ara133photography

Use Code "BLOG" To Receive 15% Off My Prints at Etsy!!!

2008-05-14T18:28:00.000-07:00

I'm running a blog discount this week!!!

From 5/14/08 through midnight EST 5/18/08, receive 15% off any size print (discount does not apply to mats) if you mention the code BLOG in the "notes to seller" section of the order! Alternatively, you can send me a note through Etsy to receive the discount. Just click on any of the small photos on the right of this page to reach my shop! Over 100 different images/sizes available, and I do custom sizes as well.

To order, simply add an item to your Etsy cart (you'll need to register first, similar to Amazon.com - it's free and fast!), then choose your method of payment. If you choose Paypal, I will send you a revised Paypal invoice reflecting the discount. If you accidentally pay first, I'll send a refund for the discount amount! :)

Thank you so much for visiting!!

Summer Reading List

2008-05-13T12:06:00.000-07:00

I've been thinking of creating a summer reading list for myself but haven't researched yet what books to include! So first, I'll share some of my all-time favorite summer reading (great for any season, really!!) :)

Please leave a comment with your favorite summer reading books, I'd love to make a list this month and go book-hunting! :) Thanks!

Some of these are out of print but it's worth digging up a copy from your local used bookstore! Quite a few are what I'd call mystery, suspense and light romance. When I say 'light romance', I think of think Cary Grant - the type of romance in old fashioned black and white movies :)

Mary Stewart: lovely descriptions that let you actually experience new places and mysteries with the characters! I just adore her writing. Great plots, lots of suspense and a little bit of old-fashioned romance!

My favorites:
Nine Coaches Waiting - a young woman travels to France to be a governess for a mysterious couple and their nephew in a mansion...

Touch Not the Cat - a woman investigates the death of her father (there is a wonderful magical feel to this one, but not overbearing!)

Thornyhold - a woman inherits a quaint cottage in rural England from a mysterious aunt...

The Stormy Petrel - a writer leaves for a vacation in an 'ivory tower' and finds intrigue and interesting strangers!

The Moonspinners - a young woman on vacation roams rural Greece and finds more than rare plants and flowers!

Madam Will You Talk? - a young woman meets a little boy on vacation and finds he needs her help!

I've never read a Mary Stewart book I didn't like, and in fact I've read them all at least 4 times!!

Phyllis Whitney:
Phyllis Whitney's books have very intriguing plots and mysteries, and are always a good read! The sense of place and involvement of the reader are almost as good as Mary Stewarts, in my opinion! As in Mary Stewart's books, these are often similar to gothic mysteries - lovely suspense and a little bit of very light old-fashioned romance! Often these books involve a young woman stumbling into a mystery and meeting two men and having to figure out which is 'good' and which is 'bad'... perfect for summer reading!

My favorite book by her is:
Silverhill - a woman visits the home of her deceased mother and finds danger and mystery!

Jeanne Ray:
Jeanne's books are a great light read - they have very good character development, humor and a little bit of light romance! These books often focus on relationships between family members, their significant others, etc.

Julie and Romeo: an adorable romantic comedy featuring two 60-year olds from rivaling florist families!!

Step Ball Chain: a great read about family relationships and romances!

Mignon F. Ballard:
I've read two of her Angel books, and prefer the first, but both are nice for light summer reading!

Angel at Troublesome Creek: a woman who recently lost her mother finds mystery and advice from a visiting guardian angel! Very cute book, a little mystery, a little humor, and a little light romance!

Dorothy Cannell:
Her early books were completely wonderful!!! Great mix of humor, light romance and mystery!

My absolute favorite book by her is:
The Thin Woman - an overweight woman seeks an escort to a family reunion of sorts, and ends up hunting for antique treasure and a smaller waist size! Hard to describe, but completely fabulous book. The rest of the books in the series are good, but in my opinion don't hold a candle to the first.

Also good by D.Cannell are:
God Save the Queen - a young woman, the daughter of a servant in an old castle (set in modern times - the family is very old and lives in the 'grand hall'), attempts to solve an old family mystery, and discovers love in the process!

Down the Garden Path - a woman poses as an amnesiac to dig up the truth in a suspenseful, lightly romantic mystery!

Nancy Atherton: :
So far I have loved every Nancy Atherton book I have read!! I have reread them all. Start with:
Aunt Dimity's Death - a woman down on her luck loses her mother, and gains an aunt, a great mystery, and a nice young lawyer & his father!

If you enjoy it, I recommend the entire series!

Yasmine Galenorn:
This author is for those who enjoy a bit of the supernatural - there are some new age spiritualism and supernatural aspects to these mysteries, but they are fantastic reads whether or not you share her beliefs! I have enjoyed the whole series.

Melissa Nathan:
These books are utterly engrossing! Some of the best from the chick lit (chicklit?) genre. Wonderful character development, lots of wry humor, fantastic plots! They are not quite as 'fluffy' as some of the chicklit novels!

All of her books are wonderful, but my 2 favorites are:

The Nanny - a girl seeks change in her life and finds a job as a nanny - hilarity, heart-warming children, and light romance ensue.

Persuading Annie - I don't know how to describe this without giving away the plot, but generally - a young woman learns the truth about some mistakes in her past - this is a light drama, light romance, funny book.

Sophie Kinsella:
WONDERFUL - she might be my favorite chicklit author. Her books are completely hilarious, heartwarming and FUN! Becky might be my long-lost (though more stylish) twin sister!
I have loved all of her books - there is only one I have not yet read.
The Shopaholic series is fabulous, as is Can you keep a Secret, The Undomestic Goddess... Wonderful reading!!! Be prepared to stay up all night if you start one in the evening!

Laura Wolf:
Diary of a Mad Bride is a funny, slice-of-life, chicklit book describing one woman's path to her wedding. A perfect read for the beach or porch swing!

Delicious and Moist Low Fat Banana Bread

2008-04-20T19:29:00.001-07:00

I'm sure the cute furry little squirrel in the above photo would LOVE this bread! I took his portrait last week when he was running around begging for bread on campus; it is available in my etsy store!

As usual, the amounts aren't exact. But as long as your batter is the consistency of a regular batter-type bread (ie pumpkin bread batter, etc), it should be fine! I'll note what amounts I used, but you can substitute flours, nuts, sweeteners, etc.

This banana bread is unusually moist (I hate dry banana bread!!), and falls apart a little when you eat it! It is so delicious it doesn't need any spreads. It is heart-healthy (esp if you add the grains and whole wheat flour, and flax seed!) and has no refined sugar.

When I make batter breads, I mix everything together and add the baking soda last.

3 very brown/black bananas, mashed
1/4 C oat bran
1/4 C wheat germ (I wanted to use ground flax seeds but we were out!)
about 3/4 C flour (I used white, but wheat would be good too!)
1 whole egg
1 egg white (I think 2 egg whites, or 2 eggs-worth of fake egg substitute would work too)
1 tsp salt
1/4 C apple butter (the type with no sugar added)
about 1/4 C apple sauce (I ran out of apple butter or would have used 1/2 C apple butter!)
1/8 to 1/4 C honey
1 Tbsp butter (or olive oil)
1 tsp baking powder
1/4 C nuts (walnuts, pecans, etc)

Fold everything together without stirring too much - will be heavy if you over-mix. Fold until just blended.

Bake at 350deg F for about 40-45 mins; it's ok if it gets a little brown as it's very very moist and won't get dry by staying in the oven for a minute or two longer!

makes 1 loaf. I use silicone baking things to avoid having to grease them, but you might want to grease/flour a regular loaf pan if using, or line with waxed paper. Also, you can add everything but the eggs and baking soda, and taste to see if it's sweet enough! Then add the eggs & soda once it's at the level of sweetness you prefer.

If anybody tries this out, let me know what you think! :)

2008-04-14T15:30:00.000-07:00

Luscious Strawberry Sorbet Recipe - Blender Style!

This sorbet is a mix between a slushie and sorbet. You can pour the mixture into an ice cream maker for a more true sorbet texture, but I like the blender style for when I need a sweet treat right away!

All you need is a bag of frozen strawberries, lemon juice from a bottle and a little sugar. Vanilla extract is nice too.

Add about half a bag of berries to the blender, still frozen, pour about 1/4 to 1/2 C of lemon juice on top, a few tbsp of sugar (I like to use very little sugar, maybe 1 - 2 tbsp), and a tsp. of vanilaa if using. Whiz until all the berries are chopped fine, will resemble soft-serve ice cream in blendedness :) YUM!!

You can vary this with lime juice, or skip the sugar to make a very low-sugar (no sugar added) snack. Strawberries are relatively low in sugar to begin with, so it's pretty healthy!

Tempeh Thoughts

2008-04-02T15:03:00.000-07:00

Here's a quick and easy recipe for tempeh! If you're not familiar with tempeh, it is a patty-like fermented pressed soy cake/block; there is a multi grain version as well (I like that one best). The texture is sort of similar to a really firm but crumble-able veggie burger, and the flavor is very plain when cooked by itself.

My favorite way to prepare it takes maybe 15 minutes tops, and is quite easy and delicious! Goes well with rice, salad, in a pita, in a wrap, or it's great eaten as is! The overall flavor of this recipe is red wine vinegary and salty. My parents and I love tempeh made this way, but my husband cannot stand the taste of tempeh cooked in any manner.

As with all my recipes, I rarely measure, so these are approximates. And of course you can leave things out and subsitute, etc.! I never make it exactly the same way twice. You could even do something really fun and add stewed tomatoes to this! Or crumble it up and add to spaghetti!

Cube the tempeh into 1/2" squares (I use half a package of the 3-grain tempeh).

For marinade - whisk together:

1/4 C red wine vinegar

a dash of shoyu sauce (or soy sauce if you don't have shoyu, but the latter is REALLY worth having around - it's much richer and flavorful, and not as sugary-tasting)

a tsp or two of sesame oil

a tsp or two of olive oil (or leave out for low fat version)

a few slices of fresh garlic

some pieces of chiles de arbol, or dried chipotle pepper powder - these have a nice rich flavor

dash (few drops) of ume plum vinegar (this has a lovely salty fruity flavor!)

**If you don't have all these ingredients, just the red wine vinegar, an oil and some garlic would be just fine!**

Marinate for 10 minutes in the pan you're going to cook in. Turn up the heat and cook until the marinade has evaporated! YUM! Let me know what you think :)

Wedding Vendors!

2008-03-15T20:21:00.001-07:00

Why are there photos of animals under Wedding Vendors? Because we spent a day of our honeymoon at the zoo! I made these photos into blank folded notecards and sell them on Etsy :)

We got married in October in State College, PA, and it was so difficult to find and choose vendors that I thought I would share here!

I got my dress from Dillards.com! Lovely flowy dress, not very expensive.

We had our flowers done by Woodrings of State College. They are AMAZING! They're SO nice, and will work with any price range. I didn't want to go too low but I didn't want to spend tons of $ on flowers either - they did lots of gerbera daisies and gorgeous arrangements that were bright and colorful for fall. We did mini gerbera boutonnieres and they were lovely. The centerpieces were gorgeous, not very expensive, and they did them in such a way that we could take home the entire centerpieces (containers included). I adore Woodrings!

Our cake was done by Heather Luse of Delectable Delights. She is SO wonderful to work with! We met with her and saw her beautiful examples on display, and she worked with us to find out exactly what we wanted, which was cupcakes - spice for half and the others in yellow cake. She decorated them beautifully with fall leaves, and arranged them the day of the wedding along with the people from Woodrings, so there were flowers on the cake stand, etc.

We had the actual wedding at Toftrees, and their wedding planner is FANTASTIC!!! She is so helpful, nice, informative, detail-oriented, and amazingly organized! Toftrees did a great job, the food was delicious, and they were VERY willing to work with us on dietary issues such as nut allergies and vegetarian dishes, as well as special requests of cider and other details!

I got my stationery at Wedding Paper Divas, which was really inexpensive and lovely! You do have to contact them by phone with all questions or problems to get a timely answer, but they are great and really friendly.

However, if I had known about Etsy when I was planning, I would have bought stationery from SandyPhotoArt - check out her shop, it's gorgeous! Here is one of her invitations that I LOVE:

We used apples as place card holders (using the Martha Stewart Pear idea!), bought those from Way Fruit Farm near State College. They're very friendly and have lots of great apples and other fruits! Very inexpensive. Harner Farms is fantastic too but at the time they didn't have enough Honeycrisp apples. They do have very cute goats though (Moe and Jo!):)

I got the wedding guest book at Michael's. Horrible. Couldn't find what I wanted, and the one we did finally get fell apart while people were signing it! I wish I had known about Etsy!!!

My friend and I got the programs from Staples - bought a little CD template and paper - we made one at home and ended up getting the rest laser printed at Kinko's, which worked out fine.

The musicians were AMAZING - Emily and Eric McKee. They were so lovely to work with, and played beautiful classical and celtic music.

I hope someone finds this helpful! I know I found the cake person (Heather) through someone else's blog! :)

Good luck planning!

Tag You're It!

2008-03-10T19:48:00.000-07:00

I was tagged by studiojewel from Etsy (http://studiojewel.blogspot.com/) to state 7 random things about myself, so here goes!

1) I've been a vegetarian for 16 years.

2) I had nightmares ALMOST EVERY NIGHT from the ages of 12-ish to 26. Some nights I would even stay up all night to avoid certain nightmares I was sure I would have that night (some were predictable - I had annual ones, weekly ones, etc). I have no idea why they finally went away!

3) I can't do basic math (ok I'm semi-stealing this one from studiojewel who said she loves math!!) - seriously, I can't multiply and divide without using my fingers. I certainly can't do fractions or percentages. I have a cheat sheet that I use for math in the lab!! Sometimes when people show me how to do research-related equations I pretend I understand what they're talking about just to not look stupid.

4) I am definitely addicted to sugar.

5) I still believe that there's a possibility that when I walk around in the woods there's a chance something fantastical and magical might pop out from behind a tree!

6) The only concert I've ever been to featured Davy Jones from the Monkees in the 1990s!

7) I think Kelly Kapur (from the office, played by Mindy Kaling) and I would get along! :) I like being around people who talk a lot - less pressure on me to try to keep up the conversation!! And my husband thinks he and Jim Halpert (John Krasinski) would be pals! We are TOTAL The Office geeks :)

Well, now I will tag 3 other people...

AlwaysArtistic (wonderful photography on Etsy)
ThisOldHenHouse(fabulous notebooks, journals and more on Etsy)
CrazyTimesCandles(lovely candles, soaps, melts on Etsy)

Comfort Foods, and What on Eart Do I Make For Dinner!?

2008-03-05T15:09:00.000-08:00

Let's talk about Comfort Foods! I've had a pretty rough past 2 weeks, so I'm sitting here watching a Lifetime movie and writing while eating a bar of Lindt milk chocolate, thinking about comfort foods and What on Earth Do I Make for Dinner! The chocolate is steadily dwindling...

So what are your favorite comfort foods? Please post as comments, I'd love to hear!

Mine are Boston Baked Brown Bread in a Can (what can I say? I'm from Massachusetts!), pumpkin pie (again a New England thing) and Shipwrecked.

Ever heard of Shipwrecked? If the answer is no, you are missing out on a fantastic comfort food! And it's healthy, depending on how you make it :) It's one of those 1970s recipes; my Mom used to make it for dinner sometimes when I was growing up (along with those Impossible Pies, remember those???). Here is the recipe, it's absolutely perfect for a cold later-winter evening, and the leftovers are even better than the first-servings!

Mom's recipe (no idea where this is from originally) - note, she used meat but I'm a vegetarian so I use Ground Meatless (or as my husband calls it, Feat (for fake meat)!

1 onion
several potatoes (3-4 depending on your casserole dish!)
1-2 cans of drained kidney beans
1 can tomato soup (or 2, depending again on your dish), don't add the water
1/2 lb to 1 lb of Ground Meatless (for the vegetarian version; otherwise use ground beef or turkey)

Use one of those Le Crueset baking dishes or any casserole dish you might have and spray with a little pam, wipe with olive oil, whatever, to grease it a bit.

Preheat oven to 350deg F.

Slice the onion and place it in the bottom of the baking dish. For true Shipwrecked style the onion should be in half-moon type slices, not diced!

Slice the potatoes and put them on top of the onion, then place the kidney beans on top of the potatoes. Throw the Ground Meatless on top of that, then pour a can (or two depending on size of dish) of tomato soup on top of that, sort of haphadardly.

Bake for 1-2 hrs, covered, at 350deg.F! Fun, 1970s style layered dish! Yum!!

Hot Rosemary Apple Yogurt Parfaits

2008-03-04T18:31:00.000-08:00

I haven't taken photos of my recipes yet, so this cup of coffee and cookie will have to do :)

I created this recipe several years ago, and wrote in goofy little descriptions like "cut apple into eyeball size pieces", and "add a pile of sesame seeds"! I'll put in the 'normal' version here :)

This is a warm apple dessert, with still-crunchy apples, lovely melty bananas, crunchy seeds, layered with yogurt (the yogurt starts off cool but warms up a little in the layers). It's very herby, and you can cut that down if you're not a huge fan of rosemary. And some of the ingredients that I use can be left out or substituted with whatever you prefer - pears, ice cream, thyme, etc.! But here is my version...

dried rosemary, crushed a little (with your fingers or a mortar and pestle), I use 2 TBSP
1 apple, cubed
1 banana, sliced
sesame seeds (I use about 1 TBSP)
pine nuts (maybe 1 - 2 TBSP), toasted (I do this in a dry pan, then use the pan)
cinnamon
nutmeg (freshly grated!)
honey
1 tsp butter, 1 tsp olive oil
plain yogurt for layers

Melt butter (with oil) in a pan with the rosemary and sesame seeds. When heated and popping a little, add the apple. Sprinkle with cinnamon, pour honey over to taste (about 1 tbsp or less). When apples are hot (still crunchy!), spoon them out into 2 parfait cups. Replace with banana slices in the pan. These will cook in the apple juices and look very nice when coated with leftover sesame seeds!

In fact, if you'd like to change it up a bit for presentation, leave the sesame seeds out until you're done with the apples, then put in the seeds and toast them in the leftover butter/oil, and then add the bananas which will be nicely coated with the seeds.

Spoon some yogurt on the apples, then add the bananas once heated through. Put a dollop of yougurt on top of the bananas, then the rest of the cooking juices and top with pine nuts!

Serves 2, and is quite tasty and healthy! You can leave out the honey for even less sugar. Sometimes I add some rose water to the yogurt - stirring it in - and sometimes some cardamom for a bit of flavor.

Low Fat, No-Refined-Sugar Oatmeal Raisin Cookies Recipe

2008-03-03T15:10:00.000-08:00

***This Week: 15% Off All Print Sizes (excluding mats) in my Etsy shop; see main blog page for details! (Coupon Code "BLOG")

ara133photography.blogspot.com

I love to try to find healthier (or at least less guilt-inducing) ways to make baked goods! Baking really makes me happy, and eating the results is even better! The recipes I have made up are all very easy, quick, and just as good as the original (I think)! I rarely measure, but I tried to note down the typical amounts of ingredients that I use. Here is one for Oatmeal Cookies that has very little fat and no refined sugar. If you under-bake them just slightly, they'll be even more moist and delicious!

Cream together:
2 Tbsp butter
almost 1 C apple butter (the kind without sugar added) (apple sauce would be ok too)
about 1/2 C honey up to 3/4 C
1/4 C plain yogurt (this is to make up for the egg yolk and some of the butter)
1 tsp vanilla

Taste, if sweet enough, add 1 egg white. If not, add honey and/or molasses until sweet, then add egg white.

Stir in 3/4 C wheat flour, 3/4 C white flour (could add wheat germ, etc here), then 1 tsp baking soda, 1 tsp salt. Mix well, should be the consistency of very thick batter. Will not be as thick as chocolate chip cookie dough, for example. Add about 2 C of oats (I use old fashioned, NOT quick cooking - better texture), stir. The batter should appear as oats held together by batter, not oats floating in a sea of batter. 2 C should do it. Add a few handfuls of raisins (to your liking!).

Drop in large spoonfuls (spoonsful?) portions onto a silicone baking mat and bake at 375deg F for about 15 minutes, or until top is set and middle looks cooked (you'll have to sacrifice one for this!). If you let them brown they may taste dry when cool.

This makes around a dozen or more, depending on the size cookie you make! They're very hearty and make a wonderful snack when you're desperately craving sweets!

Featured Etsy Seller: alwaysartistic

2008-01-26T09:58:00.000-08:00

Today I'm featuring another Etsy Seller, alwaysartistic!
Here is one of here is one of her greeting cards, which is for sale on etsy! (alwaysartistic):

Pam has beautiful scenery photos, flowers,and more! I just adore her photos of her bird, Jessie James! These are available on Etsy as well.

Here is the website for Jessie, the adorable and colorful sun conure:
Jessie James

Check it out, there are super cute videos, stories, friends and more!!

New Photography Note Cards in my Etsy shop!

2008-01-23T20:31:00.000-08:00

I've finally added some note cards to my etsy shop!! Four so far, but I'll be adding the squirrel photos and others soon.

These were fun to make, I love seeing the photos almost 'matted' by the white frame of the cards!

It's a Crayola World

2008-01-14T16:08:00.000-08:00

It's a Crayola World: Etsy Photography Treasury

I snagged my first treasury on Etsy today! It is called It's a Crayola World, and features bright, bold, colorful photos from some truly amazing and talented photographers! Please check it out, and while you're there, visit their shops for more fabulous work!! :)

In an amazing show of restraint (seeing how much I love pictures), I'm not pasting any into my blog entry!

It's a Crayola World: Etsy Photography Treasury

I'm in an Etsy Treasury, Hooray!!

2008-01-13T16:24:00.000-08:00

Hooray, I'm in my first Etsy Treasury!!! Thanks to (HandmadebyHalyssa Please check it out! :)
Etsy Photo Lab

Here is a Promotion for a very nice Etsy artist with lots of fabulous items!
Check out the shop of ThreeFrenchHens!
ThreeFrenchHens

She offers many different beautiful items, including lovely quilts and gorgeous colorful fabric purses and pouches!

My Messy Evening

2008-01-10T20:11:00.001-08:00

HAPPY THURSDAY!! I hope you're all having a great day/evening! And all set for Friday :)

This evening I set up my living room into a mini-studio and started slicing, peeling and washing various fruits and veggies! I made an approximation of a latte, grabbed a bunch of cookies, pink candies and those sugar-free pink wafer cookies (tried one, not half bad-tasting!!) from the store, set up some sheets, reflectors, and made my special "fruit gloss" (secret recipe)... all the while trying to keep my cats out of the chaos!

I used my Crate and Barrel cappucchino set (fab wedding gift!) and a heart plate I found at TJ Maxx a few years ago as backdrops. I had a lot of fun setting up these shots. The cats had a lot of fun "helping".

Check out my flickr site for more pics, or etsy for purchasing prints of my photos! :)

Desert Island - What Painting Would You Take?

2008-01-09T11:21:00.000-08:00

First, I want to say that the photo above is of my own painting of Rousseau's "Sleeping Gypsy" - the amazing (and obviously so much better!!) original can be seen here: http://www.abcgallery.com/R/rousseau/rousseau2.html
It's huge and takes up a lot of my wall!

I was watching The Office last night (not on tv) and saw The Fire episode, where the employees gather around in the parking lot and discuss various fun topics while waiting for a fire to be investigated... one of the topics was Desert Island.

So - here's one: if you were stranded on a desert island, what painting would you take with you? I would take Henri Rousseau's "Sleeping Gypsy"... in fact I like it so much I painted it 2 yrs ago (above photo)! It's not all that much like the original, but I can't afford a nice print of the original painting!

For all you Etsyians, is there an Etsy painting you would take? I would take this one:

http://www.etsy.com/view_listing.php?listing_id=8522236
Lost In The Woods - Original Acrylic Triptych Painting
by aussiepatches
That piece just really speaks to me! What would you take?

The Cat in the Hat

2008-01-08T14:30:00.000-08:00

My Cat in the Hat. Well, it's not exactly a hat - it's one of those catnip-containing furry toys that he pulled the catnip baggie out of... so now it is flat. And it sits on his head perfectly! I've read that part of intelligence testing for dogs includes setting something on their head and seeing how long it takes them to remove it. that doesn't bode well for my little boy cat here, because he left it on for over 20 minutes! He actually fell asleep with it on, so I started to feel guilty and took it off him. I still think he's pretty smart however, as he knows many words and how to do several tricks (sit, down, give-me-your-paw). He just likes to wear furry little hats!

Remember the Snow?

2008-01-07T14:22:00.001-08:00

I took this photo through my window when there was still snow here... today it was in the low 60 degrees F! I find this utterly depressing - January is a time for SNOW here!! This morning I actually saw two robins.

My cats had a great time watching this cardinal. I'm just starting to watch bird behavior, and I noticed that the female and male cardinals never eat at my feeder together! One always stays in the tree, apparently to watch for danger? They are so pretty!

Little Camille's Little Friend, Sammy

2008-01-07T08:46:00.001-08:00

Other than birds, Camille loves to visit with Sammy, through the glass!! He (she?) visits almost daily, and stares in at my cats. They, in turn, chatter and stare back! Sometimes Sammy will actually lean up against the glass with one front paw to get a better look!

Little Camille

2008-01-07T08:22:00.000-08:00

This is my cute little cat, Camille! She was grooming in front of the window. Her hobbies include bird-watching, chasing her tail (she STILL finds her tail to be a great source of amusement!), hopping around on the bed, napping, being read to (she loves the entire Bunnicula series - maybe she has a crush on Chester?), snacking, and jumping really high in the air for toys. Her favorite tv show is America's Funniest Animals. She doesn't enjoy people food but adores batting mushrooms (baby bellos mostly) around the kitchen floor.

Phidippus audax from this summer

2008-01-06T18:24:00.000-08:00

Clive the Jumping Spider

Here's the adorable little Phidippus audax that I found on my car this summer! I saw him climbing around on my windshield while driving home one day and couldn't let him get hurt falling off into the road, so I pulled over and grabbed an empty water bottle from the car (yes, I have several, unfortunately), ran out and got him to climb inside the bottle. I brought him home and let him go on my plant-filled porch. He was nice enough to wait to hide until after I got my camera! He posed for several minutes, and then took off and made a home in one of my porch plants. I named him Clive. He stayed all summer - i saw him every once in a while, scooting around in the plants. What a cutie!!

Little Red Blip

2008-01-03T13:43:00.001-08:00

Here's my latest microscopy photo, Blip. I looked at a bunch of plant parts under the scope last night, and this pic is my favorite. Kind of looks like a pink sea with a little red critter swimming around!

My microscope was a little cranky yesterday, I had some difficulty removing the eyepiece adapter to arrange my camera onto the eyepiece... hopefully the scope mechanics and light keep on working because I think it's so old the parts are irreplaceable!

There is a tiny flurry of snow here right now, and my cats are enjoying chasing the tiny white 'birds' in the window!

Thursday... Blog Day 1

2008-01-03T12:23:00.000-08:00

Happy Thursday! My cats are throwing litter out of their cat boxes right now, and I am sitting here trying to figure out how to get a Blog going!