Sweet Treats: A Mad Tea Party

I've followed the white rabbit to join in A Fanciful Twist's Mad Tea Party of 2010.

Please have a cup of marshmallow topped hot chocolate, and a
cherry topped confetti filled cupcake or two.

No matter if you are late to the party, there's plenty to see and join in next year! Dress up in your shabbiest rhinestones, grab a chunky, rusty key and join a magical party filled with sugary sparkles...

 

 ...then make a wish on your magical teapot... saying, "friendship warms the heart"...

 

...and feel yourself be whisked away to the little Wonderland party of sweets...

...where candied cherries are the sweetest you've ever tasted,

and only the the most magical of jellybeans makes it to the table.

Here's a little tiara for you to try on...

...or you can tuck a sweet pink rose in your wild hair.

Now who broke my clock? It doesn't matter, chocolate covered, sprinkled 

pretzels makes all of those worries go away for now.

 

So, that is where that key went! What a lucky cupcake!

Marshmallows for tasting, or soft enough for throwing.

Sparkles everywhere you turn! 

Which is your favorite, the candies, cakes... or the jewels?

Even the glittery pink cake had a fun time dressing up in some sparkly, vintage jewels.

Crystal chandelier prisms hung from the cake stand adds a whimsical touch.

Well, at least the teapot dressed in a rhinestone necklace for the party.

I wonder where the other rhinestone earring has gone? 

 

Who needs earrings, when you can have crystal prisms!

Sweet peaches... for those needing a natural sugar treat.

Hold on to the key and it will take you back home.

Farewell, friends! I hope you had fun with the party!
I will update the grand list of parties to visit once they are all compiled.

But for now, it's time to be magically whisked back to reality and get some rest.

If interested, my handmade Alice inspired jewelry and the vintage dress seen in this post is available
for sale at my Jeweled Ambrosia shop in my Alice Section!

Family Time: Impromptu Couples Photo Shoot

It was my mother's birthday, and we gathered with all six grandson's for a nice 'ole time at my sister's. Boys, taking a break from the trampoline to devour some cake, us ladies, sitting around chatting, and the one lone male adult was nowhere to be found.

I wondered outside, and here he was, sitting on this roof, reflecting, looking at a cut on his hand from climbing a fence. But, man was not meant to be alone... so I moseyed on over to that swing set behind this adorable shed and heft myself up, all clumsily ninja like. I've lost my stealth.

Then, my sister came out to see what we crazy kids were up to and started snapping pictures.

It turned out to be a good day for an impromptu photo op.

When was the last time you had a little unplanned photo time with your sweetheart? Something you could frame? Anytime is a good time to do it. Seriously, just go grab a friend who can take a semi decent photo, act natural and kind of half hug and stuff for twenty minutes in a semi attractive background. Then upload your photos to Picasa or some other user friendly photo editing program like Picnik, and crop out unsightly background things (like a pooping dog in the corner, telephone line, dead patch of grass or a garbage can), brighten photos or whatever you need for a semi decent shot. It'll be a nice change to have something casual and impromptu.

 And free. Never forget the free part. Have fun with angles and don't be afraid to be yourself. I Heart Faces has lots of good ideas on styling and photo editing. A few more good photography and styling resources here, and here. I will probably go in a add some warmth and haze to some of the photos for a dreamy effect. You can do whatever you want. Making the photos black and white or sepia toned is a nice choice if you question the color or photographer's skills, or if your outfits don't match. Maybe the photos won't be the highest of quality, or won't be blow up poster size, but that isn't what matters.

Feet pictures are safe and trendy. No shiny foreheads, muffin tops, weird hump back shots, windy hair, goofy smiles, half blinks, bra straps, food in teeth, inappropriate giggling, balding spots or gobble necks to hide here.

Perspective shots are fun. And to think I cut almost six inches off of my hair yesterday. I can't believe it was that long, and I, a woman who has sported a shaved head... already miss it.

So un-ninja like, he helped me down. It's nice getting older, and losing our swiftness and agility together. One day, we plan on going grocery shopping in bath robes, slippers and canes, [mildly] swearing up a storm and being rude elderly people to those cursed teens, just for the fun of it.

But for now, we will start [next week] working on getting back in shape together and trimming down those gobble necks and love handles.

Sweet Treats: Graham Cracker, Icing and Strawberry Summer Dessert

I love baked goods... when other people make them. Sometimes, I get excited to bake, but the energy, ingrediant checking/shopping and the stress of eating them while fighting off my boys is just too much.

 Also, the heat. Ovens, especially in {Texas} summer, I would rather avoid. Now, this treat may not be for the high society, elitest of bakers, but maybe someone out there may enjoy it, so here goes.

 I simply break the graham crackers along the perforated lines, smear on some chocolate icing (store bought or you can make your own), top with chopped strawberries and a shot of whip cream. If you have fresh mint, that is yummy on top, but my mint plant didn't move with us when we moved.

Easy, fast, no baking involved, simple ingredients and you make the amount you need in one sitting. Oh, and kids love it. Sometimes, I like to spread just a bit of frosting on the graham cracker and eat it without anything else.

Also, can you believe this monster of a strawberry? It's as big as my hand. Of course, my hands are fairly small, but still, it was huge... and most importantly, delicious.

Sweet Treats: Happy Sundae!

We had a wonderful weekend, and I am excited to close this week, to wake in the morning to a bright and shiny new Sunday to reflect on the Saviour, appreciate my family, set some new goals and be sure to dig into a yummy ice cream sundae, complete with lots of chocolate sauce, fresh fruit and sprinkles!

May your Sabbath be full of peace, rest, love, charity, warmth and lots of sweets.

Creating Heart Bokeh Using Picnik

In this post, I talked about bokeh, and it's beauty. There are many ways of acheiving the look, you can either create a mask for your lens to create it physically or use photoshop brushes. Well, regular point and shoot cameras like mine won't accept a lens nor work in that capacity, and I dont have photoshop, so I decided to create my own... for free.

I used Urban Pink's Palm tree bokeh style, in that it focused on a stream of light around the trees for the inspiration of this photo.

My husband took this beautiful picture on a lovely October day in 2009 from our 3rd floor balcony. We joked with our toddler how we lived in the trees because all of our windows were surrounded by leaves.

First, I uploaded this photo to Picnik. I cropped it, brightened the exposure a bit and that was it for prepping the photo.

Second, I went to "create", then "stickers". I choose the heart sticker under "basic shapes" for this photo. (Click on photos to zoom)

I made one heart in the desired opacity, size and color, then simply duplicated it about 25 times. You duplicate by right clicking on the image and chosing "duplicate".  After that, I duplicated another heart in a different color and kept going. I have a pink, orange, yellow, teal and white. I would probably go with less colors next time, but I wanted full impact since this is a tutorial. With a few hearts, I went back and made the opacity a little less and some a little stronger.

I now continued to spread my hearts around. Remember, they need to clump and overlap in places. I started with a central point and went out from their in thinning tangents for a natural distribution feel.

There isn't much more you can do to the bokeh hearts at this point, because they are only stickers. So any effects you do on the photo won't apply to them. So, save your photo under a working name and close this one out.

Now, you are going to reupload your photo. Notice now, the hearts are flattened and are officially part of the photo.

We now are going to work on making those hearts glow and softening their edges. I first went to "create", then "effects" and used a bit of "ortonish" to enhance the overall color of the picture and the hearts.

Then, I went to "soft focus" and put it on it's strongest setting. When you do this, it softens the whole photo, which is not what I want. So, I go to the tool box that appears and choose my brush size and strength. I take me tool (the circle) and simply erase where I don't want the softening. I erase it from the trees and on some of the hearts so that not all hearts are totally softened.

After that is complete. I save it and go on to "boost". This is what is going to add that glow! I adjust it and save.

After the glow, the softening and color is perfect! BUT, some of the defintion in those lovely clouds on the right is lost. So, I go over to "touch up" and choose my trusty "mascara" wand. I use this tool all the time to bring back definition. I just go over the clouds, the tree line and a few select hearts.

While still under the "touch up" tab, even though some hearts are softer, I would like to blur  some of the edges a tad more.  So I go to "air brush" make a small wand and air brush some of the heart lines.

Now, I go back to the "effects" tab, then to "vingette", and add a soft layer of black. It really adds more depth to the photo and brings the focus where I want it to go.

So, maybe I went a little overkill with the hearts, but this was just an excersize and my first time as I documented my process as I went.  I decided to play with sizes and lessen the cloud of hearts, remove the orange ones and make more clumpings.... and I love it!

I added a few faded white circles to the corners in the larger hearts for some depth. I also removed the "vingette" and the "boost" was bright and beautiful, but I added some "gritty" to the photo to add some character, lessen the brightness and make it more like a dream.

This is merely an example of how playing around with an image and pushing your imagination takes you places you never thought you could go. So, save your work and enjoy! Next time, try hexagons, circles, stars, different colors or all white or a lovely mix :) I would love to see what you do!!

BIG GIANT PS!!! If that above was too complicated, Picnik has a built in Bokeh stamp! It's hearts and they sit at an angle, You just apply it to your photo, adjust the size, hardness and strength and you can edit the hearts on your page. To find them, just upload your photo, go to "create", then "seasonal" and then "valentines". You can either erase them where you want them gone, or hit the "reverse" check box and paint them on where you like. Easy!

*Picnik is a free photo editing tool that you just upload your photos to their website, no need to download the program. I have the ugraded membership which allows me to use the premium features (like mascara), but most of what I did here can be used on the free membership.