This has been quite a busy January for me and it’s just flown by!  I just wanted to thank all of you who follow me on Twitter, have added me to your Google Reader, and commented on my posts.  It means a lot to me that you would take the time out of your day to stop by my blog.  And I can proudly say that I have met and exceeded my personal goal of posting at least once a week!  I have some exciting, new things planned for February such as “Guest Posts” and more crafts… and I potentially might start somewhat of a posting schedule, but I’ll let you know on that one.  But to end this month, I wanted to leave you with a throwback recipe with a twist that I got awhile back from my soon-to-be-married friend, Roanna.

White Chocolate Rice Krispies® Treats

Ingredients

3 tablespoons margarine or butter
1 (10 oz.) package regular marshmallows – or – 4 cups mini marshmallows
6 cups Rice Krispies® cereal
1/2 bag of White Chocolate Chips

Directions

1. Melt margarine in large saucepan over low heat.
2. Add marshmallows and stir until completely melted.
3. Add white chocolate chips until evenly spread. Remove from heat.
4. Add Rice Krispies® cereal. Stir until well coated.
5. Using buttered spatula or waxed paper, press mixture evenly into 13 x 9 x 2-inch pan coated with cooking spray. Cut into 2-inch squares when cool. Best if served the same day.

I made these for my husband on a Sunday before I left on a business trip.  I had 3 squares myself before I left.  When I got back on Thursday, there wasn’t a crumb left. He proceeded to tell me that they tasted kind of meaty suggesting that I may have thrown in a piece of bacon or used a dirty pot to make these treats, which I definitely did not do. But then he said that they were kind of tasty with a little meat flavor!!!  Eh, really??  Maybe I should do that next time hehe.  Long story short, we figured out that during the week he had broiled some meat and the tray of treats were near the oven so I guess the aroma infused the treats haha!  Not sure what the point of this story was… but either way, these treats are really quick and simple to make so I think you should make some too for Super Bowl Sunday or your Valentine!

These days, owning a DSLR camera is becoming more and more common.  It seems like so many people I know have jumped on the bandwagon or are thinking about it.  So if everyone has one… then why not accessorize and make yours stand out with a nifty, personalized camera strap cover!?  Let’s be honest here, the standard strap that comes with your camera is probably black, boring, and uncomfortable (and you probably have the same or similar one as your fellow camera brand users as well).

Look here… little Evan is telling his Uncle Marvin to “get that ugly strap off your neck”!

So I bring to you my very first “In Stitches” post and sewing project I’ve ever made, the nifty Camera Strap Cover!

First off, you’ll need to pick two coordinating fabrics for your strap.  I always like to go with a design on one side and a soft fleece like solid print material on the other side.  Then find the length (just the thicker part, not including the thin strap that adheres to the camera) and width measurements of your straps.  This can vary depending the camera you have.  For example, I have a Canon 50D and my strap length and width is 26 ¹/₂” by 1 ⁹/₁₆“… while a Canon 5D Mark II’s strap length and width is 27″ by 1 ⁹/₁₆“… and while an Olympus camera is 27″ by 1 ¹/₂“.  Anyways, you catch my drift, just measure your strap and then you can go from there.  You will need to create a seam allowance and this is where it may take some trial and error.  I cut my two fabrics at 29 ¹/₂” and 3 ³/₄“.

Next you will need to fold in both ends of both fabrics and sew them up so that the ends will have a nice non-frayed folded edge.  Make sure the fold is against the side that you want to be on the inside.

Next you will line up the two fabrics so that the side that you would like to show on the outside, is facing the inside.  Then you just pedal away (if you are using a machine, and I really hope you are using a machine b/c it would take forever to sew by hand) on both sides.

Once you are done, your strap should look like this.  And you should probably cut off the loose threads.

Then comes the most annoying part… flipping the fabric inside out.  I’ve managed to come down with a technique for doing this, but it’s too hard to explain so you’ll have to figure out what works best for you!

Once you are done you have a strap that looks like this, pretty neat huh??

But wait, there’s just one last (optional) step I like to take… and that’s called top-stitching.  I think it gives it a more finished look… so here we go, last thing, I promise.  Basically you just stitch another line a little bit inset from the ends of the fabric.

And we’re done!  The top stitching is kind of subtle in this picture but you should see a line on both sides that is about ³/₄” in from the sides of the strap.

And finally, put the camera strap cover onto your strap.

A camera strap in action!

And here’s all of the strap covers I whipped up in a week – with my MIL’s help!  All fabrics courtesy of J0ann Fabrics.

Now, your turn to make some and have your camera stand out from the rest!

Last weekend, most of the Midwest (Kansas City included) was experiencing some wicked fog.  As my husband and I were coming back from running errands, we passed by our neighborhood park and I thought it would be a great idea to take some pictures of the fog and snow.

I’ve always heard that taking pictures of snow was hard, because your camera will try to underexpose for the brightness, so you need to actually overexpose.  When I tried different exposure settings, I didn’t really see a difference though.  It was hard taking macro pictures of the snow though… in my pictures you can’t see that much snow detail, it’s more just like a big mass of white.  =/  Any tips on taking snow pictures would be appreciated!

And here we go…

Scoping out the foggy premises…

and preparing our snowballs…

for the Ultimate Newlywed Snowball Fight!

After I won (it may not have looked like it, but trust me, I did), I felt bad so I decided to treat my husband to a nice lunch.

And then we bonded over making mini snowmen.  =)

Disclaimer: The above story may have been fictional.

I’ve posted the pictures in thumbnail size this time b/c I’ve added a new Lightbox Plus plugin for WordPress which I think you should check out!  If you click on a picture, you should see an overlay pop-up (with an enlarged image) and you can scroll through the images.  I’ve also included metadata with the picture titles in the overlay!

Recently, my friend Amy, a Holistic Nutrition Coach who owns Pura Vida Nutrition, invited a bunch of girls over to her house for a Greens Cooking Class (btw, we totally need another girls night outing pronto). I must admit, that class gave me a new outlook on vegetables and has changed my cooking and eating life. We learned how to make a number of (pretty simple) recipes, my favorite one being…

Kale Chips

Kale is a form of cabbage that does not form a head. Kale is highly nutritious, containing beta carotene, vitamin K, vitamin C, lutein, zeaxanthin, and calcium, i.e. HEALTHY. And we can’t forget, it has anti-cancer properties too. To be honest, before this class, I had never bought kale before. You can pretty much get it at any supermarket and here’s what it looks like:

As for Kale Chips, the first time you make them I’d suggest making the Plain variety.

Ingredients:

• Bake in oven for 5 minutes.
• Turn kale over (with tongs) and bake with the other side up.
• Bake in oven for another 3-5 minutes until they look crispy and slightly brown on edges.  (The time may require your discretion since ovens can vary.)

Notice the crispy leaves and slightly brown edges. These are now ready to eat!! I think they taste like potato chips, but my husband wouldn’t go as far in making that statement. Remember, you can add any spice you’d like… garlic powder, cayenne, curry, cumin, black pepper, parmesan… the options are endless! One last thing, did I mention that these are addicting??

So. seriously. addicting.

P.S. Now that I got you thinking about vegetables and greens and that the world has to offer, if any of you are looking to purchase some AMAZING landscape photography for your house/apt/condo, please check out Matt’s (Amy’s husbands’) website, Paralyzed Horizons. Check back often as new images will be added all the time! These two are an inspiring couple to be starting up ventures on their own!

Canon 50D, 50mm, f/1.4, 1/25 sec., ISO-400, Exp. -1, AWB

Disclaimer: I’ve only just began my journey in DSLR photography a few months ago so I don’t claim to be an expert on any of the subjects I post on, but it is just how I have learned them.

I’d like to dedicate my first “Picture This” post to one of my favorite aspects of photography:

bokeh

First of all, how do you even pronounce that word?  “Boke-uh”, “Bow-kay”??  I’m unsure of the official pronounciation and it’s not listed on Wikipedia, hmph.  I just know that the word comes from the Japanese word boke, which means “blur” or “haze”.  All you photographers out there, how do you pronounce it?

What is bokeh??  Well, it’s the aesthetic quality of the blur in out-of-focus areas of an image.  In other words, it’s a photograph where the subject is in focus while the rest pf the photo is out of focus, blurred or fuzzy.  Why would you want the photo to be blurry?  Bokeh allows you to focus on the main subject without the background being a distraction.

And here is my explanation on how to achieve it… with some help from J Le Took This on the more complicated and technical parts!

1. Adjusting your aperture (or depth of field) is one way to achieve this effect.  When a lens is stopped down to its maximum aperture size  or lowest F stop number (I know it sounds backwards right?!  It took me awhile to understand that max aperture = low F number and min aperture = high F number), out-of-focus points in these blurred areas will take on the shape of the opening of your lens.
2. Adjusting your focal length is another way to achieve this effect.  Basically the longer your focal length, the more bokeh you will get.  Longer focal length is associated with larger magnification of objects and a narrower view.  Another thing to note is that the max aperture on a lens varies at a different focal lengths.  For example, on my 28-135mm lens, the max aperture is f/4.5 at the wide end and decreases to f/5.6 at the tele end.
3. Lastly, subject distance from the lens/camera and subject distance from the background are factors that play into bokeh.  So assuming at a given aperture and focal length, the closer the subject to the camera, the shallower depth of field.  For example, the depth of field in my cookie picture in the previous post is about 2 inches while a portrait of someone from 3 feet away has a larger depth of field to be able to be able to capture the person’s whole face in focus.  Also, you will want to make sure that the background is a good distance outside of the depth of field of the subject to maximize the bokeh effect.

There isn’t a hard and fast rule for what makes a good, better, best “bokeh” image, I’d just say that, like beauty, it’s in the eye of the beholder.  Cheesy, I know.

Here are a few “bokeh” images that I’ve taken!  (I’m going to include metadata with pictures, when I can, so it may help all you photographers out there help me improve my skills!)

Canon 50D, 28mm, f/3.5, 1/160 sec., ISO-250, Exp. 0, AWB

This picture of Jojo (my husband and my ever-so-cute stuffed animal son) was taken on the balcony in my hotel room in Cairo, Egypt.  The “bokeh” background is of downtown Cairo, can you spot the McDonald’s?

Canon 50D, 135mm, f/5.6, 1/2000 sec., ISO-250, Exp. 0, AWB

This suave fellow is my friend, Dustin.  The “bokeh” background is the Temple of Karnak in Luxor, Egypt.

Canon 50D, 50mm, f/2, 1/1000 sec., ISO-200, Exp. 0, AWB

My cutie pie nephew Evan is the main focus of this image, while his amazing parents (who happen to be my brother and sister-in-law) are part of the slightly “bokeh” background.

Canon 50D, 50mm, f/1.6, 1/13 sec., ISO-200, Exp. 0, AWB

This picture was taken at my in-laws house during this past holiday season.  In focus we have their mini Christmas tree, and the “bokeh” is on the picture and the wreath.

Canon 50D, 50mm, f/1.6, 1/125 sec., ISO-400, Exp. -1.3, AWB

This picture was taken at the Columbus Zoo and Aquarium.  The main focus is on the rather interesting looking puffer fish, while the “bokeh” background is on the rest of the fish and rocks in the aquarium.

Canon 50D, 50mm, f/1.4, 1/25 sec., ISO-400, Exp. -1, AWB

This picture was also taken at the Columbus Zoo and Aquarium.  You’ll notice that the subject is the yellow frog, while the “bokeh” consists of the background as well as the foliage in the foreground.  This just shows that anything outside of the depth of field can be blurry.

Now it’s your turn! Leave a comment with a link to your favorite “bokeh” image that you’ve taken or have seen!  And as always, if you have any input/suggestions/advice on anything I have said, please leave a comment and let me know!