By Stef, on September 30, 2011
By Stef, on September 28, 2011
Pioneer Woman has a photo assignment going this week. She wants us to edit her picture of Charlie…
So, since I am in love with my iPhone Snapseed app, so I decided to use my iPhone to edit the picture. Here is what I came up with… I titled this “Charle D’Grunge”…
The first thing I did was apply the Drama effect and bumped it up to 90%. Then I applied the Grunge effect and bumped it to 100%. The last effect was the Frames.
Did you do the assignment? If so, please share your link.
By Stef, on September 28, 2011
By Stef, on September 27, 2011
Last week I saw a post on Twitter about receiving Nik Software’s Snapseed iPhone App for free (normally $4.99). Nik Software is well known for their photo editing software so I jumped on the free deal.
While on a daily walk with my friend Dude I took this photo using Snapseed… Yeah, I love trees with the beautiful blue skies behind them… This photo is straight out of the camera (except for resizing and adding my copyright)…
While we were walking I fiddled with swipes and swishes… not really seeing what I was doing due to sunlight… but check out these results…
Since we were walking, I am not 100 percent on all the effects, but I think these are all of them… “Drama” was first, then “Grunge” and finally “Organic Frames”.
I just wonder how great the photos will look when I am actually working at the photo editing. 
I think it is my new favorite iPhone photo editing app! (I just wish I had an iPad!)
What is your favorite mobile phone photo editing app?
By Stef, on September 26, 2011
For The Offspring’s birthday I made a Sun Gold Caprese Salad hors d’oeuvre platter. It was such a hit that I didn’t have time to get a picture. I have a bunch of the orange Sun Gold tomatoes from my six plants. When I was making dinner last night I made a plate for the three of us and a small one for Ma and Pa, too.
It’s really simple. Since the little orange Sun Gold tomatoes are “cherry” size, you don’t need a lot of cheese or fresh basil either.
1. Chop Mozzarella Cheese into small-ish cubes.
2. Stick a toothpick through the cheese
3. Stick the toothpick through a small fresh basil leaf
4. Stick the toothpick through a tomato
5. Place loaded toothpick on plate
6. Repeat for as many as you want
7. Combine equal parts Balsamic Vinegar and Extra Virgin Olive Oil in a bottle and shake well
8. Drizzle the vinegar/oil mixture over the top of the tomatoes/basil/cheese and serve
I didn’t add any salt or pepper. The Sun Gold tomatoes have such a great flavor that they don’t need any seasoning.
To get a printer friendly copy of the recipe, go here. (If link doesn’t work it is because the recipe is still under review.)
OK, now I’m hungry for more… too bad we ate them all.
Have you had Caprese Salad before? Did you like it?
By Stef, on September 22, 2011
I stopped by the grocery store last night and was completely surprised by what I saw…
…they were even in separate end caps… They must be worried about a “Civil War” breaking out in the grocery store. LOL! These bags were over $3.75 each. Geeze! Seriously??? Seems kind of spendy for me.
Oh, yeah… then I walked around to pick up a pre-made salad (wasn’t too good BTW)… and saw these… 
These were together in the cooler… I guess no Civil War threat in the Deli.
Seriously??? Why on earth spend the extra money just for chips in school colors and matching bag and mustard in with special labeling.
Abigail, have you seen these down near you? Are you guys such school supporters that you’d pay extra for chips in school colors?
Am I nuts? Guess it’s because I’m not a Beaver or Duck. (for those not from Oregon or don’t know the mascots… Beaver = Oregon State and Duck = University of Oregon)
By Stef, on September 21, 2011
Let me start off by saying that I LOVE my brother B. He’s awesome.
He’s also really really really smart… so smart he has a BS in Math, MS in Statistics and PhD is Statistics … ICK! He’s presented papers around the world … about statistics… ICK! ICK! (oh yeah, his wife … she has a MS in Stats, too! UGH! Their kids are already brilliant and they’re not even out of grade school.
Although I have a BS in Computer Science, I didn’t have to take a gazillion math classes … you know… like a math minor or heaven forbid a math major… let alone someone like B who has his Masters and PhD in that icky stuff.
I just “don’t get math”. Give me a complex computer program to write and I’m good to go (even without an advanced degree I do quite well – surprise even myself sometimes. )
Anyway, for years The Offspring has been taking advanced math classes and well… I SUCK and can’t help her… so I call Uncle B to get help.
Well, this year The Offpspring is taking AP Calculus and getting dual-credit through a university here in town… ICK! Neither she nor I like math. 
She came home today and I was at a loss so… you guessed it… I called B.
Again… B is GREAT! I wouldn’t trade him for the world… but geeze! I feel really stupid when he explains stuff to me… I just don’t get it. Bits of memory start to come back to the surface and then I look at The Offspring’s fancy dancy calculator… and I’m lost… again…
…and feel really stupid.
Do you ever feel that way?
P.S. Love you, B!
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