Rice Balls

I've been making rice balls for a while. My oldest is an adult now and I used to make it for her when she was little. I now have a 2 year old and 5 month old. My 2 year old also loves it when I form the rice into little balls for her. It makes it easier for her to grab and eat. Rice can easily get all over the place. It's not fun cleaning after and it sticks onto everything. But rice balls are less of a mess. It stays in its form, if of course, she doesn't try to smash or play with her food.

Making the balls by hand in itself is no fun. Sticky palms full of rice by the time you're done making two. You just want to hurry up and wash your hands.

Will, I finally found a solution and can't believed I'm just discovering it. I wonder who else needs this in their life?

So, I'm excited to share it with you. Anything to help another mommy or daddy, or just anyone who needs this. The best part is, it's inexpensive, easy to use, and no more sticky hands. It comes with the tiniest rice spoon and other fun rice molds, I've yet to try. You can make different sizes of balls, but be sure not to over fill or it won't form, from my experience, it will be more of an oval shape.

It just takes 3 easy steps:

1. Fill it with rice

2. Close it

3. Give it a good shake

And there you have it! Check out my Instagram page at simplyvalarie for a short video of how to.

Link below is where I purchased it. If you don't need the other rice molds, you can just buy the ball making mold with spoon.

Rice Mold: https://a.co/d/gTJBv3p

Thank you for visiting my page. I hope this helps you as much as it helped me. My daughter gets excited and enjoy eating more when she sees it. It's also a plus, when she gets to help make it. I hope your kid(s) enjoy it too!

DIY Maternity Photo Shoot

The COVID-19 pandemic has changed the way we celebrate birthdays, weddings, graduations, baby showers and just the way we spend our time with loved ones. Most of us are going through difficult times and 2020 will be a year to reminder.

I was sad to cancel my baby shower in May. I wanted to make sure everyone I love stay safe. It was going to be my first baby shower with friends and family, since I didn't have one when I was pregnant with my first child 15 years ago. I was young then and didn't have much. But there was one thing I wanted to continue to do, even if it was not going to be perfect. I wanted to have some maternity photos, even if my hair needed some major touch-up. I didn't have a clue how I was going to do it without a professional photographer or camera.

Good thing, I have a friend who always has beautiful pictures with her friends and families. I admire her for taking so many photos. I get to see her kids grow and she just has so much memories with loved ones. I wanted that to be one of my goals too.

She told me the best time to take pictures are at the “golden hour” and make sure not to have people in the background. She normally set her camera on auto shoot and sometimes have her daughter take the pictures. I heard many times before from others, that it’s all about the lighting when it comes to photos. But what does that mean? Catch the light at the wrong time and you get too much lighting. The sun beaming on your face causing you to squint your eyes trying to keep them open. Or not enough light and your photos are dark and can barely see you in the photos. When is a good time to take pictures with natural lighting?

Golden hour, huh? I didn’t know what that meant and had to google it. Golden hour “is the first hour of light after sunrise and the last hour of light before sunset.” It is the softest light of the day. There are many YouTube videos that can help you better understand what it means and also show you how to take pictures at this time.

To catch the golden hour in my area, I looked up to see what time when the sunset was going to happen. It was the end of May and the weather was changing. The website I used was very helpful and I made sure we were out at the site an hour before sunset.

www.timeanddate.com

My sister, who's creative and a stay at home mom took the photos with my Sony a5100 camera. I had it for years and used it during multiple trips. And trust me, I still don't know everything there is to the camera.

To my surprised the pictures turned out beautiful, I couldn’t be happier. Thanks to my friend for the advice and my sister for being my photographer. I realized you don't need a fancy camera to have your photos turn out nice either. Maybe a phone camera could have done a good job too.

Sony a5100 Camera:

https://www.amazon.com/Sony-Digital-16-50mm-55-210mm-4-5-6-3/dp/B00J5MEE38/ref=sr_1_15?dchild=1&keywords=sony+a5100&qid=1591247693&sr=8-15

Dress:

https://www.amazon.com/GOBLES-Women-Shoulder-Evening-Fishtail/dp/B07PJQQSF9/ref=sr_1_1?crid=RPME2V8RTGS0&dchild=1&keywords=gobles%2Bwomen%2Bsexy%2Bv%2Bneck%2Boff%2Bthe%2Bshoulder%2Bevening%2Bgown%2Bfishtail&qid=1591247901&sprefix=gobles%2Bwomen%2Bsexy%2B%2Caps%2C228&sr=8-1&th=1

“Being a mother is learning about strengths you didn’t know you had and dealing with fears you never knew existed.” –Linda Wooten

Thank you for visiting my page and hope I can inspire you to take pictures of your special moments. Wherever you may be during this time, I wish you a wonderful and safe day. Don’t forget to stay amazing.

Happy 1st Birthday Lulu!

Our fur baby turned one today. Found the Easy Four Ingredient Dog Birthday Cake for One recipe on Pinterest. Did not have pain Greek yogurt on hand for the frosting and used creamy peanut butter instead. Added her favorite doggy bone treat to top it off. She loved her cake and ate everything.

Happy Birthday Lulu! You have brought so much joy and excitement to us. You’re the perfect addition to our family.

https://stayingclosetohome.com/impossibly-easy-four-ingredient-dog-cake-for-one/

"Nothing makes me smile more than looking into the face of a dog that loves me."- Unkown

Thank you for visiting my blog.