Icicles

While backing out of our garage last week, I noticed the most beautifully icicle-covered light on the street.  Well, it was actually the ONLY light that was covered in icicles.  It must be in just the right spot where all the snow and water from the roof and gutter drips down onto it.  I've been wanting to snap a few photos of it before it melts away.  And hopefully it WOULD melt away.  I finally grabbed my camera (and the baby monitor) while Bubba was asleep and headed outside.  It was starting to warm up a bit and the icicles were dripping.  I played around with the shutter speed to see what it would happen as I changed the shutter speed.  I ended up getting a few cool shots that I thought I would share.

I love this perfectly formed droplet.  

My Little Valentine

Happy Valentine's Day!  My poor little guy is such a good sport.  I dress him like my little doll daily and he is often subject to my photography whims.  I came across a really cute picture on Pinterest that you may have seen and decided to recreate it.  He wasn't quite sure what to think when I started giving him lots of kisses, but I was excited to get a few little smirks out of him.  We made a cute little card out of one picture for dad with a note that said, "Kisses for Daddy."  I got to spend the night with the most patient, loving man and the sweetest, cutest baby.  I think I'm the luckiest girl in the world.

The hat kills me!  What a stud.

Gender Reveal Cake Balls

I love the recent trend to have a gender reveal party.  It's probably because I love guessing games and cheesy excuses to dress up.  I wanted to do something kind of fun to reveal the gender of our little one to my coworkers and finally decided on cake balls.  It has taken me many attempts, but I finally feel like I can make a pretty mean cake ball.  The concept is pretty simple.  It's the creation part that takes practice.  Here's my simple how to:

1.  Bake a cake.  Any box.  Any flavor.  Then let it cool.
2.  Mix up a little frosting.
3.  Crumble the cake and mix with frosting.  You can mix as much as you want, but a little goes a long way.  You don't want the cake to be too sticky.
4.  Roll the cake/frosting mixture into walnut-sized balls.  Freeze.
5.  Melt chocolate and dip one a time.

The key is getting the chocolate the right consistency.  I've found that almond bark usually melts the best.  Then, I add a tablespoon or so of shortening so it is nice and thin.  It makes it easier to get a smooth covering of chocolate which makes a really pretty cake ball.

It was fun to bring them to work and make everyone guess what I was having.

 

Always add sprinkles.  They make everything more fun.

It's a boy!

The First of Many

Here is my sample post.  I want to learn how to do it and want to pick the template and all the other cool settings.  So this is just an example to help me figure it out.