New Favorite Dessert!

This is our new favorite dessert! Mixed frozen berries with vanilla yogurt! We have been trying to eat healthier and this has totally replaced ice cream for us. We get the big bag of mixed berries from Costco and vanilla yogaurt. It may look weird but we love it and I wanted to share it because I think you should all try!!!

Mmmm I'm gonna go get some right now... :D

Homemade Stuffed Crust Pizza

Lately I've been having a lot of fun cooking! I've been having fun experimenting with new recipes. I have been making one new recipe each week. It has been really fun looking for a new recipe online and in my cookbooks and we have had a lot of fun trying my new creations. So for those of you looking for fun new recipes, I decided to share my experiments each week. This last week I made homemade stuffed crust pizza.

Here's my Experiment:

We recently got a bread maker and decided it would be fun to make homemade dough and so this led me to pizza! The dough made all the difference. I have had homemade pizza before with store baught dough and it doesn't even compare!!

Quick Facts:

• Prep Time: 1 hour 30 minutes to make the dough


• Make Time: 20 minutes after dough is made


• Verdict: One of our Favorite new recipes!

What's great about this recipe is you throw all the ingredients in the breadmake and can freeze the dough when it's done. Then when you get the craving you can just take the dough out and thrwo on the ingredients and your done and eating within 20 minutes!

Here's the great recipe I used:

The Dough:

• 3 1/2 cups of bread flower


• 1 cup warm water


• 2 tsp. yeast


• 2 tbsp. honey


• 1/4 extra-virgin olive oil


• 1/2 tsp. salt


• (I also added some parmesan cheese and red pepper flakes t the dough mix)
  

1. Measure all the ingredients into your bread machine pan


2. Set the bread maker to the dough cycle and turn on


3. When done, roll out the dough to make a pizza
   

The Pizza:

• 7 sticks of string cheese (per 10" pizza)


• 1/2 pizza sauce (Ragu homeade style pizza sauce is our personal favorite)


• A TON of cheese


• and any other ingredients that you like i.e. olives, mushrooms, artichoke hearts, or pepperoni
  

1. Roll the dough out on your pan and stretch it out over the edges to allow room for the stuffed crust!


2. Then place the string cheese all along the edges and fold the dough back over the cheese and press firmly back into the dough.


3. Spread the pizza sauce on the dough and then add the ingredients however you like!


4. Bake for 12 to 16 minutes or until crust is deep golden brown and cheese in center is melted

Recipe curtesy of nest.com.

I'm still trying to decide what my new recipe will be fore this week. Maybe something with beef? Any ideas?

Check back next week for my nexct recipe!

-Mrs. Balmet

My Husband the Artist!

Jason took Film History at FLC to cover his creative arts requirement. Well low and behold we get to Azusa and it doesn't transfer. So he has to take an actual art class. That's right Art 150:Intro to Art. A real hands on art class. lol well I'm the artsy one in the family and yet it's not me who is taking the class, it's him! I think it's very funny and probably good for him. For those of you who don't know, Jason is a MATH major. And well painting is not really his thing.

Anyway he had his first take home project this week, painting and a collage. He wasn't very happy about it. So I had fun while he was painting and took a few pictures. His project turned out pretty darn good too! He had to make a collage of all his favorite things. Things that described his life. Just thought this would be funny to post. I had fun watching him paint! I think he secretly enjoyed it ;)

His Masterpiece :D

Christmas Fever!

I am so ready for the Holidays! I don’t know what it is about this year, but I’m ready! Normally at this time I make fun of the fact that Costco has had Christmas decorations in for a month and a half already! But this year I find myself already wanting to buy them and put them up in my house :D. I’m sure it partly has to do with the fact this will be mine and Jason’s first Christmas married. I’m really excited for that. I had so much fun putting up the 5 fall decorations I have, that I can’t wait to decorate OUR house for Christmas. It’s so exciting!! J. And I think the other reason for my Christmas angst is that I’m getting really homesick L. I was all ready to get out of Placerville. I was born in Pollock Pines and the farthest I ever move in 18 years was once to Somerset and then to *gasp* Diamond Springs. Lol needless to say I was very bored of Placerville and being in a TINY city..if you can call it a city.



Anyway I’m ready to head back home and start our life up there. I’m sick of the city. I have never been able to get used to the crowds, the noise, and the general sense of being crowded all the time! I mean there are some good things about it to…grocery store within WALKING distance..a Mall, IKEA, 3 Walmarts, 2 Targets, 3 Ross’s, Burlington Coat Factory, and any eating place you can imagine within 10 minute. Oh AND



Disneyland 40 minutes away :D. But there is nothing like living in the country and I’m readying to get back to that. I really want to raise our kids up there where they can build a fort in the backyard, climb trees, and just have fun. I want a BIG yard and one day maybe a pool ;). I just pray that God leads us back up there soon! But for now, I am extremely content with where we are. I LOVE my classes and I love my job! We are apart of a church that is simply amazing. We can really feel God moving and big things happening. God lead us to the best church for us and we feel so blessed.






Anyway, all that to say, IM READY FOR CHRISTMAS!!! I’m ready for the smell of gingerbread cookies, I’m ready to decorate sugar cookies, I’m ready for the smell of pine, the opening of presents, being with our family whom we love, cold weather and hot tea, I’m ready to celebrate the birth of our Lord.


I’m just excited. That’s all. And I can’t wait for the next few months. Our first Christmas married :D I'm looking forward to starting some great new traditions of our own.




Anyone else excited for Christmas?!?



-Mrs. Balmet



"This is how the birth of Jesus Christ came about: His mother Mary was pledged to be married to Joseph, but before they came together, she was found to be with child through the Holy Spirit....But after he had considered this, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream and said, "Joseph son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary home as your wife, because what is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. She will give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus,[a] because he will save his people from their sins." Matthew 1:18-25

Digital Scrapbooking

So as most of you know, I LOVE to scrapbook. It is one of my favorite hobbies and I could never have too much scrapbooking stuff. I wish we could get a two bedroom apartment and turn the extra bedroom into my scrapbooking room! Hehe which I eventually will have! But just ask my husband, he think's I have waaay too much scrapbooking stuff now as it is.

Anyway I have recently been playing around with digital scrapbooking, which I am thus far no good at! lol but I try and I love every minute of it. I made this one last night playing around with some cool kits I downloaded. The girls and I had so much fun making our daisy cake that didn't really end up looking like a daisy haha.

Anyway I thought I would share with you the awsome digital scrapbooking sites I found! I found great FREE kits on all of these websites!

1. http://www.shabbyprincess.com/ (My FAVORITE)

2. http://www.digitalscrapbookingfreebies.com/papers.php

3. http://www.scrapgirls.com/

4. http://www.littledreamerdesigns.com/index.php (There are a TON of fun hybrid projects on this website!!)

5. http://www.simplycleandigiscraps.com/freebies.html

Anyone know any other awsome sites? Or regular scrapbooking sites? I love those to! haha.

Mrs. Balmet

"In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth". Genesis 1:1

Speaking of creativity; God is the original artist. It amazes me how he made all that we see. The hills, the trees, the ocean...everything was from his creativity..WOW!

So I did it. I finally started a blog. I have wanted to start one for years now! Let's see if I actually keep up on it. I've been having fun playing with different layouts and using my amazing digital scrapbooking programs to make my own layouts..and having a blast at it! Let's see if I have as much writing the blogs as making them look pretty lol. So anyway thanks for checking my blog out. Come back again for more cool layouts hehe. Well it's getting late and I gotta a busy day ahead of me tomorrow..BUT it's Friday!! And that mean's time to spend with my hubby :)....and time to catch up on all the house cleaning, laundry, and cooking...So goodnight for now.

Mrs. Balmet

P.S. How can I be praying for you? This is a tough time right now for everybody. Whats going on with you? I would love to be there for you to pray for you :)


"As iron sharpens iron, so one man sharpens another" Proverbs 27:17

Fun Photo Effects *A Tutorial*

This is one of my favorite things to know how to do in photoshop. You can make all kinds of different effects!!

Remember, I am usuing an ANCIENT photoshop (Elements 3.0) but I think that even if you have another version this will still be helpful. Often these basic functions don't change places very often. But let me know if you notice a difference with another version and I'll be happy to make note of that in my posts.

I'll show you how to do this one effect but then it's very easy to do a dozen other effects.

*Click on any of the photos to enlarge them*

Here's the Original Photo:

First open up the photo in photoshop (Duh!! haha)

Second, click on the Filter Tab then go down to Stylize and go over to Glowing Edges.

Next a box will pop up and to the right you can adjust just how you want this effect to look. Play around with the settings to find just how you want your photo to look.

Hit Ok. And your new effects are on the picture. It's THAT easy!!

Want to try some other effects? Simply go to Filter and play around with all the effects. You can select any on that drop down menu and see what effects you like!

Here's a few I tried:

This is under the Artistic Tab and select Colored Pencil.

This one is similar but makes it look like a painting:

Go to Brush Strokes then Angeled Strokes

Hehe this one's funny:

Go to Distort then go to Twirl.

Okay now you go make some fun creations of your own!!

Please let me know if you have questions on anything I did or suggestions to make this tutorial better. I'll be happy to add it into this post.

Good luck and happy photo editing! If you use this tutorial leave a comment and let me know how it goes! If you put any on your blog leave the link so I can go look :D

Color Adjustment to Photos *A Tutorial*

One of the most basic things when playing with photoshop that you should know, is how to fix a pictures shading and color. I have so many old photos that I either deleted or counted as worthless because they were too light or too dark. Now I can fix those and sometimes my favorite photos are discovered from those pictures.

Remember, I am usuing an ANCIENT photoshop (Elements 3.0) but I think that even if you have another version this will still be helpful. Often these basic functions don't change places very often. But let me know if you notice a difference with another version and I'll be happy to make note of that in my posts.

So let's learn how to fix some color levels!

*Click on any of these pictures to make them larger*

Here is the original picture: Good picture but a little too dark.

First thing to do is open up for picture in Photoshop (Duh!)

Then click the Layer tab then go down to New Adjustment Layer and choose either Levels... or Brightness/Contrast...

I like to use Levels because with one move of the mouse you can adjust the colors of the photo. This works for simple color adjustments. You can make it light or darker depending on what you need.

With Brightness/Contrast you can manually select the color differences you want.

Now my photo looks like this:

Much better right?

Now let's take this one step further.

What if you want to only lighten part of the photo? This is easy! And I love the effect it can have on certain photos.

Okay open up the dark photo again.

Use with the Magnetic lasso tool or the Rectangular Marquee tool to select the area you want to lighten or darken.

Now simply do the first few steps again and change the levels to what you want.

As a result you get this:

I could have some fun with this effect! It makes me stand out more ;) And that's always good hehe just kidding.

Let me know if you have any questions or if you have anything to add to this tutorial! Suggestions are always welcome!

Good luck and happy photo editing! If you use this tutorial leave a comment and let me know how it goes! If you put any on your blog leave the link so I can go look :D

Focus on One Color *A Tutorial*

This photo editing technique is one of the ones I was most excited about learning how to do! Some of my friends camera's have special functions that let them do this when you take the picture and I have always been jelouse! Well now I can do it to any photo or color I want! And still have the original full color version ;)

Remember, I am usuing an ANCIENT photoshop (Elements 3.0) but I think that even if you have another version this will still be helpful. Often these basic functions don't change places very often. But let me know if you notice a difference with another version and I'll be happy to make note of that in my posts.

So pick a photo with a color that will stand out nicely as the only one. In the following pictures I was wearing a red dress and thought this effect would work nicely.

So Here goes!

*Click on any of the photos to enlarge them*

Here's the Original Photo:

Okay first of all open up the picture in Photoshop (Duh! haha).

Now the second step is go to Layer Tab then go to New and then choose Layer Via Copy. This will duplicate the background and will allow the colors to be altared.

Third step is press the letter B. This will pull up the brush tool to the tool bar. Now choose a Soft-edged brush of whatever size is needed in comparison to the size of your photo. For my photo I choose a large brush.

Next, go to the drop down menu that says "Painting Mode" when hovering over it. And go all the way down and select Color.

Now you have to change the "Foreground Color" to black. You can shortcut this by simply pressing the letter D. This should change your color to black if it's not already set to black.

Now start painting the photo. As you do the color will be "removed". You want to paint away all the colors except the main one you want to keep

Take away all the unwanted color and you will be left with this effect:

TIP: If you make a mistake while painting or take the color away from something you later want to change back to color then it's simple. Press the letter E and this will bring you to the Eraser tool. Now just re-paint ove the mistake areas and the color will return.

Here are a few Photos I did this technique to:

So there you have it! This is such a fun thing to know how to do! I love making people and objects stick out in my photos!!

Please let me know if you have questions on anything I did or suggestions to make this tutorial better. I'll be happy to add it into this post.

Good luck and happy photo editing! If you use this tutorial leave a comment and let me know how it goes! If you put any on your blog leave the link so I can go look :D

Feather Photo Edges *A Tutorial*

This effect can be fun for many things. You can change the width of the feathering and the color. This is a fun way to had a nifty border.

This effect looks especially neat on white backgrounds with a white border. Fun border to put on pictures on your blog with a white background.

Remember, I am usuing an ANCIENT photoshop (Elements 3.0) but I think that even if you have another version this will still be helpful. Often these basic functions don't change places very often. But let me know if you notice a difference with another version and I'll be happy to make note of that in my posts.

Okay let's go!

*Click on any of these pictures to make them larger*

Here's the original Picture:

Okay first thing to do it open up the picture you want to add a border to (Duh! Hehe).

Now you should select the Rectangular Marquee Tool and select the area you want the border to extend to. Look at the picture below to see what I mean.

Now go to the Select tab and go down to Feather.

Select feather then a box will pop up called "Feather Selection". Then enter the feather radius that you want in pixels. You can play aournd later with the right pixels for how you want your border to look. For this one I entered 20 pixels. Hit OK.

Now to make it show up! Go to the select tab again and go down to Inverse.

Now press Delete. Don't worry as long as you didn't hit any other buttons this should work.

Pressing delete, deletes the area that was not selected. You can now see the feather :)

And Ta-da!

Now are you wondering why the feather is white or another color? It's because your second color is selected (Probobly on a defult of white).

To change the feather color, follow these directions.

Reopen the photo without any edits done to it.

Go to the lower left-hand corner to the color selector. Click on the second color box-the one that says "Select Background color".

Click on that second box and a color selector will pop up. Find the color that you want for the border. Select OK,

Now go through all the top steps again and you should end up with the feather in the color that you want.

Here's what it should look like now:

Let me know if you have any questions on any of these steps or if you want to add anything to this tutorial. I always welcome suggestions.

Good luck and happy photo editing! If you use this tutorial leave a comment and let me know how it goes! If you put any on your blog leave the link so I can go look :D

Adding Motion to Photos *A Tutorial*

This can be a fun photo effect that can be applied to many different kinds of photos. You can experiment and try it on all kinds of things.

Remember, I am usuing an ANCIENT photoshop (Elements 3.0) but I think that even if you have another version this will still be helpful. Often these basic functions don't change places very often. But let me know if you notice a difference with another version and I'll be happy to make note of that in my posts.

*Click on any of the photos to enlarge them*

Here's the original photo:

1. Select the area that you want to "keep still". I selected just my husband and I.

So use the Magnetic Lasso Tool and outline the selection you want.

2. Now go to the Select Tab along the top and go down to Inverse.

3. Then go to the Filter Tab along the top and go down to Blur then over to Radial Blur.

4. Now a box will pop up and you can select either Spin or Zoom. You can then adjust how blury you want it to be. Hit Ok.

In this photo I selected Zoom which I think works best for this picture.

Click on it to make it bigger to better see the effect it does.

Here's what it looks like with the Spin effect.

Under the Blur Tab there are a lot of fun effects that you can play around with to make just the right effect!

Okay now you go make some fun creations of your own!!

Please let me know if you have questions on anything I did or suggestions to make this tutorial better. I'll be happy to add it into this post.

Good luck and happy photo editing! If you use this tutorial leave a comment and let me know how it goes!

If you put any on your blog leave the link so I can go look :D

Sites I Love

*I am still in the process of updating this list! Check back soon for the full list*

Personal Blogs:

Walk with me on this Journey called Life
Mrs. Southern Bride
Amy Bayliss
Beloved
Butterfly Girlms Rambles On
Cop Mama
Dear Lizzy
Extravagant Grace
Faith's Firm Foundation

Julie the Army Wife
Sarah Mae @Like a Warm Cup of Coffee
Lori's Reflections
Loves of Life
Me and Craig
Tiffany Harper:A Domestic Diva Wannabe
Ordinary Inspirations

Christian/Ministry Blogs:
The Internet Cafe Devotions

Go HERE to find A Woman Inspired

 

Craft Blogs: {Sewing, Scrapbooking, Photography, crafts, and oh so much more!}

           

Cooking Blogs:
Created by Diane -Desserts Mostly


Giveaway Blogs:

Etsy Giveaways

Digital Scrapbooking/Graphics/Designers:
Far Far Hill -Digital goodies-GREAT FREE Frames
Pixels and Icecream-Digital Freebies for Designers-GREAT free brushes and more!