Friday, December 20, 2013

Christmas Bows and Gift Wrappings

 
A Christmas decoration is any of several types of decorations used at Christmas time. The traditional colours of Christmas are pine green (evergreen), snow white, and heart red. Blue and white are often used to represent winter, or sometimes Hanukkah, which occurs around the same time. Gold and silver are also very common, as are just about any other metallic colour. Typical images on Christmas decorations include Baby Jesus, Father Christmas or Santa Claus, and the star of Bethlehem. Typical winter icons include snowflakes, snowmen, icicles, and even penguins and polar bears.(source:wikipedia-christmas decoration)
 
Bow is An ornamental knot made of ribbon. You can use bow as a decoration on top of your Christmas gift or any gifts. Here are some beautiful Christmas bows that I made it is perfect for this upcoming Christmas, you can use it in different ways.

Christmas Bows 

 
    Gift wrapping refers to the act of enclosing a gift in some sort of material. Wrapping paper is a
\kind of paper designed for gift wrapping. Gifts may also be wrapped in a box. They may be held closed with ribbon and topped with a decorative bow (an ornamental knot made of ribbon).

History

The use of wrapping paper is first documented in ancient China, where paper was invented in 2nd century BC.[1] In the Southern Song dynasty, monetary gifts were wrapped with paper, forming an envelope known as a chih pao. The wrapped gifts were distributed by the Chinese court to government officials.[2] In the Chinese text Thien Kung Khai Wu, Sung Ying-Hsing states that the coarsest wrapping paper is manufactured with rice straws and bamboo fiber.[2]
Although the Hall brothers Rollie and Joyce Hall, founders of Hallmark Cards, did not invent gift wrapping, their innovations led to the development of modern gift wrapping. They helped to popularize the idea of decorative gift wrapping in the 20th century, and according to Joyce Hall, "the decorative gift-wrapping business was born the day Rollie placed those French envelope linings on top of that showcase."(Wikipedia-gift wrapping).

Here's some pictures how to use a bow and how to decorate your gifts for different kinds of occasions

Gift Wrappings


 
You can even stick a bow on a paper bags to make it look nicer like it shown below.
 
  
Use it for birthdays, weddings, baby showers etc. or any occasions that you can think of that you need a present to wrap up.
 
 
 
The gift wrapping below and the bow is one of my unique creations coz its made of recycled papers. I cut some papers from the magazine and stick them together enough to wrap the whole present as you can see there's some writing on it, and I cut some colored ones that you can find inside the magazine to make a beautiful bow. This is how it turned out.
 
 
To those who can't afford to buy a nice wrapping papers this is a good idea to use recycled papers, besides saving a lot of money its also environmental friendly.
 
 
We decided not to get each others present this year just to save some money but look what happen, We always break the rules and end up getting more that it even spread out to the side coz there's no more space under the tree. I said to my husband you don't need to get me anything this Christmas and I whisper to myself (but I'm expecting something lol).Somebody might be good this year coz I checked all the tags and it says from SANTA. Hmm Santa your so good thank you.
 
Christmas Wreath Chocolate Cupcakes
 
 Chocolate cake is a cake flavored with melted chocolate or cocoa powder.
Chocolate i/ˈɒk(ə)lət/ is a processed, typically sweetened food produced from the seed of the tropical Theobroma cacao tree. Cacao has been cultivated for at least three millennia in Mexico, Central America, and Northern South America. Its earliest documented use is around 1100 BC. The majority of the Mesoamerican people made chocolate beverages, including the Mayans and the Aztecs,[1] who made it into a beverage known as xocolātl [ʃoˈkolaːt͡ɬ], a Nahuatl word meaning "bitter water". The seeds of the cacao tree have an intense bitter taste, and must be fermented to develop the flavor.
After fermentation, the beans are dried, then cleaned, and then roasted, and the shell is removed to produce cacao nibs. The nibs are then ground to cocoa mass, pure chocolate in rough form. Because this cocoa mass usually is liquefied then molded with or without other ingredients, it is called chocolate liquor. The liquor also may be processed into two components: cocoa solids and cocoa butter. Unsweetened baking chocolate (bitter chocolate) contains primarily cocoa solids and cocoa butter in varying proportions. Much of the chocolate consumed today is in the form of sweet chocolate, a combination of cocoa solids, cocoa butter or other fat, and sugar. Milk chocolate is sweet chocolate that additionally contains milk powder or condensed milk. White chocolate contains cocoa butter, sugar, and milk but no cocoa solids.
Cocoa solids contain alkaloids such as theobromine, phenethylamine and caffeine.[2] These have physiological effects on the body and are linked to serotonin levels in the brain. Some research has found that chocolate, eaten in moderation, can lower blood pressure.[3] The presence of theobromine renders chocolate toxic to some animals,[4] especially dogs and cats. (wikipedia-chocolate)

 
I just wanna share this beautiful Christmas wreath cupcakes that I made the other day for my husband's Christmas party. It's made of chocolate cake with melted chocolate in the center that when you take a bite you can perceive the chocolate bits in it yummy. Everybody said its too pretty to eat and they couldn't resist to take some home, I'm glad that they love them and my hard work is paid off to hear such a nice compliment and be appreciated.
 
Speaking of wreath here's my handmade wreath wall decoration

 
You can use either round styro foam that you can buy in the store or improvise your own like cardboard ,paper, twigs etc. and form it into a circle then stick different colors of bows around it and put your favorite ornaments in the center. I put Santa on mine I think its cute and hang it on the wall. Simple yet pretty.
 
 
WISH YOU HAVE A MERRY CHRISTMAS EVERYONE!
 
 
 
 
 
 

Monday, December 9, 2013

Holiday Craft/Gift Bazaar

A craft is a pastime or a profession that requires some particular kind of skilled work. In a historical sense, particularly as pertinent to the Middle Ages and earlier, the term is usually applied to people occupied in small-scale production of goods, or their maintenance, for example by tinkers. The traditional terms craftsman and craftswoman are nowadays often replaced by artisan and rarely by craftsperson (craftspeople).
 
Historically, craftsmen tended to concentrate in urban centers and formed guilds. The skill required by their professions and the need to be permanently involved in the exchange of goods also demanded a generally higher level of education, and craftsmen were usually in a more privileged position than the peasantry in societal hierarchy. The households of craftsmen were not as self-sufficient as those of people engaged in agricultural work and therefore had to rely on the exchange of goods.
Once an apprentice of a craft had finished his apprenticeship, he would become a journeyman searching for a place to set up his own shop and make a living. After he set up his own shop, he could then call himself a master of his craft.
This system of a stepwise approach to mastery of a craft, which includes the obtainment of a certain amount of education and the learning of skills, has survived in some countries of the world until today. But crafts have undergone deep structural changes during and since the era of the Industrial Revolution. The mass production of goods by large-scale industry has limited crafts to market segments in which industry's modes of functioning or its mass-produced goods would not or cannot satisfy the preferences of potential buyers. Moreover, as an outcome of these changes, craftspeople today increasingly make use of semi-finished components or materials and adapt these to their customers' requirements or demands and, if necessary, to the environments of their customers. Thus, they participate in a certain division of labour between industry and craft.(source:wikipidea-craft)
 

 
I participated in a craft show last Friday to raise money for my family who are victims of the typhoon Yolanda just to help them out a little bit. Even though the weather is nasty that day it didn't stop me for going to the location where I can display my product. I'm so thankful to my mother in-law who drove me that day.                  
 
 
 
Hundred percent of my sales goes to my family, relatives and neighbors in need of relief goods. I hope that they will recover soon, build their new houses slowly it might be devastated to loose their houses but the most important that they are safe.
 

Here are some of my handmade crafts that I made during my spare time at home. Despite on my busy day watching my little one I always spare time to make all this stuff in order to make more to sell on the craft show.
 
 
 
I'm glad I made a sale quite a bit to send home for my family to buy some relief goods and help some neighbors in our community too. Thank you to all the people who bought my products hope you enjoy them.
 
THANKS FOR THE VISIT, HAVE A GOOD ONE!
 
 
 


Tuesday, December 3, 2013

Seven Monthsary

 
Happy Seven month carly
 
 
My little one is seven month old today, thank GOD for the good health and for all the blessings she's a very healthy baby.
 
 
So I made seven cupcakes for her today with a minion character on it.(source:nerdy nummies)
 
 
 
 
I think she loves it,(carly:mommy is this all for me?can I have some?oh yeah I can put it in my mouth.)but before she put it her mouth mommy come to the rescue can't eat cupcake yet honey.
 
 
 
Oh no there's an icing on my fingers,I swear mom I d'dnt hide anything I just want to wipe it on my back lol. Its a big day for her doing all that stuff and picture taking of course that make her fall asleep afterwards.
 
 
Just wanna share my Little Pumpkin here, Thanks for the visit and have a nice day everyone.


Friday, November 29, 2013

Thanksgiving Cookies

Thanksgiving Day (Jour de l'Action de grâce in Canadian French) is a national holiday celebrated primarily in the United States and Canada as a day of giving thanks for the blessing of the harvest and of the preceding year. Several other places around the world observe similar celebrations. It is celebrated on the fourth Thursday of November in the United States and on the second Monday of October in Canada. Thanksgiving has its historical roots in religious and cultural traditions, and has long been celebrated in a secular manner as well.
 
Prayers of thanks and special thanksgiving ceremonies are common among almost all religions after harvests and at other times.[2] The Thanksgiving holiday's history in North America is rooted in English traditions dating from the Protestant Reformation. It also has aspects of a harvest festival, even though the harvest in New England occurs well before the late-November date on which the modern Thanksgiving holiday is celebrated.[2][3]
In the English tradition, days of thanksgiving and special thanksgiving religious services became important during the English Reformation in the reign of Henry VIII and in reaction to the large number of religious holidays on the Catholic calendar. Before 1536 there were 95 Church holidays, plus 52 Sundays, when people were required to attend church and forego work and sometimes pay for expensive celebrations. The 1536 reforms reduced the number of Church holidays to 27, but some Puritans, the radical reformers of their age, wished to completely eliminate all Church holidays, including Christmas and Easter. The holidays were to be replaced by specially called Days of Fasting or Days of Thanksgiving, in response to events that the Puritans viewed as acts of special providence. Unexpected disasters or threats of judgement from on high called for Days of Fasting. Special blessings, viewed as coming from God, called for Days of Thanksgiving. For example, Days of Fasting were called on account of drought in 1611, floods in 1613, and plagues in 1604 and 1622. Days of Thanksgiving were called following the victory over the Spanish Armada in 1588 and following the deliverance of Queen Anne in 1705. An unusual annual Day of Thanksgiving began in 1606 following the failure of the Gunpowder Plot in 1605 and developed into Guy Fawkes Day.[4]


History

Prayers of thanks and special thanksgiving ceremonies are common among almost all religions after harvests and at other times.[2] The Thanksgiving holiday's history in North America is rooted in English traditions dating from the Protestant Reformation. It also has aspects of a harvest festival, even though the harvest in New England occurs well before the late-November date on which the modern Thanksgiving holiday is celebrated.[2][3]
In the English tradition, days of thanksgiving and special thanksgiving religious services became important during the English Reformation in the reign of Henry VIII and in reaction to the large number of religious holidays on the Catholic calendar. Before 1536 there were 95 Church holidays, plus 52 Sundays, when people were required to attend church and forego work and sometimes pay for expensive celebrations. The 1536 reforms reduced the number of Church holidays to 27, but some Puritans, the radical reformers of their age, wished to completely eliminate all Church holidays, including Christmas and Easter. The holidays were to be replaced by specially called Days of Fasting or Days of Thanksgiving, in response to events that the Puritans viewed as acts of special providence. Unexpected disasters or threats of judgement from on high called for Days of Fasting. Special blessings, viewed as coming from God, called for Days of Thanksgiving. For example, Days of Fasting were called on account of drought in 1611, floods in 1613, and plagues in 1604 and 1622. Days of Thanksgiving were called following the victory over the Spanish Armada in 1588 and following the deliverance of Queen Anne in 1705. An unusual annual Day of Thanksgiving began in 1606 following the failure of the Gunpowder Plot in 1605 and developed into Guy Fawkes Day.[4]

In Canada

While some researchers state that "there is no compelling narrative of the origins of the Canadian Thanksgiving day",[5] the first Canadian Thanksgiving is often traced back to 1578 and the explorer Martin Frobisher. Frobisher, who had been trying to find a northern passage to the Pacific Ocean, held his Thanksgiving celebration not for harvest but in thanks for surviving the long journey from England through the perils of storms and icebergs. On his third and final voyage to the far north, Frobisher held a formal ceremony in Frobisher Bay in Baffin Island (present-day Nunavut) to give thanks to God and in a service ministered by the preacher Robert Wolfall they celebrated Communion.[6]
Oven roasted turkey
The origins of Canadian Thanksgiving are also sometimes traced to the French settlers who came to New France with explorer Samuel de Champlain in the early 17th century, who celebrated their successful harvests. The French settlers in the area typically had feasts at the end of the harvest season and continued throughout the winter season, even sharing food with the indigenous peoples of the area.[7]
As settlers arrived in Canada from New England, late autumn Thanksgiving celebrations became common. New immigrants into the country, such as the Irish, Scottish and Germans, also added their own traditions to the harvest celebrations. Most of the U.S. aspects of Thanksgiving (such as the turkey), were incorporated when United Empire Loyalists began to flee from the United States during the American Revolution and settled in Canada.[7]
Thanksgiving is now a statutory holiday in most jurisdictions of Canada, with the exception of the Atlantic provinces of Prince Edward Island, Newfoundland and Labrador, New Brunswick and Nova Scotia.[8]

In the United States

The First Thanksgiving at Plymouth by Jennie A. Brownscombe (1914)
In the United States, the modern Thanksgiving holiday tradition is commonly, but not universally, traced to a poorly documented 1621 celebration at Plymouth in present-day Massachusetts. The 1621 Plymouth feast and thanksgiving was prompted by a good harvest. Pilgrims and Puritans who began emigrating from England in the 1620s and 1630s carried the tradition of Days of Fasting and Days of Thanksgiving with them to New England. Several days of Thanksgiving were held in early New England history that have been identified as the "First Thanksgiving", including Pilgrim holidays in Plymouth in 1621 and 1623, and a Puritan holiday in Boston in 1631.[9][10] According to historian Jeremy Bangs, director of the Leiden American Pilgrim Museum, the Pilgrims may have been influenced by watching the annual services of Thanksgiving for the relief of the siege of Leiden in 1574, while they were staying in Leiden.[11] In later years, religious thanksgiving services were declared by civil leaders such as Governor Bradford, who planned a thanksgiving celebration and fast in 1623.[12][13][14] The practice of holding an annual harvest festival did not become a regular affair in New England until the late 1660s.[15]
Thanksgiving proclamations were made mostly by church leaders in New England up until 1682, and then by both state and church leaders until after the American Revolution. During the revolutionary period, political influences affected the issuance of Thanksgiving proclamations. Various proclamations were made by royal governors, John Hancock, General George Washington, and the Continental Congress,[16] each giving thanks to God for events favorable to their causes.[17] As President of the United States, George Washington proclaimed the first nation-wide thanksgiving celebration in America marking November 26, 1789, "as a day of public thanksgiving and prayer to be observed by acknowledging with grateful hearts the many and signal favours of Almighty God".[18]
In modern times the President of the United States, in addition to issuing a proclamation, will "pardon" a turkey, which spares the bird's life and ensures that it will spend the duration of its life roaming freely on farmland.[19]

Debate about first celebrations in the United States

The traditional representation of where the first Thanksgiving was held in the United States has often been a subject of boosterism and debate, though the debate is often confused by mixing up the ideas of a Thanksgiving holiday celebration and a Thanksgiving religious service. According to author James Baker, this debate is a "tempest in a beanpot" and "marvelous nonsense".[9]
Local boosters in Virginia, Florida, and Texas promote their own colonists, who (like many people getting off a boat) gave thanks for setting foot again on dry land.(Jeremy Bangs[11])
These claims include an earlier religious service by Spanish explorers in Texas at San Elizario in 1598, as well as thanksgiving feasts in the Virginia Colony.[20] Robyn Gioia and Michael Gannon of the University of Florida argue that the earliest Thanksgiving service in what is now the United States was celebrated by the Spanish on September 8, 1565, in what is now Saint Augustine, Florida.[21][22] A day for Thanksgiving services was codified in the founding charter of Berkeley Hundred in Charles City County, Virginia in 1619.[23]
According to Baker, "Historically, none of these had any influence over the evolution of the modern United States holiday. The American holiday's true origin was the New England Calvinist Thanksgiving. Never coupled with a Sabbath meeting, the Puritan observances were special days set aside during the week for thanksgiving and praise in response to God's providence."[9]

Fixing the date of the holiday

The reason for the earlier Thanksgiving celebrations in Canada has often been attributed to the earlier onset of winter in the north, thus ending the harvest season earlier.[24] Thanksgiving in Canada did not have a fixed date until the late 19th century. Prior to Canadian Confederation, many of the individual colonial governors of the Canadian provinces had declared their own days of Thanksgiving. The first official Canadian Thanksgiving occurred on April 15, 1872,[25] when the nation was celebrating the Prince of Wales' recovery from a serious illness.[24] By the end of the 19th century, Thanksgiving Day was normally celebrated on November 6. However, when World War I ended, the Armistice Day holiday was usually held during the same week. To prevent the two holidays from clashing with one another, in 1957 the Canadian Parliament proclaimed Thanksgiving to be observed on its present date on the second Monday of October.[7] Since 1971, when the American Uniform Monday Holiday Act took effect, the American observance of Columbus Day has coincided with the Canadian observance of Thanksgiving.[26][27]
Much as in Canada, Thanksgiving in the United States was observed on various dates throughout history. From the time of the Founding Fathers until the time of Lincoln, the date Thanksgiving was observed varied from state to state. The final Thursday in November had become the customary date in most U.S. states by the beginning of the 19th century. Thanksgiving was first celebrated on the same date by all states in 1863 by a presidential proclamation of Abraham Lincoln. Influenced by the campaigning of author Sarah Josepha Hale, who wrote letters to politicians for around 40 years trying to make it an official holiday, Lincoln proclaimed the date to be the final Thursday in November in an attempt to foster a sense of American unity between the Northern and Southern states.[28] Because of the ongoing Civil War and the Confederate States of America's refusal to recognize Lincoln's authority, a nationwide Thanksgiving date was not realized until Reconstruction was completed in the 1870s.
On December 26, 1941, President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed a joint resolution of Congress changing the national Thanksgiving Day from the last Thursday in November to the fourth Thursday. Two years earlier, Roosevelt had used a presidential proclamation to try to achieve this change, reasoning that earlier celebration of the holiday would give the country an economic boost.(source:wikipedia-Thanksgiving)

 
 
Here's the thanksgiving cookies that I made for thanksgiving its made of oreo cookies and candy corns inspired by tot mama.She made all this beautiful turkey cookies tutorial online and I tried it at home.Everybody loves them its like an army of turkeys.
 
HAPPY THANKSGIVING EVERYONE!
 
 
 

 

Monday, November 25, 2013

Cake Decorating techniques

Cake decorating is art that is performed in places all over the world. That is why contests and baking show competitions are very popular, especially in the Western World. Cake decorating is one of the sugar arts that uses icing or frosting and other edible decorative elements to make plain cakes more visually interesting. Alternatively, cakes can be molded and sculpted to resemble three-dimensional persons, places and things.
In many areas of the world, decorated cakes are often a focal point of a special celebration (such as a birthday, graduation, bridal shower, wedding, or anniversary), or are given as gifts. They can also mark national or religious holidays, or be used to promote commercial enterprises.  
Cake Themes
There are many themes of cakes, such as wedding cakes, birthday cakes, seasons, and holidays. Cakes may be baked and decorated for almost any social occasion.


Cake decorating as an art


Decorating a cake usually involves covering a cake with some form of icing and then using decorative sugars, candies, chocolate or icing decorations to embellish the cake. But it can also be as simple as sprinkling a fine coat of icing sugar or drizzling a glossy blanket of glaze over the top of a cake. Icing decorations can be made by either piping icing flowers and decorative borders or by molding gum paste, fondant, or marzipan flowers and figures. Fondant allows the baker to express creativity in baking. Fondant exists in many different colors, and its initial form is soft and easy to handle. In this form, cake decorators are able to mold fondant into many different artistic expressions. Many of these art expressions are also taught in professional cake decorating class. Fondant is primarily used to cover cakes but is also used to create individual show pieces for cakes. Gumpaste is a substance used in cake decorating to create flower decorations. Royal Icing is a sweet white icing made by whipping fresh egg whites (or powdered egg whites, meringue powder) with icing sugar.[2] Royal icing produces well-defined icing edges and is ideal for piping intricate writing, borders, scrollwork and lacework on cakes. It dries very hard and preserves indefinitely if stored in a cool, dry place, but is susceptible to soften and wilt in high humidity. Marzipan is often used for modeling cake decorations and as a base covering underneath fondant.[2] Professional institutes, such as the London Culinary Institute and Le Cordon Bleu, have begun segregating their cookery schools to create completely separate institutes, dedicated to cake making.(source:wikipedia-cake decorating)

Last week my friend ask me to bake a cake with decoration on it for her friends kids birthday (I said uh oh I will try but I'm not good at it especially the decoration)


I came up with this decoration that I pulled online. It might not be the best but its not bad. Do you know the feeling of doing things for the first time and scared that you will screw it up coz there's no spare ingredients to do it again? whew thank goodness it turned out good, thank you so much to the owner of sweetartfactory.com for a beautiful decorating techniques. I did it myself and it was pretty simple and easy.
 
I'm glad that the celebrant like it so much and I'm not screwed lol.
 
 
 
Here's some cupcake design that I made too, I made this when my husband ask me to make something that is Italian to take to the potluck party at his work coz everybody has to bring Italian food, so I came up with this, cupcake with Italian flag icing on it.(ha ha is that Italian enough )lol.
 
 THANKS FOR THE VISIT!
 
 
 
 
 



Sunday, November 17, 2013

Christmas Lights

Christmas lights are lights used for decoration around Christmas. The custom goes back to the use of candles to decorate the Christmas tree in upper-class homes in 18th-century Germany. Christmas trees displayed publicly and illuminated with electric lights became popular in the early 20th century. By the mid-20th century, it became customary to display strings of electric lights as along streets and on buildings Christmas decorations detached from the Christmas tree itself. In the United States, it became popular to outline private homes with such Christmas lights in tract housing beginning in the 1960s. By the late 20th century, the custom had also been adopted in non-western countries, notably in Japan.
 
The Christmas tree was adopted in upper-class homes in 18th-century Germany, where it was occasionally decorated with candles, which at the time was a comparatively expensive light source. Candles for the tree were glued with melted wax to a tree branch or attached by pins. Around 1890, candleholders were first used for Christmas candles. Between 1902 and 1914, small lanterns and glass balls to hold the candles started to be used. Early electric Christmas lights were introduced with electrification, beginning in the 1880s.(source:wikipedia-christmas)
 
 
I just finished putting up my Christmas lights today on the bush outside my house.
 
 


 
This is how it turned out. Its not very fancy but I think its pretty cool. We are the first ones who put up lights in our neighborhood. Others are waiting for Thanksgiving before they put up theirs. I'm just so excited decorating my house, so now I'm ready for Christmas.
 
HOW ABOUT YOU GUYS, DID YOU DECORATE YOUR HOUSE YET?


Wednesday, November 13, 2013

snow..snow..snow..

Who Love's Snow?

Snow is made from big purple clouds and when it falls it falls hard like bubble gum precipitation in the form of flakes of crystalline water ice that falls from clouds. Since snow is composed of small ice particles, it is a granular material. It has an open and therefore soft structure, unless subjected to external pressure. Snowflakes come in a variety of sizes and shapes. Types that fall in the form of a ball due to melting and refreezing, rather than a flake, are known as hail, ice pellets or snow grains.
The process of precipitating snow is called snowfall. Snowfall tends to form within regions of upward movement of air around a type of low-pressure system known as an extratropical cyclone. Snow can fall poleward of these systems' associated warm fronts and within their comma head precipitation patterns (called such due to the comma-like shape of the cloud and precipitation pattern around the poleward and west sides of extratropical cyclones). Where relatively warm water bodies are present, for example because of water evaporation from lakes, lake-effect snowfall becomes a concern downwind of the warm lakes within the cold cyclonic flow around the backside of extratropical cyclones. Lake-effect snowfall can be heavy locally. Thundersnow is possible within a cyclone's comma head and within lake effect precipitation bands. In mountainous areas, heavy snow is possible where upslope flow is maximized within windward sides of the terrain at elevation, if the atmosphere is cold enough. Snowfall amount and its related liquid equivalent precipitation amount are measured using a variety of different rain gauges.
 
Once on the ground, snow can be categorized as powdery when light and fluffy, fresh when recent but heavier, granular when it begins the cycle of melting and refreezing, and eventually ice once it comes down, after multiple melting and refreezing cycles, into a dense mass called snow pack. When powdery, snow moves with the wind from the location where it originally landed, forming deposits called snowdrifts that may have a depth of several meters. After attaching itself to hillsides, blown snow can evolve into a snow slab—an avalanche hazard on steep slopes. The existence of a snowpack keeps temperatures lower than they would be otherwise, as the whiteness of the snow reflects most sunlight, and any absorbed heat goes into melting the snow rather than increasing its temperature. The water equivalent of snowfall is measured to monitor how much liquid is available to flood rivers from meltwater that will occur during the following spring. Snow cover can protect crops from extreme cold. If snowfall stays on the ground for a series of years uninterrupted, the snowpack develops into a mass of ice called glacier. Fresh snow absorbs sound, lowering ambient noise over a landscape because the trapped air between snowflakes attenuates vibration. These acoustic qualities quickly minimize and reverse, once a layer of freezing rain falls on top of snow cover. Walking across snowfall produces a squeaking sound at low temperatures.
The energy balance of the snowpack itself is dictated by several heat exchange processes. The snowpack absorbs solar shortwave radiation that is partially blocked by cloud cover and reflected by snow surface. A long-wave heat exchange takes place between the snowpack and its surrounding environment that includes overlying air mass, tree cover and clouds. Heat exchange takes place by convection between the snowpack and the overlaying air mass, and it is governed by the temperature gradient and wind speed. Moisture exchange between the snowpack and the overlying air mass is accompanied by latent heat transfer that is influenced by vapor pressure gradient and air wind. Rain on snow can add significant amounts of thermal energy to the snowpack. A generally insignificant heat exchange takes place by conduction between the snowpack and the ground. The small temperature change from before to after a snowfall is a result of the heat transfer between the snowpack and the air.[1] As snow degrades, its surface can develop characteristic ablation textures such as suncups or penitentes.
The term snow storm can describe a heavy snowfall, while a blizzard involves snow and wind, obscuring visibility. Snow shower is a term for an intermittent snowfall, while flurry is used for very light, brief snowfalls. Snow can fall more than a meter at a time during a single storm in flat areas, and meters at a time in rugged terrain, such as mountains. When snow falls in significant quantities, travel by foot, car, airplane and other means becomes severely restricted, but other methods of mobility become possible, such as the use of snowmobiles, snowshoes and skis. When heavy snow occurs early in the fall (or, on rarer occasions, late in the spring), significant damage can occur to trees still in leaf. Areas with significant snow each year can store the winter snow within an ice house, which can be used to cool structures during the following summer. A variation on snow has been observed on Venus, though composed of metallic compounds and occurring at a substantially higher temperature.(source:wikipedia-snow)


 
 
 
Here's our first snow of the year, isn't that pretty? but boy it is very cold so take out all your winter clothes and bundled up.
 
 
 
 
My little one first experience on the snow, hhmm I don't think she like it.(mommy what is this aaahhh very cold lol.)I let her try to make snow angel :)
 
 
 
It was a fun day for me and especially to my little one to let her experience  her first snow ever, I just cant pass not to take her out that day and enjoy it coz in the later afternoon the snow melts down. I'm just glad I took a bunch of pictures before it melts down although she don't like it on the first time but eventually she will get use to it coz I'm sure there is more coming up in this winter season. Thanks everyone for the visit! Have a nice day.