spring fever

 we got new mugs! pretty huh? on sale too of course.....
we got them at pier one and we got two of the floral ones ......and four of the striped ones...i think we need to go back for two more floral ........
they are soooooooooooooo spring like
i was thrilled as we needed new mugs and i just love the colors.... then when we got home, we had to order more firewood.... will real spring ever arrive?

meanwhile i am plugging away with the copyright work. i've decided to split the files into their respective series, and then make each of those series a zip file to upload.
after this i am hoping to do copyright quarterly, and i am hoping to do at least 40 images at a time

so i am working on that.. it's starting to get a bit easier.
i am making the files slightly larger then thumbnails
and i am embedding information into the digital signatures of each image

and also today i am making approximately 4.5 pounds of cranberry orange sauce.
some i'm using for a pork loin, the rest is for table use.
i've got another bunch of pounds of berries in the freezer
along with parakeet seed we got today

i am also drinking a cup of tea in one of our new striped mugs. i like the mug, i think the handle is a bit light weight..... but then again maybe not
i do like it .......i think it's a 16oz mug
i'll measure it later
the floral ones made me want to replace our every day dishes....... we're still talking about that
i can't justify it as we still have ok dishes..... corelle
and these mugs are stonewear..........
we'll continue to think about it

well that is my current news..... oh and it snowed a bit today
ha.........summer will never ever come or so it feels like it now

how about by you?

GOOD morning! how was your holiday?

i hope everyone had a wonderful day.
we had a very quiet day.
we won't discuss HOW stuffing ended up on my head......
(except to say it was my own stupidity--)
we have hot water again so i was able to take a shower....YEAH!!
i really didn't want to walk around smelling like sage and turkey, (cause no matter how hard you try a sponge bath doesn't really do it as i have discovered) i had visions of every stray carnivore in 15 miles following me around.

i will admit to being lazy about our meal prior to yesterday. we'd had mashed potatoes earlier in the week so we had saved them for yesterday. we roasted sweet potatoes instead of that casserole with the marshmallows and i threw the cranberries in a pot to make sauce as i was letting the turkey rest.

here is a very fast way of making home made cranberry sauce.
i don't really measure things so i am going to give you an approximation

1 bag of fresh cranberries, usually about 12-16 oz
1 cup sugar
1 cup apple cider, or apple juice, OR orange juice
1 whole organic orange or tangerine (you're going to zest the colored part of the peel into this
3 spokes off a star anise

zest the citrus fruit into the pan, and if you didn't use orange juice as the liquid, then squeeze the juice out of the citrus fruit into the pan.
then dump all the rest into a sauce pan and bring it to a boil, stirring occasionally.....i gently boil it until things sort start to pop and the liquid is nice a red.
it will start coating the spoon....
that's it .....it is pretty much done. fish out the star anise and toss that into the compost.
chill it, and there you have it
if you want to can it, i put it in either the small (see the picture-i even made it sorta pretty for you all) 4oz jars or the 8oz jelly jars.
i use a boiling water bath canner and it's 10 minutes time.

now you can also at that point chop some apple into it
and or add some chopped nuts
one of my friends chops bananas into his.
this is fun so experiment a bit.

i was snacking on this sauce last night long after supper.
a fast note on this, i put it in the small 4oz canning jars for serving, cause it looked so cute in there, and it was just about the right amount per person (if you love cran sauce like i do)

ok, now in my painting news, i am still working on photographing my work, having discovered that thought i THOUGHT i was doing the custom white balance correctly, it turns out i wasn't! (remember the polar bear painting from the other day where i showed you what a difference a good crop makes?)
so since i discovered that youtube video on my camera's white balance i realized i needed to reshoot almost all the paintings again.
guess what i am doing today? and tomorrow most likely, and well......i guess every day until i get them all done.
i am working hard on getting them ready to offer the prints in the etsy store i in the middle of working on.
i've also started writing the stories behind how each series started, and what i was going through while painting them, which will go on the listings and also be printed and enclosed with the digital prints.
i am also beginning to plan a kickstarter for valentines day or spring/easter
so if anyone wants to give me some feedback on what they would like to see my images on....... that will become part of the set up. and yes i will blog about it
i personally would LOVE to offer garden flags, i don't know why i want to see my work on them so much, maybe because i have a few and really do like them.
i will be submitting to toland flag in a few weeks hoping to become one of their artists, but i am also going to inquire about having them do a run of a custom flag for me to maybe offer on etsy.

i will tell you folks, any imput any one of you may have for me would be invaluable.
so either post in comment or email me from the 'email me' button
(actually someone want to email me from that email button to make sure it works ok? i tweeted it a bit)

now december of 2014 marks the 10 year anniversary of this blog. yes it's true, i been blowing hot air for ten whole years on this blog! amazing huh?
i am thinking i need to celebrate, so i am planning on having a giveaway.... i am not sure what yet, or how to do it but i'm open to suggestions

so now, i am going to finish this cup of coffee, and get started on my list of chores
i hope everyone has a wonderful start to the holiday season

edited to add, since the inception of this blog, it's been a way to talk to my online friends over a cup of coffee, normally i post either after supper (and publish that in the morning) or in the morning when i drink my coffee. just so you all know.....for the most part it is just us over coffee!
someone pass the bagels now?