My new camera

Back in November, my Kodak point-and-shoot digital camera broke. The piece that held the lens in place completely vanished. Apparently it fell off somewhere when I wasn't paying attention. So I've been without a camera for almost 5 months. Not fun, especially since I have two growing boys I want to photograph all the time.

I finally got my new camera in the other day. A Nikon D40. I LOVE it! We went to the zoo on Saturday and I got to play with it a little bit. I've still got a lot to learn, but I am beyond thrilled with the quality of the photos I've taken so far. I'm hoping for some big photo wins at the fair this year if I can learn more about composition, and of course learn more about all the vast aspects of more professional quality photography. One would think that I should know a lot about composition since I took 4 years of art in high school, but when it comes to photography, I still struggle a little. I'm just glad to be able to take some new pictures of my boys that aren't with my cell phone camera.

A good snapshot stops a moment from running away. ~Eudora Welty

My New Business Venture

For about 8 months now I have been dabbling in cake decorating. I took 3 of the Wilton cake decorating classes at Hobby Lobby and I love doing it. I love the challenge that every cake gives me, even if I have similar requests. I don't even mind seeing my cakes get eaten- in fact, I kind of prefer it, because then there's less cake for me and I don't need it.

I did quite a few projects for friends and family, and for our playgroup last year, but I've only had a few "real" orders so far. I'm still trying to figure out my price set, and need to write up a basic contract, but I'm making a little money. I promised little Loren that I would use any money I made from my cakes towards riding the Durango train and our annual camping trip to Ouray this summer. I'm not sure what I'll save up for after we do that.

I posted a picture of one of my cakes from the fair back in October, but here are my most recent creations, which have not been posted on my website yet:

Bad Boys Basketball cake was for a local youth basketball team. I never did find out what exactly they were celebrating, but I did hear they absolutely loved the cake.

This cake has a bit of a bittersweet story that I won't go into on here. But I do have to say I am positively thrilled with how this Hannah Montana cake came out.

I'm very excited about this new business venture. I don't anticipate "getting rich" off of it, but it gives me a little extra money to put towards something special (like the train trip). And I enjoy doing it, which is, of course, the most important thing. My website for my cakes with a full gallery of my most recent creations can be found here: Treasure Heart Cakes.

If the people have no bread, let them eat cake.
-Attributed to Marie Antoinette

New Year, New Things

Okay, so it's been 2 months since I've posted anything. It's 2009. I am not making any real "resolutions" for the new year, but I do have some things I want to accomplish this year. Maybe if write it here, I'll be a little more diligent about it.

1) Get organized and keep the house neater. I'm trying, but sometimes I just get into a funk. I absolutely hate doing laundry, and right now that's my biggest crutch. Loren is trying to help me get the kitchen better organized, so hopefully I can get everything in the kitchen running smoother.

2) Take better care of myself. Let's face it. I'm so very out of shape. I feel "old" both mentally and physically. I saw something on tv the other day that said that the best way to improve your mental health and just your overall ability to mentally handle everyday things is to keep your physical health intact. I'm not so good in that department anymore. I might join the gym if I get a job. Which leads me to...

3) Get a job. We can survive with what we have now, but we're going nowhere fast. Me getting a job will give us that much-needed push to get better financially. My friend suggested delivering papers. I'm usually still awake at 1:00am (it's 1:33am as I right this, by the way...), so I could easily go out there, pick up my papers, roll them, and have them done by the time I actually go to sleep most nights. I'm also working on setting up a website to sell my crafts with another friend of mine, but I know that won't be something we could actually depend on to live. It's just something to do to get rid of all these crafts that I'm making that I don't really have any use for but need something to do and that keep piling up all over everywhere.

Um, I'm sure there's more, but I got sidetracked. Oh well. Here's to a new year!

My little one is one!

The day has almost come and gone already, but Justin is officially one now. He's a walking, talking (well, jabbering), mischief-making little monster, but I love him anyway. It's amazing to think that just 1 year ago, he was this itty bitty, completely helpless thing. I love watching his personality emerge, and I have a feeling he is going to be quite the character.


He loves to dance to Loren's truck that plays Cotton-Eyed Joe. One of these days I'm so going to have to get a video of it. He also likes "helping" me with the dishwasher by climbing on top of the open dishwasher door and pulling all the dishes out (clean or dirty). He adores his big brother but doesn't always appreciate Loren's method of "helping discipline" him.


Happy Birthday, Justin!! I love you!!

A baby is an angel whose wings decrease as his legs increase. ~Author Unknown

What??

Those people that are closest to me, and know me well, have probably noticed, or know, that I have a mild hearing loss. It is hereditary. From the time I was diagnosed just before kindergarten, all through high school, my charts barely changed. I have never worn hearing aids. My parents were discouraged from it when I was diagnosed because it wasn't too severe. The doctor thought I would cope well without as long as I made appropriate accommodations (ie. sitting at the front of the class). I did quite well, IMO. I learned how to play the violin, taught myself how to play the piano, and for the most part got good grades in school (bad grades were never because of my hearing!).

Fast forward 7 years out of high school. It's been probably at least 8 years since I was last tested. I noticed about a year ago that I was starting to have more difficulty hearing. I can't clearly hear my 4-year-old talking to me from the back seat of the car. I can't hear exactly what is going on on the tv from another room 6 feet away. I have a hard time holding a normal conversation on the phone and with my husband. I got a phone call on Monday from one of the local hearing centers here in town and they were offering a free hearing test. I figured I would go ahead and do it just to find out if I really was starting to get worse.

Not only has my right ear changed and gotten worse (it was always the "bad" one), my left ear has started to catch up. I'm going to need hearing aids soon. It doesn't bother me that I need hearing aids at 25-years-old, what bothers me is that when I'm 70, will I be completely deaf? I am a musician (although I don't play much), and I do love music. I love hearing children's laughter... will I be able to hear my great-grandkids laughing? Will I be able to hear the rain falling, or a thunderstorm, or a horse whinnying? I realize that I probably don't hear things with very much clarity now, but I do enjoy listening to those things that I can hear. Wow, I wasn't expecting to kind of rant and feel a little sorry for myself, but I guess I have to go through a little bit of the grieving process in order to cope with this reality. I know many people that have far more difficulties in life than just a minor hearing loss. I should be grateful for what I do have. And I am. It will just take some getting used to- especially once I actually have to start explaining to people why I'm all of a sudden wearing hearing aids.

If you have health, you probably will be happy, and if you have health and happiness, you have all the wealth you need, even if it is not all you want. ~Elbert Hubbard

A time when one head is really better than three...

I really wanted to make roasted garlic mashed potatoes the other night. My intention was to make the mashed potatoes into potato soup for dinner. The recipe I'd found had called for roasting 3 heads of garlic in the oven for 30 minutes, and adding them to like 4 cups of mashed potatoes.

I don't think the 30 minutes was long enough, because only like 2 of the cloves out of 3 whole heads of garlic came out smooshy like oven roasted garlic is "supposed to." I made the mashed potatoes with all 3 heads of not-quite-cooked garlic anyway (because I was in a hurry), and the garlic was VERY strong. Luckily someone brought dinner for us to judo that night and I didn't have to finish making the potato soup then.

I'm running out of stuff to make for dinner, so finishing the potato soup was all I could come up with in a pinch. I ended up making more potatoes and adding those to the mashed potatoes from the other night, fishing out a bunch of pieces of still-whole garlic cloves, adding a bunch of cheese, milk, bacon bits, and chives to help mask the garlic flavor. It turned out okay, but it's been nearly 4 hours since dinner, I've eaten some cookies and drank a bunch of water, and I'm still tasting the garlic! Hopefully brushing my teeth will help, 'cause this is going to be a nasty taste in my mouth in the morning!

A nickel will get you on the subway, but garlic will get you a seat. ~Old New York Proverb

It is autumn, and autumn means...

fair time!

Monday was the start of the annual Eastern New Mexico State Fair. After a frantic scramble to the finish, I had 13 photos and 2 cakes entered. I also helped little Loren enter 3 of his photos that I thought were good. I managed to get the two cakes in with literally minutes to spare after an exhausting night trying to get the wedding cake to look how I wanted it to.Monday morning the boys and I met their grandma at the parade route to watch the parade. Loren (hubby) was supposed to be riding his motorcycle in the parade with his job, but called me about halfway through and said his motorcycle was overheating and he wouldn't be in the parade. Little Loren was upset at first that Daddy wouldn't be in the parade, but he enjoyed the rest of it, and I think he got over it pretty quickly. Justin enjoyed the fire trucks going by at the beginning, and then fell asleep. When he woke up (with like 5 floats to go to the end), he thought the parade was pretty cool and was pretty enthralled with the floats.
We didn't make it out to the fairgrounds until Tuesday night. I was pretty anxious to see what little Loren and I had won, especially for my cakes since I'm still what you would call a novice at them. I was very excited to see that I had won blue ribbons for both of my cakes, and I also won ribbons for 12 out of 13 of my photos. I won 2 blue ribbons (1st place), 6 red ribbons (2nd place), 3 white ribbons (3rd place), and one honorable mention for my photos. I was pretty excited, even though I still can't quite figure out their judging criteria.

BUT... I was even more excited for little Loren. He got 1 blue ribbon and 2 red ribbons for his photo entries. A clean sweep! He seemed excited, but I'm still not quite sure if he completely understands the whole thing. We'll pick our entries up on Monday, and hopefully he'll figure it out a little more by then. I am so proud of him!

After we checked out our entries, and got yummy (NOT!) fair food, we decided to go ahead and let the boys ride a couple of the carnival rides. Little Loren rode the motorcycle one (he did last year too), and then we figured out that Justin was tall enough to go on the construction tractor ride with Loren. Justin thought it was hysterical, and I wish I had had a video camera. The video recorder on my camera just wouldn't have cut it. After we got them off of that ride, Justin was still very excited. Then little Loren and his daddy went on the big airplane ride (that little Loren went on with his Gamma Gamma last year) and Justin thought it was funny watching them. We tried to find another ride that Justin was big enough for without an adult with them, but he was only big enough for the construction one, so we let them go on that one again. He loved it just as much the second time, and I think he wanted to go back on it. Those dang carnival rides are expensive though!
We are supposed to go again on Sunday with my parents if they are able to come down. I can't wait to take the boys again! If not Sunday, then next year! And next year, you can bet we'll have more entries, and hoping for more ribbons as well!

"The leaves fall, the wind blows, and the farm country slowly
changes from the summer cottons into its winter wools."
- Henry Beston, Northern Farm