I Want Big Photos

A new blogger friend had those nice big photos on her post today and so I ask her to tell the secret. She was happy to share how...

only it didn't work for me. I was dissapointed but fooled around and thought maybe I had it...So this post is the result of my experiement that went wrong. That is why the photos of the handy work of the iron worker passing time (?) has nothing to do with this post.

Here is a happy thing....my Jack and his dad went on a walk last night and brought me ..

flowers from the field. I love my guys!!

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So if the pictures turn out big, then I will be suprised and if they didn't then I will be sad and any tips on how to do this would be appreciated.

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Thank you to new blogger friend Kimberly for her help. She is new to blogging and has a lovely blog, Camp and Cottage Living.

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Hope you all have a nice evening. xo

Happy Monday!

Good Monday morning to you all. Sharing some quick pics this morning as the 'list' awaits and it is a long one this week. My climbling rose is finally doing something after 2 yrs., thank you! In the back ground is a vintage deck chair we found at a garage sale Sat. for....$1.00 ! !

Enjoying the Peony before they are all gone. The bushes were groaning with the weight of them all so they got a good haircut yesterday.

This is one from a big bowl indoors, that I am offering to make it an official "Flowers in the House" that Jane is hosting again, "Hi, Jane!" If you have some flowers in your house right now, why not grab your camera and share over here.

My big window box is doing well and I think from now on I will use the geraniums like these instead of the petunias that I have in the front...much less persnickety I'm thinking.

Another find at that same garage sale, an old time themometer that mounts on the window frame and will be fun to check come winter....never mind that we have an indoor/outdoor digital weather station, it just isn't the same, now is it.

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I am wishing you all a wonderful, good start to a week of new beginnings.

xo

Thrifty Contest

Phone rings: "Mom, I just got back from shopping and guess how many things went up AGAIN?" .... Our daughter Kami, like most of us are on a tight budget. We are forced to stretch that dollar farther and farther and lately can't see how we will be able to pull it off much longer. Since none of us are going to give up, we might as well stick together and share some helpful hints. How about a contest....not a giveaway, but a real contest. Share some tips of how you are making ends meet. I'll start.

In high school, for most of the years, we had to wear skirts, no pants allowed for girls, the only exception is if it snowed real bad and there were blizzard conditions (not too often in Portland, Oregon). Anyway, the family budget didn't allow for many nylon panyhose so if I got a run in my nylon, I would hurry and try to stop it by dabbing on nail polish, hopefully I had clear and not some dark pink. Eventually they could no longer be salvaged and into the garbage they went and out came the dreaded knee socks until payday when new nylons could be purchased. Until...one day a brilliant lady thought of taking two pair of pantyhose, both with a runner in one leg, and cut of the bad leg in each and put them both on...A new pair of pantyhose. Can you even imagine how much money that saved everyone?
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Share your story and if it is chosen as the winner then you will win this book.

Urban Pantry - Tips & Recipes for a Thrifty, Sustainable Kitchen - Check it out Amazon.com

You can leave a tip here today and after that a link to this post will be on the sidebar for you to leave tip in comment section there. You may enter as many tips as you like.
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Have a wonderful weekend.
xo

Kitchen Favorites

Today, I have decided to head over to Modern Country Style, where Sarah has invited us to "Kitchen Favorites Linky Party" to share with others the things that we love in our kitchens. I love being in the kitchen but in the Little House it is a challenge to say the least, so I will show you a few things that help keep me positive.

Confession time...I love to cook but have a huge problem cleaning up after myself, something that I have struggle with forever, so the area here at the sink is my love/hate place.

When I found this at a local thrift shop it was placed right above the sink and the words encourage and remind me of why I so enjoy to cook and nourish my loved ones.

I found this years ago in the Simple Country Pleasures magazine, I tore it out and put it on the cork board that I have over my small work surface. I never tire of the truth of the words and picture.

Last but not least, the very favorite thing in my kitchen would have to be my cookbook collection and the one above is the latest addition.

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That's it for me, now I think I will go on over to the party and visit some other favorites. Come on over and join up if you would like to share too. Here's the link.
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Have a happy Thursday.

xo

Mollie Makes

When it comes to being a lucky winner, I am not in that group. But I am now!!! Yea, I won this magazine from Lola Nova's giveaway, with Lola Nova featured in it, thanks Lola!! This is a marvelous, unique and fun, crafty periodical from the UK.

Here are the adorable eggs that Lola is showing us how to make. She also has the tutorial at her blog that I would be linking to right now if only I could link after I download pictures...

Here, they are showing Lola working on another project in her studio, in her home, in my home town of Portland, Oregon...(special place in my heart).

This page is an example of the fun ideas that are sprinkled through this must have magazine. At this time it is only sold in the USA at certain places like Joann Fabric and you can go to Molliemakes.com, once again, sorry about the lack of link problem. Dottie Angel is in this issue also so I would hightly recomend picking it up if you can find it.

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Have a happy Monday!

Photography Magazines - $4.99 YR.

Another great Slickdeals.net offer too good to pass up. Remember to hop right on it as it may not last long.


I don't know what the regular subscription prices are but I figure that $4.99 a year has to be a good deal.

Here are the links:

Digital Photo - Apply this code: 9664 and in the end it should show the savings.

Popular Photography - Apply this code: 4669.

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It is a beautiful day here for my drive back up north, I hope it is sunny where you are.

xo

Quick Salad

Good morning friends, I hope your Monday is going well. I took a quick snap of the salad that I whipped up for my Mr. B. to have while I'm gone. A quick trip to the other house for an appointment and to see the family. There will also be a an intimate visit with the mower, I'm sure.

This can be your own salad, as mine is never the same. It goes together fast and is a hit with kids and adults. Here's what I did today.

3 apples, cut up to bite size pieces

2 small cans of mandarin oranges, drained

handful of coconut

handful of sliced almonds

handful of raisins

1 carrot grated

1/2 C sour cream

1 T honey

grated nutmeg (whole) maybe 1/8 t. It is much stronger than regular nutmeg and a different flavor. If you haven't tried it then I encourage you to do so, you won't turn back!

salt and I use a little pepper too.

Mix it all together and enjoy. It will keep for days in a covered container in the fridge.

Have fun with this. I have put chopped cabbage and pineapple, different nuts and dried fruit. The one thing I always use is..Apple and coconut.

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I will be heading back up here Thursday but I hope to have time to visit your blogs this evening.

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I must run.

xo

Sunday Reflections

Thank you Heavenly Father, that whenever I reach out my hand, You are there.

Some Answers, Hopefully

First, I would like to thank all of you who left comments of problems and helpful hints. There still seems to be many who are having a wide variety of problems and I would love to say that I have answers for all of them but sadly do not. However, we have some things to work with and I have links for you to go to that may help in your own search.
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This page is from the Blogger help forum and I was interested in what Dark UFO, a top contributor said on 6-9-11 reguarding comment and login problems.

http://www.google.com/support/forum/p/blogger/thread?tid=4bd36d5355dbcf8c&hl=en&fid=4bd36d5355dbcf8c0004a54a75527982&hltp=2
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This page has a bit of everything people have asked Blogger about and may address your problem.
http://www.google.com/support/forum/p/blogger/label?lid=0271191b4249689a&hl=en
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This might be the most important of all. Several friends said that they downloaded the latest version of Mozilla Firefox and that seemed to fix all of their problems. I spoke with my daughter, Kami, this morning, and she uses Mozilla and has no problems at all while we have been struggling. To me, this sounds like something we might all look into.
http://www.mozilla.com/en-US/firefox/new/
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Also mentioned was an alignment problem with Picasa Web Album, if you have a fix for that please email me and I will pass it on.
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One suggestion was to upgrade with the new Blogger template.
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I hope that this will help some or all of the problems, it at least gives us something to work with.
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Have a wonderful weekend!
xo

Blogger Problems, Brainstorming Party

As I visit different blogs, I am hearing that we are still having some problems with Blogger and they seem to be all over the map. So I thought that since we are all pretty clever cookies, we can put our pretty little heads together and share our thoughts, problems and solutions.
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Let's get started: Leave a comment of a problem or solution that you have found. Remember this is brainstorming so any thoughts or ideas are welcome....what do we have to lose, really? Even if someone else has left a comment with your same problem, leave yours also.

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I will start here with...

* spell check is not working this morning, was working yesterday.

* couldn't make a link on Monday after photo was added, had to delete post and do link first then add photo.

*post will not publish, have to go to edit page and checkmark that post then go to bottom of page and click on publish checked posts. This has been going on for days.

* perhaps the most famous problem - not being able to comment on certain blogs..Answer - Sign out on dashboard, then when you have to sign back in make sure before you do, uncheck the 'stay signed in' box, make sure it is all the way undone. You will have to sign in every time but since I have done it I have had no problems at all with leaving comments...I tested this morning to see if this has been fixed, by checking the box again and it is NOT fixed, at least not for me, so I will keep mine unchecked.

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That's it for me, now go ahead and leave your comment and I will do my best to put it in order for all of us.

xo

Maggie Announces Winner

*** Photo - Maggie announces the winner. ***

I have asked another helper to choose the winner of the pan this morning. Maggie chose to use dominoes, one of her favorite games, to match to the names. I have them all turned over, face down for her to choose.

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Me: "All set then, ready for you to pick one, who will it be?"

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Maggie: "It is......Yvonne at Stone Gable....congratulations!!"

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Me: "Thanks Maggie."

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Congratulations Yvonne, if you will email me with mailing info, I will get that on it's way. Enjoy.

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On another note, many of us are still having various problems with Blogger and have found some partial fixes. I would like to do a post to have us all share what our problems are and what we have found helps or just any questions we have for each other. Please be thinking about sharing on this next post, I believe that we can really help each other...Thanks.

xo

Flowers In The House

I have joined up with Jane for another, 'Flowers in the House' over at SmallButCharming. May I remind you all that she is a florist and many of those that join in also know what they are doing when it comes to this art form. I, on the other hand, am not and do not pretend to be. As a matter of fact, I am terrified of arranging flowers. Every time that I try, it looks like a heap that the weed eater threw up! So this was a personal challenge and I will continue to join in and hopefully improve as time goes on by learning from the others.

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Reminder that the giveaway ends tonight at midnight. I would link over to it but just discovered another problem with blogger....I can't link once I put a photo on....A bad frown on my face!! What else wrong now? I will address this tomorrow after the winner is announced.

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Have a very nice Monday.

xo

Sunday Reflections

Thank you Lord, for a loving and hard working husband.

Paella, Anyone?

It's Friday and it is sunny and I am in a great mood! To celebrate the sun and happiness, I am doing a quick giveaway. This is an enameled paella pan, designed by Jens Quistgaard for Dansk...now you will never again doubt how much I love you all..hehehe. It was to be offered in my shop but I fancy it in your kitchen.

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Here's the scoop - Leave a comment about paella or your weekend plans by midnight Monday and Tuesday morning I will announce the winner and it will be off to it's new home.

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Have a wonderful weekend!

xo