Camy's Loft

Reading a Grace Livingston Hill novel sent me on an internet search ...

2012-05-25T13:55:00.000-07:00

For 1929 women’s fashions, and I found this webpage with stunning gowns from 1928-1931.

The book I was reading was Ariel Custer, which has a copyright date of 1929 so I’m assuming it was written around 1927 or 1928. In the book, the hero is rather put off by the bold, brassy flapper girls his mother keeps pushing on him, but I wanted a picture of what they would have looked like, hence the internet search.

Some of the gowns on the webpage (the photos are from a charity fashion show) are absolutely beautiful. They’re also in much more vibrant colors than I would have expected, but then again I might be influenced by the fact there were only silent black and white films produced at the time, so maybe a part of my brain was thinking everybody walked around in black, white, or gray colors. :)

My favorite is the first gown, the tangerine beaded one. I wonder if all that beading was hand-sewn? It’s gorgeous! A close second is the 1929 green silk crepe. Yes, not the pink one (gasp!) because I don’t like the rather ugly diamond pattern of the fabric right over the woman’s chest. Really, so many of those gowns are absolutely beautiful.

Anyone looking at my internet history might be alarmed

2012-05-25T11:55:00.001-07:00

I searched for “symptoms of depressions” and “cancer treatments” yesterday, but I promise I’m okay! I’m doing research for a book I’m writing for Guideposts’ Miracles of Marble Cove series. It’s a feel-good Christian women’s fiction series with a light mystery thread. Here’s the series blurb:

Discover what's possible when four friends, bonded by shared secrets, delve into life's mysteries and begin the adventure of a lifetime! Escape to Marble Cove, a quaint seaside town, and see how these courageous women discover God's plan for bringing them all together.

My books will be books 13 and 17, but you can subscribe to the entire series here.

Calcium supplements might increase risk of heart attack

2012-05-25T09:55:00.000-07:00

I was completely shocked to hear this on KLOVE yesterday and then I saw this article on WebMD.

I don’t get how they say the increase in risk is “moderate” but then they say there’s an 86% increased risk of heart attack. Maybe because out of 24,000 patients, only 354 of them had heart attacks.

Hmm. Maybe I’ll stop taking my calcium supplements and drink milk instead.

Review: The Joy of Pasta

2012-05-24T23:38:00.001-07:00

The Joy of Pasta by Joe Famularo

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I love pasta, so naturally I picked up this book and I'm so glad I did. There are several tomato sauce recipes alone, and tons of different pasta sauces. There are also baked pasta dishes and recipes for making homemade pasta, and what types of sauces to pair them with. Each recipe has a wine suggestion, but I haven't really paid attention to that. I've tried maybe 20 out of the 100 recipes in this book, and they've all been good. I'm eager to try some of the more unusual recipes when I have more time to make the homemade pasta for some of them.

View all my reviews

Tips for saving time

2012-05-24T13:55:00.000-07:00

Right after blogging about limiting my online time, I found this article on SparkPeople.com with tips on how to reduce time wasters during the day.

Some of it is common sense, but others are good reminders, like setting rules for checking email, and going grocery shopping only once a week. Right now we go twice a week because we often forget to think of what to make for lunch for college Bible study until a couple days before, but we could certainly think ahead and go shopping all at once.

Any other tips you have for saving time?

TMI warning: Two steps backwards

2012-05-24T11:55:00.003-07:00

I should have known it would happen, that I’d had too many “good” days, but yesterday I completely binged on sugar and carbs. I mean, SERIOUSLY binged.

SparkPeople.com gave me a daily calorie range of 1200 to 1550 calories a day, and I had been doing pretty good for almost 4 weeks in keeping my calorie intake to around 1300 calories a day, mostly through eating more slowly and changing my food choices and portions through looking at my nutrition tracker on SparkPeople.com.

I only had one day where I went over the maximum (I ate 1800 calories that day) and only three days where I went up to my maximum of 1550 calories. The rest of the time for the past 27 days, I’ve been at 1300 calories a day, so I guess only four days of straying is a really good thing.

But then yesterday I was simply DYING for sugar and carbs. I’d never felt a craving like it in the entire 4 weeks I’ve been tracking my food. I had been really good at staying within the carb range that SparkPeople gave me, even keeping to the low side most days, and I hadn’t craved any sort of sugar or carbs at all for a month.

But yesterday, the carb monster came roaring out of me and I downed half a bag of tortilla chips and 8 cookies that I had thought were rather sweet only the week before. Yesterday, they didn’t taste too sweet at all. In fact, they tasted pretty darn good.

So in my efforts for full disclosure, I ate over my maximum calorie count by 900 calories. Yes, you read that right. That is the equivalent of 9 miles running. Very hard.

Ai-yai-yai. Why do I always do this? I must have a latent self-sabotage hormone that fluctuates with my period.

But no, I am not going to self-flagellate myself. It happened, I will get over it (and maybe go for a slightly longer run, although it will not burn off 900 extra calories).

What kind of scares me is how intense my carb cravings were yesterday. I had thought that keeping in a healthy carb range every day would make those cravings go away forever. Before, when I was training for the Honolulu Marathon and I had eaten too few carbs for the amount I needed for my running, I didn’t have a craving for sugar, I just felt muscle-tired. So I don’t necessarily think the craving yesterday was my body telling me I needed more carbs.

Oh well. Pardon me, I’m ~~going for a run.~~ Update: Because this darn plantar fasciitis is still benching me, I had to ride the exercise bike instead. But I rode really fast.

The (slightly odd) traits of a book collector

2012-05-24T09:55:00.001-07:00

I was reading a book on my Nook the other day, Blue Like Jazz, which we’re going through in the college Bible study my husband and I are leading. After I finished the two chapters I needed to read before this coming week’s Bible study, I went to my Nook library.

I must have spent a good 10 minutes just browsing through my Nook library, looking at all my lovely books, most of which I haven’t read yet, feeling such joy just to have them ready to read anytime I want (assuming I actually have time to read them all--at this point, I might have more books than I can physically read in my lifetime).

I kept seeing a cover and thinking, Oh, I forgot I had that book! How wonderful I have it!

Then I took a step back and looked at what I was doing. I see nothing wrong with it, but Captain Caffeine would probably roll his eyes at me, mostly because he’s not a book collector. (Actually, he’s not really a collector of anything, unless it’s empty boxes that he can’t get himself to throw away. :)

Does anybody else relate to my love of having all these books????

Amusement park or coffee shop?

2012-05-23T13:55:00.001-07:00

Captain Caffeine said, “There’s a new Transformers ride at Universal Studios down in Los Angeles.”

Me: “I think I’m getting too old for that stuff. I don’t get a good enough Return On Investment.”

Captain: “What do you mean?”

Me: “Before, I used to love roller coasters. I didn’t mind paying the park fee and waiting two hours in line for each ride. Now, it’s just not worth it to me anymore. Those are two hours of my life I’ll never get back.”

Captain: “What if you went with your friends and you guys could talk while you’re in line?”

Me: “But it’s hot. Why would I want to spend money to stand in a hot line with lots of people when I could instead spend money to be in a coffee shop with my friends, or go have High Tea somewhere and talk there? I’d be in air conditioning and get scones and Devonshire cream.”

Captain (thoughtfully): “You have a point.”

What do you think? Amusement park or coffee shop? What floats your boat at your stage in life?

A Voucher to Almack’s

2012-05-23T11:55:00.000-07:00

Many of you know I’m a huge fan of Regency romances, and I recently came across this photo of an actual voucher to that elite social club, Almack’s.

I think that’s totally cool! I think one day I’d like to write a Regency under a pseudonym.

Trader Joe’s Speculoos Cookie Butter!!!!!

2012-05-23T09:55:00.001-07:00

I absolutely love this spread! I’m so glad Captain Caffeine gave in to impulse and bought it.

It’s a spread made with crushed biscuits (cookies) that has the consistency of Nutella but tastes kind of like gingerbread. I spread it on some of the ciabatta I’m working through and it’s AMAZING! It’s warm and comforting but not too sweet. I love it!

I had it with a special limited-edition tea called White Christmas by Lupicia teas: black tea with white chocolate and apricots. It’s totally delish.

That adorable cup and dessert plate was a gift from my Aunty Janet and the tiny stainless steel teaspoon was from an old set from my Grandma, so that’s quite a homey photo. :)

Update: They have this spread at Amazon!!!!!

Solar Eclipse photos

2012-05-22T13:55:00.000-07:00

I forgot to post these yesterday (because I know you’re all just waiting with baited breath to see these).

Here’s the photo of the eclipse through a pinprick in a piece of cardboard:

Captain Caffeine had read that you can also view the eclipse through a pair of binoculars, so he got his out and we looked at the eclipse projected onto the side of the house wall. Cute, huh?

I’m such a sucker for buy-one-get-one-free sales.

2012-05-22T11:55:00.000-07:00

Especially when it’s artisan bread!!!!!!! They had a sale at Nob Hill and so I came home with 4 breads, plus the loaf of Nob Hill Dutch Crunch bread I’d gone to get.

I got a ciabatta, a three-cheese loaf, a pugliese, and cheese ciabatta rolls. Yummo! I actually decided to freeze the last 3 and am now eating the ciabatta. I’ll thaw them when I’m done with the ciabatta. :)

Anyone else love bread almost as much as me????

And isn’t it ironic I’m blogging about bread right after blogging about tracking my food intake? But I’ve been really good about recording my bread intake, too. :)

Tracking my food intake changes the way I eat

2012-05-22T09:55:00.001-07:00

Tracking my food takes more time than I’d like, especially if the database doesn’t have the food I’m looking for (like black bean sauce shrimp) or if the food item lists portions as a “serving” (WHAT THE HECK IS A SERVING???).

But it’s been good because often I’ll see what I need to eat to hit my target ranges. For example, most of the time I’ll look and see that I need to eat more protein for the day, so sometimes I’ll choose cheese instead of a biscuit at tea time. Or if I’m high on my fat range, I’ll be careful to go low fat for dinner.

I’ve also noticed that when I know I need to track my food, I start to change how I eat food. I start thinking, “I need to eat only about 1/2 cup of rice” or I’ll weigh that slice of bread (yes I know that’s kind of freaky anal) or I’ll use a measuring cup when I scoop out soup to reheat. It just makes it easier for me to record my food later, because otherwise I’m really guessing at how much I ate.

But I recently read this article on SparkPeople about how a study showed that if you track your food, you might end up losing twice the weight than if you didn’t track your food. Makes sense to me, especially in light of how I’ve been changing my food choices during the day if I’m aware of where I’m falling in terms of my nutritional ranges.

Who else out there tracks your food? And if you’ve lost weight, do you still track your food to maintain your weight?

Trying to limit Facebook and Twitter time

2012-05-21T13:55:00.000-07:00

There have been lots of articles on Facebook since they went public, and there have been a few about people who deliberately refuse to get or re-up their Facebook profiles, for various reasons. Some of them don’t want to do it because it ended up sucking too much of their time.

I don’t think I could NOT be on Facebook or Twitter, but the articles have been making me more aware of how much time I’m on social media. I need to be a good steward of my time.

The other day, I spent half a hour just browsing around on Facebook. While that’s not necessarily bad, if I’m on Facebook when I should be working, that’s wasting the gift of writing full-time that God has given to me.

So I’m trying to be more conscious of my Facebook and Twitter time and trying to limit it to once or twice a day. Let’s see if I can do it!

Kale chips in the dehydrator ... eh.

2012-05-21T11:55:00.001-07:00

Yeah, that was my reaction when I ate them. I think I’m spoiled because I’m used to deep frying them, and kale deep fried tastes absolutely amazing. I think the frying causes some caramelization and so the kale tastes a little sweet, and it’s lost the “green” bitter taste it usually has.

I used this recipe minus the apple cider vinegar. Maybe I need to add that next time? Anyway, I took them out today and they were crispy and salty, but they were still “green” tasting, which I don’t really like.

I think I’ll try this again with the other bunch of kale I have and add the vinegar. I really don’t like vinegar, but maybe something in it will get rid of the “green” taste.

Proverbs 29:11

2012-05-21T09:55:00.000-07:00

A fool gives full vent to his spirit, but a wise man holds it back.

My friend Mary DeMuth posted this verse on Facebook right when I needed it. I’d just read an article by a Christian that insulted me (not specifically, but generally) in a very hurtful, condescending way, and I was so upset I wanted to fire off some angry blog post in response.

But this verse reminded me that it’s not necessary. I have been blessed with a job that is a mission given to me by God. I love what I do and I’m not afraid to admit it.

If I don’t live up to other people’s ideas of what a Christian should be like, whose fault is that? Not mine! My conscience is clear before Jesus, and He’s all that matters.

Now this is our boast: Our conscience testifies that we have conducted ourselves in the world, and especially in our relations with you, with integrity and godly sincerity. We have done so, relying not on worldly wisdom but on God’s grace.
2nd Corinthians 1:12 (TNIV)

Review: Identity Crisis

2012-05-19T22:07:00.001-07:00

Identity Crisis by Laura Scott

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

One of the best Love Inspired Suspense novels I've read yet. The action starts fast and the pace is great. The heroine's character is really likable and the romantic tension is unusual and interesting. I'm a little sad the mystery thread is continued in the next book, Twin Peril, coming out in August, but it was a satisfying book on it's own.

View all my reviews

2012-05-18T13:55:00.001-07:00

Praise God Hallelujah! I finished my synopsis/outline early!

Code Ninjas - learn computer code

2012-05-18T11:55:00.000-07:00

I got information on this opportunity from my friend John Olson. In case you were remotely interested in learning computer code, here's your chance!

From John:

If you’re interested in learning PHP (the language Facebook and Amazon.com are programmed in), my good friend Carl Nasal, the owner of Camna LLC (www.camna.com), is running a similar small group class in PHP. I’ll be helping Carl with his class, and he’ll be helping me with mine.

If you’re interested, please visit our site at http://www.codeninjas.com

Here’s the important info:

Dates: June 19 – August 16 (NOTE: We’ll video tape sessions in case you have to miss a few weeks)

Commitment: 2 hours per week

Java Course Times: Thursdays 1-3pm PT / 3-6pm ET

PHP Course Times: Tuesdays 1-3pm PT / 3-6pm ET

Location: Your own home through live, interactive webinars. (Which means you’ll be able to talk to everyone in the group and watch what the instructor is doing.)

Cost: $360 for the 9 week course

Ages: 14 and up

Programming Experience: No programming experience required, but you’ll need to be able to install software on your own computer.

Requirements: Access to a computer with high speed internet

Questions: Visit http://www.codeninjas.com or call 510-357-4441.

Sign Up: Visit http://www.codeninjas.com

Here’s my bio in case you’ve received this as a forward and don’t know who I am:

John Olson is an award-winning novelist, software engineer and entrepreneur. John has a Ph.D. in computational biochemistry and has been programming in Java for over a dozen years -- including eight years as the Director of Application Research and Design at a major scientific software company. He has published six books: Oxygen, Fifth Man, Adrenaline, Shade,Powers, and Fossil Hunter and has started three internet software companies: HuDDleFish, DitDat and CodeNinjas.

Climactic scene = girdle

2012-05-18T09:55:00.001-07:00

I’m writing the synopsis/outline for a cozy mystery for Guideposts, and trying to think of a “climactic scene” for the end is starting to feel like trying to squeeze yourself into a girdle two sizes too small. You shove and twist and try different positions like a yoga master and nothing is working.

Going "green" in leading worship

2012-05-17T13:55:00.000-07:00

I lead worship music for my church’s Sunday service twice a month, and my team is mostly junior high, high school, and/or college students except for me and Captain Caffeine. (The Captain plays electric guitar, I play acoustic guitar.)

One Sunday, one of my high school singers arrived at church and instead of bringing printed out pages with the lyrics, she had the music on her iPad. I thought that was brilliant!

So this past Sunday, I took the chord sheets (they have the lyrics and the guitar chords on top of the words where you change chords) and put them all in one document. Then I made the document into a .pdf file and loaded it into the iBooks app on my iPad.

I had my iPad on the music stand during service and used that instead of sheet music. It worked great! I had to make sure my iPad’s settings had it falling “asleep” at 15 minutes and not 5 minutes, or else I would spend time needing to wake up and unlock my iPad, and I didn’t want to do that in the middle of a song!

The only thing I need to be more careful of is to make sure the music is correct. I realized that I have corrections on the paper sheets that I’ve made before, and since I reuse my paper sheets, I just had the corrections there, but they weren’t on the electronic versions. So now I have to make sure my electronic versions are up to date. :)

What do you think? Now I’m trying to brainstorm other ways I can use my iPad instead of paper.

Quinoa in my rice cooker!

2012-05-17T11:55:00.000-07:00

Yes, I am the epitome of lazy. While making quinoa on the stovetop is not hard, I wanted to know if I could throw it into my rice cooker and leave it. And it worked!

I don’t know if my rice cooker had anything to do with it, although my cooker is not a super fancy one. It is nicer than the aluminum ones, but not as expensive as my parents’ rice cooker which has a million settings on it. Mine is a 3 cup rice cooker.

I put in 1 cup of quinoa and 2 cups of water and turned it on. After it had cooked and switched to “keep warm,” I let it steam for about 15 minutes (which is what I do when I make rice in the rice cooker) before I opened it.

Voila! Perfect quinoa!

I especially like quinoa because it has a nutty taste and it has more protein than rice.

iPad Mini

2012-05-17T09:55:00.000-07:00

I heard this rumor several weeks (maybe even a few months) ago on CNET.com’s Apple Byte video podcast, and at the time, I really didn’t think Apple would do something like this. It’s not as trendsetting as Apple usually is with their products--a smaller iPad would seem more like Apple is keeping up with the trend, instead.

But then I read this article about rumors that the iPad mini is coming maybe in the fall. Granted, I really can’t believe everything I see on the internet, but now I’m starting to wonder.

I don’t know if I’d buy a mini iPad since I have my regular sized one, and I like the larger screen for watching movies. But if choosing between an iPad mini and a Nook color or a Kindle Fire, I’d definitely go for the iPad mini because the screen and software would be so great, plus the connection to iTunes.

What do you think?

10 Reasons You Eat When You're Not Actually Hungry And What You Can Do About It!

2012-05-16T13:55:00.000-07:00

I just read this article on SparkPeople.com and could really relate, especially the clean plate syndrome. I’ve only recently gotten to the point where I am no longer hungry and I can leave one or two bites of food on my plate, although I still sit there in agony to not eat it. I’ve had to get up and dump the food in the garbage FAST or else I’ll stare at it. Which point did you relate to the most?

Went to Five Guys burgers

2012-05-16T11:55:00.000-07:00

I knew from the Yelp reviews that some people loved Five Guys and some people hated them. I didn’t hate them, but I was disappointed in the food.

For one, they messed up the order: I ordered a single patty with mayo, lettuce, tomato, grilled onions, grilled mushrooms. Captain Caffeine ordered a double patty with lettuce, grilled onions, grilled mushrooms, and A-1 steak sauce.

Also, there was one order ahead of us and no one behind us, they were in a lull between rushes of people. I would have though that with only two orders, they wouldn’t mess up anything.

What was got was a single patty with lettuce, grilled onions, grilled mushrooms and no sauce, and a double patty with lettuce, tomatoes, grilled onions, grilled mushrooms, mayo and A-1 steak sauce.

It wouldn’t have been a problem if we could just exchange buns or patties, but the A-1 steak sauce had been slathered between a patty and the lettuce, which was also next to the mayo. I hate A-1, and Captain Caffeine gets sick if he eats mayo. So even though we exchanged patties and I tried to wipe the A-1 off, I could still taste it. Yuck!

I considered asking Captain Caffeine to complain to a manager, but the bigger problem was that the patties themselves were really dry. Even if we’d gotten the correct orders, I wouldn’t have been happy with the burger because of the dry patties.

Other people on Yelp complained about dry patties, but others had said the patties were great, so before we went, I wasn’t sure who to believe. I am now with the ones on Yelp who say the patties are dry.

However, making up for everything was the fact that their french fries are DA BOMB!!!! The potatoes have the skin on and frying them in peanut oil makes them taste completely awesome.

Would I go back? Maybe only for the fries, definitely not for the burgers.

I was also really proud of myself because I only ate about 2/3 of the burger and only 20 strips of fries rather than the entire thing!