Wilton Course 2: Class 1

Yesterday’s class was… anticlimactic. We went over the color wheel, complimentary colors, monochrome… you know, all that stuff they teach you the first week of EVERY art/design class you ever take. We did learn a little bit about fondant and gum paste, then did a bit of mixing and learned how to use the button flower press with the mixture of fondant and gum paste. It’s kind of cute, but I’m not a huge fan. It’s thick, but I’m sure it could be cute on the right cake

The “glue” was still a little wet, as you can tell. They’re supposed to dry for 3 days.

We were supposed to also learn how to do the gumpaste pansy, but ran out of time (everyone was late… except for me, of course). So, I took it upon myself to mess around with it for a while. This is what I wound up with.

They’re a bit dry and cracked, but I’m sure there’s a way to prevent that. I’m supposed to learn how to do them next week, so maybe there’s a better way.

By the way, these were taken with my new camera. I love that the proportions are nicer, and they don’t need to be edited at all. They’re much clearer, too.

Fashion Star: Episode 4

The show just started right up with a short roll about Sarah and Orly and then uncharacteristically shot RIGHT into the show. There was a buy within the first 11 minutes of the show, which is NOT normal! But I’m not complaining. Show me more fashion, less blah blah blah.

H&M bought , Sarah Parrott’s  dress, Niki Poulos’ dress

Sarah Parrott dress reminded me of the dress that Magenta wore at the end of Rocky Horror Picture Show, with a gaping hole in the back and high shoulders. The low end was just boring. H&M is selling the high end for $39.95, and the low end for $24.95, so it’s really not that bad. I’m not a huge fan, though. The white is the back of the high end, and the red is the low end.

Nikki Poulos 60s dress is seriously ugly. I have absolutely nothing to say about it. I don’t even know why H&M bought it. It looks so frumpy. It’s a $35, rainbow dot-stripe maxi dress. Ugh.

Saks bought , Luciana’s High Waist Dress, Kara Laricks’ Tuxedo Jacket.

Luciana high waist dresses looked identical, but her high end version was longer. I’m not a fan. It looks plain and boring, especially since Saks is selling it for $. And then the got her FIRST buy, even though she should have been eliminated last week. Kara Laricks tuxedo jacket was very cute, but the long version looked like the model was going to trip. Saks is, of course, selling the long version for an obscene $395. And I was in hysterics when Kara got her buy and then stabbed herself in the face with her sharp ass ring. Wonderful.

Macy’s bought Barbara’s Halter Dress.

Barbara’s Halter “vest dress” was adorable on the runway, and Macy’s bought BOTH versions. I don’t think the pattern really transferred very well to the high end version, especially at $99, but the low end hoodie-halter is absolutely adorable wonderful. It’s a very cute take on a casual dress, that I would actually wear! And the $79 price tag isn’t too bad.

I fell in love with Ross’ Scarlet Ohara dress. I’m in love with all things tulle, and he had a very very poofy black and white dress with a pretty tulle rose, and a white and black dress with , and I’d wear either dress, but the black with white dots was AMAZING. I was extremely disappointed when he didn’t get a buy, especially after the Saks buyer said it looked like something Olivia Newton John wore in Grease. ANGRY. And this model’s expressions don’t do anything for any dress she might put on.

Fujifilm Finepix S4500

This post contains affiliate links, which means that if you click on one of the product links, I may receive compensation.

Yesterday, I mentioned my new camera, so I thought that I’d share the awesomeness that is my Fujufilm S4500. First of all, let my start by saying that I got it at Costco, on sale. I payed $169, which was $60 off of the Costco price.

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It obviously isn’t a small product, but this is, of course, the Costco pack, which includes a 4 gig SD card, a camera case, and a coupon for 100 free prints from Costco. I’m not actually sure what all you get if you order it from Amazon, or even buy it anywhere else, so let me know if you buy it.

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This is what I assume you get if you don’t buy it at Costco. It took up about half of the outside box (the other half was the case).

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It came with four of the weirdest named batteries I’ve ever seen. And they have deer on them. I’m not kidding. I can’t figure out if these are “Airdeer” or “Pairdeer”, but as soon as they die, I’m going to replace them with either rechargeables or Lithium Ion.

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The SD card was just a standard card, but I’m hoping to replace it with a Wi-Fi SD card soon. And by soon I mean probably for my birthday. I love being able to wirelessly upload, but I REALLY love that I can just pop the card into my laptop. This camera has the two most important features I was looking for in a new camera, and everything I’ve always looked for in a camera. The two most important features were SD storage, which is simple to just pop in and out of the camera and the laptop, as opposed to the ProDUO card that my old camera uses. It also uses AA batteries instead of the rechargeable, special battery, that needs to be plugged into the wall using a special charger that I have a habit of losing.

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I always look for a long zoom, so I was ecstatic when my last camera had 12x. This one has 30x. Ecstatic doesn’t even begin to describe how I feel. And the lens cap is wonderful. It’s not one that needs to be fidgeted with or unscrewed, but it stays on when it needs to. I wasn’t expecting the camera strap, or the case that fits the camera perfectly and has a million pockets. This camera is seriously amazing. Plus, I took a few photos when I got it, and I’m excited to say that it has some truly wonderful features. And I’m a big fan of the pop up flash.

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This camera means that I can offer some prints for sale, along with just sharing some pretty photos. I’m going to set up a store somewhere soon, so watch for that. Obviously, I’ll share when I do get that set up.

Scratch Mac

Way back on January 23, I wrote about my bucket list. That list included two items that I’ve since completed and I’m really really excited about.

This post contains affiliate links, which means that if you click on one of the product links, I may receive compensation.

3. Blog every (week)day for a month

9. Make mac and cheese from scratch

Well, it’s been about two and a half months of blogging every day, now, so yay! And then Wednesday, The Chew had a macaroni and cheese episode. Michael Symon made an amazingrosemary, chicken, and goat cheese mac (which I’d love to try), and I got inspired. A few weeks ago, I tried to make mac and cheese and it ended up pretty grainy and disappointing, so I didn’t even consider that “scratch mac and cheese”. My mom’s been trying to convince me that I should use my grandma’s recipe – Velveeta, milk, and pasta – but I really didn’t consider that scratch mac either.

I did a little recipe searching, and during a recent shopping trip grabbed some evaporated milk and two bags of cheddar – one sharp, and one mild. The only problem is, I lost the recipe that I’d originally found, and can’t remember what I searched for to find it. So I googled “macaroni and cheese evaporated milk” and knew right away which recipe I was going to use – Alton Brown’s stove top mac and cheese. Not only am I a huge Good Eats fan, but Alton Brown can do no wrong in my eyes. And this was no exception.

It is just as simple as deluxe box mac and cheese, and even easier than than the stuff with the powdered cheese. Basically, you cook the noodles, mix together the egg, milk, and spices, then melt in the cheese. One pan, one bowl. And it’s super cheesy and just amazing. TRY THIS RECIPE!

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I doubled the recipe because I thought it wasn’t going to be enough for us. Boy, was I wrong. It lasted us 3 days, eating it lunch and dinner, and if we hadn’t pigged out the first day, we probably could have eaten it for 4 days. You really have to be careful with this one, because it will make you sick if you eat too much of it. It’s VERY filling.

We didn’t use hot sauce because we’re not a hot sauce family, but I would make one other change to the recipe. Using all sharp cheddar is a very strong, sharp flavor (duh), so I would actually replace 2/3 of the cheese with mild, and use only about 4 oz of cheese (if you’re making the single recipe).

As my lack of photos, I took a number of pictures, but they were all glitched and destroyed and unusable. The light at the end of this sad little tunnel, though, is that on Thursday, after my first day of work at my new job (!) I ran off to Costco and bought an amazing little Fujifilm Finepix S4500 at a great price, so the picture quality should improve after I get the posts that I already have pictures for posted. And I might share a few more “photos of pretty things” posts in the future.

Konad Nail Art

This was originally posted on kimschoenherr.wordpress.com on November 18, 2011.

 The other day I mentioned that I wanted a Konad nail art system, and these videos are why. All I know about it is from YouTube videos, but what I’m seeing makes me want it.

Onto the videos.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kgrloweud0Q]

Most of the Konad plates, from what I’ve seen, are cute like this princess bow. I also really like rhinestones.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6cXoUK5OMvk]

I’m a big fan of lace, so this lace and rose design is perfect.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4HXy20D8xFs]

“Street style”

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uhSRVnKsPr4]

Zombie girl

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gVuMmik8Wh8]

Rainbow houndstooth.

Random Product Love

This was originally posted on kimschoenherr.wordpress.com on November 18, 2011.

 I’ve been coming across some pretty cool stuff lately, none of which I own, but all of which I thought I’d share. So, without further ado, enjoy some random product love.

1. American Apparel interlock running shorts

2. Plasticland Magic Wand Salt and Pepper Shakers

3. Zgallerie Paquet Pilar Holder

4. Serena Antique Mercury Glass Candle Holders

5. Pottery Barn Basilica Pillar Candles

What do you want to buy? Or have people buy for you?

More (fantastical) nail art

This was originally posted on kimschoenherr.wordpress.com on November 15, 2011.

 After my last post, I discovered a ton more nail art videos. Some of them are far from simple, but like I said, I really LOVE nail art! I obviously need to expand my nail polish collection so I can do some of these (like the Phineas and Ferb ones!!) but for now I guess I can just drool and start a list.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DLLopUaH2Yw&feature=relmfu]

These Powerpuff Girls nails from I Have A Cupcake are a total throwback to my childhood and I love them! They’re super detailed (like most of the nails on this list), but the artist opened my eyes to using acrylic paints instead of polish. I know there’s a lot more colors, and they’re definitely a lot cheaper.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_H6fNpNvXdc&feature=related]

These soda nails actually started my obsession with nail art. They’re the logos from a number of large sodas, and they’re intricate and well done. I wish I had the patience to try them! Maybe I’ll do one.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6RusAOdq6Wc&feature=related]

Water marble is one of my favorite designs, albeit very tedious, and this video has a great technique. I read up on it the first time I did it, and if you don’t want to use tape, putting chap stick on the skin around your nails (and all the way up your fingers) is my preferred method over the tape method. I would definitely suggest looking at a bunch of videos like this one, and this one, and really anything in the “water marble” search results on YouTube. Especially this playlist.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G7bc46b4twg&feature=related]

These might be some of the most creative nails I’ve seen. I love it when all of the nails relate to one another, so these  Pikachu nails might be happening on my fingers soon.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5gwM5mbw1Z0&feature=relmfu]

I found these Phineas and Ferb (Perry!) nails while looking at the penguin nails from my last post. Perry was on her thumb and shown in the video, and I’m really excited to do them when I get the colors. I love Perry!

What are you favorite nail designs? Do you love Perry too? Go watch Phineas and Ferb.

DIY Pretties!

This was originally posted on kimschoenherr.wordpress.com on November 8, 2011.

 I love everything DIY. I recently made some cute stemmed vases from a few candle sticks and vases from the dollar store, and some glue:

I found the instructions here while looking for a cheaper way to make wedding centerpieces, and made these for about $12 (total, including the filler), but I wouldn’t suggest Gorilla Glue because it dries white.

Today, while surfing Pinterest, I came across this:

Here, which I hope to make soon.

These glasses:

From Something Turquoise, that my mom might end up getting for Christmas in red and green because I know she’ll love them. And then I’ll make them for myself for when I have my own house and my own Christmas parties.

I fell in love with these:

From here. Because anything that has to do with using wine bottles is alright in my book! I’d probably use iridescent seed beads and/or glitter instead of epsom salt because I like shiny things.

What are you making? Are you on Pinterest? Do you want an invite?

Do a Barrel Roll

This was originally posted on kimschoenherr.wordpress.com on November 5, 2011.

 Go to Google and type “do a barrel roll”

Seriously.

Go do it now.

I’ll wait.

I <3 Google.

Off to formal 🙂

Dropbox

This was originally posted on kimschoenherr.wordpress.com on November 4, 2011.

The other day, one of my Deltasig brothers was taking a picture of something and mentioned Dropbox. I assumed it was an iPhone thing (because a lot of companies don’t realize that more people have Android than iPhone), so I dismissed it for a while. Until yesterday. Out of curiosity, I looked it up in the marketplace, found it, and downloaded it on my way to class. I didn’t really get a chance to play with it or look at it until now.

Dropbox is basically a program that you download anywhere (or just visit the website) and all of the files that you uploaded from you phone, computer, someone else’s computer, whatever, are there to be downloaded and used. They can also be shared with friends/family/whomever.

This is awesome because I hate having to plug my phone into my computer, and it really doesn’t take that long to upload and download/unzip the files. It’s just an awesome, kick ass cloud drive that you should go download on your computer, your phone, your mom’s phone, EVERYWHERE.

And here’s a picture just because it’s so pretty out: