Rainbow Jello

Hannah is turning 5 in 1.5 days (and yes, she is reminding me daily and sometimes hourly) and we are having a small rainbow party on Saturday with her friends! While on the hunt for rainbow themed party fun/food/desserts I came across beautiful rainbow jello in different forms.

This is from Food Librarian. It's called Broken Glass jello...cool, huh?

I found this dessert on Olson Updates. I have always wanted to get this kind of serving bowl. Doesn't it look beautiful!?

I found this beautiful jello mold at Chexydecimal.com.

And this one is a replica of Alcatraz...Jello Style. I found it on Kitchen Monkey. I won't be doing this one...ever...but I thought it looks pretty amazing!

Which one would you like to see at a Rainbow Party???

Bubbles

I was trying to capture the beauty of bubbles! I was amazed to see that each bubble had a different tint to it. I'm not sure why and I haven't tried googling it yet. I think I just want to enjoy the beauty of them.

We loved watching Molly trying to pop the bubbles by eating them.

Beaded Hearts

This is all that you need. Beads with holes big enough to fit through pipe cleaners. I shaped the heart first by bending it in half and then bending the ends to make a heart. It keeps it shape enough for the beads to go on.

We made these pretty little hearts the other day. I am teaching at Hannah's preschool on Friday and our focus is Valentine's Day!! I really like that day because it's filled with hearts and love and it is a special holiday to celebrate the love you have for others. Some people think that it is just a Hallmark holiday, but it's fun!

I wanted to see how this craft turned out with a real life child before I did it with 7 2-4 year olds. I think they will be able to do it.. Even the little ones!

Cute or What!?

I love this dog so much. Molly will be turning 9 years old next month!!! And yet she still seems to have the energy of a 4 year old dog.. go ahead and ask anyone who has met this cute beast. So, it's cold here in Maryland and the last thing that I really want to do is go outside. and take pictures...Plus, I just got a new external flash for my birthday!!! Yay! (I feel incredibly blessed to have this flash!)

Typically you don't need a flash for outside photography. And since it is cold and I just got my flash in the mail today, I took some pictures in our basement. We have pretty good lighting, but I have found that when I take pictures inside, I get yellow undertones. So, I attached the flash, which was SOOOO incredibly easy and started shooting. Right away, I got an awesome picture, the one above. Look at the picture of Molly all the way at the bottom of this post. I took this about a year ago with my camera's original flash.. Do you see a difference??

The above picture of Molly's nose is a little bright and washed out..but I know how to fix that if only she stayed still. The awesome thing about an external flash is that you can point the flash up. I pointed up to the ceiling so it would bounce off of there instead of directly into the subjects face/eyes.

The big thing that amazes me about this flash is the whiteness and crispness of the coloring of the picture. The one above is a little out of focus but you can still see how white it is. A pet-peeve of mine when I shoot pictures, is the yellow under tones..

I love her!!!!

Creativity...Where Art Though??

It feels like my creativity brain cells are non-existent these days. I was on such a steady flow of ideas all the way from early last year till about a month ago. The thought of even looking for something creative to do by myself and even with Hannah has disappeared. It has to be a phase. I know I feel so much like who God created me to be when I am using my creative juices.

As you can see from my most recent posts....nada...there isn't much. I don't feel depressed. I just feel..like, "eh" to most things. Jewelry, Photography, sewing and crafts. Is it the winter blues that I am feeling? It is really cold out there that's for sure!

How do you get your creative spark back?? I would love to hear some answers. Please?

Ariel Bust

Hannah got this Ariel doll for Christmas and it takes up a majority of her time. 1-she LOVES Ariel. It's her favorite favorite princess of all! 2- Ariel colored hair changes color and her make-up goes on and off depending on what temperature the water is. 3-Her hair is really really soft! It is so easy to brush and rarely gets knotted! She got it for Christmas on Amazon and plays with it for hours throughout the day. So if you have a little Ariel lover, I highly recommend her!

Rainbow Roll Cookies

While reading my friend, Amy's, blog, Flexible Dreams, I came across this post about Baking with her Preschooler.

Hannah saw me on the computer and decided she wanted to make these specific cookies. Don't they look beautiful? Amy linked Annie's Eat's recipe for the cookie dough. I then just followed Amy's directions for the rest, which is followed with these pictures.

Once you make the dough, split it in three. We chose Red, Green and Yellow. Because that is all we have. I need to just break down and buy Blue.

Roll out each colored dough by putting plastic wrap on the bottom and top of the dough. Roll it with a rolling pin. I found it is easy because it doesn't stick to the roller and you don't have to use flour. AND I found it easier to roll with Hannah.

One they are rolled out stack on top of each other in the order that you want the colors to show. Hannah chose for the pink to show on the outside. It obviously doesn't have to be perfect.

Make sure when you roll it up that you squeeze slightly on the ends so that you don't have gaps when you cut them.

We also chose to use rainbow sprinkles. Too much?? Nahhh!

Cut in half! BEAUTIFUL!! Major WOW factor! :-)

Bake at 350 degrees for 8-10 minutes. I chose 10 but made them a little too brown on the bottom. 8 minutes will be the way to go next time.

Macro Lens

This one was with the +10

This one was with the +4

This one was with my fixed 52mm lens, which I also got for Christmas. It's still gives it the blurry effect but I couldn't get a close-up like I did with the macro lenses. It's such a small price to pay for doing some extra things with my camera. Yes, I am in love!

So...for Christmas all I wanted were accessories
for my camera. And that is what I got! Something
that I enjoyed playing around with and mistakenly
took some nice pictures with are the
52mm Macro Lenses. You can get as close as +1, +2,
+4, & +10.

Computer Withdrawls

I am having computer withdrawals....my computer all of a sudden had a break down and stopped working and would not load. I have an iMac and kind of had the idea that my computer was invincible. I didn't back it up to an external hard drive. I have ALL if my pictures from birth to present of my lite girl on this computer.

To make a long story short all of my information was spared but I will be without my compurer for another 3-5 days. So with that being said, I am typing on this super tiny iTouch and it is very hard. I don't know how texters do it. I can't get my pictures on to my blog so unless I have something verbally creative to talk about, I won't be blogging for a couple of days.


I hope to be reading some though!!

I hope you all had a blessed Christmas!!

Alyssa

Cute Christmas/Winter Craft

Before time runs out and Christmas is actually here, I wanted to share this incredibly adorable craft to do with you kid/s. It's called Hand Print Snowmen Ornaments (or for cards) and I found it at Uncreate with Kids and plan on doing this with Hannah as soon as she recovers from out HUGE craft today.

She created presents for Grandma & Grandpa and Grana and her friends Charlie and Grady. I can't post about it today just in case they read my blog before Christmas. I can tell you that any child can look a true artist. I'm so excited that Hannah can give her grandparent's a present that is truly from her!!