The Art of Conversation :-)

I really cannot stand long drawn out conversations on the phone. So, I always keep scrap paper and pencils handy and draw what I see when I look out the window-or whatever ... Here is my latest long telephone conversation:

Other than long boring convo's - I am loving life! 

I hope everyone has a great week!

Silhouette Cameo 1st Project

Tommy bought me a Silhouette Cameo for my birthday/Mother's Day and OHHH MMMMM GGGGG! I love it!

The picture below is a project I did for a friend of mine. It is my first Cameo project:

I absolutely love this machine! I just have to put a frame around this one and it will be done :-)

FInally! Help with the Weeding

My neighbor saw me pulling weeds in the front garden and came over to help. He is soooooo handsome!

He is very proud of his wattle-when he strutted around he made sure I noticed his wattle :-)

 Don't ya' just love a redhead?

IRS Audit

I'm writing this post because a year ago in March my husband and I received notification from the IRS that we were being audited. 

I got on line and researched the heck out of IRS examinations (that's what they're called now rather than audits) and only found the usual "You better hire an attorney" and "don't say anything because you might slip up and say something you shouldn't". I found absolutely nothing on the Internet to calm my fears.  So, that is why I'm writing this post~hopefully to help someone else.

FYI, I have used TurboTax for the past 5 years and math is not my strong suit.

All opinions are my own and I am not saying this will work in every case but it worked for us.

After the inital shock, Tommy and I talked about hiring an attorney and then I realized there was nothing an attorney could tell the examiner that I couldn't tell her AND in my mind, hiring an attorney made us look like we needed legal counsel because we had done something wrong. 

I called the examiner, who was very pleasant. (A lot of places online warned about examiners who were pleasant so taxpayers let their guard down). The examiner, I will call her Debra, told me she would need all receipts, documents and returns for 2007-2008. We made an appointment to meet and I gathered all the items Debra requested and Tommy and I went to the local IRS office acting confident but really we weren't.  Debra asked lots of questions and we answered honestly. At the end of the visit Debra decided she may as well examine our returns for 2009-2010. (2008-2010 I owned a small business and there were mountains of papers!)

To make a long story short-everything we received from the IRS we answered immediatley.  Even the dreaded letter in March (2012) from the IRS asking us for a 2 year extension on the returns for 2008 which means the IRS would have until April 2013 to close the file for 2008 :-( 

If Debra asked for a document that was missing we got it to her right away.

Last Thursday we received notification that the examination was complete and if we agreed with the findings of the IRS, we needed to sign off on the paperwork that was sent.  All four years of the examination were done! YAY! Wonderful!! But here's the really wonderful part...not only is the examination no longer hanging over our heads but we are getting a refund! $5025.00 plus interest! (Most of the refund was due to amoratizing business expenses incorrectly).

Just think, if we had hired an attorney it would have exceeded the amount of the refund.

So, in my opinion, there is no need to fear the IRS unless you have purposely tried to "pull one over" on them.

Hopefully none of you will need this information but if you do...I hope it helps.

Why I Should Always Stick To My List

There is a reason I make lists. Most of the time I stick with the list and only do "extras" when the list is finished. Well, yesterday morning I went out to weed one of the flower beds and I ended up digging up shrubs, dividing bulbs then decided I really needed to turn the entire garden. Gah! What the heck! At 8:00 last night I called it a day and came in figuring I could wrap it all up by this evening. Ha-ha! When I decided the Japanese Spireas needed to be more centered and the Oak Leaf Hydrangea needed to move to a different bed altogether I realized this is going to take a few weeks to complete. I saw several worms and bugs aerating the soil. Wonder if they think "I just aerated that and here she comes and undoes what it has taken me a week to do!"

Divisions laying everywhere

Trench-will get filled in with pea gravel and river rocks. My back just couldn't handle it today :-/

Weeds and some of the "divisions"

Now I am going to call it an evening outside and come in so I can try to get some of the inside chores done.

I'm not complaining...I love any excuse to be outside on a beautiful day.  

Valentine Treats for My Furry Friends

I just finished baking the last batch of cookies for the furry frends in my life (Pumpkin/Cinnamon). Now, I'm going to make some great big, fattening cake pops for me ! Yes! 

Tommy's Birthday Dishes

Tomorrow is Tommy's birthday-he will be as old as I am :-) I was looking for dishes that were masculine and beachy for his birthday dishes.  I brought them home, used the glass paint pen to add the sloppy lettering :-/, baked the lettering on and here you have it:  

Happy Plenty-ninth Birthday, Tommy!

All You Need Is Love

Wow-I am really a blog slacker :-/ Anyhoo...today while I was cleaning house, catching up on laundry, writing a proposal and preparing meals for the week, I decided to finish up this sign:

This is an old test sign I did when I was trying out a different way to do checks.

When I turned around to clean my paint brush, there was this chair that I was waiting to "speak to me". Not sure what language it's speaking but hopefully I'll learn it. This one might take a while.

We'll see.