RECIPE: Taco Braid

It's been a little while since I made a new recipe. This is a pretty easy recipe that I made for Taco Tuesday. Aubry really loved it! I like to use a crescent roll sheet because it is thinner with a slight hint of sweetness, but you can also make it using a pizza dough sheet instead. 

Taco Braid 

Ingredients:

1lb ground beef
1 packet taco seasoning 

1/4 cup water
1 can refried beans
1 can crescent roll sheet

1/2 cup thick and chunky salsa

2 cups cheese

1 tbs butter, melted

Top with lettuce, sour cream, green onions, black olives, and more cheese. 

Directions:

1. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F. 

2. Brown ground beef and drain. Add taco seasoning and 1/4 cup water. Stir until all mixed together. 

3. Roll out crescent roll sheet into a flat rectangle on a greased cookie sheet. Using a pizza cutter, make approximately 3 inch long cuts along the two long edges of the sheet about 1 1/2 inches apart from top to bottom. 

4. Down the uncut middle of the sheet, layer the refried beans, taco meat, salsa, and cheese. 

5. Fold the cut strips across the middle in a crisscross pattern from top to bottom. 

6. Brush the top of the braid with melted butter. 

7. Bake in the oven at 375 degrees F for approximately 15 minutes or until the top of the braid is golden brown. 

8. Once removed from the oven, you can either top the braid with your desired toppings or let everyone pick their own individual toppings. 

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Lots of updates!

Lots of stuff going on lately! 

We had a nice father's day at home. Johnny got his present on Saturday...which was a ceiling fan for the garage. I helped him install it on Sunday. It's really nice and definitely cools it off in there a bit. So that'll be nice when we're working in the garage and definitely whenever we decide to have a garage sale!  

Nova is doing well after her Cytopoint shot earlier this month. Her skin is no longer red and inflamed and her scabs from the worst spots are clearing up. And her hair is growing back from where it was shaved to apply the medicine. She definitely seems to be feeling a lot better. 

And then Bozley was finally neutered last Friday. Poor guy was NOT happy about the fact that I left the vet after dropping him off at 7am instead of taking him home with me. But the surgery went well. She said that he had a little bit of bruising which isn't uncommon when mature dogs are neutered. I picked him up around 4pm and he was very happy to see me. He spent the evening mostly just lounging around. He's usually pretty high strung, so I'm glad he was more laid back and sleeping instead of getting wound up. He was so relaxed that he wasn't even closing his eyes all the way while he was sleeping. :P But he seems to be all back to normal now. 

We were woken up by severe storms about 4:30am or so on Tuesday. The severe alerts went off on our phones...and then we heard the crazy wind and rain. There was a whole lot of lightning and some really big crashes of thunder. It was loud for quite awhile and Nova was NOT happy about it. She hates storms. We lost a branch from one of the two trees on the west side of the house. And then Tuesday night, we had another round of strong storms with crazy wind come through. We lost more branches from both trees...several large branches. In the backyard...the patio table with the umbrella was blown over, as was a heavy concrete bird bath. Johnny had to go get our trashcans from down the street. Everything is just kind of a mess. We did find someone who is coming out tomorrow to haul off the branches., so I'm glad about that. 

Work is going well for me. I've had at least three orders and even up to nine orders in a day, except for two days where I only had one order. I've also had several people reach out about some custom orders and bulk orders, so hopefully those will pan out as well. I have been adjusting my workflow. My processing time has always been 1-3 business days...but I used to send every order out the next day. Now...if I only have 1 or 2 orders, then I'll wait a day or two longer to get some more orders to all go out at the same time. That way there are less trips to the post office. 

It also gives me more time for other work-related activities. On the slower days, I work on new projects or designs. Like a couple weeks ago, I went through my sticker sheets and revamped them for my Romeo cutter. I set up new listings and took new pictures. I haven't finished putting up *all* the sticker sheets I had on there, but the most popular ones are so far. One thing I'm really glad I changed about my listings for sticker sheets...is combining similar designs into one listing with each sheet as a different variation. That way it's evident that there are matching designs that can also be purchased. And today...I got an order that had three different variations of one of the listings. So I was really glad to see that turning out like I hoped. 

I finished an annual holiday sticker sheet design that I listed on the 7th and I've already had three sales...two of them were purchased the day after I listed it. So I'm pretty happy about that too. There are still a lot of sticker sheets that I need to finish redoing with the Romeo and relisting them...plus other designs I want to make. Right now I'm busy working on a 12-sheet set of stickers that have a "wacky holiday" for each day of the year. I'm really having a lot of fun with it. There are several "holidays" everyday, and it took me awhile to go through all of them and decide which ones to use. I had to pick ones that are on the same date each year (and not, like, on the 2nd Saturday of the month where the dates would change each year). I also wanted to pick the ones that I'd be able to illustrate what the day is with a graphic. So that part alone took quite a bit of time. Now I'm putting it all together on individual sheets. It takes me at least a day to finish an entire sheet if I don't have a lot of interruptions. So I've been working on them the days that I'm not sending out orders. I want to have them all finished by the end of this month, though. 

My "No Soliciting" door stickers and magnets are selling really well right now in my sticker shop. It seems like everything goes in cycles...I'll sell a lot of one design and then a different design starts selling...and then there's the completely random sales of an item that I'd never sold before just as I am thinking about retiring that design. That's why I have a hard time removing any designs...because you never know when it'll suddenly start picking up. But I also don't want to keep paying $.20 for listing fees over and over if it's not selling. Some designs that haven't sold, I'll rework the design and see if it does any better. Recently I've also been reworking to meet some of Etsy's updated policies. I started with two designs that have been popular in my shop, and then I'll work on more as I have time. I always have so much I want to do and never enough time! 

And on that note...I have some more stuff I want to get done before I go to bed. :) 

Finally the weekend!

I'm so glad it's FriYay today. Even though I usually still work over the weekend, I can sleep in a little bit and the days go at a different pace. Sometimes I'm even more productive during the weekend than I am during the week! 

Yesterday was the first headache-free day I had in 6 days. So that made the week seem a lot longer. But I was super productive yesterday. Now that I have my Romeo, sticker sheets are SO much easier and my cuts are consistent. I don't have to worry each time that the Cricut cut too deep or not enough. Plus it's faster on the Romeo. I love that I can set a different force and speed for the die-cut outside edge of the sticker sheets than the kiss-cut stickers on the sheet...and it's super easy to do. I bought another blade holder for the Romeo so that I don't have to adjust the blade at all now that I've found the perfect depth for sticker sheets. I hadn't spent a whole lot of time making new sticker sheets because it was such a pain making them, but now I'm excited about them again. 

Anyway...so yesterday I started revamping CandiMakerPlanners. I hadn't yet updated all the listing photos in that shop to match my other shops, so I'm doing that...which includes taking new product photos as well. And since my outer cut on the sticker sheets is different now, I am printing and cutting all new sticker sheets. I also decided to batch together similar sticker sheets into the same listing. That way, if someone finds my listing through search instead of visiting my shop to see that I have other sticker sheets in the same subject and style...now they are all in the same listing so it's easier to see them. 

I've already started making some new sticker sheets. I have one new sheet of annual holidays that I already have done...just have to finish getting it listed. And I'm making a 12-month set of everyday holidays that I'm pretty excited to work on this weekend. After I get those done, I'm going to work on some new return address labels. I'm always finding new ways to keep myself busy! 

I'm still loving the new layout of my office. The only thing I don't have is a good place to take photos. Right now, I've attached my phone tripod to my desk and I can put the board with my laminated background on the floor and take pictures that way. It's not ideal...but it'll work for now until I figure something else out. Oh! And I hit 2500 sales in my CandiMakerStickers Etsy shop today. :) 

Today I took Nova to the vet to get her Cytopoint allergy shot. They last 6-8 weeks and her last shot was on April 9th. They're expensive, but it helped her a lot. She didn't have any problem with her allergies until last week. Now she has quite a few scabs...especially a large one on her head. We went ahead and had the vet shave that spot on her head and we have some powder to put on it that has an antibiotic, steroid, and a numbing agent to make her a little more comfortable and hopefully heal it up sooner. Nova doesn't mind going to the vet. There's lots of people and animals and she's always excited to meet new friends. I guess Bozley cried the whole time we were gone, though. Johnny said he just kept howling and barking. He wouldn't even eat his duck jerky treats that he usually loves. He's going to be really not excited next week when he goes to get neutered. Unlike Nova, he hates going to the vet. :P 

Well...I want to get a lot done today so I'm going to get back to that. I hope everyone has a good weekend! 

Another new month!

It's hard to believe it's June already. And June 1 means...it's Bozley's birthday! Our golden boy is FIVE years old now! It doesn't seem like it's been that long...but at the same time, it's hard to remember what life was like before we brought Boz home. Our pandemic dog still has anxiety issues, but Nova helps a lot. She is a much more laid back girl and shows him that things aren't that big of a deal (unless it's fireworks or thunder...then she hides in the hallway or in the bedroom with daddy while Bozley isn't bothered by them at all...go figure!). He didn't like riding in the back seat of the car or going downstairs in our basement...but after watching Nova do it for a little while, he's fine with it. We do still struggle to get him to eat all of his food, but he does eventually eat it. The vet said as long as he's maintaining his weight, it's nothing to worry about. Boz is such a sweet puppy and gives the best hugs and kisses. We absolutely adore him (and Nova, of course). The dogs got to celebrate Boz's 5th birthday with dog cookies and new toys (an Octopus and a Sasquatch) from Chuck & Don's. :)  

Within the next month, we're going to finally get Bozzy neutered. It's $330 and every time we get ready to make the appointment...something breaks around the house that we end up having to pay for first. :P First it was the broken water line, then the air conditioner, then the refrigerator...just one thing after another! But we are waiting for our CareCredit card to arrive because we can get 6 months no-interest promotional financing through our vet...so we won't have to have all the cash up front and it gives us a little cushion in case some other expense comes up. 

We also have to get Nova another allergy shot which is $175 for her size. We'd gotten one in April when we took them to the vet, but they only last 6-8 weeks or so. We can tell it helped a lot, though. Usually starting in the spring, Nova will start to get hot spots and scabs as a result of environmental/seasonal allergies. She got a little bit of relief from Benadryl, but we want her to be as comfortable as possible without having to give her Benadryl several times a day for 6 months. She had a couple spots at the vet in April, but after we got her the Cytopoint injection, her spots cleared up and her skin had been clear until last week when a spot erupted on the back of her head. I got her this hood to help keep Bozley from licking her head. So we're going to get her another shot and hopefully the spots she has now will clear up again. 

In other news, I'm still a Star Seller on Etsy for June. :) It's been 2 years now since I hit Star Seller for the first time, and I've maintained it ever since. I did all my end-of-the-month updates to my spreadsheets and I had the most orders in May for 2025. My previous high for orders in one month for 2025 was 113 in March...and I had 134 for May. :) I also hit 2450 sales in my CandiMakerStickers Etsy shop on May 30th. My goal this year is to hit 3000 sales in that shop, and if things continue the way they are...I should be able to reach my goal. :) I've had 642 sales this year as of 5/31/25 and I only have 538 sales to go now. I'm really happy with the progress. 

Now that I have my Romeo, I'm wanting to work on designing some more sticker sheets. I was excited about them until I realized how much of a pain they were to cut on my Cricut Maker...but I don't have that problem anymore. So now I want to get back to making some more of those...in addition to all the regular sticker designs I still have on my list to make. There's just not enough hours in the day to do everything I want to do as quickly as I want to do it. :P 

I also need to finish updating all the listings on my Faire site. I did get all the initial listings and main listing photo done, I just need to finish setting up the details and add the second listing photo for each one. Since I haven't had much traffic there so far, it's hard to really get motivated to devote the time to it while I have such a long list of other things I want to get done. 

Well...I'm gonna get a bit more done before I go to bed. I hope everyone has a great week! :) 

(This post contains affiliate links, which mean I may get a small commission at no cost to you for qualified purchases).

Rearranging my office!

I finished rearranging my office a couple days ago! I did a post with everything we use in our kitchen awhile back after I reorganized, so I thought I'd do it with my office, too. :) 

I started rearranging my office Tuesday because the original plan was that I was going to get a desk from my grandma. It had been in her shed, and I thought it was going to be a perfect spot to put my new Romeo, my Cricut Maker 3, and my paper cutter. However, the clearance between the desk and the shelf wasn't tall enough. :( Since the desk was pretty big, I didn't want to limit my already small office space even more. So I decided to just rearrange everything that I already had...with a couple new additions. Here is what my office looks like now:

Compared to what it looked like right after I got the Romeo: 

I still have my main desk/hutch that I received as a birthday gift from my mom back in 2004 and the armoire that we got from Johnny's sister-in-law in 2017. They're both really heavy and I don't know where else I'd even put them...so they stayed where they are. Basically everything else was moved around, though. 

Originally, I had my printer and paper cutter on an old desk of Johnny's and I had my Cricut on the "table" that I made using the top from my old art table that I had in high school on top of the Sterilite modular drawers that I got back in 2011. They've since discontinued the ones I have, but these are kind of similar. I had two sets each facing outward that had a large bottom drawer, two kinda square-ish drawers, and then three smaller drawers. 

When I got my Romeo, I had to put it on the DIY table by itself, so I had to find a new place to put my Cricut. I settled on this little cart and it's worked out pretty good. It's on wheels, so I can store it in a convenient place and then move it more in the open when I'm using it. I haven't decided what else--if anything--to store on it. I know I don't want to put heavy stuff on it, just because it'd be harder to move around on the carpet. I also have a ring light similar to this one for some extra light when taking product photos. One thing I haven't really figured out in my newly rearranged office is taking product photos...but I may just do it on the floor in front of the window. I have laminated background images that I attached to a piece of plywood that I take my product photos on.

When I was rearranging, I decided to put my Romeo on Johnny's desk and turn it 90 degrees from the way I had the DIY table. It's parallel to the closet doors...and I have it out a little more than the length of the closet doors when they're folded open. I use the closest for storage, so I don't have to get into it very often...so I didn't want to leave a lot of space in front of it but I wanted it to still be accessible. Next that desk I have another set of paper storage drawers. I couldn't find the exact one on Amazon, but it's similar to this one. Then I put the paper cutter on top of those drawers. Oh and I have my trash and recycle bins underneath the desk. The short top drawer has some of my cutter supplies. The other three drawers have cardboard sheets, tissue paper, and then the bottom drawer is just miscellaneous stuff that I don't know what else to do with. 

I decided to stack the two sets of modular drawers on top of each other next to my desk where the other paper drawers used to be. Some of the drawers are currently empty, because before I rearranged the office, I didn't really use the drawers that had been facing the closet because they were kind of a pain to get to. Two of the drawers that are fully exposed from the side of my desk, I am actually able to turn those around to face my desk while the rest of the drawers face the armoire. In the small drawer, I have some rulers and tape measures that I use frequently, this digital caliper to measure the thickness of my packages, and some hole/corner punches. The larger drawer has the rigid mailers that I use every once in awhile when I send sticker orders as a package instead of the kraft envelopes. They used to be in the armoire cabinet, but since I package orders at my desk, they'll be more accessible. One other thing I have in that drawer is this little label maker that I love...because I love labeling everything. ;) LOL. Now that I've rearranged everything, I need to print some new labels. ;) 

On top of the modular drawers, I have the board that I use for product photos. I also have this small dehumidifier which helps a lot...especially in the summer. If there's a lot of humidity, papers tend to curl which is a huge hassle.

Then next to the modular drawers, I have my printer. When I first made plans to get the desk from my grandma, I wanted to get something smaller to put my Epson ET-16650 printer on than the desk I'd been using. I had to search through a LOT of different printer stands to find one that was big enough and strong enough to hold my big, heavy printer. I finally settled on this one. I like that it has support in the middle since my printer is so heavy...it made me feel a little more secure about it holding the weight. It's also nice that it has a plug-in on it. I have a small paper shredder kind of like this one on the roll-out shelf and I ordered this small trashcan for the strips I cut off of the overlaminate backing. Then I just have unopened reams of paper and miscellaneous stuff on the other two shelves. 

I also have my sticker storage binders on my printer stand. For my die-cut stickers, I use these 9x9 pages. I have 2", 3", and 4" size options for reach design, so the 3 columns of 4"x4" pockets works great. Then I have these 4"x6" top-loading pages for my 4"x6" sticker sheets. 

The armoire really just has my cold roll manual laminator in the open space and I store a lot of shipping materials on the shelves underneath. Oh and I use this slice tool to cut a thin strip on just the backing of my overlaminate to stick the laminate to the top of my sticker paper to start. On the wall next to the armoire, I have this hanging file organizer where I store different types of overlaminate. 

Some of the things I have on my desk... 
- I have this LED light strip underneath the top of my desk (and in the armoire) to provide extra light. 

- I have this organizer that is actually an elevated shelf for computer monitors. I use it more to take advantage of vertical space. The drawers in it actually fit underneath it...so I have 6 storage spaces instead of just 3. I put my packaging envelopes and full-page cards in the spaces where the drawers went and my half-page cards in the drawers underneath.

- I have a cover like this one for my Samsung Galaxy S6 Lite tablet. I also have this wall mount where I keep it when I'm not using it for drawing. I like watching Netflix or Hulu on it while I'm working.  

- I have these hanging organizers which I really like. It holds my packaging stickers, sheets of stamps, and other little miscellaneous things that I use while packaging orders. 

- I use this postage meter and I've never had any postage adjustments. 

- I have these clear organizers that I store my door sign stickers and magnets, oopsie stickers, books of stamps, and other miscellaneous things. 

- On top of my desk I have these drawers where I store all different kinds of cardstocks, sticker papers, etc.  

I think that's about it. :) I really love the way everything is arranged now. It feels like a lot more room...and laid out in a more functional way. 

**Disclosure: This post contains affiliate links, which means I may earn a small commission from qualified purchases at no extra cost to you.

Mondayest Tuesday Ever

Uuuuugh. Some days just do not go smoothly at all. Today is one of those days. :P 

First...I ordered a new mouse for my laptop. I love the mouse that I've had for the last couple years, but it started doing this thing where sometimes it won't register when I click the mouse. So then I click a couple times and end up clicking things I didn't mean to. It was super annoying...so I ordered a new one. It's the same one I've had, just a different color. It was delivered a couple weeks ago...but today the roller on top (which I use all the time to scroll)...broke. It just spins without doing anything. Thank goodness for still being in the return window and Amazon returns being convenient...because I have the replacement arriving on Friday. 

And then...I've been working on my Faire shop since this weekend. I got all my listing photos done and was working on filling out the bulk upload spreadsheet. I decided to just upload one section at a time, and I finished the spreadsheet for the first section today and tried to upload it. Well...for some reason it wasn't uploading the second photo for each listing. I contacted Faire customer support and we spent over an hour trying different things to see if it would work...but no such luck. So I decided I'm going to just fill out the bulk upload spreadsheet with only the main listing photos and then add the second photo to each listing manually. It's not ideal...but it'll work, I suppose. It's just frustrating. :P 

Most of the time setbacks don't bother me...but every once in awhile it's just like...nope, I'm done working for the day. :P It was about the time to make dinner anyway. Yesterday I'd made Chicken Milanese and tonight I made Cheesy Chicken Chili. The chili makes enough for leftovers for a couple days...so I like being able to put off thinking about what to make. ;) I'm sure I've said it before...but I don't mind cooking dinner, it's just the constant trying to figure out what to make that I don't like. :P lol.

CandiMaker orders were pretty slow over the weekend, but I've gotten 6 new orders so far today. I usually print and cut products during the day and then I package them before I go to bed so they can go out in the mail the following morning. It's been a pretty efficient workflow so far. But I think since I worked over this past weekend getting all my Faire listing photos done, I think I'm going to take a break from work this weekend. I might play my Sims4 game or something.

We don't really have any plans for the holiday weekend. Johnny may end up working in the yard. He mowed last weekend because it was supposed to rain...and of course then it barely rained at all. He'd planted some grass a couple weekends ago that was doing pretty well...but it hasn't rained much lately and we're currently under drought restrictions so Johnny can only water it once a week. So he's not very happy about his baby grass starting to die. :P So far it's supposed to rain next weekend...but we'll see how that goes. It seems that storms tend to die before they get here...or they split and go around us. 

Well...I'm gonna go package orders. Hope everyone is having a good week!

May Productivity

The year seems to be going by fast so far...which I'm pretty glad about in this era that we're in. :P 

I spent mother's day weekend just relaxing at home. I've been dealing with some annoying health issues the last couple weeks that have made sleeping a bit difficult. Luckily I was able to sleep in over the weekend. :) While I couldn't sleep...I built an amazing house on my Sims 4 game and got all the laundry done. :P Oh! And I hung up the new curtains for the sliding glass door. The curtains that we'd had were at least 13 years old (Johnny had them up when I moved in) and they were double-layered...but the thin, white layer facing the door had torn from the cats playing in it and the dogs getting caught in it. It was sewn together on three sides of each panel, but the bottom wasn't sewn together so the cats liked to hide in there. They just weren't real heavy-duty for a backdoor. So I got a thicker set of black-out curtains in relatively the same color. They're the same curtains that we have for the living room window, just in a different color...so I knew they would be a lot more durable. We've had the living room panels for almost 5 years now and they're still in great shape. I got them here on Amazon (affiliate link: I may get a small commission at no cost to you for qualified purchases). 

Since it was Mother's Day yesterday, I got a break from making dinner and got to pick where to order food from...so we had Hibachi Boy. :) And we ordered enough that we still have leftovers to eat tonight...so even better! Now that we've finished The Hunting Party, we've been catching up on episodes of SVU in between watching new episodes of NCIS, Tracker, and Organized Crime. We decided to get the Peacock streaming app...so during the day while I've been working, I've had episodes of Snapped playing. I feel like it probably says a lot about me that true crime shows are my emotional support background noise. ;) lol. 

After taking a break from work over the weekend, I'm back at it today. I got most of my current orders done last night, but I have 2 magnets, a sticker, and a sticker sheet that I need to print, cut, and package today to go out in the mail tomorrow. Ooh! And I'm happy to report that I have perfected the cut settings on my Romeo for die-cut laminated stickers, magnets, and matte vinyl sticker sheets. I was most excited to make sticker sheets on the Romeo. They were pretty hit and miss on my Cricut Maker 3 because you can't fine-tune the cut settings like you can with the Romeo. I had to pick the "rice paper" setting and use a 30 degree blade instead of the deep cut blade that rice paper is set for, try to edit the preset down, AND choose "less pressure." But even if I got it to cut perfectly one time...the next time I'd try the same settings and the cut would be too deep into the backing. So when you'd try to take an individual sticker off the sticker sheet, it would go beyond the sticker and pull up a thin layer of the backing. It's honestly why I haven't spent a lot of time creating new products for my CandiMakerPlanners shop that has all my sticker sheets. But cutting them with the Romeo, it only took me two tries to figure out the perfect cut settings for sticker sheets. A lot of people said that the Leonardo Design software for the Romeo is difficult to learn...but I didn't have any problem adjusting to it. I like being able to save my cutting setting presets for each of my products...especially when I can set different levels of force for different cut lines. For sticker sheets...instead of copying the sticker sheet outline 5 times on Cricut Design Space so it'll cut all the way through, with Leonardo I can just set a lighter force for the individual stickers and then a separate increased force for the outline of the sticker sheet. 

So now that I have the perfect sticker sheet settings, I think I'll spend some time designing some more sticker sheets. But it'll have to wait until I finish working on my Faire listings. A friend of mine from the sticker maker Facebook group said she was thinking about joining Faire, and I gave her my referral code. I took it as a sign that I really need to stop just saying I'll get to it sometime and *actually* start working on it. I'm completely revamping everything. Right now I'm working on changing my listing photos. It's a daunting task when I have more than 300 designs, but I think it'll be worth it. It's more cohesive to my brand and I really like the new look. I'm hoping to have it all done by next weekend...but we'll see how that goes. 

And on that note...I should probably get back to work! 

So excited!

Work was pretty slow last Saturday-Monday. I'd originally planned to work on my Faire listings this past week...but work picked up on Tuesday with 8 orders, a couple orders Wednesday, another 7 orders on Thursday, 3 orders on Friday, and 6 orders for today. 

But the main reason why I didn't work on my Faire listings was because...I got a new toy! :) I'm so excited. There was a lot of discussion in the sticker group on FB about Joann's going-out-of-business sales and having Siser cutting machines deeply discounted. Siser has the Juliet (12") and the Romeo (24"). I would've actually preferred a 16" cutter (Starcraft Solo) but they aren't readily available. And since my Cricut Maker 3 is a 12" machine and still working fine...I decided to upgrade to the 24" Romeo. With the discount, it ended up being cheaper than my Cricut was in 2021! They're normally available for $589-$699, but with Joann's discount...I got it for $350! 

I've been having fun learning how to use my new Romeo. Luckily there's another FB group that shares a lot of tips and tricks to navigate through all the quirks. It's been a lot easier to get the hang of than some people in the FB sticker group made it seem. And it's really nice to be able to completely adjust everything so much more than you can with Cricut. The biggest thing is being able to adjust how much of the blade is exposed. That really helps with jagged edges. I can also fine-tune 
 The only "complaint" I really have is that it makes more noise when cutting...but that doesn't actually affect its functionality. I'm just a person who doesn't like noise. :P 

I did have to rearrange some things to set it up in my office because the Romeo is so big. It's a 24" cutting area...the machine itself is 37.25" wide. I removed my camera tripod arm from the "table" my Cricut had been on and was able to fit the Romeo on there (but turned to face the other way than my Cricut was). I had a $25 Amazon gift card and I found a nice Cricut stand that fits at the end of the desk that I have my printer on. 

I may eventually rearrange my office some more, but so far I like how it's all coming together. After I take my old printer and the metal cart/shelf that it's sitting on (you can see the top part of the shelf in the bottom left of the photo below) out to my mom's house, I might see about turning the "table" that the Romeo is on to be perpendicular to the window and move the Cricut stand in front of the window...just to make everything more accessible from my desk. Then the only thing I have to go to the other side of the room to work on is my laminator that is against the wall opposite of the window. But we'll see if that's actually as workable as it seems it could be in my head. ;) 

The angle of the picture kinda makes it look like there's not much room between the "desk" my Romeo is on and the stand that my Cricut is on...but there's plenty of room to walk through there. And the Cricut stand is on wheels so I can easily move it around, too. It's much sturdier than I expected it to be, considering I only paid $22 for it. It's all metal (well the top table part is particle board) and while I can wiggle it, it doesn't noticeably move around when the Cricut is cutting. So I'm glad about that! 

I also ordered some more of my supplies before prices go up...as I'm sure a lot of it will be affected by tariffs. I was able to get a large package of the vinyl sticker paper I use, some more cutting mats, and my glassine packaging envelopes. I also went ahead and got another blade holder for the Romeo. That way I can have one blade dedicated solely to stickers and then the deep-cut blade in a separate blade holder for magnets. Then I don't have to keep adjusting the blade...I can just keep them exactly in the spot where they work the best. 

Oh and in unrelated news, we also inherited a robot vacuum! I haven't really played around with it since I've been busy with my Romeo, but we'll see how it works out with all the dog hair that accumulates. ;) It'll be interesting to see how the dogs and cats feel about it, too. 

Happy Easter!

Man...it's already been almost a month since my last post. The months seem to be going by pretty quickly. Given everything going on in the world, I can't say that I'm disappointed about that. 

Now that the kids are older, we don't really do much for Easter. We just have dinner at my grandparents' house. My nieces are the youngest from the immediate family, so we don't do any egg hunts or anything anymore. It's just nice to be able to spend some quality time with the family. :) 

I've been feeling pretty blah lately. I've still been dealing with a lot of pain in my back and shoulder. It's making sleep difficult. I've also been dealing with a lot more stomach pain. I've had pelvic adhesive disease as a result of abdominal surgery that I had to have in 2010. When I went to have my tubes tied about a year later, they couldn't even find one of my fallopian tubes because there was so much scar tissue. While subsequent surgeries aren't recommended...I think I'm going to talk to my family doctor about having a total hysterectomy and doing what they can about the existing scar tissue. So we'll see how that goes. I'm not excited about the idea of more abdominal surgery...but 15 years is a long time to deal with issues that seem to just keep getting worse. And it's not like I'm using my uterus anymore or anything. :P

With how crappy I've been feeling, I'm glad that work has been slow. It was slower last April, too. It's just that time of year. But the number of orders I've had so far this month is still 20% higher than this point last year, and my revenue so far this month is 86% higher. If it continues to be slow this week, I think I'm going to work on uploading designs to my Faire site. I haven't kept up with uploading my designs over there...so I want to work on that. I really need to work on my eBay listings as well. 

We took the dogs to the vet last week to get their annual vaccines. They were such good puppies. Nova was excited to see all the people but Boz was nervous, of course. He basically didn't leave my side the whole time. But we got all their shots and everything went smoothly. We also got Nova an allergy shot. In addition to being allergic to chicken...she seems to have seasonal allergies as well. Each spring she starts getting itchy and ends up with hot spots. So far she seems to be doing better than she has the last few years...so hopefully the shot continues to help her. Next we have to schedule Bozley's neuter surgery. Every time we've tried to schedule it in the past...something around the house ends up breaking that we have to pay to fix/replace. :P So...hopefully we can get it scheduled soon. Bozzy still weighs the same...about 65lbs. Chunky Nova needs to lose some weight though. ;) She was up quite a bit from when she got her shots last year. 

Well...I'm going to package orders to go out tomorrow and then might go to bed early (well...earlier than normal). 

Spring!

It's finally spring...and we've been having crazy Kansas weather. It'll be 70 one day and then snowing the next day. There's also been crazy wind off and on, of course...and I really hate the wind because it gives me migraines. I'd gotten some samples of migraine meds from my doctor last year. There isn't a generic of them so they're pretty expensive. He gave me a couple packs of two different medications...which was almost $1000 in samples. 

I'm also still dealing with the nerve issues in my shoulder. The TENS unit seems to be the only thing providing relief right now...but that's only while I'm using it. I've also had issues with sciatica radiating to peroneal nerve pain. I've had issues with sciatica off and on since 2002, but this is the first time I've had it around the front/side of my knee. It makes it really hard to get comfortable...especially when I'm trying to sleep. Luckily it's not a constant thing. But...I'm still not getting a whole lot of uninterrupted sleep. 

We had a pretty nice weekend. Friday night we had leftover vegetable beef soup and watched Reacher. Usually we watch it on Thursdays...but on Thursday I thought it was Wednesday until I went to print the postage for my orders after Johnny was already asleep...and Johnny didn't remember either. :P So we watched that Friday night during dinner. I'm sad that there's only one episode left! I think it's definitely my top favorite show. Hopefully we won't have to wait long for a 4th season. 

Then Saturday afternoon we watched Electric State which was pretty good. I liked watching it in the bedroom with the head and the feet of the bed up. I love having an adjustable bed! It's so much more comfy than the couch. :) Plus the dogs lay down and relax on the bed (thank goodness it's a king size!) instead of constantly moving around between us and chasing the cats. Anyway...Saturday evening we ordered some Chinese for dinner and watched Bert Kreischer's new comedy special on Netflix. It was pretty good...but the end of it was pretty sad! He talked about how they had someone come to their house to put their dog down. I was fine until he started getting tears in his eyes...then *I* started getting tears in my eyes. :P 

Sunday was a really productive day. I just worked all day printing, cutting, and packaging orders to be mailed out today. Johnny gave the dogs a bath...so they smell all nice and clean again. He got a few things done around the yard and the house that he's been wanting to get to. 

And tonight I made Cheez-It Chicken Fried Steak for dinner. We hadn't had it in awhile and Johnny thought it sounded good. I make it in the air fryer...it's super quick and easy. If I didn't have my air fryer and pressure cookers...I definitely wouldn't cook as much as I do. I love things that are quick and easy...and still taste amazing. Of all appliances that could go out...our oven is the one that I would still be able to make dinner with no problem. Ironically, it's the only appliance in this house that we haven't replaced. LOL. We've even replaced the fridge twice! lol. 

Work is going pretty well so far this year. While it had slowed down after December (which is generally expected), I'm still doing better than I did compared to the same timeframe last year. I had 100 orders in January and then it slowed a bit to only 78 orders in February. March started out about the same as February...but it's picked up quite a bit in the last week. I'm already at 91 orders for the month so far and there's still a whole week left. My revenue has already surpassed by revenue in January, too. And I'm only 4 sales away from 2150 in my CandiMakerStickers Etsy shop! I had a large order for twenty 4" magnets of my "He is Risen" design...so that helped a lot. I'm still so glad that I went through all my listing photos and changed them to show sticker or magnet...because I get a lot more magnet orders now. During slower times, I've been working on new designs as well as revamping designs that hadn't been doing as well. I'm still loving being able to work from home doing something I love. :) I consider myself very lucky! 

Oh! And I forgot that I wanted to update on the Litter Robot situation. Angel still LOVES it and uses it exclusively. The boys? They're still using the old litterbox. BUT...Milo--who was *very* afraid of the Litter Robot and started out not even wanting to go into the cat room at all--has been getting more and more interested in it. He hasn't been getting IN it, but he'll stand on the step and look in it. He likes watching it and will often interrupt it mid-cycle multiple times because it stops cycling whenever a cat is on the step in front of it. It'll stop and then he'll sit back and wait...just to stop it again as soon as it starts cycling again. So while he's not using it...I do think it's good progress that he's gone from scared to curious! Leo used it a few times in the beginning...but as soon as I put the old litterbox back out (because Milo was scared) Leo has been using only the old litterbox again. So...still working on it, but hopefully the boys will eventually prefer a clean bathroom. *fingers crossed*  

Well...I need to get some things done before I go to bed. I hope everyone has a good week! 

Already March?!

It kinda feels like this year so far is going by both fast and slow. :P It's hard to believe it's March already...but with all the craziness going on, it also feels like it's hard to believe it's only March. :P 

The last few days I've been able to sleep for more than 2-3 hours at a time...so that's progress! Right now my biggest complaint is my shoulder. I don't know if it's a pinched nerve or what the exact problem is. I know it a nerve is involved somehow...because I'm getting numbness/tingling in my hand. I've tried taking ibuprofen, my Tramadol, and my Gabapentin (for nerve pain) and nothing seems to be helping. Tonight I remembered that I have my TENS unit...which I got almost 30 years ago for back pain caused by my scoliosis. So I decided to try that on my shoulder and see if it helps. While it isn't making the pain go away...while the TENS unit is on, I don't notice the pain as much. So it's providing a little bit of relief and I'm at least thankful for that. 

I forgot to mention that I hit 2000 sales in my CandiMakerStickers Etsy shop on February 20th! So that's always exciting. My total orders for February were less than the number of orders I got last February...but I had higher income this February than last February. The higher income is largely because I've sold a lot more magnets which are a higher price point. 

While sales have been a bit slower lately, I've been trying to work on SEO (Search Engine Optimization) and making some new designs. I'd had a few designs already created, but hadn't gotten around to photographing them. But I finally took pictures after I printed and cut all the new designs. I had 30 new designs and 3 existing designs that I hadn't photographed yet. I got them all printed and cut on Thursday and then photographed them all yesterday. Today I've worked off and on cropping the photos and working on the listing images. I'm hoping tomorrow I'll be able to get all the listings uploaded. It's been so long since I uploaded new general sticker designs...so I really enjoyed working on them. 

And on that note...I'm going to work on them a little more before I go to bed. :) 

It's been a busy day!

Today we celebrated my grandpa's 90th birthday! We had his party at the library here in town. They have a really big community room that we've used for several big group gatherings. I think it's pretty affordable for the size, too. 

My mom and sister did most of the planning and decor. I printed the invitations and mailing labels, printed 600 pieces of confetti (images printed on cardstock and die-cut in 2" and 1" sizes with my Cricut), and the water bottle labels that I printed on glossy sticker paper and laminated. I've learned that I do NOT like putting labels on water bottles. LOL! The difficult part is trying to get them on straight...it was a lot more difficult than I anticipated. :P Luckily my mom came over on Thursday and helped me get all the labels on there. Then yesterday my mom and sister set up a lot of the decorations. There were a lot of backdrops, balloons, and centerpiece decorations. There was also a table set up for the guestbook, multiple tables that had display boards with photos behind photos that were laid out on the table, and several tables set up for the food. We had meat and sides from Hog Wild as well as sandwiches, wraps, and fruit trays from McAlisters. 

It was a WSU themed party. My grandpa graduated from there and they attend a lot of their sporting events. We requested that everyone where yellow and black for pictures...and there were a lot of people in WSU gear! We'd gone to a local sports store on Monday and got Johnny a hoodie and a ball cap. Most of my WSU apparel (I also graduated from WSU) is pretty old and ratty looking...but mom had a hoodie that she got in a size smaller than she likes wearing, so I wore that. It was super soft and comfy so...now it's mine. ;) 

We were able to get some new family pictures...much like we did when we had grandma and grandpa's anniversary party in 2021. We were able to get a large group family photo as well. 

We also had a surprise guest! My sister--who *hates* people in full-body costumes that cover their head--was able to get the WSU mascot, Wu, to make an appearance. :) It was really neat and the guy did a great job. Naturally...his energy was like that from a sporting event...but in a much quieter room with about 40 people. My sister was battling anxiety...but I was battling autism. lol. As a neurodivergent person...I'm very uncomfortable with awkward silence. I already don't like when people don't keep up their side of the conversation...and Wu doesn't talk, he pantomimes. Yeah...I don't know what to do with that. lol. But he did a great job. My sister's friend who is a photographer was there to take photos...and she had Wu walk around the room and kinda photo bomb people. It was cute. And Wu also signed the guestbook which I thought was really cool. He walked around looking at the pictures and admiring the decorations (like...pointing them out and clapping or giving a thumbs up, etc). So it was just really neat to have him there. 

We stayed to clean up after the party. I was wiped out from printing and cutting all the confetti last night and then waking up early and helping load stuff...so I actually ended up taking a nap after I got home. :P I think tomorrow I'm going to take the day off and just relax. I do have some orders that I need to work on, but it shouldn't take too long to get done before I go to bed tomorrow so they can go out in the mail Monday. :) 

Why is the weekend so short? :(

It feels like the weekdays go by so dang slow...then the weekend goes by way too fast! Luckily this weekend is a three day weekend...so at least we get one extra day. It's supposed to snow tomorrow. They're calling for, like, 4-8 inches so we'll see how much we actually get. Thankfully Johnny and I both work from home, so we don't really have to get out in it. :P 

I'm finally feeling better as far as my sore throat, but I still feel out of sorts and super tired all the time. But I think I'm having problems sleeping more because of pain from my chronic health issues and perimenopause crap rather than from being sick. I can only sleep for 2-3 hours at a time but then I wake up and have a hard time getting back to sleep. When I am finally able to get back to sleep...I'm still up again 2-3 hours later. I've never been a person who really takes naps...but apparently that has changed in 2025. :P Hopefully my sleep schedule will get back to normal soon. 

The night before last I didn't sleep at all! Darn ol' Milo puked on my side of the bed...so I had to wait for Johnny to get up and then wash all the bedding. It takes FOREVER to wash all the sheets and blankets from our king size bed. I slept for about 3 hours and then had to grab some stuff from mom. Then I laid back down...but about an hour later I woke up to Johnny telling me that my dad was calling because grandma's thermostat wasn't working. So we got around to drove over to grandma's. We weren't planning on taking the dogs...but Nova darted out the door and wouldn't come back in the house so we took them with us. :P They like going to grandma's though and they're always good puppies at her house. Grandma's thermostat was all messed up...none of the buttons worked so we couldn't turn the heat down from 90 degrees, turn it from heat to AC, turn the fan on or off...nothing. Tried taking out the batteries...and that didn't change anything. The only thing that worked on it was the reset button...but then the heat was just off completely because we couldn't do anything after we reset it. So mom stopped by Walmart to grab a new thermostat and Johnny replaced it for Grandma. She just has a cheapie one for now, but I think eventually we'll get her a thermostat like we have that can be controlled by both the control panel and with an app on your phone. Then mom could see what's going on with Grandma's thermostat from her phone to maybe troubleshoot anything going on without having to drive all the way to her house. But for now...at least her house isn't 90 degrees anymore! Of course, even at the 75 degrees she likes to keep it at, that's still too hot for me! :P 

And despite only getting 4 interrupted hours of sleep...I didn't get to bed last night until way later than normal. But...since I didn't really get anything else done yesterday except washing the bedding, I put all my orders into my spreadsheet and got everything ready to print, cut, and package today so all my orders can go out in the morning. I have 16 orders so far since Friday between both of my Etsy shops plus my eBay. The first part of February was pretty slow, but it's been picking up a bit now. And I'm still doing better this month so far compared to last year. By this point in the month last year, I only had 22 orders...this year I have 45. So hopefully I'll pass the 60 orders I had for the month of February 2024. :) 

I've also been busy this month working on stuff for my Grandpa's 90th birthday party. I made the invitations earlier in the month and now I'm making labels for the water bottles and some large "confetti" to decorate the tables like I did for the girls' graduation party. 

Our refrigerator seems to be working fine again. We discovered on Monday that when the repair guys were here on Friday, they didn't hook the water line back up after they left. So our ice maker was completely out of ice on Monday. I gotta say...I'm not super impressed with Rick's Appliance Service after having to wait 3 weeks for it to actually be fixed...plus not hooking the water line back up. But hopefully we won't have any more issues with the fridge so it won't be a big deal. *crosses fingers*

Oh and I figured out that it's actually my TMJ in my jaw that is causing the issues with my ears. Sometimes it's pain, but most of the time it's more the feeling of pressure in my ears...like when you're on a plane and you feel like your ears need to pop. It seems like I just keep collecting chronic health issues. :P And pretty much all of them are caused by or a comorbidity of hypermobile Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome. Apparently hEDS is the "gift" that keeps on giving. :P 

Johnny and I finished Season 2 of Night Agent pretty quick. Now he's watching The Killing with me. We're excited for Season 3 of Reacher to be released on Thursday! I even have it written on the dry-erase calendar that we have in the kitchen. ;) 

Well...I better get back to work! I hope everyone is having a good February so far! 

February Update

Well...I'm STILL not feeling 100% after getting sick at the beginning of January. I still have a bad sore throat off and on, a dry cough (especially at night), and occasionally an earache. At first just my right ear was hurting so I thought maybe the pain in my jaw was causing my ear to hurt...but this week my left ear has been hurting, too, and that side of my jaw doesn't hurt. I'm not sure why everything keeps lingering. My sleep is all messed up, too. I've been super tired and end up going to bed earlier than normal...just to wake up 2-4 hours later. I've even been taking a nap frequently during the day...but I'm still tired all the time. 

I think part of the reason why I keep waking up--other than the cough--are the lovely night sweats of perimenopause. I'm so over it. We keep the bedroom really cold...but it actually seems to make it worse. It's like...because I'm cuddling under the blanket, it makes me too hot. I might talk to my doctor the next time we're there and see if trying HRT would help. 

FINALLY got the fridge fixed. Our freezer stopped working on January 20th. The first time they came out was January 24th. He said there was a freon leak (and he's not certified to work with freon so someone else had to come with him) and the compressor and evaporator needed to be replaced. The guy told Johnny it'd only take a day or two to get the parts...but apparently they didn't come in until Johnny called on February 3rd. Then they couldn't get out to our house to fix the fridge until today. I'm glad it wasn't any later...because the refrigerator section started losing cooling yesterday. They were here for just over 2 hours this morning. Bozley hid in the bedroom with me while they were here...he's not a fan of strangers. Every once in awhile he'd go to the doorway to see what's going on...but most of the time he just laid on the bed making little growly barks. Nova laid in the hallway behind the gate watching them work. They set the smoke detector (twice) and that freaked Nova out. They had to weld something together...something about they use an aluminum something or other now and it's common for it to break down. They went ahead and replaced the compressor (I don't know if they replaced the evaporator) too. So far it seems to be working again.  

January and February have been kinda slow for work. It was the same last year, too. But...I had only 35 orders in January last year versus 100 orders for January this year. And for the first 7 days in February last year, I had 6 orders and I've already had 14 orders so far this February. Last February picked up more during the second half of the month, so hopefully it'll be the same for this year. I'm honestly kinda glad for a bit of a break at the moment since I haven't been feeling well. 

Oh! The dogs went to the groomer! They are so soft and smell so good. :) And no more grinch toes! 

Well...I think that's about all for now. 

Uuuuuughhhhhh

So far I'm really not a fan of 2025. :P And I'm not even actually talking about the political shitshow going on right now. 

About three weeks ago, Johnny got me sick with what I assume was the flu (I know it wasn't Covid because we tested negative multiple times). One of the other things going around lately is walking pneumonia...but I've had that before and it didn't really feel like that. We felt pretty crappy for the first few days. My biggest complaint in the beginning was stuffy/runny nose and Johnny's was more the productive cough. I only had a productive cough for a few days. But we've both been just so tired and blah...and now we have more of a dry cough. Honestly, I prefer a productive cough. This dry cough has been making my throat hurt really bad...and it's keeping me awake at night. Every few minutes it's like my throat feels dry and creates the urge to cough. It used to happen to me a lot as a kid...but I don't remember having a cough like this for basically my entire adult life. :P I hadn't drank coffee in years...but I've been drinking it everyday for the last week or so just because it's been soothing for my throat. 

I've had jaw/ear pain as well...I'm not really sure what's up with that. I don't know if I have an earache from being sick or if the pain is just from my jaw. I sneezed at one point and I literally thought I'd broken my jaw...it was such a horribly sharp pain that shot through my jaw. I've always had TMJ...which isn't uncommon with hEDS. I've never had this kind of pain in my jaw though. So I don't know what's going on with it...and not super excited to go to the doctor to find out. :P A lot of times, it seems like the treatment is more painful than just dealing with the pain from whatever the problem is. 

I've had several issues pop up over the last few years (especially pelvic organ prolapse...common with hEDS) and a lot of them require surgery to actually fix. And since I have adhesive disease, abdominal surgery is pretty much out of the question for me unless it's absolutely necessary. I had abdominal surgery in 2010 for a rectopexy repair and a pretty sizeable colon resection. It was an absolutely NOT fun experience. Then in 2011, I went in to have my tubes tied and the surgeon couldn't even find one of my fallopian tubes because my entire abdomen was full of scar tissue connecting all my organs together. Any future abdominal surgeries--including to remove the scar tissue--would result in more scar tissue. 

So yeah...whenever new issues pop up, I'm not super excited to get into what it's going to take to treat it. Even when it's medication...medications come with side effects and I'm already on several medications everyday. Oh the joys of chronic illness. :P 

And if health issues weren't enough...our freezer isn't working! Yeah...on the refrigerator we just bought in October. I was hoping after all the things we had to fix/replace in 2024 that 2025 would be a bit smoother. But it isn't really off to a good start. :P Luckily it's still within warranty, so we had someone come out on Friday. Apparently they're going to basically replace everything inside...but have to wait for parts to come in. He didn't know how long it would take. The refrigerator section is still working fine so far...which is good. But I'm still not buying a whole lot of groceries at the moment just in case it starts having cooling issues, too. My biggest complaint at the moment is the freaking beeping. :P There's a "HI" error that appears at least every hour or so that comes with beeping...and we have to go hit a button to make it stop every time. There's apparently no way to turn that off or at least silence the beeping. It's bad enough during the day...but it really sucks at night. Whenever the electricity flickers off...it also has an alert that will keep beeping every few seconds until you go hit a button. It's really, really aggravating for a person like me who hates noise. :P 

Other than that things are doing alright, though. Milo is starting to be more interested in the Litter Robot. He's still not actually using it...but he has been getting close to it and investigating it. I'm still leaving it turned off for the most part and then turning it on at least once a day to run a clean cycle. Today I turned it on and he was up here in the living room, heard the Litter Robot start to cycle...and then ran downstairs to go check it out. He didn't get close to it...but he did watch from inside the doorway. Leo will go the the bathroom in the Litter Robot occasionally but still uses the old litterbox too. It's about half and half for him. Angel still loves it and uses it exclusively, as far as I know. The only times I've seen her in the old litterbox is to bury the boys' poop when they don't cover it with litter after they're done. It's like she's cleaning up after the boys. LOL. ;) 

Work is still going well. Since I've felt so crappy...I haven't worked on many new designs lately. I still have some more custom letter name ones that I want to get listed. They're the ones where there are individual graphics for each letter. I've had quite a few orders for the ones I have listed so far. I've also been busy with some party stuff for my Grandpa's 90th birthday party next month. Mom has been coming over and we've been working on invitation stuff. So that's always fun. 

Ooh and I have a new exercise bike being delivered today! I'm excited for that. I like that it folds up so we can keep it out of the way when we're not using it. And it's supposed to be quiet, too, so that's good. 

Johnny and I are watching Season 2 of Night Agent. I forgot that's another show we started watching last year that we liked. We're almost halfway through now. We usually watch one episode a night during dinner...sometimes two. And then I also started watching Killing Eve. I really just have it playing in the background while I'm working so I only catch bits and pieces, but it's interesting. 

Well...I've got some work to do. Hope everyone is having a good 2025 so far!

RECIPE: Cheeseburger Soup

Another new recipe for the new year! This is a new soup in the pressure cooker that I basically just made up as I went. It turned out pretty yummy and it was super quick and easy. 

Cheeseburger Soup 

Ingredients:

1lb ground beef
1/2 tbs fresh minced garlic 

32 oz beef broth
1 small onion, diced 
1 carrot, peeled and diced

1 celery stalk, diced   

1 can petite diced tomatoes, do not drain 

1/2 tsp paprika
1/4 tsp salt

1/8 tsp pepper
1/2 tsp Worcestershire sauce 
16oz Velveeta cheese, cubed
16oz elbow macaroni, prepared according to package

Directions:

1. Brown ground beef with minced garlic and drain. 

2. Combine beef broth, ground beef, onion, carrot, celery, paprika, salt, pepper, and Worcestershire sauce in the pressure cooker pot and stir. 

3. Pour the diced tomatoes in the pot then topped with the cubes of Velveeta cheese. Do not stir.

4. Set the pressure cooker to "Soup" and cook for 5 minutes. Carefully quick release the pressure when finished. 

5. Stir in elbow macaroni and serve. 

You can serve topped with crackers, corn chips, or whatever else you like! The picture below is of Johnny's bowl...he likes to add a lot more pepper. ;) 

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RECIPE: Garlic Butter Chicken Bites in Creamy Parmesan Sauce

I haven't posted a new recipe in quite awhile. I was wanting to use our new pots and pans so I decided to make something that actually isn't in the pressure cooker or air fryer. Aubry really liked it. It tastes a lot like chicken alfredo. 

Garlic Butter Chicken Bites in Creamy Parmesan Sauce 

Ingredients:

3 boneless skinless chicken breasts, cubed

4 tbs butter 

1 tbs fresh minced garlic

1 pint heavy cream

1.5 cups fresh grated parmesan

1/4 tsp salt

1/8 tsp pepper

10 oz penne pasta prepared according to package

Directions:

1. Melt butter in pan on medium heat.  

2. Add chicken and minced garlic. Cook until the chicken is fully cooked (165 degrees F) and starting to turn golden brown. 

3. Stir in cream and parmesan. Turn to simmer and cook until sauce has thickened, stirring occasionally. 

4. Turn off heat and mix the pasta into the chicken and sauce. Season with salt and pepper.  

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