Old…

The other day when watching the news they featured a lady with an unusual hobby: She took old costume jewelry and used the pieces to make artwork. I started thinking about what I could do with some of the costume jewelry that I have and decided to photograph some pieces that belonged to my Mom and Grandmother…Two of the items fall a bit out of the jewelry category but are worth including. So let’s start with these…

Back in the days of my Grandmother, women used to adorn their shoes with clips to dress them up. Here is what she used to clip to her shoes…

Shoe Clips

And, handbags were made of metal. So were the coin purses!

A handbag and coin purse

Costume jewelry today is nothing like what it was in days gone by. Check out this lovely clasp on a “pearl” necklace!

A necklace clasp

Cloisonne was big and it was well made as you can see from this necklace and bracelet.

Cloisonne Bracelet

Cloisonne beads

Here is an old brooch cast in a silver metal with pearls and rhinestones.

Pearl Brooch

Here is another in the shape of a flower with jade and rhinestones.

A lovely flower

Here is a lovely bracelet that has silver inlaid with abalone…

The Face on the Bracelet

All of these pieces are lovely, and one cannot find something today of this quality, unless it too is old!

Go and enjoy your Monday! Have a great day and thanks for visiting today!

Read Full Post »

A Year in Review…

Didn’t 2013 just zip by? As I sit here wracking my brain trying to figure out what to write, I thought that I would feature photos from my top posts. I have all of you to thank for making these top posts and I hope that I can continue on entertaining you with what I come up with!

In January, you loved the Amazing Flowers!

Lupine in the spring

Forward, which was a WordPress Photo Challenge, was your favorite in February!

Heading home

March’s favorite was What’s in the Future? I was hoping in 2013 that I would have corn like this!

Sweet, sweet corn

Wine was the topic of my top post in April. From Grapes to Wine was your favorite!

Cabernet waiting to be crushed

What is in the Background? was the May favorite…

Unlikely friends

In June you loved Throw Me a Curve! Such lovely curves!

The curves of a cut lemon

In July when the garden is getting into full swing you enjoyed Fresh From the Garden!

Raspberries!

August – It was my post entitled Focus

Fairies in the garden

Saturate Me in Color! Lovely colors caught your eyes in September!

Blues

You really enjoyed my Horizon photos in my top October post!

The Long Beach Lighthouse

Layers was the favorite in November!

An amazing play of colors

And finally, this month, you enjoyed my post on Community!

A flock of geese

Thank you for making these top posts for me in 2013! I wish you all a Happy New Year! May 2014 be a year filled with love, prosperity, and good health! Thanks for stopping by!

Read Full Post »

Unexpected Moments! A WordPress Photo Challenge…

When I saw the subject of this week’s WordPress Photo Challenge, a number of photos came to mind. Without further ado, let’s go see what I find that is unexpected!

Going out on my deck and looking down towards the vegetable garden, I noticed a fresh mound of dirt. Cursing the gophers, I decided to do a post on them. Coming back out on the deck with camera in hand, I captured this critter! While they do damage to plants in the garden, he really is kind of cute! I named him Fang for obvious reasons.

Fang – the gopher!

Again on the deck, and being disappointed that my strawberry crop was disappearing from right under my nose, you can imagine my surprise when I discovered the unexpected in my garden! I captured a shot of the strawberry thief!

What is that in my garden?

On a trip to one of the southern counties, we came upon some goats in a field. Thankfully my friends stopped so I could take photos. I think this one was trying to either eat the camera or give me a big kiss!

Lay one on me!

Here in the foothills we live with bats. They are one of the most beneficial critters here as they feed on those nasty biting bugs! On a hot summer day we were opening one of our umbrellas on the deck for much needed shade and discovered we had company!

Finding a bat under the umbrella

After a night out visiting with one of our neighbors, we came home to find this visitor on the frame of our door!

One big spider!

When I looked at this next photo, which was after a morning of shooting photos of the bees on the lavender, I was surprised by the detail I am able to see in this wasp’s eye. Totally unexpected!

Eye see you!

Want to see more? Then I suggest you take a visit through some of the other posts for this challenge! To get there, click here!

Have a fantastic Saturday, and thanks for stopping by to visit with me today! 🙂

Read Full Post »

Comfort Foods for the Fall Season

We officially moved into fall a couple of weeks ago, and the fall season always makes me think about those comfort food recipes that I have not made for a while. So, today, I thought that I would share with you some of my favorite fall recipes! Let’s head off to my recipe box, shall we?

A really good soup comes to mind, and there is nothing like taking the leftover rotisserie ham and making a navy bean soup. For some reason using the rotisserie ham gives this soup a bit of smokiness. The trick to this soup is adding 5 of the chili de arbol for a background kick. Also running a couple of cups of the soup through the blender gives it a lovely natural thickness due to the beans…

Midway through cooking

Navy Bean Soup

Another dish that I have not made all summer is short ribs. It is the slow cooking process in a dutch oven, plus the use of a really good beer that makes this dish!

Short ribs

Short Ribs

You know that I love bacon, and a really good fall dish is bacon wrapped pork loin chops served up with mashed potatoes, and a late summer green vege! The touch of rosemary inside the wrapped chop makes this dish amazing!

Chops wrapped in bacon

Pork Loin Chops

As the nights get cold, there is nothing more comforting to the belly than a macaroni and cheese! The secret to making a great mac ‘n cheese is a really good white sauce. Once you come up with that white sauce, you can play around with it by adding different things…I once made one with a combo of blue and jack cheese. Then I topped it off with blue cheese and roasted honeyed walnuts…This photo is one that I usually make using leftover rotisserie ham and Tillamook medium cheddar!

Macaroni and Cheese with Ham

Barb’s Mac n Cheese with Ham

One final recipe…How about a lovely Chicken Cordon Bleu? Bernaise sauce makes this dish, plus using a really good cheese inside your little chicken bundles. The trick in this recipe is to keep the cheese from oozing out! Doesn’t this look good?

Chicken Cordon Bleu

Chicken Cordon Bleu – Barb’s Way

Are you hungry now? I am! Please let me know if you try any of these warming comfort foods! Enjoy your Wednesday, and many thanks for visiting with me today!

Read Full Post »

Storm Clouds at Night

One night a while back we awoke in the middle of the night to the sounds of thunder and the flash of lightning! We awoke last night to the gentle sounds of rain, and I thought that we should revisit that night with the views of the clouds. It was around midnight when I took these photos!

The clouds light up

Bright night

I catch lightning!

Another bolt!

Dark and light

Have a good Monday! Enjoy the day, and thank you for stopping by!

Read Full Post »

Twilight

The other day, Sharla again asked me if I would collaborate with her and another of her poems. Again, I felt very honored that she would choose me to add my photos! As I read her poem, images of photos that I have taken floated through my mind. I hope that you enjoy this wonderful poem, and the photos that go with it! Thank you again Sharla for this opportunity!

catnipoflife

Barb Beacham from Life in the Foothills has graciously provided some awesome photographs to accompany the catnipoflife poetry Twilight. Barb was one of catnip’s featured photographers last month. If you missed her great photographic match to You have but one life, LIVE it!then, I encourage you to check it out. NOW! Yes, right now…just click HERE!

Thank you, Barb! You truly outdid yourself on this one!

Twilight

Between dawn and sunrise
Where time seems to stand still
The sun not yet visible
Ascends in slow motion until…

Sunlight scatters along the horizon
Where clouds catch the first rays of dawn
Erupting into a blaze of color
Only heaven could possibly spawn

Standing on the edge of silence
A sense of calm penetrates the soul
Hovering between darkness and light
Sheer magnificence to behold

Between sunset and dusk
Day’s last light seems to stand still
The sun barely visible

View original post 132 more words

Read Full Post »

The Best Moment!

Recently I was notified that I have been honored for an award! Receiving an award of any kind for my little daily blog is truly an honor! When I began this blog, I had no idea that anyone got an awards for doing this. I have been honored a number of times, and I would not be so honored if it were not for you my readers and my followers! It makes me happy that you think enough of my blog that you would want to pass on to me an award! To use Mike Myers words from that goofy movie that he was in, the name escapes me, it always makes me verklempt!  And I would like to personally thank Sharla Shults at Cat Nip of Life!

Here is the award recently bestowed upon me…

Best Moment Award

Sharla Shults is one amazing woman, and has been in my life for a short while, considering my years, yet she is one that I feel as if I have known forever! Old souls always find one another don’t they? Sharla has not only shared her life with me but also recently asked me to collaborate with her, providing photos to go along with her amazing, heartfelt, image provoking poetry! This too was an honor that brought tears to my eyes. And as I read her words from the poem she sent me, the photos in my portfolio immediately came to mind, matching her words perfectly! This, and this award with which she is honoring me with, is truly an honor! May I have a Kleenex please?

So let’s look at the rules for this award, again which is the “Best Moment Award.”

RULES:

Winners re-post this completely (the rules, I am assuming) with their acceptance speech. This could be written or video recorded.  Please click here to read the post where Sharla passes on the award, including her thanks to those bestowing it upon her.

My acceptance speech: With all my heart, Sharla, I humbly accept this award that you have bestowed upon me! I am truly honored that you thought so much of my blog that you would include me as one of those that are about the moment! In every post that I write, I try to capture that best moment! I look at the world around me, fall in love with it, and just want to share it with you, my readers! I always try to stop and smell the roses and it has always been my hope, in my ever evolving blog, to pass on to you those things in the world that you might not take the time to stop and notice. Of course, food has to be involved too, because I love that too! So, my thanks go out to all that take the time to stop by to read, to look at my photography, and to those who love my recipes, thank you for trying them and for your feed back!

Part of the rules of this award: “Winners have the privilege of awarding the next awardees! The re-post should include a NEW set of people/blogs worthy of the award; and winners notify them of the great news.”

When I think of the “Best Moment” I think of those who live in the moment and those whose blogs reflect this. I am not to repeat anyone who has already gotten this award, however, I just have to! In no particular order, the following blog writers are always in the moment.

To Lisa at Zeebra Designs and Destinations: I pass this on to you Z for sharing all the best moments in your neck of the woods. Lisa lives in a small town in Ecuador and is one who has taken her passion for art and spread it around to the world around her, capturing the imaginations of everyone that she touches! I applaud you Lisa, or “Z” as I affectionately refer to you!

To Penny at The Why About This: I pass this on to you Penny for not only sharing the good moments of life, but for sharing with all of us who follow you, the trials and tribulations of life. You live in each moment as it comes, and I have had the privilege of you including me in those best moments that have occurred in your life simply by following your blog!

I know that this might be a bit unusual, but I just have to pass this back to Sharla at CatNipofLife for sharing those best moments in life that mean so much to all of us! I truly enjoyed the cuddles I got from the post I linked to, and hopefully you did too! Sharla, you have shared with me so many best moments recently! Hugs to Jim on his recovery, and hugs to you too for being my friend! I hope that we meet some day in person! Just as I hope to meet Lisa and Penny in person too!

I cheated a bit on the awardees! But, I am in the moment right now, so please forgive me!

Please take a moment to wander around the amazing blogs of these three incredible women that I have been given the privilege to meet and get to know!

Hugs to all, and love to all! Yes, that means you too my readers and followers! Now go out and have a wonder Wednesday, and thank you for visiting today!

Read Full Post »

You have but one life: LIVE IT!

Thank you Sharla for the ability to combine your lovely poetry with my photography. Tears are flowing down my face only because we both did good! I love you my friend! Big hugs to you and to Jim! I am just have to reblog this too!

catnipoflife

Today, inspiration steers me toward sharing with you some of my catnipoflife poetry along with featuring awesome photography so graciously provided by Barbara Beacham @Life in the Foothills. If you have not visited Barbara’s blog, I encourage you to mosey on over right now! You will not be disappointed. In fact, you will probably leave as a new follower. As just a little insight into the awe of Life in the Foothills, the Best Moment Award was bestowed upon Barbara by catnipoflife just recently. Here is what I had (and still have) to say about Barbara Beacham:

Can you imagine Life in the Foothills? I can! after visiting Barb’s blog and her exceptional photography. With just one look, you will be hooked! She will draw you into the lowest valley one minute only to take you to the highest mountaintop the next. She will enlighten you…

View original post 280 more words

Read Full Post »

View of the Past – A WordPress Photo Challenge!

This week’s WordPress photo challenge subject is Nostalgia! Images from the past surrounds us here in the Sierra Foothills. It often makes me think of those days long gone and what it would be like to have lived here then. So, I thought that I would share with you views of the past that remain here today. Let’s take a look, shall we?

Let’s start with a look down one of the old streets in Columbia, a foothills mining town. What would it have been like walking down this street 160 years ago?

A view down an old town street

Left behind in some of the old Sierra Foothill towns are carriages. I wonder what it would have been like to ride in one of these carriages…How long would it take to get to town in one of these from where I live today?

Old carriages

Old wagons remain as well. I can just picture the horses pulling one of these wagons, the dust drifting up in the air and billowing behind it.

An old wagon

Historical societies have managed to recreate some of the days gone by, which one can see as they look into the window of a Chinese herbalist shop. What was the owner like? What kind of remedies did he provide to those that lived here?

A Chinese herbalists shop

Old and forgotten are the remains of a blacksmith’s shop. You can hear the echos of the hammering, and just visualize horses nearby waiting for new shoes.  Or, how about a miner waiting for a repair to one of his tools?

A blacksmith shop from days of old

And then there are reminders of those who once migrated here, lived here and died here.

A grave marker

I hope that you enjoyed this walk into the past! Be sure to check out some of the other posts out there! Here are a few that I like:

Ese’s Voice

Good2BeGone

Filimages

ScillaGrace

For more, click here!

Thanks for visiting!

Read Full Post »

Happy Birthday to the United States of America!

Today we celebrate Independence Day! Let’s celebrate with the National Anthem written by Francis Scott Key! This song became the national anthem by congressional resolution in 1931 signed by President Herbert Hoover. Without further ado…

The cover of the music sheet for The Star Spangled Banner

O say can you see by the dawn’s early light,
What so proudly we hailed at the twilight’s last gleaming,
Whose broad stripes and bright stars through the perilous fight,
O’er the ramparts we watched, were so gallantly streaming?
And the rockets’ red glare, the bombs bursting in air,
Gave proof through the night that our flag was still there;
O say does that star-spangled banner yet wave,
O’er the land of the free and the home of the brave!

On the shore dimly seen through the mists of the deep,
Where the foe’s haughty host in dread silence reposes,
What is that which the breeze, o’er the towering steep,
As it fitfully blows, half conceals, half discloses?
Now it catches the gleam of the morning’s first beam,
In full glory reflected now shines in the stream:
‘Tis the star-spangled banner, O! long may it wave
O’er the land of the free and the home of the brave.

And where is that band who so vauntingly swore
That the havoc of war and the battle’s confusion,
A home and a country, should leave us no more?
Their blood has washed out their foul footsteps’ pollution.
No refuge could save the hireling and slave
From the terror of flight, or the gloom of the grave:
And the star-spangled banner in triumph doth wave,
O’er the land of the free and the home of the brave.

O thus be it ever, when freemen shall stand
Between their loved home and the war’s desolation.
Blest with vict’ry and peace, may the Heav’n rescued land
Praise the Power that hath made and preserved us a nation!
Then conquer we must, when our cause it is just,
And this be our motto: “In God is our trust.”
And the star-spangled banner in triumph shall wave
O’er the land of the free and the home of the brave!

Have a wonderful day! Thank you for stopping by!

Read Full Post »