See You in a Bit...

I'll be back next week!
Watch for my guest post this week on

I wish you all a most sincere...

An Open Letter to Mr. Clean

Dear Mr. Clean,

For a few months, you graced the upper right corner of this very page, touting the magic of an eraser. Your rippling muscles and shiny polished head never failed to draw my adoring eyes back to this blog again and again. Trust me, I never had clean thoughts about you.

But here's the thing. While I was spending time watching you flash that brilliant grin, I wasn't getting any cleaning done. The strain you have caused on my marriage has been great. And to make it even worse, I began to see you pop up on other blogs underneath a little BlogHer sign, you CHEATER! I was totally going to break the whole thing off with you.

But then, you disappeared and haven't been back since...*sob*

Go ahead, stay away, for all I care! You may return to my blog on one condition--come back and announce the Magic Bathroom Cleaner. And I'm not talking that silly Shower Cleaner those little bubbles think is so great. I'm talking toilet scrubbing, floor mopping, mirror wiping, sink washing, soap scum removing sort of "magic," m'kay?

Until then, you and those sultry white eyebrows can go dazzle some other unsuspecting blogger. Unless you really want to come back...

Dirty hugs and kisses,

Carrie

Do You Sushi?

Okay, so I seriously have this "I can do anything" complex, which is frustrating for my husband. Since I always have a project going, I can always find a reason to put off cleaning! Tonight's example is no different. In fact, while talking to my sweetie earlier today, I mentioned that I was going to clean both the bathrooms tonight while the midget was taking her afternoon nap. He complained about them this weekend, but I say, what's wrong with super-grody toilets?? Instead of cleaning the bathrooms, I was rolling sushi!!

On our honeymoon, waaaaay back in 1997, my brand-spankin-new husband and I went to a sushi restaurant called Sukiyaki House in Banff, Canada. Having never eaten sushi, we had no idea what we would like. Even with the prospect of being completely corny, we ordered the Love Boat! When it came out, the entire restaurant stared at us! I tried every single kind of sushi on that ridiculously HUGE wooden boat. I made it through most of it, although not caring for any of it, but when I got to the raw squid... Well, let's just say, I can't believe I didn't ralf everywhere! When I bit down on it, it immediately turned to goo and then began to firm back up as I chewed. AAAAAACCCCKKKK!! It still gives me the iggles when I think about it eleven years later!

Anyway, I bought all my supplies about a year ago (I think I spent about $15 at the asian market) and there they sat--until this evening, when I needed yet another excuse to avoid cleaning! Actually, I started last night by cooking the sushi rice, but I got too hungry to try doing it. So look at my very first California Roll! I'm pretty impressed with myself!














By the way, the winner of the 100th post giveaway is...

Briana Almengor of Pleasant Places!! Go stop by her blog and congratulate her!!

You didn't think I'd forgotten, did you??



Back to sushi! I LOVE sushi, but only the non-raw fish kind, which I suppose classifies me as an imitation-sushi-eater. The raw fish thing doesn't gross me out at all, but I ABHOR the texture of raw fish. I have tried nearly every kind of raw fish/ocean creature out there, but still have yet to find one I like. My favorite roll is the Dragon Roll, which has barbecued eel (cooked) on it.

And now, in classic Kat fashion (who I'm going to guest inquisit for the first week in December and need some practice, and yeah, I know inquisit isn't a word), tell me, do you eat sushi? If you don't, why not? If you do, what's your favorite? Are you fluent in chopsticks?? Are you interested in seeing me do a tutorial so you can roll your own sushi?

Let it Snow!

Last day to enter the GIVEAWAY!! I KNOW you'd like $25 to spend at Target AND a Cuddly Quilt Kit!

I walked out to take out the garbage tonight and was surprised at what I saw! Wa-hoo! SNOW!!!

Lara over at The Lazy Organizer is hosting another Talk About Tuesday and I wasn't sure what to post about.








Lara talked about her smashing party dip today, so in honor of the snow and party fare, I thought I would show you my Snowman Cheese Ball Set. I got this cute little set at a white elephant party last year. Isn't it just silly and cute? The mittens and boots are the spreaders!

Snowman Cheese Ball

8 oz. softened cream cheese
5 c powdered sugar
1/2 t vanilla
1 bag (14 oz) flaked coconut, divided

Mix sugar and cream cheese in a bowl. Stir in vanilla. Mix in 1/2 c of coconut.

Roll mixture into a large ball. Press remaining coconut onto ball.

Chill several hours. Serve with fresh fruit and graham crackers.

What?? You don't have one of these sets?? You can take the same recipe and make it into a snowman by rolling two balls, one smaller for the head and one for the body. Then use raisins for the eyes, an orange tic tac for the nose, and a red licorice string for the mouth.

Here are a few other links to other snowman cheese balls, complete with cute pictures, that you don't need a set for either.

Kraft Snowman Cheese Ball
Betty Crocker Snowman Cheese Ball
Taste of Home Snowman Cheese Ball

Husbands are Irritating...

First, have you entered the GIVEAWAY yet?!?! Only one more day left and it's a doozy!!

So Amy at Living Locurto has asked us to share something that our husband won't get rid of that irritates us.

Well, considering that I am quite persuasive, my husband doesn't have anything left that I didn't like! But here are some items I have made him dispose of.

First, the pickup he drove when we met in 1993. This isn't the exact pickup, but it is close. It was a brown 1984 Nissan pickup with a flatbed. The bed had rusted out, so my husband made a flatbed on the back. It had a gold cattle guard on the front and was just ugly. Seriously, this guy is lucky I still fell in love with him when he showed up with it on our first date.

Next was his embarrasingly large collection of bolo ties. I laughed and laughed and laughed when I saw them. Then they miraculously disappeared. I'm such a bi**h sometimes, it's sad...

And finally, his GI-NOCEROUS snaggletooth. In the little town he grew up in, the only dentist they could get to come in was a quack. Honestly, he was a quack! No dental license or training! I would have asked to see his diploma after he put that monstrosity in my mouth, wouldn't you?? It was almost an inch longer than his other tooth and wasn't even close to the right color.

So just to even the score, I'll show you something that really pisses my husband off about me--giant boxes of random stuff!

This first box is full of random clothes, a dog purse (carrier), some little shelves, a few books, and some other random items. If you look closely at the book, you'll see it's called, "It's All Too Much. An Easy Plan for Living a Richer Life with Less Stuff," by Peter Walsh, who Amy wrote about a few days ago. Guess I haven't read the book yet, huh?












Oooooh, look at that cute scarf! That's going upstairs with me!

Next is a box of stuff that I pulled out of my Chevy Malibu when I wrecked it in January of 2007. Ummm, yeah, that's pretty embarassing...

And this one, which is filled with small plastic bags from the bank I worked at. What could possibly be in those bags? Hmmmmm, various body sprays, pictures, and what?? Awesome! I forgot about these too!! I bought them for a special event we had at our bank, but I'll get lots of good use out them, starting right now!

This is my Ronald McDonald scary clown look.

Hello, Bride of Frankenstein!! Does your hubby have a snaggletooth?

This my Tina Turner "what's love got to do with it" look.

Scary Goth Girl. Actually that one's kinda cute...

Can you say, Redneck Mullet??

And finally...

My Cher impersonation. I know! I TOTALLY look like her!!!

100th Post GIVEAWAY!

THE GIVEAWAY IS NOW CLOSED! THANK YOU FOR ENTERING!!

Holy Cow! I can't believe I've written 100 of these silly posts, but what I can't believe even more is the fact that you actually read them! According to my feedburner stats, there's SIXTY-THREE of you that subscribe to my blog! Now I know that's small potatoes to some people, but to me, that is UNBELIEVEABLE! Dear readers, I am humbled and honored that you take your precious time to read what I have to say! Thank you!

So as a thank you gesture for reading the drivel I so lovingly waste time writing (when I should be cleaning), I am happy to give away two gift cards to Target that total $25 and a cuddly quilt kit!

Check out this Target gift card loaded with $20. It's a little game and perhaps the coolest gift card I've ever seen! The second gift card (not pictured because it's so boring it would be a total letdown after the first one), I earned by reading Money Saving Mom. I found a Target coupon listed on Crystal's site, printed it, took it to Target, bought diapers and wipes (which were on sale and I needed anyway) and voila--$5 for FREE! I've saved so much money with tips listed there and at The "Cents"ible Sawyer, another great money-saving blog! Welcome MSM and TCS Readers! If you like what you see, please subscribe and come back to visit often!


The Cuddly Quilt Kit is oh so cute and perfect for beginning sewers (Sorry for the price tag faux pas, but I didn't feel like scraping it off). I've made two baby gifts (you can see them here and here) from these kits and they were my first quilts. The step by step instructions are easy to understand and the size is completely manageable. This is the Princess Pup Quilt Kit and features pink leopard print backing, tiara wearing poodles, hot pink satin, and raised dot minky! This is one spectacularly fantastic quilt!! If you don't have a daughter, it still is great practice for someone who wants to learn how to quilt! Plus, chances are that you will know someone who will have a baby girl at some point in time and this would make a show-stopping shower gift!

How to enter, you ask?? It's easy! Leave me a comment! Now I sure don't get 63 comments each post, so make my day and leave me one! If you don't have a blog, please leave your email address.

For all you bloggers out there, get an extra entry by grabbing my silly little apple button over to the right and then entering your blog name into Mr. Linky below and your blog URL. No need to link to a specific post, I'll just be looking for the little apple on your blog. If you already are sporting your Oikology 101 apple, just put your name and blog URL into Mr. Linky! If you have questions about how to post the button on your blog, email me at oikology101 at gmail dot com and I'll be happy to help!

Entries accepted until 11:59 p.m. on Tuesday, November 18th. Winner will be announced on Wednesday 11/19.

Thanks again, my friends, and good luck!

Ah Shoot!

I looked at the counter wrong, so the NEXT post will be the 100th! I'll have it up by tonight!! Until then, here is a super-cute pic of the midget to tide you over!

A Tour of the Midget's Nursery

Lara at The Lazy Organizer is hosting a Home Tour for her Talk About Tuesday. Of course, she mentioned this long ago, but being that I am the lazy non-organizer, I forgot about it until I checked my Reader a few minutes ago!

I decided that I would share pictures of the midget's nursery, since I already had the pictures on my computer, er, I mean, since I know you're all dying to see her nursery! These are from before she was born, but the only difference is much, MUCH more mess! Actually, that isn't true, but only because I spent about two hours today packing up clothes that don't fit her anymore. I even organized all of the baby items in the basement today! Not sure what crawled up my hiney, but whatever it was sure wanted me to organize!

Without further ado, introducing the midget's bumblebee nursery!

The walls are called Aloe Essence and a friend of mine painted the bees on the wall for us. See that lamp? I covered a plain white shade with black and white gingham fabric and a little daisy border. I was pretty proud of myself!





I searched for months trying to find a bumblebee theme that didn't have cartoon-ey bumblebees or stupid corny phrases like "Bee Happy" or "I'm a busy bee!" We didn't find out the sex of our baby, so I wanted it to be understated.




We bought a few closet organizer pieces from Wal-Mart that cost about $40. I've found them very useful and a great alternative to more expensive closet systems.











One very inexpensive item I've loved is the Dresser Top Diaper Depot from Prince Lionheart. It holds diapers, wipes, buttcreams, and lotion! Love it! If you click on the picture to enlarge, it is directly behind the changing pad on the left.










The little rocking chair in this picture was mine when I was a little girl and it matches the furniture in the nursery perfectly! The diaper pail is a Diaper Dekor Plus and I do NOT recommend it. It worked fine before the midget started eating solid foods. When she started having stinkier diapers, it leaked smell something terrible! It is now replaced with a Diaper Champ, which works MUCH better!

I hope you've enjoyed the tour of the nursery! It sure is a happy place for our family!!

Some Bloggy Love I Don't Deserve

While out on Quilting/Cranberry hiatus, I was bestowed with three awards. THREE awards given to me three weeks ago, people, and I still couldn't get my stuff together to post these! I am quite appreciative of these ladies, I swear! Thank you so much for thinking of me!

This first award was bestowed upon me by Heather at Nobody But Yourself.

As part of this award, I have to tell you things that make me happy.
-My goofy, sweet, adorable, husband, whom I couldn't live without
-The sweet giggles and melt-my-heart smiles of my gorgeous baby girl
-The fact that all four of my siblings and I not only love each other, but we actually like being around each other
-The snuggly stubbornness and wiggly butt walking of my Lucy Wiener
-The excessive licking and innate sweetness of Henry Wiener
-Talking with good friends, whether in person, on the phone, through email, or in that little comment box
-Cooking good food
-The love of my Lord

I could really go on forever, as there are so many things that make me happy!

Now to award a few bloggers who are creative with a capital K!
Christian at Who Would've Thought It, who is so crafty and Margaret from Nanny Goats in Panties who manages to be funny without the cynical bad attitudes of so many other humor bloggers out there.

My BBFF (Best Bloggy Friend Forever) Deanna from Deanna's Corner gave me the next two awards.

Now to award some Superior Scribblers!
Kat from Sunshine and Lemonade, who not only writes extremely well, but gets others to write like no other blogger I've ever seen and Miss Vivian from Conservative Belle. I'm so incrediby jealous of her ability to write so eloquently about politics!

And finally, I'd like to present this award to Bar-b of I Heart 2 Girls who always makes me giggle (if we lived near each other, I know we'd hang out on the deck, guzzling froofy drinks and laughing our butts off while the kids were napping), Teresa R of Life, Homesteading, and Everything, who always says the nicest things and who makes the coolest soaps, and finally to Dr-Wifey, who is the sweetest person and has cats with the coolest names ever!

Ladies, I am so glad I've met you and thank you all for your friendship! Now go visit these ladies and leave them some comment love!

Oh Joy!

My 100th post is only THREE posts away!! And you know what that means, don't you?? That's right!! Cheez Doodles and Rubik's Cubes! Or maybe a fantabulous GIVEAWAY!!

Check back or subscribe to get the skinny on this FAT giveaway...

Meet My Husband...

A new read of mine, Living Locurto, has declared today is "Meet My Husband" day, so I decided to play along. Without further ado, heeeeeeeeeeere's Johnny!


Too bad ladies...He's all mine!













And yes, this actually is my husband. He's going to kill me for posting this, but he can consider it retribution for asking me 1.) if I was just about done with my blogging phase and 2.) if I could be a housewife instead of a houseblogger. Paybacks are a b***h, aren't they, honey?

Cranberry Salsa

Here's another thing I did with those cranberries--Cranberry Salsa. I used the recipe found here. It has an interesting taste, but is not hot enough for my taste. If I made this again, I would increase the number of peppers. For those of you who don't like much heat in your salsa, you'd probably like it. I think the cranberries were much better used in the Cranberry Breakfast Bread.

My Blanket of Belief Quilt

Did you miss me? I purposefully didn't read any blogs while I was quilting. Well, except my political blogs because I needed something to take the edge off of bloggy withdrawal. Here's the reason I was gone for so long!! Now you experienced quilters may look at this simple quilt and laugh your basted bottoms off at how long this thing took me! Go ahead, I'll give you some time.
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I have sewed a few little quilt kits (here and here), but neither were GI-NOCEROUS like this one, nor were they actually true quilts, where you go through the actual process of quilting. So for me, this thing was a BEAST! I had to look up everything past sewing the quilt top together! What the hell is basting, sashing, batting, you ask?? Weeeeeell, I found out last week!

When Conservative Belle issued her challenge, I decided to make my first true quilt. After all, who could be a more deserving recipient of hours of toiling over a sewing machine than a soldier, bravely serving our country overseas?

I had to find a very easy pattern that fit within Soldier's Angels guidelines as far as dimension and theme. I searched and searched and finally found one that fit and was supposed to be easy. It was for "absolute beginners," so I figured I could handle it!

When I went to JoAnn's to buy my material, I brought along my directions because I still had some questions. I went and chose my fabric, but I needed to find someone that could answer my questions before I had them cut it.

I asked at the cutting counter if any of them quilted and the two girls standing there said no. There was another woman behind the counter who was helping someone, so I waited to find out if she quilted. When she was finished with her customers, I was so happy to hear her answer my question with a definitive yes!

I asked some dumb questions, which she happily answered for me. When I told her I was making the quilt for Soldier's Angels, she immediately teared up and said, "I know about Soldier's Angels. I have two sons. One returned from Iraq a few months ago and one is serving there right now. It's things like this quilt that you are making that keep their hopes up, that remind them of why they're fighting, and let me just tell you--you are the angel. Thank you!"

It was such a neat experience! Thanks to Conservative Belle for challenging me!

This is going to be my last sewing project for a while. My house can't take the neglect!!

Sunshine and Lemonade Giveaway!

Kat from Sunshine and Lemonade is doing 10 weekends of bloggy giveaways! You heard me right--TEN WEEKS!

In ultimate suck-up fashion, I offered to make her a button (easy peasy directions to make your own buttons in my tutorial here) for her giveaways, hoping my chances to win would increase! *wink wink*



<br /><a border="0" href=http://sunshineandlemonade.blogspot.com/ target="_blank"><img src="http://i483.photobucket.com/albums/rr191/oikology101/pick_me_winner.jpg"></a><br />

So go visit Kat and see the phenominally "Wicked" first giveaway!