Giveaway!

My followers all decided to come back last night.
I knew you would all feel guilty and start following me again.
To celebrate this occasion I decided to host a giveaway.
Aren't giveaways fun?

Even if you don't want the crap it's still fun to win something.

You can always give it to someone else.

Well, I have crap!!

Want it?

Up for grabs:

Handmade striped apron.

Made by me.

Or:

Red Gingham apron.

I'm not sure how old this is, I got it from an estate sale.

It's in wonderful condition.

Or:

Full pink gingham apron.

Also found at an estate sale, in great condition.

(Dog in background is not included)

There will be other treats thrown in the box as well.

I have no idea what they will be.

I haven't cleaned out from under my bed

or behind my refrigerator yet.

Rules for giveaway:

Leave me a comment.

Tell me which apron you would like.

Be sure I have some way to contact you.

I will draw a name on Wednesday, June 1st.

And that's it.

Almost.

I found something interesting that I thought I would share.

Did you know:

This year,

 July has 5 Fridays, 5 Saturdays and 5 Sundays?

This happens once every 823 years.

Also,

Take the last two digits of the year in which you were born -

 now add the age you will be this year,

The results will be 111 for everyone.

Is anyone else freaked out a little or is it just me?

Holly

xxx-ooo

Was it Something I Said?

I know, hard to imagine I would say anything that would offend.

Right?

Blogger is making me feel guilty.

About something I may or may not have done.

Hey Blogger!

You messin with me?

Or did all my friends leave me all at the same time?

Did they all get together and decide to abandon me?

Did they hold a secret meeting?

Under the cover of darkness?

Were snacks involved?

I'm sure I'm not thinking too highly of myself

to assume they would take the time to do that.

And it's not just me.

A lot of Bloggers have been offensive.

Because no one has friends.

Or followers.

Or peeps.

Or whatever.

I miss your little faces.

Holly

xx-oo

How Bad Do you Want It?

Yesterday, we talked about Blog Fodder.

When I say "we", I mean me.  I just don't want to feel alone.

It got me thinking about how hard it can be to come up with blog material.

How bad do you want it?

Are you willing to embarrass yourself?

Embarrass those around you?

Prostitute yourself for the sake of your followers?

Yes?

I knew you were as sick as I am.

The thing is, I work from home.

I rarely have to leave the house.

My lack of human interaction has become a hindrance on my blogging.

I know that in order to find adequate material I must poke my nose out of my cave and go in search of it.

Sometimes you can't find it and you have to get the ball rolling.

Take the first step.

Create your own destiny.

I've come up with a few suggestions

for those of you that are in dire need of material.

Are you willing to go the extra mile?

1)  Take a walk downtown and take pictures of strangers. 

     Then take out a notebook and ask them,

     "How many copies will you be needing of that?"

2)  When the A/C repair man comes to your door,

      give him a big hug and say, "That's from Holly".

      I'm pretty sure Jo did that one yesterday.

3)  When standing in line at the bank, turn around to

      the person behind you and say,

      "Remember, we never had this conversation."

4)  Call Pizza Hut and ask if they rent pizzas.

5)  While walking down the street, hold out your Slurpee

      in front of a stranger  and say,

    "Seriously man, you've got to try this!"

And then blog about it. 

Double Dog Dare Ya!

Holly

xx-oo



Crack Hoes Cannot Be Trusted!!!!

I am so alone.

Oh, yes, I used to have friends.

Friends who confided in me.

Told me their secrets.

Shared their inner most thoughts.

Their fears, dreams, and sorrows.

That was then.

Before blog fodder.

What is blog fodder, you ask?

1. blog fodder (n)
interesting idea, story, or link.
Referred to as blog fodder when your first reaction is to use it in your blog.

I used to walk into a room full of people and hear,

"Hey Holly, over here!!"

Now, I hear, "Shut up, here she comes."

Suffice it to say, if I happen to have my camera with me, people scatter as though I have the plague.

Let me give an example.  I was talking to a friend the other day and the conversation went something like this:

Holly:  So, what happened?

Friend: If I tell you, you're not going to post it on your blog, right?

Holly:  What?  How could you think I would p

Friend:  I'm serious, you're not, right?

Holly:  Of course I won't post it on

Friend:  Holly!!  I mean it!

Holly:  Fine!   Just don't say anything remotely funny. 

Come on People!

What is wrong with you!

You were NOTHING before I put you on my blog!

You were NO ONE!

Now millions of people laugh at you.

This is the thanks I get?

(Ok, millions might be an overstatement)

But I think you can see where I'm going with this.

It's true.

I can no longer be trusted.

Not with secrets.

Not with family photo albums.

Blog fodder is my crack.

I seek it out.

I will go to the dirtiest darkest places to find it.

I need it.

I NEED IT!

I'll sell out my family and friends to get it.

I'll lie, cheat and steal.

I only need a little bit to get me through.

I can stop at any time.

I just need one teeny tiny idea.

One tiny glimpse of humor to get the ball rolling.

And then I'm off, my fingers tap- tap- tapping away.

My head thrown back.

Brahahahaha!

Selling my soul.

Taking you all with me.

And if all that fails, I'll make crap up.

I can't be trusted.

Also, my father has grounded me because of yesterdays post and I've been told to return the family photo album.

Holly

xx-oo



It's All Fun and Games Until Someone Loses an Eye

I'm not above using my family's most embarrassing photos for blog material.

You are shocked, are you not?

I have no shame in doing this as long as I am not in the pictures.

My father entrusted me with the family photo album.

I have no idea what happened there, he used to be such a wise man.

When my sister and I were young, we spent every weekend

at our Grandparents house.

Every weekend!

We loved this.

We adored our grandparents and they enjoyed having us.

It never occurred to us that this was a rather strange situation.

Until just a couple of years ago.

My sister and I were talking and remembered those weekends.

"Why do you think we went to Grandma's every weekend when we were little?" I asked her.

"What were Mom and Dad doing when we were gone?" she asked.

Let's take a peek at the family photo album, shall we?

Now, I can't tell you exactly what was going on here.

But this was our living room.

Notice the lovely floral couch and the green shag carpet.

Apparently, this was a game where the husbands rolled up their pant legs and the wives were blindfolded and had to find their husbands by feeling their legs.

I'm not positive about this but I'm assuming that copious amounts of alcohol were involved.

I'm not judging.

We must remember, this was before the invention of Wii Bowling.

Before Pictionary.

But for crying out loud Dad!

They did have poker and ping pong in those days, didn't they??!!!

Holly

xxx-ooo

Damn the Cookies

I've been in Blogger Hell.

I couldn't post or leave comments for the past two days.

Do you have any idea what that's like?

DO YOU!!????

I finally just realized that it's been a while since I've deleted my temporary Internet files and cookies.

And yup.

That did the trick.

I'm back up.

But now I've forgotten what I wanted to blog about.

It was going to be a wonderful post.

Inspiring and informative.

Entertaining and enlightening.

Humorous and fun-filled.

No idea.

I'll be back when I figure it out.

I have been reading your blogs though, I just couldn't comment.

Give me some time to catch up and I'll be there.

Holly

xx-oo

Calling all Red Heads

I very rarely do reviews on products on my blog.

Because I know so little about so many things.

The vastness of my ignorance would astound you.

But I wanted to share this product with you.

I grew up as a blond.

Who apparently didn't own a comb.

And my hair got darker as I got older.

And my dresses got shorter.

And through high school my hair turned a dark brown with red highlights.

And I've been dying my hair red for the past 15 years.

Anyone with red color treated hair knows that it is the hardest color to maintain.

It looks wonderful for the first week, then it fades.

Mine turns brassy.

Orangy.

It's not a good look.

I've tried color safe shampoos and conditioners like John Frieda's Radiant Red

Captivating Collection.

Which did absolutely nothing for me.

I've tried John Frieda's Color Glaze.

Which left my hair greasy and my palms stained but my hair still orange.

I finally found a product that not only helps to maintain my color but it deposits color into my hair.

I went to an Aveda Salon for a haircut and was told that they could make a special conditioner for me.

It's called Aveda's Personal Blends.

I chose the color and the scent and my stylist added them to my conditioner.

She used red and violet to counteract the gold, brassy undertones.

I was about due for a color but decided to try this instead.

I washed my hair then applied the conditioner and left it on for about 5 minutes.

I was amazed after I dried my hair.

It looked as though I had just had it done.

It was shiny and the brassiness was gone.

I'm finding that I only need to use this about once a week to maintain my color.

And I am loving that!

It was $15.00 for a 6.7 oz bottle.

But so worth it.

I know that they can make this for any hair color so if you find that you are coloring your locks a lot more often than you want to, you may want to give this a try.

Holly

xxx-ooo

Doomsday missed Cave Creek

Brian and I felt like taking a little drive today so we headed to Cave Creek,

which is Northeast of Phoenix.

It's a nice little drive and the weather was perfect.

We enjoyed looking through some of the shops.

Interesting finds.

Signs.

Aprons.

T-shirts

This shop was really interesting.

If you have been looking for monkeys to put on your roof, look no further.

I wanted these chairs.

After doing some walking we headed to a great little Mexican Restaurant.

Then we headed back out west to Waddell, which is west of Phoenix and pretty close to where we live now.

We stopped at this cute little house that was advertising Fresh Peaches.

And bought a few pounds.

And some lemons.

Watermelon, Corn on the cob, and strawberries.

On our way back to the house we drove past this field of beautiful roses.

By the way, it is 6:12 pm on May 21st.

I'm still here.

Are we all accounted for?

I'd like to be a fly on the wall at Harold's house right now.

I'll bet his wife is pissed.

Holly

xxx-ooo

Show and Tell

Remember these?

I had several people tell me that they were going to make them.

If you were one of those people, and you actually did make them,

 please let me know if they are any good.

No one in my family will try them.

They're are kind of freaked out by them.

Katie looked at them and said,

"You know you can buy pickles already made in the store, right?"

Brian refuses to look at them at all.

I'm not a huge pickle fan so I wouldn't know if they were any good.

It's like they think I'm trying to poison them.

I keep telling my family that if I decide to kill them I will do it with my own two hands.

What's up with that?

Earlier this week I shared pics of my sister's vacation home in New Mexico.

She also has a vacation home in the Florida Keys.

I thought I would share some of those pics too.

It's unbelievably gorgeous and I was lucky to spend some time with them at the beach house a few years back.

This is my Happy Place.

No, I was not mad. 

I had just finished drinking a large drink made from several different kinds of alcohol that was poured into a coconut carved to look like a monkey's head.

Kelly, what was the name of that drink?

Hot Monkey Love?

Crazy Monkey Love Sex?

Whatever, it was really good.

My sister is a bad influence.

And she holds her liquor much better than I do.

Holly

xxx-ooo

Summer is Here

You know it's warming up when these guys make an appearance.

Whatcha lookin at down there Carrot Top?

Our baby quail have finally arrived.

Seven in all.

Click on the photos to see them larger.

You also know it's summer when you cut your long hair short.
My straggly locks were dry and brittle so I chopped them off.

Nothing says "I don't know how to use my camera" better than a webcam photo.

And I'm ready for summer.

Holly

xxx-ooo

Pickles and Weird Emails

While in New Mexico, my sister and I were discussing recipes. 

I told her I wanted to make pickles and she said she makes quick pickles. 

I forgot to get her recipe so I Googled it. 

 I had acquired some small cucumbers a while back from someone who had an abundance of them and knew I wanted to try this.

We like pickles in these here parts.

Quick Pickles

• 1 cup of distilled white vinegar
• 2 tbsp granulated sugar
• 4 tbsp water
• 1 1/2 tsp kosher salt
• 1 tsp dry dill weed
• 2 cloves of garlic, lightly smashed
• 1 tsp red pepper flakes
• 2 bay leaves
• 2 cucumbers, cut into thick slices

I doubled this recipe and used 6 small cucumbers.

Begin by adding the vinegar, water, sugar, salt, garlic, and peppers to a sauce pan and bring to a boil, stirring well to mix in the sugar.  Once boiling, remove from the heat, and add the dill weed. Let the pickling mixture completely cool. Add in the bay leaves.

To a clean mason jar, add the cut cucumbers, arranging them the best you can. Pour in the cooled mixture, cover, and let sit in the refrigerator for at least 4 hours, however overnight is probably best. When you are ready, open and serve. Now you have pickles any day of the week, and is probably much more affordable than getting them at your local market.

These are good in the refrigerator for a couple of weeks, then they get pretty soft. They typically do not last that long in the refrigerator though.

I wish I could give credit to the blogger who posted this recipe but I don't remember who it was. 

(Bad Blogger Etiquette)

On a side note, my husband calls cucumbers "Home Wreckers". 

That's funny, unless my father is reading this.

Then, I have no idea what he is referring to.

Here's the other thing I wanted to talk to you about.

Remember Mondays with Max?

Well, Dad sent me this email today after reading that post.

Hi Kid: 

"Mondays with Max" reminds me of "Tuesdays with Morrie".  Remember that? 

Morrie was this old guy that was dieing & every Tuesday a young friend visited and wrote down his words of wisdom which turned into a book and made the young man rich. 

This made me wonder if asked, could I come up with any words of wisdom? 

The only thing that comes to mind is "use your turn signals"....Good luck on getting rich.

Love Ya...dad

And my sister always said I was adopted.

If that ain't proof, nothing is.

Holly

xx-oo