Ghost Luminario

I finally caved and made a Halloween decoration! I've been so excited to get into the Fall/Halloween spirit. He is a cute little ghost luminario made out of a mason jar.
Here's a question for you. Would you like to see a tutorial for this, or is it easy enough to figure out on your own? I'm happy to make a step by step tutorial, but I thought I'd check to see if you even want one.
Drop me a comment and I'll get crackin'!

(My hall closet sure is spooky at 3 in the afternoon!) ;)

My Take: Temple Blocks

My awesome friend Kristyn of 'Lil Luna posted some neat Temple Blocks awhile back. As soon as I saw it, I knew it would be perfect for my niece that was turning 7.

I had a bit of a last minute rush to get it done in time, so I didn't have time to get a wood block from Home Depot. Instead, I found this Oval plaque at one of my trips to Dollar Tree. It came with the ribbon to hang it, so that was nice. Unfortunately because it was an oval shape I couldn't use one of Kristyn's awesome pictures. :( Her photos are really awesome, and she has tons of Temples to choose from. You should check them out!
My Dad and I messed around in Photoshop and gave it a bit of an antique look. I did happen to find the same font though. Yay! (It's Scriptina from dafont.com)
I spray painted the wood with Krylon's Oil Rubbed Bronze, took some sand paper to rough it up a bit and then mod podged on my picture.

Thanks for the great inspiration Kristyn! My niece loved it.

Let me throw in a little plug for my Dad here too. The picture I used for this is one of my Dad's pictures. He is Kim Bennett of Kim Bennett Photography. If you are in Arizona, he is a great photographer. He also sells some amazing prints of Temples, lighthouses, nature, scenic, etc.
You should really go and take a look at his galleries so you can ooh and ah over his pictures.
His website is KimBennettPhotography.com

Blog Swap with Making the World Cuter

I am so pleased to present Tiff! She is swapping with me today. Her link party, Making the World Cuter Monday is one of the very first linky parties I ever joined. I am so excited she is posting here on Cute as a Fox today.

Take it away Tiff...

Ashley is so dang cute! I am really excited to be here introducing myself to you all today!
My name is Tiffany, since we are now friends, you can call me Tiff...I have 3 insanely cute kids that make my world cuter, and me and my adorable husband are expecting another little boy any day. This picture, (taken about a year ago) cracks me up with my two silly boys being so uncharacteristically darn serious! :)

I blog over here at Making the World Cuter. I am on a mission to make the world cuter, one kid, cupcake or crafty thing at a time! I hope you come over and say hi!I also love photography and have a little photography blog called Pumpernickel Buttons.
Here are a few random things about me...

• My favorite food is the sandwich-yummy deli style sandwiches are the best, but I love just about anything between two pieces of bread!
  
• I'm a student right now, studying web design-but my true passion is photography and Photo Shop so I will probably get my bachelors in Photography when I'm done with this degree.
• If I wasn't pregnant I would be eating a spoonful of cookie dough while typing this, it really is a wonder that I don't weigh 1000 pounds.
• I LOVE to organize things...like closets, and offices, and craft supplies and rearranging rooms and...the nesting instinct has kicked in-this intensifies this insane sickness 200%, so if you don't see a post for a couple of days, it's because I buried myself in a closet somewhere, and haven't found my way out yet...
  

I love to do anything and everything creative, especially if I can do it with things I already have on hand. Here are a few of my favorite projects I have put together...

This wooden tiled mirror...
I like to do furniture makeovers, this glider is my favorite-it was so hideous before!
I generally do easy and cheap projects (and no I am not either of those things-just ask my hubby), like this burlap wreath with fabric scraps and salt dough buttons.

One of my favorite things to make are napkin rings, just because they are easy, and fast to put together and are so dang cute! These ones are made out of a tinfoil tube and burlap.
Here is one of my absolute favorites! Hooded towel ponchos! My kids have been living in these this summer at the beach, at the lake, at the pool, after a jaunt through the sprinkler...and I get compliments on them everywhere they take them. Plus the kids are all super cozy and warm in them. The pockets hold goggles, extra sunscreen, snacks, beach treasures...you name it, it's probably been in there! :)

I love meeting new blog friends and I have a big old linky party on Mondays as well Making the World Cuter Mondays, I really hope you come by for a visit!

After Monday, I hope you come by every day next week for my baby shower...HUGE amounts of prizes will be given away every day...you don't want to miss it! Just sayin...

Thanks for having me Ashley, and thanks for making my world cuter! :)

-Tiff

Red ramekin Winners!

Thanks for the great response. Everybody got a little extra time to enter because my quick trip to Walmart turned into a dead car battery in the parking lot, etc, etc. At least I get to give away some free stuff after all that nonsense!
I may just have to go back and see if I can find a few more sets of the ramekins.

All winners were chosen using Random.org

From the blog: #15
Karen Tapahe

From FB: #9
Edna Guerrero Cole

From Twitter:
allthngzrelated -
That's Rebecca from All Thingz Related.

I will contact the winners and they have until 10pm tonight to get me their addresses. Otherwise, I am moving on with a new winner. These are going out in the mail TOMORROW!

Fastest Giveaway Ever!

I've had such great feedback about the Apple for Teacher, candy apple that I wanted to do a quick little giveaway. I've heard from several people saying that they weren't able to find the same red ramekins at their local Dollar Tree. So... I am giving away 3 sets of 3 ramekins. (Just the ramekins, not the other items to make the candy cupcake)

Here is the breakdown:
1 winner from the blog
1 winner from Facebook
1 winner from Twitter.

The giveaway will go until tomorrow, Thursday, August 26, 2010 at 12pm Pacific(3pm Eastern). That is just 24 hours. I will be mailing these out on Friday, so winners will need to get back to me fast.

Blog Giveaway
1. Follow the blog if you don't already
2. Leave a comment on this post telling me you are a follower and your email address.

Facebook Giveaway
1. Like the Cute as a Fox Facebook Page and leave a comment on the giveaway post on my wall.


Twitter Giveaway
1. Follow CuteasaFoxBlog on Twitter
2. Send a tweet referencing @CuteasaFoxBlog and the giveaway
3. Retweet my Giveaway tweet
Total of 2 entries on Twitter

Have fun! Let me know if you have any questions. Please help me spread the word on this super quick giveaway.

Homeade Red Enchilada Sauce

I realized my blog is seriously lacking in the recipe category. I will be working to remedy that for sure! I actually posted this recipe as a Facebook exclusive back in April. You could have been making this recipe for months if you 'liked' Cute as a Fox on Facebook. **hint, hint, nudge, nudge** :)

My Mother-in-law grew up in Colonial Juarez(Mormon colonies) . So she cooks a lot of Mexican food,which I love! She is a real cook so she doesn't usually measure a lot but I got her to try and take down the amounts for me. I've made it a million times, and it is yum-O!

Red Enchilada Sauce
Ingredients:
7 Tbsp flour
6 Tbsp oil
4 Cups tomato juice - (I usually substitute with 2 cups tomato sauce and 2 cups water)
4 Cups Water
2 Tbsp Red Chili Powder
1 tsp Taco seasoning
1 tsp sugar
1 tsp salt - I usually only use a dash of salt

1. In a sauce pan, mix Oil and Flour together with a whisk.
2. Add in part of the water. It will make it thicken up.
3. Heat on stove top until it gets nice and hot.
4. Turn down to med-low and whisk in remainder of water and tomato juice.
5. Add in chili powder, taco seasoning, sugar, and salt.
6. After it gets bubbling good, not necessarily boiling, turn it down to a simmer.
7. Let simmer about 2 hours. (I usually only get 1-1.5 hours in because I need to put dinner together.)

Preparing enchiladas
1. Spread a layer of sauce on the bottom of your casserole dish.
2. Add a layer of white corn tortillas.
3. Add a another layer of sauce.
4. Add a layer of cheese.
5. Repeat the layers with tortillas, sauce, and then cheese until you reach the top of your dish.
6. Cook in a 350 degree oven for 20-30 minutes until the cheese is hot and bubbly.


The sauce definitely freezes well and you could probably freeze them all prepped too. I have never tried that before though. This sauce is seriously delicious, I highly recommend you save this one!

Blogging Tip: Organizing Blogger Pictures

From time to time I hear about people having difficulties dealing with the way blogger handles photos. I have worked out a system that works pretty well for me so I thought I would share my process. Maybe it will save you some time and frustration.

This is especially helpful for tutorials, but it would work just as well for posting to your family blog.

Step 1. Organize your photos before you start writing anything.
I storyboard my photos in photoshop. I go through all the photos I took, find the ones I want to use and save them in order.
For this example the photos were named Boots1.jpg, Boots2.jpg, etc. This way the photos will all be together when I go to upload them to Blogger.

Step 2. Upload pictures to blogger in reverse order. In the picture you can see I started with 7 in the first slot, and worked down to 3.

When uploading more than 5 pictures at a time, start with your very last photo and work your way back up to 1. For some tutorials I have added close to 20 pictures, which is 4 times through the upload process.

After you have uploaded all your photos return to your blog post. All your pictures will be in the right order and ready for you to add captions or whatever text you want.

I have also found it helps me keep my blog posts organized and include everything I wanted to include. I spend a little more time in Photoshop, but actually writing my post in blogger is a breeze.

What about you? Do you have any tricks that makes blogging easier?