Wordless Wednesday

Portrait Photography Class

Tonight is the fourth of my six portrait photography classes. The class is entirely about using lights to take portraits. Unfortunately, I'm not interested in using lights. In fact, I try to take photos never having to use artificial light.

Three of my classmates are using a white board as a reflector.

An example of a "back lite" photo.

A "side lite."

This one has a light behind and then another at 3 o'clock.

It's been an interesting experience. I just for once, wish that my class had homework.

Tea Tasting

We have a new health food store in town which carries a lot of herbal teas. They held a tea class for me along with three tea friends. It was very informative.

One of there tips was to add dried fruit to brewed tea. Notice in the back, recyclable linen tea bags. I bought a package so now I mix my herbal teas ahead of time. This is what I bought. I love the catnip tea. I drink it before bed, it has the opposite effect on humans than on cats. I mix elderberry in for sweetness. During our class I tried marshmallow root in my cup. I did not like it. A very woody taste.The standard measure is a teaspoon for each cup. A cup is 6 ounces when making tea. As a thank you I gave them a few bags of my favorite tea, Tetley from Canada. I made a tag with a tea cup painted with tea. The pattern for the tea cup came from here.I've been back since the class & have purchased more tea. I'm hooked now. So GOOD !

: (

Well, the end of sports for me until football season starts.

Benjamin Moore vs Martha Stewart

Home Depot has a new line of Martha Stewart Living paint. The swatches are huge, 6" by 3" to be exact. I love, love, love Benjamin Moore paint. Every painted room in my house is a Benjamin Moore color and the quality of the paint is excellent. But, I'm going to try a Martha Stewart color.

I'm going to change the blue door to green. The colors looked so different hanging outside on the door.

The chip on the bottom won, Palmetto. I'll let you know about the quality, in about a year.

Next time you are in Home Depot pick up one of the brochures that has the complete paint palette.

Wordless Wednesday

Liberty of London

Liberty of London arrived at Target last week. I have a weakness for dishes and I couldn't pass up the black & white bowl with the beautiful yellow inside. It matches the kitchen perfectly. I only wish it wasn't Melamine.

According to the Target website it's a cereal bowl. I think it makes a wonderful candy dish.

I also spent another $2.50 for 10 daffodil stems at Price Chopper. It's going to be another great spring week in the kitchen.

First Full Day of Spring ?

This is what our first full day of spring looked like just before noon.

It wasn't that cold but the snow did add up a bit.

There won't be any sitting out on the deck yet.
Even if it wasn't snowing, I would have been inside anyway watching SU make it to the Sweet Sixteen !!

Here Kitty, Kitty.

Would be a PURRRfect cat photo, if I could have gotten the end of those bottom whiskers - moving objects. I'm a quarter way thru a Portrait Photography class. So far the teacher hasn't brought up anything about pet portraits. Maybe I'll bring it up next week.

First Signs Spring

I was so surprised yesterday when I spotted crocuses along the side of our driveway. I was thrilled when walking around the yard I saw daffodils peaking up through the ground.

Spring has finally made it to the North Country.

HaPpy biRtHdAy

Happy 27th Birthday, Eric!

The perfect cake for you.

May the luck of the Irish always shine on you !!

Love, MoM

Maple Syrup

I took the photos on an Amish farm from the side of the road. According to what I heard on the news, maple sugaring is very early this year. The first photo is straight out of the camera the second is edited. Once I boiled down maple sap & just about took the wallpaper off the kitchen walls with all the steam. I had a huge pot of sap & ended up with no syrup. Don't ever attempt to make your own syrup unless you can boil it outside.

Deck Wash

Friday was a sunny, 55 degree day and Mick decided to clean the deck. He used a homemade cleaner, it worked great and cost about $5.00.

This is such a nice spring project to have completed!

We even got all the furniture put back on. Now we need a 75 degree day so we can sit out on the deck.

Good with the Bad

I would much rather see fluffy white Christmas snow but, in order to get rid of our winters worth of snow, we have to put up with the dirty, wet & slushy snow. This is what our yard currently looks like.
I'm hoping by Monday there will be nothing but brown grass. Don't forget we have a short weekend. We will be down by ONE hour. May you have a good weekend

Daffodil's

Last Wednesday I bought a 12 stem bouquet of Daffodil's for $2.50 at Price Chopper.

If our new Price Chopper was open I would go out today and buy a second bouquet.

The daffodil's have been on the kitchen table for one week.

They look beautiful & remind me of spring.

I also spent some fun time on Photoshop editing the photo. The first photo is straight out of the camera. I can't decide which of the two edited versions I like best. It only takes $2.50 to make me very happy!!

Wordless Wednesday

Beef Bourguignon

Ever since reading & seeing Julie & Julia I've been wanting to make Beef Bourguignon. So much so that I asked for & received a Dutch Oven for Christmas. Since Christmas I've made a bean soup, was probably the best soup I've ever made, & a chicken & mushroom dish.

For the Beef Bourgugnon I didn't use Julia Child's recipe. I used one off the Internet. I've never had Beef Bourguignon before so I have nothing to compare mine to but, it tasted so good. It was also the first time I've cooked with or had shallots. I liked the shallots and will diffidently cook with them again. The recipe called for serving over mashed potatoes or egg noddles. I served oven mashed potatoes, which was a bit much. Next time I'd serve over noodles. Get to your kitchen & make Beef Bourguignon you won't be disappointed.

Good News

If you don't live in the middle of nowhere, you won't understand my joy for Price Chopper coming to replace our P&C. I'm THRILLED at the thought of having a Price Chopper down the street.

Seeing that "Store Closing" sign and knowing, according to the media, we will have a Price Chopper in May is wonderful news. Just to have their gas promotion is exciting not to mention the wonderful food choices and great bargins.

Wine Tasting

I was asked to do a taste test on a Brunello wine that is under consideration for production.

I now realize that it is not easy to make good wine. I love the label. "The label," a huge part of wine. Maybe my daughter can get into the business of designing wine labels. There are a lot of wineries in NNY.

Wedding Postage Stamps

What a touch.

The wedding ring stamp was on a response card for a wedding we are invited to in April, that post office just thinks of everything. I also like that they are thinking of discontinuing Saturday delivery. I would love not to have Saturday mail. Who wants to have to go thru bills and all that junk mail on the weekend?

Wordless Wednesday

Homemade Dish Cloths

Who wouldn't want to wash dishes or wipe down your counter top if you could open a draw like this?

A sample of dish cloths I received in the mail one day last week. They are handmade with cotton yarn, the cotton makes each cloth very absorbent, they work so well. They also match the colors in the kitchen perfectly. In fact they look so good at first I didn't want to use any.

34,616

I'm not sure if we beat a record at house but, we had 8 watching the game. Unlike the 34,616 at the dome, we all could see the court.

It was a very exciting game, especially at the end, we loved the final score. Now we have to wait until this afternoon to find out the national rankings. It would be fun to have that number 1 !