Week 8 of Project 52

This one was a little tougher for me as the topic was Fall. Now if was in the fall season it could have been a little easier but as we are still in winter I had to get a little creative. I am currently getting emails from a great photography site called Adorama which sells equipment but also provides tutorials. I watched a tutorial on macrophotography and from that I decided to work on some macrophotography. That is how I did my plug photo but also how I did the above water droplet photo falling from the faucet. You can turn out some interesting results with macrophotography. Thanks to Alicia for giving me the tip a few months back of reversing my lens!

Week 7 of Project 52

This week wasn't so much challenging as it was a little anxiety-provoking. The subject for this week was "plug". I had to laugh really because twice I have been shocked and burned (literally) when I have plugged things in to outlets. I really don't like plugging things because I always worry that I will be shocked again. No kidding. My husband sincerely believes that I am cursed when it comes to electrical items whether it is computers, blenders, hairdryers etc. If it requires electricity to run it, something will happen if I am nearby. Take our recent trip to celebrate Sheriff's birthday. The token machine broke down when I went to purchase tokens. It jammed when I needed just 10 more tokens. The worker had to count out 80 tokens by hand. Poor thing. Same thing happens when I call places like the bank or other organizations with computers and the person says, "I'm so sorry but my computer is down." Of course it is. I am on the other end of the phone. Your computer will be up and running as soon as I hang up.

The other week Brett bought a new computer and one of his programs wasn't working. He called the company who wrote it and they said they had never encountered that problem before. Brett demanded to know if I had touched his computer, or emailed his new computer. "no," I replied, "but I did THINK about it." Poor Brett.

Sheriff turns 11!

I can't believe Sheriff is finally 11! I say finally because it seems like it has taken forever to get to this point. At the same time however I look at him and miss the days when he was a little boy giving "big hugs" to his cousin and accidentally spilling eggs on the floor while Brett and I slept in bed. -sigh- Those were the days.

Soon enough his voice will start cracking and the zits will start popping (eww!!). He'll want to borrow the car all the time along with a few dollars here and there. Of course the answer will be "no". To both. hahaha!!!

But for now I guess I had better enjoy the fact that I can still get a few precious hugs out of my 11-year-old and a smile or two when I do or say something mildly amusing. In a few months I'm sure he will be too "old" for that.

Happy Valentine's Day

My Valentine's flowers were quickly dying so I had to preserve the memory as quickly as possible... I remembered the method of reversing my lens to get a macro shot as well.

Wire Challenge

This week's Project 52 challenge was all about wire. I thought - WIRE? How dumb. Now don't get me wrong. I see beauty in just about anything. When I'm driving I look around and I think everything is beautiful... but wire? I was skeptical. I remembered that there was a wire fence on the way to school so I stopped today to take some pictures. Maybe wire can be beautiful after all...

Why I Don't Bake Cookies

Tonight our Relief Society activity is All About Love. I'm just not feeling the love. Why you are asking yourself. Part of the activity is a cookie exchange. We have to make two dozen cookies and put three cookies on 8 plates so that we can exchange them at the activity. Argh! For most women this probably sounds like a simple dimple task that they can complete in their sleep. Not so for me. I am what is called dessert-challenged. Even if I follow the recipe to a "t" something still goes wrong. I would like to blame it on my oven, altitude problems, etc but let's face it... it is the baker. Take today's attempt at making a 3-ingredient cookie recipe that I have made many times. It is the only cookie recipe that I can make. And when I say "make", what I mean to say is that it is occasionally edible.

I started making it and almost immediately made a mistake of adding flour before creaming together the butter and sugar. Duh!!! I caught myself however and wiped my brow in relief. I mixed everything together and chilled the batter in the fridge to use later. The first dozen turned out beautifully and my head started swelling with pride. Maybe I was wrong... maybe I could turn out some decent cookies after all!!! Don't get ahead of yourself sister! 2nd batch... burned... and they were baked for the same amount of time as the first. Drat it! Third batch I scaled back on the time and go figure I had to add back the minutes I had taken off. What the??? They turned out perfectly. Then I made a tragic mistake of eating my lunch while the fourth batch baked. Even though I again scaled back on the time at least 2 more minutes ticked away while I was distracted with my lunch and when I finally clued into the oven beeping at me the batch had burned. Dagnabbit!!! I was hoping to use the extra cookies for our choir practice treat on Sunday. So much for that idea.

My husband called as I pulled the 2nd burned batch out and I told him I was burning cookies. He laughed. Yep. Laughed. He knows my track record for desserts and in fact he is our official cookie baker in our house. He offered to take over for me tonight to bake cookies for the choir. What a sweetheart.


Shortbread Cookies

1 cup butter
1 cup sifted icing sugar
2 cups all –purpose flour

Cream together butter and sugar. Gradually blend in flour, mixing until smooth. Chill if very soft. On lightly floured surface, roll out to ½ inch (1 cm) thickness and cut into small rounds, or roll out to 1/8 to ¼ inch (3 to 5 mm) thickness and cut with cookie cutters into Christmas shapes. Place on ungreased baking sheets. Decorate with almonds or candied cherries, if desired (or decorate with icing after baking). Bake in 300 degree F oven for 15 minutes or until set but not browned. Makes 36 to 48 cookies depending on size of cookie cutters.

New and Old

This week's photography challenge was steel. Again I brought my camera with me and was chewing my nails trying to figure out what to shoot. I saw a building going up with the raw steel exposed and tried some shots but wasn't really happy with the results.
My husband would disagree, however, and say that it is a thing of beauty. Of course he would! He is a steel man through and through. Steel is in his veins. If he had his way our home would totally be made of steel. Forget about Superman, Brett is my man of steel. He lives and breathes it everyday.

This afternoon as went to run errands I saw some old, run-down items in front of a home just outside our neighborhood. They were perfect!


Some people love displaying rusty relics in their yard like broken down farm equipment, old wagons, broken lawnmowers. Me, I stick to sitting on my porch in the warm summer evenings. I don't know what cultured people find more offensive. At any rate, you'll have to decide what you like better, the new or the old.