Photography Box

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A while ago I asked The Other Half to build me a white photography box. And eventually, enough time went by, and he created it. You’ve seen some things photographed in it, already.

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It has 12 LED lights at the top, set in the silver thing you can see at the very top of the box – I can’t show you a photo of the lights because they will destroy your retinas! Retina burn, not fun. :) But here you can see the shadows from the LED lights.

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He also made me a shoe ramp, which can be used to mount smaller items to photograph as well. I will likely get some white cloth to use in the box, as well.

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And here is a photo of something sparkly, just because.

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The LED’s are awesome to photograph with, and if you set the aperture low, you can get these little sparkly stars of light.

NaBloPoMo, NaBloPoMo 2014, photography, The Other Half

NaBloPoMo Bundles – Final Edition

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Yesterday I spent my day sorting through the first 700 blogs on the NaBloPoMo blogroll. The numbers do not add up.

I am totally mentally exhausted. I’ve divided the list in two to try and avoid confusion and to try and make it a little more manageable..

Here is the first list I was working from – NabList. I’ve tried to fix the URLs so they work, because www.blogname.wordpress.com is not a url that works at all, nor is www.blogname.blogspot.com and I’ve cleaned out all the double ups.

The bundles are a pretty awesome thing, and you do not need an inoreader account to be able to view them. Just click on the link and you’ll be taken to a screen that looks like this –

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You’ll mostly see photos and titles but if there was no image in the post you might see just text. You can browse by scrolling down the page and if you see a photo or title that interests you, click on the title to visit the blog.

You can browse the first bundle of blogs here –

NaBloPoMo 2014

I now have a new bundle which I am starting to build from the second list. I’ll be going through and trying to add as many blogs as I can today but it may take me till the end of November to finish this project, especially if I want to keep commenting on blogs every day..

UPDATE – The second list is now completed.

If your blog is on the first list or the second list but is not in the first or second bundle, it means I could not access your blog, or that there was no feed associated with your blog. I have kept a record of each missing blog and why it is missing, so you can contact me and I can let you know why yours is missing.

You can browse the second bundle of blogs here –

NaBloPoMo2 2014

There is also my “keepers” – blogs that I connected with right away and know I want to be reading long after November is a distant memory. If your blog is not on this list, do not worry – I just need a little more time to get to know you. :) All the blogs I have added thus far will be staying in my feed reader for now.

You can browse the keepers list here –

NaBloPoMo Keepers 2014Updated 23/11/14

It is possible that I may not finish this commenting challenge. I have 10 days left, 2 of which will be taken up on an overnight trip to Canberra – you’ll hear all about that in early December – so that leaves 8 days to comment on just over 700 blogs. I hate to not finish things but at the very least I will finish creating the second bundle.

There are now 65 73 blogs on the NaBloPoMo linkup which is a pretty decent number – you can add your blog to the linkup via this post.

Apologies to my regular readers –

The fact that I can create bundles of the blogs is such a great thing and I’m excited about it. I promise this will be the second to last NaBloPoMo post here – the final post will appear on December 1, which will be a final wrap up and links list.

The post originally scheduled for today will appear much later today. :)

This post was updated on 23/11/2014.

NaBloPoMo, NaBloPoMo 2014

A Quick NaBloPoMo Thing

I’ve been adding the blogs to Inoreader, and I have created two bundles.

You do not need an Inoreader account to check out the bundles.

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It will look like the above image, awesome huh? You can scroll through some lovely images and post titles and sometimes text from posts. You can click through and read the posts. You might find a new blog or few to read. :)

NaBloPoMo 2014 – This one contains 613 feeds. (Updated 19/11/14)

NaBloPoMo Keepers – This one contains 65 feeds – blogs I felt right away were long term keepers.

If you are taking part in NaBloPoMo and your blog is not on the keepers list, it is me, not you. I just need a little more time to read and get to know you before I declare you to be a keeper..

Update –

I have gone through the links list today and added in the missing links – the bundles have been updated with the missing blogs. :)

I’ve done all the work of adding in nearly 700 to the feed reader, so you won’t have to. And believe me it is not a very fun job.. right click, copy link, paste, add “feed” behind the /, hit the + button, hope I got the feed URL right and it loads.

I hope that by the end of this month I will have added in all 1427 URLs.

We also have the linkup still going – click here to add your blog.

The NaBloPoMo blogroll is now available split into two groups – the blogs I have added to the feed reader with any double ups removed, alphabetised, and URLS fixed for the most part – NabList Fixed – and the as yet not added blogs with double ups removed, alphabetised, and the URLs fixed – Nablist 2

NaBloPoMo, NaBloPoMo 2014

Calibre Book Sorting

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The Other Half and I have a huge collection of E-books now.

Over 14 thousand books at last count, many of which I (or we) have never yet read.

November was already crazy busy, what with

– trying to leave comments on 1,427 blogs – which is 47.5 comments each day if I want to finish this commenting challenge

– walking 5km every day on my borrowed treadmill

– chicken chores, house chores, cooking, general life duties

Somehow we have decided that now would be a good time to sort through these books! We’re using a free program called Calibre which allows us to grab metadata from the web for each book to make sure the info is correct, plus you can choose from different covers if the book had several different covers over the years.

Deleting A Book.

How do I make a decision to delete a book I have never once read? This is a tricky one, but the answer is actually quite simple on some occasions and within 5 seconds of loading the book, I say delete – if the other half has not already hit the key. Here are my rules for deleting a book.

– If the cover involves a bare male chest, delete.

– If the cover has a half naked lady, delete.

– If the cover has both a bare male chest and a half naked lady, delete.

My sister reads a lot of erotic fiction and somehow we’ve ended up with all of it in our collection.

So if a book survives the cover inspection?

Is it a book I have heard of? If no, then –

Is it an author I have heard of? If no, then –

A quick read of the book summary can usually tell me everything I need to know if I will like this book. Hey, I’ve known me for 39 years now, so I know what I like.

I like mysteries. I like books with medical examiners, detectives, police officers, investigators of some kind as the central character. I like airplane stories, zombie stories, stories of surviving an apocalypse of some kind, I love everything from Jane Austen to Stephen King via Jodi Picoult plus Tom Clancy. I *love* an autobiography. Overall my tastes are wide and varied and I’ll give most things a try.

Right now I am reading The Skin Collector by Jeffrey Deaver which is another Lincoln Rhyme book – you may remember The Bone Collector which was a movie with Denzel Washington and Angelina Jolie – there is a series of 12 books with those characters.

Yesterday, I was reading Hard Choices by Hilary Clinton. Last week I revisited Lizzy and co in Pride and Prejudice. Before that I checked in on Tom Ripley. Did you know there were 4 more Ripley books after The Talented Mr Ripley?

Physical Books

A few years ago I did go through and put in all my actual books into Library Thing. You can see them here. However I have probably added 50 or more new physical books, plus some books that I got in e-book version I took to the second hand bookstore and traded for new books.

Over To You –

How many e-books do you have?
How many real books?
Have you switched to an e-book reader and if yes, do you prefer it?

About Snoskred, books, e-reader, NaBloPoMo, NaBloPoMo 2014

Some Things I Know For Sure

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Travelling across the interwebs, I sometimes stumble on a Thing that makes me want to rant. Today, I am feeling ranty about grocery shopping. I will like to share a few things I have learned in my 39 years here on this planet with you –

The Less Often You Go, The More You Save

Unless you are incredibly determined and motivated, most grocery shopping trips will result in one or more “impulse” purchases. You’ll see something you had no intention of buying on special and put it in the trolley. For me it is usually crumpets, Starburst Babies, potato chips and dips. So if you go once every fortnight instead of once a week, less impulse purchases will = more $$ saved..

Junk Mail Is Useful

Those catalogues most of us get every week from the supermarkets – you can sign up to receive those via your email now, or you can view them online. Why would you want to do that? Because you can suss out the specials before you even leave home. If something is on super special at one place and you need to restock it, you can find out via the catalogue, and go in there with a very strict list of things you need.

In Australia? Here are links to the email sign up pages for – WoolworthsAldiColes (view online only)IGA (view online only)

Saving Can Be An Effort

There have been fortnightly shopping trips where I have been to IGA, Aldi, Coles *and* Woolworths, all in one day. Why? Here’s a hint. Supermarkets make more money because in general, people only want to go to one place to shop. The big specials are designed to make you pick their store that week, because they think you’ll buy everything else there once you get in the door. They even have a term for these specials – a Loss Leader.

Don’t play by their rules – there is nothing saying you have to do all your shopping in one place. If you will save significant money purchasing items you regularly use across two or more stores, then do that. :) I’m lucky where I live because Coles, Woolworths and Aldi are right next to each other.

Buying Many Can Save You Headaches.

Buying several of an item you regularly purchase can be a great idea, especially if the item is on special. If you know you use certain tinned items or items with a long shelf life regularly, it makes sense to buy those things in bulk when they are on special. You will buy them eventually anyway, having them on hand means less trips to the supermarket.

Buying In Bulk Can Save You $$

This should be obvious. I think anyone who has ever done a price comparison of things is well aware of this fact. I will like to talk specifically about some ways we use this in our household. I bulk buy things that I know we will use eventually and store them well, so they will be there when we want to use them.

Chicken Roasters

We like a Lenards chicken mini roast once a week, but the nearest Lenards to us is a 100km round trip. So when we go, I will pre-order 8-12 chicken roasters and bring them home in insulated bags with ice packs. We have a Foodsaver, and they go into the deep freeze. They cook up beautifully even after being frozen *and* I usually get a discount for buying them in bulk.

Toilet Paper, Paper Towel, Tissues, Anti-Bac Wipes

These are things I use regularly. I’m going to continue to use them regularly. I will be spending money on these things no matter what, so it makes sense to buy them in bulk and save the $$. Plus, there is nothing worse than Running Out Of Toilet Roll As A Surprise To Yourself.

Buying Cat Related Bulk Items

Cat Food

I have seen no signs that my cats plan to stop eating anytime soon. :) They will always need food. If I buy it in bulk from our local pet store, this is good for two reasons – it supports a local business *and* it is cheaper than the supermarkets. We save over 20 cents per tin of food, which is $20 per 100 cans. Plus, we buy kitty litter and chicken food there in bulk.

Kitty Litter

I *hate* running out of kitty litter. With 2 indoor only cats we use plenty of kitty litter. Recently we have discovered a new brand at our local pet store called Trouble & Trix Lavender Litter. This stuff is amazing. The cats really like it, when they bury their doings or you scoop it instead of bad smells, a lovely lavender scent is released into the air, and the litter clumps, which means it lasts a lot longer with regular scooping and just the occasional top up. We’re down to changing it once a week at most, which saves us money. Plus, this!

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Meats In Bulk Can Be Good, Too

The Other Half is the cutter up and Foodsaver of meats – in particular chicken – in this house, however, having to do this job regularly leaves him irritated and annoyed. If we buy 5-6kg of chicken breasts in bulk, and I ask him to do the chicken cutting up job once in a blue moon instead of regularly, then we freeze the results, it could be 2-3 months before he has to do this job again.

He cuts breast chicken into steaks – for me to eat when he has a red meat steak – pieces – for our regular Honey and Mustard chicken tonight dish which we enjoy – slices – for chicken and bacon pasta or stir fries.

Next time I am hoping to up the amount of chicken to 8-10kg and then we might go 4-5 months without a chicken cut up session. I’ll let him play some music while he does it, which will make him less irritated and annoyed. Happy times for all!

Pantry Staples Are Important

Right now I have everything I need in this house to make 2 weeks of Pizza. If we leave out the bases -I get a killer woodfired herby pizza base from Aldi and normally I buy 4 at a time because they are vacuum sealed and keep for ages – I have everything we need to make 5-6 weeks of pizza. I’ve got everything I need to make at least 8 recipes we regularly eat right here at home.

Sometimes Fresh Is Best

Sometimes you want something fresh cooked special. For me that is usually crumbed chicken with potatoes. I don’t like to use frozen chicken for that recipe, though I certainly could. There is something about the entire process of making crumbed chicken from fresh ingredients which is comforting to me, probably because my Grandma and I used to make it together a lot.

Also, you have to use fresh meat in the slow cooker. Those recipes get made close to shopping day, for obvious reasons. Which leads us to..

Meal Planning Is Awesome.

Sitting down and coming up with a list of meals you would like to make for the next week or two weeks seems like a daunting concept, until you do it. And once you do it, you’ll likely want to keep doing it. But this does not mean you have to eat all your meals on a set day. It just means those meals which you need super fresh ingredients for are best planned for cooking right after shopping day.

Regular Set Meal Days

Some people like to regularly meal plan a roast on a Sunday, or Pizza on a Friday. We’re not quite that regimented around here but we usually do eat pizza and a roast sometime around the weekend.

Things You Wouldn’t Usually Buy

This week I bought a large bag of red capsicum (bell peppers to some of you :) ) – they were on special, they were *not* on the meal plan, and suddenly I had visions in my mind of a roasted red capsicum and potato soup. The other half looked at me weird, when I picked them up, and he said wow, that is a lot of red capsicum. I’m about to go roast it in my new roaster, with some potatoes, and then make it into a soup. I’ll share the recipe! ;)

What do you know for sure about grocery shopping?

Share it in the comments! :)

food, kitties, life lessons, NaBloPoMo, NaBloPoMo 2014, shopping

Shoe Sunday – Skechers Memory Foam

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This is my go-to pair of shoes for running errands when errands are going to take time and I need something super comfortable. They have a memory foam sole which is like walking on a fluffy cloud that does not move under your feet – like a real cloud probably would.

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I like that they do not have actual laces, but the elastic used in place of laces does keep these firmly attached to your feet. I also love the rainbow coloured elastic they have used.

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These shoes were purchased during the Waikele shopping stop on our 2013 Hawaii trip, along with the Adidas Climacool posted about previously, and several other pairs of shoes. I went to the Skechers clearance outlet with very high expectations because I had previously enjoyed 2 pairs of the exact same shoes from there. Alas, those shoes were discontinued and I was not to have a third pair..

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You can see the rainbow Skechers in amongst the other pairs I bought at Waikele.

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NaBloPoMo, NaBloPoMo 2014, Shoe Linkup

NaBloPoMo – Half Way Done!

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We’re 15 days into NaBloPoMo.

How are you going? Have you posted every day?

Here are some great things I have spotted in my NaBloPoMo travels..

Taco Mac-n-Cheese Casserole Meal – You can bet I will be making this soonest!

One Pan Wonder – This is such a great idea and my new and awesome roasting pan will be perfect for this. I also think maybe this would work great with shrimp or fish, only putting those things in in the latter minutes of cooking, and I would use white wine, garlic and lemon. Alternatively, par boil the potatoes first which I am wont to do.

De-Clutter: Kitchen Counter – Another one from Angie and I have to say as someone who recently went through this declutter process – the end results are so worth it, so stick with it. :)

Cherry Pie Shortbread Thumbprint Cookies – Yummity yum yum! ;)

Honey Parmesan Pork Roast This is also from Adventures in all things food. I love a good pork roast. :)

Friday Fixins: 6 Kickass FREE Stock Image Resources – This is a handy resource for bloggers. :)

Better Than Starbucks Pumpkin Spice Latte – Where I live in Australia as I am typing this, it is nearly 100F (40C) outside. So I made this into a smoothie frappe thing, with icecream, instead. :) It works just as well that way!

Spaghetti aglio olio e peperoncino – Super simple but so, so yummy!

Rao’s Famous Lemon Chicken – I love a good lemon chicken. :) Something in me always wants to add lime as well to these things, but I will resist the urge.

Upcoming Projects I’m DYING To Create – The kitty litter box is a great idea though I do think our cats would want more height. We have a screened in back porch on our list of upcoming projects and we will be adding a box like this in there. The Other Half is excellent at making things, as y’all know.

pies: apple cider apple pie – This looks so tasty and I love to combine apples with cheese.

Milky Salted Caramel – Yes, I know, this was from April, but someone linked to it and I love this recipe. :)

Marzipan cake fruitcake tart cheesecake sweet lollipop chocolate cake – Day 5 – I love a text generator and this is much more awesome than Lorem Ipsum.

Pozole Rojo – This blog made me so hungry. :)

Three Recipes I want to Make Right Now – I’m going to add bacon to the baked macaroni thing. :)

This Secret Will Self Destruct in 10 Seconds – I totally have a vault and if you ask me to keep your secret, I will take it to my grave. SRSLY.

Easy Peasy Pecan Rolo Pretzels I love Rolo! This makes me want to go out and buy a few packets. I think combining them with pretzels and pecans would make them healthier, right? :)

And a couple of non NaBloPoMo reads –

No, you are not ‘running late’, you are rude and selfish – I worked with a girl who was regularly 10 minutes late for her shifts. She was sometimes 20 minutes late. She was sometimes 45 minutes late, sometimes an hour. The trouble was, at the time she arrived, if she was not there, I was leaving someone totally alone to handle everything.

When management refused to promote her to a higher level because of her consistent lateness, she went troppo. But you know what? I was always on time. Everyone else was always on time. Myself or other people often had to extend our shift to cover her lateness. She was completely and totally unfair to everyone else in the workplace. I may not have agreed with management on a lot of things, but on that one I was behind them 100%.

Composting With Dog and Cat Waste – I really want to do this – every time I scoop the kitty litter I feel bad about sending that poop to landfill.. I wish councils actually did this. A lot of zoos do this and sell zoo poo..

The rise and fall of John Delorean – The De Lorean was, and probably always will be, the coolest car ever. :)

Here is the NaBloPoMo Link Up –

Unlike a regular link up – Please link to your BLOG URL, not to a post. :)


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Linkage, NaBloPoMo, NaBloPoMo 2014

Salted Caramel On Icecream

You may remember our Salted Caramel Sauce from Monday.

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Alternatively you can make your own.

This is a quick one. Pop a spoonful of the Salted Caramel sauce into the microwave for 30 seconds or so –

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I always put in some water in to microwave as well to prevent the sauce getting too hot. You could always nuke it for less time..

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Drizzle some ice magic – if you have it and like it – as well as the salted caramel sauce – onto icecream. Super simple but extra tasty. :)

food, NaBloPoMo, NaBloPoMo 2014, recipes

The Kitties & Carter

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Happy, the little kitty has taken to sleeping on the “lap” of Carter just lately. For those of you new to the blog, Carter is our Costco skeleton friend. Want to know more about Carter? – Meet CarterCarter Gets DressedCarter Got Cold.

Happy truly is the most hilarious kitteh we have ever known. Plus she is amazingly sweet tempered, she has never once bitten or scratched us. She is the only cat I have known who allows us to scratch her belly and actually really enjoys a tummy rub, she turns to jelly.

She is not the brightest cat, if we were to put it into kitty terms, she is a few kibble short of a full bowl. She does not seem to have enormous faith in her own abilities either. It has taken her ages to learn to jump onto the kitchen counter.

Apparently, Carters lap is The Place To Be at the moment. Interestingly the kitties do not find him to be too bony to sit on. Carter moved chairs recently to a spiffy recliner, and his lap has become that place the kitties share regularly. Here is Grumpy hanging out with Carter.

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Carter, kitties, NaBloPoMo, NaBloPoMo 2014