A Belated Thank You

I want to give a shout out and a thank you for the fabulous giveaway prizes I won in late May, right before we moved. The generous blogger was Diane of Diane Knott's Musings. No sooner than the package arrived, I had to quickly pack the goodies in a box destined to my studio room here at the cottage. And they recently surfaced as I finished unpacking for that room.

Diane is quite a talented artist and she is a very well-known fabric designer. So I was really tickled when I won 18 fat quarters from one of her summertime fabric lines! She also sent along some handmade cards, tags, and a gorgeous beaded pin. I hope that my readers will visit her blog and see/buy some of her latest creations.

Thank you so much, Diane, for this wonderful giveaway package and being a dear blogging friend!

That Dirty 5-Letter Word: Taxes

I don’t rant often. I make a concerted effort to keep my blog light-hearted. Please bear with me while I digress a bit off of my usual topics. Yes, the calendar says July and not April. But what soon happens in Washington D.C. could very much affect how much of your hard-earned money is turned over to the Federal government every April.

There are many talking heads on the news and in the current ruling political party that refer to the “Bush tax cuts” as some kind of evil legislation that only benefits “rich” people. Quite simply, they are either lying or badly misinformed. And, these talking heads play the tried-and-true envy card to sway the public’s emotions.

Please don’t be fooled and get caught up in the spin and rhetoric. Think with your head and your wallet. Check it out for yourself and see how expiration of the 2001 and 2003 tax cuts will affect you and your family. Here is a nifty calculator: http://www.mytaxburden.org/

You may very well discover that you are one of the “rich” folks who will be paying more. Welcome to the club. I hope that you can figure out where to carve this extra money out of your household budget to send to Washington. Or better yet, I hope that you contact your Congressional representative and Senators and demand that they make those Federal income tax cuts permanent.

Thanks for listening. I’m stepping down from my soapbox now…

Photo Challenge: Ruby Red Macro

It’s time for another Brenda Photo Challenge! The current theme is Ruby Red Macro. I’m jumping into this challenge at the last minute. There isn’t much time to spare these hot summer days for me to do some new photography. So I took a little liberty with an old image taken on one of our Kentucky travels.

This is a close up of an antique emergency light at the picturesque Buffalo Trace Distillery in Frankfort, Kentucky. The name on the light is for W. S. Darley, an American company who has been making fire and emergency equipment (including fire engines) since 1908. To emphasize the weathered, gritty appearance, I altered the image using a Topaz filter plug-in for Photoshop and applied a textured layer. The camera settings were f/9, 1/200 second, and ISO 100.

Happy Anniversary to My Sweetie!

He’s known as sweetie, babe, sweet baboo, booger, and various other pet names. He is my love, best friend, traveling companion, confidant, helpmate, and anchor. He is my everything. We’ve been together 29 years, through thick and thin, and we'll be together for many years to come!

Answers to Your Hummingbird Questions

I got several questions about my previous post, so I thought I would provide additional information for my blogging buddies (and share another picture).

We got the hummingbird feeder and little suction cup hook at our local Wal-Mart. Both were inexpensive. To make sure that the holder would be able to manage the weight of the filled feeder, we tested it out for several days with plain water. It held up just fine! The feeder is made from plastic, measures about 7 inches high, and holds perhaps two cups of liquid. If there are flowers prevalent in your locale, then you should be able to attract these precious creatures.

To get the pictures, I set my Nikon D90 to ISO-800 and used a Nikkor 18-200 zoom lens with vibration reduction (handheld). One word of caution about higher ISO settings: you get a lot more grain in your image. But that is one of the compromises that you sometimes have to make. The feeder is located under a covered porch, so the lighting was indirect and diffused. I used an aperture-preferred setting at f/6.3 and the speed was between 1/100 second and 1/320 second for the various shots.

The beauty about digital photography is that you can take a lot of pictures and not worry about wasting film. I zipped off several dozen shots of these little birds to get a handful that were good quality. I processed the images with Photoshop CS5, but I could have gotten the same results with Photoshop Elements. The modifications were all custom (i.e., no “actions” run) and each image was cropped.

Hello, Hummingbirds!

We started feeding the hummingbirds here at our new cottage a couple of weeks ago. The feeder hangs off of our dining room window using a little suction cup device. Little feathery friends arrived within minutes after their food was put out. They are so fun to watch!

If you have never tried to make hummingbird food, it is incredibly easy! Add one part sugar to 4 parts water. Heat the mixture until the sugar fully dissolves. Cool the liquid completely before adding it to the feeder. Keep leftover food in the refrigerator. Do not add any food coloring, honey, or any other ingredients. It is best to clean the feeder about once a week, rinsing with one part white vinegar and four parts water. Then rinse at least three times with warm water before refilling with sugar water. It is also good to keep your feeder out of direct sunlight so that the liquid doesn’t spoil.

In Search of the Slow Lane

It has been a busy three weeks, ever since I temporarily flung myself back into the working world. I have been on business travel during most that time. The slow lane of retirement is just a distant memory in my rearview mirror. I have quickly discovered that my stamina is not what it used to be! Hopefully, I’ll be getting a bit more rest now that I am switching into a telecommuting role. And our screened-in back porch is going to help me get some respite.

We got a few furniture pieces for our deck last month and we are enjoying them immensely, despite the summer heat. We got his and hers gliders, made of recycled poly and in a deep green color. They are so comfy! There were several styles to choose from, but we picked the “royal back” which has a craftsman-type flair. On the practical side, they are easy to clean, impervious to the weather, and don’t require cushions. Easy maintenance, oh yeah! We’re going to order a couple of rockers and another little side table for additional seating when we are entertaining.

When we purchased the interior window shades, we got a great deal on two outdoor shades for the west side of the porch. The dealer sold them to us below cost because they were returned by another client. The fit and color were perfect, and they keep the porch cooler from the late day sunrays.

The Weber gas grill is on the other side of the porch, next to the door from the kitchen. Hubby is so happy to finally have a grill and has been routinely giving it a workout. We got the Genesis model from Lowes and opted for their exclusive chocolate brown color.

Are you ready for a cookout and some cold drinks? I know that blogging friends Soul and Brenda will be fighting with each other to be first in line!

Cottage Kitchen Reveal (Part 2)

It’s time for part 2 of our cottage kitchen reveal! Grab a cool beverage and sit down for a spell.

I have said this before and I’ll say it again. This is our last home! We don’t EVER want to move again. Heavens to Betsy! The next stop for us is either the grave or a retirement home. And we want the kitchen to be the anchor of our home. With that in mind, we designed a kitchen of our dreams, yet still within our budget.

The kitchen cabinets were made by Kemper. The main cabinets are cherry with a natural stain and the island is distressed black. We opted for upgrades that are not readily apparent, but make life in the kitchen so much easier and the cabinets more durable. First, we selected above-standard box construction. We also incorporated drawers and roll-out trays in base cabinets that completely extend. The drawers also have what is called “blumotion”. The mechanism automatically closes a drawer when it is returned within an inch or so of the cabinet base. (Like magic, LOL.) Except for a tray organizer in one of the base cabinet rollouts and trash basket base, we didn’t choose any of fancy insert accessories. On the end of the cooking area cabinets, side panels provide extra decoration.

We wanted the design to include a wall cabinet that had a glass front to showcase special glassware and china. Instead of plain glass, we had an antique-style bubble glass inserted in the door. A little puck light at the top also shines down through the glass shelves. Different sizes of crown moulding were incorporated in the design, along with undercabinet moulding. We chose not to have decorative lighting over the cabinets, but we were glad to get practical undercabinet LED lighting. We made sure that the entire kitchen got plenty of lights! One neat thing about the can-style lights we used throughout the house is that they are convertible for LED lighting, once that type of bulb gets lower in price.

A large Kitchenaide refrigerator is tucked in at the end of the butler’s pantry side of the room. We are enjoying the design features of the French doors on the top fridge section and a rollout freezer drawer. To optimize inside space, we didn’t want the option of a water and ice dispenser in the door. This beauty sticks out a little more than we expected, but that’s okay. We had originally planned to have a cabinet-depth refrigerator, but we about had heart failure when we saw the price difference. And since the cabinet design was dependent upon the refrigerator style, we would have always committed to that style refrigerator. We had to draw the line! By the way, the little black section seen in the baseboard over in the butler's pantry area is a central vacuum floor sweep. It's handy for brushing crumbs away quickly without dragging out the central vacuum hose. 

It is no small secret that hubby is the chief cook around here, and he is an excellent one. He enjoys cooking even better with good equipment. After much research, he selected a Dacor cooktop stove, stainless steel hood, and wall oven/microwave combination, all in the Epicure line. Dacor has been making exceptional kitchen appliances for decades. The company is family owned, their products are made in the USA, and their company value is to “honor God in all that we do”. How many companies do you know that publically wear their faith on their sleeve? Not many, I bet! Hubby has already been marveling on smart design details and ease of use.

I am smitten with our walk-in pantry. We had one at our last cottage, but this one is decidedly bigger and better equipped. Instead of wire shelving, we upgraded to solid construction and incorporated a couple of handy roll-out drawers. Would you believe that we already have this baby filled up? We have enough room in here to store appliances that are infrequently used, in addition to food items.

So that completes your kitchen tour! We had a great kitchen designer. She carefully listened to us and made sure that the design reflected our personalities and incorporated our wish list of features. We also enjoyed working closely with the appliance and lighting sales staff to get selections made easily and ensure that everything coordinated.

If you ever get a chance to design a new kitchen or remodel an older one, I hope you do a lot of research ahead of time and have a clear vision of what the end result should look like. Of course, you have to start out with a budget and know what you can afford. That is a given! Once you get committed, you have to be able to make quick decisions too! There was very little in second-guessing ourselves on this endeavor. We waffled for a couple of days on the vent hood style over the cooktop (free-standing unit versus cabinet insert). And we later changed our refrigerator selection from a cabinet depth model to a regular model once we got the cost estimates. That was it! Our suppliers and builder made the whole thing as painless as possible, and we returned the favor by being decisive.

Now that we have been settled in for over a month, we are thoroughly enjoying this special room and know that we will continue to do so for many years to come.

Word Verification is Going "On" - Sorry!

That's it. I'm too tired to deal with it anymore. I've reached the end of my limit with Chinese spammers.  I moderate comments and limit them to registered bloggers. I report the offenders to Blogger. However, the naughty spam still gets through. As much as I hate the dreaded word verification step for posting comments, I have now put the setting on this blog.  I am sorry, my dear readers.

Working It

I’m sorry to be gone so long! The decision to temporarily get back into the working world has thrown my extra-curricular activities (like blogging) by the wayside a bit. I’ve been traveling and staying away from home a lot for the past two weeks. This is turning out to be more like a full-time job that will probably keep me busy through December. Poor hubby has been doing a great job picking up the slack at the home front. And undoubtably, Marty has been into mischief without my constant supervision. Maybe he’s the one behind all the comments from Chinese bloggers who spam us with links to naughty web sites! You think?

The weather has been dreadfully hot here, with many days teasing into record territory. We finally got a little rainfall today. Yeah! The view outside our front windows has improved significantly this week. The construction dumpster finally got hauled off. Another yeah! Hubby has been seeing all kinds of wildlife while I have been gone, including deer (back yard) and coyotes (front yard). Today, he spotted a wild turkey roaming around in the back yard woods. We’ve been missing our hummingbird friends, so hubby got a new feeder and put it up right outside our dining room windows. Within minutes of filling it up with sugar water, here they came for drinks! These hummers are really brave too, so I see picture opportunities in the days ahead.

If I can get Marty, the pesky furball, out of my computer chair long enough, I’ll have a "part 2" post sometime this weekend about our beautiful kitchen here at the cottage. We have a dinner party scheduled for tomorrow. On Monday, I'm back on the road again for the job. So I plan to do some serious catching up on my blog reading on Sunday. I hope everyone had a wonderful 4th holiday celebration. I can’t wait to find out everyone’s latest adventures!

P.S. Do you like this bigger font? I'm beginning to think that my usual font size is a bit too small. Please let me know! 

4th of July 2010

This weathered folk art depiction of an American flag is on a building in historical Leipers Fork. We visited this charming little community last year. It is located in middle Tennessee, south of the Nashville area. The community residents and properties were greatly impacted by the flooding in early May.

I digitally altered the photograph to enhance the worn look and to evoke memories of the storm. The residents here are a resilient bunch and will undoubtedly heal and thrive in the days and years ahead.

Please say a prayer today for our troops who put themselves in harm’s way to protect us and our freedoms. Please say a prayer today for our citizens who are hurting in these current economic times. Please say a prayer today for our great Nation to survive this period of political darkness and return to common sense, fiscal discipline, and our Constitutional roots.

America will weather the storm!

Happy Birthday to Hubby and Photo Challenge: Freedom

It’s time for another Brenda Photo Challenge! The current theme is Freedom. It’s also my sweet hubby’s birthday! So I am presenting a combination photo for both of these occasions.

Hubby and I have a shared philosophy of hard work and financial thrift. It has sustained us throughout the years, so now we can finally enjoy the freedom of retirement and enjoy our passions of photography and travel. We already traveled quite a bit during our working lives, but scheduling was always difficult. Those difficulties are now behind us.

Here is a remembrance of a western trip we took in 2008 with two friends of ours. Hubby was enjoying the scenery at Colorado National Monument, but he was just a little too close to the edge of a cliff for my liking! Do NOT take another step back, sweetie! (Afterall, the keys for the rental car were in his pocket! Ha-ha!) The image was taken at f/6.3, 1/160 second, and ISO 200.

Happy birthday to my sweet baboo! May we have many more traveling adventures together as we enjoy the freedom of our retirement years!

July - A Look Ahead

The year is HALF GONE! Can you believe it? Zowie!

First of all, thank you for the shower of birthday wishes! Even though I worked that day and had a long commute to get back home, it was one of my best birthdays ever. Sweet hubby had several surprises in store for me, including a parade of little American flags set out along our front walkway for an early start to the 4th of July weekend. It made me laugh out loud! He fixed an unbelievably tasty steak dinner on the grill and made a cake decorated with strawberry slices and blueberries to look like a flag. And he also surprised me with a Kindle electronic book reader! This will make it so much easier to read while traveling and otherwise on the go. I tell you, the man is a keeper! I also got sweet birthday wishes from my mom, one of my brothers, friends, and new coworkers. And, I was reunited with Chattanooga friends who treated me to a very yack-filled lunch. It is a special day to be remembered!

Now, onward to July! I will be adjusting to a part-time working schedule this month and several long-distance commutes to the office. Eventually, I will be doing most of the work by telecommuting. But computer and bureaucracy controls at the workplace are delaying a remote connection setup within the company’s inside firewall. I have also discovered that my brain has pretty much turned to mush since leaving the corporate world, forgetting all the acronyms, rules, and routine workday frustrations. So my noggin is in the process of being rebooted, so to speak!

We have settled in really well at our new place. Hubby reorganized the storage room earlier this week, thank goodness. It was a jumbled mess from the move. I still have more unpacking and organization tasks for my studio room hanging over my head. I am setting a goal of getting it done this month. That may be ambitious with the work and travel schedule, but I need a target to try to hit! We have hung pictures in a few rooms. Hubby has gone hog wild and several dozen of his photographic prints are already up in his office. This month we’ll concentrate on getting the walls fully decorated throughout the house. Oh yes, and the clothes in our master bedroom closet are seriously begging for organization. The movers jumbled them all in there, so his/hers and summer/winter clothes are all mixed together. It’s not a pretty sight!

I don’t think I will have much time left over for photography this month. But I hope to edit some of my 2008 western vacation pictures and share them here on my blog. Sound good to you?  Also, I'll be participating in the photo challenge tomorrow (see the link on my sidebar for topic and participation information) and try to do the next one this month too.

So there you have it: a month of getting settled in our new house and a new part-time job. I’m going to need a lot of coffee and air conditioning!