This & That

The Checklist

Clothes? Check.
Toothbrush? Check.
Home canning? Check. (Man I hope those peanuts it's packed in do their job!)
Pain meds....just in case?  Check.
Photos? Check.
Adhesive? Yep, there's my ATG gun right on top.
Then I'm outta here. :)
 

The Beginning of the 5th Season

Fruit is starting to become available at various stands and markets.  Thus begins the beginning of the 5th season at my house.  In addition to spring, summer, fall and winter, we have canning season and hunting season.  For some reason this year, we are low on practically everything.  Usually there are years that we are low on this or that.  Rarely are we low on absolutely everything that we store.

So apricots are on here and this means that I've bottled some Apricot/Pineapple Jam.  It's one of DH's favorites.  Of course, anything that combines fruit and copious quantities of sugar would fall into that category.  Doesn't it just look like summertime in a bottle?

Blueberries are in season as well and Fred Meyer had them on sale this week, so 5 pounds of blueberries went into the freezer.

Stone Update

I think we may have turned the corner in this whole saga.  I haven't had pain since Monday early morning and am feeling much better.  Fingers are crossed that the little stone has passed and that I'm done with this whole deal.
It's a good thing, too.  I'm supposed to hop on a plane tomorrow and head to much more southern and humid climates for a few days.  I am meeting a friend and we are going to a part of the Craft & Hobby Association show in Orlando. I am leaving the dry mid-90 degree weather here and exchanging it for a more moist mid-80's.  Here's hoping I don't melt.

There Is Something Worse Than Childbirth

Yes, there is.  The strange UTI symptoms I have been experiencing evolved into a stabbing, ripping left back and side pain.  I spent a couple of hours in the ER  getting some IV morphine and a CT scan which confirmed that I have a kidney stone that has almost made it to the bladder, but not quite. 

So I am drinking lots of water, taking an occasional Percocet (although they make me a little nauseated) and am waiting no-so-very-patiently for the appearance of a 2.2 mm stone.
All in all, I'd rather have a baby.

Monday Musing

I had to speak in church yesterday.  All the moms in the ward that have missionary sons were asked to take a few minutes and talk about how things are going with them.  As church talks go, this was not a hardship.  I know my kid, he dutifully emails weekly updates and I can get up there and semi-tearfully give a report of his progress.
But it really got me  thinking about his progress....the changes I've seen in him during the 13 months he's been gone....how the boy is disappearing and the man is emerging.
It's always a double-edged sword kind of thing.  You look forward to the growth and change that this kind of experience gives, but there's always a little nostalgic looking backwards remembering precious childhood moments.  Sigh. Yeah.
I've had the idea to scrap this photo for a year now.  Finally got it done.

Easing Back Into Real Life

My staycation is coming to an end.   I know this because I actually had to think about what was in the house in anticipation of the horde coming home.  And decided I needed to make bread or there would literally be nothing to eat.

And while I didn't accomplish everything I would have liked, it was a wonderfully quiet week with no real demands on my time.
However, wonderful quiet can be a little eerie when you're used to constant motion in a house. 
They were supposed to be home late last night, but they didn't make the trek out of the mountains in time to get the job done, so will be arriving sometime today.
The positives to this:

• They will be home safe and sound
• Someone else will be feeding the psychotic dogs
• Tall people will be here to change smoke detector batteries
• The lawn mowers can be put to work

The negatives to this:

• I'm going to have to start cooking dinners again
• The laundry will be unimaginable both in amount and smell
• I will no longer have control over most of my time

Truthfully, the trade off  is probably worth it.

Are We Winning?

Are we winning the squash bug war?  Sort of.  We seem to be at least running neck and neck.  While we still see them (and pick them off),  we have been getting a few zucchini.  We love to eat it pretty much the way it is....well, except for the Princess who despises it.  We always make her eat a couple of pieces, but she plugs her nose while she does.
Ironically, she absolutely loves zucchini bread.  I can cram all the zucchini I want into it and she will snarf it down.
This is the basic recipe I have used for almost 20 years.  In the interim I have found a couple of variations that I like as well, but we'll have to see if  we can stay ahead of the squash bugs for the rest of the summer to get enough zucchini to get them made.

Zucchini Bread

Makes 2, 8" loaves, and freezes very well.

Combine and beat together:

• 3 eggs, slightly beaten
• 2 cups granulated sugar
• 1 cup vegetable oil
• 2 cups grated zucchini
• 1 teaspoon of vanilla

Sift together and add:

• 3 cups flour
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 1/2 teaspoons cinnamon
• 1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
• 1/2 teaspoon baking powder

Pour mixture into greased 8" loaf pans and bake at 325 degrees for an hour.  Cool in pans 15-20 minutes and remove to rack to cool the rest of the way.

UTI's & Fishing Trips

What do UTI's and fishing trips have in common?  It seems that the only time in the past 5 years or so that I get the former is when my source of antibiotics is on the latter.  And just to add some frosting to that particular cake, it's supposed to be 103 sizzling, brain-frying, miserable degrees outside.  I'm going to go out and stand in the driveway with a hose and just soak myself.  And then I'm going to take a lot of Tylenol and hope my liver can stand the strain.

Another layout to share using some of the photo editing techniques I learned in the class:

I'm Listening to the Chirp, Chirp, Chirp...

Quick!  Name that musical.  My family could get this one in no time flat.  1776 is one of our favorite musicals and "The Egg"  cracks me up.....no pun intended.  In any case, here I have been sitting in blissful quiet, doing exactly what I'd like on my staycation.    I have finished a quilt top, caught up my 365 album, signed up for a Brushes class on the Jessica Sprague website which will start in a few days, stayed up late and scrapped  a few layouts.  Here's one I'm especially proud of (and the left side will probably be a little cut off):

Sigh, where did this little 11 year old go? This was done with an online sketch from Pencil Lines.
In any case this morning I was awakened at 4 AM to the chirp, chirp, chirp of......a smoke detector with a low battery.  Now, I am Woman and figured I could get my trusty step ladder out and change the dang battery.  Unfortunately, the chirper is in a hall with high ceilings and I couldn't reach it. Figures that it would happen when the DH and all the tall boys have retreated to another state.  So I have called the house tweaker who I know has a tall enough ladder and he has agreed to come help me kill the bird....so to speak.

Next Photo-Editing Installment

Here is the next group of photos I have altered in my Jessica Sprague photo editing class. 
Adding texture to a photo, along with layered text.  I also desaturated the color a little on this photo since the SGB's coat is really red.  The coolest thing I learned with this is that I can sample pick colors directly from my photo for my text.  I noticed that when I tried to post these photos large last week, the left side got cut off, so to see these photos larger, click on them.

An edge burn.  I have not gotten this technique down quite yet, I don't think.  I need to start out darkening my photo more.  I can see a difference when I'm doing the process, but I don't think if you looked at this randomly, you'd say, "Nice edge burn!"

What she called "A Project".  Texture, a clipping mask (the photo, textures and the overlay are all clipped "under" the rounded rectangle mask), an overlay, text, and an edge burn.  Again, while I can tell there's an edge burn when I turn the layer on and off in PhotoShop, I don't think anyone would notice it on their own.

This is selective coloring and it was very lucky that I had a picture from this very week that worked.

And this is a storyboard.  I really love that the photos actually sit "under" the framing here and that I can move them around and resize them easily to see exactly what I'm getting.  I actually had a different photo in one of the rectangles and just threw it away and substituted another.  Her original example had a white background as well as color photos, but once I decided to change my photos to B&W, I chose a black background for more contrast.

Here is the final project for the class....a collage that combined clipping masks, selective coloring, text and brushes.  It took me some doing to get this to work right for me, but I won in the end and am very happy with the results.  I have printed it out and will use it on a layout in the near future.

Again, I can't say enough about how great this class was....especially since it free.  And when I did have issues the tech support was quick and accurate.  Fun stuff. :)