Hanging the Colors

Tags

DIY Independence Day decorations, DIY July 4th decorations, Independence Day, independence day decorations, July 4th, july 4th decorations, picture decor, wall decor

A quick, easy way to add seasonal or holiday cheer to the decor of any room is to have a constant base to the decoration — in other wards, a perpetual decoration that can be changed-out according to the theme.

When I began doing a little decorating for the 4th of July a few weeks ago, the first thing I did was change out the pictures in my dining room.  I have several picture frames (six, actually) that match, and each season or holiday I change out the pictures that are in them.  I actually only use three of the frames — since we’re planning on putting a family photo wall there I didn’t want to hang all six and have extra nail holes in the wall to fill later.

When I found these patriotic napkins at a discount store ($.50 a package!), I scooped them up and decided that I’d use a few for the picture frames before I put the rest out to use as napkins.  The first problem I had to tackle….

…were the fold marks going two directions on each napkin, and they would show once they were in the frames.  So I figured if I got the fold marks wet and then flattened them with my finger or a spoon, the fold marks would be gone when they dried.

So, I gathered some things to make the fold marks wet…

This is one of those “Don’t try this at home (or anywhere else)” cautions.  

I have an abundance of syringes — I promise I’m not a drug addict — and I thought that would work to wet just the fold marks of the napkins.  Again, wetting the fold marks using the syringe method was a total waste of time, and I must have had a screw loose to even consider it.  But, at any rate, it went like this:

I put the napkins on plastic so I wouldn’t get the table really wet…

…then began wetting the fold marks.

And it worked!  But there was a problem…

The fold marks were wrinkled up and the rest of the napkin was smooth.  Yeah, no one would notice that, right?  So, although the fold marks couldn’t really be seen as well, I had to get the napkin uniform all over.  That meant getting the whole napkin wet.  And I didn’t have the patience to dribble water all over three napkins from a syringe.  So, I pulled out something that would make the job faster.

And, there they were.

They all looked very uniform all over, so I set them outside on the front porch and the summer heat dried them in no time.

The napkins dried with this beautiful wavy, wrinkly thing going on, and I began to like it.

I gathered my frames and removed the Spring/early Summer pictures I’d slapped haphazardly in the frames earlier in the year.

They would have looked better had I been able to find my mat boards, but they didn’t turn up, so I had just thrown the pictures in the frames without mat boards.  Lovely.

I took the 8×10 paper backing out of the frames and used them as a template to cut the napkins to the right size.  If you use anything with a pattern, care has to be taken to center the template over the part of the picture, painting or material that you want to use in the frames.  That is the part everyone will be seeing.

Once you have the pictures cut to size, you can then put them in the frames, close the back of the frames, and hang them up.  It was easy for me, since I hang them back in the same place every time.

The wavy texture of the wrinkled napkins actually has a good effect.  It would look much better with all six frames filled and hanging there, but again, we are planning on changing the whole wall soon.  I would like to eventually rip off those annoying pieces on the backs of the frames that make it so you can stand the picture on a table, but the frames do not belong to me, and I try to respect City Boy’s things.

So, that’s an inexpensive, quick, easy way to add a little seasonal/holiday decor to a room.  For Christmas I had pictures of candy canes in the frames, and for Easter I had a big egg of a different color in each, and so on.  And changing the pictures out is a snap.

You can buy anything from fancy frames to dollar store frames, bigger or smaller frames, or even one huge poster-size frame — then just keep changing the pictures.  It’s one way to fill a bare wall and make it pop for any occasion.

Here’s hoping everyone is gearing up for a fantastic July 4th celebration!

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Homemade Greek and Regular Yogurt

Tags

greek yogurt, homemade greek yogurt, homemade yogurt, Strained yogurt, whey, Yogurt

Why would anyone want to make yogurt when it’s so much easier to buy?  Well, the cost difference for one.

For greek yogurt, a 6-ounce container was over $1 last time I took a peek in the store, verses $.40 for the kind I make at home.  Even less for the same amount of regular yogurt that is made at home.

And, since you make it in bulk, you always have yogurt on hand.  Depending on how you flavor it, you can use it in a variety of different ways.

Is it hard to make yogurt?  Is it messy?  Is it complicated?  Does it involve a bunch of different and/or special ingredients?

No, no, no and no.

The only supplies that you may have to acquire if you don’t have them already for this method is a crock pot with a “warm” setting on it and a thermometer that measures temperatures below 120 degrees.  If you already have these things, you will find that making yogurt is pretty simple.  My candy thermometer does not register below 120 degrees, so I had to improvise.

This is a barbeque meat fork that also has a built-in thermometer for testing the doneness of meat on the grill.  Hey, it beats going out and buying a thermometer!

Here is a picture of the long list of ingredients you will need to make the yogurt:

Supplies are:

• large size colander
• coffee filters or cheesecloth
• wooden spoon
• big cooking pot
• thermometer or sensor that will register under 120 degrees
• blanket
• crock pot with “warm” setting

You need the live culture in the container of yogurt to start the yogurt making process.  Once you get your first batch of yogurt made, you can use a little of that to make the next batch, and so on.

I am showing 2% milk here, but I used skim in the yogurt in the picture, and I have used 1% and whole as well.  The consistency of the yogurt will still be great whatever you decide to use.

To get started:

Measure out your milk.  For greek yogurt you will need twice as much milk as you want yogurt — I usually use 10-12 cups for 5 cups of yogurt.  For regular yogurt measure the same amount of milk or more as you want yogurt, depending on how much you want to strain it — I usually use 5-6 cups.

Put the milk in the pot and heat until it reaches around 170 degrees.    

Remove milk from heat and allow to cool to around 110-115 degrees, but not above 117 degrees.  Take about a cup of the heated milk and stir 1 tablespoon of plain or vanilla yogurt for every two cups of milk you have heated (when I use 8-12 cups of milk, I just dump the whole 6oz carton of yogurt in).  Mix in with the rest of the milk and pour all in the crock pot without scraping the sides of the pan.   

Put the lid on the crock pot turned to “off” and wrap the crock pot in the blanket to keep it all warm and snuggly. 

Let the milk sit for about 8 hours, switching it on to “warm” if the temperature of the milk gets below 100 degrees.  Watch the temperature when the crock pot is on!  The milk can’t get over 117 degrees or you’ll kill the yogurt cultures!   If this happens, you’ll have to cool the milk back down to below 117 degrees, add more yogurt, and start the 8-hour waiting process again.

After yogurt is done, put the whole thing in the fridge to cool.

Line a colander that will hold all the yogurt at once with coffee filters and place the colander over a large bowl.

Dump your yogurt in and allow to drain.

For greek yogurt I usually cover the whole thing and put it in the refrigerator overnight to allow all of the whey to drain off.

For regular yogurt I allow it to drain anywhere from not at all to just a few hours, depending on how thick or thin I want it.  The less whey you drain off, the more yogurt you will have.

My son likes me to freeze the whey and save it for him so he doesn’t have to keep buying the expensive protein whey powder that he uses to help him bulk up a little.  Our dog also loves the stuff — it’s chock full of protein.

To flavor the yogurt, I have tried many things.  I used to flavor the whole batch at once, but then I realized that I can use the plain yogurt to cook with.  So, lately I have been flavoring some batches by the serving.  Either method you use, there are many ways of adding flavor to yogurt.

The first couple of batches I made I stirred in a jar of preserves, and I have also used pie filling.  This makes your yogurt oh-so-good, but not very diet-friendly.  I have also chunked up some frozen fruit and mixed in artificial sweetener with good results.  Other recipes for yogurt use honey, fresh fruit, and canned fruit, among other things.  

For the yogurt I have pictured in this post, I used a can of chopped-up mandarin oranges and a box of orange gelatin.  While the flavor is good (I love orange yogurt!), I wouldn’t recommend using gelatin to flavor yogurt because it does something a little wacky to the consistency.  I think the gelatin must have set up separately from the yogurt.  Although the yogurt isn’t grainy, it seems slightly tiny curd cottage cheese-ish in consistency.

I do hope you’ll give this a try!  The first time I made yogurt I was nervous the whole time, from start to finish!  I have learned since then to keep a few spare containers of yogurt on hand in case I mess up and let the mixture get too hot.  Now I hardly even think about it when I make yogurt.  

In the summer, as a matter of fact, on really hot 95+ degree days, I don’t even use the “warm” setting on my crock pot.  I just set the whole crock-pot-in-a-blanket outside in the sun and it stays at just the right temperature.

Above all, have fun!

Related articles

• Easy and Nutritious Homemade Yogurt (goodcooks.wordpress.com)
• How to Make Your Own Yogurt (lifehacker.com)
• Greek Yogurt Without the Straining (ekliecheese.wordpress.com)
• Make Your Own Yogurt: a cheap, easy, delicious party in your mouth (rawoncemore.com)
• Making Your Own Greek-Style Yogurt (tradsnotfads.wordpress.com)

Setting Up A Photography Light Box (Sort Of)

Tags

baby, baby photograph, Beginning photography, Camera, DIY, DIY light box, Do it yourself, Humor, Lightbox, Photography, photography light, photography light bulb, photography lighting, tracing paper

Well, I’ve been at it again.  

First of all, I’ve mentioned quite a few times that I love taking pictures but that I’m a real amateur when it comes to photography.  I’ve learned a lot, but I have a long way to go. That said, I must admit to something that happened to me a few weeks ago and has been eating at me ever since.

I was scrolling through the blogs I follow, when I came upon the daily post of a blogger friend we’ll call Cindy (well, we’ll call her that because that’s her name), and she always takes gorgeous pictures, so I like to look at her blog, among others.  So, low and behold, her pictures suddenly became even more stunning!  Then I noticed her post said that these pictures were taken with her new camera!!!  

Well, I just had to see about this, so I read her post (here) and looked at her pictures of her new camera until I was just green with envy.  Cindy, it seems, had been using a camera with similar capabilities to mine (and had still taken better pictures), and now had acquired a camera with fabulous features that I very much had been wanting for myself.  Curses!

So then I just decided that I was tired of my pictures looking like they were taken by a blind person with no fingers, and started taking steps to amp up my game.  City Boy had already told me he wasn’t getting me the Mother Of All Cameras until I learned to use the camera I had.  Fair enough.  I would show you a picture of my camera but I can’t take a picture of my camera WITH my camera.  And, well, you’ve seen the kind of pictures my cell phone takes.

So, I decided I would start with trying to improve my food pictures (don’t look at the food posts in my blog yet; I haven’t started improving) and later happened to stumble upon another blog that had a great post for making a DIY photography light box (here).  And it was not difficult, woohoo!

I already had most of the materials, except tracing paper, so I asked City Boy to pick me up some on his way home from work IF it wasn’t too expensive.  “I’ll use something else if it’s over (x) amount,” I told him.  All he heard me say was “tracing paper.”

He came home with a tablet of tracing paper with the price sticker still on the front.  I almost flew at him like a rabid monkey when I saw the price.  Actually, I calmly asked him why he paid so much.  “You said you needed tracing paper,” he said.

Overpriced tracing paper, tag removed

So, anyway, I made the light box and was pretty pleased with it.  Sure, it looks like I picked it up ready-made at the city dump, but I never claimed to be that handy at cutting a big glass-pack moving box with a pair of sewing scissors.  

Frank is pretty nice to indulge me sometimes.  Last week he took me into the city to look around a photography supply shop and see what I could see.  What a mistake — I wanted everything!  After discovering that the hobby of photography was an expensive one, I had a salesperson come over and help me, and I decided that I should get some special photography light bulbs to use with my light box (plus, they were the cheapest least expensive things in the place).

All happy with my decision, the salesman asked me which kind of bulb I wanted.  “There’s a difference?” I asked.

I was told that one gets very hot, and the other one doesn’t and also lasts longer than the “hot’ version.  I almost went for the one that doesn’t catch things on fire, when I discovered that there was a nearly $60 price difference per bulb.  Okay, well then, I’d just have to run a fan when I took pictures.

So, thinking I was happily decided, I was then told that the “hot” bulbs required a special ceramic light socket.  How much was that?  Theirs were $119 apiece.  Dang, foiled again.

For about the third time, I went out to the truck, dejected, and told City Boy the news.  He had been waiting in the truck with Lucy (because, of course, he can NEVER go anyplace without her).  Frank sent me back into the store after telling me to pick up some of the “hot” lights because he was sure that hardware stores carried work lights with ceramic sockets that were a whole lot cheaper less expensive.

Into the store I went again, happily decided.  Or so I thought.  The salesman asked, “How many watts do you want?”  “Wha…?” I asked back.  “There’s 250 watt and 500 watt.”

“Um,” I stammered, “will the 250 be bright enough?”  He demonstrated it.  Blinded and feeling my way out of the store after my purchase, I was mildly confident I hadn’t just wasted $10.50.

A day later and a trip to Home Depot wiser, we were the proud owners of one work/photography light, for starters.

My maiden voyage with using the light box was without the photography light — I was still a little nervous about burning my house down.  I grabbed the first thing I saw to put in the light box (my box of Easter decorations was still sitting next to the garage door in the utility room waiting to be taken out), and just used natural light.

With some Princess House in the light box, I tried it with just natural light coming in from one side.

Then I finally got brave and powered up the photography light (fingers crossed).  Except maybe I shouldn’t have used mirrored plaques as my subject, since it kind of reflected the camerawoman.

This is with only one photography light, placed above the light box — the ideal light setup is supposed to be a light on either side of the light box as well.  We really wanted to see how it went before we went full throttle on this.  What do you think of the results so far?

Cindy, my fellow blogger with the new camera, has been extremely supportive of me, and I am not the least bit mad at her for getting her new camera — it’s fun to kid around from time-to-time, and I am pleased that she is having a great time with her fantastic new acquisition! 

Of course, my blog would not be complete if it didn’t INclude a picture of Precious Baby before I CONclude this post (I take great pride in my corniness).  Have a wonderful, wonderful day, and I’ll sign off with this picture of Precious Baby at the zoo looking at the penguins!

Free Should Mean Free

Tags

Free apps, free online tools, Free software, free stuff, freebies, Microsoft, Microsoft Office, Microsoft PowerPoint, Microsoft Word, office apps, Office Web Apps, OpenOffice.org, smartphone apps, software, Valentine's Day

When an ad or write-up says something is free, that should mean that it’s not a trial version which is only free for a short time and then you will have to pay for it or lose it.  Free should also not name a product and say “Free Download,” only to lead you through a bunch of ads and you find out after downloading that you have downloaded a useless PART of it for free but then to get the part that really makes it work you have to pay.  Or, my favorite, the “Sign up for free!” ad which means exactly that: to sign up for the product or service is free, but after that to USE the product or service will cost you.  We’ve all been there.

My screen shots in this post leave a lot to be desired — go easy on me, lol, since this is my first try at taking pictures of a computer screen.  As I find out about more freebies I will post them in future posts as well as attempting to make another static page on this blog where all of the freebies I post can be found in one place.

Here are only a few of the many helpful products online that are absolutely free.  Some you may already know about, but if you don’t, they might be worth a look if you’re tired of paying top dollar for programs that do the exact same thing.

Document Programs: Producing

• OpenOffice.org 3.4.1 — This software is said to be pretty much the equivalent of Microsoft Office.  I don’t know if it is or not, because I don’t use the full range of functions it offers (I’m only a housewife).  I have never tried using the Presentation function, for instance, so I couldn’t tell you how it compares to Powerpoint.  I do use this program for most of my document needs, and it has worked well for me.  The only problem I’ve ever had is trying to send a document using this ODT format when the receiver only accepts the Word format (that hasn’t happened often — most places you send stuff to accept ODT format).  I have used online converters for this (one of them, Free File Converter, is listed further below), and that seems to solve the problem.  Otherwise, this program covers a lot of the same functions as Office and is certainly worth looking into.

• Microsoft Office Web Apps — This is an online app that you don’t have to download any software for.  It stores your documents online and has some of the same functions as the regular Office that you have to pay for.  It requires you to sign up with a Microsoft Skydrive account (for free) to use it.  This app lets you create and share online Word documents, Excel workbooks, Powerpoint presentations, and OneNote notebooks.

• Google Docs (Google Drive) — Also an online app with no software downloads required, it functions much the same way as the above Microsoft Office Web Apps, except you will need to sign up for a free Google Drive account to access the services.  

Document Programs: Processing

• 7-zip — This free app will open zip files, as well as converting back and forth between zip and regular files.  Just download it and start extracting.

• Free File Converter — This online app will convert one format into another format in your documents.  For instance, if you have an OpenOffice (odt) format document but are wanting to work with it using software that creates pdf documents and need to convert the original document, this program will do it.  

Antivirus

• AVG Free — This antivirus and antispyware software is surprisingly good for being free.  I used it for years on my computer and had few problems, and am now currently using AVG free on my smartphone.  It comes with email and link scanners, scheduled scanning, frequent automatic updates, etc.  As with many free apps, there are also paid AVG downloads available, but AVG has the best free antivirus software out there.

• avast! — A free antivirus software that gets very good reviews, so I thought it was worth adding to this list.  It has all the same functions as AVG and even scans instant messages.  After the first 30 days avast! requires you to go through their free and simple registration process and also register once a year (also free).  Small work in exchange for good virus protection.  

Photo Processing

• GIMP 2 — Many have called this the free version of Photoshop, and since I have never used Photoshop I couldn’t say if that is true or not.  I do know that I use GIMP for much of my photo editing, especially airbrushing and tweaking shape and color of photos, as well as some special effects.  GIMP has a wide variety of special effects, so you will probably have a lot of fun exploring and trying some of the features out.  For someone who is a beginner at photo processing in general, GIMP may seem daunting in its complexity, but like any advanced photo software, it takes working with it to discover everything it is capable of.  

 

• Photoscape — Although this program is not as comprehensive as GIMP, it does have a lot of great photo editing and photo effects tools, as well as greater ease of use.  For example, I really enjoy the “effects” brush in “grayscale”, which makes it so you can leave only portions of your photo in color while grayscaling the rest, and is done in one smooth step — something that has to be done by layering and multiple steps in GIMP.

• OLYMPUS Viewer 2 — Originally this program was available to people who had an Olympus camera and was included as a software cd that came with the camera.  Now this software can be downloaded from the site, and used with any picture, whether it has been taken with an Olympus camera or not.  I use this program in addition to GIMP when processing photos.  The Olympus photo editing software doesn’t have as vast a variety of functions and nothing it has is anything GIMP doesn’t have, but it is so much easier to use for adjusting color and using the sharpening features.  I usually use this program first on a photo, then go to GIMP for the things that Olympus Viewer 2 doesn’t have.

Update — When I was away from home and downloaded this ap on another person’s computer, it stated that it was free to download, but then when I clicked the Download button, another window opened that asked for the camera serial number.  I had my camera with me, and the ap allowed me to download it without question.  I’m assuming that a serial number from any Olympus camera would start the download (in other wards, it doesn’t have to be one that you own), but I was unaware that this free program was only available to those who can produce an Olympus serial number.   

Operating System

• Ubuntu — If you mainly use your computer for documents and web browsing/downloading, then I would be remiss if I didn’t mention the free alternative to Windows, the Ubuntu operating system.  I have heard so many positive things about it that I thought it worth putting on this list.  It is much faster and easier to use, and claims it can be used alongside your Windows operating system.  If you’re still apprehensive about trying it, they have a way to allow you to use it without installing it, just to try it out.  The one and only complaint I have heard from anybody is that some apps won’t run with Ubuntu, such as certain photo processing apps and so forth.  But they do have their own photo apps, as well as office apps and a whole host of other apps and free downloads.  If you are tired of taking forever to search for something online or process a document, this free operating system might be worth a look.

Web Browsers

• Safari — developed for the Mac operating system, this link takes you to the download for Windows.  Most web browsers are free, but this one is the fastest one I’ve found so far.  To find out more about Safari (no download), go here. 

• Mozilla Firefox — Not quite as fast as Safari, but probably more stable.  Safari and Mozilla web browsers can be used alongside each other, and are both well beyond Internet Explorer as far as the overall web browsing experience.  I have them both on my computer and use them almost exclusively.

Most of these links take you directly to the main site that produces the product — whenever I can I try to avoid secondary download sites, and when I have to use them, I make a point of using only secondary download sites that have proven themselves to be safe.

These are a small example of a few of the many, many things available online for free, and I’ll be keeping my eye out for other things, as well as other types of things.  I’m such a tightwad that I’m almost programmed to look for stuff that I don’t have to pay for.  As soon as I can organize and get to it I will post all the freebies I post on this blog  in one category or page so they can be found easily.

Here’s hoping everybody had a wonderful, fabulous, joyful, peaceful Valentine’s Day, whether you spent a quiet evening at home or a hopping evening out on the town, or a happy evening with a special someone.  Whoever you love, let every day be a day to celebrate that love!  Loving yourself counts too  — even the Bible says it is not selfish to love oneself, because that is the only way a person can learn to love others.  Happy, happy Valentine’s Day!

Related articles

• Free Online Pdf, Word, Excel, PPT, Html Converters (dailytipsndtricks.blogspot.com)
• 4 Open Source Alternatives to Microsoft Software (freshtechweb.com)
• OpenOffice: Worth $21 Million Per Day, If It Were Microsoft Office (news.slashdot.org)
• Does it still make sense to buy Microsoft Office? (reviews.cnet.com)
• 50 of the best productivity apps (itproportal.com)
• AVG Anti-Virus 2013.2899 Free Download Now [New Version] (spicytricks.com)
• Before you resort to MS Paint or piracy, try the 5 best free image-editing tools (digitaltrends.com)

Storms, Birds, Cakes, Cologne, Bedspreads and Valentines — Whew!

Tags

Beautiful, Bird, Cake, Cherry Vanilla, cologne, nature photography, photographs, Photography, rain, Robin, Valentine, Valentine's Day, Wind

As a storm approached, we battened down the hatches and tried to put our porch furniture where it wouldn’t blow around so much, and made sure the cover on the barbeque smoker was secure, all the usual stuff that is done when one is expecting wind and rain.  The skies slowly began to turn from very light blue to grey, to ominous gray.

Finally, after awhile of low thunder, the wind started lashing and the rain came pouring down in sheets, blowing all different directions.  We were thankful to all be in a warm house, since the temperature had also dropped.  We were going about our business in the house when I glanced out the front window, and to my dismay spotted something I had forgotten all about, high up in a tree.

Our little resident robin had perched up there, apparently trying to ride out the storm.  And ride she did.  The chilling wind was whipping the branches all around with her on them while she kept a death grip on the branch she was on.  As she was being thrashed around by the wind she was being pummeled by the cold rain.  It still didn’t look horribly bad and I really wasn’t too concerned until I got the camera out and zoomed in closer on some of the pictures I was taking.

It is apparent in the closer up pictures that the wind is really blowing her and the rain is falling off of her in sheets.  

All that misty distortion on her in the picture is sheets of rain.  The robin began to try to shield herself after awhile:

Birds have been weathering storms since they first appeared on the earth, but it was still really hard to watch this.  There wasn’t a thing we could do, and I was feeling pretty guilty at this point for having removed my basket of fake plants from the porch that she had been taking shelter in.  Well, at the time I hadn’t seen her in it in awhile and thought she’d left, and I wanted to put up Christmas decorations.  I didn’t mean to be mean!

Anyway, Robin rode things out until the wind died down for a brief few moments and she was able to fly over to a neighbor’s balcony and take shelter in some dead plants in a planter.  My guess for why she didn’t take up residence over there in the first place is that there are young children over there.  But I really don’t know what goes through a bird’s mind when they pick out a home.

So, the robin was back when the sun came out, and we then knew for sure that she had weathered things out.  I guess I should put my fake plant basket back up, maybe.

On a lighter note (or heavier note, however you want to look at it), I really like rich cake.  The usual box mix made according to package directions and frosted with a tub of ready-made frosting is good, but just doesn’t quite do it for me as far as the rich factor.  

This is one of those cakes, made from a box mix with a tub of icing on it.  There is a difference, though.  A whole bag of chocolate chips mixed in.  Amazing it doesn’t look like it, but they’re there, and taste wonderful.

Actually, they are not exactly mixed in — When I first started using flavored chips in cake I used to stir a whole package of them in with the batter before I put it in the cake pan.  It was good that way, but the chips all went to the bottom and some of them burnt and stuck to the pan.

So, I tried different things, and finally found what works the best.  Mix batter according to package directions (or recipe, if making cake from scratch).  Put the cake batter in the prepared cake pan as usual, then sprinkle half the bag of chips (any flavor desired) over the top. Then bake the cake as usual.  When the cake is done and you first pull it out of the oven, sprinkle the other half of the bag of chips over the top of the cake.  I usually put the cake back in the still-warm oven I’ve just turned-off for about 30 seconds or so, just enough to make the chips soft enough and then spread them over the top of the cake.  Let the cake cool completely, then frost.  I don’t usually use the whole tub of frosting on this because it makes it almost sickening rich, and a lot of frosting is wasted when people scrape it off of the cake and leave it on the plate after they finish their piece of cake.

The above cake was a mix I had kept stored in the freezer since Halloween and a tub of frosting I had gotten at the same time.  I used the whole tub of frosting, and shouldn’t have.  But this cake is so decadent and good when made with the baking chips.  It can also be made with cake and frosting that has been made from scratch.

My favorite combination of all time is chocolate fudge cake with milk chocolate chips and frosted with chocolate fudge frosting.  That cake is so decadent and rich you will think it’s sinful.  

For Christmas, Santa was good to me.  Why I’m mentioning that now, when it’s February, is because I wanted to talk about a few favorites of mine (the song from The Sound Of Music called “My Favorite Things” comes to mind).  I love to smell good.  Well, most people don’t want to smell bad, but I mean I like to smell extra good on occasion, and so I have a few favorite smelly things I enjoy using.

City Boy gifted me my all-time favorite cologne for Christmas.  We’re not rich, so he had to save up for this, and then this particular cologne had a deal going the same week he went in to buy me a bottle of it.  So I got all THIS!

Beautiful by Estee Lauder

Actually, the reed diffuser did not come with it, but the rest of it came with the promotion Estee Lauder was running at the time.  Also included was a little purse sample of another cologne, Precious, that they were promoting with it.  Anyway, this cologne smells really good, and is much better on than in the air.  So if you are looking for a different scent and haven’t tried this one yet, stop off at the Lauder counter and try some out!

If you’re one of those people (like me) who usually doesn’t want to spend that kind of money (I do have to admit that I would never buy Beautiful for myself because of it being so pricey), I have another favorite that I have used for years.  My mom got me some for Christmas and I use it a LOT.

It’s probably easy to tell by how dusty and dinged-up this bottle of Cherry Vanilla is from sitting out and being thrown around and dropped and by how empty it already is after less than two months, that I use this cologne quite a bit.  It’s a rich smelling, wonderful blend of two wonderful scents.  When I was a struggling single mother I used to buy this at Walmart and got a lot of compliments on it.

Mom told me one time that when she was young and single a lot of women wore cooking vanilla as cologne, and so mixing vanilla and other scents just seems natural.  I don’t remember how much this cologne is, but I am very sure it is still much more affordable than cologne from the perfume counter at the department stores.  The only problem with Walmart is that, many times, they don’t have samplers out so you can try this.  But it does smell like cherries and vanilla, so if you like those two things, you will probably like this.  It’s possible they also sell this in drug stores, so if you see some there, drug stores are usually better about keeping sample bottles out.

When City Boy and I first moved back here to Missouri from Texas a year ago, we bought a new quilt from Bed Bath and Beyond on a fantastic sale.  We’ve been doing so many other things since then that we’ve neglected really fixing up our bedroom much.  I don’t want to be matchy-matchy or anything, but I would like whatever decorating we (meaning I) do to coordinate with this quilt.  It actually turned out to be bigger than we expected, so we’re using it as a comforter.  If I can’t figure out what I want to do, I can just go back to the old comforter set we had, but I’d rather not.

So, really, don’t laugh — it really doesn’t look Granny-ish.  For now I’m just trying to decide what to do in the bedroom that will coordinate.  If I in all my decorating wisdom (cough) can’t figure something out, I’ll beseach all of you for helpful advice (I would show more of the problem areas of the room then), because you guys always have such good ideas for things and I don’t (whining sound).  You know by now that if I can’t do it on-the-cheap I will neglect doing it (be lazy) until I just have no other choice (no other easy way out).

Okay, so I’ve meandered around quite a bit in this post, and in posts lately — I really need to start getting more organized and posting with a general theme, even if it’s only about leg hair or something (not that I would post about that).  It would make it much easier for people to read, for sure.  So that’s my goal for the near future; to post in a more organized fashion.

This week’s reminder, for those of you who celebrate Valentine’s Day, or will be made to wish you had by your significant other (lol):

Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday are your very last days to shop/plan/possibly ship, so make your special someone jump for joy and get ‘er done!

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baking fish, cooking fish, fish, fresh fish, frozen fish, seafood

My Meals are on Wheels

Pining for fresh fish but stuck with frozen? Try this: Cover the frozen fish in milk until it thaws, then cook. It will taste fresher, and your family will never know it was frozen.

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Hearts and Candy and Kisses and Blessings

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craft, crafts, DIY, free printables, Holiday, printable, printables, Valentine, Valentine crafts, Valentine Day, Valentine's Day

With Valentine’s Day fast approaching, I’ve been trying to think up something neat to do for City Boy — I have begun to decorate the house, since time’s-a-wastin’ for that.  But Frank is not much for appreciating interior decor per se.  One would think that after 20 years in the Navy he would really enjoy the finer things that he missed all those long periods of time shipboard.  But no.

So, I have to just decorate to my own taste and hope that, over time, he will grow to like it.  He already has come over to my side on a lot of things like that, but still has a basic decorating instinct that gravitates to the style of the inside of a battleship.  I try to work around it.  And now I’m trying to come up with things I think he’ll really enjoy.

But, first things first.  I’ve found some really neat printables that will make really nice projects (and they’re free!).  Here’s a few that were featured on the Makoodle site.

This printable comes in two sizes to be compatible for framing, among other things.

It downloads in a 4X6 and a 5X7 size for framing, or cutting up and using in projects.  The download version of this can be found here.

Something else ultra-cute that I found on Makoodle were these sweet Hershey Kiss Labels, also free.  If you don’t have pre-made stickers (she tells you where you can get them), you can use a circle punch to make them into circles after printing them off.  

The download for these can be found here.

And if you want to put your candies in little bags, here are some cute bag toppers to download and print:

So, in no time a person can make all sorts of sweet little Valentine gifts for everyone on their sweetie list.  

Rebecca, from The Crafted Sparrow, designed a couple of sweet Valentine printables.  One is a subway-style print for framing and crafts that comes in three color choices, shown here:

These can be downloaded separately here.  And the other irresistible Valentine printable from The Crafted Sparrow is this simple multipurpose little gem:

You can download and/or print it from here and do a variety of sweet projects with it!

That’s all the project hunting I’ve done so far, but there is so much to be found either online or out and about around town that the sky is the limit as far as Valentine projects go!

In talking about heartfelt love, my friend Karen posted a video of a tiny baby capuchin monkey with a heart full of love that belongs to one of her former students.  It is so heartfelt and sweet and will just melt YOUR heart!  I just had to share the link to the video here.  Please give it a watch if you get the chance, and listen carefully to what the little girl is saying at the beginning (she is whispering and hard to hear).

And another couple of pictures of Frank’s daughter Becca’s Precious Baby:

And, Frank’s youngest son Daniel has a baby girl as well, so I will be posting some pictures of her on here soon, just in time for Valentine’s Day.  A baby is the purest symbol of love, and around Valentine’s Day is the perfect time to show off all those sweet little cherubs.

Have a wonderful day today and be thinking of hearts and candy and kisses and blessings!

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• DIY Saturday | Free Valentine’s Day Printable (ahdalin.com)
• Alphabet Valentine Card (bedifferentactnormal.com)
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Chicken Broccoli Pasta

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Broccoli, Chicken, convenience cooking, convenience food, Cook, Garlic, Ingredient, Pasta, quick cooking, quick meal, Sautéing

For a light meal that fills you up but doesn’t weigh you down (I sound like an ad), a combination of pasta, vegetables and chicken will do the trick.  This is an easy to throw together dish that doesn’t involve any exotic ingredients.

Just start out putting a pan of water on the stove to boil.  Use boneless, skinless chicken breasts and cut them up while waiting for the water to boil.  While the pasta is boiling the chicken and broccoli are sauteing.  Once everything is done, just mix it all together, heat up, and serve.  This recipe involves convenience foods, but with a little extra planning it can be made mostly from scratch if desired.  I used the pre-minced garlic in a jar, and some of the ingredients for this dish are measured according to taste.   Here is the basic recipe.

Chicken Broccoli Pasta

Ingredients

• 1 16oz box spaghetti pasta
• 1 16oz bag frozen cut broccoli
• 2 boneless skinless chicken breasts (about a lb)
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• olive or vegetable oil
• milk
• onion salt
• salt
• cream cheese pesto cooking sauce
• parmesan cheese, optional

Directions

Put saucepan of water big enough to hold the spaghetti on the stove over med high heat and bring to boil.  While waiting for water to boil, cube the chicken breasts and put in large skillet with 2 tbsp oil over med heat.  Add broccoli.  Saute until chicken is done and broccoli is  tender.  Add more oil if pan gets too dry during sauteing.  Add garlic, onion salt to taste, and salt to taste when chicken and broccoli are almost done.  

When pasta water comes to a boil, add pasta and 2 tbsp oil and reduce heat to med.  Boil pasta until done.  Drain.  Add pasta and more oil as needed to pasta-broccoli mixture and heat together, stirring until well mixed and heated through.  Add milk to moisten, and a spoonful or two of the cream cheese pesto sauce if using.

Sprinkle parmesan cheese over top if desired.

As always, this is a recipe that is adaptable to anyone’s taste, and easy to put together with ingredients that are on hand.  Don’t let the simplicity make you think this has no flavor — sometimes less fuss means more taste!

If you have ideas for some fabulous variations for this, let us know!  We’re always looking for different and better ways to do the light eatin’ thang!

 

Related articles

• Baked Penne Pasta with Roasted Chicken & Tomatoes (redtri.com)
• Shake Up Your Broccoli Routine (wholefoodsmarket.com)
• Golden Chicken Divan (thewelldressedhen.wordpress.com)
• Orecchiette con broccoli (thefoodieteacher.com)
• Broccoli Cheese Soup (pastaprincessandmore.wordpress.com)

Too Bad You’re In School Or You Could Go Shopping With Me

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baby, Coldwater Creek, granddaughter, Macy's, Pet, Shopping

School is in full swing again, and students all over the land are busy studying, writing, on computers and losing sleep.  City Boy is no exception, except for the part about losing sleep.  He gets enough.  His wife, on the other hand, must stay up after hours or sneak a few minutes in here and there and check her email and do various other tasks that involve the computer because those are the only times she can get on the computer when her husband is not.  Ah, but such is life.  It makes blogging almost like a sport.

Other than blogging, my other favorite thing to do is shopping.  And not just any shopping, but getting something great for a price much less than it’s worth.  Oh yeah!  I do love shopping at places like Target and JCP, but some of my all-time favorite places to do any bargain shopping are at higher priced stores when they are having sales.  

I’m not talking about places like Neiman-Marcus, where they never have sales, or where any markdowns are still so high you have to mortgage your house to participate.  But, I do like shopping places besides Walmart from time-to-time.  Getting better quality stuff at a lower price is something I like doing.

One of my favorite places to look for gems is Coldwater Creek.  Their clothes just seem to fit better and hang more attractively on me.  Cloths and jewelry go on sale at this time of year, and right now Coldwater Creek is having a fantastic sale.  Their items that are already on Clearance are marked down half again of the clearance price.  This includes most, if not all, of their outlet items!  

Macy’s is another one I like to look in for deals.  Right now their clearance items are marked down an extra percentage in addition to the sale.

The only problem with shopping in stores like this is that the sale merchandise is picked-over many times, or if you shop online, there are sometimes shipping charges that have to be factored in before you know if you’re getting a deal or not.

That said, it’s every day life as usual here.  Frank is healing nicely from his surgery, and hopes to be up to 100% soon.  In the meantime, he does everything he ever did when his foot was perfectly healthy, which makes me wonder what exactly 100% IS for him.

And, of course, I would not be normal if I didn’t post regularly about pets and grandchildren.  My niece has a multitude of pets that includes ten tarantulas, so feel fortunate — all we have to post about as far as pets is a little dog.  And she’s usually pretty good, but yesterday she made a big mess getting into the dryer softener sheets and chewing them up into a million little pieces and strewing them all over the house.  I would think dryer sheets would taste bad, but then this is the dog that will eat deodorant sticks. 

And, of course, I simply must post a weekly look at Frank’s granddaughter — Becca is so good to always send pictures of her to us!

Taking a car nap

Incidentally, Becca was trying to get ready for work yesterday morning and Precious Baby was wanting Becca’s attention to the point that she would scream bloody murder (Becca’s words) whenever Becca would try to put her down so she could get ready.   Finally, Becca found the only solution, and the only thing that would placate Precious Baby:

Hey, baby’s happy, and Mom is able to get ready — you do whatever works!

Everybody have a great week and a blessed Sunday!

Rustic Swag

Tags

Christmas, Christmas decor, Christmas entry table, craft, crafts, DIY, DIY swag, entry table, grass swag, Holiday, holiday decor, holiday entry table, natural crafts, nature crafts, rustic, rustic swag, Swag

Christmas is over for another year, and it always looks so bare around the house when the decorations are taken down, doesn’t it?  We get so used to it all over the month or more that we have our houses all gussied-up.  And it’s really bad when there are some bare spots in your decor even when the holiday decorations are up.  That’s where I found myself before Christmas, even though we’d been living here since February.  Still a lot of bare spots that needed a little decor.

While I was decorating, I decided to take care of one of those spaces that looked bland and bare, so I decided to make a swag.  We have an entry table with a picture over it, and I have always thought it looked like it needed…something.  Ever since the Fall decorating had begun I had wondered what to do with it, and finally decided to put a swag there.

Our entry table is a modern one that has been purposely distressed, so a rustic type swag was what I was looking for.  Several shopping trips later, I still hadn’t found anything that screamed “Take me!  I’m the perfect swag!”   Finally, after the Christmas decorations were all up, I decided to make one.

Back to shopping I went, looking for materials.  Being frugal (cheap), I just couldn’t bring myself to pay a huge price for each component of a long swag.  Finally, I remembered my Fall foraging trip that City Boy had taken me on, the one where I gathered all the Fall foliage.  At one point, we had gone into an open field and I had cut a big bunch of overgrown field grass.  Most of it had gone to seed, but I managed to clip most of it without the seed head.  It was above the knee, less than waste high.

Once home, I hung the whole bunch upside down in the garage, and then forgot about it.  And so, once I remembered the grass again, the swag in this picture is what I ended up with.  

If you are not into rustic, collecting grass in the Fall is probably not something it would be of benefit for you to do.  Dried grass is always going to look rustic.  Well, maybe if you spray-painted it silver or gold it would look more updated — I’ll have to try that and see.  I’ll try anything once.  Almost anything.

Here are the things I used to create this rustic grass swag:

Scissors, twine, long dried grass.

This is another weed that I had drying at the same time the grass was — I didn’t have a full-length picture of the grass.

Gather the overgrown grass in any field that hasn’t been mowed in awhile.    I used scissors to cut it off as close to the ground as possible.  Gather a huge bunch — remember that it will seem like much more when it is in its live state than when it is dry, so gather more than you think you will need.

Tie the bottom of the bunch of grass with some twine, leaving long ends so you can tie it around something to hang it upside down.  Let it dry for at least several days; longer is even better.

When ready to make the swag, separate the grass into small bunches that are about the density you want your swag to be.  Lay them out on a flat surface so you can work with them.  I laid mine out on the floor.

Use the twine to tie the bunches together, overlapping the end of one bunch with the beginning of another.  Leave stray blades of grass loose from the twine to give the swag a more natural, full look.  Continue this process until the swag is the desired length.

Shape the swag to suit what you are using it for.  I did some bending and shaping before I put the swag up, and then did some touch-up shaping after I had it in place above the picture over the entry table.  For the purpose in the picture, the swag is resting on the picture with nothing else holding it up, but for other purposes it would probably need to be tacked here and there to the wall.  

I have not tried seeing how this would look on a mantle or a table, but if I make another one or move this one I will have to try that and see how it looks.  

Here are a few pictures I took while in the process of making the swag:

Grass spread out on the floor made it easier to work with

Beginning of the swag — two bunches tied together

Close-up

Third bunch ready to be added on

Third bunch added on, tied off, twine cut — I think I used seven or so bunches altogether for this swag

The finished product.  I did fluff this swag up some after I took this picture because I had it too squared-off.  This swag can be made shorter or longer — as long as there is overgrown grass available, a swag can be made.

 One of these days I might do something rustic with the other weeds that are still hanging out in the garage (unless City Boy has thrown them out thinking I was not going to use them).

Rustic isn’t for everybody, just like ultra modern isn’t for everybody, but I enjoy it any time natural things are used in home decor.  The materials are all around us, we don’t have to spend a lot of money making things from them, and best of all, nothing gets wasted.

If you get a chance, go on a nature walk and get some ideas for things you can use to make your atmosphere pleasant.  There are so many things, especially this time of year, that are laying out there dormant or dead that can be brought back to life by your creativity.   So let your creative juices flow out of every pore, and have a blessed day!