Long time, no post

I know it's only been since the 24th, but when you've been posting at least once everyday, it seems like forever!  Hope everyone had a fabulous Thanksgiving!

With all the cooking and prep for cooking last week I spent an enormous amount of time in my kitchen, which I'm sure many of you out there did the same.  My bird feeder is right in my line of site and it was particularly active last week.  It gave me lots of practice for shooting things that move really really fast as well as working on applying textures and practicing what I learned in the Skinny Minny workshop the week before.

I think the second one is my favorite.  I just love the look on the birdie's face.  It's hard to tell if he's coming or going!

See other sweet shots here:

Kids today...

Dear Maryland and Delaware,


I'm so sorry that my child forgot (aka ignored my nagging her) to bring toll money with her and sneaked through the

Please don't fine us.  The check is in the mail.  I will even have her include a written apology if that will help.  It's been a bit of a tough week, so if you could give us a break on this one it would be greatly appreciated.

I'd also like to add a quick shout out to the great Commonwealth of Virginia for having no tolls on I-95. 

My wallet thanks you.  That is all.

In other news I found a use for those leftover Halloween pumpkins that we never got around to carving!

Not too shabby.

I'm making some progress on Thanksgiving dinner.  Working on the cranberry sauce, pumpkin soup, and mashed rudabaga (it's an acquired taste but it's tradition and we love it). 

I made Pioneer Woman's brine for the turkey last night and it's brining away as I type. 

I've never tried brining before so around this time tomorrow I will be able to answer that age old question,

"What's brine got to do, got to do with it?"  or am I just confusing it with a Tina Turner tune? 

Sorry, it's been a long week and a really, really long night!

Happy Thanksgiving!



Playing with textures

I miss Kim Klassen's Skinny-Minny workshop already. I've learned so much over the last ten days and felt confident enough to try some things on my own.

I've used 2 textures here.  Kim's and one that I made myself.  So fun!

And now, for my next trick, I will get my rear in gear and take a shower.

The Lucky One

Last week at Bingo (haha, don't judge me), I purchased and opened my game machine and found this sweet tiny homemade good luck charm that another user accidentally left in the game.

 

I don't know if it had anything to do with the ladybug charm or if it was just my turn, but I won 4 bingo games that night.  You better believe I'm taking my little ladybug back with me when BFF Becky and I play tonight!

Check out other macros at Lisa's Chaos-Macro Monday

He's only sleeping, really, I promise!

I love that I can work in my kitchen and look out on my bird feeder.  Yesterday I saw a very unusual sight. 

He is alive!Here's the proof:

And a little closer:

See, I promised!




I'm linking this post up with

You can never learn enough

I've been really enjoying Kim Klassen's Cafe Photoshop Elements-skinny-mini-ecourse. (although I think I'm a day behind) 

I bought Photoshop Elements over a year ago and have been really intimidated, so I usually revert to using Picnik.  It's amazing what you can learn and teach yourself as you become more familiar with the process.

Here's my homework from the lesson on textures, something I haven't done much with at all.  I created my own texture from a picture I took of one of my flowers.  I converted it to black and white, lightened and softened it a bit, then applied it to my image.
I also tweek a bunch of other things along the way but here's the results:

And here's the texture I used:

I'm also linking up with Sweet Shot Tuesday

Pretty Poison

Nature is a peculiar thing...

...when in fall, even the poison ivy is beautiful.

See more straight out of the camera images here: SOOC Sunday.

September Farm

It was such an unbelievably gorgeous day here in southeastern Pennsylvania!  My parents are visiting from North Carolina and I thought they'd enjoy visiting one of my local retail shop customers with me, September Farm Cheese in Honey Brook, PA.

Loose Change

As I was cleaning up for my parents visit this week I repeatedly bent down to pick up change off the floor. 

I found it in our bedrooms, living room, kitchen, hallways and even the bathrooms!  It got me wondering how much money we actually waste around the house, so I took it a step further.  I looked in the junk drawer and handbags and wallets that I had in the closet.  I even checked the dish of jewelry on my dresser, and you wanna know what I found?

$13.50!

You know what I learned?

I learned that my floor and drawers pay much better than Google Adsense.

And that's change that I can believe in!

See more macros and join in the fun here: Macro Friday at Blogging From Bolivia.

Way Hey Eh, It's Just an Ordinary Day

It's been a busy and productive week at Coneflower Ranch!  I'm happy to report that I have made 4 whole batches of goat milk soap, on my way to replenishing my supply.  I've also completed some candle orders along the way!  Booyah!

Fall is like a box of chocolates...

You never know what you're gonna get.

Click on the photo for a larger view

Link up your Sweet Shot here  and here Skywatch Friday

or  join in the fun and add one of your own!

Macro Monday

I found this metal pinwheel at a yard sale.  I'd never seen one like it before so of course I had buy it!

I processed with Coffeeshop Action Vintage Honey.  See more macros at Lisa's Chaos.

Picture in Picture

This is a photo I keep taped to the inside of my kitchen cabinet.  It's a photo I took of my beloved Lucy, my mini dachshound who passed away in 2005.  She was in our lives for three short years and we miss her every day.

SOOC Sunday

The frost has been consistent over the last week.  Here's a seed head from one of the weed grasses that I thought looked so lovely with the melting frost.

Share your straight out of the camera images or see other great ones here at SOOC Sunday

Outrageous Fortune

Since I  was feeling rather sickly yesterday Tony offered to bring home Chinese food for dinner, for which I was extremely grateful.

I was tickled when I opened my fortune cookie.

Now I have no idea if it was the extra sleep, cold meds, or this lovely affirmation, but I'm feeling much better today! 

If only I could find the cookie with the fortune that predicts my winning of the lottery...

I'm linking this post over at Macro Friday.  Go over and check out some great macros!

Three of Me (*WARNING*, a bit of self-indulgent whining)

Ever have one of those days when you need three of you?  You know those days when there's just not enough of you to go around?  When you have so much to do and get so bogged down with the length of the list that it's hard to know where to start? 

No?  Okay, then you can stop reading here, however, if you you can relate then I will share that I'm having one of those days. 

 It actually started yesterday, with a list.

Hi, I'm Nancy and I'm a list maker.  I think I started making them at about the same time I started my student teaching.  Ironically, I married a list maker, but that's another post all together. This post is all about me, baby!  (hense the warning above)

I have on my list today:

1.  Make 8 batches of soap.  (goal met 0)

2. 5 soy candles for customer (goal met 0)

3. 3 batches of palm votives for retail shop  (goal met 0)

4. organize bedroom  (total fail)

5. Head Cold  (GOAL MET!)  No, this wasn't really on my list.  Although, this is what I believe is throwing my world off-kilter today.  Cold meds make me loopy, and apparently whiny and self-indulgent.

As I type this entry I am looking at all the supplies for making a Grapefruit Ginger soap batch.  I will get off this bench, step away from the laptop, and get something done.

I think I can, I think I can, I think I can...

The Morning After

Walking into my voting precinct yesterday morning I wasn't thinking about taking back my country, from who, I haven't quite figured that out yet, China?  Japan?  Canada?   And I wasn't thinking about change, which I haven't seen in the last 30 years that I've been a registered voter.

Reconnecting

If you have spent any time on Facebook recently you have probably seen the quote below.






















It has been said that everlasting friends can go long periods of time without speaking & never question the friendship. These types of friends pick up like they just spoke yesterday, regardless of how long it has been or how faraway they live, & they don't hold grudges.
...They..understand that life is busy..but you will ALWAYS love
them..

Not Letting Down Our Guard

While pouring candles in the kitchen on Friday I felt something crawling on my leg. I reached down and found this deer tick.

It’s so small and fast that I had a difficult time getting much detail with my macro lens.