Two Things

Number 1

Man, I love my new OTT Lite!!




I happened to stumble across the deal of the century at joann.com, where this usually $79.99 lamp was on clearance for $19.99. There was also free shipping on orders over $50, and adding this to my cart conveniently saved me $6. Sadly, it's no longer available at JoAnn's (at least not at joann.com), but I was able to find one at Amazon. It's at $35, and there's a couple in black for $39. Still a good deal, if you ask me. The color of the light is wonderful. It sits at about eye level, but the slight shade keeps it from bugging my eyes but it doesn't seem to damped the light's spread. The result is actually being able to see, without straining my eyes or second guessing what colors I'm working with. It's so great not to be casting a shadow on my projects.
YAY for OTT-Lite, and YAY for great sales!!

Number 2

Thanks to the Ott-Lite I was able to actually take pictures of my most recent Circle Journal project. Before I would wait for daylight to get a decent shot, and even then I'd do a fair amount of fussing to get it just right. Granted, these shots aren't bound for Nat'l Geographic, but I took four shots, and I'm sharing three. And I'm not sharing the 4th because I realize there's a misspelling. Oops.





So this CJ has a "Sweet Treats" theme. I have to admit, this one stressed me out a bit. I don't consider myself very handy in the kitchen, and I knew when I heard the theme that I wanted use this recipe, but frankly, this recipe has a failure rate of about 85%. It's "Magic Marshmallow Crescent Puffs", and you bake the marshmallows, which are drenched in melted butter and rolled in cinnamon and sugar, in a crescent rolls, seal it tight and hope that the exploding marshmallow doesn't escape from the roll...and leak out everywhere. It still tastes great, but it's not exactly the kind of thing you want to take a picture of. And even if you did, no one would be inspired to try the recipe. Not pretty.

But the gods were on my side, and they actually came out yummy looking. I'd like to take credit for the photo, but I was in mini-freak-out mode about getting the puffs out of the tins without messing them up, and getting them drizzled "just so"...not that it really mattered, you can barely see it. As luck would have it, I know people who can use a camera and can be paid off with food.





Silhouette. There. You knew it was coming, everything I do has that thing somewhere. The size of this particular albums is TINY. Cute, but tiny. And I found that I needed more real estate, and my solution was to cut the file folder shape from the Sil, which allowed me to squeeze in a second picture (the bowl of marshmallows. i.e. the "before" shot. That one I took.) as well as the big journaling block about my mediocre cooking skillz.

The album is handmade, out of - can you believe it? - brown lunch bags. You decorate one side of the bag, and slide your recipe inside. Originally my recipe was on two cards, and worried about how the two cards would stay together, so I made the pocket. Jury's still out on the pocket. Frankly, I think it's cute, but it adds more bulk than I think this album can take. I ended up backing the two cards to each other. I think I may ditch the pocket...


So that's this month's CJ saga. I hand this off on Saturday and get the next one. (I hope!) I'm really having so much fun with this!