Z is for Zingers And Other Snack Cakes

Love me a snack cake.  Love me any kind of cake, but I have always gravitated to the Drake line of snack cakes.  Devil Dog, Coffee Cakes or a Ring Ding or two or three. I would never ever eat a fruit pie, sounds too healthy to me.

 Zingers or  Twinkies have never been my favorites until Hostess went defunct and then of course I was wanting what I can't have.  I went on a  Hostess snack cake hunt and what I found was shocking.  Of course you can get anything for a price and boy were these pricey.  So the same box of Zingers and Twinkies that I could have gotten six months ago for $2.99 were now available almost 10x that price. YIKES!!!!!

Zingers - 12 pack - $23.33

Twinkies - 10 pack - $29.88

Hostess Cupcakes - $27.77

Now the word on the street is the Hostess brand has been bought by another company. The new company will produce Hostess product under the name The New Hostess brand and will start to produce Twinkies and Ho Ho by the end of May. So I guess I will have to wait for my fill of Zingers and Twinkies until then.

Well this was the last of the letters for the A to Z challenge.  I am happy and at the same time sad  that its over.  So until next year.

Zee End

Mary Ann 

 .

Y is for Y Words Of Things I Can't Do

There are few thing in my life that I think that I am excellent at.

Sleeping- I am a great sleeper unless my husbands wakes me up during the night and then I am just an angry non-sleeper

Watching TV -  I could win contests with my TV watching skills.

Eating - Give me a bowl of pasta or a big juicy burger with waffle fries and a box of cupcakes. Hmmmm I am a happy girl.

But there are many other things that I am really bad at and since today is the letter Y in the A to Z challenge I will write about the bad Y things that I can't do.

Yodeling -  When my sister and I were little we would do our best to yodel but with no success.  Years later yodeling is still not a skill that I have mastered.

Yoga - From what I have read yoga is a great way to exercise but I can barely get off of a chair, so the thought of twisting my sad body into a pretzel like position, YIKES!!!!! is not something that I care to try.

Yo-Yoing -  Most if us have had a yo yo growing up.  I can do a straight up and down yo yo with no problem but I have never been able to go beyond that doing tricks like Walk The Dog or The Cradle.

We are all great at some things but really bad at others.  Maybe next year that can be my A to Z theme.  Letters that start words that I am really bad at.  Wow! I think it could work.  At least I would never run out of material.

One more to go

Mary Ann

X is for Xmas My Favorite Time Of The Year

I love everything about Xmas.  The lights, the music, giving presents and just being with my family.  When I was a kid my Christmases were always great.  We did not have much money but my dad would always take a second job around the holidays so that he could give us a great Christmas.  My sister and I would wake up Christmas morning and there were tons of surprises under the tree.

Since I had more time last year I decided to make some ornaments using my layered cardstock technique.

 Since I love a vintage look I decided to do some vintage inspired ornaments.

These were my first attempt at ornaments and I was pleasantly surprised at how well they came out.















I then went on to try my hand at some others . For this sewing one I added buttons and thread and made a needle out of of a ornament hook.

Xmas is all about baking so to this one I added some cute tiny cookie cutters that I found at a craft store.  Using my layered paper technique it gives my ornaments a 3D effect.

 There are always lots of presents at Christmas time so why not hang some from the tree.

 Each present is embellished with ribbon and mistletoe.










Because they are layered cardstock they are very light to hang from the tree and indestructible at the hands of little grandchildren.

I have made many more and was lucky enough to sell some on Etsy.  I loved making them and look forward to making more for next Christmas for family and friends.

Merry Xmas

Mary Ann

W is for Wear My Heart On My Sleeve.

I am a crier.  Not a sniffler, but an out and out full on blubber kind of crier.  On an average I must cry at least three times a day.  Shocking I know.  I cry at people's sad stories, at movies, at books, I even cry at commercials.  I cry when people win on a game show or if I see other people crying.  I cannot seem to stop myself.  It comes on like a shot out of nowhere.

 Last week I was watching Splash on TV.  Now this has to be one of the worst shows that has ever been made.  It's so called stars, more like has been's, every week have to do a new dive.  Louie Anderson was one of the drivers.  He is a comedian that was around about 100 years ago.  He now weights over 400 lbs. He did this backwards dive from a 16 feet diving platform successfully.  When he goes in front of the judges he looks like a very large drowned  bee in his yellow and black stripped wet suit so this should make me laugh, not cry but when Louie saw the replay of his drive he started to cry.  OMG I could not help it there they were tears running down my cheeks just because he was crying.

Louie looking like a 400 lb  bee before he took the plunge.

So I will continue to cry watching Dancing with the Stars when they have, best year of  their life dance week.

Andy Dick kissing his daughter after he dedicated his dance to her.

 I will certainly be crying when someone wins big on Wheel of Fortune.  

Pat ,Vanna, and a big winner

I will continue to cry over every Hallmark movie that was ever made.

Part of Hallmark Love Saga, yes I cried.

And of course I will continue to cry on Survivor family reunion week 

When Jeff Probst says your families are here, I am a goner.

Well you may be saying I need to get a life.  Well maybe I do, but I will see find something to cry about because I wear my heart on my sleeve.

Mary Ann

V is for Doing The Victory Dance

I few days ago I wrote about my sink leaking and causing havoc to the floor and my life.  Living without water in your kitchen is painful.  No water for dishes or dishwasher.  I had to do it all in my bathroom sink which was annoying and it kind of made me a little, or maybe a lot sick to my stomach.  Bathrooms and clean dishes do not go. YUCK!!!!!

The plumber was supposed to come today but he called  yesterday afternoon and said he had some time, could he come over.  That was the start of my victory dance I was so excited to get it done.  I had gotten his name from Angie's List so I was hoping for the best.  He fixed the leak and put in a new sink and facet and it turned out he was awesome.  Really nice guy who looked and talked like Columbo minus the trench coat and the best part no plumbers crack in sight.

So I woke up this morning able to fill my coffee pot and rinse my dishes.  Really sick and sad how a new sink, facets and water can make my day.

This is me doing the victory dance.  Well maybe not me, but me doing the victory dance if I was 40 years younger.

Mary Ann

U is for Unlikely Couples

My husband and I do not agree on much.  He has a weird way at looking at the world that often drives me nuts.  He will always look at the negative in a situation, I try and look for the positive. I like to laugh and joke and he rarely thinks things that I say or do are funny and will laugh at things in a movie or on TV that I do not think are funny.  He likes the heat really high in the winter and the air conditioning really high in the summer even when its not that hot.  I don't get that.  I never like to be hot so I like the heat down in the winter and I love windows open as much as possible in the nice weather.  I only want the air conditioning on if its super hot.  Even though we have been married for a long time, I guess in lots of ways we are an unlikely couple.  That got me thinking about other unlikely couples out there and  started looking around.

Well apparently in the 1980, Tom Cruise and Cher were an item.  She even supposedly lived with him for awhile.  I guess I slept through that one because, I did not know that.

Lisa Minnelli and David Gest had an elaborate wedding but the marriage didn't last.  He accused her of beating him and giving him herpes.  Its a shocker that they did not stay together after that, sounds like a match made in heaven.

Julia Roberts and Lyle Lovett  OK what was she thinking. She married him after only knowing him for three weeks.

Lisa Marie Presley and Michael Jackson this is the ultimate unlikely couple.  I have heard her in interviews say that they had a normal marriage.  Lie detector please!!!  Sorry I do not believe it for a second.

None of these unlikely couples could  make it work, so why am I still with my unlikely husband?Hmmmmmmm, not sure I'll have to think about that one  :).

Mary Ann

T is for Traipsing Along

This morning I feel like I am traipsing through the A to Z challenge.  In the beginning had I felt exciting about writing something everyday but this week I feel like A to Z is kicking my butt.  Maybe its the weather that is  getting me down.  Yesterday was sunny but most days lately have been cloudy and still pretty chilly. Today more clouds and rainy tomorrow.

OK enough of my Negative Nellie attitude.  Yesterday I was on a quest to find cardstock paper that had a chevron pattern.  The chevron pattern is extremely popular and I wanted to make some things that would fit in with this big trend.  I am personally not a fan.  I am more of a straight line kind of girl but you have to give the people what they want, so chevron it is.

This is the paper I was able to get.  The colors are pretty bright but from what I have read the borderline neon is also a trend for spring.

I will eventually make some jewelry with it but for now I am going to use it for some key chains that I recently designed.

I made this one as a test.   Since I layer cardstock I worried that it would disintegrate over time from taking it in and out of my purse but I finished it with a durable outdoor coating and it's been holding up extremely well.  My test is a success so I will make more, using my almost neon colored chevron paper.

Crazy Kitty and Priscilla

So this picture has nothing to do with anything that I wrote about today but Crazy Kitty has taken a new step  in her life, she is hanging with her once hated step sister Priscilla.  Can't wait to see whats's next for Crazy Kitty.

Mary Ann