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Monday, March 28, 2011

Shoot and Edit - Green

This week the theme is Green.  I didn't really have anything so I just tried to capture a photo of my son's dinosaurs.  Blah.  Then I remembered I took a picture of some plant blooming in my aunt's backyard in Atlanta two weeks ago.  I think it's a neat shot!

My SOOC for this week:


Roar!!

In the midst of this post I logged on to Ashley's blog to get the button for Jill's blog and see that she's going to be talking about grass so I'm adding one more picture that I took on Friday (in jpg format).  We found a baby bunny next to our back porch.  It was so cute!  It stayed there until Saturday afternoon when my husband scared the living daylights out of it trying to put it with its' siblings.




Sunday, March 27, 2011

Homework!

I signed up for a Photoshop e-course and I'm getting caught up. I thought I'd post my first assignment and see if this flickr thing works. :)

Day 2 Homework

Blueberry Muffins

I'm sooooo behind on any craft posting.  I'm trying to get caught up...on life.  Hopefully I'll get a few projects I've done around here posted soon!  Here's a start. :)

My kids told me they wanted blueberries in their lunch last week.  Everyday their lunches came home with blueberries untouched!  So, I stopped putting them in and decided I'd bake something with blueberries instead.  I did a quick search on my Big Oven app (love it) and found this yummy recipe for blueberry muffins.  It was a little more involved than I was expecting but everyone enjoyed them!

Ingredients:

2 cups fresh blueberries (picked over and rinsed), divided
1 1/8 cups sugar plus 1 teaspoon
2 1/2 cups (12 1/2 oz) Unbleached all-purpose flour
2 1/2 teaspoons Baking Powder
1 teaspoon Salt
2 large EGGS
1/4 cup unsalted butter - melted and slightly cooled
1/4 cup Vegetable oil
1 cup Buttermilk
1 1/2 teaspoons Vanilla extract
4 teaspoons turbinado sugar

Preparation:
Place oven rack in upper-middle position and heat oven to 400 degrees F. Spray standard twelve-cup muffin tin with nonstick vegetable cooking spray: set aside. 

In a small saucepan set over medium heat, combine one cup of the blueberries and one teaspoon sugar and bring to a simmer. Use a spoon to smash berries and stir frequently while cooking until berries have broken down, mixture has thickened and reduces to about 1/3 to 1/4 cup. Remove pan from heat; set aside and let cool to room temperature. 

In a large mixing bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder, and salt. Sprinkle a scant tablespoon of flour mixture over remaining cup of blueberries and toss to coat; set aside. In a medium bowl, whisk together remaining sugar and eggs until mixture is pale yellow, thick and fluffy. While whisking, slowly pour in melted butter and oil and mix well. Whisk in buttermilk and vanilla until completely incorporated. Using a spatula, gently fold egg mixture and remaining cup of (flour coated) blueberries into flour mixture until just incorporated. (Batter should be lumpy with some small sprays of dry flour still visible; DO NOT overmix.) 

Using a portioning scoop or large spoon, distribute batter equally among prepared muffin cups (batter should fill cups and mound slightly). Place at least a teaspoon of cooled berry mixture in center of each batter-filled cup, and gently push it below surface. Use a bamboo skewer or large toothpick to gently swirl berry mixture into batter to spread concentrated berry flavor throughout muffin. Sprinkle turbinado sugar evenly over batter. 

Place in oven and increase temperature to 425 degrees F. Bake muffins until tops are golden and just firm (or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean), about 17 to 19 minutes, rotating pan halfway through baking time for even baking. Transfer tin to a wire rack to cool slightly, about 5 minutes. Invert muffins onto wire rack, stand muffins upright, cool 5 minutes longer, and serve warm. Muffins will keep for 2 to 3 days in an airtight container.

The cooked blueberries on top

then swirled

Baked and ready to eat with bacon, of course!



Enjoy!



The Girl Creative


Scavenger Hunt Sunday

This week I decided to play around with textures on some of my photos.  I don't usually think to add texture and they're somewhat new to me so I thought I'd do a little practice on a few :).

DECAY
We built our house 2 1/2 years ago.  My husband planted this tree about two years ago and we just discovered it has male flying ants living inside the trunk.  We're hoping the pest control guys were able to kill them all and save our tree!

GROUP of 3
My daughter and I planted a strawberry plant and noticed three tiny strawberry buds growing.  She's so excited and hopeful she'll be able to eat them soon.

 KITCHEN
I got a new stainless steel pot and used it for the first time last night.  You can sort of see me in the pot.

 Things that make you go HMMMMM....
I think my 2 year old got the slinky all twisted....or was it the 5 year old?!?  Who invented the slinky and why?  They last for about a minute before they get twisted and then you spend more time trying to get them untwisted and once they're untwisted they're all stretched out and will never look the same.  I'm just saying!

ME TIME
Nothing too fancy.  I find myself sitting here a lot.  My husband travels so once I get the kids to bed I sit here every night.  Late.  Teaching myself how to edit and editing pictures.  I used to just read blog after blog.  At least now I using my brain I guess. :)





Thursday, March 24, 2011

Shoot and Edit - Flowers Edited

My goodness, we've had a busy week here!  Two trips to the pediatrician's office and three trips to the pharmacy.  I didn't think I was going to get a chance to do any editing but I just had a moment so here it goes!  What a great new action from Ashley!  Thanks so much for putting that together.  Such a time saver and nice little treat!!













Now I'm off to register my daughter for kindergarten.  tear.

For more fabulous edits:



Monday, March 21, 2011

Shoot and Edit - Flowers

This week's challenge is flowers.  I love taking pictures of flowers.  I took some last week while we were out of town but then yesterday we went to the Arboretum for Dallas Blooms.  My husband loves Azaleas, I love tulips and the kids love to run around so this is the perfect time to go.   I didn't really get too many close up shots but here are a few SOOC shots of flowers.


I thought this shot was neat because if you look closely you can see a little bug on the bottom right side of the tulip.



Just an overview of one part of the Arboretum and I"m not sure what kind of trees those are but every time the wind picked up it looked like it was snowing.

My kids wouldn't sit still at all for a picture but right before we were leaving he sat down next to her and they played for a second.  A sweet moment of brother sisterly love :)




Sunday, March 20, 2011

Scavenger Hunt Sunday

I haven't done this in a while but we just got home from a trip and for some reason I'm feeling inspired despite my exhaustion!  Here are my interpretations for the week:

Chair

I finally was able to convince my husband into letting me get a set of chairs for our living room.  They were delivered the day before I threw a baby shower in January!  I love them!!

Camera phone
This was taken a few days ago while we were visiting my family in Atlanta.  My grandmother had a heart attack the morning we were arriving.  The kids weren't allowed into ICU but they finally allowed us in so here's my little guy playing with my iPhone in my grandpa's lap, showing him how it works. :)

Imperfection
We don't have pine trees like this in Dallas.  They were all over Atlanta.  I was trying to capture one with a sunburst.  It didn't quite work out.  Oh well!

 Shoes
My daughter got some new shoes for spring.  They are a little sparkly!  (Taken with iphone)

Camera
My D40 with my favorite lens 50 mm 1.4.  I also love my cute strap my friend gave me.




Thursday, March 10, 2011

Shoot and Edit - Spring Edited

I'll be honest I just whipped this out and did it rather quickly this week.  I have a child with strep and we're leaving for Atlanta tomorrow so I haven't had much time on my hands!!  I just read Ashley's blog and attempted to do this resizing thing.  I had never tried those steps before.  I'll have to spend a little more time after spring break. :)
SOOC

Edited

Edited and resized with the luminosity blending mode