PicMonkey What can I do?

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PicMonkey What can I do with it?

I have taken two pictures and shown what you can do with them to make them pop to use on your blog.  If you want to get your pictures noticed on sites that are based on pictures, such as Pinterest, you need to accentuate them.


The first picture is untouched!  Of course this picture is already sharp and colorful.

On the second picture I used the following:

Auto Adjust

Colors

Dark Edges

Labels

Text

Two Different Craft Scissor Frames

The next picture is done on the collage function of PicMonkey.  The collage function is a free function.  

On this picture I used the following:

Collage

Pinter-etsy 

Corner rounding

Banner

Emily's Candy Text

All of the flowers, except the mums, are flowers from my garden.

 These are just some pictures I am playing with.  You can just play around with PicMonkey and come up will all kinds of things.




You can make headers for your Facebook page!

Seriously, there are just so many possibilities!  If you have any questions leave them in the comments and I will try to answer them.

LA Fitness - My Ticket to Fitness

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La Fitness - My Ticket To Fitness

My NSV

It has finally happened!  I have finally made the plans for going back to the gym.  I cancelled my membership with the old gym, which was well over a half hour drive, to my new gym.  I haven't been to the old one for about 6 months.  I have just been giving them my money!

My new gym isn't build yet, it won't be ready for about 60 days.  I joined yesterday and got my key card and towel.  I conned a friend into joining with me.  It will good for her health, so I guess I am a good friend.  I mean, I didn't force her, I just told her told her I was in a size 6 and I was going to tone up my body.  I guess she didn't want to hang out with skinny me unless she was working on her own body.

The new gym will only be about 10 minutes from home and very close to the grocery store I go to.  Many of the other places I shop at are right there too!  Sadly though, so are all the restaurants I love!  I am going to work out on Monday!!

Don't worry I am not planning on exercising in their parking lot while the construction crew works on the new building.The gym bought out another location to use temporarily.  It is an older gym without all the amenities, but we are going to start there on Monday.  I is a little further away, but we are excited about getting started.  We are ready to work it, work it!  

My LA Fitness will be opening in early November.  It will have all the newest equipment and will be huge.  They even have the Boot Camp classes and all kinds of torturous classes.  I am ready to start!

I walked with another friend for about 45 minutes today.  I am going to be an exercise super star soon!

I am not being paid by LA Fitness.  I have no connection with them!  I am just giving them my money so I can have a place to work out!

Blog Hop Blitz Is Ready To Go Again!

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The air is a bit more crisp.

The official start of fall starts on Sunday.

We are well underway with the football season.

We are forever banning the existence of the football widow, unless of course, she's a bigger fan than he is! She has her head in the game because she's joining our team and linking up her tailgate recipes, game day decor/rituals, inspirational posts, funny posts, her best post of the week. She's sharing all of this here at our Blog Hop Blitz!

Now, give a big shout to the team:

Terri and Shawna from Easy Life Meal and Party Planning are two amazing sisters who team up to produce amazing foods. They've kicked off the fall season with their Four Seasons Blog Hop.

Check out co-host Betty's amazing weight loss, let her show you how to maintain your new body over at A Gut and a Butt.

Stay in shout mode, cause here are our MVBs from last week, Week #2:


Lydia's Flexitarian Kitchen cooked up some awesome meatballs, perfect for game day. They look delicious!

Here on our hop, we enjoy any link that you link up with. The old saying goes "laughter does the heart good", Starting Over...Again provided us with a bit of humor. Keep the laughs coming!

What would game day be without some salsa? Turnips 2 Tangerines gave us not one, but 2. Who's gonna be brave enough to try the Fire Roasted Tomato Salsa or the Salsa Verde? Both look yummy, bring on the tortilla chips!

Congrats to the Week #2 MVBs! All three will pinned to our Football Blog Hop Blitz Pinterest board.

Alright, let's do this! But before you link up, be sure to grab our button, letting everyone know where your linking up this football season.

<div align="center"><br /><a href="http://gladiator-in-heels.blogspot.com/" title="Blog Hop Blitz" target="_blank"><img src="http://i1359.photobucket.com/albums/q795/ttkels/final_smallerversion4_zps693990f5.png" alt="Blog Hop Blitz" style="border:none;" /></a></div><br />

Bloggers start your engines (ok, I know that's car racing talk, you know what I mean)!

An InLinkz Link-up

get the InLinkz code

Twice Baked Potatoes

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Twice Baked Potatoes

I was fixing dinner for my husband and tried to come up with something different for him.  I haven't made Twice Baked Potatoes for a long time so I went to Pinterest to find a recipe.  I found this recipe from allrecipes.com.  I have been eating a Paleo/Primal/Low Carb diet so I haven't made too many of the things he wants.  Now that I have gotten used to what I eat  I have made more of the foods that he would like to have.  So here is the recipe for the Twice Baked Potatoes I made for him.

Ultimate Twice Baked Potatoes

4 large Baking Potatoes 
8 slices Bacon
1 cup Sour Cream
1/2 cup Milk
4 Tablespoons Butter
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp pepper
1 cup, shredded Cheddar Cheese, divided
8 greeen onions, divided

The directions are on the allrecipes.com site.

What happens when you don't have the ingredients on hand!

Well, the recipe is great, but I didn't have all the ingredients it called for and I didn't want to wait an hour for the potatoes to cook in the oven.

I was only going to make 2 potatoes, the recipe said they would heat up well the next day.  I could use on for dinner and save one for later.

First I started by baking the potatoes in the microwave.  It takes 3 to four minutes for each potato.  Don't forget to poke holes in the potatoes or they will explode.  I take a fork and puncture the potatoes in several places.  I baked the potatoes and pushed a fork in them to make sure they were soft.  While the potatoes were cooling I cooked the bacon.  I cooked mine in the microwave, since I only needed four slices.  I let the bacon cool and then crumbled it.

I let the potatoes sit for 10 minutes to cool.  I still burned my hand on them a little bit, so be careful.  I took a spoon and removed the meat of the potato, leaving enough in the potato skin to keep it stable. 

I didn't have any sour cream so I used ranch dressing in place of the sour cream.  I only had Shredded Colby Jack cheese, so I used that in place of the Cheddar.  I didn't have any green onions so I just eliminated them.

I took the meat of the potato and put it into a bowl with the ranch dressing, milk, butter, salt, pepper and 1/4 cup cheese.

I mixed the ingredients with a mixer until they were creamy.  

Next, I spooned the mixture into the potato skins.  

I topped the potatoes with the rest of the cheese and the crumbled bacon.

I baked them in my toaster oven for 15 minutes at 350 degrees.

My husband said the Twice Baked Potatoes were delicious!  They were just as good two days later for lunch!

How to use PicMonkey

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How to use PicMonkey

This is part 1 in a series showing different functions of PicMonkey.

I have been using PicMonkey and really enjoying the different functions.  

  

I downloaded this picture from Pixabay.  I wanted to show you how to make some simple adjustments with PicMonkey.  This picture has had no adjustments.

In Picture No 2, I auto adjusted the picture, then brightened the color.  I also put a simple frame around the picture.  If you want your picture noticed on Pinterest you need to make it brighter than you would for an ordinary picture.  Their are several choices for an outer frame.  You can adjust the thickness of the frame.

The frame in picture 3 was made using Craft Scissors.  This is a function of the paid Royale program.  You can do lots of things with the free version.  I kept clicking on things that were paid and finally decided to buy the Royale option.  It cost me $33.00 and my subscription is for one year.  By the way, I am not being paid to talk about PicMonkey. 

You can add text to your picture, which also makes it much better for Pinterest.  It is reported that Pinterest is in the top views for many bloggers.  It makes sense to get noticed among all the pictures on Pinterest. 



  

Medal of Honor

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Finish the Sentence Friday

This week's sentence is I deserve a medal for the time I............

When I got this prompt I thought about earning a medal. I'm just a normal person, I haven't done anything super courageous.  As I thought about it, I realized I probably have shown lots of courage in my life, maybe not to the extreme of Medal of Honor winners, but still courage just the same.

When my first husband died, I was 24.  I had children 2, 4, and 6. My family wanted me to move back home.  I decided to keep my children in their home and not move them.  I chose to give them a stable home and teach them that we could make it on our own.  I don't know if I would have earned a medal for that, I do know that my children and I are very close.  That is better than a medal any day!

The next big thing in my life that I feel like I deserved a medal for is when I found out I was pregnant for my fourth child.  I was nearing 40, and my children were all nearing their even year birthdays. They were almost 18, 20, and 22.

I had to tell my son who was entering his senior year of high school that his mom was pregnant.  I was not a popular person that day. Then I had to make trips to two separate colleges and inform my other children.  I didn't think it was fair to tell them over the phone. I believe they all thought mom was way past the time to have more children.  My daughter, almost 22, was appalled.  My middle son was probably the most understanding, he worried about my health.

I went through a rough pregnancy.  I had to go and have amniocentesis done.  I had bleeding issues up to about 30 weeks. This was an unplanned pregnancy and I was a little uncertain for a few months how this was going to turn out.  When the doctor decided that I needed to have the test done, that's when I got very possessive of my baby.  I told the doctor that it didn't matter how the tests came out I would go through the pregnancy.  This was my child!

Thank goodness that the test came out fine.  I was having a healthy baby boy.  Then it was just a matter of staying inactive for a while until he got a good hold on things.  My little guy was a fighter and he held on for all he was worth.  

You know, I didn't get a medal for going through that pregnancy at that time in my life.  I got way better than a medal.  I got the most wonderful, caring person to raise.  He has been such a joy to my life.  I can't know now what my life would have been had I not had my son.  I just know I would have missed out on some of the most joyful times of my life.

Did you take a look at that picture of my mom.  She was 75.  She never colored her hair.  Do you see how dark it still was?  I don't think I am doing as well as she did?  She has been gone for 16 years now.  She would be 94 in just a couple of weeks if she were still alive.

Friendship Friday

What activities do you most look forward to each fall?  I enjoy decorating for Halloween.  I look forward to having family gatherings for the Thanksgiving holiday.  

As the days grow shorter are you impacted by Seasonal Affective Disorder?  How do you cope?  I have never been diagnosed with Seasonal Affective Disorder.  I do get down when the days shorten.  I hate to see Daylight Savings Time go away, because then it will get dark by 5:00 or so.  When they change back it really seems like the days shorten so quickly.  I spend most of the winter looking forward to spring.  I try to plan a vacation for spring.  A trip to warm temps and sunshine are what I look forward to in the spring.

Do you have any favorite fall recipes or crafts that you would like to share with us?  I shared a recipe for Old Fashioned Homemade Noodles recently that we have for Thanksgiving.  I love making fall crafts.  

I will be linking up with other blog hops and they are all listed on my Blog Hop page.

Now, tell me what you deserve a medal for?  
Leave me a comment, please!!

Bird on a Motorcycle

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Birds

Where do you do your bird watching?  I found this interesting when driving down the road.  I looked up and saw a bird riding on the handlebars of the motorcycle going down the road in front of me.  I had a hard time getting a picture.

I guess this way of traveling takes much less energy for the bird. He seemed to be happy enough riding down the road.  I worried that he might get hurt if the man had an accident, but maybe the bird would fly off if something happened.  

Have you ever seen a bird ride like this?  This was my first bird on a motorcycle spotting.