Suspicion, Thy Name is Small Brown Bird

At Last It's Begonia Season Again

Jar Sweaters

So I saw how doilies are glued onto jars, and wondered about making one to custom fit. Not too fancy, but it was my first one. I intend to keep trying. I covered the lid with beautiful stickers my daughter brought me from Florida.

When you don't have a standard size room, custom made cabinets fill the space neatly and look great.

Softening Brown Sugar

I have used many different pieces of fruit; apple, orange, lemon, even a slice of bread to sit in the big container of brown sugar. I have also had the unpleasant surprise of finding that the moist item has gone moldy. So sometimes I use this method. I dampen a rolled up piece of paper towel, put it into a condiment cup to prevent it from wicking the colour out of the sugar, and seal it into the container with  the sugar. It works.

Crocheted Rock Covers

Pinterest gave me the idea, but no directions. But I have crochet cotton, and rocks, and the urge to give it a try. I don't know if I can describe exactly how to do it, but the idea is to start the centre of a doily, switch to long loops after about three rounds, and pull them up to fit. These doilies won't wrinkle, and small children can't wear them as capes.

I grew up in a house embellished with many doilies, and learned how to make them. But they have been outdated. A shame because the patterns are so pretty. So now I can have some of those pretty designs that I love without being too "outdated".

Those Tangly Necklaces

I have experimented a lot on how to deal with those pesky fine chains that snarl and tangle in a jewelry box. This is the  best way I have found so far. You need large straws, so the lobster claw and jump rings fit into it. Then a little snip in the end of the straw holds the end of necklace just to keep it from sliding down inside. Even if the chain comes out the bottom for a few inches so far they haven't tangled in the bottom of the vase.

Cook All the Bacon

When I open a new package of bacon I usually cook it all. Actually, most of it almost cooked. Then I take what I need, wrap the rest in a paper towel, wrap in a plastic bag and refrigerate. That was if I want a bacon and tomato sandwich later that week I just take out two slices, microwave to desired crispness, and there is no nasty frying pan to wash out, again.

French Braid

Hair doesn't have to be very long to make a pair of French braids

Cat Scan

Sushi can't stand to have me sew and not be right there, often in my face.  Today he was checking out the tote bags for size. He loves to be cosy.

My First Digital Picture

Taken on a camera that used a floppy disk as an sd card.

L

Peel a Pomegranate

This works amazingly well.

Slice just through the skin around the pomegranate, and rip it apart. You can remove some of the white membrane.

Beat briskly with wooden spoon, avoiding fingers.

Well now, there is supposed to be a little video clip inserted here, demonstrating how you turn the half fruit shell up and beat it briskly with the back of a wooden spoon.  However, after spending an hour trying to transfer the video from my ipad (which won't let me upload video) to my laptop, the result won't play.  So just take a half pomegranate, hold it over a bowl, and smack, hard, on the rind. Do mind your fingers; being smacked by the pomegranate spoon hurts! Slowly the little morsels will let go and drop into your bowl, with much less effort or damage than any other method I have used.  Occasionally you may wnat to remove some of the rind, but mostly it comes all out.

A very special thank you to Stephanie to alerting us to this fantastic method.

Learning Photoshop Elements

 I love using Photoshop.  I love what it does for my pictures, and the better I learn to use it, the better my scrapbooking becomes. But it took me ages to figure things out.  Didn't know what a layer was, at the very first.  That is a drawback, as layers are extremely valuble tools.  Photoshop contains so many useful features, and out there on the 'web there are many very useful tutorials to teach us things.  But I had an idea that I could incorporate my love of pictures, Photoshop, and our cat Sushi, and if admiring the pictures helps you learn a new technique, that will have accomplished its purpose.
Because if I didn't have Lori, and Lucille, and others, to tell me useful things like control+e to merge two layers and control+g to clip to masks.  Hopefully I will be able to explain it to someone new in a way they can understand it.  If you are interested, check it out at
http://digitallyscenebyd.blogspot.ca/

Love That Colour

Keep the counter clean!

I use an IKEA tray, but a cookie sheet would work just as well. I line it with a skinny cutting board, and any juices that run off are caught by the tray. I find it easier to bleach the tray and the sheet than doing the whole counter top.

When I cut up cooked meat, as in a turkey or chicken, the juices that run off can be poured back into the  gravy stock.

Just makes life and cleanup a little easier.

light and dark

Summer Memories

It's Good to Read

Big Moon!

The moon was stunning last night.

Fix the Loose Handle

The cupboard handle on one of my doors was spinning, and hanging crooked. I tried a washer but it was too thick. This was the perfect thickness, and the price was right!

Now they match.