After midnight on New Year’s Eve, I like to drink Champagne and eat crab dip with a fresh vegetable plate and ridged potato chips. It’s not the most common food for the first thing all year, but it’s what I’ve been doing for a long, long time. The crab dip is super easy.

Crab Dip 

One pkg. 8 ozs. Philadephia brand cream cheese, room temperature so it’s easier to blend
1/3 cup cream (or milk)
1 teaspoon fresh lemon juice
1 and 1/2 teaspoons Worcestershire sauce
Dash garlic powder
Dash salt (optional)
One 6 oz. can crab meat

Put cream cheese and milk or cream in a bowl. Mix with a fork until smooth. Add rest of ingredients except crab. Mix until smooth. Add drained crab meat; mix well. There you go!

Potato chips are fabulous, but actually the veggies are all super good with some crab dip on them. Happy New Year!

View Macro Friday, Macro Monday, Ruby Tuesday 2, and Color Carnival for more neat photos. Do click on the Sara’s Fave Photos curly type above to see the whole blog here.

Another photo from my daughter, travelling in S.E. Asia. When my mother lived in South Florida and actually grew bananas (she “fed” the grass-clipping mulch with cut-up kitchen vegetable scraps and had the only fruiting banana plant in her neighborhood) I was amazed to learn that bananas grow pointing upwards. Somehow I had always assumed that the fingers pointed downwards.

Visit SOOC Sunday (straight out of the camera), Outdoor Wednesday, Scenic Sunday, Color Carnival, and Mellow Yellow Monday for interesting captures on a theme (photo memes). Before you go, check out a new theme or tag here, and thanks for visiting. Remember you can always see the full blog by clicking on the banner Sara’s Fave Photos.

Happy New Year to all. I wish you, my loyal readers, all the happiness and love your heart can hold, in 2012 and always. And I wish you the joy of creativity! When an artist contemplates his or her work, it is one of the moments of true happiness that we have in this life. The world of the internet has brought people together in ways we never could have imagined. I am thankful every day for this blog (and my computer) which connects me to so many. Thank you for viewing my photos, and especially thank you to those who have taken the time to leave thoughtful, interesting comments. Much appreciated!

Amazingly, this is my 1,000th post! What a lovely coincidence.

If you have a moment, check out Skywatch Friday, SOOC Sunday (straight out of the camera), Outdoor Wednesday, Scenic Sunday, Watery Wednesday and Pink Saturday. Because I just want to keep looking at this image, I’m calling it my Best Post of the Week. Do click on the Sara’s Fave Photos banner for the entire blog.

A beam of sunshine, a couple of blooming houseplants, and a close up lens. Ah!

Visit Pink Saturday, Shadow Shot Sunday 2, Today’s Flowers, Weekend Flowers, Macro Friday, Macro Monday, Macro Flowers Saturday, Floral Friday, Color Carnival, Ruby Tuesday, Weekend Reflections, and Cactus Monday for great memes. Check them out! And the banner above with Sara’s Fave Photos will get you the complete blog here.

My daughter Lila is travelling in S.E. Asia for a few months (lucky!!) and has been sending updates and photos to friends and family, courtesy of the internet, of course. The days of a postcard arriving months later are over, or at least are supplemented by more timely stories and images. This view of a river and the sky was taken in a small Cambodian village where she got to stay with a local family overnight.

Visit Skywatch Friday, SOOC Sunday (straight out of the camera), Outdoor Wednesday, Scenic Sunday, Weekend Reflections, Watery Wednesday and Pink Saturday. And if you’d like to see the rest of the collection here, you can search by your interest in the upper right search field, or just click on the Sara’s Fave Photos banner for the entire blog.

It’s finally raining, although softly, so I went outside for the pretty raindrop display on the coral bark Japanese maple tree. We have gotten almost no rain for the past two months and usually get 5 or 6 inches in both November and December. The garden (and I’m sure the ski resorts) really need the water. Not to mention it’s put a crimp in my scenic shots for Watery Wednesday!

Other fine photoblog memes are Macro Friday, Macro Monday, SOOC Sunday (straight out of the camera), Outdoor Wednesday, Scenic Sunday, Ruby Tuesday and Weekend Reflections. See my neighbor’s house in that middle raindrop? I think that is so cool. And you can find lots more photos here by clicking on Sara’s Fave Photos any time you like.

Peruvian lilies (alstroemeria) look so good, and I thought you might like to revisit some summer flowers from my garden. Aren’t the little red lines cool? They are very easy to grow but can take over. Right now I don’t care and just want color and sun!

Check out Shadow Shot Sunday 2, Today’s Flowers, Weekend Flowers, Macro Friday, Macro Monday, Macro Flowers Saturday, SOOC Sunday (straight out of the camera), Floral Friday, Outdoor Wednesday, Scenic Sunday, Color Carnival, Ruby Tuesday,  and Mellow Yellow Monday for endless photo fun. Browse around here by clicking on the banner Sara’s Fave Photos to see the whole collection.

There’s a family not too far from me that really goes all out in holiday decor. The years that this address makes it into the newspaper holiday light guides the cars are double-parked outside, but this year no one called it in, so we were able to enjoy it in peace, you might say. See Santa waving? This is only a small part of the display. I love  over-the-top shows like this, don’t you?

A very merry Christmas and holiday celebrations of all kinds to you.

Visit Thursday Challenge (Light), Outdoor Wednesday, Scenic Sunday, SOOC Sunday (straight out of the camera), Color Carnival, Ruby Tuesday, Pink Saturday, and Mellow Yellow Monday for a romp through the world of photoblogs. Click around here first, if you have a minute. The banner Sara’s Fave Photos will get you the complete blog.

Here’s one of Seattle’s hidden gems, the Volunteer Park Conservatory, all decked out in its bright new LED lights. They were installed not only for the winter holidays but also to kick off its 2012 Centennial celebration. I read that there are only three remaining Victorian glass conservatories in the U.S.A.— this one, the smaller one in Tacoma, WA, and the one in San Francisco. What an architectural and historical treasure we have here!

Visit Thursday Challenge (Light), Skywatch Friday, Outdoor Wednesday, and Scenic Sunday, for fascinating photo frolics. Click around the blog here first, if you have a minute. The banner Sara’s Fave Photos will get you the complete collection.

In honor of tonight’s Solstice, I am featuring a photo taken on the other Solstice, the first day of summer in June. Please enjoy these pink peonies from my garden. In just a few hours, the sun dips to its lowest point in the northern hemisphere, and then begins its stately progress towards more light. We are ready.

You might like Today’s Flowers, Weekend Flowers, Macro Friday, Macro Monday, Macro Flowers Saturday, Pink Saturday, SOOC Sunday (straight out of the camera), and Floral Friday for some fun in the world of photoblogs. Click on Sara’s Fave Photos for the complete blog here, and thanks for visiting!