December 11, 2009

One Wedding Revisited

Posted by zoomyummy under GIMP, photo, photo editing | Tags: , |
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This needs to be said first – THIS IS NOT ME!

This is a very good friend of mine, my high-school classmate, the greatest girl ever, Miz B.

I love her very, very much and there are tons of gorgeous memories that will never be left behind.

Recently I have noticed this original picture on her Facebook profile.

And it’d left a lasting thought in my mind.

Although I liked the picture I had this feeling that there was something missing.

I liked their poses and the expressions in their eyes (the contentment in hers and every existing feeling in his).

And I liked the tree branch…

But wait, what about that gray film covering the whole picture?

Could I do something about that?

Although I am not a professional I am deep in love with photography …

… so I opened the picture in my photo editing software called GIMP (which is free, by the way, and it is very similar to Photoshop).

First, I decided to adjust the contrast …

You ugly gray film – BE GONE!

This is one of my most favorite tricks – ramping up the contrast.

It makes photos look so much more professional.

OK, the white dress is a bit overexposed now, but I think it transfers the picture out into the artistic dimension.

Ha!

Then I thought that the pic could use a bit more color …

So I went to “Hue-Saturation”, chose “Colors” and lifted the green up to 40 and the yellow to 29 …

It made the day look sunnier than it really was.

It wasn’t sunny at all actually.

What about a bit more sharpness (“Filters” -> “Enhance” -> “Unsharp Mask”)?

Yeah, that has helped, just compare their faces or the flowers.

At this point I thought that the pic could be a bit lighter.

So I clicked “Colors” -> “Color Curves” and lifted the curve a bit.

Who likes dark pictures?

Not us!

And now onto the skin.

I used the “Smudge Tool” here (you can find it on the left panel).

With the tool opacity reduced a bit, I smudged their foreheads (have you noticed the strange looking vein-like thing on her forehead?), cheeks, her neck and his hands to remove all the unnecessary shadows or wrinkles.

Nobody needs those.

I think it’s made her look  much prettier.

And him too – he’s lost much of that scared expression.

(And I added a bit more color here again to make it a tad more lively.)

And now, what if we put them into even more focus.

Have you ever heard of darkened edges?

I love them!

Make a new layer (“Layer” -> “New Layer”) and fill it with black.

Then add a white layer mask (“Layer” -> “Mask” -> “Add Layer Mask”).

With the mask chosen (clicked), click the “Ellipse Select Tool” on the left panel and create the ellipse.

Now fill the selection with black (with the “Bucket Fill Tool” from the left panel).

This sounds pretty crazy, doesn’t it?

I myself don’t know what exactly I am doing here right now, but it just works somehow.

I clicked “Select” -> “None”.

And since I wanted the layer to look a bit blurred I clicked “Filters” -> “Blur” -> “Gaussian Blur” and blurred the layer.

Then I used this powerful thing called the “Layer Opacity” (upper part of the right panel) which basically allows you to faint the effect you’ve just created on your new layer.

I reduced it from 100% to 44 %.

Well, I think this could be just enough for today.

And here it is …

… before …

… and after.

Before and After.

(Miz B loved it – she said she looked much prettier in the new picture and it all looked very much 3D.)

The End

 

December 9, 2009

Fingerless Mittens

Posted by zoomyummy under crafts, knitting, mittens | Tags: , , , |
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This is a story of a girl who was trying to knit with four double-pointed needles for the first time in her whole life.

The story is going to be exciting yet scary.

She struggled…

She felt sad and lonely…

The needles kept attacking her repeatedly …

She even considered wearing protective glasses to save her from having her eyes poked out.

But ultimately she succeeded!

Because she NEVER gives up.

She’s no member of  “The Quitters Club” and she’s never going to be!

For those of you who want to see how it felt to be her the story is as follows:

1. With double-pointed needles, cast on 39 stitches. (Cast your stitches onto 1 needle only. Divide the stitches evenly among 3 needles by slipping them onto 2 more needles.)

2. Once all 3 needles have the same number of stitches, lay the needles flat on a table (or a sofa if you are really have to), loosely lined up end to end. (Your right-most needle should have the working yarn.)

3. Take the left needle in your left hand and the right needle in your right hand. Bring the needles together to form a triangle with the middle needle. Pick up your fourth needle. With the triangle still in place (and the working yarn on the right needle), knit the stitches onto the left needle, pulling working yarn tightly to join.

Are you wondering what you are doing right now?

Well, I will tell you – you are now KNITTING IN THE ROUND!

Can you believe it?

4. Don’t be afraid and knit 57 rounds.

5. And now the magic is going to happen.

In round 58, using scrap yarn as your working yarn, knit 7 stitches off the beginning of your next needle.

Do you have a clue what that could be good for?

At this point I started to doubt the sanity of the people who’d written the pattern.

But then I saw…!

And was utterly amazed (hint – it’s got something to do with a thumb).

6. Now slip these stitches back onto the needle they came from.

7. With your main yarn, knit across the scrap-yarn stitches as well as the rest of the stitches on that needle.

8. Knit the rounds 59 through 83 with the main yarn.

9. Bind off loosely.

10. And now we are going to make the thumb opening.

Remove the scrap yarn carefully.

11. See? A hole has formed. But don’t be scared! That’s how it’s supposed to be – everything is just aaaaaall right.

There’s a series of loops above and below the hole.

Pass 1 empty double pointed needle through the top 7 loops and another through the bottom 7 loops.

You just have to find seven up and down, there’s no other way!

With a third needle and a new piece of yarn knit the 7 stitches on the bottom row, pick up and knit 2 loops at the end of the thumb opening. Now knit the 7 stitches on the top row, pick up and knit 2 loops at the opposite end of the thumb opening.

12. Divide the 18 stitches among 3 needles and knit 14 rows.

13. Bind off loosely.

And of course don’t you forget to make the second mitten too – that one might come in handy in case you are a proud owner of two hands (that’s not a nice kind of humor; shame on me…).

To see where I’ve found the original pattern you can click this if you dare to lose the contact with my wonderful site for a while .

 

December 7, 2009

Apple-Cinnamon Squares

Posted by zoomyummy under apples, cinnamon, pie, squares | Tags: , , , |
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This pie brings back many happy memories from my childhood.

My Mom used to make it very, very often because all members of our family loved it.

When I was going to bake it earlier today I took my rings off – as I always do.

And today, while doing so, I remembered my Mom who LOVES her jewelery and takes it off only on very rare occasions.

Baking not being one of them.

I had to laugh out loud when I remembered her carefully cleaning her rings after kneading dough by her hands.

There was especially this ring in the shape of a ball with lots of  holes in it so it was always full of a dough and it must have taken a pretty good while to clean.

But still she wore her rings. What a lady!

My Mom is so much fun.

Last time she asked me if I took any drugs.

I replied: “MOM!!! Of course NOT!”

And do you want to know what she said?

Well this is what she said – “I just asked because I have many syringes that someone has given us and I have no clue what to use them for.”

~~~

Nevertheless, this is what you need to prepare the lovely Apple-Cinnamon Squares:

4 cups (520 grams) all-purpose flour

3 teaspoons (15 grams) baking powder

1 cup (115 grams) confectioner’s (or powdered or icing) sugar; this is for the dough

1 cup (227 grams) butter, room temperature

2 eggs

8 medium-sized apples

1 1/4 cups (140 grams) confectioner’s (or powdered or icing) sugar; this is for the apple filling

2 teaspoons cinnamon

1 1/2  teaspoons vanilla extract

Topping:

1/4 cup (30 grams) confectioner’s (or powdered) sugar

~~~

1. In a larger bowl whisk together the flour, sugar and baking powder.

2. Add the butter.

(You can set aside a little butter to grease a baking pan with.)

3. Add the eggs.

4. By hand, knead the dough, cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate for about one hour.

(If you don’t feel like kneading a dough by your hands today, OK then, you’ll be forgiven. In such a case beat the butter with sugar in your electric mixer. Then add the eggs. And then add the flour mixture gradually.)

5. While the dough is cooling we can prepare our apple filling.

So peel the apples …

… and grate them.

Mix them with the sugar, cinnamon and the vanilla extract.

6. Preheat an oven to 350 F (175 C).

7. Grease a baking pan with the butter (I used a 9×13 inch/22×32 cm pan).

8. Divide the dough into two parts – 2/3 and 1/3 of the dough.

The bigger part is going to be the bottom layer of the pie and the smaller one will be cut out into the star shapes.

Roll out the bigger piece of the dough into approximately the size of the pan bottom.

You can adjust the shape using a knife.

9. Transfer the dough onto the pan.

10. Place the apple filling on top of the dough and even it out with a spoon.

11. Now, roll out the smaller dough to about 1/5 inch (0,5 cm) thickness.

Using the cutter of any shape you like, cut out the shapes.

Re-roll any scraps and cut out more cookies.

12. Place the cut-out shapes on top of the apple layer.

(If, by any accident, you end up cutting out more stars/shapes than you can fit on top of the pie, don’t you worry. Just place them on a baking sheet and bake for about 9 minutes at 350F/175C. You’ll have nice little bonus.)

13. Bake for about 40 minutes rotating the pan halfway through.

14. Put the remaining sugar in a sieve and sprinkle the top.

The trick is that the sugar on apples will melt and lose its whiteness while the sugar on the stars will remain white and shiny.

Don’t you believe it?

15. Look!

I told you so … .

Now cut the pie into squares (one star – one square, easy!).

16. Enjoy dear friends!

Yummy!

 

December 3, 2009

Melting Moments Cookies

Posted by zoomyummy under Christmas, cookies, holidays | Tags: , , |
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These cookies might possibly be the easiest cookies in the whole universe…

They contain just a few ingredients and are great fun to make.

And let me tell you that they taste just wonderful.

There is also one magical trick involved – Melting Moments Cookies replace some of the flour with cornstarch (corn flour) so they literally “melt-in-your-mouth”.

Yum!

~~~

To prepare the delicious Melting Moments you need :

1 1/2 cup (210 grams) all-purpose flour

1/2 cup (60 grams) cornstarch (corn flour)

1/4 teaspoon salt

1/2 cup (60 grams) powdered (or confectioner’s or icing) sugar

1 cup (227 grams) unsalted butter, room temperature

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Topping:

1 cup (110 grams) powdered (or confectioner’s) sugar, sifted

~~~

1. In a bowl whisk together the flour, cornstarch and salt.

Set aside.

2. In the bowl of your electric mixer mix the butter and sugar …

… until light and fluffy (about 3 minutes).

Beat in the vanilla extract.

3. Gradually add the flour mixture.

Beat until incorporated.

Cover and refrigerate the dough for about one hour.

4. Preheat an oven to 350 F (175 C).

5. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.

6. On a lightly floured surface form a log from the dough.

Cut the log into two halves.

And then cut each half into two halves, and then again and again, until you have 36 equal pieces.

7. Form a ball from each piece (it is going to be about 1 inch/2,5 cm in diameter).

(Hey, palm readers, what’s my fortune? Making many cookies, right?)

8. Place the cookies on the prepared baking sheet spacing them about 1 inch (2,5 cm) apart.

9. Bake for about 12 – 14 minutes or until the edges of the cookies start to brown.

Remove from the oven and place on a wire rack to cool for 5 minutes.

10. Now we are going to cover our lovely cookies with some sugar.

Line a baking pan or a tray with parchment paper and sprinkle about half of the confectioner’s sugar onto the bottom of the pan.

Then place the slightly cooled cookies on top of the sugar.

Thus we’ve covered the bottoms of the cookies and we can place them back on the cooling rack.

11. Put the remaining sugar in a strainer or a sieve and sprinkle the tops of the cookies.

Nice!

These delicious cookies store very well (up to two weeks – in airtight containers between sheets of wax paper) so they are very good for those who like to make their Holiday baking in advance.

This lovely recipe was adapted from joyofbaking.com and makes 3 dozen cookies.

Enjoy!

 

December 1, 2009

I Love It When December Begins!

Posted by zoomyummy under chocolate, holidays, kids, lovely stuff | Tags: , , |
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I simply love December.

I consider it the greatest, most magical and heart-warming month of them all.

And I celebrate every single one of its wonderful days.

Every year I buy my boyfriend this advent calendar full of lovely chocolates.

And every year he tells me that he’s not into such things all that much and I can have it.

And that is what I wait for!

Now I have my own treasure box without blaming myself for being too childish and  buying it for myself.

In fact, I am being frugal by putting it into good use, right?

I absolutely love and adore all the details of this beautiful thing.

A lovely girl lighting a candle.

A happy boy who’s just found a present.

A peaceful winter land behind the windows.

But where’s number one – the first day of this festive countdown?

No, it’s not here.

Aaaaa, here you’ve been hiding.

Gotcha!

Reveal your sweet secret to me!

Yaaay!

(I like the way the kids are looking at my fingers in this picture. They look quite curious.)

I want my chocolate right now!

Yum!

Look!

Number two.

Let me have that one as well!

Not…!

I was strong, stronger than the lovely chocolate under number two!

I am keeping it for tomorrow.

For another magical day of December.

 

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