Author Archives: explorenewness

Learning NEW things about tulips

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redtulips

Hello! Aren’t tulips BEAUTIFUL!!!!???!!!  I volunteered at a local tulip  festival today and after my shift, I just had to go around and take some pics of these fabulous beauties!  Did you know there are over 109 different species of tulips?  Wowza!  Check these out:

tulips

tuplip2

AND look at this interesting one…an upside-down tulip!  I tried to search for the actual name and one website had a similar looking one (only in red) and said the locals in Turkey call it the Weeping Bride Tulip.  But if any of you know the actual name of this specie, please leave me a comment and let me know!

upsidedown

Also, now I think I want to read Alexandre Dumas’ book ‘The Black Tulip’!  I’ll let you know my review on that in a later post.   I also need to enter a to-do item on my calendar for the fall:  Plant more tulip bulbs!!!

Have a great day everyone!  Go and do or learn something NEW! 

NEW genealogical stuff in my brain!

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greenlilac

Wow! This week (and last week) has WHIZZED by!  I guess I’ve been overly busy with things.   Along with all the ‘normal-life’ activities…I took a fun NEW class on Photoshop last week and went to a Family History conference this week.  All GOOD stuff….so I have some NEW stuff in my brain.  Yeah! 🙂

I realized I hadn’t been out shooting much this week, but wanted to continue with the Alicia’s Project Nurture Photography Challenge.  This week’s theme is green(easy!), so I hurriedly went out to the backyard and took a pic of the lilac bushes…just starting to bud and blossom.  Therefore, here’s my entry for this week  (above).

So…about this NEW genealogical stuff in my brain:  I want to share one GREAT thing that’s happening in the world of family history.  There’s a project underway called the “Preserve The Pensions – War of 1812”.  When its completed, it should be wonderful!  One of the presentations I attended today explained that in order for people to get their military pensions, they had to prove they were entitled to them.  Makes sense, right?  However!…Since they couldn’t just go down to the copy-shop and make a copy of their marriage certificate, family bible or other important documents..guess what many did!?!?!  They TORE OUT the page of the family bible, (for instance the ‘Marriages’ page) and sent THE ORIGINAL into the government as proof they were married to the soldier and should be eligible for benefits!  WOW!!!!  So this project is in the process of digitizing all the files… (all those original documents)!  Such a GREAT thing!  They have a long way to go and it’s expensive, so they’d like donations.  What they have digitized so-far is free on Fold3.com.  Check it out!

Have a great day and DO OR LEARN SOMETHING NEW!

Linking to: Project Alicia

NEW Photo of my week #21

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blossoms

Friday evening, my husband and I attended a meeting and he had to be there early to set up.  So I dropped him off and went shooting.  I captured these beautiful blossoms and I liked how the sun was shining on the ivy around these trees.  (plus the nice vertical/diagonal lines).  I hope to get out more this week and shoot something NEW!  Have a terrific week!

ivycar

a NEW…EASY cookie recipe

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raspcookiebars

I tried this NEW recipe recently.  And it’s a KEEPER!!!  I took a batch of these yummies to a social a few weeks ago.  My husband was chatting with some 12 year old boys that were visiting the dessert table (more than once)!  He asked them which cookie they liked best, and they loved these the best!  They did NOT know who brought them…so this was a blind study :o)  Lovely combination of flavors and easy, eaSY, EASY to put together!  Try them!

I found the recipe HERE.

a NEW Couples Gratitude Journal

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journal

Some time ago I saw this on pinterest:

because{source}

…and thought it was a really good idea, so I made a similar one.  For the last six months or so, my dear husband and I have been writing reasons why we love each other and then ERASING those reasons each time one of us would write something NEW!  The other day, I thought that was craziness!….so I came up with a NEW system:

A COUPLE’S GRATITUDE JOURNAL!!!

Now…instead of using an erasable board, we will use this:

loveyou

…then periodically I’ll glue the papers into our gratitude journal!  MUCH BETTER!!!!

Details:  For the journal, I covered a composition book from the dollar store (see TONS of great ideas to cover journals on Pinterest {here}  For the ‘I Love You Because…’ board I just taped paper over a small, cheap (again from the dollar store) cookie sheet so we could use magnets.  One big clip holds the blank cards and the other clip will hold the written on cards until I have time to glue them into the journal.

I’ve loved my husband’s little notes to me the last few months…and now I know I’ll continue to love them as well as be able to keep and cherish them!

Sometimes nothing speaks louder than a silent word written on a piece of paper. David Lowenherz (source)

Linking to:

Not Just A Housewife

To Love Honor & Vacuum

Fresh NEW Salad Recipe

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cornbensalad1

I got this TERRIFIC.YUMMY salsa salad recipe from my friend a few years ago….so it’s not all that NEW to me :o)….but while I was photographing the ingredients for the Scavenger Hunt Sunday (see yesterday’s post), I thought I’d take a pic of the finished dish also.  It really is very delicious!  Try it!…here’s the recipe:

Recipe Card Template 1up 4x6

NEW Photos of my week #20 (I finally completed a scavenger hunt photo challenge!)

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emptyegg1

I’ve been meaning to do the Scavenger Hunt photo challenge for quite some time. I’d always write down the ‘themes’ or type them on the sticky note on my desktop to remind myself, but the weeks just whizzed by too fast, and it never happened UNTIL THIS WEEK! YeAh!!!

This week’s themes were: WATER, EMPTY, FRESH, WEATHERED, and ORDINARY.

Since its Easter, I’m sharing my ‘EMPTY’ photo first (photo at very top of post).  That word reminded me of a sweet story called Jeremy’s Egg – An Easter Story….take the time to read it!  I think you’ll really like it too!

My other interpretations are:

Water:

rainstormacomin1

Fresh:

fresh1

Weathered:

weatheredpaint2

Ordinary:

ordinaryjarofpens1

Linking to Scavenger Hunt Sunday

scavenger