Photo Friday - Funny Sign!

Friday, August 28, 2009

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Photo Friday is a collection of my own personal favorite photos.

On a recent weekend visit to the beach, I saw this cute little salon. And the reason I just had to take a photo is because of the sign! Can you see it?

Well here is a closeup for ya! Lol! Isn't that funny? I love it!
Happy Friday everyone! Enjoy your weekend!
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Photo Friday - Yum Nemo Soup!

Friday, August 21, 2009

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Photo Friday is a collection of my own personal favorite photos.

One for each of us! :)
Just kidding! This is just Nemo's temporary home and fresh water while "Daddy" cleans his bowl out.
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Fig Jam

Saturday, August 15, 2009

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Just wanted to share our little fig story with you. You see that tree below? That is where this story begins.
When we moved into our home a few years back we got this huge fig tree. It is in our back yard and is probably 30 feet/about 3 stories tall. Well I was never really familiar with figs and sure they tasted good but I never really ate them.

The kids would step all over the fallen ones and track a mess all over the place. I hated this! What a mess! I did however Love Love Love the awesome shade it provided. I thought if only there was a way to make the tree stop growing it's fruit. Because believe me it produces some fruit. I'm talking hundreds of figs! I posted this question on a fig forum and boy was that dumb! Like gardening suicide! I got tons of replies. Mainly by people that were so mad that I could even think of such a thing. They suggested that I might as well just cut it down! No Way! I love the shade and trees I just hate the mess!

I decided I would just put up with the summer long mess. With each passing year I am getting used to the mess and the kids have learned to avoid the fallen figs. I am not quite bothered by the mess anymore! What bothers me now is the fact that this tree makes tons of figs and we do nothing with them. Hardly anyone eats them. They just drop and that is that! This is the first year that 2 people actually took a bag of them home.

I thought if this tree makes so much fruit I need to do something with it. So I got online, found a recipe for fig jam and then I saw another blog post that led me to the same recipe. I thought I must try. Here is the end result below. Isn't the color beautiful? And it is very tasty! The whole family loves it! So now I will decorate the jars and these are gonna be Christmas gifts. I know it's a bit early for Christmas but the figs are ripe now, so I couldn't wait til then to make it! Besides this jam will last up to 18 months if unopened. And I am going to do this every year because I do not want the figs to go to waste.

Here are some photos of the process.
Whole Figs

Cut Figs
Cooking the fig jam.

Fig jam just about cooked. It will then be poured into the jars.


All done!
Ready to eat!

Also see the wedding favor made from the jam here.
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DIY - Pretty Cork Board on a budget!

Tuesday, August 4, 2009

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I picked up this old framed picture at a local thrift store for 4 bucks! The picture itself had a hole in it and there was no glass. But that was fine because I was only interested in the frame. Next I found the cork board at a church rummage sale for only $3. Both the frame and the cork board were in excellent condition!

I took the picture out, cleaned the frame with a damp cloth. Next I added a fresh coat of white spray paint. Used the picture that I had removed as a template to cut the cork down to size. A box cutter razor blade worked perfectly! And placed the cork board inside the frame. I didn't like the stark white look of the newly painted frame so......

.......I got out the sand paper and scuffed it up!

Isn't it pretty! I just can't stop looking at it here in my office! And it is fairly large at about 32 x 26 inches. And very practical! I still have enough cork board to make another! Yay!!!
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