Words to Inspire

2012 has been challenging. I have found the need for countless reminders and quotes to help me keep focused and energetic and positive. Words can be very powerful. When used in a positive way, they can be just what a person needs to make a change, finish a project, take a chance, maybe even just smile. . . I have been creating mini posters with some great quotes and simple sayings. Here is one of them.

Simple and true. Right click on this image and save it for yourself.

Heirloom Tomatoes

I picked several Heirloom tomatoes yesterday. I grew these last year, this year, and will definitely next year. They are delicious and beautiful. I made the mistake of caging them and some are getting squished. All my tomatoes have ripened early this year. Last year I had nothing but green tomatoes in late fall. It's amazing how different each year is!
These are Livingston Seed Co. Old German Tomatoes, the beefsteak variety. They are very dense and AWESOME! I like to slice them thickly and slide an egg, sunny-side up, on top. So good!

I also grew eggplants this year for the first time. While not as successful as my tomatoes, they've produced a couple fruits. I did have a lot of beetles in my garden in early summer. The eggplants, pumpkins, and squash were beaten up a bit. Below is my first ever photo of an eggplant blossom.

Harvest Time

The garden is going off and I can't keep up. I've got pickles soaking in salt water and a counter full of heirloom tomatoes. I've done two batches of green beans (into the freezer after a good blanching!) and my husband and mother-in-law processed 10 dozen ears of corn. So glad I didn't have to help with that!

This will be the first year I've made pickles from Lemon Cucumbers. They're growing like mad right now, I've let a lot of them get too big. The skin is a little tough but they taste great. And they are an array of beautiful citrus and golden yellows.

 Took a quick drive to Mayflower Lake and cast a few at sunset. The kids ran up and down the pier and managed to catch a pan fish before getting in the water.

Burning Cold Beer

A recent birthday present project went very well. It involved my burning tool, wood pieces and a fun font. Take a look!

I traced and transferred my chosen phrase via pencil rub. Nothing fancy here.

I traced as carefully as I could finding out those E's are maybe a little too curvaceous.

Add shading and distressing and a hanger on the back.
Happy Birthday Dad!
He's leaving the less finished one to sit in the sun for a while. We'll see how it looks later on.

Create a Graphic and Sentimental Piece of Collage Art

I've seen this Helen Keller quote illustrated a lot on Etsy. I decided to do my own version using some of my Alaska papers (guess I hoard paper a bit!) I've got a few Anchorage Weekly's, tourist mags, news articles, etc. etc.
I bought this frame for a poster and it didn't fit so I just used the cardboard backing and placed clippings from some of my fave places while living in Alaska. I used acrylic medium to affix the papers and let dry. I then placed my text and painted it, threw it back in the frame and hung it on the wall. Total time = 2ish hours. It's amazing how much this energized the room. 

Supplies needed:
Acrylic Matte Medium
2 Paint brushes (one for matte medium, one for painting) 
Fun papers, pictures, etc.
Frame
Cardboard
Acrylic Paint

You could also paint a background and cut out letters and paste on. The next one I do will be on canvas. I think the cardboard will hold up for a while but it did warp a little bit, fyi.

My digital camera review

Ugh, I knew the day would come when my little Sony DSC-W80 would quit me. I complained a lot about my cybershot but now that I'm shopping around, I must admit, it wasn't a bad little camera. Not great in low light, very noisy, but it did take some nice pictures.

I jumped for a Canon DSLR for $350.00. BUT, I got it home and started opening it and realized it was HUGE! Maybe I didn't like photography as much as I thought. I took it back.

Next I grabbed the Canon PowerShot SX150 for $180.00. It was smaller, still a Canon, and reasonably priced. The pictures it captured were nice, very nice really. BUT it runs on two AA batteries which lasted for maybe fifty shots. It has a manual flash that is anything but convenient to open. Extremely slow flash recharge time and its too big for my pocket. (I realized that I need a camera that I can stash in a pocket.) Camera return number 2!

At this point I needed to read some reviews. I wanted a camera that took low noise pictures, even in low light. I wanted it to be small enough to cart around in a pocket if needed, and it needed to be fast! I've got two preschoolers for goodness sake!

My top 3 picks were:
Sony HX9V
Canon SX230HS
Nikon Coolpix S9100

I passed on the Sony because I've had two break on me now. They were decent cameras but even though they boast their Carl Zeiss lens, that is what stopped working.

Honestly I wanted to buy the Canon, but no one local has them in stock (and I want it now). Apparently they are popular for some reason. ugh.

I bought the Nikon for $199.00 and have been using it for 13 days now. I need to take it back tomorrow if I'm not going to keep it. The pictures are great, its fast and compact, and overall, not bad. However! When I review my pictures the lens stays open and I don't like this. And the delete menu scares me a bit. I almost deleted all the pictures on my camera because the controls are a little too sensitive. I don't know yet. I'm going to sleep on it and decide in the morning.