Rose Hips

Chocolate Mice

Chocolate mice are usually a candy that I save for the Christmas candy tins. This year I made some for Thanksgiving because my cute little nieces were coming over. I think it's fun to make food designed just for kids. I remember going to Thanksgiving dinners where I was so hungry but the adult food looked scary and I left hungry at the end of the dinner. So, I add cute, kid friendly things like chocolate mice and macaroni and cheese to mine. By the way, guess what the little ones went straight for yesterday, mice and mac n cheese... so no one was hungry at our dinner.

Where was I? Oh yeah, Chocolate Mice, I make tons of chocolate before Christmas. Everyone in the family gets chocolates, neighbors, teachers, bus drivers, people dh works with, the list is long and each year it gets longer. In 2 weeks my kitchen will turn into a chocolate factory. Thanksgiving was just the beginning, like a teaser of treats to come. So, I thought I would share another recipe with you, the Chocolate Mice. It's easy, cute, and kids really love them.


Ingredients
1 jar of maraschino cherries with stems, drained on paper towels for a few hours (you need them dry for the chocolate to stick)
1 package of dipping chocolate, like candiquick (or if you can't find it 2oz paraffin wax and 12 oz semisweet chocolate mixed together will work)
1 bag of mini chocolate chips
1 bag sliced almonds
white icing (I used the Betty Crocker icing that you can get in the tubes to save time)
1 bag Hershey kisses

*Melt your chocolate candiquick (I used a microwave and stirred every 30 seconds, it took about 2 minutes)
*Dip cherries in the chocolate and place on waxed paper with the cherry lying on it's side and stem(tail) on the waxed paper, before the chocolate hardens stick a Hershey kiss opposite the stem (see pic, its self explanatory really, the stem is the tail and the kiss is the head)
*Dip a tip of an almond in chocolate and stick between kiss and cherry for an ear, repeat for second ear
*Pipe 2 dots of white icing where you want the eyes and stick mini chocolate chips to the icing.

That's it. Easy but adorable. Give it a try this holiday season! Really, just look at the little creatures, how can you not?


Ahhhh... they're getting away!

A Feast Of Thanks

Family friends You FAITH magic food LOVE giggles sun MOON green Nature life faeries smiles FUN kisses dark Hugs plants COFFEE dew Animals fractals barefoot Water cameras Weeds lasagna MUSIC poetry Peace chocolate Elves Strangers frost picnics VARIETY glitter snow Autumn wings sunrise Prisms candles Sunset tea feathers ice tacos BOOKS Pixels flowers games Bubbles crafts storms QUILTS fire words Angels light toys Stars time

Happy Thanksgiving!!!

Faerie of the field

As the plants turn brown
and leaves drift to earth
Tis time for the field faerie to lie down
She's spent all her days tending the flowers and the grass
but now winter come, she may rest at long last

The Menu

It's one week until Thanksgiving and I'm cooking for my side of the family this year. Each year we alternate Thanksgiving and Christmas between the two side which means I'm always cooking the holiday meal for someone. This year I have a new helper, now that she's a big girl, who just loves to bake and search recipe books. So, we're menu planning. Not that it's all that hard, I mean it's Thanksgiving and of course we'll have all the traditional foods, but still, we plan. Which looking at my little helper, might be hard if you're two lol! All those recipe books and magazines with all those yummy looking photos of food, I can see why it exhausts her.


This is the recipe that she decide we had to try today, Maple Pecan Sticky Buns from a Kraft Food and Family magazine. I must say, she has good taste! These are yummy and the house smells amazing! So, I figure with her help this year's menu should be the best one yet!

Is that a chip in my plate?! I'm going to need to replace that before Thursday... but oooo sticky bun bokeh, the yummiest bokeh there is...

One Fall Day

The Un-doable

Well, here it is, the un-doable thing. I have both my boys, in photos, giving me a hug! I love my boys! Sometimes they surprise me and though I hate photos of myself I'll treasure these always.

Aren't they cute? The youngest is very camera shy and the oldest is a teen and just way too cool for this. In fact, just that I'm saying "cool" here would make it un-cool lol! Oh well. I love this!!!

The Final Prayer

The leaves have all fallen, only a few cling desperately to the branches defiant against the wind. Seasons are changing. The sky has taken on a new colder light, no longer the vibrant blue that distracts me so easily but a pale blue-gray shade that warns of winter snow and I find myself watching and waiting for the first flakes to fall. Soon my little piece of the world will become a snow globe again, beautiful, white, and magical like only winter can be. It is peaceful blanketed in all that white and I look forward to no longer seeing the flowers, now brown, bowing their heads in respect to Old Man Winter. Their final prayer of Autumn.

Nature's Glitter

The Clipping Mask

Download

I love clipping masks! If you haven’t tried them out yet, you are completely missing out. Sometimes all I need is a good mask and a title. Yeah ok, that may be stretching it a smidge but it’s close. I’ve been asked by quite a few of you how to use these wonderful things, so I’ve prepared a quick tutorial in CS2 with a freebie mask and background that way you can play along as we go. Sounds fun right? So what are we waiting for? Let's get started!

Step 1
As always, probably the most difficult step, select a photo you wish to use with a mask and open it up in photoshop.

Step 2
Open your 12x12 new document.

Step 3
Drag your background onto your new document with your move tool.


Step 4
Drag your photo on top of your background layer and resize to desired size (control T).


Step 5
Open your clipping mask and drag it over to your new document and go to the layers pallet and drag the clipping mask layer under your photo layer. Resize either mask or photo, you want to completely cover the mask's edges with your photo.


Step6
With photo layer highlighted in the layers pallet click Alt Ctrl G or at the top bar, go to Layer and select Create Clipping Mask from the drop down menu.


That’s it! It’s just that easy and it creates such a beautiful effect. Now, go out into the world and explore clipping masks. There’s tons of them out there… they’re everywhere (I say glancing over shoulder nervously)…


Finished layout:

Also, don't forget that you can play with the mask layer's blending mode for different effects.

My Frost Faeries

Well, my little daughter has been wanting sparkly hair ever since I did her older sister up as a frost faerie. Today we redid the frosty pics to include 2 faeries. She was one happy little girl and I think the two of them together is absolutely precious.