and I'm not ready! I worked again today, so nothing accomplished on the home front. I did buy the last present I needed last night. My daughter's father-in-law died Saturday night, so we will be going to the wake tomorrow. My hubby did put the tree together this morning, but I don't know how he is going to get it up the stairs. I'm going to have to move some more stuff out of the dining room so we have a place to put it.
I'm going to post the photos from Saturday, even if the quality isn't what I had hoped it would be. I may try editing them again to see if I can fix them. Here goes!
Well, this is a bit better. I had changed it to black and white, and really like the effect, but it was too fuzzy. I lowered the saturation and brightness on this one for a similar effect. It is still fuzzy instead of crisp, but not as bad as it was in black and white.
Well, you can sort of get an idea. Wish I could show you a good shot. I sent a "help" message to Vox, but haven't heard anything back. I am really disappointed. I'll try to find something to take a picture of tomorrow and see what happens.
We went to JC today for our Christmas Eve granddaughter. We always celebrate her birthday on the weekend before Christmas so she has her own special day. I didn't get any good pictures of the birthday girl, but I did get some pretty good ones of some of the others grandkids. It was a cloudy day so I wasn't sure what I would end up with. I took my Elph so I could see how it handled different lighting conditions in the Auto setting.
I have tried inserting the photos a dozen different ways, but the quality is so bad that I give up. The originals on my computer look good, but no matter what I do, they are all fuzzy when I get them loaded to my blog. I'm going to have to figure out what is going on. I got a couple of really good ones that I wanted to share.
I wanted to get some snow shots this morning, but our departure time got moved up so I had to hurry to get ready in time. The wind had blown the snow off of all the small branches, so it wasn't as pretty as I was hoping it would be. Sounds like some of you are getting a lot of snow. I haven't looked at our forecast for this week.
Do you recognize this poinsettia? It is the same photo that I used yesterday with a bit of editing. Sorry for the fuzziness. Not enough pixels. Anyway, I wanted to do something in black and white to introduce a web site that my daughter told me about. If you want to see some really good black and white, go to www.thepioneerwoman.com/photography. I didn't take time to check out the entire site, but there are some very nice portraits.
We were busy today at work. We had a lot of orders for tomorrow. I went in today, because I want to take tomorrow off. Most of the time, when we can, we make the cakes for orders the day before they are due, so that it someone calls in, etc. the orders for the next day are already taken care of. I left an hour early, but we had most of the orders finished. The last one I did turned out very nice, but I didn't have my camera with me. They wanted yellow and peach roses, and I tipped each bag with white icing to put a thin white edge on each flower. It really looked dramatic on the peach ones.
I'm really glad I did leave early, because it was snowing pretty good when I walked out the door. A heavy wet snow that stuck to everything. By the time I got close to home, the roads were completely covered in places. No TV service by the time I walked in the door. Too much snow on the receiver, but I didn't go back out to brush it off. I didn't want to watch TV anyway!
Hmmm. I decided to try one more shot of the poinsettia, this time with basically no editing, just converting to black and white. I it still very fuzzy, while the original in my file it very sharp. What's going on? Is anyone else having this problem? Do I need to reformat with more pixels, even though it will take longer to upload? What pixel size do you use?
I'm going to go to bed so I can get up early in the morning and go out to take pictures. I could tell already tonight that it was sticking to all the branches. Can't wait to see that it looks like tomorrow!
Here's my poinsettia from Wal-Mart. It seems to like this sunny window location. It only gets this full sun treatment for a short period of time each morning. And it is proof that we had a mostly sunny day today, and a high temperature of about 50. I should have taken my camera and gone outside, but I was busy with indoor stuff today. Cooking, cleaning, laundry, bills, wrapping, mailing, etc. I even got my dental insurance issues resolved and made a dentist appointment. Yeah! If you walked in the door, you might wonder if I had accomplished anything, but I feel pretty good. I even cleared most of the clutter off my desk.
I am supposed to be off again tomorrow, but I am going in so I can take off on Saturday. My hubby continues to eat well. I cooked a lot of different things today: blueberry applesauce, brown rice, creamed tuna with peas, cheesecake, mashed cauliflower, cranberry sauce, stuffing, and turkey pot pie. I made extra sauce for the pot pie so it wouldn't be so dry. Then I combined the pot pie, some stuffing, and some leftover cream gravy from last night, and blended it until it looked like baby food. I alway lick off the blender attachment to taste the "meal" my hubby will be eating. It's not that bad. There are some things that I've learned to like better when they are blended than the way I used to make them. I rarely have issues with heartburn or indigestion anymore, so perhaps this soft food diet is a good thing for me, too.
I did get started wrapping presents today. I finally got the one wrapped that has to be sent to Texas, but with priority shipping, they should get it in about 3 days. Priority mail postage printed on the computer was cheaper than parcel post from the post office.
Still no decorations or tree. And no cards yet either. I need to do the cards first. Tomorrow!
This is a more aggressively edited version of one of the Christmas cactus pictures from last week. Somehow, they don't look the same here as they do in my photo editing program. Is it because I have to reduce the number of pixels to get it to upload quickly? Nothing really happens quickly with dial-up, but you know what I mean!
Today was a better day at work. I wasn't by myself, and I didn't have a dozen or so orders to do. I did do a couple of the big signature cakes for orders for tomorrow. It isn't that they are so hard as much as it is that they take so much more time. It isn't at all like the cake constructions they do on the TV shows, but they do require a bit of cutting and stacking together. Most of our business is still birthday cakes. We have done a few cakes for Christmas parties.
I don't have to work tomorrow. Yeah! I haven't been home all day in over a week. I have a ton of stuff I need to do tomorrow. Hope I can strike a few things off my list.
We spent most of the day today being happy and relieved by the good news my hubby got at the hospital this morning. They scoped his esophagus again, and gave him a Botox injection. His doctor said things looked cleaner than they ever have in all the time he has been treating him! His soft food diet is working! It will continue to be a challenge to keep meals interesting enough that he doesn't get bored, but he is so glad that he didn't agree to the surgery. The Botox may make things even easier, but we aren't going to expect a big change. I think we can go on for a long time just the way we are. Thank God!
Hubby started calling everyone after we got home because I had picked up my phone and put it in my work bag instead of the bag I was taking today. In the middle of his calling, the phone rang. It was our youngest daughter calling to tell us that her husband's father wasn't expected to live through the night. He hasn't been well for some time now, and has been in a lot of pain. He has been in the hospital or nursing home since July. He and his wife were planning to move out of their home into a retirement community next year. Say a prayer for them.
I thought I had missed this week's Photo Quest. I have been working so much I have lost track of the days. Thanks for reminding me, Maureen! This is a true accidental photograph. I walked into the bathroom and was struck by the light peeking through the back of the door onto my shoes, which I leave all over the house. It is out of focus, but I like it that way. I took it without flash with a slow shutter speed. I like the shake of the bright spots of sunlight.
I should have had this photo for a recent Photo Quest, but I didn't take it until this morning. I like the contrast of light and dark. I'm sure the slow shutter speed accounted for the blurring, but I think it adds to the interest of the shot.
Another cold day today. I wore three shirts, but was cold all day today at work. Our counters are close to the front door, plus most of the store is kept cool enough that you can comfortably leave your coat on while you shop. I bought a sweater/jacket to wear while I work tomorrow. I don't like being cold. I don't mind for a few minutes, but not all day.
We were busy again today. There were three of us, but we still didn't finish all of the orders for tomorrow. Mostly birthday cakes. We have gotten a few holiday cake orders, or orders for birthday cakes with holiday decorations. We are selling a lot of cupcakes with holiday decorations. Last year, I made a lot of cupcakes with poinsettias on them, but this year I haven't had time to make any. Yesterday, we had an order for a cake with spring flowers. That was weird! I made daisies, daffodils, and tulips. It was very pretty, but it looked out of place. This year, we have a dark green icing that they call Winter Green. I used it and a dark red on a couple of cakes for the case this afternoon. I should have taken pictures. I was in a hurry to get things done so I could leave early. My original schedule was for 31 hours. It got bumped up to 40 hours, but they don't want you to ever work more than 40 hours a week. Didn't hurt my feelings to leave early!
I was sure it was Saturday night when I got home tonight. I have been confused all week. Glad I will get to sleep in again in the morning. I stayed up until 12:30 last night so I could finish reading my book. I was reading Echoes by Mauve Binchy. She is one of my favorite authors right now. I need to go back to Amazon and order another one. Maybe I'll wait until after Christmas. I need to get my cards in the mail, and presents wrapped, etc. Plus I'm way behind on my magazines. Not much point in getting them if I'm not going to read them.
My Christmas cactus plants are outdoing themselves this year. The sun was shining this morning, so I sat down on the floor to take some pictures. I thought these turned out pretty good. I should have used a tripod. I couldn't hold the camera steady.
Here's another shot. I'm going to have to try with a tripod the next time! The original is much better. I had to reduce the pixel size so it wouldn't take all day to upload it.
Have all of you seen the photos on the web of "Walmart" people? They are unbelievable! It is hard to believe that people go out in public looking like that. We always have a few who are underdressed, but we have just about as many who are "yesterday" dressed.
This woman is a regular. She must come in every week just after she gets her hair "done". Do they still teach this style at beauty school? She usually has the head scarf, too, to keep it in place, very high and piled on top of her head. We do have a set of regulars who are lost in the 50's. I'll try to get some more photos. Do these ladies exist in every town or just here?
We are being discouraged from making up our own designs for cakes, and encouarged to use the Walmart style book. They do have some nice designs, and it won't hurt us to try to make some of them. This isn't exactly like the book. To me, cake designs are a lot like recipes. You use them for a general outline, but you add your own touch.
I worked by myself again today, so I didn't get a lot done. But we weren't rushed, so it didn't matter. I was going to try to leave an hour early to make sure that I don't work over 40 hours this week. That is greatly discouraged. But I took a last minute order, so I only got out the door about 15 minutes early.
I also had to "remodel" a couple of cakes that didn't get picked up so they could be served at the company Christmas dinner tomorrow. We always joke that the true test of a decorator is if you can take an orphan cake and transform it so it can be reused or put out in the case. Most of the time I can come up with something. We did have to throw one cake away today. Cakes don't sell well on the mark-down rack, and they take up a lot of room.
It was bitterly cold today, but we didn't get very much snow. Some people were talking about slick roads, but I didn't have any trouble.
I am finally finished with my Christmas shopping. I think I spent at least four hours trying to get the last two magazine subscriptions figured out. First I tried to go through the publisher, but they kept telling me my address was wrong, or I hadn't selected a country. I finally gave up and filled out a paper subscription form, only I couldn't find the envelope, and the address was no where on the form. Ugh! Then I tried Amazon. They had both magazines, but since I wanted to send each one to a different child, I had to do the whole process twice! I could enter one alternative address, but not two. If I had wanted to send the same magazine to 7 different kids, I could have done that, but I couldn't send two different magazines to two different children. Mercy! I may have to pick up a few stocking stuffers, but candy or craft supplies will work in that department. I haven't started on my cards, but I don't mind waiting until the last minute to do that. I did check my schedule for that week tonight. I work until 6:00 pm Christmas Eve. I think I may wait until Christmas Day to put up my decorations. I'm going to be home all day, with no company. It will give me something to do.
I warmed up some leftover potato soup and added some shredded cheddar cheese tonight. I also fixed a bunch of fresh broccoli with a cheese sauce. And we had homemade cheesecake that I had fixed yesterday. I ate mine with a bit of cranberry sauce. Yummm! It really hit the spot. The wind is still screaming around the house.
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