Monthly Archives: May 2017

May25

Turn a Photo into Watercolor

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Flower

Isn’t this a lovely picture?  I took a photograph of this iris when I was on a girlfriends’ trip to southern Louisiana.  We went to Avery Island — home of a beautiful garden, a bird sanctuary, and Tabasco.

I’ve been playing around with a new app, and I thought this photograph turned out the best.  The app is called “Waterlogue” ($3.99 in the Apple App Store), and it converts any photo to an assortment of watercolor images.  You can then save your new image to your Camera Roll, and you can even print it yourself or send it to a photo printing site.  It’ll make you look like an artist — exactly what every crapsman hopes for!

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May20

Poem for Expectant Grandma

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Several weeks ago, I hosted a baby shower for the daughter of a dear friend of mine. I was honoring the soon-to-be grandmother, the soon-to-be mother, and Baby Grace. Of course, my big gift was for Mother and Grace, but I couldn’t let Grams go away empty handed.  I attached the label above to a bottle of champagne.  The baby was born in early May, and Mother and Grace are doing fine!

May9

M-m-m-m Mojitos!

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Mojito 2

I planted a variety of mint called “Mojito,” and how could I resist using it for its intended purpose?!  First a hint: Grow this in a pot; as with most mint, it will take over  your garden.  It’s a very pretty plant, but it is exceeding prolific!

Mojito 1

Usually when making a mojito, you muddle the mint with the sugar in a single glass.  That’s great for one-drink-at-a-time drinking, but I was making mine for a dinner party of six.  I wanted a pitcher full, and I didn’t want to have to do such serious muddling.  Instead, my base was a mint simple syrup.  I first boiled 2 cups sugar with 2 cups water, stirring occasionally .  (You could use 2 cups Splenda if you wanted a sugar-free mojito).  Once the water was boiling, I turned it off and put in about 20 mint leaves.  I allowed this to cool completely, and then put 1-1/2 cups of the syrup into a pitcher.  I added 2 cups of light rum and 1-1/2 cups of lime juice.  Yes, I probably should have used freshly-squeezed juice, but I cheated and used Real Lime (and I couldn’t tell the difference).

Once this concoction was stirred, I filled each glass with ice, poured them about 2/3 full of the mint mixture, and then topped each off with ginger ale.  (Sugar-free works here, too.)  Club soda is the traditional topper, but I like the extra flavor from the ginger ale.

Mojito 3

I garnished each drink with a lime wedge and some extra mint.  M-m-m-m!

NOTE:  This post is dedicated to Martha!

May3

Easy and Cheap Table Decor

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Table 4Dan the Man and I were having a couple of great friends over for dinner, and because the weather was so nice, I decided we should eat outside.  We weren’t planning to have a fancy formal table on the patio, but I wanted to dress it up a little.

Table 3

First, a trip to Hobby Lobby.  I bought blue patterned scrapbook paper and bandanas.  The paper served as placemats, and the bandanas were our napkins.

Table 5

For just about $5, I had an easy table setting perfect for the patio.

Table 1

Cheap and easy!