Foody Friday - Spiced Almonds

Oh yum! Spiced Almonds like the kind that you buy in the mall in the little cellophane cone. What a great snack..and addicting!! 

Unfortunately I found a super duper easy recipe for 

Spiced Almonds from theydrawandcook.com.

Isn't that a gorgeous illustration? I just love browsing TDAC's website just to look at the art. 

And I do mean 'unfortunately' I found this recipe. I only made these yummy snacks last night and already I've eaten about half the batch. Almonds might be magic and a wonderful health food but when you put that many almonds in your tummy there's bound to be some pain. But I must be too stupid to learn my lesson because I'm munching on more right now. They are just that good! 

Week 5 - Steel

Week 5 of 52 Weeks of Photography Themes 

Steel!

I have to say I am loving these weekly themes. It's so much easier than trying to come up my own ideas for photos. 

I ran up to Dodge City over the weekend, by myself!, and being the the Queen of the Cow towns brought the railroad through this part of the state I found myself taking a lot of railroad themed photos. 

f 5.6, 1/125 sec., ISO 100

The Cow Catcher 

f 9, 1/13 sec., ISO 1600

 Controls for the engineer and fireman on the inside of the cab. 

f 8, 1/100 sec, ISO 800

Parts of the steam engine's wheels. 

Shooting the steam engine that sits out front of Boot Hill Museum in Dodge City was tricky because the sun was so very bright that day. I kept having to fiddle with my camera. My ISO was all over the place. Although I've always loved how bright it is in Kansas all the sun tends to wash out the colors in my photographs. But it's hard for me to shoot other than during the brightest time of the day. 

f13, 1/125 sec., ISO 100I stopped for a bit on the way home for a shot of tiny steal barbs. I just love how blurry the windmill in the background is. 

Let's see..next week, Week 6 is...

...Wire.

Whoops. Maybe I should have saved the barbed wire until next week! 


P.S. - I have a Facebook friend who is doing this project with me and this was one of hers for Steel. I just love it!! 

My New and Improved Etsy Shop

Well, I did it. 

I took the plunge...again...and re-opened my Etsy shop!

Before Yahoo was born and we moved to Kansas I was much more active making and selling baby booties in my shop. But after we moved out west and the boys started school and everyone seemed to get so busy, I just couldn't get my heart into making baby booties anymore. In fact it hasn't been until just the past year that I finally started creating anything again. 

I never even thought of selling my paintings, I just painted because I enjoyed it, but Kasse at Rural Women Rock suggested that I try it...so, here goes! 

So far I only have four paintings to put in my Etsy shop. 

They probably look familiar to you; I've posted them here before. 

I don't mind selling my paintings but I have a hard time setting a price for them. They range in size form 6 1/2 to 8 inches square.

What do you think would be a fair price? 

We'll see how it goes. I'm not much of a self promoter. I feel self conscious telling people that I have art work to sell. I'm not even sure how to go about advertising...well, besides a blog. 

Ah well. I just enjoy making them and for me, that's all that matters. 

Marker Monday - Crazy Hair Hats for 100 day

I had the best time substitute teaching last week in a preschool class. What fun it was! Everything was new and exciting to these little ones. I was lucky enough to be there when they celebrated their 100th day of school. 

All the students from the PreK to the 5th grade lined up holding a number from 1 to 100. Imagine my surprise when one of the teachers told us this was the first time in a LONG time there were enough students to count to 100! Yep, we are a small school. 

The kids got to make a 100 Day Crazy Hair Hat. I didn't get any good pics of them but basically they had a piece of cardstock that went around their heads and they glued 100 strips of paper to it; ten colors in groups of ten. Twenty preschoolers all counting and gluing, oh my. The hats were wild! 

I thought we could do a smaller version at home with Yahoo. She loved it, especially when she shook her head. Ha! 

Yap decided to make one too. 

It was a nice quick little after school art project. You could crayon drawings, stickers, all kinds stuff! 

Sunday Devotions - Friend Request: Jesus Christ

After he was raised from the dead, his disciples recalled what he had said. Then they believed the scripture and the words that Jesus had spoken. John 2:22

Recently I bought a new cell phone, an Android smart phone! It has been so much fun. I'm learning all about "apps" and I'm totally addicted to playing with my phone. I'm getting my butt beat playing Scrabble with my sister back in Indiana. My kids are loving shooting Angry Birds. I've got lists and all kinds of apps that has made life a whole lot easier!

The other day I downloaded Words of Jesus. "Words of Jesus is a daily notification that delivers the words of Jesus to your phone daily. A Widget that shows a verse each day from a large selection picked from the Bible, each of which are the words of Jesus from 2000 years ago, but just as wise and relevant today as ever!"

I've not only enjoyed the daily verses as a reminder for my daily devotional time but my daily delivery of Words of Jesus is almost like Jesus sending me a text message. I feel like I'm getting a message from a close friend just for me. It's amazing how those daily messages seem to be just the ones I need for the day. 

Oh, for the days when I was in my prime, when God’s intimate friendship blessed my house, Job 29:4

There has never before been a time in our society when our society has been so connected. Technology, the Internet, smart phones, allow connecting with friends and family unbelievably accessible. Twenty years ago news that would have taken days to reach me now takes minutes. Twenty years ago I would have waited a week or more for a response to a letter I wrote. Now I can play a childhood game with my sister 900 miles away. 

I think if Jesus were on Earth today he would totally embrace technology; Twitter, Facebook, texting on Smart phones. Imagine how many people Jesus could reach today through technology today! Everyday Jesus could send a message to all his followers no matter where they are. 

Jesus is in Heaven and doesn't have a smart phone but we Christians ARE here  and WE have access to all this technology. How many people could we reach with God's word today? Do you Twitter? Do you Facebook? Who is on your contact list that could benefit from hearing God's word today? Send them a text. You may never know who your simple message may reach today. 

Dear Heavenly Father, Technological progress is amazing. What a blessing! Show me how to use technology to spread Your word. Remind me today to put Jesus at the top of my friends list. Amen. 

My New Curtains that Aren't Curtains.

I really don't like curtains and I LOATH Venetian blinds.

What's the point in having windows in your house if you are just going to cover up the sunshine? I love sunshine!

In the past, most of our houses have been in the country and privacy was never an issue. (Past posts of my nude kids proves that!)

But now we live on the main street of town and it's kind of nice to have a little privacy. Our dining room is small and dark and situated at the corner of two streets. When we moved in there were paper curtains up that I liked but they finally got stained and torn and I had to take them down. 

But I didn't want to replace them with dark curtains. I wanted something to provide a little privacy but still let in the light. 

I saw this post (Frank Lloyd Wright inspired) and BINGO! This was what I was going to do!  

I only bought enough supplies for two windows to begin with, to see if I really liked it. I think I only spent maybe $12 on everything. It was such a hit with the family that we're going to get enough for 6 more windows! 

All we did was cut out circles from tissue paper and place them between two sheets of clear contact paper and then hang them by metal rings off a curtain rod. I also think this would be an awesome way to customize windows for kid's birthday parties, seasons, or holidays. 

I do have to work on getting rid of the air bubbles though. I'm so excited about this, it really brightens up our little dining room. 

Foody Friday - Healthier Cheesecake

I am a glutton for free e-books on my Kindle. It's not uncommon for me to download a book, that I'd barely look at in a bookstore, just because it's free. Such was the case with The Perfect Ten Diet.  I thought it sounded interesting because the diet focuses on 10 hormones that need to be balanced to lose weight. I started reading not expecting that I'd finish it but it was a very interesting read and the author/doctor put explained difficult scientific concepts in understandable ways. I admit I would find it  VERY hard to follow this diet to the letter; no sugar or sweeteners, no processed foods, NO CAFFEINE,limited bread!! But also adding more healthy fats to your diet; eggs, olive oil, fish, chicken, CREAM, real BUTTER!! I can do butter!  After reading the book I decided to try and follow some of the recommendations. Can't be too healthy right? 

The book even includes healthier recipes at the end and imagine my surprise when cheesecake was on this diet! Aw, what the heck. I figured I'd make it, it would be lousy and I'd throw it out. But at least I'd try. 

Oh. my. goodness. It was great! It took DR and I about a week but we finally ate the whole thing. And boy, did it fill me up! It isn't as sweet as a regular cheesecake but it was VERY satisfying. 

New York Style Cheesecake

1/4 cup unsalted butter, melted

1 cup whole wheat cracker crumbs

1/2 cup agave (I used honey, not on the diet but darn natural in my book)

40 oz. cream cheese, softened

1/2 cup heavy cream 

3 large eggs

1 cup sour cream

1 t. vanilla

1/4 cup all purpose whole wheat flour

Grease the sides of a springform pan. In a large bowl, combine the butter and cracker crumbs. Press into the bottom of the pan, and place the pan in the freezer for 1 hour. 

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. In a large bowl, beat the agave and cream cheese for 4 minutes. Blend, with electric blender, in the heavy cream. Add the eggs, one at a time, mixing well after each egg is added. Mix in the sour cream, vanilla, whole wheat flour until smooth. Pour the filling over the crust. Bake at 350 for 1 hour. Turn off the oven and let the cake cool in the oven for 5 hours (I only cooled it for 4 hours). Refrigerate for at least 4 hours before serving. 

I enjoyed eating the cheesecake plain but DR had to doctor it up! Pretty though! If you make this I'd love to know what you thought of it.