Free Online Photo Editing Tool

On my photography blog, we have Fix-it Friday where we take an okay photo and make it fabulous. I recently played around with Picnik, a FREE online photo editing application. It’s SUPER easy to use and has a lot of really fun borders, fonts and scrapbook items. I could spend a lot of time playing there!

Here is a sample of what you can do with Picnik:

This is the before photo. Which was taken by one of my favorite photographers, Susan Keller. She’s awesome, so the before shot was still really good. Just needed a few adjustments.

This is my favorite edited version. Using the free online tool Picnik.

Head over to I ♥ Faces to see my other versions with directions on how to do this yourself. There are eight other AWESOME photographers who contributed their photos with directions.

Amy’s Grandma Chunkie’s Chocolate Pie

My favorite part of Thanksgiving dinner is homemade pies. YUM! My all time favorite is my Great-Grandma Chunkie’s Chocolate Pie. Grandma Chunkie (real name Lilly Maybell) was a little spitfire. She had purplish pink (sometimes blue!) hair and always made you laugh. She also made THE best pies! Usually for our Thanksgiving dinners, we would have about 3 pumpkin pies along with banana, lemon and chocolate. She made me my own mini chocolate pie. A tradition, I have started with my kids, because we all know pumpkin pie is totally gross when you’re a kid!

For all you chocoholics, this pie is a must! Here’s the recipe that she wrote on a small piece of paper:

Grandma Chunkie’s Easy to Make Rich & Creamy Chocolate Pie

• One large Hershey Candy Bar (milk chocolate) 8 oz (now I get 2 large chocolate bars)

• 18 large marshmallows cut up

• 1/2 cup sweet milk (I just use regular milk)

• 18 oz. Cool Whip

• Melt Candy bar and marshmallows in milk over low fire until smooth. Cool.

• Add 1-9 oz Cool Whip into chocolate mixture

• Pour into baked pie shell and keep cool until ready to serve.

Don’t forget to spoon a large helping of Cool Whip on your slice of pie! (I like to add chocolate sprinkles too)

Happy Thanksgiving!

Do It Yourself Christmas Gift Ideas

It’s never too early to get started on Christmas gifts. I’ve found some great ideas for homemade gifts. Enjoy!

Blonde Designs have some easy holiday gift ideas with printable labels.

Make a Christmas Song CD and print a label for your cover.

Executive Homemaker (aka Laurie-Tip Junkie) has a list of 24 quick, easy, cheap gifts. Download a free printable with all the labels and poems. How about these fun gifts… Cheese and a cheese grater: “Cheesen’s Greetings To A Really “GRATE” Neighbor!” or a Wire Wisk with Hershey kisses wrapped in cellophane: “We Whisk You A Merry Kissmas!”

Make LollyChop’s Hot Cocoa Mix. She has a great recipe and the cutest packaging you can print.

Want more ideas? Check out my complete list here.

Thanks! Amy

Cute Turkey Cookies

Baking with my kids is a fun tradition we have started.

I found these adorable Thanksgiving Cookies and thought I would share them with you. I modified the ingredients a little; my kids didn’t seem to mind that I forgot the malt balls. They gobbled them up!

What you need:

7 Candy Corn
2 Double Stuffed Oreo Cookies
1 Whopper
1 Reese’s Peanut Butter Cup
1 Tube of black piping gel (for the pupils of the turkey’s eyes)
1 tube of white icing (to spread in the edge of Oreo so the Candy Corns will stay in place and for the whites of the turkey’s eyes)

Assemble the cookies to recreate the look in the photo.

What Thanksgiving activities do you like to do with your children?

State Fair of Texas Food Tour

What’s more fun than taking a tour of the State Fair of Texas food? I’m sad to say, this is one of the highlights of my year. I usually make it my mission to try as many fried foods as my stomach will allow! Here is a tour of some things I tried last year. Hopefully it will help you decide what you’d like to eat:-)

Mmmmm.. Chicken Fried Bacon. Can you say heart attack?? I just couldn’t help but try it. I think I will skip the fried bacon this time around.

This was by far my favorite! Deep Fried Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough covered in chocolate, powdered sugar and nuts! I highly recommend finding this booth. YUM!

I even found waffle balls. These are heaven… strawberries dipped in waffle batter, deep fried, then dipped in chocolate and deep fried again! Oh my goodness… I was one happy camper!

More Yummy Food!

I hope you enjoy all the great fair food this year. Don’t forget to take some Tums!

Cute Fast and Easy Treats

I have not been wanting to bake lately. So instead, I’ve been making these fast and easy treats.

Dip marshmallows in melted chocolate chips, add sprinkles and you’re done!

I just discovered these mini pie crusts at the grocery store. My kids love pudding, and these make a super easy, festive treats in no time.

Dear Kindergartner

You went to Kindergarten today. I thought you would be scared and clinging to my leg. I thought you would cry and I would have to leave you there upset. I thought wrong… you have grown up very fast and become such a big kid!

Wearing your new Transformer’s backback, you strode right into school. As we walked to your class, you did not want to hold my hand, but every once in a while you would look back to make sure I was still with you.

You met your teacher and weren’t too sure about sitting in your seat. For about 30 seconds, your face turned red and tears started to well up in your eyes. I thought I would loose it before you did, but you and I both kept our cool! Good for us! Boy, mommy was way more emotional than she expected to be. Once you knew I could stay until class started you decided it was okay. You still didn’t want to put your bottom down in the seat just yet though.

Finally your friend Dawson got to class and all was good. You didn’t seem to care whether I was there or not. So I hid in the background a took a few photos of you singing your morning song.

I can’t believe how fast you’ve grown. Your new school jeans fit just right. I usually have to roll up the pants. Your legs have all the sudden gotten long!  You have become a great swimmer and are starting your 3rd season of soccer this week. Yesterday you lost your first tooth and didn’t even cry! It makes me sad, but excited too. You were such an active baby, running by the time you were 11 months old. You wore me out! I could never catch up to you. It seems I still can’t. You will outgrow your daddy and me one day. I wanted to write this letter, so when you are that big you can read it and laugh at me for being sappy, but will also know how much I loved you.

I pray that you will have a great school experience and love your teacher and classmates. I will miss taking you to the grocery store in your Batman costume, eating lunch and running around town together. You are my little buddy and I’m so thankful to have been home with you these first 5 years. It has really gone by quick! I think most of all, your sissy will miss you the most. She will have to learn how to play all by herself. I’m sure there will be many times she will call out your name today. It was sweet when you said, “I’ll play with sissy all the time when I get home from school.” I know that will make her very happy.

Kindergarten is a big time for learning! I’m looking forward to of all the new things we will be able to do together like reading books, writing letters and spelling words! I’m excited for all the new adventures in store for you! I can’t wait to experience it all again through you. Have a wonderful day today and I hope you miss us just a tiny bit. I can’t wait to take you for ice cream and hear all about your BIG day.

Love,

Mom

Amy  is a graphic designer and DFW mom of two. She writes about DIY ideas for home and family on her website, Living Locurto.

Motherhood: Reality vs. Expectations

I can remember the the first time my son started kindergarten, I began thinking of things I wished we had done during his first 5 years. Then I started questioning myself. Did I play enough? Did I work too much? Did I teach him anything at all?? Then my crazy mind wondered on… thinking even further back to when I was younger and what I pictured my life being like with kids.

Rewind back to 4″ high 80’s bangs and permed hair me… {yikes! LOL }

I thought…

My kids would look just like me.

The only thing my kids got from me was their blonde hair and smiles. The rest is all daddy!

I thought…

They would sleep though the night.

For those of you who’s kids slept through the night right away, sorry, I hate you! My first born finally slept more than 6 hours straight after about 10 months.

I thought…

I would be doing creative art projects with them each week, such as painting and learning the color wheel.

I’m such a slacker here! This is my thing too, I’m an artist!! I have always had grand plans, but most of the time we just draw with markers or play with stickers. I’m too lazy to clean paint off of children:-)

I thought…

They would automatically know how to pee and poop on the potty at age 2.

I never knew you had to work with them. Sometimes for years!  Boy, did I ever find out the hard way!!

I thought…

They would be so well behaved that we would travel overseas on vacations.

Now I cringe just thinking about this! ha. Our last flight with an overly dramatic 2 year old was a year ago and it was only to North Carolina.

I thought…

We would have family close by to help out (like they would magically appear where ever we lived!).

The closest relative is 5 hours away.

I thought…

They would learn to play an instrument before going to grade school.

Does a really bad sounding harmonica count? My granddad played the fiddle and my aunt sang, played guitar and fiddle. There was always music at my grandparent’s house. Like the previous item, I just thought family would magically always be around and my kids would absorb the musical talent.

I thought…

They would be outgoing and want to do all kinds of activities.

I have tried and tried, year after year, as my son clung to my leg, to get him to try new things. He would rather be home wearing his Batman costume playing on the computer or with Legos.

I thought…

They would be able to swim like fish by age 3.

I spent a lot of time and money on my son to learn survival swimming. By 18 months he could swim like a fish, it was so cool. Then boom! The next summer he was clinging to my leg. He just now started swimming. Better late than never. His baby sister is a diva and doesn’t like to get her hair wet!

I thought…

We would have a boat and take them skiing and tubing at a lake.

I used to go boating all the time. That was another life. Too busy to even think about that now. I sure do miss it though.

I thought…

I would still be able to have my career and be there for them 100% of the day.

I work from home (not the grand career my 80’s self had planned) and I am never there 100% of the time. Who really is? If you are, I bow down before you:-) My kids watch T.V. and go to preschool a few hours a week. There I said it, it’s out there. I’m not a perfect mommy. I just do my best and try to keep my head above water. I think the toughest job in the world is working from home with preschoolers. At least my clients are used to hearing screams in the background. ha! I stay up really late, hardly ever have clean laundry and drink lots of coffee!

I figure as long as you are with them at home, you don’t have to be playing with them 100% of the time. They are happy to be near you, smell you, and get a hug when they fall. But it’s still hard not to feel guilty when your children are looking for you while you’re on a conference call and hiding in your closet!

**Side note about the laundry. Thanks to my husband for doing the laundry. We would all be some funky smelling people if it weren’t for you:-)

I thought…

They would take great pictures and ham it up for the camera.

How I wish this were true. I get more shots of the back of my kid’s heads!! Grrrrrr… Sit still already!

I thought…

My parents and grandparents would live forever to see my kids grow.

I’m so sad that my kids don’t have any men in their life but their Daddy. My dad passed away before I was married. He would have gotten so much joy from his grand kids! Both Granddads are gone too. On the brighter side, my grandma has the longevity gene and might just live forever! ha. She’s 81 and still working! Go Grandma! We have lots of grandmas and aunts to be thankful for.

And last of all…

I thought they would stay with me forever.

This hit home the day my boy was old enough for kindergarten. We need to cherish them while we have them. The preschool and elementary stages of life are so tiring and challenging! Life with kids may not be what we imagined, but we have them and that’s what matters!! God hand-picked the perfect kids for us. They are each unique little people and wouldn’t life be boring if they were all that we pictured or just like us? Where is the adventure in that? I plan to love mine as best as I can… and also pray for sanity each day:-)

Amy no longer has 4″ high big hair and is embracing her reality of marriage and two kids.  She is a graphic designer and writes at Living Locurto.

Mini Barbeque Beef Pies

Hopefully your kids will like these. If not, they would be great for football watching parties!

• 1 lb. Ground Beef
• 1 small onion diced
• 1-2 cups of BBQ Sauce (use as much as you like)
• 1/2 of a large red pepper diced
• 1/2 cup of chopped sweet potatoes (I used canned)
• 1 ear of corn
• 2 1/4 cups of Bisquick
• 2/3 cup of Milk
• 1 cup shredded cheddar cheese

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 450°
2. Add beef and onion to skillet and cook until done.
3. Lower heat to simmer and mix in BBQ sauce, red pepper, sweet potato.
4. Cut the corn off the ear of corn and add that to the mix.
5. Mix Bisquick and milk in a bowl.
6. Drop a spoonful of dough into a muffin tin. Repeat until you’ve used all the dough.
7. Bake biscuits for about 2 minutes, then take out of oven and add a large spoonful of the meat mixture to each muffin tin on top of the biscuit dough. Press the spoon down making a little cup for the mix.
8. Sprinkle cheese on top and bake for another 8-10 minutes.

Wouldn’t these look cute stacked on a cupcake stand at a party?

Amy Locurto is a mom of two and graphic designer, Co-Founder of a photography blog iHeartFaces.com and provides free downloads, recipes and creative ideas on her blog LivingLocurto.com. She sometimes even gets a little sleep!

Kindergarten Art

We recently visited my son’s open house. I absolutely love looking at artwork by kids. They crack me up and have so much imagination. It’s always inspiring to see them together like these self portraits. Besides playing with their brothers or sisters, most of them say their favorite thing is to play Wii or eat at McDonalds.

Here are their drawings of mom and dad. We got to read what they wrote about us and try to guess which one was our kid’s drawing.

This is what our son did… LOL!

Okay, really… my hair looks NOTHING like that! It’s so much longer:-) I got a big laugh at what he wrote about us!

Here are a few more good ones…

Well, at least I don’t panic a lot:-)

Amy is a graphic designer and DFW mom of two.  She writes about DIY for home and family on her beautiful website, Living Locurto.

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