Me: from a- z

Photo credit: my 4 year old

Age: 43, 44 in 2 weeks but, I usually can't remember & have to do math on my fingers to make sure.
Bed size: King – and we need it! Most nights at least one cat and one or two kidlets end up in our bed.
Chore I hate: sweeping and moping – it seems futile the moment a kid spills something.
Drive: a truck
Essential start to my day: a shower.
Favorite color: ? red ?
Gold or silver: Silver- I am always scared I will lose gold so don’t wear much of it.
Hobbies: photo crafts, paper crafts, decluttering.
Instruments I play: Is an MP3 player an instrument.
Job title: SAHM, Limon Family CEO, part time online sales person. Depends on who's asking.
Kids: 3.
Lived: Pensacola & Jacksonville Florida, Gitmo Cuba, Rota Spain, Hawaii, all over Texas (Navy Brat).
Make up: renewed my love for it. Digging 2 Faced base and Mac eyeshadows.
Number of Cats Currently: 2 inside, 1 indoor/outdoor and a passel of outdoors, some I share with my neighbor. Had over 2 dozen for about 10 years (rescuer not hoarder)
Overnights away from kids: Does hospital after labor count? Then 0.
Pet Peeve: the mouth noises my kids make and when they chew on shirts – ugh!     
Quote from a movie: "Have fun storming the castle." or “would you say I have a plethora?”
Right or left handed: Right but surrounded by lefties.
Siblings: sister 10 years younger than me and brother 23 years younger than me.
Time I wake up: 5:15 is when the alarm goes off 6:15 on saturdays.
Underwear: always.
Vegetable I hate: Eggplant.
What makes me run late: forgetting things or “having” to stop by chickfila for a tea enroute.
X-rays I've had: head, hands, arms, most recent was foot.
Yummy food I make: chex mix, dips, pumpkin chocolate chip muffins, oatmeal cookies.
Zoo animal: I prefer domesticated animals – like cats (except when a fat one walks on you with teeny paws!).

Teacher craft in process

I saw this cute birthday countdown calender (on Pinterest I think) but the sign holder- although very cute- is like 8 bucks at office depot.

Kinda blowing my cheapie budget considering I was thinking of making at least 6 of these, maybe more like a dozen.

But then I looked up and saw this

Remember I had made it awhile back? So I had hubby drill the holes and I made this:

(sorry for the blurry photo – too lazy busy to take another one). I used the binder rings and lots of stickers and scrapbooking leftovers. The numbers are these big black old stickers I have had fovever. I used the cropadile to punch the holes and computer printed a bunch of holidays so the teachers can just change out the holiday bit. The hard part (because math and logic is hard for me) was figuring out what number to go on the back so that once the cards are flipped to the back, they can be turned around on the rings as needed. (Boy, that makes no sense- I mean I wanted to use both sides of the cards as effectively as possible)

Then I got the bright idea that since this would be in a class there would be lots of grubby paws on it so I laminated each number card. But that created some issues. Since I had not originally calculated the laminated edging into the size, each card was too long now and I had to trim each card before laminating and then trim and round the corners with scissors because no one has made a frigging corner rounder that work on lamination (I wish to heck I could patent that idea and make a fortune!). And rounding the corners always makes me grumpy because they never look identical. ugh (ok, just me, right?) I also used the cropadile once again to re-punch the holes.

And it seems that in a fit of purging I let go all my clear acrylic frames and none of the thriftstores have ANY all of a sudden. I got one from Dollar General but it is kinda flimsy. Will try it and let ya know how it goes.

My plan is to pound these out over thanksgiving weekend and gift them to the teachers on the 12th day before the end of school before winter break when I start my 12 days of gifting. (other gifts I have set aside: bacon chocolate bars, chalkboard spraypainted mugs, chalk pens, chalkboard thought bubbles- still have to make those- fleece blankets with names on them, our annual xmas music cd and more).

Not quite the NRA

I can *NEVER* get this to work.

Goodwill Rocks!

Look what I found!! I have a couple of thriftstores that I go to regularly. This particular goodwill is in a nicer neighborhood so they have good stuff but sometimes their pricing people must be smokin’ somethin’ because the prices are all over the place.

I saw this in a basket – they line up shopping carts full of stuff and their volunteers put it on the shelves when they can. Shoppers dig through the carts in search of fresh goodies. I pulled it out and knew what it was (we have had several models of foodsavers through the years). I figured for 9 bucks if it did not work I could return it with the 2 day return policy they have for electronics. But it worked!! Sweet!

I am going to sell my old one (anyone in the Austin area interested?) . And I moved the shiny new tillia to the other counter- it was getting messy each time I used the mixer. You know about my mixer, right? (It was 10 or 15$ at a yardsale and I gave it to the hubs for xmas. He was thrilled!! And he uses it to make bread from scratch each weekend.)

And this is my mug with writing on it. I did a test using different paints and pens to see what writes on mugs. The Identipen beat them all- yes, even the porcelain pens and paints!- And you can buy it for like 4 bucks including shipping on ebay.

I did finally take off the pricetag, by the way. I left it on for over a week- it made me smile each time I saw it.

Get Yer Geek On