Scavenger Hunt Sunday….Sunset, Black and White, A Day In My Life, Four and Colorful.

It is Scavenger Hunt Sunday!

Sunset – From the 101 Freeway near Shell Beach.

Black and White – this is the harbor in Avila Beach.

A day in my life & Four – I did this together because one, I have  a lot of pictures of Joey and Diego together so getting four of them was easy.  This is also a day in my life, Mike calls me after I get home from work and always asks “what are the boys doing, are they helping you clean the house?”  I always say yes, they are helping me clean but this is what they are really doing every time he asks that question.  My favorite is the one where Diego is using Joey’s butt as a pillow.

Colorful – Was also taken at the harbor in Avila Beach.  I was surprised this picture turned out colorful because it was very gray and stormy out.  We have been having a little storm for the last couple of days.  But looking at this picture you wouldn’t know that it just rained all night.

Don’t forget to check out the other participants in Scavenger Hunt Sunday.

Have a great day,

Denise

Cow….

Isn’t this face cute?  Look at those ear!

Have a wonderful Monday!

Denise

Strawberry Shortcake Stacked Pancakes…….

Here is another recipe from my new favorite vegan blogger…….Oh She Glows.  I have made several things from her site and so far we have loved them all, like the raw cookie dough balls  We have cut out sugar in our diets and let me tell you it hasn’t been easy.  I had no idea I was such a sugar addict.  Trust me it is harder than you think to cut sugar out.   We replace white sugar with other things like maple syrup or cane sugar.  This recipe only has a little bit of maple syrup for it’s sugar and it was really good.  It looks like it would be full of sugar with that strawberry soft serve on top but, NO!  There is no sugar in the soft serve.

Strawberry Shortcake Stacked Pancakes

1 cup + 1/4 cup whole wheat flour

½ cup shredded, unsweetened coconut

1 teaspoon baking powder

¼ teaspoon baking soda

¼ teaspoon nutmeg

¼ teaspoon allspice

¼ teaspoon cinnamon

Pinch or two kosher salt

¾ cup coconut milk

½ teaspoon pure vanilla extract

1 tablespoon pure maple syrup

¾ cup warm water

Oil, for skillet

Strawberry Banana Soft Serve (3 strawberries + 1 frozen banana, processed in food processor)

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Preheat oven to 250F and grab a baking sheet. Whisk the dry ingredients (flour, coconut, baking soda, baking powder, spices, and salt) in a medium sized bowl. In a small bowl, whisk together the wet ingredients (coconut milk, warm water, vanilla, maple syrup) and then add to the dry ingredients. Whisk well until no clumps remain.

Preheat the skillet over medium heat and add some oil on the pan. Pour 1/4 cup of batter, per pancake, onto the skillet and quickly smooth out a circle with the back of a spoon. Cook until small bubbles appear on the surface and the bottoms of pancakes are golden. Reduce heat if necessary (I cook them on heat # ‘3’). Transfer to baking sheet and place in the oven to keep warm.

Meanwhile, slice about 20 strawberries. I also made Strawberry Banana soft serve by processing a frozen banana with a few strawberries to make the cream sauce. Once my pancakes were stacked, I scooped the strawberry banana soft serve on top. Drizzle with maple syrup and serve immediately.

I would never have guessed that if you put a frozen banana in the food processer that it would have the consistency of soft serve ice cream.  I made this for Hailee but replaced it with raspberries and she ate it for breakfast with some granola on top.

Hailee and I ate this for dinner one night when Mike was out of town.  Girls eat breakfast for dinner sometimes!

Have a great day!

Denise

Sunday Snapshot…..

I live with a mischief cat, he feels that he can do what ever he wants and how dare I stop him from doing the things he wants to do.  He likes to drink out of the sink.  I was talking on the phone and making pizza sauce.  When the sauce was done I transferred it to a jar and put the pan in the sink with water and since I was on the phone…….I thought I will come back and clean it when I’m done on the phone.  So I went about talking on the phone and doing things around the house.   When I was done I came back to the kitchen to find the “I can do what ever I want cat” drinking the water out of the pizza sauce pan that was full of water in the sink.

Here he is mad at me because I wouldn’t let him go.  One, I needed to get a picture of his new orange goatee and two, I have a white couch and there was no way I was going to let him leave without washing his face!

Cats!

It is also Scavenger Hunt Sunday but I couldn’t get all of the items this week! I am not going to join in but I did get one of them done which was fur babies sleeping.  I have two fur babies who (when not getting into trouble)do nothing but sleep all day.  I’m just going to show you them since this is another Diego post.  It was hard to choose because he is so cute when he sleeps.

I can’t forget Joey he likes to sleep in his heating blanket.

I hope everyone is having a great weekend!

Denise

Take a new look……..

I don’t feel qualified to share photography or photo editing tips with anyone since I’m just learning and I still need to learn a lot!   Except…….. I learned some new tricks with PSE and thought I would apply them to some old pictures.  I love how the colors pop now, but then I saw this article on HDR photography (have you seen this?) and thought the pictures were so pretty and wanted to try it.  But the process is were you take three pictures at different exposures and then combine them together.  I didn’t have three pictures that were at different exposures.  I found this app called HDR Darkroom and they can do it with one picture.  Look at the difference, it is suppose to make it look more dramatic.  Check out this website by Trey Radcliff, his pictures are amazing and gorgeous…..also he has tutorials.

What do you think of HDR Photography?  Will you try this or have you tried it? 

Have a great day!

Denise

I {Heart} Faces……..Furry Pet Faces

This is my favorite picture of Joey and I wanted to enter him in the I Heart Faces challenge.  This represents Joeys personality because he is very serious and funny all at the same time!

Have a wonderful day,

Denise

Don’t forget to check out the other participants at I Heart Faces.

The Cottage Sisters Starring Diego……..

We are going to have to change the name of the blog to The Cottage Sisters starring Diego and Joey.  I can’t help it.   When I want to practice playing with my camera they are always around and it is not my fault that they are cute! Right?

One of the great things about blogging is that people share everything.  I love how photographer’s will share how they do things.  Everything I have learned about photography and photo editing has been from bloggers.  As you know, because I have mentioned it several times, PW’s 70’s action is my favorite.  I found  a new action called Urban Delight from Paint The Moon, that I really like.  Check out her pictures they are gorgeous and she also has other actions you can purchase.  Thanks to Amanda at Everyday Elements, I figured out how to install actions on my Mac.  Thank goodness for bloggers!

Hailee said this next shot is a typical Diego face.  I call it “not the camera again” face.  Or the “get that camera out of my face!” face.  Doesn’t he look like he tried to outline his nose with a too dark of a liner?  He didn’t really that is what his nose looks like after he is done playing outside.  Just like a little kid who comes home from school filthy dirty.

What do you think of Urban Delight?

I hope everyone is having a fabulous week!

Denise