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! :) 

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