A Deal That REALLY IS A DEAL!

I'm not certain you have picked this up about me yet... probably not.... but I tend to say what I think.  And, if I love something, I REALLY LOVE it and I want to spread the good word (and vice versa, but we won't go into that).  I want all my friends to know about it and get in on a good deal too!

WELL! Such is the case with AMAZON PRIME!  I have been using it for about seven months now and I have loved every minute of it!  If you take the time to bother reading this you WILL THANK ME, I PROMISE!  I'm excited about it today because yesterday I saved TONS in shipping and that excites me.

Yes, you have to pay $79 for a year, up front, but I have WAY more than made that back in benefits! And I will GLADLY pay it again in October.  

WHY????

You wouldn't believe all the benefits!

(first, you get to try it for 30 days FREE!  Do that just for the free shipping!)

1. "UNLIMITED Prime MOVIES and TV Shows "

It works much like Netflix and Hulu Plus (only without commercials!) ... each of those cost $7.99 a month, making their total for a year $95.88 (see, already saving) ... No, not every movie that Amazon sells is free to watch, but there are thousands that are!  And, you can watch them on any digital data device! TV, cell phone, Kindle, iPad, whatever.  

2. The next, most important (to me) benefit is that you get is FREE TWO DAY SHIPPING on almost everything your order!!  Just yesterday I place two different orders and they will both be here tomorrow!..  FREE SHIPPING!!  AMAZING!  And I order almost everything I buy from Amazon because I don't have to pay taxes or shipping!... and, the prices are usually better.  Like the book I show in the left column iPad for Artists: How to Make Great Art with Your Tablet
sells at my local Barnes and Nobel for $19.95 + tax = $21.54, I paid $9.46 TOTAL!  I bet I order something at least every other week. 

3.  A FREE Kindle Book each month.  Would you believe THIS is the reason I joined?!  And I use it the least.... but, the Hunger Games Series was available and I wanted to read them... and I did, for free!  No, you don't have to own a Kindle to take advantage of this one, they have a PC/iPad/Android app so you can read it on any device.

4. There are more things that I haven't bothered to learn about...like a 5 GB Cloud for storage. So, instead of using up all your valuable hard drive space on your iPad/Kindle/whatever, you store songs, movies, pictures, whatever there and access it through "the cloud"! 

Can You Hear Me Giggling?

I don't know what's up with me today but I decided to treat myself with some fun stuff! 

I was on Pinterest and decided to look at my "I WANT" board and then to oblige ...

1. butter slicer, love it!  Love butter, HATE cutting it!  Problem solved.

     






2. Egg shaper, HOW FUN!!!  now my eggs will fit!  HA!  Just think, PERFECT scrambled egg sandwiches!  I LOVE, LOVE egg sandwiches but not so crazy about all the overlap and bits and pieces, problem solved:

  




3. This last thing was on the "I WANT" board but I ordered it a couple months ago and I won't get it until January :-(  The 3-D Doodler!  FUN!!!  Just wanted to show you what's coming. It was my first introduction to Kickstarter ... who knew?!

FREE Washi Tape Storage

Well, it is free if you already have what you need.... and I bet you do :-).

This past Monday Archiver's had a "ONE DAY ONLY" 33% off all Embellishments!  Well.... that has my name written all over it!  I have managed to resist the temptation to own more than 2 rolls of washi tape up until now but, hey, Archiver's has the largest selection around and it was 33% off!!!

I'm too embarrassed to admit how much I bought, but I did make two trips. :-)

So, now I have all this tape, how the heck do I store it???  I KNOW!!!  Wax paper doesn't really need the box it comes in right?!  And it comes with its own "cutting" blade.  PERFECT!

The only other thing you need is some kind of rod to pass through the rolls of tape... I just happen to have the twisted wire rod on my coffee table, a left over from another project.  You could do the same thing or cut the long edge of a wire clothes hanger, just bend the ends up a bit so it doesn't slide out.  OH!  almost forgot, I punched holes on either end of the box so that the wire ran through and out.

Now, you could stop there but...it really is kinda ugly so I grabbed my ever ready can of black paint and sprayed that baby down, then covered two sides with the tape that was going inside the box.  Now i can tell what is inside even if the box is closed.

 TA DA!

Just remember to face all of the tape edges towards the outside of the box so that you can unroll and tear it on the box edge more easily.

 
 

Today I Went Back To the Library!

AND I TOTALLY RECOMMEND IT!

I have been on the look out for a book "The Harbinger" for a few weeks and I don't want to pay for it!  So, today I decided that I would check out the library again (after AT LEAST 20 years!).  They didn't have it, BUT, they DID have the DVD for "Miss Potter"...another something that I have been wanting to see but wasn't willing to pay for.  Did you guys know that libraries have movies now?!!!  And you can check them out just like a book FOR FREE!... and you have a whole week to watch them!  I got two movies, "Miss Potter" (about Beatrice Potter) and "The Notebook"  OH MY GOSH!  I didn't remember it being so sad!!!  I SOBBED!...(snot and all!)  

I HIGHLY recommend both movies.

Another shocking thing is that they let you check out up to FIFTY books at a time!!! WHAT?!  This world, it is a changing.  I got a "How to" Calligraphy book, and two other craft books along with several novels.  ... I can have those for 3 weeks, and if I'm not done I can continue to renew the check out at least two more times!

Long story short, check out your local library, you may be pleasantly surprised!

Comic Sans.... REALLY???..... UGH!

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For the past few days I have been working on some "frames" for my friend Patty.  She is the one that lives in a barn...literally!

For the past several months we have been going back and forth on what she wanted and I am THRILLED to say we FINALLY came up with an idea and I AM FINISHED!!!  WHOOHOO!!!

The goal:
1. She wanted it "barn-like"
2. She wanted each person's name on it
3. She wanted a scripture of her choice
4. She wanted Comic Sans (UGH!, that would have NEVER been my choice!...ok, 15 years ago, maybe...)
5. She found some barbed wire on her property that she wanted to use.  This one worried me because that was an accident just screaming to happen!  I was not in the mood for a tetanus shot so I figured out a way to make it myself!
6. She wanted to mix up the colors, red/green/blue

So, here ya go!  ... barbed wire/hand stained clothespins/name/scripture canvas board... FIFTEEN of them! (even one for the horse)  

The good part is she can change pictures out anytime she wants.

 YAY!!!  I LOVE it when a job is done!  I can't wait to see it up on her wall!  I'll share the pictures when I get some.

"Jesus Hasn't Been Touched"

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Several years ago my brother decided to carve a 6 foot Jesus hanging on a 12 foot cross and put it in his front yard!  ???  No, he isn't Catholic, but he does live in Louisiana so the crucifix is not an unusual site.... except maybe in front yards!  Thankfully, he lives in the country between Baton Rouge and Zachary so no one can complain!  They actually did a little segment on it on the local TV station and lots of folks drove by to check it out, some even stopping to take a closer look.

He carved the body part from a single log (thus limiting the size of the body) and just added the arms from branches of that same tree.

I have been looking for my pictures of it all morning but can't find them ???  On August 29th, the day after (?) the hurricane hit Louisiana,  I got a text message on my phone with this picture and the caption  "Jesus hasn't been touched"

All that stuff around the cross that looks like big bushes is actually huge branches from the oak tree next to the cross....He weathered the storm.

Yes, I do call this a vacation!

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The last couple of weeks I have made little short trips to visit friends that have moved away.  I love it!  Little mini-vacations!  Its great to be able to see and do things I've never done before.  I'm pretty sure that most of my followers won't care a thing about these pictures but I wanted to share them with the people who know and love the friends I visited.

Margaret:

Last week I went with a friend (Linda) to see her sister (Margaret), my other friend in Alabama, who just moved there to live with her son.  

Margaret's new home, with her beloved porch and rocking chairs... she sits and watches the butterflies fly up and down the street.

While there we went to Cheha State Park...on top of a mountain with INCREDIBLE views!  Now that I see these pictures here, I promise they don't do it justice!  

 Views from inside the restaurant:

Sitting on the outside deck, waiting for the restaurant to open...

OK, leave there and move on to this week...

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Patty:

This week, (yesterday) a friend (Nancy G.) and I went to see Patty on her farm in Jasper, Ga.

 to help her get some applesauce made....at a real cannery that her county provides for people in the county!  I've never been to a cannery so it was so much fun to see one in action!

Last night we cut up and cored 2.5 bushels of apples, ... that is a LOT of apples! I hate that I didn't get a picture of that process!  We were up to our noses in apple cores and apple juice and jars (which all had to be washed and dried)!  It was a lot of work but it was fun because we were able to visit and shared work is always so much easier than doing it alone.

This morning we got up with the chickens (literally!) before daybreak so that we could be first in line at the cannery. 

Below, see the guy in the blue shirt, that's John.  He runs the whole place, running from one machine to another getting people's stuff done....Happy little guy even though he has a tough job working in a building with NO AC!!!

Our apples in the steamer:

 While the apples cooked we had to temper our jars by rolling them around in HOT water!

Ever smiling, John would come by and make sure we were ok and offer advise about how to do things "the right way" ... I think he had just told ANOTHER little white lie here! ....

Here is the apple juice draining while the apples cooked.  John would pour the juice back in with the apples during the process but once the apples were cooked we put the juice in jars to bring home.

Here they are cooked...not much difference in the first picture but they are cooked here...

the thing next to the cooker is what John puts the cooked apples into to make CREAMY applesauce....

Patty hamming it up for the camera while we waited for John to come start loading the applesauce machine

 John scooping the apples into the sauce maker:

  

Here ya go!  100% PURE CREAMY DELICIOUS APPLESAUCE!

Then the jar filling begins (we did that)

After the sauce and juice is in the jars John takes it to this big thing to boil for 30 minutes... it will help the applesauce stay good for at least 2 years!

While the jars are "cooking" we go to lunch and when we get back everything is ready to put in the truck and go home!

Now, a few other things that other people were canning while we were there: 

One lady was doing different kinds of beans....

Here John is sealing up cans of tomato juice for a man...

And then there was a family getting ready for winter by making and jarring vegetable soup!

  

I really wanted some of that soup!

This is just a table of equipment (ladles, strainers, spoons and such).  It really is an amazing set up!  Everything you need is there all you bring is the product .... and the jars.  They have the cans there.  

Would you believe that after all the work John did on our stuff we only had to pay 35cents for pints and 69cents for quarts?!  The only problem with the whole process is that you have to live in that county! So you and I can't go without Patty :-(

Some people go to DisneyWorld for a good time, not me, I go to a cannery!  It really did fascinate me ...  I guess I'm much more of a city girl than I ever knew!  

Can you imagine, eating food that you know EXACTLY what did and didn't go into it!?  Our applesauce and apple juice is 100% golden delicious apples, with ZERO anything else added!  Gotta love that!

INFO ADDED LATER:

I was thinking everyone needs access to a cannery! Then I thought, heck, if there is one down my street I wouldn't know about it because I wouldn't think to look.... so, I just googled "Local Cannery locations" and got this site:
http://www.pickyourown.org/canneries.htm
check it out!

OH!  and I may as well go ahead and add one more NON-Blog related photo while I'm at it!

My family all live in Louisiana.  This is in my brother's front yard in Baton Rouge.  It is a 12 foot cross with a 6 foot Jesus on it that he carved about 10 years ago.  (No, he isn't Catholic, it is just something he wanted to do.)  I got this picture from Terri, Lin's wife, after hurricane Issac hit.  Her caption was "Jesus hasn't been touched".... even though he is surrounded by huge fallen oak tree branches that covered the yard!

Cute ...

I just love listening to this lady talk...wish I could see her in person!

Cucumbers

This is not my list, I just got it in an email from a friend and I don't want to forget it. 1. Cucumbers contain most of the vitamins you need every day, just one cucumber contains Vitamin B1, Vitamin B2, Vitamin B3, Vitamin B5, Vitamin B6, Folic Acid, Vitamin C, Calcium, Iron, Magnesium, Phosphorus, Potassium and Zinc. 2. Feeling tired in the afternoon, put down the caffeinated soda and pick up a cucumber. Cucumbers are a good source of B Vitamins and Carbohydrates that can provide that quick pick-me-up that can last for hours. 3. Tired of your bathroom mirror fogging up after a shower? Try rubbing a cucumber slice along the mirror, it will eliminate the fog and provide a soothing, spa-like fragrance. 4. Are grubs and slugs ruining your planting beds? Place a few slices in a small pie tin and your garden will be free of pests all season long. The chemicals in the cucumber react with the aluminum to give off a scent undetectable to humans but drive garden pests crazy and make them flee the area. 5 Looking for a fast and easy way to remove cellulite before going out or to the pool? Try rubbing a slice or two of cucumbers along your problem area for a few minutes, the phytochemicals in the cucumber cause the collagen in your skin to tighten, firming up the outer layer and reducing the visibility of cellulite. Works great on wrinkles too!!! 6. Want to avoid a hangover or terrible headache? Eat a few cucumber slices before going to bed and wake up refreshed and headache free. Cucumbers contain enough sugar, B vitamins and electrolytes to replenish essential nutrients the body lost, keeping everything in equilibrium, avoiding both a hangover and headache!! 7. Looking to fight off that afternoon or evening snacking binge? Cucumbers have been used for centuries and often used by European trappers, traders and explores for quick meals to thwart off starvation. 8. Have an important meeting or job interview and you realize that you don't have enough time to polish your shoes? Rub a freshly cut cucumber over the shoe, its chemicals will provide a quick and durable shine that not only looks great but also repels water. 9. Out of WD 40 and need to fix a squeaky hinge? Take a cucumber slice and rub it along the problematic hinge, and voila, the squeak is gone! 10. Stressed out and don't have time for massage, facial or visit to the spa? Cut up an entire cucumber and place it in a boiling pot of water, the chemicals and nutrients from the cucumber with react with the boiling water and be released in the steam, creating a soothing, relaxing aroma that has been shown the reduce stress in new mothers and college students during final exams. 11. Just finish a business lunch and realize you don't have gum or mints? Take a slice of cucumber and press it to the roof of your mouth with your tongue for 30 seconds to eliminate bad breath, the phytochemcials will kill the bacteria in your mouth responsible for causing bad breath. 12. Looking for a 'green' way to clean your faucets, sinks or stainless steel? Take a slice of cucumber and rub it on the surface you want to clean, not only will it remove years of tarnish and bring back the shine, but is won't leave streaks and won't harm you fingers or fingernails while you clean. 13. Using a pen and made a mistake? Take the outside of the cucumber and slowly use it to erase the pen writing, also works great on crayons and markers that the kids have used to decorate the walls!!