new hat and more...

Monday is here and it seems like the weekend was just not long enough...

Saturday was a fun day as we went to a Big Brothers & Big Sisters activity at the Ritz Carlton. They had food, games and activities like face paint.

My husband came along and I think we both had a great time, I did see Yanique very briefly but didn't get to talk to her much.

"Littles" playing

face paint time, for kids

faint paint time, for adults (my first time!)

my hubby playing the froggy fun game

I took a lot more pictures at the event but it's been really difficult to upload them as blogger keeps rotating my photos, dunno why it does that sometimes but it's very annoying. Does this happens to you as well?

In unrelated news, while I was doing my 30 day photo challenge I completed a couple of crochet projects, one was "Dr. Who" the owl that I made for my Mom and that she loves, the other project was a hat a made for myself...

The thing with the hat project is that when I first started (in the wine color yarn) I thought I had two big balls of the same color, but once I realized the first yarn was almost over, I went nuts looking for the second ball and never did find, so at the last minute had to improvise and add an extra color to be able to finish it...

I think I came out quite good, what do you think?

Front View

Side View

Back View

Of course this is not meant to be a hat for the cold weather, but more like an accessory one. It was a very easy pattern and I am already considering making another, perhaps next giveaway? I have to think about it a bit more...

Yesterday was a very lazy day, I did get to start a new Amigurumi project from a book that I've had for a long time but I've never make anything out of it, I am start to work on a Monkey for Julian my Godson... So far I have only half a arm done...

This is the book I am talking about and the Monkey is the blue and green one on the left, although Julian's is not going to be those colors but more the traditional brown and tan color for the Monkey but the clothing might be colorful... Will continue to share my progress as I go.

Hope everybody has a great week!!!

This is it!

The last day of my 30 days photo challenge is finally here and to celebrate it, here's my "self portrait".

Although today's photo is not really a "self" kind of photo, because with that BIG Margarita in my hand, having a camera on my other hand will require some serious skills... So instead I had my own personal paparazzi (aka my husband) taking it for me!

Yes, in case you are wondering I HAD to drink that Margarita just so I could have a photo for the last day... It was last night at a Mexican restaurant and it was good!!! (-You're welcome, the things I do for my blog, I tell you!)

So thanks to all my readers for sticking up with me during this long 30 days of photos... I will be back on Monday because a girl needs her beauty rest after a whole non-stop 30 days of posting.

I'm off to make some breakfast and enjoy the weekend, have a good one yourself!

Sunshine : )

Day 29- Black & White

I am glad life is not always in black & white, although I do love B&W photos, but lately I haven't taken many.

Here are a few actually "converted" into B&W...

Cookies

Dogs, Cats & Shadows

More than just bones we are....

Have a wonderful weekend!!!

Day 28- Flowers

It's day 28 and I am almost done with yet another photo challenge, it's been fun so far and I am glad that today's photo calls for a photo of flowers.

A few days ago one of our Cacti bloomed but this time it was an amazing spectacle because it had 4 flowers all at once..

 

Once I read an article about the most beautiful flowers in the world being Cacti flowers, but because they live in such harsh environments and some are nocturnal, people rarely get to see them.

Well, I haven't seem many myself but the ones I've seen and eaten (as I tried some edible ones once in Israel and were delicious) are very pretty... I believe the little Bee probable agrees with me about the delicious part!

Happy Thursday y'all!!!

Day 27- From a distance

Today is yet another holiday on the island, but this time is because the island is holding elections to change the way their leaders get elected, and since I wasn't born here I really have nothing to do with it... So instead I am home "chill-axing"!

Although I did decided to give our dog Sheba a very well needed bath, so I took this pictures of her once I finished and she was quietly getting dry in a corner of the back deck.

Sheba far, far away.... see her?

Sheba closer

There she is!

Also today in the morning I decided to make some delicious Orange Candied Peel, this is something that I used to eat as a kid as it's pretty popular in Costa Rica and a few months ago I happened to see a recipe on Pinterest that remind me of it although this time I did not follow any recipe and did them myself using my own measurements.

Last week I tried it with Grapefruit and today with just Oranges, both cases were delicious.

So, for my orange version I used

Peel off 4 medium orange skins

I would suggest you cut them in half and used them for juice, then take off all the rind (aka white part) with a big spoon. In my case today I just peel off each orange by cutting them in quarters (just the skin) and then used to spoon to take the rind off... Here are some photo of the process...

cut the skin and peel off slowly

skin off

take off the grind, be gentle and slowly to avoid ripping like mine

When all skins have the grind off... cut them in strips like these...

Now for the rest of the process... According to my calculation, use 1/2 cup of water for each orange and 1/4 cut of sugar for each orange (you do the math!), LOL!

Other recipes I've seen use a lot more water and then they end up with lots of liquid which you'll need to come up with some use for, or just dump it, mine most of the water is absorb so you should end up with pretty much none at the end.

In my case I used this type of sugar, because I am cool like that... In your case you can use any kind or be cool like me! ;)

Put the water with sugar to boil, once it's boiling quite a lot put the orange peel inside and let it boil from 20 to 25 minutes.

VERY IMPORTANT: You need to monitor the last 5 minutes because if it gets too thick the orange skins will start sticking and it gets hard to separate them.

It should go from looking like this...

To sort of this... Make sure to give it a few stirs during the whole time boiling!

Once those are done put regular sugar (I used about 1/2 cup) on wax paper and take the skins off the pot to coat them in regular refine white sugar... Or in the raw if you wanna be cool!

Pull on a cookie rack to dry (in my case about 1/2 hour) and they are good to go, enjoy!

Have a wonderful Wednesday!!!

Day 26- Close Up

Here I am today with my dear "Rosie Cheeks" taking a little dip in the "ool", weather is been really hot and sunny...

My husband's is a "Space Duck", his name is Bud Lightyear, he is American and part of the Space Program.

.
Do you have a swim buddy?

Have a wonderful day!!!

Day 25- Something Pink

Meet "Rosie Cheeks", she is my new "ool" buddy and she is a Pink...

Have a duckie day!!!

Day 24- Animals

Although cats and chickens share our yard, they are not really friends. In fact whenever we feed the cats we need to stay and make sure that the chicken don't eat their food, because the cats will let them...

In the picture above, the rooster is keeping it cool, close enough to see the cats are eating but not enough for me to chase him off...

Here are some more photos of our animals, taken with my new camera, YEAH!!!

Lee

Sheba

BTK

Happy Sunday!!!

Day 23- Sunflare

I took the following photo about 2 months ago, on a beautiful Caribbean day when the sun was shinning very bright and it had a huge aura around it, perhaps the brightest and biggest one I've ever seen...

I think the photo came out pretty cool as it shows both the aura and the sun flares.

In other news, today I got myself and upgrade of a camera, a brand new Nikon 1 J1.

The camera is so small, stylish and it's got mirror-less tecnology, plus it's a pretty metallic red. I am really looking forward to take some good photos, hopefully it won't disappoint me!

Hope everybody has a wonderful weekend!

Day 22- Hands

Two hands, five fingers and so much that can be done.

To hold, to touch and be touched, to wave hello or good bye, to massage or even to clap in celebration.

Also to create; writing, sculpting, painting, knitting, crocheting, sewing... So much can be done thanks to our hands.

Today I am grateful for this little pieces of myself as so much in my life has been accomplished with the help of them!!!   

Yesterday I mentioned that I just finished another project of a door stopper I made for my Mom, here's the final masterpiece, "Dr. Who".

Isn't he adorable? I really likes the color theme I chose this time, although the photo doesn't really show the two shades of purple (head & body).

Happy Weekend!!!

Day 21- Faceless self-portrait

Well, at this point I'm getting closer to the end of the Photo Challenge with less than 10 days to go.

Today's photo is a faceless self-portrait and the photo I am using today is definitely not new, but in a way new to Instagram, if you have been following my blog for a while you probably seen it before (as it used to be my banner photo)...

But oh well, I guess I could be more creative and post a newer photo, but I just feel this is a great example of a faceless self-portrait, what do you think?

On another note, my husband is going to FL tomorrow for a few days, so I will be home alone (well, that is without counting the 2 dogs and 7 cats we have, LOL!)... I am sending with him a package to mail to my Mom (as packages get to CR from FL much faster than from our island), with 2 Quilt books I bought for her as well as a Crochet door stopper I just finished for her in the shape of an Owl. I will try to take pictures of "Dr. Who" (which is what I named him) and share here tomorrow.

Happy Thursday!!!

Bokeh

Day 20 on the photo challenge calls for a Bokeh photo. 


For those that don't know what bokeh (boh-kay ) in photography is, basically is the out-of-focus areas of an image or a blur. Bokeh has been defined as "the way the lens renders out-of-focus points of light", mainly in the background of the image...

Although I have never really taken any bokeh photo of lights per se... I have taken some photos with the blur background effect...

White wing dove, photo by Sunshine

Tiki Torch, photo by Sunshine

Mocking Bird, photo by Sunshine

All of the above photos were taken with my Nikon camera because to be able to achieve the blur in the background while keeping one object focused you need to be able to control the aperture of the lens.

On another note, today is a pretty special day, because a few years back one of the most important persons in my life was born, my amazing husband.

This morning after I woke up, I gave him his present, a Garden gnome that he wanted (you can read all about it here)....


Today I gave him "Traveling Tim"... He loved it and I when I gave it to him I took a picture, but since we are taking "Bokeh" here today, I decide to tweak it a little bit and use for today's photo challenge as well...

See, looks pretty legit, right?


Anyway if after reading my blog you wanna to do the good dead of the day, head down to "Second Go" here and wish my boy a Happy Birthday!


Have a great day!

Day 19- Something Orange

Cooking is definitely in my list of "likes" but the more I cook, the more I realize that I like simple, few ingredient recipes that are easy, fast and tasty.

Yesterday I decided to bake some Sweet Potatoes, so I simply did this and it worked like a charm!

Just before going on the oven...

Wash and peel 3 big sweet potatoes, chop them in small to medium pieces, on a baking sheet add to the potatoes 2 tbsp of Extra Virgin Olive Oil, some Kosher Salt, fresh grind pepper and some oregano, coat the potatoes well and then bake in 350 degrees F for 50 minutes (20 covered in aluminium foil and 30 uncovered).

The result you might ask? Very yummy side dish... which takes me to my "something orange" photo of the day!

And the final result... coming out of the oven.

ready to eat

And this morning to continue with the delicious orange food... I made some very fresh OJ which my husband described as "radioactive" because of the amazing color it had, LOL!

Have a wonderful day!!!!!

Day 18- Your Shoes

Although I have to admit that I do like fancy, girly shoes, nowadays and specially for everyday wearing I definitely go for comfort.

Also my feet are the product of genetics as well as 6+ years of ballet during my childhood/teenage years, making the arc of my feet very big which means I cannot wear very flat shoes and although I can wear high stilettos (I'm just not used to them)... plus c'mon I live on an island!!!

So, on today's photo I am sharing the shoes I am wearing, some very comfy sandals...

How about you? What kind of shoes are your favorite? Are you a fancy, high heels stiletto girl or you prefer sandals, flip flops or tennis shoes? If you are a guy, what is your preference?

Have a wonderful week!

Day 17- Technology

From laptops computers, to smart phones, to tablets the size of books, nowadays the world is at our fingertips with the new technology to access the internet and all the information we want.

Are you keeping up?

Happy Sunday : )