Playing with photo editing

I have been very busy the last few weeks and finding time to give you something you might remotely want to read about has been difficult. I decided to share a couple images I have from the beach. I love taking photographs but with digital I love turning them into art! Using Photoshop or other photo editing programs really lets your inner artist come to life. With the 2 images here you can see the different feel you can give an image with different effects.

Surfer Dude

Passages

The problem is deciding which effect you like the best! I will share more beach images in the next few days before summer is over. Hope they inspire you to take a deep breath and relax a bit!

Cold Brewed Coffee

My Guilty Pleasure! Yum, Mocha's
I love mocha's but in the summer it is to hot for me to drink hot drinks. I have just not been able to "warm" to that idea. So iced coffee was a great discovery for me. Then I truly became a coffee snob when our local coffee shop started offering "Cold-Brewed" coffee. It was soooo good! I looked it up on the Internet and found my favorite toy. The Toddy. This is the Toddy. They are offered at Borders bookstores, Seattle's Best coffee shops, on line and I'm sure other places. I started using Seattle's Best Saturdays blend but have tried their Beach house blend for my past 3 batches and it makes a good cup also.

Now these are the next necessities. Your milk, or half and half, (which Land o Lakes has great fat free half and half) chocolate and a mug. Getting the right mix is not an exact science. It depends on your taste, the size of your mug and whether you use milk or half and half. So here is the basic simple steps to a great cold cup of coffee.

Open up you Lb of coffee.

Take a few minutes to sniff that wonderful aroma!

I have a hard time getting past this step!

I did not stick my face in the bag, the blue around

my mouth is reflection off the bag.

Get out your grinder and grind up that coffee!

My kitchen smells like heaven. (Will there be coffee in heaven? I sure hope so.

Any way after you have it all ground you will put it into the Toddy.

Sorry about the out of focus image but can't you just imagine that wonderful smell!!! Go ahead put your nose right up there and close your eyes and breath in. Nothing? Well where is your imagination?

Now you add 4 cups of cold water slowly. Let stand for 5 minutes and add 5 more cups. Make sure all grounds are wet. Then I cover with a plate and let it sit overnight or 12 hours. Sorry I forgot to tell you, you do have to plan ahead. When you make your last cup, mix up the next batch so the next day you are ready to go. This is what it will look like after you add the water.

Now you don't usually have to give me an excuse to buy cute antiques. When I found these adorable small spoons I knew what I was going to do with them. Perfect for stirring my coffee! Aren't they beautiful? It's all about the experience as well as the taste :)

What comes out of your Toddy is a very concentrated mixture that you will keep in the carafe in the frig for up to 2 weeks.

I usually put equal amounts of coffee and half and half then add liquid chocolate (hold over mug, squeeze for a count of um... 6 to 8. depends on how fast you count. lol) then stir. Add water, taste then add water till the taste is good to you. For me it's half mixture and half water. Again it depends on the size of your mug and your personal taste.

The final product! Yum, Miranda just finished baking fresh blueberry scones so I feel a cup of freshly made Cold-pressed coffee calling me. Have a great day!