well, this weekend we are going to run over to Deland to go to a craft, scrapbooking fair being held at the Volusia County Fairgrounds. We have been to one of this company’s craft fairs and it was pretty good, so we are hoping this one will be better, since it is including the scrapbooking aspect…we will see. Trav is going to be shooting some photo’s both ways as well as around Daytona to include with our other stuff…that is really great ya know, cuz it means that he will enjoy the day too.

I love going to these things, and not really to buy anything (although it’s great when I can find something new and different to buy) but because of all the ideas and inspiration I find at them.

I do some good work, but I can always use help with the start up part of it…

I also love the cute ways that crafters manage to convey their love of their craft…or explain why they can manage to sell stuff to us, the other crafters out there….as in this sign I saw a few years ago at a sidewalk craft sale….”Yes I know You could do this…the real questions is: Will you?”

I’m not sure there is a craft out there that I have not tried my hand at except maybe Stained Glass. And I’ve found something wonderful about each and every one of them.

I don’t really have a theme to this post, just rambling, as you may have already figured out all by your self lol

Anyways, maybe I'll have some glorious things to blog about when we get home Saturday, if not I'll let you know.

Happy Birthday Mom, I miss you.

Good nite all

A New Way to Browse Our Merchandise

A New Way to Browse Our Merchandise

If you follow this link, http://agoraphoto.biz/agoramerch.html it will take you to our new merchandise page. Scroll down and click on the icon of the specific type of merchandise that you are interested in and you'll be able to watch a slide show of only that type of merchandise. Keep in mind that any picture in our galleries can be made into any item we offer. Over 350 different items! Just send us a message at traveler@agoraphoto.biz and we'll discuss all the possibilities with you.

Crafters

you know, someone mentioned something on the radio this morning that really made me stop in my tracks. it wasn’t the most profound thing I had ever heard, nor was it poetic or offensive…but it was alarming. what he said was “Today is January 25^th, 2008, can you believe Christmas was a month ago, today?” then he said “Only 11 more shopping months to go”

I don’t think he understands crafters…it isn’t shopping days/months, it’s crafting days/months. and if we are honest with ourselves, most of us want to start on next year before this year is even gone yet…once we get into the swing of it, we want to go on forever. Starting in January or February would be ideal for us….plenty of time to actually plan out what we want to make? no way!!!! plenty of time to find all the components of those items…plenty of time to create or assemble said items (without hot gluing buttons to our thighs). no pressure, no headaches, no major disasters, because we have TIME!!!!

Dream on sisters ;o(

What really happens to us is we THINK about all of this and then LIFE gets in the way. We have lives outside of crafting don’t we or is it the other way around? We have to work, we have to do laundry, we have to nurture our families, we have to work oops, already said that lol, cook, clean, grocery shop, visit relatives, go to parties, all those things that normal people see as the ordinary scheme of things. We do not see it that way, life sometimes gets in the way for us…not that we don’t love life, but it makes us face reality. not a good thing. So then what happens? We put it off and put it off, or start 200 projects but never really manage to get done with any of them and we dream, we dream of a world where we could truly devote ourselves to our passion - creating! Creating what is not always the question either, we just HAVE to create! So we do, on Christmas eve I was putting the finishing touches to the family gifts...gifts that should have (could have) been done much earlier in the year, except that the real world got in the way (real world in this case = total kitchen remodel).

Oh well, like the man said, we still have 11 months to do with what we will. How bout we make a pact - you and me? How bout we make it our New Year's Resolution to get at least ONE project done per month this year...just one every thirty (30) days. That shouldn't be that hard, should it? And then by the time Christmas rolls around again we will be 11 gifts closer to our dream.

Let me know how that works for you and I'll let you know too. See ya tomorrow (I hope) goodnight

I WON!!!

You're not going to believe this, but I won a prize today!!! There I was, just leasurly scrolling though the Stone Accents Studio's newsletter, when BAM!!! MY name just Jumped out at me!! and this is what it said:

SAS-y Pride Winner

Oops, we forgot to select a SAS-y Pride winner for the month of December. The winner of a $5 gift certificate to the boutique is Yelowflower MO. Each month we pull one random winner from members who have shared links to their blog or other places on the internet where they've displayed their SAS-y Pride. You can still show your pride and be eligible to win for January. Check out the SAS-y Pride forum for more information.

You coulda knocked me over with a feather! I am SO excited cuz now I get to go SHOPPING!!! and you all know how much I love to shop. lol

When I find what I want I'll share it with you and I might even be able to show you something I make with it, we shall see.

Thank you SO much for the great gift.

Today's giggle

GOVERNMENT

HEALTH

WARNING

DO NOT

SWALLOW

CHEWING-GUM !!

Frustration

You know, sometimes I forget just how fortunate I really am...like the last two days...our connection to the internet has been popping off for no reason that we can figure out...just shutting down, right in the middle of what ever. I am about ready to scream! Trav called Embarq and a really really nice guy walked him thru all kinds of stuff and finally we ran a temporary phone line straight to the modem and he said THAT'S IT!!! No more errors on the line, you should be good to go. Hurray!! I'm Happy again...for about 45 minutes. Then the storm hits and guess what? It went out again! I told Trav, he said it might be the storm, let's see what happens when it's over. Ok, that seems reasonable. Ok, storms over and guess what? It went out again!!!!!! GGGGGRRRRR. I'm not at all sure that I will be posting this entry tonight cuz I don't know if I will have internet access!!!

Where does the fortunate come in to all of this? well, I'm fortunate to have Trav, who made the call to the company. I'm fortunate to have a warm, dry place to wait out the storm. I'm fortunate to have a computer and internet to complain about. I'm fortunate to have many things that others may not have...and I still complain...just can't please me sometimes can we? lol

Oh well, guess I"ll try posting this while it is up and cross my fingers and toes.......

Just a reminder

That Trav has a blog also and todays post is interesting...let us know what your opinion is on this



http://travelerstales.wordpress.com/


I'll try to come back later and write another post as this one really is not mine exactly, but I make no promises lol

Monday nite

Here it is, Monday night, sitting here thinking that I have to go back to work tomorrow and it seems like the weekend hasn't even gotten started yet! And I know that is not true, because I really ended up getting a fair amount done...Including shopping on three of those days! That is a new record I think.

Friday nite while Trav, Althea and Jesse scanned artwork, I visited about 6 stores in G'ville...ended up spending all my money at the Red Fashion Emporium (Target for the uninitiated) as they seemed to have put almost all of their ladies wear on sale for 75% off...managed to find some sweaters and some rather nice t-shirts there as well as a couple things for the nephew. Not too bad. And we did our usual Saturday shopping despite the massive storm system that tried to make us stay home...found a thing or two at That Target too, nothing as good tho. And then today we decided to head for Chiefland for Trav to snap some shots and I stopped at the Beall's outlet there...found 3 suits and being as this is Monday I got that 15% discount PLUS I had a full card so got 20% off of that total. Saved about 35 bucks! Seemed like a deal to me. Course now I have to stop buying clothes until after I lose a few more pounds, gotta save some of the fun for the next milestone, right?


Well, those are my rambles for today, hopefully I'll talk at you tomorrow, have a good night!

Been kind of a busy week end, but really can't say that I have much to show for it, hhmm, that's not how it is supposed to work. Doing some cleaning and organizing in my craft room, at least of the part of it I can get to without a bulldozer...that's not much, but it is a start. Getting the laundry done, finding the kitchen table so I can play with the Cricut we got before Christmas. Those types of things...not really fun, but tomorrow I can do fun things cuz it is a real holiday day off, not just a normal weekend with it's normal chores. I would really like to find a couple of flat surfaces in this house that are not covered with some project or another!!! I fear this is a pipe dream however, as we always seem to have 20 million things going on and none of them are EVER finished!!!! lol

Just thought I would drop in and say hi on this break and to ask for a favor from YOU my loyal readers (lol)...could you please leave me a comment or two every now and then with some inspirations? What would you like to see in this blog? recipes? crafts? everyday 'stuff'? instructions? and if so, of what? That would be really really helpful in writing something that you might find interesting. (remember you can leave your name or not, either way is ok) Thanks in advance for your help and I"ll talk at ya later.

Wednesday

Morning everyone! How's it going out there in the real world? Any new stuff to report? Same here, not a darn thing!

Just takin a break here at work and trying not to give in to the desire to start a bon fire under my desk to help thaw out. It is COLD in this office! I do not know the actual temperature, but my hands are blocks of ice and my nose has no feeling at all! The only good thing is that I am pretty sure that there is not a germ in the world that survive here right now. That very well may be the purpose, but you know, I can't survive in here like this for long either. I go into hibernation and get really really grumpy when you wake me up lol somewhere I have a joke about that, I'll go find it and put it on here. it's funny. it's ME!!! lol

well that's it for right now, just wanted to try to live up to my resolution to post every day. Trying is the operative word here. lol


UPDATE - Found it....

I Want To Be A Bear


In my next life I want to be a bear.

If you're a bear, you get to hibernate. You do nothing but sleep for six months.

I could deal with that.

Before you hibernate, you're supposed to eat yourself stupid.

I could deal with that, too.

If you're a bear, you give birth to your children (who only weigh half a pound) while you're sleeping and wake to partially grown, cute cuddly cubs.

I could definitely deal with that.

If you're a mama bear, everyone knows you mean business. You swat anyone who bothers your cubs. If your cubs get out of line, you swat them too.

I could deal with that.


If you're a bear, your mate EXPECTS you to wake up growling. He EXPECTS that you will have hairy legs and excess body fat. He KNOWS not to get between you and the food.

Yup... Gonna be a bear.

Tuesday

Morning all, just thought I would pop in for a sec and let you know that Trav has added some merchandise to the Zazzle site, please stop over and have a look http://agoraphoto.blogspot.com/
You might find something you just can't live without...and if you know of one of his photographs that you would like on any of the merchandise, we will do our best to customize it for you, just let us know. Thank you SO much for looking and for your support (sounds like a commercial that used to show on TV lol)

Today is special

Today gets a second post...it is now 9:55pm EST and the date is January 11, 2008. What makes today so special? It is my son's 28th birthday. I have been thinking about him most of the day, so I figured this would be a good time to talk about that. There was this joke in the family when I was pregnant with him, about when he would be born...his daddy was a huge football fan (the Dolphins were HIS team) and our wedding anniversary was on January 10th, so it was a toss up which he would choose - the super bowl or our 4th anniversary. Well, we were sorta half right, turns out he wanted his own day, he held on for 1 hour and 38 minutes into the 11th. So, he and his daddy watched the Rams beat the Steelers in the super bowl together...that was pretty kewl. That was only the first time they sat together staring at the TV...his daddy liked cartoons almost as much as he did, so they watched them together a lot.

Blond hair, blue eyes and a smile that could make you grin just to see it...that kid was just too cute for words...not that I am at all biased - lol.

I find it hard to talk about him now...no one really wants to listen, ya know. My family pretty much all left the state and closed the door behind them, so it's kinda hard. But here goes anyway...

When he was four he was diagnosed with Hypertrophic cardiomyopothy with arterial compromise. Awfully big words for someone so small. Basically what that means is that he was very ill, his heart didn't beat correctly and when it did it would squeeze the coronary artery closed. He also had a hole in his heart, grade four heart murmur. Pretty serious stuff. His pediatrician contacted a friend of his, a pediatric heart surgeon who had recently retired and asked him to come take a look. He said no, but he sent his replacement, a really good young doctor, who was willing to do surgery to help stop that squeezing. Open heart surgery in 1985 was not really all that common, and even less common on children...it was a bit stressful not knowing what was going to happen, but when the Drs. (there were two, the young one and one on staff at Shands) came in to speak with us the night before and the young Dr. asked if he could pray with us, my stress level plummeted. The surgery went without a hitch, what a relief...we were really hoping that meant no more heart attacks...praying would be a better word. Things did look good, we went home soon after and aside from lots of meds every day, it was all good. He couldn't run and play like other kids his age, but that was okay most of the time, he sorta understood what was up. Things went well for a while, we got him enrolled in school, took a trip down south to visit his grandparents (he got to FLY!!) and he got a pony lol, what more could a kid want?

It's funny just how much we let go of memories if there is no one to share them with, I can't seem to recall, off the top of my head, all the little details from that time. I should be able to, it was really important, but I can't. I have it written down somewhere, I'll have to go look it up soon, but not right now.

Anyway, on the morning of Nov. 6th 1985, I got him up to go to school and he wasn't feeling so great, looked a little pale, not too bad. His daddy came home from work and after a few minutes said that I should probably take him in to get him checked, not good to take a chance. So I got him dressed, called my mom and asked her to go with me. On the way into town (we live 7 miles out, it was pretty much all woods at that time) he started getting worse, by the time we made it to town he was doing really bad, we went to the ER and they called the ambulance to transport him the 20 miles or so to Shands. I placed him into the arms of the EMT (who was a friend) told him I loved him, got in the car and we followed the ambulance into Gainesville. That was the last time I ever got to say those words to him - while he was still alive. It seems that heart attacks were not the only possible outcome of his condition, strokes were also. He died that day. He was only 5 years old.

It was a really long time ago, and I have come a really long way since then...and I still can't tell this story without tears. But I will continue to tell it as long as I am alive - because that is the only way I know how to make sure that he is not forgotten...he wasn't long for this world, but he touched a lot of people in a lot of ways. Not the least of who, was me.

In Loving Memory of
Shane Michael Moss
1/11/80 -- 11/6/85

Orange Bread/Coffee Cake

I just love making this...but because we are no longer eating everything that dares show itself to us, I haven't really been doing much baking. But...I love this!! So, I made it, prepared it the night before, put it in the fridge to bake in the morning. Imagining a wonderful smell permeating the entire house, starting the day off on a positive note. Pretty much my very first thought upon awakening was about this...don't forget to preheat the oven, make sure that it stayed all together, oh I am SO looking forward to this!!! So up I get and turn on the oven...takes for EVER to heat up!! (could have been my imagination, but I don't think so lol) It's finally ready to use!! YAAAYYY!! So in it goes! Set the timer for 45 minutes, this leaves us about 15 minutes to enjoy this once it comes out, then, wrap the rest up and TAKE IT TO WORK!!!! (this is how we are getting away with baking really good stuff!!). I am really looking forward to this! Yumm! It starts to smell pretty good in here...I go get ready for work. Ok, it's time!! I check it, oops, looks like it needs a few more minutes, not brown yet, ok...I get my lunch ready. I check it...looks good! I make the glaze then take it out of the oven and flip it onto the plate I have waiting...hhmm, what is that? There seems to be an awful lot of liquid in that pan. Why? What is it? Wait a minute, that's the Butter!! Why is it swimming in butter? The butter should have been incorporated into the body of the coffee cake....look closer at the center...IT"S NOT DONE!!!! Oh no! It's already taken 5 minutes extra, leaving us only 10 to enjoy it, NOW I have to figure out what to do with it, it's out of it's pan...Trav to the rescue!!! He pulls out a cookie sheet, we slide it on and put it back in the oven. We check it every 5 minutes...we leave 10 minutes late for work. We have our cake AT WORK as we are sharing it with everyone there (split it in half, both offices deserve to share in the bounty). It didn't work out quite the way I had planned, but it still tasted good and it most definitely gave me Blog Fodder, once I got over being devastated by it's betrayal! I'm, thinking that next time I won't let it sit over night in the fridge, I think the butter solidified and didn't melt correctly during the baking, because, altho I preheated the oven, I did NOT preheat the bundt pan, so it went in cold, took a bit to heat up then still had to melt the butter, that was once distributed evenly over the other contents. This turned out to be a "not good thing". LOL

Anyways, I thought you might like to try this recipe, it really is very good and it could be fun to make this with a kid, since they seem to love to get things all messy!.

Orange Bread

3/4 cup sugar
1/2 cup chopped pecans
1 tablespoon grated orange rind
1 (3 oz) package of cream cheese cut into 20 squares
1/2 cup butter or margarine, melted
2 (11 oz) cans of refrigerated buttermilk biscuits (packages should have 10 biscuits each)
1 cup sifted powdered sugar
2 tablespoons orange juice

Combine first three ingredient in small bowl: set aside

Separate biscuit dough into individual biscuits; gently separate individual biscuits in half. Place a cream cheese square between the 2 halves, and pinch sides to seal each back together. Dip in butter, and dredge in reserved sugar mixture. Stand biscuits on edge in a lightly greased 12-cup Bundt pan, spacing evenly. Drizzle with remaining butter, and sprinkle with remaining sugar mixture.

Bake at 350 for 45 minutes or until golden. Immediately invert onto a serving plate.

Combine powdered sugar and orange juice, stir well. Drizzle over warm bread. Serve immediately.
Yield: one ten inch coffee cake.

Enjoy!

New year is off to a great start!!!

Well, we are so excited!!! We set up a little display of Traveler's work yesterday. All items are for sale and we are hoping that this will generate some interest in his work. He is a wonderful photographer, as you all know (or will know after visiting our site, www.agoraphoto.biz ) and I think that people really will want to own some of his work, once they have a chance to see it up close.

The display is at 'The Red Barn' on Highway 27 between Williston and Ocala, right on the corner of Hwy 326. The Red Barn Country Market is a beautiful place to visit and enjoy breakfast or lunch. The inside is divided into 3 areas, the two sides being roughly equal in size and the center being a little smaller. When you walk in the doors you are at the drink fountain and cashier area, very open and airy. If you go to the left, you are entering into the Deli and the main dining area. Here is where you would order your meal and watch them prepare it. They are proud to serve Boar's Head products. Their prices are reasonable and the food is good (we know cuz we eat there). If you go to the right side you will enter a little Art Gallery...The owners, Mary and Arnold, are encouraging local artists to display and sell their work. There is a stained glass display, water color pieces, another photographer as well as original artwork prints on canvas. I think it is just SO cool that they are promoting the arts, not just talking about it like so many others have done. There is limited floor space, of course, but they have allowed us room to show our work and we are really happy with that. There are a few tables in there for diners to admire the art while they eat. As well as breakfast and lunch they also cater, so be sure to give them a try. Their address is 13201 W. Hwy 326, Ocala, FL. Phone 352-690-2276 and Fax 352-622-2276