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Thursday, March 27, 2014

Photographing Children

Photographing children is a fun and sometimes challenging activity. My granddaughters are used to me always having my camera around and when they are in the mood they enjoy posing for me. I like to catch them during their everyday moments, but sometimes it is fun to have them pose for me too. I have found if I take a few photos of them clowning around first, it will loosen them up and I can then get a few more serious photos. Last year I got them playing around on their back deck and then encouraged a more posed photo. Here are the results.

Note: The author may receive a commission from purchases made using links found in this article. “As an Amazon Associate, Ebay (EPN), Esty (Awin), and/or Zazzle Affiliate, I (we) earn from qualifying purchases.”

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Wednesday, March 26, 2014

Spring Brings Opening Day of Major League Baseball

Chicago's Wrigley Field (Image Credit)

The month of March brings the first day of Spring and leads up to the Opening Day of Major League Baseball (4/1/2021). To baseball fans this is what we wait for all winter long. Our feelings for this season are reflected in my favorite baseball quote “There are only two seasons, Winter and Baseball” ~Bill Veeck

As Spring Training comes to an end and the 2021 baseball season begins, we look forward to seeing our favorite players and teams, and reflect back on past favorites. We will miss the ones who have retired (like Mariano Rivera, the marvelous 'closer' on the pitching staff for the Yankees). If you're like me, you find the lives of these men as fascinating and interesting as their baseball careers have been and might wonder what their stories were.

Luckily for us, there are a wealth of baseball books available, written by and about pitchers, position players, managers and sports announcers which put all the excitement of their careers in baseball on printed pages between the covers! I'm reading one right now about 'retired' St. Louis Cardinals manager Tony La Russa. The book (One Last Strike) focuses on just a small section of Tony's career (specifically his final season of 2011 and the magical comeback of a team that refused to give up). Once you get interested in reading about a specific player, you find all sorts of fun 'tidbits' of information. For instance, I bet you didn't know that Tony La Russa became a vegetarian – and why.

As a baseball fan I'm looking for reviews of baseball books you have read and recommend for all us 'fans' who want to learn more about these 'Boys of Summer'. If you write a review, leave me a link in the comments and I may feature it in an upcoming post.

Books such as "The Science of Hitting" by Ted Williams. Did you know that in 1935, Lovell Haskins Peirce, a physics professor at San Diego State University, had Ted in his physics class where the professor gave a lesson on the physics of hitting a baseball? Ted Williams went on to become the last hitter to top a .400 batting average in a season.

The Science of Hitting

Now that Spring Training has ended, let's get ready to Play Ball.

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Tuesday, March 25, 2014

Beetle Mania

Permission via Creative Commons -
Photo by Tuchodi

There's something you should know about me. I'm a locabore (not to be confused with loco or boring). Are you wondering why you've never heard this term before? It's because I just made it up. I do that a lot.

Perhaps you have heard of a locavore—a person dedicated to eating local foods whenever possible. So what in the world is a locabore? It’s a person who makes a commitment to using local beetle kill wood for a wide variety of construction projects. The “loca” is for local and the “bore” is for the beetle activity that leads to a tree’s untimely death. It’s a growing problem in my state (Colorado) and beyond.

I have been reading about green remodeling practices. One of the important things we can do when building or remodeling is to use reclaimed wood. When lumber is harvested nearby, the ecological impact is reduced significantly. There is no need to transport the wood cross-country (which eliminates a much larger carbon footprint).

Because dead trees are already dry and seasoned, there is no need to burn fossil fuels for the kilns that would normally be required to lower the moisture content of freshly cut living trees. And, by using dead trees, we can lower the dependence on harvesting trees that are better left in the forest doing their best to keep our environment healthy.

This weekend, as I was purchasing supplies for a couple of ongoing home renovation projects, I found beetle kill pine boards on sale. That made my choice very easy. When I build with local woods, the advantages go well beyond financial and ecological gain. Things that grow here look good in my home. They are a natural fit. You would expect to see native woods like aspen, pine, and fir inside a house that is surrounded by those kinds of forests. There is a harmony that is both seen and felt.

Even if you live in an urban area, there are always sources of reclaimed timber and other architectural elements. A source to consider is your local Habitat for Humanity Restore. They stock recycled construction materials. Always think “re” first as you aim for greener living and building (reclaimed, recycled, repurposed).

Let's learn how to be good to the place we call home. We only get one chance at this. Unless we want to be dead standing, it's "Do or Di" time.

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Sunday, March 23, 2014

Easter is Coming... Let's Party!

With less than a month to go before Easter, now is a good time to finalize plans for your Easter party, get-together or egg hunt. Learning what others have done may give you a fantastic idea you can incorporate into your holiday celebration this year.

Kid's Easter Party

When it comes to Easter parties for kids, WriterJanis has got it covered. In her lens titled "How to Plan an Easter Party for Kids and Easter Party Ideas" she covers almost every option. From invitations to centerpieces, games to music, and food to decorations -- there are ideas for anyone planning a hopping Easter celebration with children.

Easter Egg Hunt Ideas

If you are planning an Easter egg hunt for older children, lestroischenes has some great ideas. She uses herself and her family as examples in her lens titled "The Easter Egg Hunt". I found this lens interesting as it gives the version of an egg hunt from another part of the world -- France. It's a fun lens!

Easter Party Food Ideas

You have to have some sweets! Our very own MissMerFaery has a great idea with her "Bird Nest Cupcakes" lens. Such a simple but cute idea that's perfect as a sweet treat addition to any Easter party or get together.

Puzzlemaker shows us a lot of different cupcake and treat ideas themed for Easter featuring M&M's as a main ingredient in the decorations on this lens: "Easter Cupcakes and Treats with M&M's".

A bunny, a carrot, a flower and a chick, these ideas are simple but fun and the perfect addition to your Easter party.

The best part? The kids can help with the decorating.

It's Time...

Now, armed with some helpful information and creative ideas, I hope you will get to planning your Easter party soon. The bunny will be here before we know it and we all want to be ready!

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Saturday, March 22, 2014

Getting Green and Thrifty with your Crafting!

recycling items, household junk and natural items in your crafting

This week is all about recycling! In these harder economic times, parents are looking for thrifty but fun activities for their kids, and there are endless ways that you can use recycling, household junk and natural items in your crafting - all you have to do is share your ideas with the world! Squidoo has the perfect format to do this - the How-To Lens Format.

Since we've started crafting with household junk, our the contents of our recycling bin have reduced dramatically - so we are really doing our bit for the environment by re-using, which is even better than recycling! This lovely pile on the left is just a fraction of what we have put aside for making things.

Kids craft tutorials are huge on social media sites like Facebook and Pinterest, so if you have some ideas for tutorials, make sure you take some beautiful photos (stop by our very own mbgphoto's lenses for some photography tips if you need to brush up on your skills!) that will look enticing on sites like those - as your lens is more likely to be shared, pinned or even go viral!

These past few weeks, I've been out and about with the little ones at forest school, home ed groups and more, and in between, we've been busy making crafts for our weekly book club theme, which sees us choose a book and create activities around it. All of this has led to quite a bit of recycled crafting!

We made a bottle boat at forest school, which is a great way to use up an empty plastic bottle. Toilet rolls are a must in your junk craft box (we have a whole bin full waiting to be transformed!) - we recently turned ours into some beautiful bejeweled toilet roll owls at our home ed group (see below)! We got in the holiday spirit as well and turned another one into a cute little leprechaun for St. Patrick's Day.

You don't have to stick to How-To format lenses, although they are perfect for quick and easy craft tutorials. Squidoo's longer lens format is also perfect for more complex craft ideas, or for where you want to show off several variations on a theme, or a collection of recycled craft ideas. Don't forget you can use the how-to format as a module within the lens as well!

Be warned, however - once you start all this junk crafting, it's quite addictive, you know! I find myself looking at every day objects now and imagining what they look like or could become - believe me, you'll never look at a yoghurt pot or bottle cap the same way again!

We have several projects on our wishlist and a whole stash of recycling ready to use. We have empty cereal boxes waiting to be turned into frames for my 4 year old's artwork, and bottle tops from milk cartons ready to become wheels on a cardboard car. Speaking of card, seedplanter has some wonderful ideas for getting crafty with cardboard boxes (we have one such large monster box, waiting for warmer weather to arrive so we can take it outside, paint it and turn it into a rocket!)

You can also come up with craft projects which make things for children to play with. For example, we used up some old, out-of-date rice by dyeing it with food colouring to make some wonderful sensory tray rainbow rice (right).

Or share your recipes for homemade materials - eco mums like me LOVE recipes for play dough, paint and so on! Our very own Recycler Contributor, BearTale, shares this fabulous recipe for DIY sidewalk chalk that recycles egg shells!

All of these ideas make for perfect crafts to do on Earth Day, which is coming up on April 22nd.

Finally, for an extra burst of recycling inspiration, why not have a peek at our under-fives craft boards on Pinterest? Tons of wonderful and inventive ideas to be found!

So go on, get out there, get green, and get crafty!

(c) All photos are copyright of the author (2014)

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Friday, March 21, 2014

Creating Chocolate Fun in the Kitchen

Go ahead, admit it. You love getting creative in the kitchen. And when it involves chocolate, whoa, even better! Throw in a healthy helping of laughter and you just can't have more fun. Aren't you drooling to find out what I'm about to tell you? Well, get ready. It was all around a Web page.

So, stop thinking about making a page as boring writing. Thinking of it as telling your story of the day you decided to make Chocolate Lab Cupcakes. Of course, chocolate is involved in this.

The Story of Chocolate Lab Cupcakes

Our very own Cooking for the Holidays reviewer makes amazing cupcake creations. Snowman Cupcakes, I just had to try my hand at making Snowman Cupcakes myself. My first mistake was not following her directions. But, my hilariously miserable attempt turned into a page.

My second mistake was failing to use chocolate. Ergo, the idea of Chocolate Lab Cupcakes was born. Don't you know the entire effort, which took all afternoon and into the evening, was documented in photos. This was meant to be a page, you know.

Creating Fun in the Kitchen

In my kitchen that day, I was quite busy creating chocolate fun. OK, my kitchen turned out to be a mess. But, the clean-up was worth it! A day of hilarious fun was set up to be a Web article.

My bet is that many of you enjoy getting creative in the kitchen. Whether a masterpiece like the amazing Snowman Cupcakes, or one hilariously miserable attempt like my Snowman Cupcakes, a Web article is easily available from it.

Don't forget to add the chocolate. Because, well, everything tastes better with chocolate.

Take bunches of photos of the whole process. Even jot down some of the jokes that came from your attempt. Or jot down serious notes if you must.

That combination of notes and photos can easily turn into an article. A page that will forever give you the memories of one time of creating chocolate fun in the kitchen.

Posted by: BuckHawk

About This Contributor

BuckHawk decribes herself as "Basically a lazy person who prefers the easy things in life." So that's what she writes about. Easy home decorating, easy recipes, easy entertaining. But, she is also a lover of animals, gardening and crafting. You'll find her writing all over the Web, but with Review This Reviews! she has the opportunity to write about all of her loves.

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Thursday, March 20, 2014

Perspective in Photography

When I take photographs of landscapes, most of the time I am standing up and shooting with a wide angle lens. I have been reading a lot of articles on perspective and challenging myself to look at things differently. I have found if I get lower to the ground and get a bit more of the foreground into view I get a different and very pleasing composition. In this first photo I am crouching down a bit to get more of the rocks in the foreground in the photo.

Look at the different look you get when you get really low and make the foreground pop out. In this photo I am sitting on one of the rocks and holding my camera low.

In this photo I get even lower. I am was walking on the beach with my Canon point and shoot camera and I bent down and held my camera in the middle of the shells. I love the effect this got me with all the shells up close and the sky in the background.

seashells on the beach photo by mbgphoto

Flower photos are always fun, but again be sure to change your perspective. Everyone seems to take flowers while they are standing up and looking down at the flower. In this photo I sat down in front of the flowers and zoomed in on one flower to create a different look.

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Tuesday, March 18, 2014

Cultivating Green

Window Farm Photo by Josh Kalish

In a world of constant change, there are some things that remain with us over the course of our lives. In my case, two of those enduring things, which aren’t really things at all, are a love for words and farming. Since I was a young girl, I have had an abiding need for planting words and seeds.

Though I live in the country now, that wasn’t always the case. For much of my life I lived in some of the largest urban centers in our country (Chicago, Houston, and San Antonio). I never imagined living or thriving while surrounded by vast acres of concrete. It seems one does adapt when necessary.

As Squidoo’s Green Living Contributor, I often receive comments on my articles from those who yearn to live as I do—off the grid, in the country, surrounded by wide, open spaces. I often hear it said that it isn’t possible to live green at the moment. Sometimes it is a matter of needing to be near family or work. These green yearning souls have set their own longings aside, having deferred their dreams (perhaps indefinitely).

What I have learned, though, is that urban farming is not only entirely possible, it is a hugely popular phenomenon that could ultimately be one of the most important movements of our generation. Without much more than eight square feet of light, these city dwellers, known as “window farmers,” have found a way to cultivate their green (both an inner and outer greening).

This week, as I read Paradise Lot, a book about two plant geeks who converted a desolate city space into an abundantly thriving garden of Eden, I thought of others who have created their own means of cultivating green wherever they happen to dwell.

My friend Dawn Rae shows you can take the girl out of the country, but you can’t take the country out of the girl. She gardens in a big city apartment. LindaJM presents the possibilities of Window Farming 101. Kari Spencer, of the Micro Farm Project, demonstrates how she turned her small urban yard into a true showcase.

As I sit here by the window tapping away on my laptop, nurturing little wordlings, still just tiny sprouts, I am cultivating the kind of green that makes my life a garden paradise. How will you cultivate your green today?

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Monday, March 17, 2014

A Few of the Best Mid-Atlantic Foods

Mid-Atlantic Regional Cuisine

Every region has their special foods and recipes. When I think of shrimp, I immediately think of Louisiana. Cheese makes me think of Wisconsin. Oranges come from Florida, of course. I have known from early on that certain foods are special to certain areas. However, after moving to the mid-Atlantic region, I’ve realized just how passionate people are about their special foods.

One of my early Squidoo lenses was written as a result of strong craving for a regional food (Mary Sue's Pecan Nougat egg) and from the memory of seeing a thank you letter from a deployed person who had received Old Bay spice in their care package. After seeing that letter, I had noticed others who bemoaned the difficulty of purchasing Old Boy, good crab meat, and other regional foods. That prompted me to write an edible gifts lens consisting of Maryland treats.

When I move from Maryland someday, I can imagine myself begging friends and family (and perhaps strangers) to send me Mary Sue’s Pecan Nougat eggs every spring. My mouth waters every time I think of them.

Crabcakes and Crabbing

Image Credit: Courtesy of Wikimedia Creative Commons

While I do not consider myself a foodie, I do love trying new foods and adding new favorites to my list. I’m not a good cook but I love eating good food. Have you ever heard the saying, “champagne taste on a beer budget”? That describes me to some extent about food. I love the taste of good food.

Blue crab is one of those “champagne taste” foods, in my opinion. A properly cooked jumbo lump crab cake is divine.

Crabbing in this area is almost considered an event. Family members young and old enjoy crabbing. People look at me with wonder when I tell them that I’ve never been crabbing. Around here, it’s a bit like learning to walk. Everyone does it.

There's More Than Crabs to Eat in the Mid-Atlantic.

While I could talk about crab cakes forever, there are other foods in the Mid-Atlantic region. Another food staple of this area are cheesesteak sub sandwiches. They originated in Philadelphia and Joyful Pamela introduces us to the wonderful world of cheesesteak among other wonderful Philadelphia foods. People here are passionate about their favorite place to get a cheesesteak sub and will debate for long periods of time about what makes theirs the best. The Mister and I clearly have our favorite and eat cheesesteaks weekly. I guarantee it is something that one you have found your favorite, you will crave it frequently.

Image Credit:Photograph by Dawn Rae 2014

Now, if you will excuse me, I have to go. Since I’m finished photographing the Mary Sue egg, I can finally eat it. I have waited for months for egg season and I can’t wait any longer.

I will see you next Monday. If you would like to visit with me before then you can find my on my Mid-Atlantic Travel Facebook page.

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Sunday, March 16, 2014

A Father's Review of "Father of the Bride"

father of the bride movie collection dvd box

This week, I had the opportunity to read a truly wonderful review. It combines storytelling and a review, producing an article anyone would be proud to read or write. As a matter of fact, it also won the Squidoo "Review of the Day" honor. Definitely worth a minute or two of your time.

Keeping it Funny

The review grabs your attention immediately with a title like this:
"This is why I'm glad I didn't run over Steve Martin".
I giggled as soon as I read that.

Not only did author pgallagher grab my attention, he held it because he kept the promise his title made -- told us why he was glad he didn't run over Mr. Martin. He even goes so far as to share his humorous thoughts at the time of the "almost" mishap!

Keeping it Real

He tells us about the kinship he feels with the character from the film (George Banks). Since pgallagher is a father to two daughters, it wasn't such a stretch.

I think this is my favorite line in the whole review: "Father of the Bride will be relevant for as long as parents have children that grow up and get married."

Storytelling + Review = One Heck of an Article!

I applaud you, pgallagher. This review was perfect (if there such a thing.) The formula works! It is possible, readable and more interesting when we use stories and personal experience in our writing on Squidoo and anywhere on the web.

It makes us better writers but more important, better people when we share. Please, take a moment and read the review. You won't be sorry. Leave pgallagher a comment with your impression of his review. He's relatively new to Squidoo (Sept. 2013) and only has 3 lenses so far.

If he keeps putting out articles like this one, he will have a long and prosperous career at Squidoo!

You Can Join the Fun Too

There is a almost no limit to the topics on Squidoo. The Squidoo Contributors write about most everything. Find a favorite niche topic (mine is party planning) and start reading and writing. I know you will love it as much as we do!

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