Bite Sized Bits of Yummy Goodness

I love coffee. A lot. Drink it daily. I am a Starbucks Gold Card holder (got mine before my husband--hehe, sorry sweetie, have to rub it in) Well, as we all know afternoon coffee must have some sort of treat, right? Right? I can't hear you! Just repeat after me: Why yes, yes it does. What kind of treat were you thinking?

I'm so glad you asked. Starbucks started to offer Cake Pops and the whole family loved them. Of course I immediately started to wonder how these were made (don't ask, I'm like that with a lot of stuff) and how I could make them myself (and cheaper, of course).
Enter Google Search (of course--how else can anyone find anything?), type in Cake Pops and the first thing that pops (hehe) up is the Bakerella site. Jackpot! So, for the next couple of hours I got sucked into the yummy world of mini cakey goodness in the form of Cake Pops, Cake Balls and Cupcake Balls.  And it just so happened that the first post I see is the announcement for the release of the Cake Pops Book (yay). Off to Amazon to check it out.

I decided to get the Kindle version, so I could prop up the iPad in the kitchen and follow along. Of course getting all the supplies wasn't quite as easy as I thought (it never is, isn't it?). I ended up going to three different stores to get everything. Now, what to make...hmmm. oh, I know. Katie, my 6 Year old, loves pigs. I think that would work for a first attempt. Let's see, what do I need:

• 1 box of Cake Mix - check (I used Lemon)
• 1 can of frosting - check (I used whipped vanilla--yum)
• Pink Candy Melt - check
• Lollipop Sticks - check
• Candy-covered Sunflower seeds (for the ears) - check
• Pink M&M's for the snout - Uh Oh, hitting a snag here--no pink stuff anywhere. Note to self: stock up on pink candy next Valentines Day and/or Easter (and hide them so you don't accidentally eat them). After consulting with a very helpful World Market employee, we came up with Sweet Tarts. OK, that'll work - check
• Edible Ink Pens for Eyes - check

OK, ready to go. First, the cake. If you don't have the book, you can get the basic instructions on the Bakerella site--and sooo many wonderful examples of all kinds of sweet stuff you can imagine. Be warned, though, you will be drooling! Here how I did it:

1. Prepare the cake mix as directed on the box and let it cool completely.
2. Crumble into a large bowl (make sure the little ones wash their hands for this if they're helping)
3. Add about 3/4 of the frosting and mix. This is the messy, sticky part, so you may want to use gloves.
4. Roll your cake balls. I'm not that good at estimating, so I used a small ice cream scoop. Plus, the kids were helping and this was easier for them. I had them do the scooping and I did the rolling.
5. Chill for a couple of hours. If your freezer is big enough, you can put them in there for about 15 minutes (according to the book)
6. Melt your candy dip either in the microwave or in a double-boiler. The microwave might sound easier, but I have yet to be able to get it right. The last time I tried to melt chocolate chips for a yummy strawberry dip desert, I couldn't get the stuff to melt, so I kept microwaving it until I ended up with a stinky/burnt/curdling mess (blargh). We don't mention this incident in this family. So, double-boiler it is.
7. Now comes the fun part. Dip the lollipop stick into the candy melt (just the tip) and gently push into a cake ball. While it's still wet, push two little pink sunflower seeds into the head for the piggy ears.
8. To dry (harden), push the sticks into a block of Styrofoam.
9. When the little piggies are dry we can add the snouts. Feel free to test or, you know, dispose of cracked or broken pops. Gotta make sure they, uhh, taste right, right? I just used one of the lollipop sticks to dip into the candy melt, spread some on the snout-candy and apply to pig face--tadaa, almost done.
10. All that's left is to add the eyes. Now, here's where I had problems. From what I'd read, you must use the edible ink pens, right? Well, I must have gotten different pens, because they were so hard that they started to dent the candy coating without leaving any ink--rats! Luckily, I had also bought some candy colors, just in case I couldn't get pink. I just used a toothpick dipped in candy color and lightly dab on the eyes (worked great for adding the mouth, too)

And that's it! You're done. Oh, don't forget to do some more testing. You never know--gotta make sure they're still good.
P.S.: Like the Frames? They are free from Isabelle Lafrance Photography. Check it out, there are lots of cool freebies, actions and textures.

Hey, it's a Blog-Hop! Amy McMaster from Olive Juice Shoppe started a Fall Recipe Blog Hop and I decided to add my Pink Army of Cake Pop Pigs. This is my first Blog Hop, so I'm excited to see how many great recipes will show up. Add yours today.

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Contest Time at iHeartFaces

I haven't been entering contests over at iheartfaces lately; don't know why really. I think I've been doing way too much multi-tasking. I'm very impulsive when it comes to information. I see some new technique or inspiration for a picture and I'm off to try it; even if I'm in the middle of two or three other projects.

But, this week's challenge was wind and I knew I had a good picture. Here's a small version of it. You can click on the thumbnail and go over to my photoblog for the full post.

Katie singing in the wind

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Mosaic January 2011

Mosaic January 2011
Originally uploaded by scrapgeek/NKMphotos
Yay, I finished the first Month of 2011 for the 365 Project--whoohoo!! If you'd like to see the individual pictures, head on over to my Photoblog. And while you're there, leave me some love (er, comments), would you?
Thanks.

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2 days to catch up...

Yup, I'm still doing the 365! I'm hoping to catch up today, so wish me luck. If you'd like to see what I've got so far, head on over to my Photoblog and leave me some blog-love.

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I'm doing a 365!

Well, isn't this embarrassing! I haven't posted anything since November! Good thing you can't see me, because my face is pretty red I can tell you.

So, to make up for it--and to make myself be better at blogging--I'm starting a 365 project on my NKM photos blog. So far, so good. I've got two pictures done and posted and today's picked out. As soon as I get home, I'll finish it and off it goes. I figure if I tell people I'm doing it, I'll be more likely to follow through, or I'll have to explain myself :&

Well, wish me luck.

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Children's Portrait Photography with Tamara Lackey - Last Day

I'm getting ready for day three of Children's Portrait Photography with Tamara Lackey | creativeLIVE.com. I Didn't catch all of day one, since it started on Friday and I had to work, but I was able to catch some good parts off and on while I had time. On Saturday, we connected my laptop to the 42" HD TV in the Living Room--wow, pretty sweet monitor!

I liked what they did for the studio audience (6 people I think), where they had a studio set up with lighting and backdrop and then they brought in different kids/models. Each audience member got their turn to do a short photo session with the child while Tamara stood by to give advice and assistance--and, of course, we got to watch as well.

Today, they plan to cover the business end of photography and a Post-Processing Walkthrough of the Family Photo Shoot we were able to observe. I'm looking forward to that part! Even if you don't want to know more about or specialize in Children's Photography, there were plenty of general photography tips and tricks from someone who clearly has a wealth of information to share and is happy to do so.

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Organize and share your Bookmarks using Pearltrees

I first heard of this new way to organize and share your bookmarks on the Shadowhouse Creations blog (thanks Jerry). It's called Pearltrees and after trying it out for a few days I really like it. 


Like any blogger, I collect bookmarks--a LOT of bookmarks. So I save them in existing groups and create new groups, and so on, and so on... Of course, the next time I need to find a bookmark I thought I'd saved, it seems to have disappeared into a black hole; so I find the site and save it again. I know what you're thinking just organize your bookmarks into better groups, silly. I did that, but I'm still having problems finding stuff; plus I'm spending way too much time looking for new stuff.  This is where, for me at least, Pearltrees comes in. It's also organizing your bookmarks (Pearls) into groups (Pearltrees), but it does it visually. Once you have a Pearltree, a small status bar stays on the bottom of your browser window and you can navigate through your pearls or pearltrees. You can pick other people's pearls to add to your trees and they can do the same. It's like Social Networking for Bookmarks--really cool. Check out this Pearltree video:




Here is my Pearltree. Check it out, won't you?

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Mmmmm, Cupcakes!

Last February, we were invited to a friend's wedding reception. Katie was very exited that she got to wear her new pink dress. She was having a great time dancing and twirling and eating cupcakes, while her brother was off playing video games and watching TV with the other boys.
There was a beautiful display of a cupcake-tree Katie made several trips to and she actually sat still long enough to get some pictures (yay)
I bought the Finish It and Quickie Action Sets from MCP (love them) ad also used the free MCP Magic Blog It Board Action. I would love to buy the big version, but can't decide which one (Set 1 or 2). Ok, I'd really like both...and a couple others--boy my Wishlist is starting to get big!

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Aaargh. Bugs!

Yay, my Accidental Bee picture made it into Group 3 of The Pioneer Woman's Bug picture Photography Assignment (happy dance)!

That's the second time one of my pictures made a selection! The last assignment was Macros and I entered my Mosquito (or similar bug--wasn't sure, but it looked mosquito-like) on a Tulip (I'm sure about the tulip, they're my faves :D). I didn't make the finals, but I'm happy to just make the group of about 20 or so selections out of millions. OK, so I'm exaggerating about the millions but it's a bunch and I for one think it's pretty cool. Anyway, a finalist group will be selected from each group and then the winner from that group will get the prize. Hmmm, I don't even know what that'll be this time, I just heard bugs and thought, hey, I got some bugs I can enter. There are always tons of wonderful entries and really enjoy visiting everyone's photostream and/or website and checking out their stuff.
I wonder what the next challenge will be about...

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Princess for a Day

On Saturday morning, Katie announced that she wanted to dress up in last year's Halloween costume (a pink princess outfit complete with tiara) and have a Tea Party. She spent some time trying to decide which ones of her stuffed animals to invite, since she only has four chairs.
Well, you don't have to tell me twice, I know how to spot an opportunity to grab the camera to try to capture this event (emphasis on try :D). Of course, I only managed a couple of shots, mainly because her highness didn't want to hold still and the whole event lasted just about under 15 minutes before we declared the party over and is was decreed that we wanted to watch a video *sigh*. I so envy the professionals who used to come to Katie's daycare--Li'l Angels Photography. They always got the best, most natural smiles out of both my kids. I can't seem to get them to stop long enough to try to focus :P
I did, however have the perfect pages on hand--Quickpages (also known as Ploppers) at that. So, all the work of the Layout has already been done and all one has to do is plop pictures into the placeholders. These particular ones are freebies from Vera Lim (vlim_itsmydayqp6 and qp1_antje), so these came together pretty fast.

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iHeartFaces - Week 22 - Barefoot Week

This week is a non-competition week at iHeartFaces, but, unlike other weeks, we are able to post more than one photo. The photos can be anything around shoes and feet.

About Soles 4 Souls: Soles4Souls is a Nashville-based charity that collects shoes from the warehouses of footwear companies and the closets of people like you. The charity distributes these shoes free of charge to people in need, regardless of race, religion, class, or any other criteria. Since 2005, Soles4Souls has given away over 7 million pairs of new and gently worn shoes (currently donating one pair every 9 seconds.) The shoes have been distributed to people in over 125 countries, including Kenya, Thailand, Nepal and the United States. Soles4Souls has been featured in Runner's World, Ladies’ Home Journal, National Geographic’s Green Guide, and The New York Times. It has appeared on CBS, ABC, NBC, FOX, BBC, CNN and thousands of regional news outlets across North America. Soles4Souls is a 501(c)(3) recognized by the IRS and donating parties are eligible for tax advantages. Anyone can join our cause, and we need your help.

I am definitely not a foot-person. It's kind of like nude beaches--invariably, you only see the people who should really keep their clothes on!
I feel the same about feet, always have (usually, the people with the most gnarly looking toes wear the most revealing, open shoes) Summer is especially offensive; don't get me started!
I never thought that would change, until I had kids (of course, you probably say). I just love those chubby little feet with the even chubbier tiny toes. Ok, enough blubbering, here are my pictures of my favorite little people in the world--well, of course they are, they're mine :D

This is Katie's first time at the beach after we came back from our Adoption Trip to China

More to come here...

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All done...I think

Well, that wasn't as bad as I thought it would be! I tried out the (relatively) new blogger in draft and picked a template I liked, shuffled a few gadgets around and presto--a new blog page.
OK, maybe it wasn't quite that fast. I did have a nice background I had picked for my NKMphotos blog, but I didn't want to use exactly the same one, so I just re-colored it and thought I'd just upload it back to the site and use it--NOT! I guess I'll have to put that request in the next version suggestion box :D
But with a little research I discovered that I just needed to add a CSS snippet to add my own background. Once that was accomplished, all was well again.

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What's going on here?

If you're wondering why everything looks kind of out of place, I'm cleaning up the blog page. I think it was a bit too cluttered, so I'm removing some and moving other items. Shouldn't take too long. Check back in a while and all will be well again :D

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Smiles

I've been waiting for an opportunity to use this picture of Nick and this week's i ♥ faces challenge is all about smiles!

We took this picture in 2003 when we drove from Washington State to Colorado to visit family. It was July and very hot. I don't remember what we were doing or saying to him when we took the picture, but it must have been funny :D I'm just glad we were able to get this great shot--anymore I have to take bunches of pictures to get one good one! The kids all but groan when Mommy breaks out the camera.

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Aaargh, I missed it!

I had the perfect shot for this week's iHeartFaces' Dramatic B&W...and missed it by an hour!!! groan

Well, I'll show it here, anyway :) I took this picture (and many others) this last Saturday at the playground. We had just finished the Science Fair at Nick's school, where he and his friend submitted an entry on the Lego MindStorm Robot. The weather was actually pretty good, so we stopped at a playground to let the kids run around a bit. I actually got several good shots of both Nick and Katie. They were unusually cooperative and held still for most of them :D

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Nick is Ten!

I saw this cool technique in the latest Photoshop User Magazine by Corey Barker (of Planet Photoshop) that I just had to try. It's called Light Beams Through Text and it uses TEN as the text. When I saw that, I immediately thought of Nick, who just turned ten! (OK, wasn't much of a stretch)
What a great excuse to try out a new technique. :D It was pretty easy, but looks really cool. I even had a picture of Nick I could use for the silhouette.
Now I just have to think of a Page Layout to put it on.

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Chef Nick

School's out for Winter break and I took off the week of Christmas to get the house ready, put up the rest of the decorations and bake cookies with the Kids. We had a great time and even made enough cookies for Mark to take some to the office. Of course nothing lasts long in cubeville :)

We made it through the Christmas morning gift-ripping extravaganza, the turkey cooking, the 'she got more than I did' squabbles, oh, and let's not forget the usual comment from Ms. Picky Eater Katie (she's 4) after everyone said how yummy the turkey was..."I don't like turkey" (groan!) We're lucky if we can get her to eat anything that's not chocolate or cookies or candy.

Hmm, where was I? Oh yea, school break. So, for the second week, we signed Nick up for a couple of 3-day classes at our Hands-on Museum. The morning class was CSI for 1st to 4th graders. He had a blast dusting for Fingerprints (with cocoa), identifying Hair and Fibers and solving small mysteries using their newly acquired skills.

After lunch, it was Easy as Pie, a cooking and baking class. They made empanadas, tarts and the final project was an apple pie. They kept a recipe book of all their creations and got to keep their chef's hat and apron--plus the pie!

So tonight, he had to demonstrate his new skill and prepare his apple pie for us--a great opportunity for me to try out some of my Christmas presents--a couple of popup flash lightscoops for my Nikon D60 and a hotshoe attachment for my external flash that makes it fit onto a regular tripod. I took both jpg and raw images, so I can post the jpg's right away (provided they don't look too crappy). Then I can spend more time tweaking them in ACR and PS.
The pie came out great and Nick was very proud he'd done it all by himself.

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Good Night Sweet Prince

After selecting a picture to use for the i ❤ faces "Sweet Dreams" Photo Challenge, I still had the other 6 pictures I had identified as candidates. The challenge is over, but I couldn't help it, I had to pick another one of my favorites. This is Nick at about 16 months taking a nap in his 'sling'. I loved that thing; once I had him in it, I could get so much work done and he'd just be happily snoozing along. I tried to schedule my trips to the grocery store around nap times and I remember getting the stink-eye from other mothers with screaming kids in the cart :O

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Sweet Dreams

i ❤ faces: "Sweet Dreams" Photo Challenge

I love this week's challenge, because it brought me back to those first few months after bringing ouradopted son, Nick, home in 2000. He's 8 months old in this picture and we'd just had him for 2 months. Naturally, we were taking pictures every chance we got. I have several of the falling asleep with the bottle pictures, but I had to pick just one (not an easy task). so here it is.

Check out the other entries for this week's challenge.

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26 shopping days 'till Christmas

Well, Thanksgiving is over, the turkey carcass is resting comfortably in the trash (we got a little one this year--so not too many leftovers) and we brought the Christmas decorations up from the basement including the four pieces that make up the Christmas tree. Yea, I know, I used to be a purist too--only real trees; the smell, the atmosphere, yada, yada; but we decided to go green a couple of years ago. Ok, that and we didn't want to put up with the pine needles, watering, disposal--takes all the fun out of Christmas.
Although we didn't brave the elements for Black Friday (I am NOT a Morning Person), we managed to do some online shopping for Christmas gifts and by Saturday when we did go out, there were still plenty of good sales (so there).
We got Nick and Katie to do their Letters for Santa, although Nick, who is almost 10, titled his letter To Mom and Dad pretending to be Santa. I had to have a little talk with him to make sure he didn't let Katie hear him talk like that. At 4 (almost 5) she'll still want to do leave Cookies for Santa and we can still, hopefully, use the prospect of coal for bad behavior.
All in all, I think we're doing better than last year when we finally managed to get the tree up a week before Christmas. Who knows, maybe we'll even do Christmas Cards this year.

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