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How To Support Some Free

January 13, 2012 by Tsoniki 3 Comments

Sister Diane posted every month during 2011 about supporting free (here is her wrap up of the year). I think sometimes we take it for granted that people are at home sharing so much knowledge with us through their websites and their stores. There are ways you can make money online of course, selling ads, getting sponsors, participating in affiliate sales are a few ways, but it can be difficult to do so. It takes a long time to create content – to write patterns or instructions, take pictures, edit pictures, etc. The idea of having a way to pay people back for their shared knowledge is a great one and I look forward to joining in on this for the year.

My plan is to pay attention to my favorite bloggers and figure out how I can support them. Do they have a tip jar or a shop I can purchase from? I know that the money spent doing this does not have to be a lot so that isn’t a concern of mine, but if it is a concern of yours just focus on reaching out to one person.

photo credit: Schtumple

Today is Friday the 13th. Break the curse of bad and do something good for someone you know! I’ll check back at the end of the month to update how I did.

Pinterest Challenge – Baked Chicken Taquitos

January 12, 2012 by Tsoniki 1 Comment

Picture from Christy’s blog, The Girl Who Ate Everything

These are baked chicken taquitos. Click that link for the original pin. Here is the link to the original blog post. Now go make them and eat them because they are delicious.

Bye.

Oh you want more from me?

Seriously, these are amazing. They are SO good and super easy to make. I made double what the original recipe called for because I made them when I was visiting my Dad, one of my brothers, and my nephews. When you have a household of mostly boys (all of them plus my kids outnumber Alice and I by 8 to 2), you need a lot of food and it has to be good. Everyone loved this. My brother took them to work the day after I first made them and shared with his co-worker. He declared them delicious and wanted the recipe for his wife.

I’m not going gluten free or carb free, but I am trying to stay away from bread, tortillas, etc., for a couple of weeks so I don’t see myself making these anytime soon. I bet there are gluten free tortillas out there…I wonder if they taste good. I bet if they aren’t good, these will make them good. The chicken mixture is magic.

First WIP Wednesday of 2012

January 11, 2012 by Tsoniki Leave a Comment

The break from school (for the kids) and classes and work (for me) and daycare (for JW) was awesome. I loved just being home. I told my friends I loved being able to take a shower and just put on clean pjs again. I spent most of our vacation in pjs. I look forward to the next one!

For the first WIP Wednesday of 2012 – I am working on a few projects!

Here are my fabrics for the older (2010) quilt along I found:

The fabrics are not a charm pack like the author is working with and I’m okay with that. I love these fabrics, but after looking at this picture I realize I should probably replace the two with light backgrounds. I don’t want them blending into the white on white background. I can’t wait to get started on this quilt, I am going to work on cutting everything out and maybe some beginning sewing this weekend.

I haven’t picked out any fabrics for the HST BOM yet, but I am thinking about what I want to use. I have a lot of fabric and it’s not out on shelves so it can be tough to remember what I have. I end up with boxes and bins open all over my sewing room and it becomes a mess that I don’t want to go through, I just want the room clean again! I take this as a sign to clean up the space and have a better system for my fabric. I don’t want it tucked away never to be seen again.

I also commented on Amy’s one week challenge and am working on an oven mitt. I am using the pattern from this blog post and these fabrics, I stitched them last night and will work on cutting them out, etc., throughout the week.

I tried making an oven mitt myself during the holiday break and it went horribly wrong.

That oven mitt, it only fits my kids. This is my lesson on using a pattern. I haven’t even finished it because I was frustrated. Now I think it’s funny and I’ll get the binding on this weekend.

Wind Out Of My Sails

January 10, 2012 by Tsoniki 3 Comments

Talk about a let down.

photo credit: coÉ´á´…oá´™maá´Žâ„¢

I mentioned how crazy busy I am, how I am taking a total of five classes this semester and then I will be done with my undergrad studies. Well I got a phone call yesterday that said the two classes I was going to take from NWIC will not be accepted because they are not exactly the equivalent to the classes at UMUC. I was also told that I was wrong in thinking I only needed five classes to graduate, I actually need ten more total classes. That is partially my fault because I read my degree progress report wrong, but I also blame my advisor because I have been speaking with a couple of different people regularly and I kept telling them I could finish this semester. Why didn’t either of them say anything?

I decided to fight to get the Native American Art Appreciation class to transfer as Art Appreciation. The woman I spoke with from UMUC said it was too specific since it was Native art, and not art in general. Well, it is from a tribal college so I guess you can say there is a focus, but isn’t that the same as art from a mainstream university focusing on western art for their art appreciation class? What if I took that class to begin with and then transferred to UMUC, would they deny the class at that point? Who knows, but I am going to try to go higher and get the class accepted. I do not see why it wouldn’t be but we’ll see the response I get.

I am going to take a DANTES test to take the place of one of the classes I would have transferred from NWIC. So that takes care of the two NWIC courses. I am still registered for three classes online.

photo credit: elxedder

That still leaves me with six classes to take. Ugh. I am so not interested anymore. I was practically bouncing off the wall excited that I could finish this semester. Now I feel like it is a never ending thing, that I just keep taking classes and am not getting closer. I am trying not to feel discouraged, I am still very close. It may just take me a few days to feel completely motivated and excited again.

I guess I could look at it as though I will still be done this year, but that feels so far off compared to this summer. I need to play with a cute baby and sew, maybe after that I’ll be motivated again.

QA, BOM, & Being Crazy Busy

January 9, 2012 by Tsoniki 1 Comment

I am going to be crazy busy for the next few months, the entire spring semester actually. I am taking five classes this semester. Five. FIVE! I know it will be okay because I am taking two and then three, because of the way UMUC has restructured their semester (they offer 8 week semesters now, which makes you a crazy person working on classes, but then you are finished after two months. This new structure allowed me to take more then two classes a semester in the fall, and again now.). Once I am done with these five classes, I am done with my undergraduate studies.

That blows my mind. I am excited way deep down inside. The excitement will come to the surface the closer I get, or maybe not until I apply for graduation? It’ll happen though. I have to get through these classes, but this has been a long time coming. I can not stress enough the importance of finishing your undergraduate degree in a timely manner! I am so ready to move on with my studies.

I am still working part time and the older kids are currently in basketball. The baby will probably go to daycare an extra day of the week so I can get my schoolwork done and also attend a couple of classes in person (I am taking two classes locally, from NWIC, which I am transferring to UMUC). Once basketball is over, the kids will play soccer. We are starting the semester off by not watching tv, this happened in the fall and the winter break was plenty of time to get caught up on my favorite tv shows. TV is something I can definitely sacrifice.

But I did want to find another quilt along to do this year. Last year I did the postage stamp quilt along, and it was so much work – and so very worth it. I loved making that quilt, even if it took much longer then the initial quilt along. I haven’t finished it beyond the top, but I think I will send it out to be quilted. I found an old quilt along – the Charm Pack Quilt Along that was posted in 2010. The link will take you to the blog posts that are all labeled with that, so start from the bottom and go up. I have my fabrics picked out and cut into squares already. I’ll post a picture on Wednesday for WIP Wednesday’s!

I also found the HST BOM:

This looks very fun and since it is one block a month, this is easily do-able despite my crazy schedule. I will have to have some down time otherwise I will just be crazy, and not crazy busy. I haven’t picked my fabrics for the HST BOM, but I am going to do so before Wednesday so I’ll share then!

Classes start today and I am working all week because we are implementing a new database program in my office. Here’s to being crazy busy!

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