Spring Has Sprung

A sure sign of spring I saw my first gopher on Battleford Trail (he had met with an untimely demise).  The creek is rising and the city is sandbagging.  We all have our fingers crossed for our friends near the water.  

We are looking forward to Easter and our annual "Easter Feaster" later this month.  We will be breaking tradition by not baptizing someone this year as we have done at Easter every 2 years for the past 10!  Here is an oldie but goodie from Kelsey's baptism.

 Here is Ellie loving the rubber boots and the water!

 Waiting for Mommy at the sitters.

 Back home they play a little ball.  Ellie is stuck in the snow, "Helpppp Mommy!"

 There that's better and Kelsey's helmet.

What's that Olivia you are too cool for a picture well let's see if I can find one in the "Way Back Spring File"

 

So Ellie isn't the only artist in the family.  Here is Olivia from our old house.  

Kelsey is quite amused.  

Time to go in for supper.  

Pat made the coolest things.  He took wraps and filled them with left over taco meat and cheese then wrapped them up and put them in a cake pan and brushed them with a bit of oil and baked them in the oven.  The kids loved them!!

 Good to the last bite.

I got the Music in me!

***Disclaimer: After a blog post about how to take better pictures let me warn you these aren't perfect.  But in photography like in life sometimes you go for a five course, cloth napkin, fancy dinner and somtimes you go through the drivethru for burgers and fries.  These pictures are burgers and fries even some taken with my phone.******

Music festival is in full swing and Olivia competed in violin last week and in recorder group and solo this week at her school.  Kelsey also participated with his class and as a part of the recorder club.  I am so proud of both of them and it is days like yesterday when I am able to go to the school and enjoy their performances that I realize just how lucky I am to be my own boss.

Here are some of their Certificate of Honor 85%!  Very Proud of all their hard work and so glad to have Celia Hammerton as their music teacher.

So "that guy" dropped by for a visit again from out of town.  And this time he brought his guitar to share some tunes with the kids.  Last time I put "that guy" on my blog he said he didn't want to be on the blog but I know deep down he loves it.  Anyone who goes to a party in Winnipeg at Grey Cup as an audience member and talks their way onto the stage to somehow become the mc of the event introducing the bands and get the crowd reved up is not shy.

The one man band living room performance.  The kids loved it!

He has their full attention.  You will notice in the background a bit of my decorating scheme.  A Roughrider banner that has been hanging there for close to a year and if you look really closely you can see pancake batter on the screen just that has been there since Levi babysat one night.

Levi although entertained and impressed by the concert not amused by my constant picture taking.  I almost photoshopped out the marks on the wall behind him but decided just to leave them in.  The kids have banged up the wall and actually made a huge hole behind the chair playing diving board off the recliner.

Olivia joins the concert with her violin.  Makes me remember what Nathalie Mcmaster talked about in her concert last year that growing up there was always music at house parties.  It wasn't until she was an adult that she realized that some people got together and didn't play music.  I am hoping our house will always be filled with music.

Thanks to "that guy" for dropping by and being entertaining as always.  Happy Belated birthday and good luck in your gig in North Battleford!

Mommy's Model

I set Ellie down in the bed after the tub and just something about her and the monotone of the towel, pillow, walls and her hair made her eyes pop out at me.  My time has been taken up lately by a million different things and I haven't had much time to photograph my own kids.  The Grandparents are begging for new pictures to replace the outdated ones on the walls.  I decided to have a mini session with Ellie.  Maybe I can share a bit with you to help you photograph your own kids. 

Here is the first image.  Typical with her nose right in the centre of the frame.  Starring directly at the camera.  How can we change it up to make it a bit more interesting?  

This one is bit off center and when the subject is looking out of the frame there should be room for them to look into open space.  If you are using auto focus then sometimes when the subject is not directly in the center it will cause your picture to be out of focus because the camera will focus on what is in the middle (in this case the pillow)  which is farther away than Ellie.  So if you are able to you can move the auto focus to an off center point or use manual focus.  

In this image I cropped it so that she is off center by moving her up in the picture.  Your eyes are drawn up to her eyes.  

Some of my favorite shots are when kids are not looking directly at the camera but are engaged in an activity.  

 Ellie started shaking her head back and forth.  So fun. But even on 1000 ISO and a brightly lit room the image of her moving is blurry.  Next time you are at the park try taking pictures of your kids moving like for example on the swing.  If you stand in front of them and they are moving towards you the blur is different if you go to the side and they are swinging from side to side.  

I just popped a bit of flash to freeze the motion.  There is a large window to her right.  A window right behind her and above and a window to her left a long ways a way.  You can see just under her chin that there is a bit of a shadow created by the on camera flash.  When I am at home I am not always 100% technical like I would be for a job.  If I was I would never get any pictures of my own kids!

 Again with flash.  Freeze!

 Without flash.  Blurrier.  Blurry isn't necessarily a bad thing.  Sometimes it can enhance the mood of an image.

 Whhhewww tired out from all the hair whipping.

 Watch some more TV!

 Would you like more tips like this?  Do you have an image you love that you would like to share.  Do you have a photo question?  Feel free to send feedback and questions to corla_rokochy@hotmail.com

Extreme Home Makeover- Circus House Style

We will soon be doing a renovation of our bathroom, closet and nursery (yes we will finally be putting away the crib for good this time).  We are going to move our laundry upstairs so no more up and down stairs with loads and loads and loads of laundry, piles of dirty clothes to greet people at the backdoor or folding on the couch in the living room.  I would love any suggestions for a combo walk in closet/laundry room or a master bathroom if anyone has something great that works especially well for them and their offspring.

I asked my friend and interior designer Pam Hueser or Designs by Pam to come over and help me make some decisions.  I first met Pam when we moved to Swift Current and saw an awesome mural she had painted at our local Bonanza restaurant.  In the past 7 years she has continued to grow her business and expand.  She is always a pleasure to work with and I have enjoyed watching her kids grow up and succeed as I have photographed them a number of times.  I can see a glimpse of what my future may look like running a business with grown kids means I may be able to do my nails and hair put on a nice outfit and still be a creative individual without the sweats and mom bun.


My assistant is so demanding.  Draw me a house, a flower, a butterfly, again, again.

 Such fun!

 I guess a girl has to put her "face on" to be in a video.  Good thing Ellie isn't picking the paint colors.

Pam helped me choose the colors for both houses we have lived in in Swift Current and after five years of children drawing on walls and mini stick matches leaving holes everywhere it is time to freshen up the Circus House.  I would recommend to anyone thinking of repainting your house to get Pam to come and give you an expert opinion before you paint.  She also helped me hang all my pictures and rearrange the elements of my room after I painted.  Great to have an expert helping you make the big decisions.

Cooking with Corla

I rejoined Weight Watchers for the hundredth time and the program has changed.  The points are a bit different and almost all fruit and veggies are free.  It is always good to go and check in as a lifetime member and start again!  

Course: sauces
PointsPlus™ Value:    1
Servings:  8
Preparation Time:  14 min
Cooking Time:  11 min
Level of Difficulty:  Easy

I got the new books and tried the tomato sauce recipe.

Ingredients

1tsp Olive Oil

1 Medium Leek finely chopped ( white part only)

1/2 tsp dried oregano

28 oz canned diced tomatoes

6 oz fat-free evaporated milk

2Tbsp basil, fresh, finely chopped

1/8 tsp salt, or more to taste

1/8 tsp pepper

• Heat oil in a large saucepan over medium heat. Add leek and garlic; cook, stirring occasionally, until soft, about 1 to 2 minutes. Stir in oregano; cook 45 seconds. Add tomatoes and bring to a simmer; partially cover pan and simmer 3 to 5 minutes.
• 
  
• Puree sauce in pan using an immersion blender. Or working in batches, transfer tomato mixture to a blender and puree until smooth (careful not to splatter hot liquid); return pureed tomato mixture to pan.
  
• Set pan over low heat and add milk; simmer 1 minute to heat through. Remove pan from heat and stir in basil. Season to taste with salt and pepper. Yields about 3/4 cup per serving.

I used fresh tomatoes which I think made it more watery.  My assistant took it upon herself to salt the tomatoes.  

My assistant should have a hair net but I would have settled for a pair of pants.  Not sure we are up to code.  

Been through the blender and adding the oregano. 

Simmer.

I doubled the recipe and then cooked a box of whole wheat pasta and poured the sauce over.  

 

Spilly smurf.  

 Baked it in the oven.

 Served with ham and dill mustard.  The vegetables I cut up and tossed with a mixture of plain yogurt, vinegar and a little salt.  The kids didn't even know we were eating Weight Watchers food.  They loved it!

 Pat always says a good chef cleans as they go.  Hmmmm can't do it all. I shopped after work, ran home and whipped this up in about half an hour.  With the help of one pantsless assistant.

 A clean plate but did you really have to dump your chocolate milk?

Well I can't cry over spilled milk.  Supper was yummy.  

As I said in a previous post I was going to make fish cakes.  They turned out great.  I waited for Pat to come home and fry them and it was a bit tricky.  The first batch the oil wasn't hot enough and then for the second batch it was too hot and like Goldilocks the third batch was Just Right!  They were so good!!  I doubled the recipe and threw a few modifications in.  The kids all ate them and loved them.  

Fish Cakes

1 pound cooked, flaked fish (I used Tilapia)

2 cups mashed potatoes

1 small onion, chopped (I ended up using green onion as my white one was rotten)

2 tablespoons melted butter or margarine

1 egg, beaten

2 tablespoons chopped fresh parsley

Dash each salt and pepper

1/4 cup fine dry bread crumbs

Oil for frying

Combine all ingredients except the bread crumbs and oil.(I put the mixture in the fridge for a while to cool it off to make it easier to make balls) Shape the mixture into patties. Coat the fish patties in bread crumbs.

Preheat the oil in a skillet. Pan-fry the fish cakes in batches in hot oil until crisp and brown on one side, then turn and brown the other side. Each side will take just a few minutes. You are only trying to get the ingredients hot and the breading crispy. Everything is already cooked.

Serve with homemade tartar and wedges of lemon.

Tartar Sauce

1 tablespoon onion, grated

1 green onion, chopped

1 cup mayonnaise

1 tablespoon chopped capers

1 tablespoon fresh dill, chopped or 2 tablespoons chopped dill pickles

1 tablespoon lemon juice

Cajun seasoning to your taste (optional)

1/4 teaspoon garlic salt

salt and pepper to taste

Mix everything together and add salt and pepper to taste. The fresh dill is nice, but the traditional tartar sauce we see all the time has the little flecks of real pickle in it.

The recipe is on the phone.  I threw in a bit of parmesan cheese in with the bread crumbs.  

The fish came in bags and I boiled it in the bags and then used the water to boil the potatoes.  

 Awesome helper.  She loves to Stir.

In go the mashed potatoes.  It really is a whole meal in one but I thought it might be weird to just have a fishcake so I made rice with it too. 

Now my helper is sad.  I can't remember why.  Maybe she thought the tomato was an apple?

Little Fishy cakes just waiting to be fried.  

The master chef working on the perfect combination of oil and temperature.  

 My attempt at "plating" on rice with a smear of homemade tartar sauce.