Recipe share: Salmon-Potato Cakes

Just a quick recipe share--this is what we had for dinner tonight. It's so quick and easy and yummy. The recipe originally appeared in the February 2008 issue of Better Homes & Gardens and can be found here as well. Here is the recipe with my changes:

Photo from BHG.com

Salmon-Potato Cakes

14 oz fresh skinless salmon fillets Here is my biggest change: I am lazy, so I used a 14 oz. can of salmon instead of fresh. I will admit that canned salmon is right on the high end of my gross-o-meter because I hate having to pick out the bones and skin, but once I get over that I'm okay.

2 cups refrigerated sour cream and chive mashed potatoes This would also be a great way to use up leftover homemade mashies. Also, I don't care for the Country Crock brand as I thought they were a bit dry.

1/2 cup seasoned fine dry bread crumbs
3 Tbsp snipped fresh dill I used dried, about a teaspoon
Nonstick cooking spray
fresh mixed salad greens enough for 4 people
bottled Honey-Dijon salad dressing

If you prefer to cook your own salmon, refer to the BHG link for the microwave cooking directions. If using canned, dump it into a big bowl and pick out the skin and bones, then break up with a fork. Add mashed potatoes (I find they mix better if they're not ice-cold from the fridge), bread crumbs, and dill. Form mixture into 8 cakes.

Heat a skillet coated with nonstick cooking spray over medium-high heat. Cook cakes 3-4 minutes on each side, until heated through and browned. Place salad greens on plates. Top with salmon cakes; serve with dressing.

The recipe yields 8 cakes which they call 4 servings, but the cakes are quite large so if you eat a lot of salad, you might just need one. That would also help cut the calories & fat on the NI.

Nutritional info for 4 servings of 2 cakes: 503 calories, 31 grams of fat (7 g saturated), 2 grams fiber

Enjoy! Don't forget, you still have until Friday (tomorrow) at noon MST to enter your name in the October giveaway. Just leave a comment on the post below!

Hooray for October GIVEAWAY

Sorry to be so late--I had some last minute technical difficulties on a project for my Sweet & Sinister Swap package (which was due out TODAY!) that took up quite a bit of time. But my package is now in the hands of the USPS and I promised a giveaway, so a giveaway we shall have!

Announcing...the Vacuuming in High Heels and Pearls "Hooray for October" giveaway!

To celebrate the advent of October and the fact that Halloween is a mere 30 days away, I thought I'd spread some love in the form of Happy Mail. For this giveaway I will chose TWO winners! And what will the winners receive?

Each package will include one of these darling Making Memories chipboard kits. Each kit has three big chipboard shapes that can be decorated with the papers, ribbons, stickers and small chipboard embellishments that are also included. How fun!

Each package will also include a set of these spoooooky haunted house Jolee's dimensional stickers, a set of cute witchy diecuts from Stampin' Up!, and various and sundry other Halloweenish tricks and treats!

To enter, please leave a comment on this post anytime between now and Friday, October 3 at noon MST. Don't forget, there will be TWO winners this time! Happy October!

Altered Soap Bottles: A Tutorial

A few weekends ago (when I was swamped) I taught some craft demos to the women at my church, including this one for Altered Soap Bottles. They are so easy and inexpensive and they make great little gifts! I thought I'd put together a little blog tutorial to show you how they're made.The trick to these soap bottles is that the art inside appears to float magically in the bottle. Okay, maybe not magically, but I guarantee you that when people first see these, they can't figure out how you got the words in the bottle! The secret is transparencies--the kind you'd use on an overhead projector.

Step 1: Design the insert. Because I have no idea what I'm doing in Photoshop, I used my Microsoft Word program. I knew that I could fit nine inserts to a page, so I did a little measuring and math and made nine text boxes to fill up the page (note: you will want to make your text box lines palest gray so they don't show up later--I learned this the hard way). Then I used a fancy font for the wording and downloaded a free dingbat font to make the snowflakes. (Getting those right was the hardest part, something I'm sure would have been easier in Photoshop.) Then I just copied and pasted the text into the eight other boxes. I printed it out, took it to a copy shop and had a transparency made. Easy!

It is important to note that for this project, you must use either a copier-generated transparency or one made on a laser printer. INK JET TRANSPARENCIES WILL NOT WORK! The ink will not hold up in the soap. Also, you do not have to use a computer to create your art. You can use rubber stamps or even have your child draw something cute--anything can be made into a transparency!

Step 2: Prepare the Soap Bottle. The soap I like to use for this craft is the Equate brand from Wal-Mart. The soap is clear, the labels are on the outside of the bottle, and best of all, they cost less than a dollar each! If you'd prefer to use another kind, just look for a brand that has the printing on the outside on a sticky label so it can be removed.

The labels can be peeled off fairly easily by hand. Remove any sticky residue with a product like Goo Gone or Un-Du. Unscrew the lid and lay aside the pump stem.

Step 3: Insert the Transparency. After you have cut apart the sheet of transparencies, it still may be necessary to trim them slightly to fit in the bottles. Simply hold the transparency up against the bottle to get an idea of how much you may need to trim off. Sometimes I find it helpful to round the top corners to mirror the rounded shape of the bottle.

Next, roll up the transparency with the printed lettering on the inside and stick it down into the neck of the bottle. (Note: some of the bottles have manufacturing lettering printed on the outside of the bottle, near the top edge. You might try to remove this with fingernail polish remover or just make sure that is the back side of your bottle.)

When the transparency gets down into the soap, it tends to unfurl by itself. If yours needs a little help, use a skewer or even the stem of the pump to gently unfold it and move it into place. Replace the pump, making sure the stem is BEHIND the transparency.

Tie on a ribbon and a cute tag and it's done! These bottles make great little gifties because they're easy, inexpensive and can be mass-produced if necessary. I'm going to make these as Christmas treats for the teachers in Maren's classroom. Another thing I love is that they can be easily personalized for the recipient--who doesn't love a personalized gift?

Here are some other examples to give you some ideas:

This one was given to my mom as a birthday treat from some ladies at church. I love how they combined the different fonts! Cute.

On this one, the pumpkin is a rubber stamped image. I couldn't find an image on the computer that I liked so after I printed out the lettering, I carefully stamped a pumpkin on each box.

This was one of my prototypes for the demo and I actually used black StazOn stamping ink on a piece of a report cover instead of a printed transparency. The black ink has held up just fine but a similar transparency I stamped using brown StazOn ink completely disappeared! I also embellished this one with a blue eyelet. It seems to be holding up for now but I'm not sure about the long term. You can also embellish the transparencies with small silk flowers, but make sure they are colorfast first. I think it would be fun to try using scrapbooking rub-ons or those adhesive vinyl shapes you can put on your walls. In either case, they would need to be applied on the back side of the lettering so that both will show. Anything that is colorfast and can be rolled up to fit in the neck of the bottle is fair game for embellishment--be creative!

I hope this tutorial has been helpful! If you have any questions, please leave them in the comments and I'll be happy to answer.

*****************************************************************

Also....to celebrate the beginning of October and the 'official' beginning of the Halloween season (yippee!) tomorrow I'll be announcing a GIVEAWAY! Be sure to come back and visit so you can enter!

T-minus 3 hours, 50 minutes

Oh come on, I can't be the only geek out there who's totally excited for tonight's premiere, right? Right?

Making me happy today...

Just a few things I'm loving today...


The old jointed yard stick I shaped into a star. I've been looking for one of these in my thrifting travels for years with NO luck! I finally found one for a great price in an antique store in Utah. Years ago I saw one in a Pottery Barn catalog that had been shaped into a crown; maybe that's next when I'm tired of the star.

This (thrifted) shocking pink flower brooch. Wore it on my jacket on Sunday and it made me happy all day! It is very thick bent plastic and I love the light and dark pink striations. I haven't seen one like it before and I'm glad it came to live with me.

My beloved new bench, spruced up for autumn. The garage sale acorns from the other day are in a garage sale wooden bowl--if I turn them just right you can't see the broken one! LOL The beautiful gourd is from my dad's garden and the berry wreath was purchased 90% off last year after Halloween.

What is making you happy today?

Inspiration struck this weekend and so there's more than a wee bit of Halloween crafting going on around here!
I love seeing all my pretties in one place. It was such fun to go through my stash and pull out trinkets and treasures to match. This is when being a pack rat comes in handy. :)

It feels good to be creative again after being away and being too busy. I love when my head is swimming with ideas and images and I wake up in the morning with fresh ideas. Although I've dabbled in many craft mediums, paper, scissors and glue will always be my first and best loves.

Hooray for Autumn!

I was so happy to find these cute acorns at a garage sale this morning,

which made it extra swear-inducing when I went to take the price sticker off and dropped the brown one on the floor, shattering the bottom. @&%*$&@ If I add a few fake leaves maybe it won't be too noticeable. Thank goodness I didn't pay retail--then I'd be really mad!

I've been looking for a few new fall things to spruce up my house, which is why I was so jazzed to find the acorns. I go all out for Halloween beginning October 1, but I need a few fall colors to make me happy until then. I won't lie--I'm already itching to get out my Halloween decor but I know if I do, I'll be sick of it by October 15th so I'm trying to resist. The acorns and my fall wreath will have to get me through! Wish I could find some beautiful dried Japanese lanterns like these from Sue's garden. I looked at some silk versions at the craft store today but they were a sad copy--nowhere near as beautiful as the real thing!

On the docket for this weekend: the official family "clean up the yard for autumn" day, work on my Sweet & Sinister swap, and I think I may take advantage of the fact that my basil plant has finally decided to grow (hey, it's only two months late!) to make some pesto. Frankly, I'm just tired of keeping my plants alive. Time for them to fulfill the measure of their creation, if you know what I mean. Yum!

What are your plans for this last weekend of summer?

Tick Tock, A New Red Clock

I was tickled when I found a darling RED vintage-style clock at my local thrift for a mere 80¢! It is a reproduction but I thought it had plenty of charm and would look great in my vintage-style kitchen. Only problem--when I got it home, it didn't work! Even after putting in a good battery, the clock hands failed to move. I determined that the clock mechanism itself was kaput, but I knew that I could buy a replacement at the craft store.

Armed with my trusty 40% off coupon, I headed to JoAnn's but was dismayed to find that a new set of clock works was $7.99. Now, I had a coupon that would make it less expensive, but people--I AM CHEAP! I didn't want to pay 6x more for the mechanism that I did for the darn clock itself!

Enter Plan B--find another cheapo clock at the thrift and harvest its organs...er, mechanism. I've searched unsuccessfully a few times now but today I found it! A boring, cheapo clock also priced at the magical 80¢. I didn't have a battery with me to make sure it worked and that thrift store doesn't accept returns, but for that price I was willing to take the gamble. I may be cheap, but I'm not crazy!

I didn't think to take a photo of the "donor" clock, but just imagine your garden-variety plastic, few bucks at Wal-Mart type of clock. I used a butter knife to pop off the plastic dome, unscrewed the hands and removed the little black box. Threaded it through the hole on the red clock, reattached the hands and the glass dome and hurrah--it worked! I did have to fiddle with the hands a bit to make sure they were seated correctly but it's keeping time like a champ now.


Now to hang it and enjoy!

Finding higher ground, but not on dry ground yet

I think I've successfully climbed out of the swamp, but I'm afraid I'm still hovering around the edges and not completely on dry land yet. Whew! Being gone for 8 days and then coming home and immediately jumping into a huge project really wiped me out. I still feel like I'm trying to get things back in order and regain my energy. I hope to be back tomorrow with a 'real' blog post, but until then I want to share a couple of photos of The Mister, who ran his first triathlon while we were in Utah.

I'm so proud of him! And he's hot, too. :)

Swamped!

I'm back from Utah, but I'm swamped! I'm getting ready for a huge event tomorrow and it's sucking up all my time, energy and thoughts--I even dreamed about it last night! I'm seriously looking forward to tomorrow at 1 pm when it will be ALL OVER and I can get back to my normal life and blog posting!

Benched

I'm taking a break from packing for the week-long trip we depart upon tomorrow to show you my favorite garage sale find from the weekend. A goodly portion of the items at this woman's sale would definitely fall in the "shabby chic" category--just the kind of sale I like to find, but rarely do! I asked the woman if she was changing her decor and she laughed and said that she was just weeding out her collection. She had some pretty neat things for sale (and for very reasonable prices) so I'm guessing what she kept was fabulous! She laughed and said that sometimes divorce is not such a bad thing--then there's no one in the house to complain when you've decorated everything with pink, flowers and chandelier crystals!

I've been looking for an old garden bench just like this one, so I snapped it up without a second thought. It looks like it was kept outside because there's a bit of water staining on the top, but I can easily cover that. It sits just inside my front door, right beneath a mirror that looks like a window pane. I can't wait to decorate it for the seasons! First up will be a big pile of gourds and leaves, I do believe. I am looking so forward to decorating for autumn.

The only tricky part is that it's right at the height of a certain curious 3-year-old, so whatever I use to decorate will have to be extra sturdy. When I first brought the bench in I was so excited that I temporarily lost my mind and adorned it with my treasured aqua Bauer bowl. When I found the bowl full of rocks from the backyard I snapped to my senses and put it back up on top of the china cabinet where it is safe! Gourds are tough little things, thank goodness.

And now it's back to the suitcases!

Goodbye, England's Rose

Do you remember where you were and what you were doing 10 years ago today? I do, and I have the photos to document it!

Ten years ago last Wednesday, I boarded an airplane bound for London, where I spent the next semester doing a Study Abroad through my university. August 31 was a Monday that year and it was a Bank Holiday That weekend is also the Notting Hill Carnival, which took place just a few blocks from where we stayed. Wow, was that ever an experience for a bunch of sheltered BYU students!
August 31, 1998 was also significant for one other major reason--it was the one year anniversary of the death of Princess Diana. The building where we lived was just across the street from Kensington Gardens which is of course home to Kensington Palace, where Diana had lived. After our eardrums were well and truly numbed by the Carnival, we walked over to Kensington Palace, where thousands of people had gathered to remember Diana. The huge iron fence surrounding the palace was packed with bouquets of flowers, cards, photos, drawings--all of the beloved People's Princess. I've never seen anything like it before or since.

In this photo I knowI have a weird look on my face. I wasn't sure what expression to make--a big cheesy grin seemed very out of place at such a somber occasion. I will tell you that I remember being so HOT that day! Even though it was the end of August it was unusually warm for London. I had bought that sweater and the jeans (those pants were SO cute! Wish I still had them) from the J.Crew outlet before I left and I was dying to wear them, even though they were much too warm for the day. The necklace I had just bought at what would become one of my favorite London shops, Accessorize.

The year previous, the year she died--I remember that too, although I don't have a scrapbook page about it. I was working at a scrapbook store at the time. That night we stayed open late for a crop, and I had the radio turned to my favorite station, which had a request show on Saturday nights. I remember hearing the DJs saying that someone called in to request "New Dress" by Depeche Mode, because it repeats the line, "Princess Di is wearing a new dress." They then went on to talk again about the news reports just coming in about her death, and I went into the classroom at the back of the store to announce the news to all the ladies there at the crop. That next week was the first week of my sophomore year at college, and I remember my roommates and I watching the coverage of her funeral on TV and crying. I had no idea that a year from then, I'd be able to see it all in person.
I can't believe it has been 10 years since I went to London. I had the time of my life in those three months! I actually still dream about London; strangely, in my dreams it never looks like it did in real life, but I always know that's where I am. These photos are scanned from a scrapbook page I did several years ago. I am maybe halfway done with my scrapbook from my Study Abroad and haven't done a page in literally years, so perhaps this fall would be a good time to get out my photos and get to work again.

Do you remember where you were when you heard the news of Princess Diana's death?

Good Junk

My blog absence last week was partly due to the fact that I went down to Southern Colorado to visit family for a few days. I've mentioned before what a great place it is for small-town thrifting, and once again it didn't disappoint. On my way out of town I hit a great garage sale! Here is what I bought:

The old dictionary is to cannibalize for art projects. I have no idea why I bought the red book with the lady but I think I can use it for display (apparently Rebecca and I have a similar affliction). The book on the right is most interesting. Here's what it looks like inside:

Beautiful, spidery copperplate handwriting! It is a very old composition book that the owner used as a place to copy poems. Each poem is dated at the bottom and at first I thought it was the date the poem was written, but upon further investigation I believe it's the date that the poem was copied into the book. Let's see a close-up of this particular poem's date:

Yup, that says 1882, folks! I think this definitely qualifies for the oldest thing I've found while thrifting. I love it! I can't wait to use the pages in my projects.

Next was a whole bagful of old hankies. I spent a relaxing afternoon earlier this week ironing each and every one. Hankies are the ideal thing to iron--no tricky cuffs or plackets to work around, and they're pretty to look at while you're working! Here are a few of my favorites:

And here is my very favorite hankie of the bunch:

Not only is it pink and turquoise, but it's a state souvenir, and it's from Colorado! A trifecta!


I cannot pass up pretty crocheted potholders, especially when they're in such lovely colors and such good condition. The jewelry will be remade, and there's also an old glass knob hiding in there. And would you believe that I once had a big bag full of those vintage Halloween cake picks? I sold it on eBay, and for not even that much money. Whoops! These may find their way into something for the Sweet & Sinister Halloween Swap.

This is a fun little trifle. It's not a hat, but I do believe it was meant to be worn on the head over the hairstyle. I thought maybe I can use it for Halloween somehow, as it does remind me of a spiderweb. If nothing else I can use it for parts. The bows are velvet ribbon and the little crescents are flocked as well.

And one last treasure:

This is a bit odd. It's definitely a veil, as there are small hair combs sewn on the underside but the lace feels very heavy, like it was a curtain panel or a tablecloth in a former life. Generally you expect a veil to have lace or tulle that is very fine and light, so that leads me to believe that this must have been homemade. The trim is vintage with pearl beads and rhinestones and it's gorgeous!

My goodness, I'm glad it's Friday! This has been a long, busy week and I'm worn out. Because The Mister is in the National Guard, they've been staying downtown for the past week to be available in case riots happened during the Democratic National Convention. Thankfully things were much more peaceful than everyone had worried they might be, and we are more than ready for DH to be done with all of that monkey business. We're leaving town next Wednesday for a week and I have a huge project for church to prepare for as it happens right after we get home, so that has me stressed. And I love my kid but she wears me out, so I'm eager for DH to come home and give me a break! Our plans for Labor Day are mostly to relax. Hope you all enjoy your long weekend!

Going for the Gold

Because one of my personal flaws is apparently laughing at people who fall, I find this video (currently making the email rounds) to be HILARIOUS, each and every time I watch.

Until yesterday, undoubtedly the most unusual piece of furniture I had in my house was this:

an old wooden greeting card display that once resided in the drugstore in a small town in Missouri. I bought it off of Craigslist in July 2005 from a man who had purchased the entire contents of said drugstore and was selling it off, piece by piece.

It seems the drugstore's doors had been closed (with merchandise still on the shelves) for the better part of the 1970s and 80s, giving it the air of a time capsule when it finally saw the light in 2005. When I purchased the card display it came with all of the old greeting cards and wrapping paper that had been on (and in) the unit when the doors closed. Can you imagine what fun I've had going through all those fab vintage cards?

When I bought the display I had the idea to use it for display of my black and white wedding photographs, a plan that never actually materialized. I did use it at Valentine's Day to display my vintage Valentine collection, and at Christmas it made a great place to show off the holiday cards I received in the mail. I loved having the large drawers in the bottom for storage of my to-be-eBayed treasures.

Even still, it never really fit in with the rest of my living room. Its size (large!) was awkward and took up too much of a room that's not big to begin with, and since I could never really make it into what I wanted, I decided to sell it and listed it on Craigslist a few weeks ago. It was purchased by a woman who is opening up a gift shop who plans to use it to display a line of greeting cards she'll be selling.

I'm a bit sad to see it go but mostly now I'm excited because I get to buy something new to fill that space! The front room is a little weird and not that functional right now, so I'd like to create a seating area or a reading space so that I can actually spend time in the room rather than just passing through. I loved this vignette from the most recent Country Living.

I already have a chippy white dresser and a great old chair like the one sitting beside it. Now I need to find an armchair and maybe something to use as an ottoman. The hunt is on!

Another (soldering) iron in the fire

For Christmas 2007 I hoped for and received a soldering iron and supplies. I've wanted to learn to solder for a while, ever since I first became acquainted with the work of the fabulous Miss Sally Jean. Despite my eagerness to learn, I wasn't brave enough to break out my supplies until just a few weeks ago. Given my propensity for klutziness, I was afraid I'd somehow singe my hair off or burn a hole in my carpet with the extremely hot soldering iron. I finally screwed up my courage, plugged in my cute pink iron and went to work.

What I found out is that soldering is hard. Really hard! My first piece was so bad that I didn't even take a picture, although I will keep it because someday when I finally get good at this, I can look back at where I started.

For Lucy or anyone else who wants to try their hand at soldering, the hardest thing is to resist the temptation to overwork the solder. Every time I'd think I'd just 'touch up' one little area, I ended up making it worse and then having to fix everything. I know that like everything, getting good at this is just a matter of practice, but darn it--I want to be good now, on the first try! Hmmph!

And because I'm shameless, here's a photo of my my third charm. After I took this photo I used my tiny file to smooth the bumps and rubbed some solder polish on it and though it does look better, I've a long way to go! Sally Jean need not worry about competition from me anytime soon.

It's coming...

....Can you feel it?

Fall, I mean. Can you feel it in the air? I can! I can feel it in the slanting sunlight, the cooler nights and mornings. I could definitely feel it this past weekend, when we had constant rain and high temps in the 50s. I'm thrilled! When I was younger summer was always my favorite season but now my heart lies in autumn. I love the cool nights and warm sunny days that we usually have here in Colorado. I love the warm colors and the yummy smells. And long-time readers of my blog know that I LOVE Halloween!!

I'm so excited to have joined ArtsyMama's Sweet and Sinister swap this year! My partner is Julie B, whom I attended Silver Bella with last year. We both love vintage-style Halloween things so I know it will be fun to put together a package for her. I've already started gathering ideas so that I can get cracking--it's almost September, so I need to get moving!

Have you been to Michael's this year to see the new Martha Stewart Crafts Halloween line? As usual for Halloween, Martha and her Minions didn't disappoint! You can see the whole collection here if you don't have a Mike's handy. Don't you think that big glittery black chandelier is wonderful? It looks very Wendy Addison, but at about a quarter of the price (especially if you use your 40% off coupon!) I'd already own it if I could have thought of a place to hang it in my house. I have wanted the tissue pompom kit ever since the line debuted last year so you can guess how I feel about the candy corn pompom kit! Again, the lack of a place to hang them is the only thing restraining me.

I have already purchased this fun picket fence punch, and I plan to use it on my Halloween party invitations this year. I'm sorely tempted by the drippy goo punch as well! And those darling cupcake papers? Those will be coming home with me on the next trip! It's safe to say where my 40% off coupons will be going for the next few weeks!

Last night at Target I picked up this fun t-shirt for $5.

I hate the sizing on their 'seasonal' shirts--they are sized for tiny people with no bust and short torsos, and that's before the shirt shrinks in the wash! But for $5 I'm okay with wearing it once or twice then getting rid of it. And really, how could I not buy this one? It's not just a chandelier, but a spooky chandelier! Love it. Bring on the pumpkins!

Miss Cookie Baker

You'd think August 15th would be a great day for a garage sale or a church picnic.

You'd think. However, when the thermometer still looks like this at noon and the rain hasn't quit for the last eight hours, you'd realize that a change of plans is in order!

We've checked out Mr. Cookie Baker from the library several times because Maren loves it. She can recite all the words from memory which is good because Mommy gets pretty darn tired of reading it after the 2,395th time. KWIM, fellow Mommies?

Maren has been asking me to make "sprinkle cookies, just like Mr. Cookie Baker" since we brought home the book again this week. What better time to fire up the oven and make cookies than when the weather outside is frightful? We put on our aprons and went to work.

A few hours and a flour-covered floor later we had several dozen pink-frosted and be-sprinkled cookies and one happy little Miss Cookie Baker!

(And for the record, we never broke 60 degrees yesterday, setting a new record minimum high temperature for that day. Ironic, since two weeks ago it was 103 and we set a new record high! Today is shaping up to be exactly the same as yesterday. Meanwhile, it's supposed to be 101 today in Portland, OR. I think there must be some sort of rift in the space/time continuum.)

Let's call it a "Stunt Dive"

I can never go back to preschool. Maren's preschool, to be exact. After what happened this morning, I'm far too mortified to ever show my face there again! Or until 10:45 this morning, when I have to go pick her up.

My husband will tell you that although I'm not a bad dancer, I seem to display an appalling lack of physical grace at home. I can't tell you how many times I've walked into the sharp corner of the foot board of our bed, leaving a huge nasty bruise on my thigh. I regularly cut corners too close, whacking my hips on the kitchen island or slamming my upper arms on the door frames. Just yesterday I hit my knee on the lower cabinet in the bathroom, right before I was to visit a physical therapist for that very knee. Given my track record, I guess what happened today shouldn't have been much of a surprise.

I walked Maren to school and while we waited for the teachers to open the doors, she wanted to go play on the swings on the gravel playground. I left her with her friends and walked toward the classroom door to sign her in. I was in the process of saying 'hello' to a mom that I just met at a birthday party on Saturday when I caught the toe of my sandal on the lip of the blacktop and WHOOMP--down I went! Right in front of that mom, and all the other assorted moms and dads who were standing around waiting to drop off their kids. It was no small fall, either. I believe the technical, IOC-recognized term for that maneuver is "ass over teakettle". My sunglasses flew off and every shred of dignity I had went with them.

All the moms were completely shocked and horrified and asked if I was okay, to which I replied that I was, aside from being COMPLETELY MORTIFIED. I had rocks stuck in my knees and hands and the side of my leg was all scratched up. At which point I brushed off the rocks and threw my hands up in salute just like the men's gymnastics team! Okay, not really, but that would have been really funny and very a propos. What I really did was get Maren into the classroom and speedwalk across the playground just as fast as my scraped-up legs could carry me so that I could be alone with my shame and embarrassment.

When I came home I called my sweet husband, who laughed like a hyena when I told him my plight and then offered me the loan of his bike helmet for when I take Maren to school on Thursday.

Oh, it's okay, I was laughing too. Actually I was doing that hysterical lauging/crying thing because now that I think back on it, I must have looked pretty hilarious--such was the spectacle and grandeur of my fall. And now I get to be known all year by the other preschool parents as "that Mom who fell". Hey, at least they'll all know who I am, right?

While I go nurse my shattered dignity, let's watch one of my all-time favorite YouTube videos. I know it's not nice to laugh at others' misfortunes, but really, this is just hilarious.

Get a Job! (Jar)

I seem to have developed a problem getting things done around here. Shocking, no? I'm guessing it has NOTHING WHATSOEVER to do with the 130+ blogs in my Bloglines. Nope, nothing at all.

Ahem. So I saw this idea for a Job Jar somewhere and I've decided to give it a try and see if it improves my productivity on the housework front. I started out by making a list of household chores that take about 15 minutes. These are things that I don't need to be doing every day (like loading the dishwasher or laundry), but rather things that I tend to let pile up and never get around to until I freak out about how dirty my house is and then feel all overwhelmed and just go read more blogs. I'm talking ironing, cleaning the baseboards, dusting, cleaning window blinds, weeding, etc. Stuff that needs to get done but doesn't have to be done every single day. My list ended up at about 25 items.

Next, I made a cute label for my jar. Naturally, I used a 1950s housewife image (this is Vacuuming in High Heels and Pearls, after all) and used a retro-style font. I made the label to fit on the side of this neat vintage jar I picked up at a yard sale earlier this summer. The jar was lidless anyway so I tied some fun cherry-print ribbon around the top and added a darling cherry charm because who says chores can't be cute?

For the jobs, I went through my patterned paper stash and picked out a bunch of red scraps. I cut them into rectangles roughly 1" by 3" though I didn't actually measure, just eyeballed it. I am a pack rat and paper hoarder so I had plenty of cute scraps to choose from. I wrote each chore on a slip of paper and then used a pair of scissors to curl the paper as you would curling ribbon. If that sounds like a good way to cut your fingers off, you can just roll them around a pencil or marker. Drop them in the jar, and that's it! I like that it's easy for me to add or subtract jobs as I see fit or as the seasons change. Maybe I need to include jobs like "Go eat a Skinny Cow ice cream sandwich" or "go check Two Peas NSBR to see the latest drama." Those will get done for sure!

My plan is that during the day when I get sucked in by the internets (which is often, I shamefully admit) that I can tear myself away and go be productive for at least 15 minutes at a time, which will hopefully motivate me to do even more. This way things will get done but I don't have to feel like all I ever do around here is clean. I'll let you know how it works. And now, I do believe it's time to go pick a job out of the jar!