Thing Thursday - SUPRISE Revealed!!

So... almost a year ago, I wrote about a surprise that I was working on. And I'm pretty sure I've dropped snippets since then (but can't re-find them on my blog). AND I CAN TELL YOU NOW!!!

Happy Birthday Gramma!!

From April 2010 to December 2010, I painted portraits of my cousins as children. Thank you to everyone who helped me collect photos of each of us at around 3ish! (you know, that age where you still look really cute, and yet you still look like you?)


It was SUPPOSED to be a present for her anniversary... but I wasn't done. Then it was supposed to be for Christmas... but they weren't all dry (and the frames weren't made...). BUT, I DID make sure that it was done for her Birthday! Which was this past weekend!! So the fam through her a party, and I got to give her these paintings :).  And she loved them :)

Love you Gramma.

-Betsy

Wordless Wednesday

 Not something you see everyday...

Easiest post of the week ;) Linking up with

and her 

-Betsy

Touch Up Tuesday - Dandelion

I'm really enjoying all the little bits of color popping up in the yard!! I liked little curly cues, but it just didn't look right in color. So now it's Black and White :-P. With a little tweaking of the levels (which I can't entirely remember... sorry :-P)

SOOC (Straight Out Of Camera)

Now :-P

Linking up with Paper Heart Camera Today!

 

-Betsy

Monday Monday!

Ya know, I originally was going to call this post series "Money Monday"... but it just didn't sound right to me. And now... whenever I write the title...

I sing it.

ANYWHO, A new week... a new photo. AND a little add-on to my Monday Monday game.
From now on, I'd like you to play WITH me every week! The Monday Monday Picture will be chosen (still via random.org) from your comments! (aka, next week's photo will be from this week's comments). So go browse the website, pick a photo (or 6) and leave a comment with the Gallery/Image #/Title. No limits and it can all go in one comment (on this post). Yes, it's that easy :).

If no one plays with me... I'll pout, and go back to the old way until someone DOES play :(.

So THIS week will hopefully be the last "old way" week...

Gallery                               Image

Yummy Stripes

**Yummy Stripes sale is now over. Check out this week's Monday Monday post to find out what's 10% off now!**

-Betsy

Food Friday - Double Mint

So I've recently started attempting to keep track of what I'm eating. Except I'm also finding at the end of a "good" day, I'll say: I have 300 calories left! COOKIES! :-P... so I might as well share the recipe that's keeping me from NOT eating that extra 300 calories :-P

 I had these mint chocolate chips (from Hershey's) because I thought they were cool (and they were on sale). And they've been sitting in my cabinet for quite some time. So Hubby and I decided we should make chocolate chocolate chip cookies with them... but we're BOTH fans of CHEWY cookies... so the experiment started. And I will tell you, that it did not have the intended outcome... but WHO CARES?!? these are delicious!

I had a recipe from a friend that kept cookies chewy with pudding... and I'd read that margerine keeps cookies chewy... so I decided to employ both. It MIGHT have been a little extra chewy-ness, because as you can see... the cookies are more... ball shaped, than flat. In fact, while they puffed up a bit, they didn't really CHANGE SHAPE like normal cookies do when you bake them (they get all melt-y usually, right?!). These don't really spread, which is actually kind of nice, because you can fit a TON onto your cookie sheet this way :) And they ARE delicious!

So here's my recipe: an original something Betsy, lol.


Preheat oven to 350* and get 2 bowls and 2 cookie sheets

Mix in one bowl:
2 1/4 cup flour
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 cup cocoa
1 3.4 oz instant chocolate pudding powder

Mix in second bowl:
1 stick softened butter
1 stick softened margarine
cream butters, and then mix in
3/4 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup white sugar
then mix in
2 large eggs
1 tbsp vanilla

Add dry ingredients until well mixed, then add
a whole bag of mint chips :-D (You COULD use regular chips I GUESS)

Then using one of those nifty cookie scoops that's like a mini ice cream scoop, put dough on un-greased cookie sheet and cook for 10-12 minutes. Less is definitely more here... but more is still yummy:)

Enjoy!! (Warm or cool, or a week old. All still delicious.)


-Betsy

Thing Thursday - Spidey!

You may remember me talking about The Spidey Project before... in random posts like this one about virtual shopping carts and this one about knitting. And more specifically in this one about... The Spidey Project. Well, they put their show on as scheduled on March 14th (not as much can be said for Broadway's version, but hey. Not everyone is as awesome as my friends are...) They got tons of press leading up to it... tickets sold out for both shows that night in one minute (combined) and I did NOT get one :(. HOWEVER, Justin is amazing, and has put up VIDEOS of the show!! It's in 4 parts, totaling a little under 1 hour. They are on you-tube, and let me tell you... it's an amazing show. It's not CATS... or Phantom of the Opera... but it's not supposed to be. It's kind of Avenue Q... but whatever... it's JUSTIN, and it's amazing. The music is unbelievable... the acting is phenominal, and really, Broadway? If you're listening? You really need to check these video's out and hire some of these actors. Especially Jon Roufaeal or Travis Nilan... but I might be biased there :-P.

Part 1:

Part 2:

Part 3:

Part 4:

So take a peek, and tell your friends... they want to get 50,000 views by summer, and I'm SURE they can do it... with a little help from their friendly, neighborhood Spiderman... fans :-P.

-Betsy

Wordless Wednesday - Spring's First Blossoms

Linking up with 

for her 

and Show off your shot

(Here's my words: bumped up saturation a bit and did auto-contrast. Ok, done!)

-Betsy

Touch Up Tuesday - Daffodils!

So I've been staring at this yellow mass that just APPEARED in my yard this week, and hadn't gone over to investigate until the other day... it's Daffodils!  It's too early for Daffodils! Well, apparently not here... so I took some shots, and this is my favorite "Touch Up" one :)

SOOC (Straight Out of Camera)

Edited with Pure Photoshop Action's Summer Color (found them on Facebook!)

 I was amazed how nicely it came out - I'd never used actions before. The only thing I changed from their action was get rid of "Soften" cause I like my photos really crisp :-P

And that's it! Linking up with Paper Heart Camera Today!

-Betsy

Monday Monday!

Well geeze... it's Monday again, isn't it. I bet you thought I forgot! Well, I did a little, and I ALMOST got this post up before the gym... but obviously... that didn't happen. 

Oh well. Lets see what Random.org is going to choose for us this time!!

Gallery                                  Image

And we've got Pine Tips!

The sale buttons for this image have been removed.
Check out the latest "Monday Monday" post for the current sale!


-Betsy

Cake for Two!!

When I made those mushrooms a while back, it was a fabulous kitchen day, and it included cake. Cake by Our Best Bites. I've blogged this recipe before...  in this post.  It's so yummy and there's so little clean up!

I third-ed the recipe to fit PERFECTLY in my extra-large stone coffee cup (oven safe, oh yea.)

And once it was finished (from the toaster oven ;-P), hubby and I realized it needed ice cream. And Special Dark Hershey's syrup.

So about 20 minutes later, we had nice soft peppermint ice cream and chocolaty goodness. Each in our own bowls... cause we're only so good at sharing.

Ice cream: 1/2 pint whipping cream, 1/2 pint 2% milk, 1/3 cup sugar, 1 tsp mint extract mixed together, and then frozen up in our ice cream maker. YUMMMMM!

-Betsy

Thing Thursday - Thrift Find!!

So I saw these shoes, and immediately thought of my blogger/real life friend Jessica. She's on a blogging/vlogging break at the moment (good for her!) but when she IS blogging... she's HYSTERICAL. And a super-duper thrifter. And I think... that she'll be jealous of these :-P

Oh, and so will my sister :-P... now I just need an outfit to wear them with...

P.S. Happy St. Patrick's Day... sorry these aren't green :-P Massive amounts of corned beef to be served this weekend here... no worries :)

-Betsy

Wordless Wednesday

-Betsy

Touch Up Tuesday!

So as I mentioned here and explain here it's time for Touch Up Tuesday! This past weekend I got to go to my cuz's hockey game!!  I had a great time with my schnazzy new Nikon D7000 and it's super-high ISO settings, and got a ton of cool shots... but this one, although great out of the camera, begged to be "messed with". It was a simple "messed with" - generally I use Picassa, except when I have to use Photoshop. This was done entirely in Picassa.

Step 1: I'm feeling Lucky fix.
Step 2: Focal Black and white - I sharpened it all the way, but you can't really tell because there wasn't much color in the areas around the boys anyway.

Simple, and I like it!

I'm linking up with Paper Heart Camera today... feel free to join me!

-Betsy

Monday Monday!

It's my official first Monday Monday today! Lets hope all my doo-dads and gadgets work!

SO, random.org is going to help me this morning by picking (in 2 rounds) what photo goes up here with a special-deal button! And we have...

Gallery                                Image

Image 8-3... Train Tracks! From the Pathways Gallery

So if my gizmo's work, you should be able to order discounted items from these buttons to a shopping cart... which means there is no limit to the quantity/type!  You can also shop from the full-priced versions on the website www.somethingbetsy.com to the same shopping cart (only pay shipping once!). So shop away, or make sure to check back next Monday for a different random sale!

**Sale Over :(. Buttons Removed 3-21-11** 

Check out this week's Monday Monday for the current weekly sale!

The buttons will  be were removed from this post when the next Monday Monday post comes came out (next  this Monday silly!). Only purchases made from THESE buttons will have the discount. Purchases from www.somethingbetsy.com will be full price, even if this image is selected.Oh, and you have to be ON the blog to click the button... sorry Reader readers :-P.


-Betsy

Food Friday's

So as I mentioned in yesterday's post, I've given up being lazy for lent. But not all kinds of lazy... because there is one particular form of lazy I'm very proud of. It's called "I don't feel like going to the store, so instead... I'll make it from scratch" lazy. Google is a MAJOR contributor to making this kind of lazy possible, and Google... yesterday? You ROCKED.

I had planned on making my old neighbor Summer's super easy Poppy Seed Chicken since I had some munchin variety family coming in for dinner after a long day of driving (it's great, cause you can make it ahead, and then finish it off in the oven after innumerable traffic delays).

There was only one problem. I didn't have any condensed cream of chicken soup. Whoops. SO, with chicken already boiling on the stove... I Googled "Cream of Chicken Soup" and found... THIS RECIPE! It's not JUST cream of chicken soup... it's CONDENSED cream of chicken soup! (thank you Tammie!) AND, it only took 10 minutes. AND, I had *almost* all the ingredients. I WAS missing poultry seasoning, but I Googled and found this, which I modified anyway. Needless to say, the soup was super easy to make, tasted good, has 0% fat (good, cause this dish originally had a bit of un-goodness in it) and was ready before the chicken was done. INCLUDING Googling time.

By now, you're probably thinking "ok Betsy, where's the recipe and/or pictures of this thing? remember? Picture-a-post at least? You promised." Ok, ok. This dish isn't very... attractive, Believe me, I've tried... but it IS yummy.

I made a few modifications this time. Obviously, the soup was from scratch, but I used 1 stick of margerine instead of the 1.5 sticks of butter (which I couldn't bear to use last time either). As for the soup, there were modifications there too... I halved it, since this is just about the only thing I use cream of chicken soup for... and you need a crowd for this recipe. So... my version WAS

3/4 cup water
1 boullion cube
light 1/4 tsp onion powder
light 1/4 tsp garlic powder
1/8 tsp seasoned salt
1/8 tsp parsley
1/8 tsp thyme
1/8 tsp majoram
Pinch of pepper
pinch of cloves
a couple cranks of the salt mill
3/4 cup milk (divided)
6 tbsp flour

all the goodness except 1/2 the milk and the flour went into a pot to boil, the remaining milk and flour were mixed together (wow was it thick!) some soup was added to temper, it was added BACK into the remaining soup, and mixed till thick (quickly). Then I strained it into the pan of chicken (cause I knew there were flour lumps), added another sprinkle of parsley, thyme, marjoram, garlic, onion & seasoned salt before mixing it all up with the chicken and topping with the crumb mixture.

Mmmmm Mmmmm good.  I might not make this with the CAN anymore!

-Betsy

Thing Thursday

So I've decided to stop being lazy for Lent. This is including things like: actually doing some sort of workout every day... flossing my teeth before bed every night... actually completing the things on my "to-do" list instead of pushing them off... and also, because I've decided it will be fun... blogging every day. There's all this STUFF I want to share, and all this FUN I'm beginning to find as I network through the internets...  SO, I've got themes for each day of the week to help me post. At least through Lent. Which started yesterday. Which is when I decided to do this :-P.

SO, HERE you will find a list of what's happening on each day here at Something Betsy. I'll probably just link there every day for the newbies who find the blog to see what my (fairly lax) rules are. And if anyone wants to join me in any of these fun games... feel free! There is one linky I'm going to enter each week, and for the others, feel free to post in the comments a link back to your blog on whatever THING or recipe, or sale or what-have-you that YOU'RE posting about!


Today, is my first Thing Thursday. So I'm sharing the yoga sock that inspired Thurdsay's being about THINGS. (Aka, random posts).

I'm knitting these myself... 

This might take a while.

-Betsy

Wordless Wednesdays/Touch-Up Tuesdays... delayed :-P

I've seen on a couple blogs I've begun stalking this "Wordless Wednesdays" comment. I like it. I've also seen "Touch Up Tuesdays"  from and then, she {snapped}... and decided I should try and get in on both. Wordless Wednesdays/Touch-Up-Tuesdays. But we all know how bad I am at NOT talking/typing... so I'll do my BEST to keep it short!

Straight Out Of Camera (SOOC)

Touched Up

Removed Color Cast, fixed up highlights, made multiple layers, converted one to B&W Newspaper, then used the eraser tool at 100% to "find" the color on strawberries, and 50% on the peanut butter and then saturation brush on the strawberry tips to make them pop. Ta da! (AND it was yummy!)

-Betsy

Grilled Mushrooms

The other day I decided we needed to eat the mushrooms in the fridge... and hubby LOVES them with red wine vinegar, sauteed... but I don't. I HATE Red Wine Vinegar. Every time I make him mushrooms and red wine vinegar, he's reminded a FEW times of how much this proves I love him. Even IF I'm making myself plain mushrooms as well, and this means that he has TWO pots to clean instead of just one. Don't be fooled hubby... it's still proof of love.

SO, I figured that instead of proving my love and dirtying two pots and having to smell that nasty vinegar (sorry to all those who love it, I SO don't), I'd make GRILLED mushrooms. Have people ever made grilled mushrooms before? Probably... but I'm going to pretend they haven't and I'm a major trend setter.

 I washed them off, broke off the stems, doused them with a little bit of olive oil, sprinkled them with garlic powder, onion powder, thyme and a splash of balsamic vinegar (things I THOUGHT I'd remembered from an old stuffed mushrooms recipe... but in cabinet form, and the only vinegar I'll eat). Then off to the grill they went with the pork chops. They got put on the hot part of the grill, crown up, pork chops on the medium portion, 4 minutes later everything got flipped over (crown down so juices would collect inside), another 4 minutes and dinner was ready! (I had cooked rice already). I tossed them in a bowl again and all that veggie juice covered them, and it was DELICIOUS.

-Betsy

Tea-pot sweater :-D

So the other day, I shared with you my (failed) attempt to knit a tea-cozy.  It ended up looking more like a hospital gown... not quite fitting all the way around, and a little short. It also had this odd... stem... on top. SO, I ripped it out and tried again :)

Isn't this much cuter!!

The project was done flat (not in the round) as an adaptation from this.  I learned to do the prime rib knit from the lovely "Meg" who wrote the patterns, but I didn't follow her tea cozy pattern for this project.

Since my tea pot had straight sides, I just knit in prime rib in enough stitches to make it around the pot (45) until it reached the top portion of the where the spout meets the pot. I bound off 3 stitches in the middle (21-23), and on the way back, used the loop cast on method to put them back on the needle. Then I continued with the prime rib stitch until I reached the height up to the lid. There, I switched to 3 rows of regular rib, then a few rows of knit two together (k2tog). I made sure the "hole" that was left would fit over the lid's knob, and left a nice long tail to stitch the side up. The trick there is to not get too excited and only sew to where the handle should be, then down one side of the edging until the bottom of the handle, before sewing the bottom together, and Ta-Da! It took 2 sittings worth of knitting or so, and my teapot now has a cute little sweater!

-Betsy

Possibly More Impressive...

Only one more photo to fix-up!  Another one bites the dust!! I had saved this one for later in the process because of BIG spot in the middle.

Original!

Fixed up!!

 Anyone out there with restoration stories?  

This one had a lot of copy, paste, flip layer horizontal and eraser work.

-Betsy

Editing

Now, I'm new to this restoration thing, but this is what I've been working on today... and I think I did a pretty good job :)

Before

 

 ( Not really seen: spiderwebs of blue lines caused by cracks in the emulsion.)

After

How'd I do it? I'm not even sure of all the steps anymore, but a LOT of healing brush, clone tool, burn tool, levels adjustment, desaturation of spots, sharpen brush, paint brush, decreased opacity settings...  And a few hours.

 I'm rather happy of how well this 16 year old slide came out!

-Betsy