Safety Cone Invasion

And here is the much anticipated Christmas Stocking Stuffers
(Be for warned this post is going to be picture heavy)

 

This here is the safety cone army before it's improvements

 

These are all the Snow Proof hats

(Back Left: My Brother's Girlfriend, my brother's, mine,

Front Left: My brother's, my brother's, and my niece's) Yes I have

3 brothers.

 

These are the more intricate ones.

(Back Left: My dad's, My mom's, Mine,

Front Left: My brother in Laws, My sister's and my Friends)

 

This here is mine, The Mad Hatter

 

My brother in law is a photographer and my Friend loves music

 

My brother and his girlfriend's are a match made in snow proof heaven.

 

A close up of the music nerd

 

The left one is another friends and the one beside it is her mom's (that

is a pink ribbon scarf) with them are the rain proof safety cone and the miniature

one that sits above my computer.

 

I re-worked my sisters and my mom's, now the Snowman looks more snowman 

and the surgeon's stethoscope is made better.

 

Here is the army complete.

That is all for now.

-Photo Alley

Gluten Free Pizza

Hello all. I have finally found a gluten free pizza that tastes pretty amazing. We were at Walmart today getting some gluten free cereals and movies when I came across a mix to make gluten free pizza crust. My brother had been saying he really wanted pizza tonight but because we are a mixed gluten free and non gluten free family we haven't been able to find a place that does both good or with out cross contaminating it. I looked at the back and thought hmmm this seems simple and so I picked it up. It is made by "Dunkerken". Now it said to let the dough rise, well the dough never did rise all that much but I'm getting use to the thinnner crusts. This one however was thicker then and gluten free pizza I have had to date. As well the directions called for only 10-15 minutes of backing time, in our oven it took closer to 20minutes and then a few extra to broil the top to make the cheese melt. All in all I give this pizza a 4 out of 5, definitely would by it again.
-Photo Alley
P.S. The photos of the crocheted stocking stuffers will beup as soon as I charge my laptop.

Yummy Nummy Goodness

Hello I thought I needed to post this quick little message before I get busy again. I have been in Guelph again and I decided to try a new Gluten Free place. It is a grocery store like shop, this wonderful little place is called "Portions" and is mainly gluten free I think there was only one freezer that wasn't compared to the 7 that were and only 2 items on the floor that weren't. It was a smorgus board of Gluten Free products, I didn't know what to buy. I decided on pepperettes, which to me were good but a little greasy, a shepard's pie which I haven't had yet, hot dogs which I am having tomorrow and sweet potatoe fries as well as perogies to try later. I also got cupcakes which will be my desert tonight. AND the piece de resistance...... FRESH BREAD..... yes you heard it hear the fresh bread tasted like real bread, it was springy it was moist it was fabulous. I tried one slice when I got back home and ended up eating about 5 with nothing on it just for the pure joy of having bread that tasted like bread.
Therefore if you are ever down in the Guelph area go to this quaint shop and check it on out.
Bon Voyage
-Photo Alley

Sleep= Good

Hello all,
I said I would make a Snorlax and I did. Here he is:

 

I didn't have a beige so the light colour ended up being blue. As well at the time of this picture I had forgotten his toe claws, they are there now but I didn't want to unpack my camera after packing it to take another picture.

I found the pattern for this guy at WolfDreamer's blog This crochet blog has tons of guys from pokemon which if you don't know that is where Snorlax is from. As well as a few other cool guys like the minion from "Dispicable Me".

I made this guy yesterday after I posted my last blog and he is by far the largest crocheted thing I have made, he is about as tall as my hand, about the size of a small teddy bear really. But he was put together pretty quickly and the picture just doesn't do him the justice he needs. This guy however represents the sleep that I desperately need tonight because I have my interview tomorrow and then it's onto a train to start my placement before Christmas. Did I mention I also still need to pack, actually do the interview make it back to my place, change in to winter appropriate travel clothes, pack a good sized amount of food for the long, very long, train ride and make it to the train station on time. I can see the sleep ebbing away from me.

I hope you enjoy your holidays and I will try to post as often as I can.

-Photo Alley

A Quick Overview of My Portfolio Images

I thought I might just add a small version of my portfolio images for you to view and let me know what you think.
These are with final edits that will be showed at my interview with my teachers.

 This is my Architecture, representing Mount Olympus

 This is an open, representing Poseidon

 

This is my other open, representing Hades 

 

This is my food, representing Dionysus

 This is my environmental, representing Ares and Athena

And lastly this is my self portrait, representing Apollo.

I hope you enjoy the images. I personally love my 2 layouts the best, my Architecture and my Food and coming in as a close second is my Self Portrait. I still very much like and am proud of my 2 opens and my Environmental but I am more proud of the other 3 because I didn't think I could pull them off.

I leave you with these for now and hopefully by tomorrow I can post a picture of the Snorlax I am plan on working on.

-Photo Alley

Yummy, Yummy goodness

So I finished my prelim portfolio, it was handed in today and therefore I had tons of time on my hand and nothing to do. I decided I would back some recipes because I have been craving chocolate and not only chocolate but baked goods. I think I went a little over board but I needed it, the cooking calmed me and I felt better after I finished. A carton of eggs later and I now have 3 cakes and a sheet of brownies.
I decided this time to try my book "125 Best Gluten Free Recipes" by Donna Washburn and Heather Butt for one of the cake recipes, I used the White Cake recipe on page 142. It was easy to make and and went together pretty quickly. It also helped that all my recipes needed the same temperature. I have just tried this one and it has a very mild, plain taste, I think if I were to use this recipe not only would I put icing on it as one option or as another option I would serve it with a berry sauce because the cake alone does not have that much flavour to it, however it is fairly moist. I then continued with my resolution to work completely through one of my recipe books and that book being the "You Won't Believe It's Gluten free" by Roben Ryberg, the book that many of the recipes I have talked about already are from. I decided to try the potato based Soft Chocolate Cake on page 312. This cake grew in size like there was no tomorrow, it actually rose a good 2 inches were as my other 2 cakes only grew about another cm or so. Anyways this cake is very nice, it's moist and the chocolate flavour is not too over powering. It says in the book they pair it with the peanut butter icing recipe but I'm a no icing kind of gal so I didn't do that, but it didn't matter cause this cake didn't need it anyways. I then tried one Red Velvet Cake from page 340, potato based, with out the red. This recipe had very similar ingredients to the Chocolate cake and actually tastes like an even milder version of that cake. Because there was no red dye this cake is just a lighter shade of brown then the chocolate cake and has just a hint of that taste. I had never had a red velvet cake and to be truthful, I probably wouldn't make this cake again just because it seemed too similar to the Soft Chocolate Cake. And lastly I made potato based Brownies found on page 354. Compared to the brownies I had last time from this book which were corn based, I liked these ones better. The chocolate was just enough chocolate without being too overpowering and it was not only chewy it was crunchy which is what I like.

That's all for now and I hope you enjoyed the review. I suggest you try the brownie recipe. Till next time.
Sincerely,
Alex Cirinna

Thai cuisine

I forgot to mention also that on my trip to Guelph that we went to a restaurant called "Ben Thanh". Which is a thai food restaurant. And man was it ever delicious. We called in advance to make sure that there would be something there for me to eat and they mentioned that yes there were plenty of meals I could have that were either naturally gluten free or could be made gluten free. Therefore we went to this restaurant. Stepping in to the place was a bit awe inspired because it was slightly on the fancier looking side. We had a party of 5 adults and a baby, so they sat us at a round table instead of a booth. This was particularly one of the things I liked best because it was easier to include everyone in any given conversation we were having. At looking at the menu I got a little worried because you know when you go to those asian inspired restaurants and they say rice paper but it's the rice paper made with flour or the noodles that shouldn't have flour but do. Well We asked the waitress and ended up ordering 2 types of rolls one was a shrimp roll with whole shrimp in it and the other a beef one, they were not fried so I didn't have to worry whether it was fried in the same oil as everything else, and they came with a delicious spicy peanut sauce. The people who were in my company ordered smoothies which were delicious according to them, I did not get one but I heard you could get them made without milk and therefore could be dairy free. I instead though had the green tea which was one of the best green teas I've had and it was served in a cast iron teapot, heavy as all else but still amazing looking, that kept the tea warm through out the whole dinner. And I ordered a shrimp with asparagus and snow pea stirfry with garlic sauce, no soy sauce. It was fabulous. The shrimp were cooked correctly, they were just right. I mean I've had shrimp in a lot of places and they are usually, almost always over cooked and therefore a little chewy or even sometimes a bit on the tough side but not these ones. I would have to say they are the best shrimp I have ever had at a restaurant. I ate almost everything in front of me. As well they didn't skimp on anything. I've gone to places were it's suppose to be a shrimp stirfry and they will give you something like 5 or less shrimp, this place had upwards of 10 in my bowl... I just kept finding more. As well my sister and mom had a pork vermicelli noodle dish of some sort and it was piled high with pork pieces, my sister's dish also came with I think it was something like 5 or 6 shrimp. And my one brothers pad thai was covered in chicken.
The point of this post: not only to tell you how delicious these meals were but also to say if you ever get a chance and are in Guelph you should check out this restaurant, whether your gluten free or not.
-Photo Alley

Stocking Stuffers and Food

As the semester winds down I find myself with an increasing amount of time. I have but a few things left to do before the end of my semester before I go away for Christmas Break and my co-op placement. So what do I do with all this time on my hands.....
I make dinner early, and I mean way early. I started my dinner at 1 this after noon shortly after getting back from school and the grocery store. Who knew I would want to start dinner so early? I'm use to the good ol' late night dinner around 7 or 8, it's actually been that way since I was younger... never truely had a set feed time. But I was hungry and my lunch idea had fallen through so I thought well I'll make this extra fried pasta sauce into a base for some simmering meat, forgetting I only had a handful of beef stew pieces that I had ordered. Typical. Therefore as it was cooking I thought I would add some potatoes and then I was like "Well I might as well cook the beets and the sweet potato now and then just have left overs later." Let me tell you sweet potatos are not to be reckoned with if you have a bad hand. I could barely cut through the beast of a veggie. But boy did it taste good when it was done. And for beets well lets just say if your having dinner at 5 start them early and I mean way early, I didn't know how long it would take for those yummy purple things to cook. I'll just say I didn't it them with the rest of my meal... or even in the same t.v. show. Overall though the meal was so filling that not only do I have leftovers for tomorrow but I also am so full I barely have the urge to snack.
As well with all this time on my hands I wanted to do something for everyone in my immediate family for Christmas. So I thought what is in-expensive and easy for me to do. Well I'm just going to say I came up with something and I'm about half way through the easy part. I might work on them some more while I watch my shows tonight, after the homework is done of course, and then it's off to the hard part. I'm not looking forward to the work but I'm looking forward to the pay off after.
Keep bright and warm this winter my friends.
-Photo Alley
P.S. after Christmas the picture of the finished stocking stuffers will be up for display.

Girls Weekend

This weekend was a great weekend, I went to spend it in Guelph with my mom and sister for our now annual "Girl's Weekend" which started when my mom had turned 50. I would say this was one of the best weekends, we started it on a Friday.
Friday we went to the theater in St.Jacob's in Kitchner to see the pantomime of Peter Pan. It was quite amazing and the first piece of theater I have seen in about a year and a half, pretty much since graduating from my theater program, which I am ashamed to say is a very long time to me. But I hope to go to many more in the future and keep myself thoroughly entertained with live performance. Anyway the cast did amazing as I said and the singing was great. The actors phenomenal, and I'm not sure if any of you remember "The Big Comfy Couch" which was a children's show when I was younger, but Major Bedhead was playing Smee in the play. Both me and my sister couldn't place his voice but it was sooo very familiar and then someone in our group of people that we went with mention he was from some children's show and it just clicked. Then because we had an inside man on the crew after the show was done and the cast was finished in the dressing room we were able to have a backstage tour. Quite the little set up to say the least. And again so much fun.
Then the following day we went to St. Jacob's market in the Mennonite community and found quite a large selection of gluten free products. Now the it wasn't the whole place and some of the stuff we have tried from buying there wasn't the greatest but there were some good food and the was a much larger selection then some main stream grocery stores. If you get a chance I would say go check it out even if your not going to buy anything it's a great experience. A little busy though
Have a wonderful week and I'll try to post some pictures in the coming days.
-Photo Alley

Heartless and Safety Cones

I had a bit of time on my hands and well I know I said a while ago that I would try and fix Rain Proof Safety Cones hat and guess what? I did.

Here is the new and improved rain hat. I know it still isn't bright yellow but I will have to live with that because I'm sure I can't reproduce this hat exactly the same again. I like snow proof's hat did not write down the pattern. Very unlike me but I did do it anyways. However snow proof hat would probably be alot easier to replicate, and there for I may have to make hats for many other guys in different colours.

 As for the rest of the title of this post I finally got my butt into gear and made a heartless that I have been planning to make since seeing the picture of a crocheted one on deviant art.

 

I based this guy off of the picture of the other person's Heartless Shadow but seeing as there was no instructions I went by trial and error. I also used a picture from the game to help, you have no idea how hard it is to look up a good picture of a Heartless Shadow. I got tons of hits of google but most were the other types of Heartless from the game Kingdom of Hearts and therefore not helpful in the least. But I think I did a pretty good job. And Yes this time I did write down the pattern. Maybe later I will post it. I haven't decided yet if I will sell my patterns or give them away free on here. I bit to consider. The heart however in the image is made from a pattern I found on the net, actually the same one the guy, previously mentioned, made his heart from. And lastly I used a different type of yarn to make the eyes, and therefore if you try and make this patter by look or if I post the patter the eyes are just mentioned as yellow balls. You can make them any way you would like. I personally used a 2mm hook with thread for bracelets and 

ch2

6sc in 2nd st from hook (6)

2sc in each st around(12)

sc2tog in each st (6)

After making Snow Proof Safety Cone's hat my brother had mentioned it looked like a "Jane" hat. And actually has requested I make him one (a hat not a safety cone hat, but real size) for him. Who knows when this will come along, but since then I have been looking up patterns so I can start working on this. At first I was going to make one for my bat but couldn't figure out how to make it go over his ears and then the thought struck me when I found a different yellow from that same bracelet thread. I should make one for my "Heartless", you know make the bad guy look so much cuter. Here is the results:

Now this hat could probably be duplicated but would never turn out the same. I again used different yarn types, this time 3 different ones, the bracelet thread, a bulky washcloth type and my favourite "Red Heart Soft Touch". Now not only did I use different yarns I used 2 different needles. I have faith though that I could make something the replicates or looks better then this hat one day.

I hope you enjoy the geeky nerdness in me this week, and the Jane Cobb hat. To come: a chocobo.

Sincerely,

-Photo Alley

The Spice Cake

I said I would reblog about that quickly made up spice cake after if truly cooled. Well it still tasted eggy and was very dry, I mean very dry. I don't know about the dryness but I bet if I used real raw cane sugar and the proper amount of cinnamon it would not taste so much egg but I still liked it. It went very well with nutella spread on top. However I am not sure why it was soooo dry, it may be because my house is dry or the good old winter chill is making the air dry. No idea but I suggest eating it probably a little warm or at room temperature because when I had it then it was not so dry.

I have planned for either later this week or in a weeks to come, to bake a lot more. And when I do I'll make sure to post here first with my thoughts and comments and the book the recipe came from.
Hang in there Gluten free eaters, there are good recipes out there it just takes some digging and I'm willing to do it.
-Photo Alley

Quick Cake

I came home today after having a stressful week and thought to myself I want to bake something. I originally wanted to make a crumpet or something like a roll, I realized I didn't have the right ingredients so hopefully tomorrow that will be what I make. As for what I baked. I made a cake. It was the Cinnamon Marble cake from "Gluten Free French Desserts and Baked Goods" by Valerie Cupillard. I would say it was very fast. I was able to prepare the ingredients in about 10 maybe 15 minutes and then it was 30 minutes in the oven and voila it was done. I then let it cool because as many of you know quite a few gluten free baked goods do not taste good when warm. So I let it cool for about 20 or 30 minutes somewhere in there and then took a slice. It was still a little warm but fairly good. I did however realize that I had made part of the recipe wrong, it had asked for a tablespoon of cinnamon and I put a teaspoon there for the taste was probably not quite as strong as it normally would be but I liked it. I little eggy though. As well I used brown sugar instead of raw cane sugar, whether those are the same thing or not I am not sure but it doesn't seem to have effected the baking all that much. So I will let you know if it tastes better when it cools later tonight. As well many people would put icing on a cake or dunk in coffee I do neither, if you get a chance I would suggest trying the recipe. The only other thing I have to say about the making of the cake, it says to put the second half of the cake mix with the cinnamon plopped on top and then mixed with a knife to make the swirls, i found this looked messy and it didn't flatten so I swirled with a fork and then flattened the top out smooth.
I will leave you with the two pictures I took.-Photo Alley

Deadlines, Deadlines, Deadlines

The pressure is on now. There is but month left to do all my assignments and print. I recently got news that I would have to get a root canal again on the same tooth as before and they want to do this as soon as possible. This then brought on a mini panic attack. I started to think about what assignments were left when they had to get done, when would I get time to print? What if I have to re shoot? I'm behind already. This is what raced through my mind as I sat in the dentist office planning when my appointment would be. The end of the month, the time my preliminary portfolio is due, the crunch time. Today though even though the thought is back there nagging at my sleep deprived brain I feel oddly calm. The worrying is there but not there and I feel I can do this now. Yes the deadlines are looming but I have a plan and I have a schedule. If all goes according to plan I will be off to that root canal with no extra work to do.
As it stands there are 2 photo shoots to do and 2 re shoots or possible re shoots, plus printing but like I said I am oddly calm and I haven't even crocheted anything in weeks. This is strange but interesting. And when this portfolio is done I will be off on a Christmas holiday, but is it really a holiday? In a way yes but at the same time no, I will be doing my coop placement over the break and therefore more work, so I think to myself these days when will I have time to quilt those new patterns I have designed. I may just have to hijack my mother's quilting machine for the few weeks that I will be in the house so that atleast the tops will get done.
I hope you all have a wonderful week, and remember relaxation is key.
-Photo Alley

Lovely Weekend

As I promised here are the photo's I like from this weekend (warning: tons of photos to come)I absolutely love these images of the water. The anchor is also my favourite of the whole day,
I just love the sun rays coming through the trees.
These images just seem peaceful but if you look closely there are
storm clouds in the distance.

These ones are quite beautiful to me as well. I was getting ready to leave
the one spot when I saw the rosary hanging above the one grave and it was just so.
The angels though beautiful are also a little creepy to me,
very gothic. They remind me of an episode of "Doctor Who" where
the angels are actually evil. And lastly is the father grave. This grave
actually almost made me cry to think that that is all there is to identify the
person.

And then we came home to this amazing sunrise. I know my picture
doesn't do it justice but I'm sure you can picture the
splendor of it. It was a perfect rainbow of colours,
from red straight through yellow to blue.

There you go those are my images from this weekend. It was definitely a long day and very cold, by the end I couldn't feel my fingers. I personally love the water and hate graveyards but this day was quite a nice day. The cemetery was still creepy to me, maybe a little too serene but all in all I got my photo shoots for my open portfolio assignment done and that was all that matter that day.
My advice to you: never don't do a photo shoot cause the location isn't somewhere you would normally shoot. The whole thing about this year for me is doing things I normally don't do, like people shots.
-Photo Alley

Gluten Free and Dairy Free

Hello all,
I had told you about pancakes that were really good and I finally got a chance to check out the name of the book again seeing as it stays at my mom's house. The book is called "Cooking For Isaiah" . It is both gluten free and dairy free recipes. If you get a chance this so far has turned out to be a very good book purchase. The pancakes that we modified were the banana ones and we added an extra egg and then took out the cinnamon, I believe that was all the changes we made. And then today we tried her chocolate cake and I must say it is delicious. It rose like a real cake, it is springy like a real cake, it is moist like a real cake and lets just finish with it tastes like a normal chocolate cake. It is delicious. The only thing was the icing, now that may have been because we used semi sweet chocolate chips to make but you use chocolate chips in water and microwave them and then beat them till they are fluffy and that is the icing. It looked good but it ended up being bitter so we added lots of sugar and gluten free margarine. I think next time if we try that icing we will use a different type of chocolate chip.
As for dining out, Tomaso's has a gluten free pasta. I have had it twice now and the first time it was good and this past weekend it was bad. I'm not sure if it was a new chef or not, but as we all know gluten free is hard to make so I may try it again sometime but for now I'll stick to the pasta me and my parents buy and cook.
Later this week some of the pictures that may or may not end up in my portfolio.
-Photo Alley

Pancakes Galore

Well I went home this past weekend and both me and my dad decided that we would like pancakes the morning that I arrived. We decided to make the pancakes from A new book which I will get you the title to another post. It is a book for both gluten and dairy free recipes. And we did modify these pancakes but they were delicious and get this they even rose I mean they were close to an inch thick by the end. They were so good we made them again for dinner a couple days later.
That's all for now.
-Photo Alley

Mutant Ninja Turtles

I haven't really been myself lately and so I thought to myself I should try and do some projects that I have been meaning to do for a while. So I got crocheting, I needed to get my creative juices flowing.
I went home and my mom had bought me a new yarn that was florescent orange, perfect to make another safety coneThe only thing with this guy was that his base though crocheted the same way and is much smaller then previous safety cone. I am not sure if it was the yarn, when I saw the base I thought okay this safety cone is going to be smaller no problem. Well he isn't really but from base to body the proportions are a little off. Seeing as I have tons of the orange I may make another and make a bigger base, who knows. But After making him he looked really bare and as I stared at him day in and day out I thought those eyes are reflective and he is brighter then other safety cone so I made him a hat.Introducing rain proof safety cone. This is just a proto type for the hat. Some days it looks like a rain hat and others it doesn't so I just have to work with my design and see where it leads me. As Well I think I want to get a brighter yellow. But for now New Safety Cone doesn't look so bare.

As well while I was home for thanksgiving my other brother saw my bead guys and asked if I would make him one as well so here he is.
And lastly since having a pattern for a ninja turtle and making my original one that is blue with a pink eye bandanna. I have been wanting to make the real ninja turtles, the Mutant Ninja Turtles. But as I looked at the pattern and the first one I made I thought he was too big so I was going to make some adjustments. Well I may make them again a little bigger then I made these ones but I think they are still cute. Here are the pocket Mutant Ninja Turtles.Aren't they adorable.
Well I leave you with these for now.
-Photo Alley

Tourism at the helm

I warn you in advance this post will have a lot of pictures from when I decided to be a tourist and also was suppose to be scouting out my architecture location.
Here goes nothing:

This looked like a quaint little cottage and therefore I had to photograph it.


Then there were more pictures of landscapes and parliament that I took:

Then there are the circles of confusion that we started to take picture of because it was getting too dark to take any real pictures without a tripod. These were just as fun if not more fun to take pictures of.



As well there was the beer bottle I found on the ground and my camera did a natural vignetting around it. I'm not sure if you will be able to see it in the image but the original is quite interesting. The lens did this on a few of my images. It was strange.And then lastly there is the image that I photomerged together of the whole parliament library. This is where my exterior architecture is.
This is how the image came out of the photomerge process and I actually really like the areas that don't have image in them. It makes it look a little crazy. I'm sure if I were ever to use it I would have to fill that part in. As well I would have to fix the areas where the images have been stitched together. But for right now I like it.
I hope you enjoy.
-Photo Alley