Just Living!

   

   It is Thursday already! where did the Week go? I can't believe how fast time flies some times.

      I spent time in the sewing room this week but not nearly enough. In fact I should be there now instead of procrastinating by writing this. 

  I have learned how to make 3 different style tea towels.

   I find matching them up with the potholders makes cute sets, for gifts and for sale. I hope the farm market agrees. I have a few pillows and towels ready.

 Today I will do the finishing work on the potholders as well as hopefully get more made. What I have finished I plan to go visit the market tomorrow. Fingers crossed that what she already bought is selling and she wants more.

  Tomorrow is the big day, first thing in the morning I go for my fitting or measurements for my upper plate. I can't wait. I have gone years without being able to fully with abandon smile  my brightest smile. As I said before fear and money kept this from happening sooner. Now the money saved and safe until needed and no fear I am ready! give me those teeth.

  The weather this week has been on the right side of nice, actually you could say it has been perfect. Warm and breezy with lots of sunshine and finally no rain. I took advantage and went for a few walks with my camera. I stayed in the community, I can always find so much beauty here. I am amazed  every time I actually slow down and look at where I live. I have the best of both worlds, the community of close neighbors and the wonders of country living all rolled into one. 

    I told myself, Self I said, you need to write more and use less pictures when doing the blog. Well I guess I am just not listening to myself. I took over 400 shots this week and even with deleting huge numbers there are still plenty to see. I want to show them all to you, but don't worry I won't.

          In the photo group I belong to on line, each month we have the bonus challenge, something you have all month to work on, A versatile challenge with 10 subjects and the month to work on it, the weekly challenge and the rainbow challenge where you spend the month adding photos in rainbow color order. So the main subject needs to be a color in the rainbow, and each photo is placed in the correct order according to color. It is the easiest challenge to keep up with and I haven't Done a single one this month. I have plenty of photos for the rainbow but my concentration has been focused on the weekly challenges this month. They have been intriguing and more challenging than usual. I like this group because they consider all types of people and the challenges can be completed in any fashion that works for you. Indoors, outdoors, night or day, real or fake, the only real requirements are that you take the photo, and you take it in the time frame given. Making it easy to play along and keep up with what ever interest you the most. 

    This weeks challenge is 3 in one place. You stand in one place and just turn, or look up or down. You can stand squat or sit, or do all 3, but you stay in the same spot. Instead of the usual 3 photos for a challenge this is 9 photos. The group page is going to be huge this week. I have all 3 of mine done. 2 from my walks and 1 in the kitchen.

 Series # 1 My backyard as the sun goes down

My favorite in this set!

  Series # 2 Walking in the afternoon.

Looking forward!

Looking down

Looking right

Series #3 In the Kitchen

Did you. say treat?

  

      I have at least one favorite photo in each series, and I can't even begin to pick my favorite series. My favorite photo isn't the best technically but I felt like it was the best catch of the day.

      This monthly bonus is called The Games People Play. This is not an easy one for me. I came up with one idea but it was bending the rules just bit too much so I had to let it go. Understandable, while it took skill because I had to achieve goals to get the action I wanted, in other words I had to play the game with one hand and squeeze the buttons at just the right moment with the other hand to get the screen shot I wanted, still a screen shot is just that a screen shot, even if the fish and bear move faster than fast.

          Now you know my weakness. Soda candy crush!

I took other pictures of gamey kind of things but nothing has shaken my world and said this is it.

Champion fuzz ball flicker

A losing hand

        Not so surprisingly I may not have a submission this month, but it won't be for the lack of trying.Even after attending a night of games with girls over the weekend and the Minute to Win It night at our monthly ladies night I am stumped for a good game photo.

  As for the versatile category I haven't even looked at the list yet. I will try to play using something from all the 100's of photos I have for this month, but as I said the weekly challenges have been extremely attention grabbing and fun to do.

  As an All Star or Brand Ambassador my " Whats for Dinner" always had a recipe to share, always from All Recipes. Always a big deal with plenty of planing and worries about the perfect picture and so on. I always enjoyed my time  as an Ambassador it was a great deal of fun with loads of food and opportunities to connect with others that love preparing food as much as eating it. I enjoyed it then, but don't miss it now. Without the assignments and recipe trials " Whats for Dinner" has been a bit more difficult to produce, without a direction a purpose the subject seems to just float off into space like a forgotten ballon. As I was having this though, my direction hit me, it isn't all that earth shattering and probably not even original but at least the purpose is there and the direction however little it is, is also there." Whats for Dinner" will now reflect the life of a busy retiree. It won't be about how fancy or fussy I can make it, or how trendy it is, it will be about how simple, easy, and pleasant I can make it. Simple as in not a dozen different dishes and ingredients, and the need to get up at the crack of dawn to start dinner. Easy as in less dishes, not just less side dishes or main, but less dirty dishes too. I am not a fan of the all in one dish or one pan meals, but I also am not a fan of unnecessary dirty dishes either. I feel pretty much the same about all the fancy tools too.And finally pleasant as in quick and easy to prepare and cook allowing you the time to slow down and enjoy each others company. Sometimes the time we spend preparing our dinner is the only time we actually get together where we aren't both busy with other things. So having meals that don't require hours of effort and sweat but allow you a leisurely moment in the kitchen can be the sweetest part of our day.

    Whats for Dinner? 

     I had two choices this time, both took pretty pictures and both had great flavor, and both need tweaking . This one I really want to be able to do again only better. It was good, in fact tasty, but it was to much like tomato soup and not enough like a blush sauce I was envisioning as I calmly with great confidence poured everything into the pot. There was no recipe and no guide lines just an idea in my head and a 1/2 pound ground turkey defrosted, along with 2 nice fat links of spicy Italian sausage. I wanted a creamy sauce but not Alfredo , I always see blush sauce on restaurant menus but never tried it, never actually seen it, but it sounded good so without any kind of guidance I set about my merry way. I started with sautéing the onions and garlic and browning the meat, I then added heavy cream, how much, I don't know because I just opened the container and poured what was in there into the pot. Then I simmered,  for how long, well as long as it takes to go in the living room, tell Bill something about my day or do show and tell, and walk back into the kitchen just before it begins to stick to the bottom of the pan. Once it looked simmered enough all the spices and meat seemed to meld together I threw in a large can of tomato puree or crushed, tomato, it was some sort of tomato, once it started boiling I turned down the heat to let it simmer and get blended, I engage the perfect timer by waking Bill up from his snooze on the couch to tell him something he probably really didn't want to hear anyway. Once Bill looked sufficiently bored and ready to doze off again I take that as my cue that the sauce needs a stir and has simmered enough. Once the pasta is ready I bravely taste the sauce and declare it dinner. As I said I thought of soup when I tasted the sauce so I was not  overly disappointed, and not extremely happy either.

     I will look up blush and cream sauces before I do this again. All in all a good meal and the perfect way to spend time  with the other half .

       I hope you enjoyed reading this as much as I enjoyed writing it. 

      Looking forward to seeing you next time!