Apples

The Fuji apple has been my go-to apple for years. The skin varies from green to red, and they can be lopsided, but they are usually always nice and crisp and sweet. I find it to be an apple that you can count on. It is in stores all year long.

Fuji Apple

Sometimes I like a Pink Lady. They are tart and light, and dry if that makes sense, but I can't always find them. They often look a little bumpy and uneven. My store did not have any today, so I've go no picture for you.

Last week, my grocery store had two types of apples on sale: Honeycrisp and Envy. I decided I'd be adventurous and try both.

I quickly located the Honeycrisps in the large apple display, but did not see the Envy. I asked the grocer where they were. He proceeded to tell me that the Honeycrisp is the best apple. A big knife magically appeared, and with two flicks of his wrist he had cut a slice of apple for me to try. I tried it, and it was nice.

Honeycrisp Apple

I said, "I usually buy Fuji apples." You should have seen the sneer on his face! This man clearly had a low opinion of the Fujis, my go-to apple! I was about to buy the Honeycrisps, and pass on the Envys, when the grocer asked me if I still wanted to try an Envy. I almost said, "No," but then I thought about it: I already knew that the two of us have very different opinions of Fuji apples. Maybe I would like the Envy despite his abhorrence of it.

Another two flicks of the wrist and I had a huge (the Envy apples were very large) piece of Envy apple to eat.

Envy Apple

I tasted. I liked. I liked it a lot. I liked it better than the Honeycrisp! It was crisp, it was sweet. "It's nice," I said. The grocer was dumbfounded and walked away.

The End.

Actually, that's not the end because I LOVE the Envy apple. It is my new favorite, and I'm going to keep buying it as long as it is available. Or until I get a bad one. The Envy apple even has its own web site. They are grown in the northwest U.S., my favorite part of the world (yeah, it's the only part of the world I know).

If you see the Envy apple in your store, give it a try. I'm glad I did. Maybe it will be your new favorite too.

Goodbye, Liz (the lizard)

I'm sure you've figured out by now that I was not the Cropped champion. Nope, it was not to be. After a little recuperation, I'm back to scrapping, though.

The current obsession is lizards. Several poor little lizards have been caught by Miller and the scientist. And one named Liz was held in captivity for a couple of weeks. He was a cute little western fence lizard. I'm sure he is happy to be back in the wild fending for himself and blazing trails. Or rather, beefing up and finding a place to hibernate.

Climbing Trees and Falling Leaves by Etc. by Danyale; Autumn Watercolor Nature Papers by Dawn Inskip
Kriss Kross Stitched Overlays No. 2 by Anna Aspnes; Sahlin Studio Sept. '14 Template

Thanks for stopping by!

DSD 2014 - What I Bought

I've noticed some trends in the digital scrapbooking "holidays" (Digital Scrapbook Day and National Scrapbook Day) sales. I don't see designers releasing as many products as they used to. I saw a lot of designers who only released one new product, just like a regular week. As a customer, I guess that is a little disappointing, but I think I can understand as well. DSD came the day after Halloween this year, so I'm sure that made things more stressful.

What I have been seeing more frequently are pick-your-own bundle offers - like pick 5 products for $10. Those are really fun, especially when it works out to grabbing several kits for just $1 or $2 each. Sometimes the designers even give you a while to make your selection, so you might have the option of grabbing some of their future releases, depending on the deadline.

Since some of my favorite designers seemed to be taking it easy this holiday, I decided to use DSD as a chance to try out some new-to-me designers. I have seen Dawn Inskip products being advertised/promoted at some of the digi sites, and I picked up some of her things:

Red Ivy's kits have been catching my eye the last several months. I bought her new kit, and I participated in her Scavenger Hunt to get the Add-On.

And then I decided to buy some stitches from Anna Aspnes. I have a few similar sets of hers already, but after seeing some fun stitching in layouts recently, I wanted some more.

I picked up the blog-train collections from The LilyPad, Pixels and Company, and the Digi Scrap Parade.

I didn't do any scrapping on DSD, but I did finish up a couple of Shutterfly books for Christmas presents. I had other responsibilities over the weekend, so I didn't get to relax as much as I would have liked. But it was still a fun "holiday." Thanks for stopping by.