Projects & Tomes: Black Water & Three Weddings and a Bar Mitzvah

I'm sorry I haven't blogged lately. I've been very busy this week. I did finish reading two books last week. One was Linda Hall's Dark Water. It's a mystery, and it was good, but I've had other things going on that made it take a back seat on my priority list and so it took me a long time to read it. But it is a good mystery because it has a big twist at the end.

The other book that I finished reading last weekend was the final installment in the 86 Bloomberg series by Melody Carlson. It is called Three Weddings and a Bar Mitzvah.  I loved this series. It's about three girls who rent rooms in this house. The owner's granddaughter also lives in the house and she is using their rent to keep from having to work. But, that's how they get together in the first book. Read the whole series. It's worth it.

I watched a few animated movies this week, but I will try to post those tomorrow or first of next week.

I really wanted to tell you about my four new projects. First of all, I've been working on a cookbook for my mother and her siblings. So far, the main thing that I've done is type my mom's share of the recipes and formatted them. But, I finally convinced her to let me get Creative Memories' Memory Manager and Storybook Creator!

www.creativememories.com

These two programs are awesome! The Memory Manager pulls your photos into folders (without creating extra copies of the actual photo) and allows you to label them and journal them. You can tag them with as many categories as you like. You can also modify your pictures with MM. You can crop, rotate, change to black-and-white or sepia, or you can do a color wash. You can actually "clone" over something that you don't want in the picture. For example, if there is a guy standing in front of wallpaper and someone's hand is in the picture, you can clone/copy the wallpaper over the hand. It's so cool. You can also do the color-tinting. This is one of my favorite features. This is where a photo is black-and-white or sepia, but one thing in the picture is colored. It makes a very artistic photo!

Anyway, my first project is pulling in all of the pictures on our computer and tagging them in the right categories. We have digital pictures that go back to 2005. This doesn't include the few that I've scanned in, nor the rest that need to be scanned in for backup.

My second project, of course, is using Storybook Creator to do my cookbook. I already did about 7 pages, but until I get the recipes and stories from my aunts and uncle, I won't know how many pages to put in each section or what order I'm going to put them in and since I want the facing pages to either match or coordinate, that's kind of a crucial thing.

My third project is a family tree. I found this free software online - MyHeritage Family Tree Builder. (Of course the premium version isn't free.) I have been working on a family tree. It's so neat to see how everyone is connected and the really cool thing is that I can click on any person in the tree and run a report on that person and it will show all the people they are related to and how. So, if I want to, when a cousin gets married, if I know the spouse's family, I can include them.

My fourth project is a new afghan that I'm crocheting. I haven't spent a lot of time on it this week, but I did get a small start on it. I think I'm on the fourth or fifth row. It's going to be perfect for me. It's my two favorite colors: green and purple. It's Red Heart's Sage Mary. I'm doing a Mamie Shell pattern. It's easy and the pattern I've done the most. The main part of the afghan is repeating 10 double-crochets and then doing a shell (2 dc-2 chains-2 dc) and then repeating 'til the end of the row.

Well, tomorrow, I'm going to scrapbook with my friend Lou and some other ladies, so I better call it a night.

Tomes: Hidden Places and Eve's Daughters by Lynn Austin

 

I just finished reading Hidden Places by Lynn Austin last night! Excellent book! This is only the second book of hers that I have read. But, both books, I have really enjoyed. The other book of hers that I have read is Eve's Daughters. It was also very good. We have several more of her books in the church library so I will definitely have to read some more of Lynn Austin!

Tomes & TV: Sybil

I watched Sybil last night. It stars Joanne Woodward and Sally Field. It is very well done. It's based on the true story of a woman (Sybil isn't her real name) who had over 10 different (multiple) personalities.

There has been at least one other version of this movie, but this is my favorite.

I have a copy of the book that this movie is based on. I would like to read it  when I get time.

Tomes & Tastes: Scrapbooks, Cheese Cracker Mix and Pizza

I went to a Creative Memories "party" last night. The host, the consultant (who is a friend of mine), the consultant's mother, and I were the only four people there. She did show us a video of some of the software, which was cool. I got to use her computer to do some practice work for when I get the program myself. That was fun.

I have several scrapbooks but they aren't very organized. I want to work on them some more. I go through stages of working on them and then taking several years off and then working on them and taking time off. I think I'll be doing mainly digital scrapbooking once I get the program.

Last night she had bought some strawberry pastries and Munchies Cheese Fix mix. It was a store-bought mix of Doritos, Cheetos, Harvest Cheese Sun Chips and Rold Gold pretzels. It was very good. Click on the link to learn more about them.
http://www.fritolay.com/our-snacks/munchies-cheese.html

Last night they did digital. Today, they were working on traditional scrapbooking. I went planning to just show Lou, the consultant and my friend, some of the pages I've done and some of the tools I use to do them, but I ended up coming home and getting some supplies and going back to work. Of course, then she showed me the machine that punches letters and shapes out of any paper that you want and then you put them through a sticker machine and turn them into stickers.  So, I spent the rest of my time doing that.

Today, she bought pizza. It was good. She bought mushroom/pepperoni and also chicken bacon ranch. Today was Lou, me, my aunt's sister-in-law, Laura, Laura's daughter Katie, and one other lady I did not know. I might have to make this a monthly thing.

Tome: Where Yesterday Lives by Karen Kingsbury

I just finished reading Where Yesterday Lives by Karen Kingsbury. I highly recommend this book. It's about a man who dies and how his estranged family deals with preparing for the funeral. It was so well written.

Tastes and Tomes

Today, my double first cousin, Julie, and her daughter, Alaina came and had lunch with me. Alaina is 2 years old and she's a cutie pie. She had on the cutest little shirt. It had flowers and fruit all over it and looked like a certain design I've seen on greeting cards I think. Anyway, it was really cute.


I had made a dish...I'll call it Tracy's Talsa. You toss a can of black beans in a bowl. You toss in a small can of whole kernal sweet corn. You toss in a can of Armour chili. You toss in some Ragu (I used chunky style with mushrooms). You toss in some shredded cheese. You stir it together and microwave for about 10 minutes or if you need to re-warm it, 5 minutes will do.

 I served it with Scoops chips. I think it would've been good with a can of refried beans, too, or in place of the black beans.

 I also had made dessert. I made cream cheese icing. I only made half of the recipe. I used four ounces of cream cheese, half a box of powdered sugar, 2 tablespoons of margarine and 2 teaspoons of Vanilla flavoring. I left off the lemon flavoring. I blended it all together with a can of fruit cocktail (I drained the juice off). I then diced up 5 fresh strawberries and 5 fresh pineapple chunks and about half a can of fruit cocktail and stirred the diced fruit into the cream cheese blend and served it over plain pound cake.


It turned out very good and even Alaina liked it.


I read Karen Kingsbury's Take Three last night. It was awesome! I won't put any spoilers. But, if you like Christian fiction, check it out! It just came out in the stores yesterday. I knew the ladies at church would want me to get it and get it processed so they could check it out tonight, so I went ahead and picked up the copies at Crossway. I took time to read it last night because I was (conveniently - as the church librarian) the first one to "request" it. I give myself special privaleges. Anyway, that will allow one more person to get a copy tonight.

Tastes, Tomes, and Tunes

I'm TP. I may talk about food (tastes), books (tomes), or music (tunes). I also might talk about TV. You never know. But, these are my preferences, my opinions. Please keep any comments clean.

I'm a Christian and want to honor God in everything I say and do. I apologize if I offend anyone thru my words, but you are free to do your own blog.

If you don't know Jesus as your personal Savior and want to know how to know Him, click here.