before and after

No, we're not playing wheel of fortune.
We're playing before and after photo blog hop! Like I needed another one, right? This one is similar to fix it friday, but using your own photos. I like it. This one is hosted by Pixel Perfect.

So here's a photo of a baby Honey playing in her first snow. Taken last year before I knew a flip about Photoshop.

Ah, much better.

extra creamy ice cream

When I saw Darby's post on "magic" homemade ice cream, sans machine, I couldn't try it out fast enough. All you do is mix up some whipped cream, sour cream, vanilla, white chocolate chips, sweetened condensed milk and salt. Then freeze and voila. Ice cream!

I doubled the recipe, then divided the mixture at the end to make all three varieties (vanilla, chocolate and mocha) by adding chocolate syrup and coffee powder.

Verdict? Success! This is different from normal ice cream, as to be expected. It's very rich, almost more like a mousse than ice cream. The recipe says to freeze six hours, but I snuck a spoonful and thought it was best after about four hours, when it was more of a frozen yogurt consistensy. But I will definitely make it again!

Maddi gave it a paws-up too.


Here's the recipe. It comes from Cook's Country Magazine, which sounds wonderful if it has more recipes like this.

1/2 c sweetened condensed milk
1 oz Gihardelli white chocoate chips (will seem like not enough, but that's right)
1 Tbs vanilla
Pinch salt
1/4 c sour cream
1+1/4 c heavy cream

Microwave condensed milk and white chocolate in large bowl until melted, about 30 seconds, stirring halfway. Let cool. Stir in vanilla, salt and sour cream. Whip cream to soft peaks. Whisk 1/3 cream into milk mixture. Fold in the rest. If desired, gently stir in chocolate syrup or coffee powder. Freeze six hours. Keeps two weeks.

a reason to live

Ok. Maybe a little dramatic, but this toast does make me want to get out of bed in the morning. A little bit.

Pioneer Woman posted a study in cinnamon toast making methods earlier this week, and she had me drooling.

Her "right way" is to mash up softened butter, sugar and cinnamon with a fork, spread liberally on the bread and bake (not broil) for 10 minutes or so. And let me tell you, it's heaven. And so easy. Dangerously so.

fix it friday, vol. 4

It's a fun one this week. Great picture to start with. Just made a few adjustments to make it really pop.

Before:

After:

What I did:

• levels
• brightness/contrast
• bumped up saturation slightly on entire image, then deselected face and increased more
• warmed up slightly in color balance
• increased highlights on teeth to whiten
• dodged forehead and eye area to lessen shadows
• eyes: dodged all, burned pupils, edges and eyelashes. dodged under eyes. bumped up saturation and sharpened.
• clone stamp to erase snowflake on jacket
• unsharp mask
• cropped

More editing than I would normally do, but I get a little carried away on fix it friday!





Have a great weekend...Hope the storms stay away from your neck of the woods, as Al would say.

fix it friday, vol. 3

Happy #50, fix it friday!

Before:

After:

What I did:

• Adjusted levels
• Bumped up brightness and contrast
• Bumped saturation slightly on entire image, more on lips
• Unsharp mask
• Healing brush and gaussian blur to even skin tone
• Pioneer Woman's bring on the eyes action
• Crop

fix it friday vol.2

No new Fix it Friday up today, so I'm doing a couple old ones.

Before:

After:

Before:

First edit:

And now for a little old west feel:

These are so fun!

fix it friday. better late than never

I just discovered the fix it friday challenges over at i heart faces. Such a fun idea to practice in photoshop.

This was last week's challenge, but I wanted to take a shot at it anyway.

Here's the original:

And here's my revised:

Get ready for another tomorrow!

vintage photo in a snap

I Heart Faces posted a great tutorial on giving your photos a vintage twist today.

I have always accomplished this look using actions or hue/saturation adjustments. The tutorial gets the effect from using channel mixer, color balance and solid color adjustment layers.

So I decided to try it out on miss Sallie. And I love the result!

Before:

After:

Looks very vintage, right? Try it out!

"nooooooo"

Maddi was upset here about being forced to brave the inch of snow on the ground so I could take her picture.

Her expression here is pretty much what my face looks like about once a day while reading blogs.

Every time I come across a "your awesome" or a "its a beautiful day" or a "my project's turned out great."

I can't take it. I know many bloggers are pounding away to get their posts written while kiddos and pups run around their feet, but please. Don't abuse the apostrophe.

You can practice here. I'll be very proud.

ok climbing off my soapbox now.

Second chance soup

source

I've always thought French Onion Soup sounded great. I love the French. I love carmelized onions. And I love soup. Perfect.

But the first time I tried it a few years ago at a deli, it was not what I was expecting. Don't know what I was expecting, but the strong flavor bowled me over. Ever since then, I've been cautious of the myserious brown soup.

Then I saw pioneer woman's step by step recipe, and it looked so good. But everything does when Ree makes it. I wouldn't have thought the ingredients would be so few and so familiar. In fact, all things I already had: onions, stock, butter, garlic, worcestershire, bread, cheese (I left out the wine becuase I didn't have any).

So I tried it last night, and it was a success! I guess my taste buds have changed, because I thought it was delish. Strong for sure, but very flavorful. I ate the bread on the side instead of its traditional place atop the soup, but I'm weird about soggy bread.

You should make this! Easy, affordable, and great for the last few cold nights ahead.

Sorry no photos of my own version. I love to cook, and I love to take pictures, but I just don't love doing them at the same time. It's very stressful. I meant to get a shot of the finished product, but I was so hungry I forgot. I'll do better next time!

Update:
This was even better for lunch the day after! Flavor developed and all that good stuff.

Luck of the Irish

image from archipatica's flickr photostream

It's been with me this month for sure!

Exhibit A:

photo from Muddysbakeshop.com

Back in October-ish I entered a bumper sticker design contest for my favorite hometown bake shop, Muddy's. The prize was quite a jackpot - 12 cupcakes, a pie of choice and 5 stickers. All winter the little contest was in the back of my mind. I had all but lost hope when last week I got an email from owner Kat that my sticker was one of three winners! What?? So today I am going to claim my loot (I picked the cocoa chanel pie). My mouth's watering already!


Exhibit B:

photo from Kotoridesign.blogspot.com

Today I won my first blog giveaway from Tonya at Kotori. It's some lotion that looks wonderful and could not come at a better time for these dry winter hands. I've been entering these giveaways for months and thought I was cursed, but I guess March is my month!


I'll have to hold a giveaway of my own before long to pass on the love.

Now if I can just remember to wear green tomorrow...could be a challenge.