Hi Again Everyone!
PP, Wow, what a gorgeous variety of fall color in your new avvie! Great picture of you, by the way, especially for taking it yourself with arm outstretched!
Great idea, to make first a Halloween tree (that'd be really fun!
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), then a Thanksgiving tree, then a Christmas tree! I might have actually done that if I'd heard that idea it in time!
PP and
Sandy, I know what you mean about needing to keep chili pepper spiciness "within reason"; I agree,
PP, they can definitely get way too hot if one isn't careful! The more seeds that get left in them, the hotter they get, so I was careful to remove as many of the seeds as possible before beginning to boil them. The result was just hot enough to be pleasantly hot and spicy, but still within reason, like
Sandy said. If I'd left all the seeds in, though, it might have been unbearable!
Sandy, it's a synchronicity that you also are about to put up a little tree
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, and that you mention habanero peppers.
![Very Happy :D](./images/smilies/icon_biggrin.gif)
I was just reading about them the other day, and, from the description, you were quite brave to work with them (and your nephew's even braver to eat them!
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), because they're some of the hottest peppers around!
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I can see why you might have gotten burned and now wear gloves (smart idea!).
Here's what I read about habaneros the other day (in "The Spice Lover's Guide to Herbs & Spices," by Tony Hill):
"This little beast is the stuff of legend in the chile world, the hottest chile that occurs naturally. It ripens to the most brilliant orange color, nature's first way of saying 'Look out with this one!' Just one of the quarter-sized chiles has given a two-gallon batch of my fresh salsa almost too much heat to bear. If Mother Nature had warning labels, this would be the first to get one. I recommend wearing rubber gloves when you work with them, and by all means, don't touch any part of your lips, eyes or face. They will get you a free ride to the emergency room if you're not careful."
The guy at the check-out counter at the stationery store said the same thing, that the wrapping paper looked right out of the 60's!
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It definitely does have that "retro" appeal!
I know what you mean about those "stinker" photos that we all have tried to take of ourselves at various times; I have several of those too!
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But, actually,
Sandy, I
like yours!
![Very Happy :D](./images/smilies/icon_biggrin.gif)
I mean, as
Lilly said, it may not be the "best" photo in the traditional sense, but it definitely has kind of an "alternative" appeal, and would be great in this type of art I've been reading about recently called "altered imagery," where you take old photos, or ones you don't like or that didn't turn out well, etc., then alter them in various ways (and the more "unusual" poses they are, it seems to enhance the avante-garde, artistic feel!
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).
For example, if they're regular photos, you can apparently soak them in a bleach solution, which removes the first layer (the cyan layer) of emulsion, leaving the magenta layer on top (or even soak them in liquid Drano
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, which has other various weird effects), then paint or color on them with magic markers, and score them with various tools to make them look old and ratty, etc. If they're digital photos, you can also alter them with various computer graphics programs, and print them out. Then you can use them as part of a mixed-media collage piece, along with other photos, miscellaneous papers, "ephemera" of all sorts, and even odds and ends from the hardware store
![Shocked :shock:](./images/smilies/icon_eek.gif)
, then put them together to make altered book covers and all sorts of art. The book I currently have out of the library on altered imagery has all sort of unusual example and creative ideas!
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I haven't tried any of these techniques yet, but reading about it does kinda make one want to experiment!
All right, everyone, in support of
Sandy, for being so brave as to put up that photo
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, I'm going to put up a "stinker" photie of myself that I took just this morning, where I tried to approximate the same pose as
Sandy. Say, we could even have a
"Stinker Photie Extravaganza", and whoever felt so inclined could post a similarly "stinkery" photo of themself as well, just for fun and laughs!
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Just an idea ...
Here's mine (kind of looks a little intense and almost mildly psycho, does't it?
![Laughing :lol:](./images/smilies/icon_lol.gif)
You can also see that my hair's getting darker again, since I haven't henna-ed it again recently):
Lilly, I have plenty of those photos of lamps, ceilings, the floor, etc. When we were kids, my mom joked that someday we should make a whole photo album of just those kind of really bad photos, since we had so many, definitely enough to fill at least one entire album!
Laura, glad to hear you're off in the big truck with your hubby having fun!
Lots of love to all
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,
Aqua Deb