Photo editing

I’ve received several comments on how great the color is in my photos, how I make things POP and similar comments. I have to admit though, it’s not exactly my photography skills that make this work.

Thought I would love to take credit for the bright colors in some of my pictures, I can’t. I use Picasa, and I absolutely love it.

One of the reasons I love Picasa so much is because it’s FREE! This is a huge plus in my non-professional, non-professional-aspiring photography book. Therefore I was thrilled to pieces when I saw on my Google Reader that one of my favorite blogs is doing a series on how to use Picasa! So go check it out! I know I will!

Fresh fruit fanatic!

This comprised of about 90% of my grocery shopping today, and I love it! We are a fresh fruit family, and it helps a lot that the summer means they’re on sale!

I’ve learned a few things when dealing with our fresh fruits and veggies. Those lovely plastic bags you put your (usually damp) veggies in when you buy them? They will be the death of them! It took me a little too long to learn that the first thing I need to do is cut my fruit and vegetables up. This also helps me in the long run because it’s easy to grab a few pieces of broccoli and steam them without having to bother with cutting them up. It means, for me, that I’m more likely to actually eat them if they’re ready to go!

Last week I did this with a pound of strawberries and they were gone in three days! I joked with Geoff that he didn’t share with me, but honestly I was just glad they were being eaten! So this week I bought two pounds.
Broccoli is cheap; it’s light and I can often find it for about .99 cents a pound, and I could eat it every other day if Geoff let me! Strawberries are another story. I used to think they were too expensive to buy, but I’ve come to realize that it is no more expensive than a 12 pack of soda that has absolutely no nutritional value. I suppose it is all about putting it into perspective.

This doesn’t mean I’m against canned fruits. I happen to LOVE grapefruit, and I love the fact that I can store cans in the pantry and not worry about them going bad during the week.

For the amount of fruits and veggies we’re eating this summer I’m going to have to rethink what I want to grow next year! Broccoli is a must.
What about you?

Menu plan Monday

Menu Plan Monday is, as usual, brought to you by orgjunkie.com!

Breakfast will be either oatmeal or cereal, and lunches will be mostly leftovers or Smart Ones.

Monday: Skillet macaroni and cheese, broccoli and fruit
Tuesday: I’ll be eating dinner with a friend, so it’s leftovers for Geoff
Wednesday: Megg at youth group, leftovers for poor Geoff again!
Thursday: Hungry Girl’s Chicken Cordon Bleu, breadcrumb and spinach salad, fruit
Friday: Breakfast for dinner, (eggs and bacon), fruit
Saturday: Homemade pizza

Guess what!

Can you guess what shipped today, and will (finally) be ours very soon?

Here’s a hint: We are probably the last family in the continental United States to own one, but now we do!

Food waste Friday

Brought to you by The Frugal Girl, as always, Food Waste Friday is my attempt at saving money. It doesn’t always work because I don’t always post (usually because I’m too embarrassed of our waste!) but I’m trying to get better.

This week we have no waste…yet. I need to be careful and use up a few things in the fridge like a tomato I bought before ours ripened, but hopefully we will continue not to have any waste into next week! I’ll keep you posted, of course.

Sewing

The other day I decided I needed a sewing machine. I just wanted a simple one that was not antique (there are many of those on craigslist!) and would do what I want it to do: sew a straight stitch. So…it was off to craigslist for me. Lest you not forget, I love craigslist.

I bought this Singer for $90, which isn’t bad, considering Amazon.com sells it for $200. Next, it was time to break it in!

We had recently gone through our clothes that didn’t fit anymore or were just too worn out, and made a donate pile. While I did bring one bag to a donation center, I had not yet gotten around to bagging up the rest, and it’s sitting in our hallway, waiting for me to finish what I started.

In this pile, I found an old pair of Geoff’s jeans that he doesn’t fit into anymore, but that I do! Not that this was all that great for my self-esteem, but I quickly put that out of my mind because I’ve been wanting to turn an old pair of pants into a skirt for some time now. Following this tutorial, I set to work on Geoff’s old pants.
Unfortunately I didn’t think to take pictures of the process, but I do have the end result and I’m thrilled! In fact, I wore it today!

(Wow, you never know quite how dirty your mirror is until you take a picture of it, huh?)

I folded the crotch pieces under so they weren’t pointed like in the tutorial, and I left the back open slightly, because I liked the slit. Also, I didn’t cut it quite even, but it isn’t really all that noticeable since I frayed the ends. This was partially out of laziness and a desire not to hem, and partially because I don’t have any skirts that have frayed edges so I wanted something different.

I am NOT a sewer, but this was so simple that even I couldn’t mess it up…which is really saying something! I’m already eying a pair of green pants that would make a nice skirt when they are worn out…but they’re not there yet!

Kids

There are days when I come home from babysitting swearing I will never have kids. And then there are days like last Friday, when I am absolutely in love.
There are only 2 kids today, due to luck and the fact that she’s down a child for a few months. It is also beautiful outside, with actual sun, so we spent the majority of the morning outside. With just two young kids they entertain themselves, don’t need attention all the time and find endless things (like spiders) to touch. Days like these remind me how fun kids can be, and I can’t wait to have them.

Of course there’s also days like yesterday. Days when, after lunch, I was responsible for 7 kids. Days when the morning went well until the baby got cranky and it was time to go inside. Days when one child is hungry too early and another refuses lunch. Then I go home and beg my husband not to touch me because I’ve held a baby all day and just want some time to myself!

Realistically I know parenting is a mix of both days, and I can only hope I will know when I am ready to deal with both all the time, not just 4 days a week!

Rain, rain go away

It’s been raining a lot lately…

…which has apparently made the sugar snap peas happy…

…and that, in turn, makes me happy!

Menu plan Monday

Here’s hoping this is a relatively normal week for us! It’s been a little crazy and we haven’t been very good about planning the menu, even with a menu plan, so I’m hoping to get back on track this week.
Here’s what we’ll be eating!

Sunday: Napa salad

Monday: Grilled pork chops, grilled corn on the cob, leftover napa salad from Sunday

Tuesday: Shrimp quesadillas (still haven’t tried these!) with tomato avocado salad (tomatoes from the garden!)

Wednesday: Megg at youth group, Geoff leftovers

Thursday: Baked macaroni and cheese, fruit, broccoli

Friday: Homemade sourdough pizza

Saturday: Hamburger helper (or burgers, depending on my mood!) and tomato and feta salad (with tomatoes from the garden!)

Sunday: To be determined, based on mood and lateness of lunch.

Movie review!

Geoff and I went to see Toy Story 3 last night.

Now, before you start judging, let me explain! The first Toy Story came out in 1995, and, at the risk of dating myself, lets just say I was in middle school at the time. Geoff was a few years younger. I was given the VHS of Toy Story for my birthday when I was in 9th grade because I loved it so much.
Have you seen Toy Story? The movie is rife with jokes that only an adult would understand. I love it.

Mr. Potato Head: “Hey look! I’m Picasso!”
Ham: “I don’t get it.”
Mr. Potato Head: “You uncultured swine!”

In 2000 Toy Story 2 came out. My sister and I actually stood in line to get into the theater to see that one. It was just as good as the first, though nothing will be as good as the first one, to me.

Toy Story 3 came out on Friday, and I insisted that Geoff and I see it last night. I was not disappointed. The animation has greatly improved in the last 15 years, and all my favorite toys were still there. The plot, after a willful suspension of disbelief, was well done as well.
In this one, Andy was going off to college, and hadn’t played with his toys in years. He was facing the choice of either donating the toys or putting them in the attic, neither of which the toys really wanted. After finding themselves in a daycare with kids that didn’t know how to be gentle with the toys, their mission was simple: escape, go up into the attic, and Woody himself was heading to college with Andy.

The ending was happy, as always, but getting there was difficult. There were fewer “adult-only” jokes, fewer references to pop culture that children wouldn’t get but I have enjoyed so much in the past two movies. Overall it was also a darker, sadder movie than the other two, partially due to the “bad toy” character and partially due to the simple fact that Andy was growing up and moving on.
Overall, it was a great movie, but, as  Geoff said afterwards, he would have been happy to think of Andy as a little kid, still playing with his toys.

There’s a lesson for kids and adults alike here that I wasn’t sure I wanted to be reminded of. We all grow up, we all move on, but our toys stay the same. Those same toys that used to come alive for us have lost a bit of their magic, and that overall theme of the movie was very sad to me.

Was it a good movie for kids? Most definitely. It was also a better kids movie than most of what I have seen while babysitting, one that I wouldn’t mind sitting through 50 times. (Thomas the Tank Engine DVDs are another story…) Sad as it was to remember that we all grow up, it was fun to see the toy’s reactions, and where they ended up in the end. Exactly where they belonged.