Museum
It’s been a while since we’ve been to a museum together. I love this shot because he looks like a prince! ;)
Maternity news
Last Weekend I had a special session by a friends house who is going to have a baby boy very, very soon!
Her little girl, Miss G, was supposed to have a nap before we start the session but she refused it, so we started anyway the photo shooting and for our big surprise she decided deliberated to join the session.
The nicest thing about having a session with a friend is that we don’t really see the time passing by. Guess why? We talk all the time! Imagine a pregnant photographer (but I’m still not really showing it) and a pregnant model having talks about baby room decoration ideas, better baby cream in France, etc until the natural light finishes and we don’t have any other option then to stop the session and go to the dining table and eat some orange cake. :)
Cake Smash
Last Friday I had a great experience. It was my first Cake Smash session! I knew it was going to happen some weeks ago, so I started preparing everything. Am I the only one that thinks that props for kids photography are expensive? Looking at the beautiful items on Etzy and how expensive they would be for them to be sent from the USA I decided that it was time to use my creativity and make my own props for this session.
I baked the Cake and decorated it. For the topping I used mascarponi, food colorant and icing sugar. It was delicious!! The fact is that I’ve tried to make icing one day and on the next day it was hard. I don’t know if I did it wrong but I needed something soft for the baby. Oh, please if you have some nice recipes, give me the link! I’d appreciate it a lot!!! :)
I knitted the tie! This one I really don’t know how I did it. If at least my mother could be here for me to ask how to do this… but I believe that it’s not so bad… at least in the picture. :)
Third thing, I painted the frame of the blackboard in a way that seems aged using petroleum jelly. I will come back with this instruction one day. Look at the photo below:
Hope you like it! ;)
Stencil
After a good week at school, my son started having runny nose last Saturday. I tough of keeping him home on Monday but it doesn’t look better, so he’s been with me now for two days and will be probably tomorrow at home as well. What to do to spend the days at home and still have the feeling that something productive was done? I thought… Stencil! Why not, I have a book that tells the technic and I have some Freezer-paper and Fabric paint at home.
I will tell you how this one was made:
You need:
– Two sheets of freezer paper. (unfortunately it’s not easy to find it in Paris, but I ordered it online some months ago)
– Fabric paint. (I had a bit of brown)
– X-acto knife. (Theo wasn’t allowed to touch it)
– A self-healing mat.
– An image. I got this simple this one in the internet)
– Pen
– Iron (only parents)
– Fabric. (I got an old T-shirt as we are doing it for the first time)
____________________________________________________________________________________
1- Place the Freezer-paper over the image and trace it with a pen (shine side down)
2- Cut the Stencil with the knife over the mat.
3- Set up the stencil shine side down on the T-shirt. Place the other Freezer-paper under the fabric, shine side up. (between the back and front)
4- Iron for 20 seconds the Freezer-paper and it will stick a bit on the fabric.
4- Apply the paint with a paintbrush or stencil brushes of the cutout area of the stencil.
5- Don’t remove the Stencil or move the fabric for 12 hours. (I explained to my son the need of it to be still for over night and he didn’t do anything. I’m proud!)
6- Next day remove the stencil and wash the fabric by it self with cold water. Next time I was told we can wash with other clothes…
Now, I will really take it seriously and we can get some new wardrobe soon! Nice!
Monster’s party!
My son’s Birthday Party was made um July this year, but I wanted to share it here. Many ideas I took from the internet and as he likes monstrers, oh yes, this was the perfect theme for him! Muffins and candies I made myself… (lot’s of work, I’d say!). The cake I ordered from a brazilian lady who lives in Paris and it was delicious! She printed my drawing and it was nice on the end! It was my first attempt making cake pops! So much fun!!!
Happy Fence Friday
I know today is Wednesday but I want to share something. For those who love photography and do not live a day without giving a sneak peek on Flickr, you may know about HAPPY FENCE FRIFAY or better known as HFF. For those who don’t know, people take a photo of a fence and on Friday upload it to be viewed and commented by all virtual friends. (more or less like blogs are- you can be addicted to this)
When I saw it first time I thought it could be mesmerism, that there wouldn’t be many fences that different to shoot, but I was wrong and now what happens is that I photograph one after another. I notice the fences around me now when I walk on the street. Here are some of them!
Brazilian Pastel (Deep-fried pastry filled)
One day were driving home and decided to stop at the store to buy Brazilian beans and we find pastry for Pastel.
This pastry is not exactly like those found in Brazilian’s markets and strangely comes frozen from Germany, but we decided to try.
It is possible to make this dough at home but I have never tried. I’ve found some recipes on the internet that I put below for those who want to give a try.
Once the dough is defrosted, cut pieces of tomatoes, cheese, oregano and ham (see the photo). Fry in hot oil. It is super fast! Perhaps not the most healthy recipe in the world but it is delicious!
For the filling, you can put whatever you want. The Brazilians usually eat with minced meat (mix the meat with the onions, leeks, garlic, coriander. Cook it stirring occasionally), with palm hearts and cheese, with shredded chicken and olives or even sweet, with Brigadeiro or Nutella and banana.
Pastry Ingredients:
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 tablespoon of cachaça (or vodka)
1 tablespoon margarine
1/3 cup warm water with 2 pinches of salt
½ teaspoon baking powder
1 egg
Prepare:
Sift the flour with baking powder.
In a large bowl, mix in the sifted flour, margarine, cachaca and egg.
Mix well while adding the warm water until you get a dough. (Or you can prepare the dough in a electric mixer).
Move the dough to a flat surface and knead it for 15 minutes.
Use a pin to flat the dough. Take half of the dough each time and flatten it with the pin. Fold the dough couple times and flatten it again until you get a thin elastic stripe about 6 inches wide.
Lay the stripes down in a floured surface.
Place full teaspoons of your favorite filling evenly distributed on the dough.
Fold it. Pinch with a fork the seam to make sure it is closed.
Deep-fry the Pastel until golden brown.
Pat dry in a paper towel and serve.
Diamond Shape Felt
I’ve decided recently to slightly change our way of life. Reading a book that my husband bought for me called “the creative family” from Amanda Blake Soule, the things she says make sense.
I am a person who if staying a few days without creating, I start getting sick. Really! Why not to involve my son in many of these creations? We paint, draw, play play dough and cook together but I want to get him involved in different things. Even though he is not yet able to perform some things from start to end, he will be involved in parts of the project and still have that sensation that something special was also made by him.
We went to a local store that has various artistic materials and I saw pieces of colored felt. In the book I’ve mentioned, Amanda teaches how to make felt blocks. It’s easy and we don’t need to have a sewing machine. It’s only necessary to thread a needle by hand. I also bought some felt monsters, very nice ones.
Back home I realized that I didn’t have felt enough for the size of the monsters, so I decided to make a different shape. I started cutting some triangles. In this step, my son could pull the sewing needle to me, with my total supervision. I’ve found a pillow from IKEA that we don’t use and was really cheap so I opened it without regret. My son filled the diamond shape with the soft fur, and then he pasted the little monsters on some of the faces of the diamond.
I’ve finalized it with colored sewing thread. ;)
Spinach and bacon pie
One day I was at a friend’s house and taking a look at a magazine recipe, I saw one that looked simple and delicious. So I’ll tell you what I did of what I remembered, so this recipe doesn’t contains amounts of the things but still you can figure out, like I did, how much to use of each ingredient.
1- I bought 2 Herta Puff Pastry (French made ready-rolled puff pastry – Pate en Or Feuilletée) and opened one of them at the base of my pan.
2- Then I fried some chopped bacon and onion until lightly cooked. After frying it I put it into another container.
3- With the same sauce left from the fried bacon, with the same pan I cooked the chopped spinach for some minutes. I used 600 gr (just saw a picture I have) :)
4- So, on top of the pastry you put in layers first all the bacon and onion, then all the spinach. After that, I remember that the recipe said to put something about 6 eggs on the top of everything. I didn’t have it all at home so I put only 3 eggs. (one broke as you can see in the picture: P)
5- Cover with the other Puff Pastry. I decorated as you can see with the cut pieces left.
6- I brushed the top with a beaten egg.
7- Put it into the oven until it has turned a nice toasted golden color
That’s it! Easy and Yummy!
Andrea Janes photography 