What up Doc?

April 5, 2011

We just love everything about Spring. Easter, flowers, and warm weather. Oh and a great carrot cake goes well with Spring too, at least in our book it does! We have found some Savvy Carrot finds, from recipes to DIY crafts. So whether or not that myth about carrots being good for your eyes is true, we hope you enjoy what you 'see'!!!

Gluten Free Carrot Cake from Betty Crocker

Carrot Walnut Cookies from Woman's Day

Involve the kids and let them help you sort and stuff these fun Family Fun Carrot napkin utensil holders. Display at each setting on your Easter table or pile them up in a pretty basket.

Our Cozy Nest Carrot Wreath tutorial is such a creative twist to the ordinary wreath.

Waffle cones, food coloring, cellophane bags, and your favorite treat will let you create these carrots in grass from Good Housekeeping

Have fun playing with Starburst candies and green licorice to create these adorable carrot patch cupcakes from Family.com

These Crepe Paper Carrots from Martha Stewart are a sweet treat for your guests that will leave them surprised!

Smiles~

Amy & Bri

Donut Sunday

April 6, 2011

One of the best things about families are the traditions that can be made. My(Amy) family started 'Donut Sunday' a year ago due to my daughter's obsession with donuts and sprinkles. So just before bed every Saturday night she reminds my husband and I, "Tomorrow is donut Sunday!" and then goes on to tell us which kind of donut she will be picking. It is the little things in life that mean the most!

So recently while doing our daily Facebook feeds, I saw that Daily Grommet was featuring a new line of bakeware called Babycakes. If you have not heard of Daily Grommet it is an online marketplace where you can discover and buy inventive, new products, watch video reviews, and get to know the people behind these up-and-coming businesses. Babycakes countertop appliances come in a variety of your favorite treats such as, the Mini Cupcake maker, the Cake Pop maker, the Whoopie Pie maker and the one that sold me was the Donut maker!! So, I bought one and could not wait to try it out on our first 'Donut Sunday at home'!

I love the idea behind these machines! For the donut machine in particular, you can make 6 donuts in 4 minutes!! Perfect! So, we invited a few of our friends over to share donut Sunday with us! I thought of making this Sunday more of a decorating donut Sunday. So we set out some plates and bowls with different toppings for the kids to decorate their donuts. I love that you can be creative with everything about this machine, from the type of donut, to the flavors of frosting's, to the kinds of toppings! Of course the topping of choice were sprinkles, and lots of them!! Just a little side note, how great would this idea be for a kids birthday party??? My wheels are spinning on this one!

I used the recipe book that was included and made the maple glazed applesauce donuts. I poured the batter into a plastic bag, cut the tip and filled each tray with the batter. So easy! And in 4 minutes we had these fluffy little guys!!

Once the donuts were done the kids were ready to dip their mini's into the maple glaze!

We let them go crazy with the sprinkles!

Why not?

So pretty right? They almost look professional!

The kids had a great time decorating and spending the morning together. The only bad thing about this machine is that you cannot eat just one!!! My donut Sunday consisted of at least 4! I am loving this new tradition!

Smiles~

Amy & Bri

What's your Story......Want it Published? {The Beyond Series}

March 23, 2011

We are excited to share with you a wonderful Opportunity to have your stories heard and published. A second book in the 'Beyond Series' is being put together and the authors are looking for submissions. The book will be titled 'Beyond the Diaper Bag'. It will be a collection of stories, tips and inspiration covering all topics from pregnancy to kindergarten. They can be funny stories about embarrassing situations your children have landed you in or inspirational stories about how you overcame obstacles, such as postpartum depression or how you finally got your baby to sleep. Submit any stories you like and if they are selected, they will be publish them in the new book!

So what is this series and who are the authors?

OK Ladies take it away.....

We are titling all books in the series with 'beyond' in the spirit of thinking beyond ourselves. You can see the facebook page for our first book here. We donate all authors' proceeds to charity. Beyond the Diaper Bag's proceeds are being donated to The Mommies Network. Below are the details of our contest. The deadline is set for 3/30.

Melaina Lausen and Megan Bekkedahl are the authors of The Beyond Series. They are both Air Force wives. The first book, Beyond the Clouds, was actually started as a project to keep Megan busy while her husband, Josh, was on a deployment to Afghanistan. He is getting ready for his third deployment this August. Megan's family is currently stationed in Los Angeles. She has two little boys Mason is 5 and Chase is 2.

Melaina is a stay at home mom and romance novelist. She has four children. They are currently stationed in Pensacola, Fl.

Things you need to know.
*While we don't have a specific word count, we'd like the stories to range from 1-3 pages, single spaced.

*All proceeds will be donated to The Mommies Network. If you are selected as a winner of this contest, the prize is purely being included in this book. There are no entry fees and no monetary prizes.

*Having trouble getting started? Here are some ideas!
We are looking for honest accounts of parenting... the things nobody is talking about, but everyone is dealing with. We want to help and inspire new moms who aren't sure if they or their child is 'normal'. I think we've all been there! Here are some topics-
-body changes
-emotional changes
-how hard it actually is versus the illusion of the 'perfect baby'
-when it's not what you thought it would be
-embarrassing or humorous situations

**be sure to include how you dealt with these situations, what you did to get through them and good advice you were given- or have to give.

Let's inspire some new mommies!

Smiles~

Amy & Bri

For Japan

March 18, 2011

Today we join Hundreds, if not Thousands, in Honor of Japan. This will be the only thing you hear from us today as we join in a Bloggers Day of Silence.

We pray for Japan. And Send our Support and Love.

No blogging. No Twitter. No Facebook.

Please JOIN.

Smiles~

Amy & Bri

{Guest Blogger} Bamboo Pink Jewelry

March 12, 2011

Hi to all my fellow Moms out there...
I am a forty year old wife, mother of two beautiful children, part time consultant in the beauty industry and now helping to launch a new jewelry line called BambooPink. I love to teach and inspire other women to look and feel their very best. After turning 40, I realized that we as Moms, don't have to look old and "frumpy". We can still look "hip" before and after we turn the big 4-0. As a result, I created a You Tube Channel to help other women look and feel their very best - it's called The Hip Chick Online. If you join me you'll find videos on hair, makeup and outfits.

About a month ago, I heard about a new opportunity from a friend of mine in Dallas who was asked to help launch a new jewelry company. I am usually pretty skeptical about these types of businesses, but I figured "what do I have to lose?" and so I signed up. I am so glad signed up - this company is going to be AMAZING!

Why did I sign up with BambooPink?
BambooPink is backed by JudeFrances who sells beautiful high end jewelry at Neiman's and Saks. I don't think JudeFrances would put their name on anything they didn't truly believe in!
This beautiful fashion jewelry line will be priced at $19-$200.
This is truly a GROUND FLOOR Opportunity since the company has not officially launched yet. Sign-ups are FREE until March 15th.
I also loved the idea that I don't have to host the traditional home parties. I can sell via "virtual trunk shows", sell from my website and do a few parties with my friends.

Bamboopink will have one of the most lucrative compensation plans in the industry.
Since I signed up, I’ve been able to grow my team pretty quickly and wanted to share this opportunity with other Moms like you. I really feel that this will be an amazing opportunity and I'm excited to be a part of it.
I would love to have you on my team and I'll help you every step of the way. What are you waiting for? Sign up or email me for more information at bamboopinkvirginia@gmail.com.
It's nice to meet other Mom's like me.

Hope you all have a GREAT day!
Kim

{Feature Friday} Goldilocks & Three Bears Birthday Party

March 11, 2011

We are so excited to feature this positively precious Goldilocks & Three Bears Birthday Party submitted to us by our wonderfully talented friend Paula of Frog Prince Paperie. In fact, this party was so amazing that it got the recognition it deserved and was first featured on Amy Atlas yesterday! Congratulations Paula! So step in to a Classic Fairytale as told by Paula herself.....

I founded my business on a fairytale party (the frog prince), and it only seemed fitting that for my son's second birthday, another fairy tale should be the theme. Guests were invited to our Goldilocks and the Three Bears party with a Goldilocks board book with a bookplate/invitation on the inside cover sent "Bear Mail."

I attempted to create a feeling of being in the bear family house at baby bear's birthday. I used painted bead board as a backdrop with silhouettes of mama bear, papa bear and baby bear. Tiny sewn paper bunting added a birthday feel to the backdrop. The base table linens was sewn together patchwork gingham - casual, but mama bear's best! I topped this with a monogrammed white cloth.

The blocks were custom made by Laugh Loud Smile Big to match the party and spell out Brennan's name. (So to make my daughter happy, they also spell Madeline!)

The kids ate all their goodies and lunches at a four-poster twin bed I converted into a kid-sized table. Party favors were porcelain bowls and wooden spoons personalized with each child's name and a small teddy bear nestled in the bowl.



I used dark woods in crates, trays and tiny dollhouse chairs to display desserts that might find their way into a bear celebration: baked porridge topped with maple frosting and cinnamon, marzipan acorns, honey cupcakes, chocolate covered bear pops, bear sugar cookies, and all natural lollipops.

Allyson Jane provided the sugar cookies, and I baked the rest, save the cake! The cake was special; grandma flew in just for the party and made the cake for the birthday boy. Mama bear probably didn't deal in fondant or cake tips, so we left it very homemade with love looking and topped it with a little mini bunting and wooden bear.

Since we were entertaining 10 two year olds beginning at 10:30am, I also made a snack bar for the kids with berries (candy), mushrooms (cracker sticks with mushroom tops), twigs (pretzel sticks) and brown bears (teddy grahams.) Little boxes were set out at kid height so they could see what was in all the glass jars and help themselves.

There were also photo props for the kids to be silly with and have their picture taken.

Thank You Paula for letting us share this amazing day with all our readers. Your son's Birthday was yet another Classic Fairytale created by one fantastic Mama Bear! We look forward to reading more!

Smiles~

Amy & Bri

Credits:

Paperie and styling: Frog Prince Paperie

Photography: John McLaughlin and Paula Biggs

Sugar Cookies: Allyson Jane

Name Blocks: Laugh Loud Smile Big

Party hats: Southern Belle's Charm

Monogrammed birthday boy jon jon - 2 Manic Mommies Embroidery

Savvy Photography tutorial from Laura Kent Photography

March 1, 2011

We are pretty sure by now you know how much we ADORE pictures. Taking them, having them taken (of our kids), looking at other pictures. We have even refered to ourselves as the Momapratzzi. What you may have also figured out is that we are Horrible at taking pictures. Lucky for us we know a few FABULOUS Photographers. And bless their hearts, they are always having to answer our camera questions. This got us thinking, you probably have questions too.

So we asked our Dear friend Laura, of Laura Kent Photography, to stop by and give us some much needed HELP.

Take it away La~

I'm honored to get to be a guest blogger for my great friends Brianna and Amy at The Savvy Mom's Guide! I get asked lots of questions by parents who want to take great everyday pictures of their kiddos in between their sessions... What camera should I buy? Should I buy Nikon or Canon (ha!)? What's the best lens? How do I work the camera?

Honestly, I don't have ANY of those answers for you…
But I will say this: as far as I know, you can buy the BEST camera out there (whatever that is) and manage to mess it up if you just shoot on automatic. That's anyone- professional or not. Automatic, on even the best camera, isn't the best choice in a lot of situations... But, the the good news is that with a couple starting points and vocabulary words you can learn to outsmart that camera- no matter the type, cost or age of it…

I'm here to challenge you to get it OFF automatic :)

So Get out Your Cameras, People!
There are two modes to try out first.
1)AV mode (my favorite outside of manual):
You pick the APERTURE and ISO and the camera chooses the rest.
2)TV mode (less used, but I wouldn't get rid of it!):
You pick the SHUTTER SPEED and ISO and the camera chooses the rest.

Now for the Vocabulary words...
Aperture, Shutter Speed and little ISO
Aperture- (aka f-stop) Ranges from about f1.2 - f22. It controls the amount of light that comes into your camera and also determines the depth of field (how blurry or sharp the background will be). The lower the number, the blurrier the background will be and the less light you'll need to take a picture. Sometimes you'll notice an f in front of the number, but not usually on the camera's display)

Shutter Speed- The shutter speed has the power to freeze action. It controls how long the camera sucks in light and can be longer than 0”3 and faster than 1/1000 sec. Although the most used shutter speeds for our purposes will be fractions, typically just the bottom number is displayed on your camera (1/50= 50 on your display). 1/50 is slower than 1/100 and while that may seem obvious, I tend to confuse myself. So, the bigger the bottom number, the faster it is.

ISO- Try to use the lowest ISO possible to get a good exposure (generally 100-200 outdoors on a sunny day; 300-400 cloudy/shady; and indoors I've gone above 1600). Increasing the ISO allows you to photograph in darker areas when otherwise correct exposure wouldn't be possible. Raising the ISO can increase the graininess, but it's a give and take sort of thing.

Let's start Practicing!
1st task: Set your camera to AV Mode (aka Aperture Priority), go outside in the light (bring me with you of course!), choose an appropriate ISO and turn the aperture to the LOWEST number your lens allows. Let's just say 2.8 for starters (if you've got a kit lens it may be around 5.6). Focus on something and snap that shutter. This should give you a blurry background. To compare, bump up your aperture to 8.0 or larger and take a picture of the same thing, focusing on the same spot. That blurry background just got a little more detail. You now understand the role aperture has in depth of field.

*Use a small Aperture (f1.2 to f5.6) IF:
1) You want your subject to be sharp, and the background blurry
2) It's really dark, but you want to take a picture
*Use a larger Aperture Number (>f5.6 to f22) IF:
1) You want a detailed scenic background
2) You're taking a group picture (try >f5.6)

Here are a couple rather silly examples. Kids are napping so I used barbie in our weeds… Gotta use what ya have, right?

Above: AV Mode; ISO 125, f2.8 at 1/1250 sec. Blurry background (shallow depth of field), 0 stops exposure compensation. I chose a low aperture (f2.8) to blur the background. The camera chose the shutter speed. It's an okay exposure, but perhaps a little dark in the background.

Above: AV Mode; ISO 125, f9.0 at 1/125 sec. Sharper background (more depth of field); 0 stops exposure compensation. I chose a larger aperture (f9.0) to bring out the details in the background. The camera chose the shutter speed. It's an okay exposure, but perhaps a little dark in the background.
2nd task: Set your camera to TV mode (aka Shutter Speed Priority), choose a good ISO and pick a shutter speed of 30, just for kicks. Find a kid who's got energy and have them jump or dance around outside for the camera. The camera will pick the aperture. Assuming you have a lens longer than 30 mm, you just took a blurry picture. Good. Now bump up the shutter speed to 125, then 250, then 500. See what you get. The 4 images should look the same as far as the exposure is concerned (if one's dark, they're all dark). It's the action/motion (frozen or blurred) that will change with the shutter speed. Play around and then take note of which one freezes the best and stick to it when there's action.

Above: f4.5 @ 1/2500 sec, ISO 200, +1/3 stop exposure compensation. When stopping action is the most important part, you can set your camera to TV mode and select a quick shutter speed. I use this mode more when the light is low and the camera wants to choose a slow shutter speed that I know isn't good enough. Note: this picture was taken on aperture priority, but since it was bright, the shutter speed was acceptable to stop the motion in the snowball.

Ummm, thanks, but why aren't my pictures perfect yet?
Well, because even though you tried out the AV and TV modes, the camera's still doing all the exposure work. Notice the little hash marks/ruler lines you see in your camera's viewfinder? Your camera really wants to keep the exposure line in the middle, just like it did in automatic. But the camera doesn't always see things the way we do. It may see a bright sky and want to darken the exposure, but your kid's face is in the foreground and you don't want him to be dark. So you have to be smarter than the camera.

This is where Exposure Compensation comes in...
(Get out your manual to figure out which dial to turn...)
This is basically thanking the camera for its help, but choosing to override its exposure choice.
Look at the Preview of the last several pictures you took and ask yourself a couple questions...
Too dark or too bright? Then adjust the exposure one or two notches to the left (to make it darker) or right (to make it brighter) of the middle hash mark depending on what you need. The camera will keep this compensation for you, until you change it. If you go from a sunny to a shady spot, just make sure you keep checking the previews.
Blurry? Your shutter speed is too slow. Since the camera is choosing this for you in AV mode (probably because you're in a dark room or in shadows) try increasing your ISO or lowering your aperture number. If you're in TV mode, choose a shutter speed that's greater than the length of your lens. Usually the length of your lens is the minimum you can hand hold the camera without camera blur- i.e. 50mm: lens stay above 1/50 (this isn't a science though, don't hold me to it).

Let's go Back to Barbie...

Above: AV Mode; ISO 125, f2.8 at 1/1000 sec. (+1/3 stop exposure compensation). Blury background; +1/3 stop exposure compensation. I chose the Aperture (f2.8), and moved the little hash mark to the right one line, compensating the exposure +1/3 of a stop to make the picture brighter.

Above: AV Mode; ISO 125, f9.0 at 1/100 sec. (+1/3 exposure compensation). Sharper background (more depth of field); +1/3 stop exposure compensation. I chose a larger aperture (f9.0) to bring out the details in the background. I wanted the picture a bit brighter, so I moved the little hash mark one line to the right of the middle line, compensating the exposure +1/3 of a stop. There may be a happy medium between the darker and brighter backgrounds, and that's where post processing and editing come into play (if this weren't a picture of a barbie in the weeds that is :) ), but you get the idea. Sometimes the camera is way off, sometimes it's spot on but now you're able to give it a little piece of your mind.

Congratulations! You got it off Automatic!! Now, just PRACTICE, PRACTICE, PRACTICE!!
When you upload your pictures to your computer, pay attention to the settings that you used for each exposure. You can learn from your mistakes as well as the perfectly exposed pictures. The more you compare and take notes, the more you start to understand the differences that each piece plays in achieving a correct exposure. If you get stuck, you can switch to automatic and see what the camera chooses, then go back to AV/TV mode and make your own decision.

There's a GREAT book with tons of examples and analogies to help all this sink in. It's called Understanding Exposure by Bryan Peterson. It starts at the basics and takes you to some complicated and creative situations.

Happy Pictures!
Laura

Did that help? It helped us get off automatic.

Isn't she great!!!!

Look at how great she is.....

This is My family (Bri) last Christmas in 32 degree weather, which for us Southern Californians is COLD. Even in the bitter cold (again we are from CA) Laura got AMAZING shots. All you Dallas TX friends trust me when I say Laura Kent Photography will capture unforgettable moments and memories that you will cherish forever.

Smiles~

Amy & Bri