Where have you been?

Last month when we drove to St. Mary's Pennsylvania I snapped a few pictures along the way.
When I looked at this one it just made me think of the question, where have you been? Put a camera in my hand and I'll take a picture of anything whether it's good or not.



We pulled over so Wade could run in a store for a pack of cigarettes and while I was waiting I snapped this picture.


I'm not sure if this is someones house or something else but I love the looks of it. Had to take a picture of it this time.

So that's all I've got today. I do have several ideas for posts the only problem is it involves taking some pictures first. Tomorrow is Friday though so maybe I'll have the extra time to do them. Have a great night and wonderful day tomorrow.

Dukey Day

Mom decided to give me another shot at blogging since you all left such nice comments on my last post.
Mom said that maybe I should call this a PUPlic service announcement. It's all about chewing. Like the picture says "A dogs gotta chew what a dogs gotta chew"

All the things in this picture with me are toys that are ok to chew. You can see that I play with my toys a lot. I loveeeeeeeee to chew and shake, then chew some more. There are things that a dog should never chew though.

Don't ever chew on mom's shoes

Don't worry, I didn't chew on these. I learned my lesson a long time ago when I first lived here that shoes were not toys. I just wanted to pass on what I learned.

I wish mom would change her mind though cuz it sure was fun playing with them shoes.

Bye everyone, maybe I'll get to blog again next week.

I shot a jerky and I enjoyed it

A couple weeks ago instead of being a good witch, I was an evil one and instead of staying home and passing out candy for Halloween I went out shopping and bought myself a treat. I've been wanting a food dehydrator for awhile now. I used to have one in a previous life, however I lost custody of it when I divorced my first husband. I guess just because I had given it to him as a gift one year, he thought it belonged to him. Whatever!
Anyway I went out shopping and found this one on sale. So I bought it. It even came with a bonus jerky shooter.


So what's a jerky shooter? Well it's a gun type device used to make hamburg jerky. Years ago, we had made hamburg jerky and I love it.

So you start with a pound of extra lean hamburg and these two little packets. One is a seasoning and the other is a cure. I'm planning a trip to Gander Mountain because I hear they have all kinds of different seasonings for this stuff.

Once you mix the two packets with the burger then you stuff it into the shooter. (excuse the bad picture I was trying to take it with one hand while I was holding the jerky shooter with the other)

After you stuff that full you pull the trigger and out comes jerky. Yeah!!!

Just fill those trays up, plug in the dehydrator and you're all set. I used a little over a pound of meat and got about 40 pieces of jerky out of it. I managed to get a picture of the last few pieces before it was all gone.

Positively negative

EXACTLY!

I'm sure that makes no sense whatsoever but that's OK because neither does anything else.
I started my rounds on all your wonderful blogs today and managed to read and comment on about the first three or four. After that, I only read. I'm afraid that I just don't have it in me today to do all the comments. I promise I will get back to my regular routine, just not today.

Now I've got something to give you. This is one of those things that at the time seemed really cool when I was doing it, and maybe it is. But, in my current state, I'm just not seeing it anymore...lol I don't know if you would consider this an overlay or more of a template. I'll try to explain how I used them without being too confusing. Each overlay/template/whatever it is consists of shapes in 3 different colors (white, gray, black) First I selected just the black and then added one color to that, then I did the same with each of the other colors. Maybe you can get the idea of what I just said by the example in the preview.


The download I have for you today has eleven of these thing a ma jigs and three actual papers that I made using them. Being the total ditz that I am none of the papers that are shown in the preview are included. I guess after I did them I deleted them because I can't find them anywhere.
I think maybe I should just go to bed now and try again tomorrow.
Oh DUH!!!!!!!!!!! I guess you might want the link for the whosey whatsits huh? Download it right HERE



FYI spell check seems to have a problem with the word whosey but not whatsits. Go figure.

That reminds me of...

It's time for my weekly addition of "That reminds me of..." Can you guess who this picture reminds me of?

When I first looked at this picture right away I knew that it reminded me of January's Scraps of Life Mainly, it made me think of her because of the Monday Mellow Yellow posts that she does. After thinking about it for a bit though I realized that the picture is bright and cheery just like she is. So yep, that's who this one reminds me of.

You can teach an old dog new tricks

Sorry to disappoint you but this isn't another Duke post. It isn't even Duke who learned the new trick. It's me, yes me. I learned a new trick. I'm sharing it with you today because I think it is so darn cool and yet oh so easy.
First let me tell you where I heard about this. I get a newsletter from Texas Chicks Blogs and Pics One of the more recent ones talked about cropping. They suggested cropping from vertical to horizontal or horizontal to vertical (whichever the case may be). There were some examples of what a difference it made in the final photo. Let me just say WOW I liked it.
Here are a couple of my examples for you. Now on the after picture I also did some additional editing but even without it, there was a big improvement. At least I think so anyway.


My first example is a horizontal shot of the cat I used to have. Not a very good picture really but heck he was a pretty cat.



Now when I cropped, I turned it vertical. Then of course I changed it to black and white and probably several something elses that I can't remember. What do you think? Better?


This next one is a picture of me :) Why I'm posting this I'm not sure because I hate pictures of me. But, I really like what I ended up with. Now before you look at the picture I want you to pretend that you don't see any gray hair. What was I thinking when I let myself be photographed without coloring my hair first? OMG



Again I went from horizontal to vertical and you wouldn't believe that this is the same picture. Now again I did a whole lot of editing after I cropped and can't for the life of me remember exactly what I did but this is what I ended up with. So what do you think?




So give this a try on some of your pictures. Turn landscapes into portraits and portraits into landscapes.

Just as a side note here, when you do something like this, save your originals that way you can always go back to it if you decide you don't like your edit so much after all. I've done some edits late at night that, at the time, I thought looked spectacular. The next morning? Not so good.

Duke wanted me to add here that he is a little upset with me right now. He thinks that since the title of my post was "You can teach an old dog new tricks" I should have included at least one picture of a dog.

Sorry Duke, maybe next time. This post is mom's

Honor or Shame

This post is being written with mixed emotions. On the one hand I feel deeply honored and grateful that some wonderful people felt that I was worthy of an award. On the other I am a bit ashamed to say that it's been quite some time since a couple of these awards were given to me. Furthermore, there were also a couple other awards that were given to me, but, it's been so long that I can not remember what they were or who gave them to me. So to those of you who aren't mentioned here, please know that I greatly appreciated the fact that you thought of me. Please except my humble apologies for being so absent minded. At times I feel overwhelmed by all the things I need and want to accomplish in a day and some things just get lost in the chaos.

Most recently I was given the Best Blog Award by not one but two wonderful people. First it was given to me by DigiVickie and also by Surviving Motherhood...barely
Both of these women are not only wonderful people but also full of talent, charm and personality. I truly love them both. (I'm not just saying that about Tanyia because she's my sister either...lol)


So the rules to this award are as follows
Accept the award and post it on your blog along with the name and link of the person who passed it on to you.
Choose 15 blogs that you have recently discovered and you think are great.
I don't always follow rules so I'm not going to go with 15 but here are my choices
Sugar the Golden Retriever
Duck and Wheel with String
The Queen Speaks
Mature not Senile
Allotments4you



My next award comes from Theresa's Treasures and I want to thank her so much for passing this on to me. I can only hope that since it was back on Oct 26Th that she passed this on, that she still wants to include me in on her circle of friends.

My list of recipients for this award would take me all weekend to type out since there are so many of you that I now consider to be my friends. Every one of you who stops by here mean so much to me that I want All of you to have this one. You are the best.

Finally, dear Kat, I do so apologize for taking forever to thank you officially for this wonderful award. Kat's blog Candles, crafts and whatnot is such a wonderful place to visit. If you haven't been there before you really should check it out.

The rules to this award are much the same as the first one. Again I'm going to cheat and pass it on to each and every one of you who bless me each day with your warm, witty and wonderful comments.

Wishing everyone a wonderful weekend. Hugs to you all.