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