Hidden Objects

The theme for photography this week was Hidden Objects. I took pictures of several things, but finally decided on the china hidden in the china cabinet. One of my dear daughters took the key outside one day, and it has never seen the inside of the house since. We actually did eat off that china too. What are we going to do when we move?

Need for Speed

Silly Answer to Prayer

Yesterday was soccer Saturday. During our oldest daughter's game, I had received a phone call on the cell phone and stepped away from the crowd to talk. While I was talking on the phone, our six year old daughter took my camera (with permission) and took MANY pictures of the game. During one portion of the game our oldest daughter got tripped and flipped in the air. I wished that I had had my camera and had been able to capture the moment. Much to my delight, as I was going through the pictures that my six year old took, I came across one she captured of my older daughter as she was in the air when she got tripped. I went ahead and deleted all the unneeded pictures off my SD card. As I was in the process of deleting pictures, I somehow deleted the one picture that I was so excited about. I was sick. I prayed, "Lord, is there some way you can get that picture back for me?" Then I thought, there's no way that you can recover a deleted picture on a SD card; almost at the same instant I felt regret that I couldn't trust the Lord to do a "little" impossible thing but then thought I was just thinking silly and went on to practice piano for a church offertory the next morning. As I was practicing, the thought popped into my head, "Why don't I look up on the internet and see if I can some how recover a deleted picture?" I told my husband what I was going to do. Since he's more computer savy than I am, he did all the work for me, and I'm happy to report that I have my picture back after he got the free download from this website. Thank you, Lord, for answering my prayer in spite of my unbelief.

Here's the picture

Window light

The theme this week was to use only light from windows to light a picture. Here's my little poser girl lit by the light coming from our sliding glass door.

First Thing in the Morning

The little boy that I babysit and I water my flowers every morning before my own children get up.

Princess for a Day

The theme this week was Princess for a day. My daughter loves the princess Rapunzel. If you've seen the movie Tangled, you'll understand the frying pan.

Amazing Grace

I used to think that the song "Amazing Grace" wasn't so applicable to me as it was to the "down and out" person who had accepted Christ as their personal Savior. The more I travel down the road of life, I realize how applicable the song really is to me. It's only by God's Amazing Grace that I've never been down and out. It's by His grace that I was reared in a Christian home. It's by His grace that I had parents that loved me. It's by His grace that I am where I am today. One of my favorite sayings is "But for the grace of God go I."

MCP Actions

Photography is something that I have always been interested in. I guess that's because my dad took a lot of interesting pictures and turned them into slides that we would sometimes watch as a family. About a year or two ago, I was given a camera that would allow me to expand my knowledge and interest in photography. I really did not know that there was so much to learn. One day, one of my sisters and I were talking about my new hobby and she suggested a good site for me to look at. She even sent me the link on Facebook. The only problem was that I got busy and forgot to look at the link.

About a month or two ago, a college friend told me about some sites giving away cute templates for Valentine's. I had never heard of the sites, and didn't know their web addresses. I Googled their names hoping for some sort of result so I wouldn't have to look stupid and ask my friend exactly what she was talking about. Yea for Google and success!! One of the sites was MCP Actions...the same site my sister had told me about but I had not looked at. This time though I was hooked. I love looking at what their different actions can do for photos. I love reading all the different helpful articles on the blog (especially this one on photographing at midday). The video tutorials have been a big help with my Photoshop non experience, and taking a picture a week according to a theme has definitely helped stretch my photographic thinking.

Photography this Week

The theme for this week was "Out of the Jewelry Box." I rescued a poor, dilapidated frog that I had thrown in the back of my husband's truck to go to the dump, and dressed her up in jewelry. I think the pictures turned out pretty cute. Maybe I think that because I put a lot of time into it. Now the question is, should I put the armless, eyeless, jump ropeless frog back in the truck to go to the dump?

The theme for this week's photo was darks and lights. I thought these coffee cups were appropriate.

Childhood Toys

Who doesn't remember these? The one on the right was given to me by my grandmother and aunt when I was ten.

Banana Bread Gluten Free and Regular

I had a few banana's that were too brown to eat but would be great to make banana bread with. My son had been begging me for a Gluten Free snack, so I gave in and baked him some banana bread. It really turned out to be a snack for the whole family. It went so quickly I didn't even have time to take a picture!

Here is the original recipe:
1/2 cup shortening
1 cup sugar
2 eggs
1 1/2 cups flour
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
1 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp nutmeg (optional)
1/4 cup milk
2 medium bananas mashed
1/2 cup chopped nuts (optional)

Combine all ingredients in one bowl.
Put into greased 9x5 pan.
Bake at 350 for 50- 60 minutes.

Here is the DAIRY FREE, NUT FREE, GLUTEN FREE recipe

1/4 cup oil
1 cup sugar
2 eggs
1 1/2 cup Hodgson Mill Multi Purpose Baking Mix pictured above (I found it at Wal-Mart)
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
1 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp nutmeg ( I did not use)
1/4 cup water
2 medium bananas mashed

Combine all ingredients in one bowl.
Put into greased 9x5 loaf pan.
Bake at 350 for 50- 60 minutes.

Look What my Mom Made Me.

We live in a house where our washer and dryer are out in the utility room under the carport. I don't always have time to immediately get to the clean clothes; and most of the time, they pile up on my couch. I usually can keep up with the folding, but the clothes that need ironing sit on the couch for quite a while before I get to them. My mom found this plan and altered it to my wishes. I LOVE IT. She put rollers on the bottom, and the door is painted with chalkboard paint both inside and out. My clothes are still in the living room along with our homeschooling stuff, but now we can sit on the couch! Thanks, Mom.

3D snowflake

Our kids made 3D snowflakes at their homeschool group meeting yesterday. Here's a link on how you can make them too.

My View from Here.

I joined a flickr group that committed to take one new picture a week. The theme for this week is "My View From Here."
This was my view as I looked out the front door window yesterday.

Carrot Cake

When I was growing up, my mom was truly a health food
person before it was so popular to be a part of the health food world. We did not have junk food. We did not have bleached flour or white rice, nor did we have refined sugar. Our peanut butter was the kind that was made purely of peanuts and needed the oil stirred in before you could use it. On occasion, we even had our peanut butter freshly ground from peanuts at GNC. When there was a potluck dinner at church, she still cooked healthfully. From time to time, she would try something that was to our childish eyes and tastebuds, completely outlandish and disgusting. And, yes, we would get embarrassed when our classmates looked at our lunch and say, "Ewww! What is that?!"
Imagine my chagrin and embarrassment when my mom decided to do a kind deed for an older batchlor in our church and make him a carrot cake. WHO had ever heard of CARROTS in a CAKE? I sure hadn't, and I thought surely she was going overboard trying to push her healthly living lifestyle off on this poor guy. It was not til many years later that I discovered that there really is such a thing as carrot cake, and it really is delicious! In fact my husband's grandmother could make the most wonderful carrot cake in the world for our birthdays. She has passed away, but we are still able to enjoy the recipe.

Here it is:
2 c sugar
1.5 c oil
4 eggs
2 c flour
2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp vanilla extract
2 tsp cinnamon
.5 tsp salt
1 c chopped pecans (opt)
3 c shredded carrots
(I've heard that you should not use the pre-shredded carrots)

Mix dry ingredients. Add vanilla and eggs. Add carrots. Add oil, and mix well. Pour into 3 greased and floured 8 inch round pans. Bake at 350 for 30 minutes.

Frosting:
8 oz cream cheese (softened)
16 oz box powdered sugar
1 stick butter (softened)
1 tsp vanilla
1 c chopped pecans

Blend cream cheese, butter, and vanilla. Add powdered sugar and blend well. Mix in pecans. Frost the cakes after they are cooled.
Sometimes I double the frosting recipe so I'll have plenty of frosting.


My husband just had his birthday, and I of all people made a cake with CARROTS in it! Here is a picture looking at him through the cloud of smoke from his candles that he blew out.

It all started with a "quick" run to the grocery store. I was doing really good getting all the kids in the vehicle while I was loading groceries. I had to be home very quickly and have supper on the table right away in order for my husband and son to get to their Cub scout meeting on time. As I was throwing groceries in the back, I was planning what I would throw on the table.

In the mean time, one of my daughters decided to climb in the driver's seat and start messing with all the controls. At the advice of my oldest daughter, the one in the driver's seat decided to turn on the GPS that my husband had received for Christmas.
I finally got the groceries loaded, and put the cart away, and jumped into the driver's seat. After I thought I had fixed all the driver's controls, I dialed my husband to tell him I would be home shortly. At the same time I was talking to my husband, I was pulling out of the grocery store parking lot. All of the sudden a larger than life voice spoke up. "TURN RIGHT!" said the man on the GPS. Whoa! That scared me, and I could not hear my husband. I started grabbing for wires to unplug the GPS only to realize it was not plugged in. Meanwhile the thing was still barking out directions to my house. I did NOT need to know how to get home. I started yelling at the kids, "How do you turn this thing off?!"
"It's the button on top, Mom" they all said.
Holding the phone with my shoulder, and the steering wheel with one hand, I started pounding the top of the GPS with my other hand to turn the stupid thing off. No success there. At the same time I was pounding, I looked up to see a telephone pole right at the corner of the passenger side windsheild. I swerved. Too late. I was scraping a mailbox that was right next to the telephone pole. Off came the mirror. Sccrraaape it went across the door. Thud it hit the ground.
Let's just say that when it was all over, there was a crying mom and four crying children in the back seats.
Today, our vehicle is in the body shop for a week. If we keep this kind of thing up, we'll have a whole new body for our vehicle. We have already had a new windshield and a new bumper. Never in my life have I had a vehicle in the body shop until this one. Oh, and lesson number two. Don't cancel your car rental insurance to save $3.00 a month. You just might need it one day. :D

She's Unique

We wanted four children so we would not have a middle child. What we didn't count on was having three of the four children being girls. The picture above is of our middle daughter. She is so different from our other children that one of our friends often says about her, "Which one of these is not like the others?" She loves to pose, she loves to dress up, and she is much smarter than she appears. :)

She also comes up with some of the funniest ways to say things. The other day when I became concerned about a spot where a tick bite had been, she asked me, "Mom, are you going to Google 'How ticks get on you and cause an infection and make you die.com?'"

In the above photo, I was taking 10 year pictures of her brother. His props were a camo outfit and his new gun for one set of pictures, and a cowboy outfit and gun for another set of pictures. She decided she needed in on the action, grabbed a broken gun, sat on a stump, and put on this pose with no prompting from me. In fact, she demanded that I take the picture. I'm glad I did because it turned out pretty well.

Pottery

We have a friend who makes the beautiful pottery pictured above. If you are interested in any of his products, his price list is shown below. Here is a link to his personal website. He does have a contact link so you can get in touch with him personally.

I would post a picture of my chicken cooker, but it's locked in my china cabinet, and the key has been lost by my daughter.

Chicken Cooker (11in x 5in)

30.00

Pie plates (9 in rd)

20.00

Cornbread baker (9in rd)

20.00

Single Stem Apple Baker (5in rd)

12.00

Two Stem Apple Baker

16.00

Brie baker (8in round)

18.00

Chip & Dip Platter (12in)

33.00

Spoon rest (3in round)

4.00

Colander (10in x 5in)

28.00

Berry colanders (5 in x 5in

14.00

Utensil holder (5in x 8in)

18.00

Lg. Pedestal bowl

48.00

Sm. Pedestal bowl

24.00

Lg. Pedestal cake platter

48.00

Sm. Pedestal cake platter

24.00

Platters (18in)

100.00

(24in)

185.00

Large display bowl

30.00

Small display bowl

20.00

Dinner plate (10in round)

26.00

Dessert plate (5 inch round)

14.00

Pasta plate (10in round)

26.00

Salad bowl (5in with ½ rim)

14.00

Cereal bowl (5in round)

12.00

Drinking cup (8oz)

8.00

(12oz)

12.00

Sm. Flower pot with tray

18.00

Lg. Flower pot with tray

36.00

Flower bucket (5in x 6in)

24.00

Small Flower vase

16.00

Lg. Flower vases

32.00

Taxes: 7.75%

Walgreens Photo Special

Until November 20th, you can get 30 4x6 prints from Walgreens ONLINE for $3.00 if you use the coupon code PASSALONG.