 work shirt, 2 soap dispensers, 1 eyeshadow and 2 packs of cupcake liners with less than $10 out of pocket this weekend. Mega coupon win!

 

• I quit Weight Watchers, because my leader was a 60 year old woman who talked about cooking with grand-kids all meeting. I couldn’t relate. I’m still the most I’ve ever weighed. I need motivation.

 

• Can it be Christmas already? I’m ready.

Any random thoughts you’d like to share? 🙂