Choice Morsels

Memories of Summer

2012-03-01T11:14:00.000-06:00

My choice of Mama Kat's Writing Prompt is #5: Share a photo from last Summer that brings you back.

My memories of last summer are refreshed by this scrolling montage of garden photos: my towering red hibiscus, the landscape wall we put in, my purple zinnias, the tea cups that formed my first garden "art" in the new bed along the new retaining wall, my bowl of pretty variegated impatiens with the pink double blossoms that lasted all season and the flowers I added around my mailbox!
Putting in that landscape wall was an all day project--but you can see the view of the old rotting wood retaining wall it replaced and it was a huge improvement! It's draped with asparagus fern & Greek oregano now!

And speaking of gardens, even though it's barely March, in North Florida it's planting season!
I just put in a row of French purple bush beans and I have baby seedling tomatoes I sprouted I need to get in the ground today! I also planted a few Moon and Stars Watermelon and a couple Butternut squash seeds I saved from one. I can have those in my back flower bed where I can let the vines sprawl freely. I'm looking forward to seeing how that watermelon does---it's a heirloom variety for the home garden. It's the sort passed from neighbor to neighbor back in the day and there was a brief fear it had vanished as a breed, but someone who was still growing a patch was located and it was saved!
It makes a solid green melon with a large yellow spot (a moon) and lots of tiny yellow dots (starts) and it noted for being extraordinarily sweet tasting.
We'll see.

And speaking of flowers, I did add a 3G phone cover to my Zazzle store featuring a red rose.
I wanted to get something "floral" up!
We did buy a few sheets of the Chocolate Font Jumble stamps I designed--we were hoping to use them on our newsletters for this month! And Free shipping right now--you can't beat that!

The HJFictionZone has had it's first of month update! I added a Polyvore picture I designed featuring Logan especially for the website.
Of late, I've been doing a number of contest entries. My husband even helped with one last night.
He actually has a pretty good eye for design.

You can go here http://madamdreamweaver.polyvore.com/ to see all my set designs!
It's proven a good venture, since I've had something over 2700 visitors---and sometimes some of them even visit here!
A funny thing---I like Roaman's Fashion Catalog and I found a pretty summer tunic blouse I "clipped" for use on a Polyvore set I was making themed on reflecting "my style" and I liked that top so much, I went back to consider buying it.
And guess what? Roaman's that day was having a buy one, get one for 99 cents sale! I bought a couple pair of new knit capri's to match a pair of that same tunic blouse I liked and got both tunics for 99 cents each! And because I bought 2 pair of capri's, I got $4 off those as well! What a deal!

Anyway, there won't be any writer's prompts to read or updates for a brief respite while we're away visiting family.

And in honor of Davy Jones, who recently passed on, here's my all time favorite Monkee's video, "Last Train to Clarksville."
I was 10 years old in 1967 when the show first aired and I grew up on original airings and re-runs.
I didn't realize till I grew that song is really about a soldier preparing to ship off to Vietnam via the army post near there, probably a draftee.

The Case of the No-Chocolate Christmas

2012-02-28T12:14:00.000-06:00

“This Christmas,” our Motherfirmly and unexpectedly announced, “there will be NOchocolate.”

My sisters and I stared at herincredulously. What, no chocolate? It was inconceivable!

You see, every year, for as long as I couldremember, there had been chocolate on Christmas. Not just a littlechocolate, but an opulent extravaganza of chocolate that would'vemade even Willy Wonka blush. Empty decorative bowls would be laidout on Christmas Eve, enough to cover our 7 foot dining table, only to be“magically” filled by morning with Hershey’s Kisses, Hershey'sMini-bars, chocolate peanut clusters, chocolate turtles, chocolatecremes, M&M's of both types, chocolate stars, chocolate-coveredcherries, Tootsie rolls and candy bars of every type. It was averitable chocolate feast the Ghost of Christmas Present would surely admire.

      However, this particular year,Mother had joined TOPS to lose weight and was on a healthy eatingcampaign not just for herself, but for all of us.

     I was asophomore in high school then and when I went Christmas shopping, Isaid to myself, “Well, since there won't be any other chocolate, it won'thurt if I just buy one candy bar to put in every one's stockings." Naturally, I bought one for my own stocking, too.

         So, on Christmas morning everyone was shocked to discover we'd all had that exact same idea and had all bought, "a little chocolate,” believing we'd each be "the only one."

     As it turned out, my contribution was the most modest. My younger sister graced each of us with a 2 lb box ofchocolate-covered cherries. My other sister bought a 5 lb box ofRussell’s Assorted, which back then was the size of a Monopoly game. Even Mother wimped out. She and my Dad said toeach other, “Maybe we're being too hard on the girls,” and, not expecting any other chocolate, had purchased a huge DeluxeWhitman's Assortment.

So, without meaning to, we still endedup with a stack of chocolate. The joke was on us. We had a big laugh about it and theinfamous “No Chocolate Christmas” remains a favorite family storyto this day.

**********
[The above story was a 400 word prompt from the Write Your Own Red Dress Club for a true memoir]

Be sure and check out my most recent sponsored Polyvore contest entry down on the right. It's for that lipstick brand pictured. Visit to see everything I've designed!

Come back Thursday for my Mama Kat's Prompt!

Vices Worth Keeping

2012-02-23T11:11:00.000-06:00

Yup, time for another tale prompted by Mama Kat. Today's prompt of choice is #5: "What is the one 'vice' you can't give up?"
Quite a number of years ago, in the mid 90's, we visited some friends, who were living in North Carolina at the time and what makes it memorable is the wife declaring that she, "had to give up eating chocolate because it had caffeine in it." Apparently she was under doctor's orders not to have any sort of caffeine. Why, I don't know, but back then there was a general "caffeine scare" going on. Of course, a lot of scientific back-peddling has occurred since then, as it so often does, and science now declares coffee and chocolate, particularly dark chocolate, as having health benefits. Though those fancy coffee drinks full of sugar and all kinds of high-calorie stuff other then plain coffee are fattening rather then healthy.
I mention this, because if I'm going to call anything I unrepentantly enjoy a "vice," then it's coffee and chocolate. I love coffee and chocolate and would never give either up. Not for any reason. I thought that wife crazy, though I never asked how much chocolate she was consuming. There is caffeine in chocolate, but it's such a minuscule amount, it would have next to zero effect---unless one is eating pounds of it a day! Hershey.com has a comparative chart of caffeine quantities and 9 milk chocolate kisses contain a whole 11 milligram's of caffeine in total. I eat maybe 2 kisses a day, which barely equals a whole milligram of caffeine per kiss. Now one cup of drip-brewed coffee has anywhere from 65 to 120 milligrams of caffeine per cup, probably depending on size of cup. Brewed tea ranges from 20 to 90 milligrams, probably depending on strength and size of cup. Compare that to caffeinated energy drinks, which run 150 to 200 milligrams per drink or more and are currently under scrutiny for their questionable and unregulated artificial ingredients. At least coffee and chocolate come from nature's bounty, since both come from certain seeds of certain plants or trees commonly grown in tropical climates. After all, Earth is the only planet with chocolate.

However, I don't drink coffee for caffeine. I drink it, because I like the taste. I like a plain, drip-brewed cup of coffee with teaspoon of Splenda and a teaspoon of dry creamer. I do like flavored beans, such as hazelnut or chocolate, and generally shake a heavy dash of cinnamon onto the grounds before brewing, because cinnamon is very healthful. Does it help wake my brain up in the mornings? Certainly. Am I addicted? Nope. I can go without coffee without side effect. I also generally have 2 couple dark chocolate kisses once, maybe twice a day---and I have no plans of giving either coffee or dark chocolate up any time in the near or distant future! Such small pleasures in life are worth holding onto, in my opinion.

Project Time!

2012-02-22T16:05:00.001-06:00

From the Craft Table:

      I brought a photo of this past weeks craft project and that was re-cycling old greeting cards into--you guessed it, greeting cards that can be used again! My friend, Megan, showers me with gorgeous, glittery "Papyrus" brand greeting cards. (Remember I love glitz!) They were just too nice to throw away. Plus I had this years and 2 previous years Christmas cards to sort through to decide what might be used for something else and what to throw away. Seems like we get an increasing number of photo cards and you know what? Those can't be recycled. Frankly, I rather have a regular card-stock card with a really nice picture and a photo inserted, mostly because I like re-using cards.

      This time, however, it was a pile of birthday, anniversary and just all occasion cards I wanted to recycle. The project required a box of card stock with envelopes from JoAnn's Fabrics. (In the stamping section.) I got a box of mixed bright colors and it required a couple glue sticks. I prefer rubber cement, but glue sticks is what I had on hand. And a pair of paper scissors. Then I cut out a "template" using the back of a card, sizing it about 1/8 inch smaller then the card stock all the way around. Now I was ready to trace, then cut.

       I just placed the template over the part of the card picture I wanted to use, traced it, cut it out, applied glue stick all over to the edges, then placed it on a suitable color card stock. Ta-da. Done. I also happen to have a couple stamps on hand that say "Happy Birthday" & "Happy Anniversary," to stamp inside some of those cards. Here's a photo of the assortment I made:

I used some the other day to send notes!

From The Drawing Board:

My two Christian t-shirts, the Pressing On design and the New Creature in Christ design, have proven so popular, I've been expanding those designs to other products. Newest items are mugs. The New Creature in Christ mug is featured here. The "Pressing On" Philippians 3: 14 rock climber can now be found on mugs, too, in a couple styles. One mug design is like the t-shirt basically. The other mug is a one-sided design of the rock climber with the whole verse written out, in both a "righty" and "lefty" mug style. Those two tee designs were the first I posted and it seemed so hard figuring everything out, but now, I'm fairly practiced at shifting font designs around for various products and it soooo much easier!

I hope to add some Iphone and Ipad covers in near future with the New Creature in Christ design. Plus Zazzle has introduced a line of napkins, placemats & kitchen towels I envision putting my font Coffee design on! I've seen the shirts in person, by the way, and Zazzle does a high quality print job!

From the Kitchen:

Last Sunday I made another Pillsbury slow-cooker recipe called "Slower Cook Savory Brisket Stew." It was yummy. I added garlic and did what another reviewer suggested and that's to saute the cut up squash chunks in a little brown-sugar & butter prior to adding to slow-cooker.

In the Garden:

I planted some Hot Poker & Sea Holly Roots in a front bed in front of the neighbors shrubs along the property line---something that won't sky rocket into super tall things like those zinnia's last year!

Also got my newly sprouted Dill and Cinnamon Basil babies into their pots. Today I was spraying an old, old wicker picnic basket with a clear sealing spray in preparation for putting it to use in the flower bed. I tend dig a slight indent for it in the back bed, fill it with dirt and plant Hosta's in it. I have a couple roots from a bag I bought to pot one for a friend of mine as a housewarming gift---and now have 2 left over! It's the pretty white edged variegated kind, which have little of. A number of my own Hosta's are at the age of needing splitting, so I hope to add a couple of the smaller type to the basket in front of the variegated breed. My giant Hostas also need dividing and I hope to plant 3 of those on three sides of the basket. (A maple tree set is behind it.) That's my idea anyway. We'll see how it works out! (I hope the spray will slow down deterioration a bit.)

Burnt Marshmellows

2012-02-16T11:00:00.000-06:00

     The Mama Kat's Writing Prompt of choice this week is #5: Share a story about a sibling.

     My growing up years were full of magic and adventure. I remember so much laughter and romping through sun-dappled woods down to the gurgling creek flowing through the valley below our house, the dog running ahead of us, her tail like a flag in the breeze. My two younger sisters and I could skip agiley over the rocks we placed in the stream for crossing, like little mountain goats, our feet never touching water. There was always adventure to had, flowers to be found, creepy-crawlies to be discovered and I remember our Barbie and Ken dolls enjoyed many a luxurious, stone-lined spa in that stream.
      However, the particular sibling story I want to tell happened not by the steam, but near the house out in my Mother's garden. Now we're talking a huge garden, two of them, in fact, arranged one above the other in steppe fashion with a long strawberry bed running between. It was fall and our Dad had raked the dead garden debris into a pile and was burning it. Perfect for roasting marshmallows. Now the thing about marshmallows on a stick over fire is they tend to flame up rather easily. I know we each yearned to emulate our Mother's marshmallow cooking technique, which we'd seen many times. Hers never caught fire, but rather came out toasted a perfect light brown all around. Of course, such a technique requires a level of patience kids don't necessarily have. Ours generally caught fire.
      On this particular day, just myself and my two younger sisters, Janie and Patty, were roasting marshmallows over this garden fire. I think I was trying to do the "light-brown roast" to mine, since I didn't particularly like a charred marshmallow, but Janie and Patty both set theirs on fire. Janie's came out especially charred, despite trying to blow the flames out quickly. It was thoroughly blackened. Patty and I looked at it, then at her.
      Well, Janie boldly said, "I love burnt marshmallows," and popped it right in her in her mouth.
      The thing was, I could hear the burnt grit of that marshmallow loudly crunching and grinding in her teeth as she chewed. Patty could, too, and this sent both of us into convulsions. I mean, bent over double, tears-coming-to-our-eyes laughing, listening to her grind away on that marshmallow. It was hilarious and one of my favorite funny sibling moments.

From The Drawing Board:

       I did upload my whole line of "Chocolate Font Jumble" Designs, which you can see some of in the Polyvore set, further down on the right. If you click "Madamdreamweaver" below it, it will take you to my Polyvore account where you can see everything I've designed there.
       If you want to see anything closer, check out the Zazzle panel and visit my store! I did a black shirt with a colorized font design also.
       I also updated my Bevstuff Website. Zazzle prints for Hallmark & Disney and copyright to print Star Wars & Harry Potter, which I have panels or products for. I updated featured products for those areas: a Jack Sparrow movie mug from Disney, a Mother's Day tee from Hallmark & a Harry Potter collage mousemat. And I have a photo there of the brightly colored Chocolate Font Jumble on a black shirt at Bevstuff.

From the Kitchen: Today's recipe is a Pillsbury slow-cooker one for "Moroccan Chicken," which I'm making for dinner tonight. My friend, Megan will be coming over to try it with me! I'll let you know how it comes out.

Happy Wednesday!

2012-02-15T13:48:00.001-06:00

Greetings and hope all is well with you, my friends and random visitors!

In The Garden:
We had a cold snap this past Saturday and Sunday. This is North Florida and it dipped to 26 those nights. My Azaleas have been starting to bloom, but fortunately it was only 4 bushes and they'd only just started. So out came the old flannel sheets and towels to cover those few bushes and a few dish towels to cover new Saliva plants.

A sudden cold dip like that, if later when more Azaleas are in full bloom has the effect of making them look someone poured melted strawberry ice cream on them! Fortunately, most stuff in my garden is indifferent to such chill. The Daffodils, the Dusty Millers, the Pampas, the Verbena, the Greek Oregano, Mint, Thyme & Cilantro---totally unfazed! Surprisingly, even my Hen & Chicks succulent don't care.

Today I was spreading Weed & Feed. I still had a 3/4 bag full left over, though I still need another bag to finish the remainder of the yard. I did get the critical areas with this one. I prefer Scott's brand, because it's a fine granular type of Weed & Feed that goes through my hand-spreader easily. Plus it doesn't burn the grass. It's not the cheapest. I've bought cheaper Weed & Feed once before, but it was too coarse to work in the spreader. We bought a bag of top soil and I used that today to fill divots left by falling tree trunks from the tree cut the other day. Also snipped winter Mum stems to make way for new growth and spray weed killer on weeds protruding through the wire fence from my neighbor's yard into mine.

In The Kitchen:
Do you like Salmon patties? I love them. That's what I've been eating for lunch all week. (One 15 oz can makes about 4 sandwich size patties.) I discovered that by adding 1 tsp of freshly minced garlic (1 clove) and a tsp of creamy horseradish those two ingredients significantly reduced that "fishy Salmon" flavor of canned Salmon. Not that I mind that flavor. I just like garlic & horseradish and added them and it was a happenstance discovery. Nor did the horseradish come across too strongly.

So my Salmon Patty recipe goes like this:
1 15 oz can Salmon (I prefer Wild Alaskan, usually pink because that's cheaper.)
1 egg
1/2 cup of either oatmeal or cracker crumbs or bread crumbs or whatever crumb you prefer.
1 or 2 Tbsp minced onion
2 Tbsp chopped Bell Pepper. (I used frozen strips of mixed colors, broken into small bits.)
1 tsp minced garlic
1 to 2 tsp creamy horseradish sauce, depending on your taste.
Salt & Pepper to taste.
Then mix thoroughly and let stand 5 minutes for crumbs to absorb juice, then hand shape into rounds, put into a hot, greased frying pan. Brown both sides, then remove.
These Salmon patties are excellent topped with a slice of swiss cheese on a sandwich.
(You can use the same recipe also for canned Tuna or Mackerel Patties if you prefer.)

On The Drawing Board:
I've been working on a number of jumbled "Chocolate" font designs for a number of products: mug,
t-shirts (both dark & light), postage, card, tote & apron. The sizes of each items is so different, I have to do alter each font design for each individual product. So, while looking generally similar, each product design has different touches. They're done. I should get them posted to Zazzle today.

I've built a Polyvore set specifically for placing these various Chocolate font products in, which is kind of fun. I've had over 800 people visit my Polyvore page to date, so it's a great marketing opportunity. There's been a couple more contests. Both fashion orientated toward certain actresses nominated for Academy Awards. I'm not really into that. So I have to look up who these people are, like Viola Davis or Jennifer Hudson, before I can decide what to design for the contest. I liked how my Jennifer Hudson entry came out. I also did a collage for X-men Jean Grey & Scott Summers called, "Always." That came out nice. I plan on using the X-men sets to decorate the Zone. Of course, I did the Jack Sparrow one just for fun.

That's it for today. Mama Kat's Prompt I'm considering is a story about siblings. That will be up Thurs.

Two Bits of Fantastic News & Dentist Upate!

2012-02-10T17:31:00.001-06:00

     Polyvore Design Contest
     First, let me announce that I've made the TOP 10 in a Polyvore Valentine's Design Contest! Out of 1000's of entries! The theme was to design a set reminiscent of the Valentines we used to exchange back when we were kids. (Remember when you had to decorate a shoe box with a slot cut in the top to bring to school for your classmates to put their Valentines in?)

    If you click on the Polyvore design to the lower right it will take you to my design page to view all my work. There are some other on-going contests for a fashion set with trips to won as prizes. I saw the Valentine's Contest and thought, "Eh, I'll give it a shot."

       For the X-men fan, I've also designed a set around a promo photo of Logan. It's called, "I never wanted to be different." I found some motorcycle stuff in the vast stockpile of Polyvore clip art. It came out pretty good, I think. Even the words I put on that set were part of the clip art stock. I didn't think of them myself, but I felt they resonated perfectly with the design. It's in the "Comic Hero" Collection at the same place as the contest designs.
    A New Design Project    My second fantastic news is the Messenger Bag design posted here, on the lower right, just above the Polyvore stuff! It's a Rickshaw Messenger bag. It took me 7 hours to design that! Mostly because it's a trial and error thing on the first try. I had to use a layout guide for it, which I'd never done before and my first effort was a fail. I had to start completely over. On top of that I was using my new graphics program and figuring out how to curve the words on the front flap of the bag around the snap took multiple tries---until finally I got it to work!

     I think it came out beautifully. I call it a Chocolate Font-Jumble bag, because it's a jumble of mixed fonts that all say "chocolate." No font is repeated. The picture shows the bag open, but the top flap does fold down and snap closed and I designed it so it's still readable when you close the flap. (i.e. right side up.) This means I was working with those fonts upside down on the flap during the design process. Tricky. I think being able to see the design right side of when you close the bag flap is important. I know I wouldn't want a bag where the design looks upside down when I close it. I also included a smaller pic of the bag closed under the first.

    You might wonder what you use a Messenger bag for? It's for the "work day commuter, an over-night attache or travel bag." It's customizable in a variety of colors for binding & interior and quite a few options for interior accessories are available.

     Dentist Update:
     You may be wondering what happened with my husband's tooth. Well, no antibiotics yet. The molar is already dead and he needs to make an appointment for a root-canal. What needs to be done next will depend on that guy's findings. He may decide antibiotics are necessary. My masseuse, who is also a part-time hygienist, said the decaying root of the tooth produces both a gas and toxins and that's what causes pain. The regular dentist could tell my husband's sinus cavities have allergies, so exactly why he has that very slight swelling in his cheek remained indeterminate. Is allergies or tooth toxins or a bit of both? But he's not in pain and it's a bunch of bother for him and he's not thrilled about the root canal, though his last experience with one wasn't a bad experience.

       Well, time to fix dinner!

Good News: Two Pines Down!

2012-02-08T14:52:00.000-06:00

Two Trees Down:
    If you remember in a previous recent post we were doing some estimates from local tree services for having a pine cut-down. We accepted the bid of the company that paid us a personal visit and decided to do both pines in the front yard. One was 12 ft from the house in the middle of my flower bed and the other near the street right next to a utility pole and cable thing. The price was $275 per tree---which is good.

    The company is a local company here called Kodiak Tree Service. They arrived today precisely on time at 12pm. The carefully cut and lowered the huge, heavy branches by rope to the ground on both pines. (I'd been wise enough to cover my miniature roses and Easter lillies with plastic pails I had in the garage to protect them from falling debris---because despite all their care, things can still accidently fall in the wrong spot.)

     I was in the house playing Gardens of Time, unsure when they'd actually come, since the schedule was sometime between 12 & 3pm, then a certain loud buzzing sound alerted to me that they'd arrived. I immediately ran to the garage, threw up the door and stood there to watch. Not just because it's a fascinating process, but also to keep an eye on them. Big men clopping around in big boots, dropping limbs and trunks everywhere can't be trusted around delicate garden plants! It was a good thing, too, because they were debating where to drop the top portion of the tree near the street and, considered whether to use the yard, masked me, "what was under the buckets?"

    I replied, "Roses!" and the guy in the tree hollered to his crew, "Street!" So the top 15 ft was felled into the street, which wasn't a problem because it's a dead-end street with no traffic. Also there is just woods directly across from our house, though there are some power-lines on that side they had to avoid. It landed perfectly. And they did a fantastic job cleaning up! The stumps are cut perfectly level---ready for that garden pot I want to put on at least the front one. The width of the pine by the street at the base was 25 inches. Sturdy fellow. The other by the house was slimmer at around 20 inches.

A Rush To The Dentist:
     My husband is on his way to the dentist right now to have an upper molar checked. We think that tooth has an abcess. The reason we think that is the sudden swelling his cheek showed on Monday after a severe headache (it was overcast), a jaw ache and pain in that particular upper molar. The pain abated with Alieve, though. It hasn't been constant either as you might imagine. It's been a hard situation to read. He has allergies, so he often is stuffy or has a headache. His jaw is often achy because of a car accident he was in several years ago. His jaw recently became more achy after he started using weight equipment at the YMCA, because he was clamping his teeth during the effort of working out. Of course, he does have a dental device to wear to align his teeth/jaw and actually wearing it relieved that pain, especially when he is working out. But along the way that one upper molar would have pain at the same time---so we just thought it was associated with the general jaw pain issue, maybe a nerve thing. Nerves are like that. Pain in one area can be transferred and felt in a completely unrelated place. I wondered about the tooth, but there wasn't any particular swelling around it and pain seemed wrapped up in the general jaw issue pain (which is an alignment issue from being jarred in the accident so severely.) Neither of us could really tell. His teeth are really funny about stuff like that. In the past he had a dying bottom molar develop an abcess and it sparked him one sharp pain and that was it. But this cheek swelling thing is new. Was it allergies? Was it sinuses? Or was it something else? Having been a medic many years in the Air Force---I feared the something else was the most likely. Infection. I looked up tooth abcess symptoms---and there is was: swelling in the cheek or face was a sign. This sort of infection is notoriously invasive and not to played with. I told my husband he needed to make an dental appointement ASAP.
I expect he'll come home with a presciption of antibiotics, which is the first most important thing. Thankfully, we have dental insurance.

The Problem with Hail

2012-02-07T12:12:00.000-06:00

     "Umm, we're gonna tell."
     I stared with appall at my fellow 4th grade classmates, who were standing around me by the 12 foot floor-to-ceiling window just as a hail stormbegan peppering cars below us with ice pellets. I had only just made asimple weather observation. "Look, hail," I'd said.
     "That'sa cuss word," I was promptly informed.
     "We're gonna tell," someone else promised.
      I puffed up defensively.The idea of being "told on" for saying something entirely correct intimidated me, but I would not go down without a fight. "No, it's not," I insisted, then pointed out the window. "That'swhat you call rain when it turns into ice balls."
     My classmates eyes bugged and hands flew overmouths. “Umm, we're gonna tell. You're using a bad word,” achorus of them irrationally intoned again.

     I was outraged. I think I repeated “hail” quite a few more times, trying to get that bunch of Hoosier hayseeds to see reason--but they simply wouldn't. I just kept getting the same threatening intonation,the same shocked covering of mouths.
     Fortunately, nothing cameof it. The event only lasted a couple minutes, then we were back at our desks and no one ever "told," to my relief.
    However, this matter of being accused of wrong-doing when I was innocent and being unable to make anyone believe me about it hurt me. The incident remained a thorn in my heart for long years afterward.
     It was only after I was grown and much older that I finally realized the issue had been one of linguistics. My parents settled in rural Southern Indiana from Minnesota and, therefore, had no accent tospeak of, so neither did I. Nor did they swear. My classmates, on theother hand, were third or fourth generation born and bred Hoosiers,apparently well accustomed to cussing. The reason they were so fixated on me saying “hail” was because, when the word “hell" is bellowed in the native Hoosier dialect, it's pronounced, “Haail.”

*************
The above true antidote is based on a writing prompt from Write on Edge to write "a memoir of a unique encounter with a local dialect" of less then 400 words.

Below is a photo of the school where this incident happened. It's a very old school building, probably built in the 1920's or earlier and, believe me, was smack in the middle of corn, wheat and soy bean farms. My class was actually a split class, half 4th graders and half 3rd graders because the regular 3rd and 4th grade rooms in the modern wing were already maxed out. Lots of us baby boom kids back then, you know. So the old upstairs classroom with it's 15 foot ceilings, long 12 foot windows and painted wood floors was the "over-flow" classroom. We didn't have the window A/C units in 1967. I guess luxury was added later. We just opened the windows. LOL.

Polyvore Contests & Image Editing Tools

2012-02-05T15:18:00.000-06:00

And Polyvore, a artistic, fashion & interior design online community has them! I just entered one for Valentines and also one for Polyvore's 5th Birthday celebration. Each contest has a time limit of a certain number of days. You can see my entry for the Birthday here: http://www.polyvore.com/celebrate/set?id=43335440. These contests are like writing prompts. They're for inspiration. The Valentine's one I noted had a actual cash prize, though I'm sure that's an exception and not the rule. A recent creations if further down this page on right, beneath my Zazzle stuff.

I also did a Polyvore design that was an interior design, sort of a patio tea-time theme into which I was able to import my own pictures of teapots I've designed in Zazzle. I got this idea from someone else who "liked" my Pirate set, who uses Polyvore designs to promote their fiction stories on some writers site. Each design represents a certain story. Quite clever.

Since the on-line photo editor, Picnik.com, credited me back my premium fee, since they are closing, I re-invested it into buying a full feature graphic design program. I use Serif, which offers a number of free down-loadable programs, though the free versions are, of course, limited in scope. I have been using their free graphics program to do much of my design work, particularly font applications, and it was adequate, but certain key features, like the eraser, were locked. So, I bought the upgrade to the full Draw5 program and---Wow! So many features and effects and more brushes and a bunch of fonts! Big learning curve, though. I have to get used to all this stuff. It also came with a full PHOTO SHOP!

Very exciting!  Now I won't have to bounce my work between assorted free online photo editors like I had to before, though those other editors each have desirable features I will still want to use.
     If you're looking for a free image/photo editor, here's some possibilities:
     Pixlr is a very good, full-featured, free on-line photo editor. You have to watch the tutorials to learn how to use it. Uses drop-down menus. I like their full transparency PNG capability. Also really good brush options.
     Fotoflexer is the most similar to Picnik.com I've seen. Every effect has a photo icon showing what it does and you just click it. Has frames, clip-art, etc. Simple to use.

     Lunapic is yet another free on-line photo editor. Has a drop-down menu format, but easy to use. It will also generate some 3D effects on your photos for use on websites, blogs, My Space, etc.
     Aviary.com offers a variety of free browser-based editors including a image editor, an effects editor, a music creator, a vector editor, audio editor, etc. Has tutorials & a big learning curve will be involved if you want to use their stuff.
    Tuxpi.com photo effects & frames is one of my favorite free editors. Totally easy to use. Has a few effects not in other editors and has, in my opinion, the best quality photo-to-painting effect of any editor.

So there you go. If you have no experience using photo editors aside from Picassa or Windows, then Tuxpi or Fotoflexer are for you. If you have more advanced experience with image editing, you might like Aviary Tools or Pixlr.

When Dreams Were All They Gave For Free To Ugly Duckling Girls Like Me...

2012-02-02T13:39:00.003-06:00

That title is a poignant line from a song by Janis Ian called "At Seventeen" which was a top-40 hit in 1975 when I a senior in high school. It played on the radio constantly and always made me cry because I felt it described my high school life perfectly.

I say this because Mama Kat's Writing Prompt for this week, which is "What Were You Like In High School?" and the lyrics of this song used to resonate strongly with how I felt about my teenage life. The parts I related most to are highlighted below:

"I learned the truth at seventeen
That love was meant for beauty queens
And high school girls with clear skinned smiles
Who married young and then retired
The valentines I never knew

The Friday night charades of youth
Were spent on one more beautiful
At seventeen I learned the truth...

And those of us with ravaged faces

Lacking in the social graces...

...to those of us who knew the pain
Of valentines that never came
And those whose names were never called
When choosing sides for basketball

It was long ago and far away
the world was younger than today
when dreams were all they gave for free
to ugly duckling girls like me..."

     To me, at that time, that song was a pretty good description how I viewed myself and how I believed my peers viewed me. I certainly had a ravaged face. Unfairly so, I felt. Most teens have ordinary acne, but not all teens get the more rare, horrid kinds of acne that leave terrible life-long mock-marks behind and you never out-grow. Lucky me. Out of 95 classmates, only I and one other guy were so afflicted. I felt like a leper and was absolutely convinced it was something in my appearance that made no one want to pick me for their team in gym or trade papers with me in class or generally befriend me in any way.
     However, kids are ego-centric in their reasoning. That means they tend to assume that are the cause of what's happening to them. The less understandable circumstances are, the more likely a kid is to assign themselves as the source of the problem, which is exactly what I did. I didn't understand that, in reality, people have tons of invisible motives for what they do that seldom have anything to do with anyone else, but that is a grown-up understanding I naturally lacked. With hindsight I also now understand that the real reason I felt so socially deprived is I just didn't know how to be a friend or make friends. Like I said in the last prompt about why Batman was my hero: I grew up way out in the country with only my two parents to relate to mostly for the first 7 years of my life. I totally lacked skills for relating to other children and this problem just followed me into high school. Plus I never joined a single club. Never belonged to any sports teams. (I couldn't hit a baseball or dribble a basketball if my life depended on it!) I never participated in anything that would have given me a basis of common interest with any of my classmates. I simply didn't know I should or even how to. I just focused on what I could do well and that was achievement through academic performance, which got me a lot of kudos from teachers and served as a safety net. I actually developed an attitude of "if you don't want me, then I don't want you," toward my classmates, a self-protective decision that isolated me even more and a self-fulfilling curse.
     In reality, I think my fellow classmates thought more highly of me then I thought of myself. There were a number of positive incidents that gradually opened me to this possibility. Most notably was the year I was hospitalized with viral meningitis for 10 days. Classmates who never talked to me much previously at school were suddenly calling me in the hospital. One of them was even a boy, named Tim, one of the top popular kids in my class and also several girls, who were likewise, all of whom I never imagined knew I existed. I was astonished.  Of course, they didn't chat me up or anything when I got back to school. Still, it revealed something extraordinary. I revealed my peers had a care for me as a person and that was an extreme revelation, one of several to come.
     Looking back, I may have felt like an ugly duckling, but I think my classmates viewed me as a nice, brainy, shy and quiet girl. Nothing more or less then that.

Eventually I did find swan-hood.
(Let me add as a disclaimer I had plenty of happiness in my growing up years and a couple good friends here and there, but I was just a bit disgruntled with the social aspects of my school life.)

**I will only visit Mama Kat blog posts free of any foul language. If yours is, let me know when you leave a comment.**

Note the Polyvore Collage to on right: this one is not a fashion plate, but an artistic rendition.

Click "madamdreamweaver" link and you can view/like all my collage sets.

Or make your own at: http://www.polyvore.com/cgi/app

Spring Means Garden Clean-Up

2012-01-31T14:08:00.006-06:00

In the Yard
      I finally got the last Pampas Grass trimmed down to the base yesterday! Yay! It's a common landscape plant here in Florida, a tall fountain of grass that puts up even taller feathery plumes in either pink or silver, though the pink bleach out in the sun fairly quickly to white. It's mean grass, though. Sharp edged on both sides, it will give you something worse then a paper cut if you try and handle it bare-handed. I wear thick gloves and long-sleeves. I use them for their height, as sort of a visual screen between us and our neighbor---at least until my Japanese Holly trees mature--and that's why I like them. I feel sort of exposed with them cut to the base right now, but they shoot up new grass fast. It needs cutting to control it and allows me to clean out the center, which keeps the new growth nice and neat. Cutting controls it's clumping size.

      I also clipped the Mexican Heather shrubs to their base and my purple Lantana I have in the front beds. Both put up entirely new growth from the roots.

      I have a tall Long-Needled Southern Pine in my front flower bed. It's 12 feet from the house. We are presently collecting estimates from tree-cutting services this week with a aim of having it taken down.
      I want the trunk simply cut level with the ground and I intend putting a large pot on that stump with an assortment of flowers/plants/grass of varying heights to create an intermediate height between the flower bed and the cedar tree behind it. The cut down won't be cheap, I know. Taking down one mature pine runs between $325 to $500 depending of where the tree is situated, such as being close to structures, wires, etc. (This one has all that.) A live oak tree, especially if it's a large old one runs in the market of $1000 or more. But you're paying for expertise, which is necessary. Still, I can only afford one pine at a time, though I have a couple others I'd like to get rid of. Pine trees are kind of a wind hazard here for breakage, particularly this one, which is close to the house, plus that greedy tree is sapping all the water and nutrition from my flower bed around it's feet. Also pines have pesky roots that tend to be a nuisance, warping sidewalks and driveways.

      Of the two tree-cutter services we've called so far, one made an appointment to visit us Friday to see the tree and talk to us about the estimate while the other said, "Oh, we'll just do a drive by, then let you know."  Which cutter would you go with? My husband and I were immediately not impressed with Mr. Oh-We'll-Just-Drive-By. An actual visit is a much better sell. Plus the company visiting us had a Christian fish-symbol on their ad.

My New Door Decor
     I've had a grapevine wreath on my front door for years and years. It was a wreath I made myself from will grape vines from the wooded property I grew up on in Indiana and has gone through several revisions of silk decoration on it. But the temp between the storm door and inner-door could fry and egg and that old wreath was just crumbling with age. So after Christmas, we visited JoAnn Fabrics and I bought a new wreath and a new color scheme of silks to decorate it. (My previous wreath had sunflowers.) I really love purple and lime together as colors!

Here it is:

    The bow is green raffia, which I thought would handle the heat better then fabric ribbon. It just took a hot glue gun and a little wire for the rafia to do it. Easy. Though I have some skills---I used to make various silk arrangements & wreaths in my prior profession as a floral designer.

     Mama Kat's Prompt will be up on Thursday! So you'll want to come back for that! You can sign up for email notices when I post something new!

     Well time to make some frosting and frost my cupcakes first for a little "pretty food" photography, then I'll take them up to Bible Study on base tonight for our bunch of young Airmen to gobble down! They're chocolate cupcakes with just a hint of mint and I'm frosting them with pink frosting!

Something Fun to Play With: Fashion Collaging!

2012-01-26T15:49:00.003-06:00

      I ran into this interesting site called "Polyvore," that features fashion collaging with various photos on pre-designed templates that give you an idea where to put things. It's just fun to play.
     An example of one I made is below the Zazzle stuff on right, called "Cat's Night Out." I themed it on the idea of what would Catwoman wear it she were having a night on the town?
All the photos I used are provided at the site under various catagories like: "dresses," "bags" or "shoes," etc. I just had to scroll through the selections. Templates range from simple, with only a few squares to fil, to complex, with many squares to fill, but all templates have labeled spaces telling you what goes where, such as "bag" or "model" or "shoes" or "photo." There's a wide range of backgrounds to choose from as well as textures & colors.
     If you want to try it out, go here: http://www.polyvore.com/cgi/app and start creating! Click on "templates" tab to pick a template and get started. Be sure and scroll through the options.

     Once done, you can join the Polyvore community and publish your work to their community or may choose from a selection of social sites and blogs or if you right click your collage, it will give you several html code to options place on blog or website.
     So, if you like playing creatively with colors and photos, head on over there and have some fashion fun!

My Favorite Childhood Hero

2012-01-25T21:24:00.002-06:00

Time again for Mama Kat's Weekly Blog Writers Prompt! This week I've chosen suggestion #5: Write about one of your childhood heroes.

Set your time machine once again for way back, back to the year 1966. I'm 10 years old and watching a brand new weekly television series called "Batman." Yes, that campy comic do-gooder played by Adam West and his faithful side-kick, Robin, played by Burt Ward.

I loved that show and watched it faithfully every week, same Bat time, same Bat channel, since the show always ended with my hero's caught in some hideous death trap. To re-watch an episode now, well, it's pretty cheesy---but back then, to my 10 year old mind, those dire situations were real and my hero's were actually in trouble!
That sense of reality is probably one of the strongest things I recall about the show and how seriously I viewed the Dynamic Duo's cliff-hangers. I know the show appealed to me because I longed for a hero's protection. I was the oldest child, nearly 7 years older then my next sibling and we lived way, way out in the country.There were no neighbor kids to play with and I was used to communicating with 2 adults. So when I did go to school, relating to other kids really threw me for a loop. I just didn't know how to interact with them and that was a problem, but the place I felt I really needed a super-hero was on the school bus. Unfortunately, I was among the last of the pick-ups, so every seat had least one person in it, if not two. I'd move down the aisle, seeking a place to sit, but any single occupant of a seat would throw their leg up as I approached to let me know I couldn't share their seat. Eventually, I'd end up at the rear of the bus, seat-less, with the bus driver yelling at me to sit down and no one willing to offer me a seat. It was terrible and humiliating. I suppose it I'd been put together tougher, I'd have just knocked those legs aside and sat down, but as it was, I was a sensitive and withdrawn child completely lacking such boldness. That was one issue. The other issue was, back then, every grade rode the same bus together and I was thrown in with everything from 1st to 12th grade. Some of those Juniors and Seniors were nasty power mongers, too, full of themselves and mean as snot. So, I and others suffered bullying, though was only getting shot with a few spit-wads or feeling your haired pulled or a little mocking raillery.

I just wasn't cut out to deal with all that and that's why I felt like I needed a Batman. So I loved the show because it let me escape into an imaginary reality where Superheros live and fight for justice.

Why I hate religion, but Love Jesus You Tube Video

2012-01-23T11:48:00.002-06:00

I saw the young man who did this You Tube video on the CBS morning show and was very impressed, especially by the TV hosts so willing talking about Jesus. I was impressed also by how well the young man handled himself during the interview and his general testimony. This video is apparently the newest rage on You Tube, so I'm just passing it on! Press play and enjoy!

His You Tube channel has a bunch of videos I think are probably informative for anyone interested in following Jesus, so here's his channel link for the complete play list:

http://www.youtube.com/user/bball1989?feature=watch

Like Tim Tebow, he's a young man taking a stand and standing out from the crowd!

Good News & Bad News

2012-01-21T11:44:00.000-06:00

     The good news is I'm teaching myself to draw on my computer.

     "I'm an artist, I CAN do this," I keep telling myself. I have a degree in Graphic Art, but my training pre-dates personal computers by a wide margin. Back then all graphic design involved cutting rubylith film for each color in a full color spread, then photographing and dark room developing to produce the final design product. Complicated.

     Computers are WAY easier.

     Yesterday I managed to successfully use by brush tools in my graphic program to paint a cupcake and do an simple out-line drawing of a cupcake! I did this by putting a photo of a cupcake (my own) on the board, then putting a layer over it to draw on using the photo as a model and, when done, I just remove the photo. I'm not aiming at a realistic drawing, but more of a graphic representation. I like the creative challenge.

     I'm doing this primarily because I have a couple of design ideas that require some basic representative line drawing.

     Other exciting news is I designed 3 postage stamps the other day! Zazzle sells sheets of postage stamps. Of course, each design requires a review to assure it meets Post Office rules before it's approved for posting for sale. One is red & pink cherry cupcakes, one is my coffee & donut design and one is my font design of coffee words. You should see them scroll by on the panel to the right. Feel free to click on the image for a closer view.

     More good news is I finished my personal Bevstuff website at Yola! Yola.com offers free, ad-free websites. Huge space. Up to 5 sites per person, business or personal. I have 3 now, but I hadn't designed a site in so long and Yola has stream-lined all their stuff, it took some getting used to. Websites are different then blogs in that you have to fill in a description and key words (meta tags), so search engines can recognize and categorize your site. It also helps to manually submit URLs to Google and Bing so it gets into search engines faster---this is practical for both blogs and websites.

     I designed my own banner for it, too. It's on both the website and the store front. If you'd like to look, just click "Bevstuff" in the links.

     The bad news is I just found out that my favorite on-line photo shop, Picnik.com is closing in April! Till then all their premium features are free for everyone to use and they're sending me my money back that I paid last year for premium use. They're giving every one's premium payment back. That's good news. I can re-invest it elsewhere, but sad, because I like Picnik. It was easiest to use and everything was arranged so you could see it. Not in drop down menu's like Pixlr.com, which is also free. Tuxpi.com is also a good place for free photo effects and frames.

     Yola uses Picnik as their photo editor, so I wrote them asking about what their plan was to replace them with. Yola's email reply was, "Something brilliant, I daresay." And that is good news.

A Breakfast Scene

2012-01-19T13:35:00.002-06:00

For this weeks Mama's Kat's Writing Prompt Challenge and your reading pleasure I chose prompt idea #4: "Describe the scene at breakfast."

     Time travel back 29 years. My husband and I are still newlyweds and I'm standing in the kitchen of our first apartment making breakfast. It's sort of a long, narrow kitchen with a sink, stove and refrigerator lined up along one wall leaving room across from them for a small table and two chairs,so we can eat right there, rather then in the other room at the larger dining table.

      I'm at the stove diligently making breakfast, the sort of breakfast I remember my Mother making for our family oh-so-many-times. I'd already fried up the bacon and now cracked two eggs into the bacon grease, carefully spooning the hot liquid over them to close the yolks. I was making eggs over-easy. It was the only kind of eggs my family ate, therefore, to my mind, it was the only way to fry an egg.

     Dishing up, I put a couple strips of bacon, a beautiful perfect over easy-egg and a toasted English muffin on a plate, then set this deluxe breakfast in front of my new husband seated at the little kitchen table. As I turned back to dish up my own plate, I heard a sudden mild exclamation: "I can't eat this!"
     I turn back around, dumb-founded. "Why not?"

     "Because the yolk is all runny."

     I stared at him like he was speaking Japanese. "They're over-easy," I explained patiently. "That's the way you're supposed to eat eggs. That's how my family always ate them."

     "Well, I don't. I like my yolks fried solid."

     And thus I learned there is actually more then one way to cook an egg.

     Luckily, my over-easy egg hadn't come out so-easy and had broken in the cooking process. It was fried solid, just the way he liked, so we just traded plates and everyone lived happily ever after.

A Brief Review of "Joyful Noise"

2012-01-18T14:18:00.001-06:00

     We saw the new film "Joyful Noise" this past weekend. It stars Queen Latifah and Dolly Parton and is about the interpersonal relationships among members of a small town Georgia church choir that is desperately trying to win a Gospel Choir competition. There are some laughs and all lose ends get tied up nicely for a satisfying ending. I will say there is a lot of mild language in it and it does rather strongly present a man and woman from the choir succumbing to moral temptation together, which I considered a very poor testimony. Over-all it reminded me a lot of the House of Blues Gospel Show in Orlando, but because of the content I just described, I recommend taking the PG-13 rating to heart and don't take young ones.
     It was also typically a Hollywoodized version of a Christian community, full of theological half-truths and inaccuracies in portrayal----prime fodder for picking apart in a good discussion with your kids, teens, friends or youth group about what was right or wrong about it. Topics might include: morality, purity and dealing with temptation, since it says in 1 Corinthians 10 :13 "that God is faithful...who will provide a way of escape" or how to be a good witness in conversation, since it says in Ephesians 4:29 that a follower of Jesus "should let no unwholesome word proceed from your mouth."

     And that's just the tip of the iceburg for ideas.

Nineteen Hours to Ankara

2012-01-16T07:32:00.001-06:00

This is for the "Write On Edge" Writers Prompt for this week: the challenge was to pick an event or instance from your life and give it a title and write a tag line for it, like a title and tag line for a book.
So here's my title and tag for an event in my life.

Nineteen Hours to Ankara

Stranded in Istanbul, her connecting flight canceled, a huge suitcase in hand and no way to contact anyone, Adele was trapped with two Turkish businessmen determinedto escort her all the way to her destination by train---but could she really trust them?

Only the name is fiction. The rest is true. Quite a complicated situation and no cell phones back then.

Life is full of adventures.

A Startling Surprise

2012-01-12T10:07:00.002-06:00

It's time for Mama Kat's Writing Prompt and today the topic is, " Describe a time you felt startled."
At first I drew a blank. I've certainly been startled many times, but my goal with this blog is to write about pleasant, uplifting things and I wasn't going to retell any of the horrible startling moments that first came to mind. Trying to think of a good one while laying in bed, I prayed that the Lord bring one to mind, since He can easily locate mental files I've forgotten which cabinet I put them in, and He popped a really good one!
It happened about 20 years ago. My husband had been sent on an 18 month assignment to Turkey that year and my plan was to visit him for a few weeks over Christmas. The price for a round trip flight was $1200.00, which I knew I could put on our credit card, but the debt of it concerned me.
Our house was brand new then, we'd only moved in a few months before Dave got the assignment. So I wouldn't be alone while he was gone, we'd invited a young single girl, named Julie, whom we knew from the ministry to move in and stay with me.

It was a sunny fall day in September as Julie and I walked out to the mail box to get the mail. Now I don't know if you've ever read Guideposts magazines, but Julie and I both had, and they are full of stories of God's miraculous intervention, such as providing money of nowhere at providential moments. I had never had such a thing happen, but it's one of those things you always secretly wish might happen, and as we were walking, I remember just idly remarking to her about one such Guidepost story I remember reading where miracle money arrived in the mail.
Reaching the mail box, I pulled out the mail. In it I found a letter from my Uncle John. He's my Mother's brother, who has never married and, since he has no family of his own, he often visited over Christmas while I was growing up. Even so, we've never been close. We only trade Christmas cards and, at the time, I probably hadn't actually seen him in person since our wedding ten 10 years earlier. So seeing he'd written me a letter was quite odd. I opened it as we were walking back toward the house and something slipped out and fell on the drive way. It fell face up and I saw it was a personal check made out to me. I stared some more, unable to believe the number of zeros I was seeing on the amount. I might've not been surprised to see $200, but this was $2000! I couldn't believe it. I couldn't even breathe, I was so startled and astonished! I had no idea how my Uncle even knew to send it! What I did know was not only I would now be able to pay for my plane ticket, but I would also have extra spending money for the trip!
A Guidepost sort of money coming-out-of-nowhere-at-a-time-of-need had finally happened to me!
There was another such amazing moment of financial provision in the mail box in more recent years, but that is a tale for another time...

************************

Other things I've been up to:

* It's that time of year for trimming pampas grass. I give special care to the clumps near the property line. Did one this week. 3 more to go.

* Did a couple designs for my Zazzle Shop: The t-shirt is posted here to the right. It can be on any style or color shirt, men's or women's. Yesterday I created stationary with a Monarch butterfly design. It's from a real photo I took of one in a butterfly house actually at Epcot in 2009.

* I'm currently working on setting up a "BevStuff" website at Yola. (Yola offers free websites, up to 5.) This will make my 3rd site. They've improved their features since I built The Zone website, so easier to use. It's just drop and click. I designed my own banner for it and, for continuity, I put that same banner on my Zazzle store. It came out really nice. If you'd like to look, go here: http://www.zazzle.com/bevstuff

Blue Roses

2012-01-09T13:41:00.000-06:00

"Can I get blue roses?" was probably the most often asked question at the flower shop where I worked for 17 years as a floral designer.

And the answer is, "No." Fresh, real roses do not come in blue. Even those with names like, "Bluebird," are lavenderish and not blue. If you want roses in blue you're going to have to pay a visit to your local silk flower retailer.

Below are two photos of real roses classed as "Lavender" colored from a florist shop web page. You can see "lavender" in roses varies from more pinkish to more lavenderish. Roses classed as "purple," generally run to the maroon side as a natural color. (If you see roses that actually look purple the color has probably been artificially applied someway---and I don't recommend painting---it's stinky and only effects the outer surface.) The pinker rose to the left called "Ocean Song Lavender" and the one on the right was unnamed, but has the more lavender shade. When lavender was called for, this is the color I usually saw, though it often ran lighter. Be warned about buying lavender roses: they DON'T LAST and will be fully open and wilting within 24 to 30 hours. This is not the flower shop's fault. It's the nature of the rose and you need to understand that about them. For that reason, except for short term use like a wedding perhaps, lavender roses are not a good buy. Frankly, if you want a long-lasting rose go with red.

True blue flowers in the flower world are relatively few and even then, many tend to run slightly to the purple side. On a different blog, I wrote out a list of flowers that can be gotten that are actually strongly blue, which I will replicate here.

Blue Flowers Available From A Florist for Arrangements:
Delphinium: A tall spike of small blue flowers among the most true blue. Comes in a light powder blue or dark blue.
Sea Holly: A true dark blue pineapple-shaped, thistle-like flower. Several small heads to a branch. Good accent flower. Versions can be grown in home garden.
Agagapanthus: Also called Lilly of the Nile. Head is a ball of small blossoms that can range from medium bluish to purplish and also come in white. Also a good garden flower. Used widely in landscaping a lot in Florida.
Cornflowers: Also called Bachelor Buttons. Small hairy blossom are a dark true blue. Can be acquired by a florist, but more expensive and stems are spinally. Better grown in a flower bed.
Statice: Considered a "filler" accent flower in floral shops, it comes in a multitude of colors, but can be gotten in a lightish blue. Also can be grown in a garden.
Hydrangeas: Large heads full of small flowers that come in a nice true medium true blue. Available at florist, though expensive per head. A popular landscaping shrub throughout southern United States.
Scabiosa: A clear light blue pin-cushion looking flower that can be acquired by florist, but I found the stems problematic for sticking in foam. Best for vase use. Also a very hardy garden flower.
Blue Flowers Strictly for the Home Garden as Listed in My Park Seed Catalog:
Astello Indigo Agastache: a stall spike of light bluish flowers. Hummingbird Mint. Perennial. Be aware anything "mint" probably has a tendency to spread readily.
Balloon Flowers: I love these! They look like small hot-air balloons before the open and come in a true medium blue. A low-grounding flower, it blooms profusely all summer. A perennial, so it comes back yearly on it's own. Usually available for sale as plants at Garden shops.
Centaurea Mountain Bluet: A true brilliant dark, like a Cornflower, but larger head and a perennial.
(I have some of this seed to try this year!)
Dianthus Siberian Blues: Picture looks a bright, med blue. Dianthus are member of carnation family, but have a flat-head rather then a fluffy head like other carnations.
Blue Knoll Chrysanthemum: Has lavender-blue daisy-like flowers, according to description. Picture looks all light blue. It's an annual, though, meaning you'd have to replant it yearly. Blooms till frost.
Lupine Sunrise: Has light blue and white petals. Perennial. (On my wish list for one I want to try!)
Loblia Fountain Blue: A cascading mass of dark blue flowers. Annual.
Penstemon Rocky Mountain: Tall spiky stalks of dark blue snap-dragon like blossoms. Perennial.
Poppy Blue Himalayan: A low-growing, light blue flower best grown in Pacific Northwest. Perennial.
Scabosia Fama: Strong blue 3"- 4" flowers. Perennial. Varieties available at Garden shops.
Salvia: Spiked flowers that come in a range of listings for a blue range of color, but I wouldn't be surprised if some don't lean slightly toward purplish-blue. Perennial.
Stokes Aster Blue: An icy light blue flower, long-lasting and good for cutting. Blooms late summer until frost. Perennial. (Also on my wish list to try!)
Statice: available in many colors, including blue. Annual. Keeps color when dried.
Viola Shangri-La Marina: a very pale bluish-lavender violet. Perennial.
Delphinium in a variety of colors, including blue available as seed. Perennials.

(This list is the limit of my seed catalog, though I'm sure there may be a few more blue flower types out there. Blue-eyed grass, for example can be gotten from a live plant catalog. Iris also run to a light-purplish tinted blue. Sea Holly is available in catalogs that sell & ship live plants.)

You can visit www.parkseed.com if you're interested seed or visit you favorite local grower or garden shop for things like Balloon flowers, Delphinium, Salvias & Scabiosa. Normally, what's available in your local garden shop will what will grow well in your area.

Who Would I Cast To Be Us?

2012-01-05T11:26:00.000-06:00

If your life were being turned into a movie...who would play your cast of characters?

What a fascinating question! What actors would I pick to play myself and my husband if our lives were going to be made into a film? Actually, I knew immediately! Then I started thinking about what sort of movie it would be. A comedy, of course! But also it would be an inspirational movie in the same class as "Courageous" and "Facing the Giants." It would be about a husband and wife team, who work for Campus Crusade or Intervarsity on some small Midwestern college campus. This is their life and they're good at what they do and they've been doing ministry on this campus many years, so they're in their late 40's. And because they have no children themselves they've had the freedom to be fully devoted to the campus kids whom they consider like family. They have a public location on campus for a weekly Bible study, do many activities and meals for the kids in their home and plenty of life-on-life counseling as students seek them for advice on life decisions & personal issues. It would be a comedy because I'd cram every quirky, weird thing we've ever dealt with into this film so it one laugh after another and, being a movie, naturally some sort of larger problem to over-come would have to be included for that touch of drama. Over-all, it would have to be about love and faith and perservence.

So, who would I cast to play this? Why no one else but Dennis Quaid and Rene Russo! They're the right age. The right conservative look. They look great together (just like us!) Perfect to play myself and my husband.

This photo is from "Yours, Mine and Ours," however you'll notice I touched it up with a mustache-goatee on Dennis, since to play my husband it would be a prerequisite. Perhaps a touch of gray at the temples. I wear shoulder-length hair anway, so her style is just right. Both would need to at least wear reading glasses. I can imagine Dennis, in this imaginary movie, sitting in his at-home office behind his desk peering over the top of a pair of black reading glasses at a sheepish looking student who has just told him about some sort of mess he's got himself into and Dennis says, "Now, I wish you'd called me before you decided to do that. I would've told you no, that isn't a good idea."
(My husband is always saying that to the Air Force kids, that no one ever calls him to ask whether they ought to be making that certain bad decision that will effect their life for years to come, perhaps even get them kicked out of service!) Though we actually do a military ministry, I'd set the film on a college campus because I think it would be more universally familiar to people. More people go to college then join the military.
There you have it.

Speaking of movies, let me finish off with a brief review of films we saw over the Christmas Holidays:
Sherlock Holmes 2: A Game of Shadows: Way better then first film. It has the same tinted sort of daguerreotype feel to the film. Dotted with humor and plenty of action. I'm not quite sure why Professor Moriarty is always so set on starting WW1. He was bent on doing the same thing in League of Extraordinary Gentleman, though sans Sherlock. Not a film for young children.

Mission: Impossible: Ghost Protocol: Another entertaining, action-packed film. Clever story that kept us guessing to the end. This one also not for the under 10 crowd.

Adventures of Tin-Tin: A sort of CGI animated film, this had a Indiana Jones adventure feel to it set in around the 1920's. Very enjoyable. Good for the 6 or older.
We Bought A Zoo: This one is based generally on the true experiences of a widower and his children after purchasing a property that includes a real zoo. It's very enjoyable with a touch of romantic sweetness, but, oddly, the few instances of mild bad language were more noticeable in this film then in either Sherlock Holmes or Mission: Impossible. If you take young kids, do be warned you may find it necessary to explain to them why you don't want them repeating the particular derogatory word said by young girl to the Zoo Inspector near the end of the film. It draws a laugh from the audience, which might lead kids think it's cool thing to say.

Note: I'm trying a new page design. I like the garden looking theme and the cool colors. What do you think?

Welcome to 2012!

2012-01-02T15:51:00.000-06:00

In 1975, the year I graduated high school, the turn of the 21st century looked soooo far away. Back then, I calculated I'd be a whole "42" when it came. But years sped by and suddenly--it's 2012 and being 18 is sooo very far behind! Back when I started writing my X-men fan fiction in 2001, setting a year of 2017 for the story line seemed sooo far away---but now, it's a mere 5 years off! Time certainly does fly!

On an earlier page I wrote about raising serotonin levels naturally, one being the practice of thankfulness. The fact is being thankful breeds contentment, which breeds longer life. Worry and complaining do the opposite. I saw a man, John Kralik, on one of the morning news shows this past week talking about a book he wrote called "A Simple Act of Gratitude" and explaining how simply expressing gratitude changed his life. He did simply this, something very old fashioned---he took time to actually write, then mail thank-you notes! He writes about how that effected friends, family, even strangers and in how, in turn, that effected him for the better.

I know just listening to him inspired me to make a point of buying a set of pretty thank you note cards at the Dollar Tree to write personal notes to those who sent me gifts. One, that makes them feel appreciated and, two, a hand-written note communicates such a level of genuineness and real care. It just says "I took the time to think of you."

Did someone gift you something for Christmas? A birthday? An anniversary? I challenge you to step away from impersonal technology and send, by mail, a hand-written thank you note or card! Don't send an impersonal text! And do the future a favor, teach your children to hand-write and mail simple thank-yous to anyone who gives them a gift. Don't wait till the wedding!

If you're interested in the book, here's it's link at Amazon, which I'm providing strictly as a helpful reference. I'm not affiliated with Amazon.

http://www.amazon.com/Simple-Act-Gratitude-Learning-Changed/dp/1401310710/ref=sr_1_6?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1325537881&sr=1-6

What did we do Christmas Eve? We prayed in the New Year at the Lighthouse Airmen Center up on base with about 20 young Airmen. It started at 6pm, everyone choosing their own entertainment whether table games, video gaming or movie watching until a quarter till the magic hour. I've been playing the Lego Star Wars Wii game at every event held there since Thanksgiving, which is a total of 3 events, putting in a total of 4 hrs each time. I've reached Chapter 14. Usually someone joins me, since it's a group play game. If you play alone, the other 5 or 6 characters follow you around because you have to switch from character to character for different tasks. It's a kids game, but I find it more then challenging enough. As I struggled to figure this or that scene out, I kept saying, "And this is a kids game?"

I celebrated New Year's Day by cleaning the bathroom, the tub shower in particular, since it had a ring and using 409 foam cleaner on the arms of my love seat in the living room. Might as well start the New Year right with a clean shower! Otherwise, we enjoyed ourselves playing on-line games with Gardens Of Time being our current favorite, though we also got new membership cards for Pirates of the Caribbean Online as well!

Today, we ate lunch at Ruby Tuesdays. I found a gift card for them that had been hiding in my purse long enough I'd forgotten who even gave it to us. I think maybe it was an Anniversary gift back in Sept---I just can't remember. So we used it today and had a fantastic lunch! Besides having the best salad bar in the area, Ruby's has great veggie choices like grilled zucchini or roasted spaghetti squash! I like the Petite steak with roasted spaghetti squash and 1 salad bar trip, which makes for a healthy lunch within the framework of my general calorie target. (I avoid all the salad bar hazards like cheese, egg, ham, bacon crumbles & croutons that turn healthy salads, unhealthy. My only splurge was the dressing---I love Ruby's blue cheese dressing!) Gotta eat smart.

This past week has been a holiday break from the routine, but tomorrow back to regular life!
You'll want to come back Thursday for Mama Kat's Writing Prompt: the challenge is: choose actors I'd want to protray myself and my husband, if our life was suddenly going to be turned into a movie! And I've got the perfect pair picked out! My husband laughed outloud at lunch today when I told him who I thought should play him!

And, by the way, we found the perfect desk chair for me while we were on base Sat and I'm sitting in it right now! So nice to have a chair with arms and I love my ergonomic mouse!

Nearly the End

2011-12-29T08:30:00.000-06:00

So, here we are. The end of another year.

Did you have a nice Christmas Holiday? Any interesting resolutions for 2012?

I don't really make resolutions, but I did write down an "Amaze me" prayer list based on a verse in Ephesians 2: 20 that says, "Now to Him who is able to do exceedingly abundantly beyond all that we ask or think..."
That's why I call it my "Amaze Me" list. I wrote some things down I'm looking for Him "to do exceedingly abundantly beyond" what I've asked or even think.
Have you considered what you might ask of Jesus this year?

We had a nice Christmas. I have enough coffee to last at least 3 months now. My favorite seasonal flavor is Millhouse's Peppermint Coffee. My husband gave a whole set of their seasonal coffees: peppermint, gingerbread, pumpkin spice. My Mother sent me Hazelnut, which is my next favorite

all-around flavor and a matching sugar free creamer. Plus we'd bought 2 bags of peppermint on the shopping trip prior to Christmas, because I wanted to stock up, since once it's gone, it's gone till next Christmas.

My husband also gave me a bag of Ghirardelli "Midnight Reverie" 86% Cacao chocolates.
Very, very dark chocolate with next to no sweetness. Just what I like.
I'd like to sit in on the brain-storming-for-a-name meeting of the marketing/advertising exec's for Ghirardelli or Starbucks products. I can imagine a lot of wierd ideas get thrown around.
Have you ever read Starbucks coffee descriptions? They sound a lot like wine descriptions, such as "a dark roast with a rich, earthy mocha favor with just a touch of almond"---meaning this coffee tastes something like burnt nut shells.
I've read teas described as earthy, too. What is earthy anyway?
The word reminds me of moldering leaves in the deep woods, since I grew up around deep woods, I know exactly what that smells like. Especially after a rain.
Not why would you want that in your cup, I say.

I know many of my friends and family visit here to see and here about my garden, so for you I've put together this slide show of "My Winter Garden":

Yes, I have southern strawberries madly trying to make berries. The plant labeled "Winter Vigor" I don't know the name for. It makes lovely pink flowers. It was in a nearly dead, mixed pot I bought at Kmart and I didn't expect it to live and to my surprise it's heartily thriving. The Salvia all put up new blooming growith and makes for nice Christmas color.
Included also is a Christmas mince pie I made (the mince being made from green tomatoes and raisins) and our Cat, Sunni, in a box on Christmas morning.
We gave her a new stick with a squeaky mouse attached on the end of the line she enjoys. She's 12, but still active and playful.

I also wanted to include a recipe for "Steak Soup," which calls for cube steak, but any inexpensive cut of beef could be substituted or any leftover holiday meat you have on hand: chicken, turkey, ham, etc can be used instead of steak.
This recipe is from a Better Homes & Gardens Cookbook:

Steak Soup

2 4-oz beef cubed steaks (or about 1 1/2 to 2 cups of any meat you like or have on hand.)

1/4 tsp garlic salt
1/8 tsp pepper

1 Tbsp cooking oil
(Sprinkle the garlic salt & pepper on uncooked meat and brown in oil before adding to soup. Any already cooked left-over meat won't need this step.)
1 Med. Onion, chopped
1 stalk celery, chopped
4 cups water

1 10 oz package frozen mixed veggies

1 Tbsp instant beef bouillion granuales (or melt a cube in one of the cups of water above.)
1 Tbsp Worcestershire sauce

1 tsp dried basil

1 7 1/2 oz can diced tomatoes

1/2 cup cold water

1/3 cup all-purpose flour (for thickening.)
Directions:

If needed, cook raw meat seasoned in oil as mentioned above in large saucepan & remove.
In large saucepan cook onion & celery till tender. Add meat, bouillion & water, veggies, Worcestershire & basil. Bring to boil, then simmer about 5 minutes till veggies tender.
Add tomatoes.
Mix together 1/2 cup water and flour, then add to soup, stirring in. Cook and stir until thickened and bubbly for another minute or so.
Makes about 4 to 5 servings.

********

I just got a ergonomic mouse yesterday to replace my regular flat computer mouse. An ergomonic is an upright shaped mouse that you can wrap your hand around. Much easier on wrist--particularly since I do so much on a computer. I just need to replace my seat chair with something with adjustable arm rests! That will be my next improvement.
I will say that I've had an excellent idea for a mousepad design. I'll be posting it soon!
I put up a smaller picture of anything new I've designed just because it's easier to see so my friends can cheer me on!
There's also a place to "become a fan" in my store. Just look for "Promote this store," click on it, scroll to bottom and sign up. I'll get an email that you're a fan and then you'll get one anytime I design & add something new!

Have a great New Year's!

The Imaginary Party Outfit for the Imaginary Party

2011-12-19T12:19:00.000-06:00

Mama Kat's Writing Prompt for this week is a fun one:
"Put together a holiday outfit you'd love to wear at a holiday party should a holiday party ever be on your list of things to do."
This concept requires 2 things:
#1) First, imagining I have an unlimited budget and can buy whatever I want.

#2) Second, also imagining I might actually have someplace fancy to go that requires such an outfit, like, for example, an upscale Christmas party at a plush Destin hotel.
Now that we have the ground rules settled, we can look at the clothing catalog photos I selected for my "ideal party outfit." Now I love a lot of things I see on those oh-too-skinny models in
on-line catalog photos, but I'm not a long-waisted, hipless, bustless, skinny-minny like they are.
I have more of what I prefer to call a "voluptuous hour-glass" shape. I simply look ridiculous in short-short skirts, straight shift dresses, the clingy knits, the fluffy-around the hip jackets that make my hips look twice the size they are or anything too fitted and you can't tell me otherwise.
Also a prerequisite for my ideal party outfit is lots of lots of glitz and sparkle.
So, the photo below would be my outfit choice: a draped, flattering sequined jacket over a equally sparkly top, though I'd chose a silver top rather then this gold one. (Silver seems to accent my strands of grey well.) And the not-too-wide velvety velour pants shown. I prefer the jacket, because it's cold outside at Christmas around here. I also happen to have shoulder length, curly hair.

For shoes, I'd pick sparkly, silverish Cinderella feeling shoes like the ones below:

And for jewelry, I'd polish my look off with gaudy rhinestone earrings, such as these, plus a vintage rhinestone necklace I already own or perhaps a draping black bead necklace that has rhinestone babbles I also have on hand.
I would try them on to see which looked best with the outfit.
I also have a small pot of "skin glitter" which I would apply on my eyelids, cheek-bones and throat area once make-up was on to complete the magic.
"Elves have sparkles on their cheeks" ~ Jim Allen in The Santa Clause~

So there you have it, my perfect party outfit for that perfectly imaginary party!

Something New

2011-12-17T15:12:00.000-06:00

Greetings! Hope your last week before Christmas is going well.
I caught on a recent 700 Club a discussion about what the "X" means in X-mas.

"Christ" is New Testament Greek for "Messiah" and "X" is a like Greek abbreviation for "Christ."
The expression X-Mas was used for 1500 years during the dark ages by the Church because, during this time of relative illiteracy, it was understandable to the common people, who could read "X" and understood that meant Christ.
There's a lot of ill-placed rumor related to the use of X-mas, so we dis-spell those rumors right away.

My birthday was this past week. I love sparkley, glitzy cards full of glitter in there design and my friend, Megan, blessed me by sending me 2 beautiful glittery cards. She also blessed me by buying the "New Creature In Christ" shirt and my "Climber Phillpians 3:14"shirt from my Zazzle store as gifts for people in our ministry. I'll exactly get to see them this Sunday! She said the t-shirt fabric was very good quality.
It's hard to see the detail of the New Creature in Christ ladies t-shirt in the Zazzle panel, so I'm including the link so you can look at it.
http://www.zazzle.com/new_creature_in_christ_shirt-235911581959385165

We brought home our new car on my Birthday also, though it's not a birthday present for me. I love my 19 year old Saturn coupe and that's what I drive. It's a 5 speed. I love driving a stick. It's all I've driven since I've been driving.
No, the new car is really for my husband. The drop-down-slide-in motion of getting into his sedan has been bothering his back for some time now and he wanted something he didn't have to do that with. His car is 12 years old, but it's been more repair prone then mine. We've been working on a car fund for 6 years. I might've put it off longer, but my husband made up his mind this was year.
He researched vehicles for months, then, having settled on what he wanted, he emailed the local Kia dealer. We wanted the basic model Sportage with 6-speed manual transmission.
That was 4 months ago.
My husband was persistent and tenaciously refused to settle for anything less.
Two months passed without them "finding anything."
My husband then emailed the head Corp, Kia USA, for help with a copy of that email going to the local dealer.
Headquarters Kia was EXTREMELY helpful. Naturally, they know what's stocked on every Kia dealer lot in the country.
Turns out, there was only 1 in the whole state of Florida, in Jacksonville, but that one was sold within the 24 hours between our salesman knowing about it from Kia Corp. and calling about it.
(This base model is actually in pretty high demand. I'm surprised Kia doesn't have a better stock of them.)
So, back to the drawing board with Kia USA.

(They have special people assigned to investigate things when you contact them with a problem--which is useful to know.)
After that, they located 1 in Texas, 1 in Tennessee, 1 in North Carolina.

Well, long story short, our dealer worked it out with the Knoxville, TN dealer and sent a guy to fetch it for us and drive it down.
(Of course, it was a retired guy, a non-smoker, who does this for them routinely and knows cars and how to drive a new one properly. You have to be gentle with them the first 500 miles, if you didn't know.)
It arrived the week of my birthday and my birthday turned out to be the day we were free enough to pick it up. So, we did.
We were blessed to know the salesman, Dennis. My huband and he had worked in a local print shop together around 8 years ago. Dennis strives to be honest. My husband is the friendly sort that makes friends of everyone. He sat in their office several times doing this lengthy affair and he and the new finance guy and a couple sales guys spent time trading Christian testimonies. Dennis voluntarily forfeited his commission, so that was a kind blessing to us, too.

Because we have been saving & planning for this car, it will be paid off very, very quickly.
I drove it for the first time yesterday. I drive a 5 speed, but a 6-speed was something new, but there was nothing to it. The only thing was getting used to the "catch point" on the clutch with this particular vehicle. Of course, I killed the engine a couple times in the commissary parking lot before I got it.
We give our vehicles color-designated names and this one has been dubbed, "Sir Gray."
(It's a light grayish-silver color, which was the color we preferred. Basic Sportages only come in light gray, charcoal gray & black.)
So here he is, Sir Gray:

My Most Embarrassing Moment

2011-12-15T15:17:00.000-06:00

It happened at a small, 2 year college in southern Indiana. I was at the Student Union building. It was morning. I had to go to the the bathroom. Now the thing to understand about this Student Union building is it had 2 sets of restroom facilities, one on either side. However, they were juxtaposed. On one side, the Ladies Room was first; on the other the Mens Room was first. I normally went in and out on the side where the Ladies room was first, but this particular day, I was on the opposite side of the building and forgot to think of that when I chose a restroom. I just blatantly walked into the nearest without even thinking where I was. It was empty. I just walked into a stall. When I came out, I went to the sink to wash my hands. Still, I saw no one else. Lifting my eyes to the mirror to check my hair, I suddenly observed a row of urinals lining the wall behind me and thought, "That's funny, I never noticed those in the Ladies Room before." Then it dawned on me. I WASN'T in the Ladies room. This was the MENS ROOM!
I turned and fled, red-faced with embarassment back into the hallway. The hall was as empty as the restroom had been, so, luckily, I escaped this little faux pas without anyone seeing me.

**********

*Write a story from college was this weeks prompt*

Keeping Serotonin Levels Up Naturally

2011-12-12T17:13:00.000-06:00

Since it's winter, I thought a few suggestions on how to keep that "good mood" hormone vigorous might be helpful, especially for those not living in more sunny regions of the U.S. I located this listz
on-line under the topic of "raising sertonin levels naturally" and was originally inspired to look this up to send to a friend who's been under lengthy stress, since long-term stress tends to deplete serotonin.
So here it is:
       1)   Sleep well. Sleep longer if you can or go to bed a tad earlier.
       2) Eat regular meals including plenty of leafy green veggies, whole grains, calcium and protein. Slow digesting fibers, like oatmeal, are particularly helpful to restoring serotonin.
      3)   Try to get 20 to 30 minutes of sunlight a day. This can be a challenge in the northern climates, yet there are sunny, clear days sometimes---try to find a sunny window. Or, to compensate for a lack of sun, take a daily vitamin D supplement, at least 1000 IU. (If you're a woman, vitamin D is essential for keeping your bone strong and ought to be taking it anyway, especially if you're 35 or older.)
     4) Exercise--at least light exercise, such as walking, for at least 30 minutes, 4 times a week has shown to improve serotoin over a 60 day period. So try to get in some kind of exercise you enjoy several times a week to help build up those serotonin levels.
     5) If you can control yourself, have a daily bite of chocolate, preferrably heart-healthy dark chocolate daily, which is well known for stimulating serotonin. (Keep it in the freezer and limit yourself to one or two small squares a day--max!)
    6)   Relaxing activities or hobbies improve seratonin. Do that craft or hobby project you 've been putting off!
    7) Prayer and meditation also have long been proven to lower stress, blood-pressure and elevate serotonin levels. Or, if not prayer, try keeping a thankfulness journal, where you write down one thing you're thankful daily, a different thing every time and meditating on what you're thankful for.
                                                            *****************
Other Activities Today:
   I also spent time today adding a couple new t-shirts design to my "All Things Chocolate" in my Zazzle store.
Because I'm still learning what-works-best-for-what, it takes several hours just to do ONE thing, but I'm pleased with the result. A demo-person displays the shirt of a certain style, but you can pick any shirt style Zazzle carries for the design to go on. Both shirts are customizable, meaning you can alter the text colors & fonts.
Here's to link to see it:
http://www.zazzle.com/cant_survive_without_chocolate_shirt-235567667381135491
I also designed one for dark style shirts:
http://www.zazzle.com/cant_survive_without_chocolate_dark_shirt-235830168048858130.   The yellow lettering looks excellent on the dark brown, black & navy blue shirt styles.
   For lunch today, I made some Coconut Thai Soup based on the College Inn broth for that using the recipe on the back of the box. On a chilly day it was a delightfully warm and filling soup.

Won Photo Contest!

2011-12-10T10:58:00.000-06:00

Yes, I won 2nd Place for my Fall photo at About.com Garden Fall Photo contest!! Here's the link if you'd like to see the photo. It's the butterfly photo called "Butterfly Color Echo."
http://gardening.about.com/od/Garden-Photo-Challenge-2011/ig/October-November-2011-Garden-Photo-Challenge/Shelby1-Post12.htm
It's a photo of a Gulf Fritillary butterfly on a dwarf marigold, a common fall resident here in the deep south from Sept thru Nov. It's one of few butterflies fairly tolerate to human approach, at least long enough to pose for a photo. I got this shot late in afternoon and the western sun was just right to hit beneath it and give it's wings a rich glow. It falls among my personal "best of" shots I've ever taken. (And I use a Nikon Coolpix which has a 5x close-up capacity. It takes fantastic clear shots!)

We went to Miramar Beach yesterday, which is a community west of Sandestin, where there is a shopping commons called "Grand Blvd" full of shops and restaurants. We like one restaurnt there in particular: Mitchell's Fish Market and went there for my birthday lunch. (My Birthday is THIS week!)
They gift a free dessert of your choice for special occasions. I had the Lemon Chicken that came with smashed red potatoes and green beans & mushrooms. It was yum! Then I had the Chocolate cake with mousse and chocolate ganache frosting for my dessert choice. My husband and I split it.
(Spliting a dessert lessons the calorie total on eating a dessert!) Plus the lunch time price is about the same as Ruby Tuesdays, which is amazing since it's pretty classy with a new menu printed daily and chef designed menu items.

Then we walked around the shopping area, me taking photos of these or that for future card designs. Got some lovely pansy shots! I also did a whole photo shoot of some Chocolate Mint Crinkles I made for future Christmas card design. (For my Zazzle store.) I only did a few Christmas designs this season because I opened so late, though they are beautiful painting-like designs based on photos of my own white Christmas Cactus, an elegant way to send either a Merry Christmas or Season's Greetings. (I did both greetings styles.)

Chocolate Mint Crinkles are sometimes called Black & Whites, because they're rolled in powdered sugar prior to baking. I made these in particular because I have some chocolate mint herb outside I wished to use--and they came out very tasty! And pretty!

Anniversary of Pearl Harbor

2011-12-07T16:32:00.000-06:00

Since today is the anniversary of the worst atrocity committed against the United States prior to 9-11, let me recommend the USS Velocity link to the right. It's my Dad's 1943 letters home from Navy Basic and then his journal of his 18 month assignment to the minesweeper, USS Velocity. It's a interesting peek into the past at what Navy life was like back then.

I also recently found my Dad's "Domain of Neptunus Rex" certificate card of membership dated 20 July, 1943. Apparently he'd carried it in his wallet along with his driver's license all 70 years of his life. (He died 1992) He was very proud of his service. I had to look up what this Neptunus Rex thing was and learned it's something like a frat initiation conducted for every new sailor once they've crossed the Equator the first time. A new sailor is called a "Pollywog" until they've crossed, then they go through this initiation to become "shell-backs," where a couple people dress up like "Davy Jones" and "King Neptune" to M.C. the ceremony. It was, frankly, a hazing--which is, of course, illegal in the military forces now. I read of a more current initation on a carrier and it was nothing rough like the old days.
I do think it odd that my Dad didn't even note he'd become a "shell-back" in his journal.

Anyway, photos of his ships and other assignments are all there and I inserted many explanations for some of the out-dated terminology, such as the mine-sweeping equipment, which was then cutting-edge technology..
Enjoy!

New Writing Prompt

2011-12-06T12:19:00.000-06:00

Of Mama Kat's selection of writing prompts for this week, I've chosen the "Share a favorite Christmas Ornament," option:
My Favorite Christmas Tree Ornament:
My yearly Christmas tree is, of course, festooned with ornaments full of memories.However, my ultimate favorite ornament is a little pair of Santa Claus's I made from a pin-ornament kit back in 1976. They're simple really: just a Santa "stuck" in a fireplace chimney waving a tiny Christmas tree. It was an easy kit: the chimney being just a small square of styrofoam that I pinned shiny brick-shaped sequin squares around, then glued the little Santa body on. Tiny star-shaped sequins had to be glued onto the tiny tree he holds and red sequins & beads pinned through the "suit" area, then finally batting was glued around the "chimney" top to form "snow." They remind me of a place and a time when I was on my own, my very first Christmas away from my family in the Air Force.I picked this kit out myself from a mail-order craft catalog and paid for it with my own money. I'd been making Christmas craft-kit ornaments since I was 10, so it was kind of a family tradition, but this was the first time I'd ever picked out and bought such a kit for myself, by myself. That's what makes these 2 little Santa's so special.
I sat in my dorm room and enjoyed putting the little guys together and, to this day, they still get a prominent position on our tree, a positive yearly reminder of how I spent my first Christmas at Offutt AFB, Nebraska, apart from my family.

The art of design

2011-12-04T14:41:00.000-06:00

I hit upon a great design the other day. I was actually trying to see if I could design something to put up next to the blog title here. I was using a photo of a mug and 2 donuts I'd taken and had on file. However, the arrangement wasn't quite right, so I cloned the mug and the donuts into a better arrangement using a photo shop. Then I tried an effect that split it into squares and gave it such a hi-style artish look, I thought it'd make a great mug and card for my Zazzle store!

So, that's what I did. I did a full wrap for a mug with the design and a card that can be 2 sizes. It's a lovely picture. It's in the "All things coffee" file at my store or you may even see it scroll buy on the flash panel. Mugs are on sale today 50% off, by the way, if you're still looking for a gift. (Today only.) And even if you want to put your own photo a mug, go ahead and do that.

One thing I've learned is that every product has a specific pixel size requirement. There's a method available for slapping a photo or design on dozens of products all at once, but pixel size requirement varies so much, I don't think that will come to a good end to do so. I noticed the other day at someone elses Zazzle shop who was selling vintage cards that there was a warning that the card wasn't sized right, but fixing it was going to be up to the customer.. I didn't think that very professional. And it might not even be possible. Cards have a strict safety zone the design needs to fit within.

However, my policy is to design things in the size specific to the given products. That way it will look right. I don't think that the customers responsibility.
Other things on the agenda: We are attending a Christmas Party this evening. It's for members of the base chapel, all protestant services to attend. It's a nice dress up occasion. There's great food, a DJ and usually some entertainment. Last year a bunch of the Gospel service people were doing lip-sync performances of many of the great R&B performers. They did up the costumes, too. I remember one guy was dressed to the hilt as James Brown. It was cool. Can't wait to see what they've come up with this year!

Latest "Mama Kat's Losing It' Writers Challenge

2011-12-02T17:21:00.000-06:00

One of the challenges this past week was to write "5 things people don't know about me, 5 things I'm knowledgeable about, 5 things I know nothing about and 5 things I believe":
5 Things People Probably Don't Know About Me:
1) That I have a terrible hatred for talking on the phone.
2) That I generally dislike being hugged by huggers.
3) That's I'm impatient when information is being told me as a long,long story.
4) That I hate Facebook.
5) That I prefer to stay home in my house.

5 Things I'm Knowledgeable About:
1) The Bible
2) Sewing
3) Graphic Design
4) What flowers & veggies do best in hot deep south.
5)  Cooking
5 Things I know NOTHING About:
1) Soccer
2) Reading Blueprints
3) Flying aircraft
4) Karate
5) Chemistry (I'll never be MacGyver!)
5 Things I believe:
1) That Jesus lived, died and was resurrected to life & everything associated with that.
2)  That I have family who loves me
3)  That I have a husband who loves me
4) That I have a few friends who love me.
5)  That the only things that truly matter are the things that can't be bought and can't be owned.
On Other Fronts:**We bought our fresh Christmas Tree today from the local Boy Scout Troop. It's outside getting a good drink in a bucket of water with a little lemon juice.
**And I added a new "collage-looking coffee and donut" design to my Zazzle shop: a mug and a card in 2 sizes.

Link Added and Updated

2011-12-01T16:42:00.000-06:00

The HJFiction Zone is updated for December! Writers Challenge is to write a short, warm-hearted X-men story suitable to the season. Wintery photos added to InThe Zone Page. I'll note again that this is clean fiction. There's a page called the Rating Zone in the InTheZone section that specifies exactly what isn't allowed. I want quality writing.

On the Linkzone page, there's a Star Trek Enterprise story I wrote that I was just reading through. It's actually pretty engaging. The "science"in it is just bits and pieces of real quantum theory that I strung together and fictionalized to serve the story. I got that idea from Alexandre Dumas, who wrote The Musketeer saga, among other things, who took the frame of real historical events, then altered or rearranged them to fit his characters into it in ways that served the story.

One can only learn from the best.