Just a Little Post

Just wanted to post this because I thought it was funny. My uncle takes great pictures. I really like his camera, it's a great point and shoot, and he definitely takes some really nice pictures on it.

We were at a wedding reception and he asked his daughter to take a picture of him and my aunt in front of the beautiful view of the window. She tried and kept saying that their faces were too dark. She took 5 or 6 and they all turned out beautiful in the background, but too dark for the subjects. He took his camera back and started fiddling with the settings, then got frustrated and put it down, saying the camera wasn't working and he didn't know what setting to use. I suggested using a fill flash to which he replied "I never ever use a flash. This camera does things that yours will never dream of without having to buy $1000 dollar lenses for it." I gave up, took a photo on auto with my flash, and said no more.

You win, Uncle Kenny.

The Most Important Recipe I Own

**Note - I originally wrote this for Deviantly Domesticated back in August of last year. Be sure to check out the site and sign up to get your free ebook!**

1 C flour
…1/2 C salt
2 tsp cream of tarter
2 tbls baby oil
1 C water
(I also mix in a little vanilla to make it smell nice and keep it from molding)
food coloring

Stir constantly over medium heat. When right consistency, remove and knead. Fold in color when right consistency.

–

Usually my day starts out with two children in my face, sometimes jumping on me telling me “It’s morning time mom! Time to get up!” Sometimes it’s very refreshing; other times I just want to curl up and go back to bed. Today started like usual, followed by my normal facebook update check and a trip to the gym. My son kept saying to me all morning “Mom, I want to do something special today. Can we make playdough?”

I have been teaching both of my children (Ethan, 4, and Cadie, 2) how to cook a lot lately, so this sounded like a good recipe for the day. I measure out each ingredient for them and let them dump it in a big bowl (usually cutting each part in half so they both get a turn). They each have a wooden spoon and they mix it around into sludge, then I pour it into our special “playdough pot” and heat it up on low heat on the stove. Their eyes get wider and wider as they watch it transform from a gooey mess into a pliable dough. I set it out on the table and start adding the food coloring. Today the consensus was to make orange and purple, so we also practiced figuring out with color combinations would produce the desired colors. Finally, the playdough is done. We break out the rolling pins, cookie cutters, “car squishers” and “noodle makers” and the fun begins. I love listening to their little imaginations go crazy with experimentation. “Mom, look! I make a snake!” or “yummy!” (from my 2 year old. We’re still working on that part.)

I guess this is kind of not only a food recipe I wanted to share, but a recipe for a fun day. Now if you will excuse me, I have a dinosaur to go make.


PS - This post has been linked up!

What Do We Think? Getting There?

Well, still a work in progress, but I think I'm finally getting the hang of this. Although, now the pictures feel a tad dark since I am not working on them at 12:30 at night...

I'm hoping my mom likes the color of the curtains and the carpet better on this one. There is only so much I can do about that....

A Little Bit Stuck

Hey everyone! I could use some help. My mom gave me her stack of wedding photos and asked me to edit them for her, make them look a little bit nicer and try to get rid of that rust color in the background. I have only worked on one photo so far, here is what I have done:

 The Original

The Edit

I started with the Blueberry Glaze filter from thecoffeeshopblog.com. I felt like it made her face too dark, though, so I tried to adjust the white balance and it bleached out her dress. I also felt like the glaze got rid of a lot of the pretty detail from her dress and flowers. Let's just say I've spent the better part of 2 hours working on this photo so far, and I can't get it right. Is there anyone out there who can help me? Any actions you can think of to make this work right?

This post has been linked up in hopes that someone out there can help me :)

Edited: My cousin Rob gave me some suggestions, and I finally found the levels. Yeah, I feel dumb that I just found them. Oh well. Here's what I have so far:

I like this one MUCH better, so much more natural looking!

Nothing New to Post Yet...

I wish I had something to link up to all of these fun parties this week. I have definitely been busy, but I haven't finished almost any of it at this point. Here are a couple of projects I have cooking right now:

-Stocking #8 out of 26. If you want to read the story about the stockings, check out this link from Deviantly Domesticated

-Finishing getting caught up on Project Life. I thought I had it all done for May, but there are a couple of holes that need to get filled

-Painting the living room and hallway. I finally have all the trim in the hallway painted white, just need to do the doors. Then the real work begins; painting the living room. I think I finally might have the shade of gray I want, but we will have to see. So far this has taken me 2 months. Boo.

-I have all the ingredients ready to go to make some homemade granola, I just need to get the motivation to actually make it.

-Still cooking baby, about 9 weeks out. I'm a little tired of all of the testing though. I failed the first glucose test and got really sick during the second one and couldn't finish. I also found out my thyroid is not functioning right, so today I got to go to the hospital for the 3rd time in a week to get stuck with a needle. Here's hoping the results tomorrow will be good.

-I'm also supposed to be scanning in my mom and dad's wedding photos and editing them in Photoshop. My mom doesn't like the color of the background so I need to figure out how to change it, but I think I have 100+ pictures to edit. Their 35th anniversary is Monday, so I should really get on that....

-I made some super cute things for a party for my friend's baby, but forgot to take pictures of them. Maybe I will sneak over there and get some pictures so I can actually have a project to post sometime this week. We'll see.

That's about it for now. I'm tired, it's time for bed. Night all.

Quest to Live Healthier

Well, I blew it. All of the crap I have been eating this pregnancy seems to have caught up to me. I failed my glucose test at my last OB appointment. I have to go in tomorrow and do the dreaded 3 hour test at the hospital, and it sounds like the docs are expecting it to come up positive for Gestational Diabetes. DANG IT! So much for those bowls of ice cream every night. (I should put in a disclaimer that as I am typing this, I am letting myself eat my last Totino's Pizza. I would hate to see it go to waste in the freezer....)

Going through my pantry I realized how much sugar I bring in to our house. Sure, our granola bars may be "Fiber Plus with Antioxidants," but I guarantee they are still full of simple sugars and preservatives. And don't get me started on cereal. Seriously, if you want to buy healthy cereal you have to pay like $4+ a box for it! Ridiculous. So instead I have put lots of Fruit Loops, Apple Jacks, and Corn Pops and let kids eat those to their hearts' content in the mornings while I get some more zzzz's. Even the Honey Bunches of Oats is staring me in the face saying "unhealthy, unhealthy, unhealthy...."

I decided it's time to replace all of the sugary cereals and bars in our home with something homemade and healthy. I mean, you can buy healthy, but it's SO EXPENSIVE, and I even read an article about how healthy cereals still undergo a lot of the same processing the unhealthy ones do that strip away the nutrients and protein from the individual grains. No good.

I searched Google for "homemade cereals," and it astounded me how many of them DON'T HAVE PICTURES. Seriously, people, if you want me to try your recipe that contains some crazy ingredients like flax seed and other foods found in Boulder, YOU NEED A PICTURE for me to want to think that it looks good and make me want to try it. Here are some finds I did come across that had the courtesy to take an appetizing picture of them:

From Just Making Noise

From Firefly Blog

From Happy Money Saver

A major plus is that this week Sprouts is running at 25% off ALL BULK ingredients this week, so it's a great chance to go and get this hippy stuff for 25% cheaper. Hopefully I will like it, and my kiddos too.

My Tiny Dancer

Just have to share a few pics from my Little Miss's first dance class. They are adorable!