Answers

 I thought today I would answer some questions from yesterdays post.

Ginny asked how long until I can retire. I have a few years to go yet. I'll be 59 in March.

Anni asked if I had any vacation coming. I get 3 weeks every year and so far this year I've taken 1 day. Normally I take ALL my vacation but last year and this year we have been so short of people that I haven't really been able to. If I asked for it he would give it to me but I just don't feel right taking the time off when we are all stretched so thin.

Martha and Andrea both mentioned in their comments that "That's what friends are for" so it made me think of another song.

I just want to say...

 

I appreciated all your kind words the other day. I missed posting again yesterday because Sunday was just one of those days. My 9 hour day turned into an 11 hour day. Not only was it a long day but it got off to a rocky start. By the time I got home I had enough energy left to make myself something to eat and then head to the couch. It didn't take me long to fall asleep. I slept on and off until midnight then headed to bed. 

Monday morning I finally got to catch up with blog reading and emails. Oh and drink lots of coffee too. 

No purpose

 Just a short post today to say I am here but I have nothing to say. Other than when I go to work I really feel like I have no purpose. I have no desire to do anything. Even the crafting seems pointless. I spent my day off dragging. Today I have a reason to get up and get moving. Oh and people to talk to as well. 

It's been a long week

 I can't tell you how happy I am that it's finally Friday. I'm looking forward to having a day off tomorrow and I don't plan on going anywhere. I've got things to get done at home and hopefully I'll find some time to work on some craft projects as well.

On a sad note, I read on Facebook that a blog friend, Irene Pisano, passed away on September 20. She fought a tough battle with cancer. Her blog was Cinnamon Spice & Everything nice. You could always find a delicious recipe there. My thoughts and prayers go out to her family. Rest in peace Reeni.

Facebook funnies

I'm going to Facebook for a little help with today's post.

A $2.00 post

I posted this on Facebook the other day.

Yesterday I picked up a couple things in Dollar Tree that reminded me of that picture. Now I have a twinkle in my wrinkles.

I wish i would have picked up some lipstick. I think that would have completed the look. So there you have it, I spent $2 just for the post.

Now what?

 I'm out of craft projects except for a card that I made a couple weeks ago and has been sitting here waiting for me to take a picture of it.

Yesterday was supposed to be my day off but we only have one daytime cashier at the moment and she couldn't work yesterday so I was scheduled to be cashier. In place of that he gave me today off...BUT... oops he forgot that I've been cashing on Tuesday mornings because there is no one that can work then. So I'm working today too. The over time will be nice but I only get one day off this week.

Sunday was supposed to be our family dinner. Because I didn't remind anyone I had a great big casserole for just me. Anyone who follows me on Facebook and saw my post about I got the message loud and clear, that's what it was about. After all this time of doing it on the third Sunday of the month why do I need to remind them AND wouldn't it make sense that if  you don't hear from me you would call me and say hey, what's up aren't we having dinner. I'm just fed up with it. I ask for one day a month from them and that is apparently too much trouble. Side note for my daughter, if you are reading this, don't get your knickers in a knot over this. I'm allowed to vent just as much as you are. So just chill.

I made cheesy chicken bacon ranch casserole. I had a lot of it so I put two containers of it in the freezer and I'll eat leftover for a few days this week

More crafting

 Not only do I have more finished craft projects but I have more video as well. Here is video number one.

 

 This video will show how to transfer the vinyl decal. 

I mentioned in the video that I have a plate rack on the wall. It's been there for years and I've always switched back and forth between plates with chickadees and plates with snowmen. Here's my rack now with my new set of fall plates. Since the plates came from Dollar Tree and I already had the vinyl this was a very inexpensive project.

There's a bit of a glare on the photos against the metallic vinyl but you get the idea. I'll give you two pictures and hopefully one will show better than the other

fall crafting

I had a very productive crafting day. I completed several projects.

These are the items I just showed you. You'll have to excuse the pictures. I just used my cell phone which as I've said before, doesn't take good pictures.

well now they look like this

And like this

for the tray, after I colored the woid with the furniture repair markers I lined the bottom with the buffalo plaid scrapbook paper. It looked kind of cute with the little candle jar and pumpkin sitting in it.

One step closer

I don't have those craft projects done yet but I do have videos that I took the other day. They don't really show me doing anything just talking about the items. The best part is that this gives me something to use for a blog post.

Oh and to answer a question from yesterday, the tray is small. It's about 5x7.

So this is the first video I took

 

Then I got brave and actually showed myself in the video. Maybe next time I'll get a hair and makeup expert before I go on camera.

Dollar Tree purchases

I purchased a few things from Dollar Tree recently for future craft projects. First up are four dessert size plates

  

The other purchase was a little wooden tray and a chalkboard

 

Look for completed projects in a future post hopefully sooner than later

Taking the easy way out

 Yesterday was a long day since it was my 10 hour day. Today is only 8 hours but will feel much longer since I'll be playing cashier all day. With that being said, I'm taking the easy way out today and using Facebook finds for my post.

I think I may have already posted the first one, if so you get it again. 

Autumn attire

When I go to work the dress code requires that I wear black pants and a black shirt. Now that we also have to wear masks I can throw a little fun into my daily attire.

I made some fall masks for myself and the girls I work with. They are reversible so its like two masks in one.

babysitting

Presleys mom asked if I could babysit for a couple hours yesterday and of course I said yes. She showed up very tired and very unhappy that her mom was going to leave her. Brittney was a bit reluctant to go but I told her not to worry everything would be fine. She cried for maybe 10 minutes then I got her settled on the couch with her tablet watching a video and she was out.

She woke up about an hour later and I made the mistake of asking if she felt better. It started the tears all over again. I took her outside for a bit but that didn't help much. We came back in and I gave her the tablet back to watch some more videos. Then I pulled out my phone and started showing her pictures on my phone that I had of her, her mom and her dad. 

Her tablet, her blankie and a drink and she was doing fine. 

Crying or not it's always a pleasure to have her around.

Thanks Grace

This was on my porch Saturday

This cool little tripod to hold my cell phone

 

It even comes with a remote

 

Now I need to think of something to take a video of. I'm open to suggestions.

Goodbye

 I heard this song the other day for the first time. I've always liked Kenny Rogers but none of his songs had me bawling my eyes out like this one did. I loved it. 

cake of the day

The order started out as red flowers and a cross down the center. They called back to change it to fall colors and no cross. They didnt want any writing on it at all

Facebook funniest Friday

 Can't remember if I've shown these before or not but here goes

Autumn days

Monday I worked on finishing a project I've been wanting to do. I started by making an envelope style pillow cover and then I added the iron on vinyl design. It was a free cut file from Board and Batten. The original file had 3 small leaves in 2 different colors but I only had black and gold glitter iron on vinyl. All my leaves are all gold glitter. I love the way this turned out

Inquiring minds

 Since several of you asked yesterday about how to get the balloon on the dice I did a quick (really bad) video to show you. I had the phone in front of me and was working around it and bumped the phone once and then knocked it over at the end but you can get the idea of how I did the dice.

cheap and easy fall decoration

I took 2 packs of the Dollar Tree foam dice, 1 bag of 12" balloons and some vinyl letters I cut on my Cricut

and I turned them into this

Instead of painting the dice you cover them with the balloons. I used 2 balloons for each but if you look close enough you can still see the color through some of the balloons. A third one could be used if you were bothered by that. I wasn't.

Happy Labor Day

 Just a real quick drop in today to wish all those in the U.S. a Happy Labor Day. I have the day off but then Mondays are always my day off.

Have a ball

In the bakery department at work some things just go better than others. Some may sell well for a little while and then die out. Some things may never sell very good at all. And then there are those items that just keep selling. One such item is our pepperoni balls. They are made from Italian bread dough. We make them three times a week. Each time we make them we make 15 bags and they always sell out by the next day.

I start by cutting a loaf of Italian bread into 10 pieces. I do three loaves at a time and a total of 9 loaves

 

Next I add a third of a slice of mozzarella cheese and 8 slices of pepperoni to each cut piece

 

Then I roll each piece into a ball and place 20 on a tray and put in a heated proof box for the dough to rise

 

The day I was making these I forgot to take a picture of them once they came out of the oven but here's a bag of them on the shelf ready to be sold

 

You get six in a bag for $2.99. I also occasionally do deep-fried pepperoni balls which in my opinion are much better but these sell like hotcakes.

Just another day

I was back to my regular job yesterday. As with any job, there are always some things that you dislike doing more than others. Mine is the daily breakout. It consists of bringing a big cart out of the freezer and pulling the product to be baked the next day. It's not difficult but I HATE doing it. The deli manager, who works the bakery on my day off, HATES doing cakes. Whenever there is a cake order for a Saturday, we make a deal, I'll do her cake and she'll do my breakout. 

In this past week she has done my breakout twice for me because I was off doing other jobs in the store. Yesterday morning she jokingly made the comment that I was going to owe her. Well, I think we're even now, because about 30 minutes before my shift was over a customer came in and ordered a cake for today. I managed to get this done in less than half an hour.

Change of pace

We are really short handed at work right now and when someone doesn't show up we are forced to work with even fewer people. 

Yesterday i hung up my bakery apron and played cashier for the day

It's not bad once in a while but I would hate to do it all the time.

 

just a typical day

In the evening, even though I live alone and could turn the tv up as loud as I want, I find it easier to hear if I wear my headphones.  Monday night I was watching tv and my daughter was texting me but I never heard the phone until she finally called instead. I had to laugh when I read her text messages later.

Hello September

The calendar reads September 1st and this is what came to mind.