Sunday, September 30, 2012

Sunday Photo - Chickens


These probably weren't the chickens you were expecting! :) Living down here close to the Mexican border, we have lots of Mexican pottery items available to purchase. I have several pieces in this style, I love the colors! This pair sits in my kitchen window, normally, keeping me company while I'm working.
Sharing with these fine linky parties: Orange You Glad It's FridayWeekly Top ShotYour Sunday Best, Straight Out Of the Camera Sunday and Mandarin Orange Monday.

Friday, September 28, 2012

Flower Art Friday - 09/28/2012


The roses have been blooming again this week and I wanted to show them off for the Friday memes. I took a bunch of pictures trying to come up with something that really made me say hmmm. I finally settled on these two. I like them but, eh, not my favorites... LOL!!


We have been enjoying the roses on the fireplace mantle anyway! :)
Linking up with Floral Friday Foto, Flower Art Friday and Photo Art Friday.

Thursday, September 27, 2012

Cranberry Cordial


My blogging buddy, Kathy at Moving On To The Past, recently did a couple of posts about making cordials and inspired me to dig out my recipe for Cranberry Cordial and one of the extra bags of cranberries I bought last year just for cordial making. Thanks Kathy!! :)

1 16-ounce bag cranberries
2 cups sugar
1 cup water
1 bottle vodka

Combine cranberries, sugar and water in a saucepan. Bring to a boil and cook 4 to 5 minutes, until skins start to pop. Cool berries completely and then place them in a half-gallon jar.

Add vodka and stir well. Allow mixture to infuse for at least a week stirring occasionally. I left mine for almost two weeks.

Strain cranberries into a bowl using a colander lined with cheesecloth. Use a spoon to press the good stuff out of the cranberries. Do NOT eat the cranberries, they are really potent! Ahem, don't ask me how I know. (hic!) Pour the cordial into a jar and then squeeze the cheesecloth to extract the last little bit of cordial. I got an extra 1/2 cup!

Make a simple syrup of 1 cup sugar and 1/2 cup water. Cool completely and then mix into the strained cordial. Allow to age for 2 to 3 weeks.


Pour into decorative bottles. Okay, I only had two decorative bottles but you get the idea! :) This makes lovely gifts for the holidays or an extra special after-dinner drink for you on those nippy fall and winter evenings.

Sharing with Rural Thursday and Farmgirl Friday.

Tuesday, September 25, 2012

Chiminea


Okay, I'm just having waaay too much fun with this photo editing stuff! :) I realized today while playing around on Pixlr Express that I can add the same effect more than once for more oomph, apply multiple effects and/or overlays and I can even add multiple borders to the same picture. What fun!! Below is a shot of our chiminea SOOC.


Linking up with Emily for Tones On Tuesday.

Monday, September 24, 2012

Back Online


My computer has been in the shop for the past week so I haven't been online. Wait a minute, what do you mean nobody but Robyn noticed?!? LOL!!
Anyway, I hope to get caught up with everyone in the next few days and get back in the swing of blogging. One thing I did notice last week, I sure have a LOT more free time when the computer isn't working! ;-)


These are pictures of one of the Lantana bushes in front of the neighbors' house. They also have yellow and red ones but I wanted to share these pretty orange ones for Orange You Glad It's Friday and Mandarin Orange Monday.

Sunday, September 16, 2012

Sunday Photo - Peppers


The peppers I was given the other day were just so pretty that I wanted to share a couple of more pictures of them. Above is a fun effect from Pixlr Express called Yin.


Here is the same shot SOOC. :)

Linking up with Weekly Top Shot, Straight Out Of the Camera SundayYour Sunday Best and Mandarin Orange Monday.

Thursday, September 13, 2012

Photo Art Friday - 09/14/2012


I'm joining Bonnie for Photo Art Friday this week where she challenged us to compose a seven word sentence that describes your life or experience or process as an artist (be it a photographer, painter, mixed media artist, digital artist, whatever ...) and marry your sentence to a piece of photo art that somehow illustrates your sentence. Of course, this is entirely optional and you can link up any piece of photo art that you want to share!

I came up with my "sentence" a couple of weeks ago and have been working on what type of photo art I wanted to use to illustrate it. At one point, I was even trying to figure out how I could use a picture of the laundry hanging outside on the line! LOL!! Instead, I started with the beautiful basket of peppers in the lower left corner. The peppers were given to me yesterday and as I was getting ready to chop them up for the freezer, I realized how lovely they were! Then, I started thinking of all the beauty that is in my life every day and decided to add my sweet goat, Daphne, and a beautiful wildflower I photographed earlier this year. I used Bonnie's free Vintage Vellum texture as a background.

Quite often, I think I have to have a WOW picture for it to be beautiful and be considered "art" but I'm learning that there is beauty to be found in the little things every day! :)

I'm also linking up with Orange You Glad It's Friday, which was one of the memes I had in mind when I photographed the peppers!

Wednesday, September 12, 2012

Happy Chickens


Enjoying half of the very, Very, VERY large zucchini that the neighbors gifted us! :)
Linking with Wordless Wednesday.

Monday, September 10, 2012

Snapshot And A Song - 09/10/2012

LeAnne at Photos By LeAnne has a fairly new meme going called Snapshot & A Song. I have been thinking and thinking of what I could do to play along. Last week, I was going through some old "stuff" and came across my tambourine, which made me think of the song by The Oakridge Boys, "Ya'll Come Back Saloon," words and music by Sharon Vaughn. This is one of my favorite songs by The Oakridge Boys so I figured it was fate! :)


Boy-howdy did I have fun putting this picture together! I did it all with Pixlr. I created a layer with the lyrics and superimposed that over the photo of my tambourine; which, by the way, has a picture on it that I didn't want in this case, so I played around until I figured out how to airbrush out the picture! Woo-hoo!! I gave the tambourine photo a few tweaks with the "old photo" effect and messed with the brightness and hue until I was happy with it. Fun, fun, fun!! :)

I'm also linking up with Tones On Tuesday this week.

Saturday, September 8, 2012

Sunday Photo - Red Bird of Paradise


Also known as Caesalpinia pulcherrima. All of these shots are SOOC, the colors really are this vibrant! All I did was add the watermark and a little frame. :)




Linking up with Orange You Glad It's FridayFlower Art Friday, Floral Friday Fotos, Weekly Top Shot, Your Sunday Best, Straight Out Of the Camera SundayMandarin Orange Monday and Macro Monday. Check out all of these fun memes for some awesome photography!

Friday, September 7, 2012

Photo Art Friday - Moving


For this week's Photo Art Friday, our hostess, Bonnie at Pixel Dust Photo Art, supplied the optional prompt of moving.

Here are Jerry and Paco moving down the road at a lope. :)

All edits were done with Pixlr Express.

Thursday, September 6, 2012

Vitex agnus-castus

This has got to be one of my favorite bushes/trees! Many years ago, I was studying herbal medicine of the Southwest and was given some Vitex seeds to be used to make a tincture. The next year, I had several volunteer plants coming up and I don't remember having the seeds outside at all! Ever since, I have considered this to be my special herbal partner. When the plants are small, they kind of resemble marijuana with their five-lobed leaves and I had to ask my herbal teacher what in the heck it was! :)


Vitex is a deciduous Mediterranean native hardy to Zone 7. It grows quickly and is easily started from seed. Here is a purple flowered plant that I dug up as a volunteer at a local nursery about six years ago. At first glance, it looks as though the ends of the branches are bare but those are the seeds that follow the flowers. There are a LOT of seeds on this one!




I bought a white flowered bush a few years later that we planted out front. It has done okay but it hasn't grown and thrived the way the purple one has; although, it did freeze to the ground during our 100-year freeze event in 2010 so I guess it's doing fine.





Then, last year, I had two volunteers come up in one of the barrels in the back yard. When they bloomed this year, the flowers were PINK!! Hmmm...I guess the plants cross pollinated. My plan is to transplant these two out near the garden to provide some shade and to attract more bees to the garden since they LOVE the flowers!


The pink flowers are just getting ready to open again. There is an initial heavy blooming period in late spring/early summer but they keep putting on more blooms as the summer wears on.


Not only are the plants beautiful when in full bloom but the seeds are used to make tinctures for womens' health issues covering all stages of life from puberty to menopause. Other names for the plant are Chasteberry Tree and Monk's Pepper because it is said to have an anti-aphrodisiac effect on men. When the seeds are fully ripe, they resemble black peppercorns.

Rosemary Gladstar's book "Herbal Healing for Women" and Susun Weed's book "Menopausal Years The Wise Woman Way" provide the following information:
Vitex has a stimulating effect on the pituitary gland, which, among other functions, regulates and normalizes hormone production. It also increases production of luteinizing hormones, enhancing the progesteron cycle. At the same time, it inhibits the release of the follicle-stimulation hormone FSH and normalizes the estrogen cycle. It is beneficial in treating painful and irregular menstruation, infertility, PMS, menopausal problems and other hormonal imbalances. No side effects have ever been reported from extensive and extended use. It is one of the most useful herbs for women. It is a slow-acting herb and results become evident only after two or three months of daily use; permanent improvements requires about a year of daily use but the results are worth it.


Linking up with Wildcrafting Wednesday, Rural Thursday and Farmgirl Friday.

Tuesday, September 4, 2012

First Of The Month - September

I'm joining Jan for her First of the Month meme all this year. Here are the ground rules per her site: "The goal is to capture one thing repeatedly on the first of each month. It can be a landscape, a person, an animal, a project; whatever your focus is, is fine. It can even be a record of where you are each First of the Month."



I'm late with my First Of The Month post for September, mostly because I couldn't come up with anything new to say about my sweet little Daphne so I thought I would share a "portrait" of her. Doesn't she look like a perfect little angel? :)

BUT, just so ya'll don't get the wrong idea, this is why she had such an intent look on her face!




She sure did run when the window banged shut! LOL!!

Monday, September 3, 2012

Monday Mural - 09/03/2012


I always enjoy seeing this mural! To me, it is so evocative of the history of this area. :)
It is painted on the side of the Arizona Saddle Blanket Company in Benson, AZ; the owner is a friend of Jerry's. Aaron also sells saddles, tack, ammo and guns. The building is from the turn of the last century and even has a punched tin ceiling.
This mural was painted by Pablo Alonzo in 2004.




Linking up with Monday Mural this week. Hop on over to see some really neat murals from all over the world!