The weekend was fun but went too fast. Saturday was busy. I had a bunch of things to get out of the way, one of which was mounting photos to foam core board to enter in the fair. I had a photo to do a test mount with and that went....so so. Had to get Greg to help me and when we got it all done, there were air bubbles under the photo and some kind of sticky residue on the photo that would not come off. Greg announced that we would just have to take them to have them professionally mounted since he had no faith in our amateur abilities. After calling around we found a place to have it done and took them over. They might be ready tonight and I'm pretty excited to see how they turn out.

Sunday BBF Laura came over and we went to Greg's softball game and then to dinner. Laura surprised me with a copy of a book that features one of my photographs on the cover. The story goes, a few months ago she told me of an opportunity to take a photo for the cover of a book. I will admit that initially I wasn't very into the idea.....it took a little bit of convincing. What they needed was a mouthwatering smore photo. I did agree to see what we could come up with. We got in the kitchen and she pretty much made all the smores (many smores) and I just took pictures of the mouthwatering ones....ate a few, too. One did get selected for the cover ~ see it here. For someone who isn't trying very hard to get published, I'm not doing too shabby! Much of the thanks go to Laura for seeing the opportunity and suggesting it, making them, and supporting me during the process. There should be a line of credit for her as well....but since there isn't, I am giving it here ;) *Hugs to Laura*

Raspberry Suite Color Challenge 4

I'm entering Dawn McVey's Raspberry Suite Color Challenge.

I thought this card would be great for so many different things! Mostly any occasion you have for a man ~ birthday, I love you, I miss you, sorry, get well, father's day....anything really. The "woof" covers it all!

I used my Cricut with the Paper Pups cartridge. *Love* this cartridge! Everything on it is sooo cute! I also used a paw print for added interest to the background with versa mark ink. Greg picked the ribbon so if you ask him, that is what makes the card :) Hope you like it!

Color Inspiration Challenge #50

I'm entering Kristina Werner's Color Inspiration Challenge.

I made most of this card with help from my Cricut. The cartridge I used is called "Life's a Beach". I thought this "cocktail" would be perfect to use for the colors in the challenge. Everything was a bit flat so I added glitter from Martha Stewart's 24 pack of glitters. There is every color glitter in there. See the brown glitter I used? It's beautiful stuff. I also used a sheet of this yellow fibery "paper" that I frayed at the edges. Since it's pretty sheer, I put a yellow piece of card stock behind it because the red took too much away from the yellow color of it. I popped that up with foam dots. I cut a tiny slit in the fold of the card so the turquoise ribbon could wrap through the inside of the card. That's pretty much it. The close-ups show the glitters and texture of the brown card stock I used. Hope you like it!

Happy Oatmeal Cookie Day

Today is National Oatmeal Cookie Day. This calls for a recipe! I didn't want to give you the same old oatmeal cookie recipe, so after some searching I found the perfect thing! Enjoy!!

Oatmeal Cookie Pancakes

1 cup old fashioned oats
1 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 cup brown sugar
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
2 ounces, 1/4 cup, chopped walnuts
3/4 cup sour cream
3/4 cup whole milk
2 large eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 really ripe bananas, mashed up
3/4 cup raisins
1/2 stick butter (1/4 cup, melted, plus additional for buttering skillet)
Maple syrup or honey, for drizzling

Here's a great tip: if you cannot find really ripe bananas, just nuke them in the microwave for about 15 seconds and they will become super soft for mashing.

Mix dry ingredients, the first 7, in a bowl. In a another bowl, mix the wet ingredients, the next 4. Whisk the wet ingredients into the dry until just combined, then fold in the mashed up bananas and the raisins. Stir in the melted butter.

Heat a griddle over medium heat and brush with additional melted butter. Cook pancakes, each about 1/3 cup, until bubbles form on the top, then turn. Cakes will cook in about 2 minutes on each side. Keep pancakes tented with foil as they come off the griddle to keep them hot. Serve with drizzled honey or maple syrup over the top.

Good Karma

Greg called me this morning and said he was kind of sad. I asked why and he said he'd tried to save a little bird that got caught in some kind of trap....I didn't exactly understand what kind of trap it was. He got it out, but the little thing died in his hand. It is sad indeed. But he did a good thing in trying to rescue it and good karma will be his in return. He can take comfort knowing the bird isn't suffering or in pain now and it was better for it to die in his gentle hands and not the trap.

This reminds me of another story someone told me recently.....at that crave your own rubber stamp party I went to. A woman there was telling us about these neighbors she had who had a cat that was mean and unfriendly. It would come to her yard and she has an orange tree in her yard so when the cat would come over, she'd pick the rotten oranges off the ground and try to nail him with them.

**side note: Now.....would you be sweet and friendly if someone was trying to hit you with rotten fruit? Just sayin'...

Okay, anyway. The neighbors move and left the cat behind. Didn't care. Didn't want him.

**Another side note: So you think he had a good home where he was loved and taken care of? Just sayin'...

One day she was in her backyard and could see the cat trying to jump the fence from "his yard" to another yard. However, he was unable to get the strength to make it over. He gave up and laid down in shade. No one had moved into the house, so he had been alone over there for some time. She became concerned that he might not be eating or drinking enough....

**Uh.....ya think!??! Rolls eyes.

She got some food and water and took it over and he gratefully ate and drank. Eventually she let him call her garage his new home, tho it didn't sound like she ever considered him adopted or "her cat"....more like a cat that she let sleep in her garage and she fed it. Ok, so one day she has a BBQ and there are people mingling about....as is the cat. By the way, she named him Nasty.....I'm not even going to say anything about that. Alright, so a friend sees Nasty and walks over to pet him and pick him up. Just as she was picking him up, the woman blurts out a warning that the cat isn't friendly, blah, blah, blah. Except she cuts her warning short because the cat and woman are being all lovey-dovey....and the cat is purring up a storm. She said she has never been so shocked....this horrible cat was actually being nice to this woman. I asked her if the woman had adopted him....and sadly, she had not. He lived his life in her garage until the day he died of old age. She said mean cats live the longest. As far as luck goes, Nasty was lucky she took pity on him and gave him what she did. He could have been homeless and died of starvation or some other horrible death, so what he had was good.

HOWEVER, it was very hard for me not to point out a few things to her (people quite often do not appreciate my honest views on things). I wanted to ask her if she had ever tried to be nice to this cat....like pet it or something. It was good of her to feed and house him, I'm totally giving her that, but had she tried to be affectionate? I think we all know the answer....I mean, she named him Nasty. A part of me feels bad that the cat probably didn't have much in the way of affection in his life, but much more of me is happy that she did what she did and made his life comfortable. I just think that if she had taken that extra step with him, both she and the cat would have gained so much more from their "relationship".

Here is the "life calendar" according to Martha Stewart's team of doctors. Find your age and then you'll see what you should have and then, of course, you should have also had everything prior to that, too. I have had all but 5 of the 17 things listed for 40 and younger. I think that's pretty good....but hopefully one of those 5 things isn't all out of whack!

Ok, yesterday I told the lost debit card story and mentioned that I was there to pick-up some photos and that I would elaborate on that later. So now is later....er....now is the later I said I'd tell you....oh never mind ~ here's the story.

I am submitting photos for the San Diego Fair, aka the Del Mar fair, again. I didn't think I would, but I let a year pass and that was enough time to get over the unfortuneateness of not even having my photos displayed. If you are curious about what photos I entered before, you can read my post about it here.

So these are the ones I am submitting this year:





Abby brought me good luck with the SPCA calendar, so I am hoping she will do it again. The sunset is just one of the best I think I have ever taken because the glow of the sun runs right up to the edge of the tide.

Both are very risky to enter because they get thousands of sunsets and thousands of pet photos and yours better be pretty good to edge out everyone else. But they are both good from a technical stand point, which is the most important element. The ones I entered last time both had issues and I should not have entered either of them. I really wanted the one of Laura and I to get in, but the color balance was a problem from the minute I downloaded them. I just turned a blind eye to it over and over again. So that's what I learned from the whole experience.....be honest with myself about what is wrong with the photo and don't enter one that isn't technically "on". They will boot you out of the running the minute they see a technical flaw and won't think twice about it.

One thing I am doing this time is mounting the photos myself. Last time I paid someone and it was expensive!! I got some good advice from the guy at the art store and also read some stuff online, so we will see how I do. One shot to get it on straight.....so no pressure on myself or anything. *sighs*

Saturday was one of those days.

Greg was in Vegas playing softball and I had some errands to run. I got up early and headed out around 10am. I had to go downtown to Nelson Photo pick up some prints (more on that in another post). There was a street fair going on and by the time I got down there, they were only just setting up their booths. Parking, however, was already bad. Nelson Photo is smack in the middle of one of the streets they had closed off so I ended up parking about 5 blocks away. I loaded the parking meter with 1 hours worth of change and headed off. I got my photos and got back to my car with 23 minutes left. I was pretty pleased with myself for getting in and out of there so fast. Traffic was picking up and as soon as people noticed I was leaving, I became very popular. Now I was on my way to the grocery store. Pull in and park and I remember telling myself "I'm so glad I got those photos out of the way....". Then I went in a did my grocery shopping. I ended up standing the longest check out lane....but so what, I was just going home when I was done and I didn't have anywhere to be. The checker gets to me and I pull out my wallet to get my discount card thing and....my debit card wasn't there.

"WAIT!" I told the checker before she scanned anything else.

She stood there looking at me while I franticly looked everywhere possible for my debit card. I told her I had to go to my car and they unscanned the 3 items and put everything back in my cart and told me they would hold it for me. I ran to my car and looked all over, but it wasn't there. AMAZINGLY, I had my cell phone and it was charged. I usually never have it, and if I do, it's never changed. So I called Nelson's and am just beside myself thinking there is some person running around the street fair buying bratwurst and beer with my debit card (I saw 2 bratwurst vendors). I ask the person who answered if they had my card and they said they would check. Seemed like forever waiting and I figured they didn't have it since....you'd think they would know if they had a debit card there that someone left. Turns out they did have it......thank goodness!!!! But now came the realization I had to go back there. It was 1pm and it was going to be a mad house. There was no way I would get a parking space. And I used all the change I had for the meter when I was down there earlier. So I had to go home and get a bucket of change since I would undoubtedly have to park 100 miles away. When I got home, I rounded up all the change I could find and then just sat on my bed for like....10 minutes. It was just going to be such a pain in the ass with the traffic and all to walk in and walk back out. And I had zero interest in the street fair. So I called Nelson's again and asked for advice on where to park. Downtown is horrible because it is mostly all one way streets and, of course, there is no free parking. So the woman who rang me up at the register got on the phone with me when she found out I was calling. She said she felt bad for not giving me my card back and said if I could somehow pullover on the block that was 2 streets up from them and call her, she would run up on foot and find me and give me my debit card. Honestly, I told her I loved her. That was sooo nice of her to do. After much stop and go traffic, I finally go back over there and pulled over at the first red curb I saw when I was within 2 street radius she told me to be in. I called and told her where I was and waited hoping one of many policemen they had directing traffic would not ticket me. The story has a happy ending....and I got my debit card back safe and sound with no ticket. An hour later I was back in the checkout lane at the grocery store. They had put all my stuff back assuming I wasn't coming back, but that was ok.....I wasn't even sure I was going back. But we needed toilet paper....so....you know.

Why do people pick their noses right where you can see them doing it? Like.....right in front of you. I don't understand.

And, some people are just loud. They walk loud (you can hear them clomping a mile away), talk loud, slam and bang things...just loud over all. Do they not care or do they just not know? I don't understand how they cannot know they are loud. Maybe I am loud and don't know it...? Except, I know I don't clomp because I can walk up to people and they don't know I'm behind them. And when I order food, they never can hear me...

And smelly people. Come on....you can't smell that you....smell?

Anyway.

Now I give you....Maple Bacon Cupcakes! I know, I know.....who, what and why the heck. But if you try them, let me know how they are.

Maple Bacon Cupcakes

10 thick strips of uncooked bacon (drippings will be used; you want a
half cup minced)
2 1/2 cups cake flour
1 TB plus 1 3/4 tsp baking powder
2 tsp baking soda
1 1/4 tsp salt
1 TB bacon drippings (from the above)
1/2 cup plus 1 TB (a little over one stick) butter
1/2 cup plus 2 TB brown sugar (this is just under 2/3 cup)
1/2 cup maple syrup
2 eggs
1/2 cup milk

Preheat the oven to 350F.

Fry up the bacon. Put 1 TB of the drippings (try to get the little
brown bits) in the fridge (if you plan ahead) or the freezer for ~7
minutes (if you don't). If you want a nice garnish, make about 18
1/4"-1/3" slices from the ends of the fried up bacon and save for
later. Chop the remaining bacon into ~1/4 inch square pieces until
you have half a cup. You can chop some more finely for a garnish if
you are making mini cupcakes. Also I reserve an 1/2 or 3/4 tsp of
bacon for sprinkling in when I scrape down the mixing bowl at the end
so the last cupcake has a good amount of bacon. Munch any additional
bacon, or set aside to dip in leftover frosting later. Mmm, maple
bacon candy.

Mix the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt in a bowl and set
aside. (if you substitute regular flour, sift it into the bowl)

Beat the solidified bacon fat with the butter on high, scraping the
sides of the bowl as needed, until the mixture is fluffy and almost
white in color.

Add the eggs and beat at medium-high speed until combined.

Add the maple syrup and the brown sugar and beat well (when this
sits, it may look slightly separated due to the acidity of the maple
syrup). Be very careful if you decide to increase the maple syrup, as
it may break the batter.

With the mixer on its lowest speed, add 1/3 of the flour, half of the
milk, 1/3 of the flour, the other half of the milk, and the last
third of the flour, mixing just to combine.

Fill cupcakes ~3/4 full. If you set aside a little extra chopped
bacon, add that back when you do the final scrape of the bowl so that
the last cupcake is not lacking in tasty bacon goodness. Bake at 350
for 9 minutes, rotate the pan, and bake for an additional 9-12
minutes (18-21 minutes), until a toothpick comes out pretty clean.

*** Let cool for at least an hour before frosting. ***


For Frosting:
-------------
1/2 cup (1 stick) butter
1/4 cup maple syrup
2 cups powdered sugar
demerara sugar (optional but strongly recommended; you could use
turbinado
if you don't think it tastes like the northbound end of a southbound
yak)
coarse sea salt (optional but strongly recommended)
small slice of bacon or a few sprinkles chopped bacon per cupcake
(optional)

Beat the sugar and maple syrup on high until well combined. With the
mixer on a lowish setting, add the powdered sugar. Once it is all in
the bowl, turn the mixer to high and beat for 4-5 minutes, until
light and fluffy.

Apply frosting to cupcakes (a little goes a long way as it is quite
sweet), sprinkle on demerara sugar (optional) , sprinkle on coarse
sea salt (optional), and top with a bacon slice or a sprinkling of
finely chopped bacon (optional).

This post is dedicated to BFF Laura.....pictures AND content!

Last night I went to a "birthday party/craft circle" for my old boss. Every year for like....the last 20 years, she has had a huge birthday party at a park and everyone she knows goes to it. It's become an annual party people expect and at least 100 people, sometimes more, show up. It was fun for her for a long time, but she grew tired of it because of all the prep. Plus, sometimes she wanted to do something else, but people had become so used to going every year and she got some flack when it came out she wasn't doing it anymore.

Breaking News: This has nothing to do with what I am posting about, but as I was typing, the lizard hunter (Calvin) got a lizard and was trotting around the house with it.......I swear, bain of my existence.

Anyway, back to the birthday party. She got sick one year and wasn't able to have the party....and people could not fault her for that. The next year she laid low and made out of town plans. This year she wanted to stay in town and just have a very small party and do what she wanted to do. And that was have a craft circle. She invited about 10 people and the craft she had for people to try was carving their own rubber stamps. I was a little....ummm.....not so interested in this because it is tedious and I have a short fuse for mistakes. The other part of this is, there's a woman who has been doing this for a while and she was there. She's of the opinion that using manufactured rubber stamps is stealing other people's work. I could go on and on about how much this annoys me, but I won't. I'll just say she and I do not see eye to eye on the subject. I also don't brag like she does. *rolls eyes*

So I carved my very first stamps! Think "home spun" ;)

These are the 3 stamps I made.



Ignore the terrible photo....I took it inside on my desk with my horrible little desk lamp. But there you can see all 3 stamped with green ink. The square one has weird little squiggles on it and that's because the rubber was embossed with the manufactures logo on it....so that isn't part of the design. Remember.....home spun.

If I ever become a famous, I can eBay them for a small fortune!

There you go, Laura. A story, breaking news flash about a lizard and pictures....er....picture!

If you watch Survivor, you have to read this....it's hilarious!

Jeff's Blog

Abby

Abby's impersonation of a lamb
Originally uploaded by photo kitten.

This is an old picture of Abby that just kills me. I think she looks like a cross between a lamb and a nun with one of those old style nun's habit.