Amazing Asparagus

I made really good fresh asparagus tonight. I did not heat the oven. I made it fast.

Sautee a sliced shallot in evoo. After it softens, add asparagus and carrot ribbons (use a potato peeler).

Season with salt and pepper. Here is the new trick: glaze with a nice balsamic vinegar. Amazing.

Scrap Challenge

I logged into the Scrapgirls chatroom this afternoon for their Mischief Week 'Mess or Masterpiece' Challenge.  We were given instructions for how to pick random papers, embellishments, and one photo.  Amazingly, this photo of Larry as a teenager on his horse was the one the fickle finger of fate landed on.  I completely recolored the papers I got stuck with.  The flower stayed the same, but I recolored the egg and covered the design on it with the flower.  I had some stitching to use that did not fit the mood of the page, so I turned it into a tone on tone flower thing in lower right.

Desaturating to fix an older photo

I need to remember this layer effect more often.  See the difference between the full color and the desaturated one?  (photos from 1980's)   Desaturating got rid of the awful sunglare  in this shot.  To make the layout, I copied the square part with the kids and then put a white layer in between and used the opacity slider to make the base look like vellum.  A tip I got online somewhere.  Sunshine is a word art I downloaded from another scrapper's website.  Gotta love the generous freebies out there.

Fun with PSE Effects

Relaxing with PSE and some pictures from Biltmore House trip several years ago.

 From this:

 To this:

from this:                                                                to this >