Sharing is Caring

I came across this website the other day and have become completely in love with it. Its called PICNIK and its a basic photo editing website. I have photoshop but unless you take a class, read a HUGE book, or have someone teach you, its pretty hard to understand. Who has time for that? Certainly not me. I use it from time to time but usually just get frustrated. That is why I was SO excited to find a FREE photo editing website that is user friendly. It has everything you need for basic editing - frames, coloring, red eye removal, among many other effects. I just ♥ it. I thought I would share this website just in case you haven't heard of it. Below are a few of my BEFORE and AFTER pictures I made while playing around with the website.


BEFORE

AFTER

BEFORE
AFTER

BEFORE

AFTER

(The Boston Temple is gorgeuos no matter what but I just loved the vintage look in this photo)

BEFORE

AFTER

My Mini Valentine

This weekend Deke worked at the fire department and since I don't have Tyler next weekend I decided to have my Valentine's with him early. I asked Tyler a few weeks ago if he'd be my mini Valentine (I ask him every year) and to my delight he said yes. My husband is of course my true Valentine but just look at this kid.... I mean, can you blame me? THIS lady just ♥'s him!

We started off by making heart shaped sugar cookies and decorating them with mountains of sprinkles and chocolate chips.

I had more pictures of him and his cousin Jonathan making the cookies but realized that I didn't have my memory card IN my camera. I hate when that happens.

Then he made this cute little heart shaped wreath. We love wreaths in this house.

Ok, he was SO done with me taking pictures of him. lol

Here are the delicious cookies!

This wasn't part of the Valentine's fun but I thought it was too pretty not to share. This is the candy bar pizza I made for the super bowl. I made one for us and another for the firemen. I love any excuse to visit Deke when he's on duty... hehe...HERE is the recipe!

♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥

Valentine's Day Craft

I found this adorable heart wreath on The Idea Room website and thought I'd create one of my own. I cut out 276 three inch round pieces of felt (no I didn't count them, I just did the math), folded them twice, and then pinned them onto a heart shaped foam wreath.

This project was VERY time consuming so I ended up doing it at work on my breaks as well as a home when I should of been sleeping. But needless to say, I am very pleased with the results.

Here are the materials

I bought a few different packages of pins before I found the ones that worked. Save yourself the trouble and buy these!

After folding it twice stick the pin through the bottom like so and then push into the wreath.

Here is the wreath part way completed. Notice I placed the felt closer together than shown in the original tutorial. Once I realized that I felt I was too committed to turn back so I just went with it! I still like the way it turned out though :)

Lemon Zest Cupcakes with Raspberry Butter-cream

Talk about a FABULOUS Valentine's Day dessert! Check out the recipe to create these scrumptious cupcakes!

Cupcake batter:

• 1 cup butter or margarine, softened
• 2 cups sugar
• 3 eggs
• 3 teaspoons grated lemon peel
• 1 teaspoon Mexican vanilla
• 3 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 2 cups sour cream

Directions:

1. In a mixing bowl, cream butter and sugar. Beat in eggs, one at a time. Add lemon peel and vanilla; mix well. Combine dry ingredients; add to creamed mixture alternately with sour cream (batter will be thick). Fill greased or paper-lined muffin cups with 1/4 cup of batter. Bake at 350 degrees F for 25-30 minutes or until a toothpick inserted near the center comes out clean. Cool for 10 minutes; remove to wire racks to cool completely. For frosting, cream butter and sugar in a small mixing bowl. Add lemon juice, vanilla, lemon peel and milk; beat until smooth. Frost cupcakes.

Butter-cream

Frosting:

• 1/2 cup butter, softened
• 1/2 cup fresh raspberries
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1/8 teaspoon salt
• 1 (16-oz.) package powdered sugar (add more if you want a stiff consistency for decorating)

Preparation:

1. Beat first 4 ingredients at medium speed with an electric mixer until creamy.

2. Gradually add powdered sugar, beating at low speed until blended and smooth after each addition.

Note: Be sure to wash and thoroughly dry raspberries before adding to frosting.

Talk about DIVINE!

Somethings Missing...

Since I've started night school something has been missing from my evenings, oh yeah - dinner. I get off work at 3:30, pick Tyler up from the Boys and Girls Club, get home around 4, attempt homework with Tyler, leave for school at 5, get home almost at 8, get Tyler to bed, do MY homework, and then hit the hay. I hardly think about my forgotten meal until the hunger pangs hit me in the a.m. (5:30 a.m. to be exact).

My solution to no time for hot meals is to drink my dinner instead. I decided to start with a healthy green kale, spinach, pear smoothie. Sound good? It was an interesting concoction but the healthy rewards are blog worthy. Kale and spinach are rich in folic acid, fiber, protein, and consumption is recommended daily. This drink will satisfy you longer, stabilize blood sugar, and promote a better mood - all 3 are much needed for me. I've listed the recipe below, give it a try :)

1 heaping cup spinach leaves

1 heaping cup chopped kale leaves

1/2 pear

1 frozen banana

1 1/2 cups cold almond milk (or soy milk or orange juice)

1 tablespoon honey

Remove kale leaves from their rough center stalk and coarsely chop. In a blender, combine kale spinach and almond milk. Blend until no big kale bits remain. Stop blender and add banana honey and pear. Blend until smooth.

Compliments of Joy the Baker

Homemade Baby Shower Gifts

For my sisters baby shower I wanted to make some of the gifts. I decided to make a little play blanket and some flower clips. I didn't take any pictures of the flower clips but I'm sure you all know what they look like - black, purple, and white flowers with rhinestones, the end.

The blanket however, took more thought and time. I got the idea from a friend who had made one for her daughter, her tutorial is HERE. I made the ribbons 4 inches instead of 2 inches and I also sewed a baby wipe bag in the middle to add that crinkle feel - we all know babies love textures! I added some toys (from Walmart) around the blanket and there is still plenty of room for my sister to add more. Hopefully the little darling likes it!

A Little Lady Is On Her Way

Today my mother and I threw my sister Heather a baby shower. Our theme was pink. She is due February 28th with her first child and we couldn't be more excited for her. As you can guess she is having a little lady and she has yet to be named. Tyler, my son, refers to her as "Question Mark". Here are some pictures of "Question Marks" first party.

The Decorations:

I spent my breaks at work making all these pom-poms!

Cute little clothes line of newborn onzies!

The Food:

The belly cake made by yours truly:

I wanted to frost "bye bye tummy hello mummy" on the top of the cutting board but I didn't have room. So instead I just typed up a sign.

The Presents:

The Games:

In this game you had to guess what mommy wants for her soon-to-be lady. Does she want her to have the attribute of mommy or daddy?

Everybody loves a good game of BINGO right? I like this one because you are forced to pay attention to mommy opening her gifts.

Here I am with the mommy-to-be! One more month!

Throw away a BOOK?!?

That was my response to Deke when he suggested I throw away this book while re-organizing our bookshelf. I have a passion for reading and I cherish the books that I have accumulated over the years and he wants me to throw one away?!?

Apparently Deke was talked into purchasing this book from a co-worker and after reading a few pages completely lost interest. He claimed he would never pick it up again and didn't want it wasting space on our bookshelf. OK, I agree we shouldn't keep books we don't want but I was having a hard time considering just tossing it.

So instead.......

I decided to make a craft out of it!

4 hours, 5 glue sticks, and about 50 burns later I had this masterpiece to place beautifully beside my beloved bookshelf! I found this AWESOME book wreath tutorial HERE.

I think its very complimenting next to the bookshelf, wouldn't you agree?

The only thing I changed in the tutorial was to add the long black ribbon in opposed to her short loop. I think the long ribbon added some class!

Ohhh it feels good to be resourceful!

A basket of flowers

A friend of mine asked if I'd make a cake for her mothers birthday. She said she wanted chocolate and flowers, here's what I came up with: a loosely woven basket weave topped with yellow and pink roses.. on a chocolate cake of course.

Does it look like it took forever? Well it did but not as long as it would of taken if I didn't have such a wonderful, helpful, and talented husband to help me make all those roses. He made the pink and I made the yellow. I am always so grateful for his help.

Treasure find

Today Deke and I went to a few Estate Sales that were in Cameron Park. I love browsing through other peoples stuff and finding little (or big) treasures. I found this cute retired Alice and Wonderland snow-globe and I couldn't be more excited about it. For anyone who knows me knows that I was OBSESSED with Alice and Wonderland when I was a child. So much in fact that I changed my name to Alice (my family still teases me about that). It was also a childhood dream to get a job as an Alice character at Disney Land. So when I found this snow-globe I knew I had to have it. I thought it was kinda pricey at $25 but got it anyways then came home and found it on ebay for $100! I don't plan on selling it but it made me feel better about the price I paid :)

Deke found a few treasures too. He got a collectors edition of The Adventures of Robin Hood, a book on Abraham Lincoln, and a Johnny Cash vinyl record set (he collects vinyl), all for only $6! Their trash our treasure :)