Time to be creative

This week, I wanted to show a few created items around the house. The necklace was done by me and the stained glass and fused glass flower holder was created by my wonderful wife Vivian.

Etched copper necklace with Sterling silver rivets.

My wife's fused glass flower holder, to hang in the window.

Her stained glass project in beginning stages.

Not quite half done setting the glass and lead.

Say What?

I thought I would try something new this time. I have a couple of photos that I have cropped. Do you think you know what it is? 

Click for a larger view.

Within 200 feet of my back door

I decided to try and focus on things around the house this week. Right outside my back door.

My back fence is watching me.

Some pollen falling on old pressed ceiling tiles.

I really like what the sun does to the leaves.

Random Fall Colors

I decided to take a trip back in time (last fall) when it is soooo enjoyable to sit outside in the sun.

Click on photo's to magnify.

Downtown Tempe as the sun sets.

I really liked the shadows.

Tomatoes to be.

Book VS Nook

 This is my first review on a product so here it goes. If it is needed, I do not work for any of these companies nor receive payment of any sort. (I guess that makes it official now but if anyone wants to start paying me, I am alright with that).

I am a BIG book person. I find them everywhere. You can find me walking around at a “new” book store browsing through the books and magazines-just checking things out. I also love going to a used book store and finding treasures I have not read yet for half price or less. I can even spend hours at the library just wondering around. Yard sales are even better since I may pay .25 to .50 a book and discover a new author. Since I have many books, I need book shelves to hold them all and a few at that.

I love to read. A good book will take me places. As I read the words, I also see the characters interact, the cities they live in and the world or worlds they travel to. This is almost as good as going to the movies.

I enjoy opening a book for the first time, smell the paper and ink, feel the texture of the cover and the anticipation of starting this particular gem. I will read a favorite book a few times. I know I have memorized some of them.   On the other hand, I am not crazy about when they get older, the color of the paper changes a little, the font is too small-or shrinking on me in my old age and the worst thing is when the book starts to falls apart.

Books have been a big part of my life, until last Friday when I purchased a Nook Touch E-reader. I know, I know, an electronic gadget to read a book? Why would anyone want to do that? Well, let me tell you why. I usually do not read just 1 book at a time. I have had up to 4 or 5 going at once. That sometimes is hard to keep track of when the marker falls out and you forget what page you were on. Also, when going on vacation, I would need to pick only a few books I wanted to bring with me. They are a little heavy. Also the text on some of the books are a little small.

Well, I did research and between all the popular book readers: Kindle, Nook, Nook color, Kobo, Sony and one from Google that just came out. I have a membership to Consumer reports plus reading quite a few reviews on the net. The top 2 in consumer reports and most reviews that I have read were for the Kindle and the Nook. They both are great readers and compare closely.

The Nook Touch finally won out due to a long battery life (both Nook and Kindle have up to 60 days per charge-the Nook color was 8 hours). Also you could rent books from the library and put them on the Nook – the Kindle does not have this option yet but there is to be an update to their software at a later date. The Nook does offer WiFi but not 3G. I can also add my own PDF files on it to read. The font size on both can be adjusted since we all know how it shrinks when we age.

I have only had it for a few days but LOVE it so far. It is easy to navigate on and the touch screen is very nice. The thing I am loving the most on the Nook is I can be reading multiple books at one time and put them on a “book shelf” to keep track of them. When I open any book, it automatically goes back to the last page that I read so no more bent pages or lost book markers.

Presently I have around 50 books (both free and purchased) and even can download samples of books to try them out before I buy. The Nook weighs less a little more than a pound with the case I purchased and not much bigger than a paperback so super easy to take on a vacation and I don’t have to decide between which one I want to bring with me.

I have not totally given up on Books and magazines. I will still keep some and convert a few of my favorites to an electric copy and then start buying less of them. I still see them hanging around for future generations.

If you have not fallen asleep by now, let me know what your view on this is. 

Random Vacation Photo's

I decided to look through my older photos and noticed I have a lot of them- 7433 plus another file folder.

I decided to pick some various photos of past vacations so everyone gather around for photo time. No no no, don't be shy, grab a seat.

This fern was getting ready to unleash itself in Hawaii.

We were driving over a bridge in New Hampshire and had to stop and take a photo.

 

Finally the Lincoln Memorial in Washington DC.

Another random act of photography - 3

Today I have one from my garden earlier in the year and a few from Pebble Beach in California. Click on the photos for a larger picture.

Sometimes I get a little bugged.

We had a problem with aphids and tried some lady bugs in the garden. They took over this sunflower for the day.

This boulder had many little crevices from all the water and thought it was a fun picture.

 This is on Pebble beach during our trip up the coastline. It was beautiful here.

My attempt using my macro setting. It is now my background picture on my computer.

I have moved around my jewelry studio and hope to show some new pieces soon. All I need is some motivation, motivation & more time in the day.

Random acts of photography 2

More random photos from around the states.

I found these along the California coast last year.

 

 

 

It was so colorful but the pavement was very broken up. It almost looked like someone re-pained it after the cracking.

 

I just liked the way this looked. A little beat up.

Random acts of photography

Every photographer has some of those photos that they just liked something about them. Maybe it was the colors, could be the way the shadows hit the subject or that something inside me just decided that I need to take a picture of that.

Some of these may not be my "best-favorite" pictures but for most of them I just got that Hmmmmmmm moment and decided I needed to take the shot and see what comes out.

So I decided to name these Random Acts of Photography and to try and post some once a week and see how it goes.

A little chocolate anyone?

I played with some of the shots in photoshop.

 I woke up to an interesting design on an old serving tray.

The light was shining through the window and right through a colander we use for the garden.

My garden is winding down

Summer is here. It is not a good thing. My plants are demanding Air Conditioning or else.

This is the time that my garden starts winding down. I try and put shade cloth and give them more water but 112 degrees is still hot no mater what. It has cooled down to a lovely 104 today.

The onions are winding down and time to pick.

They will cure for up to 2 weeks.

They smell great and taste wonderful. I will plant these again.

Unfortunately my tomatoes are failing fast. There are still some on the vine but not sure how much longer they can take it. My wife has been picking them and they are wonderful.

My compass does not only point north.

I feel I have temporarily lost my way. Well, maybe just misplace it somewhere. I have taken a long break and need to change things up a little.


So I guess I am in the market for a really good compass to help me find my way again. Not just any average one that only points to north. I am looking for the really COOL electronic one. (kind of like the Swiss army knife version).

I did find one last month that has really started to help me out. Here are a few of the uses it has done in the last 2 weeks: I have found north, a particular address, I am able to see the stars in the sky even in daylight and helps me find my way in the dark. It keeps me from forgetting important dates, my to do’s and even when to exercise. I can be entertained by listening to music, watching a movie or tv show, take photos or even helping out some really upset avian’s on a rampage (Angry Birds game).

I did this all by upgrading to a smart phone from t-mobile. It is a Mytouch 4g. This is a wonderful phone and there are a lot of great apps that come with it or that can be added on later, even for free. I plan to use this to keep me more motivated with my blog and my jewelry.

It did inspire me to get this on the blog. I will try and submit more, shorter posts using the phone’s capabilities of pictures and text. We will see.

Oh, and by the way, did I mention you can even talk on it as well??

test 2

Second attempt.

Time?

Where does all the time go??? Is it the same place that lost socks vanish to or the lids to the food containers in the kitchen drawers disappear? Could it be a black hole? I mean it took me over a week to write all of this.


Maybe it could be a not so unusual condition called the “Crafters Trance”, where you get so involved in a project that time, behind your back, moves the clock hands just a little farther ahead than it should be. It happens to me all the time. I know it has happened to you as well, come on. Admit it.
I think I will need to start a coalition within the crafting community! I will call it

“ALARM”

Against   Losing   Any   Real   Minutes

We will have to get a logo and membership buttons, send out fliers and…..…… hmmm, I just ran out of time again so I guess I will have to try this another day.
I am very impressed with how everyone (except me) who can have a blog, keep up with said blog, make fun and amazing items (or live interesting and adventurous lives-you know who you are Gigantic Beauty) and still have time for everything else. I bow to all of your incredibleness.

I have been trying to do just that but I just finished with a show at the Willo Home Tour which just down the street from my house (my best show ever) on Feb 14 and then turn around and make more items for my next show on Saturday March 5th for the 10th annual Melrose on 7th ave street fair M7. Both of the shows were wonderful and I did really well at both but now I am tired and my shop is really, REALLY in bad condition. Organization is a skill that I really need help with.

I am going to share my time between jewelry and an e-class that combines photography and photoshop to get wonderful results that I hope to incorporate into designing a new business card. It is called Lost Aussie on the loose. I noticed this class in another blog that I like to read and they were giving away 2 spots to the class and I won one of those spots.  I will inclued some pictures in a few days once I get the hang of all this.


And finally a sad note that I also feel a need to mention on is about all that is going on in Japan. My heart goes out to the country and those people who are going through this unfortunate tragedy. I hope everyone will say a prayer for these people.

Magic chicken

Per my previous post I mentioned my magic pampered chef covered pan and decided to share 2 photos with you to PROVE it really works.

This one is with all my vegies cut up and seasoning on top. Right after this, I put on a few boneless thighs and a few breast strips with some more spices.

This is how it turned out after 17 minutes. IN THE MICROWAVE!

Alright, I do impress easily but it was very good.

I had finally found something on Craigslist that I have been searching for. A simple anvil. Just a big lump of really hard metal.  I have been using one of those small metal blocks to hammer metal on to but  Sometimes I need something a little more sturdy so my hammer does not bounce so much. I found this small 35lb anvil which is not very big (compared to the hammer next to it) and it was pretty rusty. I took a grinder to the top and horn and finally some different sandpapers to it to try and polish the top up a little.

This works great. I hope to have some new stuff up shortly.

Starting off the year right

I guess diets really do work after all. I have lost 6 pounds in a little over a week. I have the perfect snack food that you can eat as much as you want and keep losing weight. My personal favorite is peanuts. Just a little bit of salt does wonders.

You can buy them in bulk and they come in different colors but I like blue the best. I ordered something off of Ebay and received a bunch for FREE.

I did learn that my scale LIES. It told me that I had gained some of it back the other day. I think I will need to buy a new one now.

Now for something a little more serious. Have any of you ever fallen for purchased one of those amazing magical cooking solutions from the TV or the internet and then tried it and not been as impressed???  I did own a Ronco Dehydrator at one time.

Well, I was invited to a Pampered Chef party and I do like some of their products. During the presentation, the Pampered chef hostess was using of their stoneware cookwear line, the Deep Covered Baker pan. We watched this woman put in different vegetables and then raw chicken breasts on top, added some spices and then put the top on and in the microwave it went for 15 minutes. MICROWAVE??

We all know what happens when you put in any kind of meat into a microwave. It gets dry, rubbery and very tough.

Her chicken turned out very tender and flavorful-so good that I ended up buying one.  SO I bring it home, wash it and then try one of the many recipes that came with it (White Chicken Chili) and it had white and dark chicken in it. Wanna guess what happened???

IT WAS INCREDIBLE and only took about 15-20 minutes total.

It works both in the microwave and in the oven. I have made a total of 3 dinners and all in the microwave. I am going to try beef next.

Let me know if you have found anything that works much better or worse than advertised.

RESET button

Hello everyone.

I know most of you probably thought you would not hear from me again but here I am. This past year had some really great times and a few setbacks but didn't we all. I have done pretty good with my jewelry shows and the last one was the best.

Starting in 2011, I am hitting the RESET button and I am going to shake things up. My plan this year is to take a jewelry class at a local community college (starting in 2 weeks at night), come up with some really different and fun designs, loose weight, keep up with my garden and design a new business card & logo.

This is all a little ambitious but whatever is worth doing is worth overdoing :)  I will try and keep this updated once a week or so.

Happy new year.

P.S. Please share any new years resolutions you are planning to try this year.