Go Vote For ME! Paper Mama Valentine Challenge

Paper Mama Valentine Challenge
Please follow the link to the Paper  Mama's Valentine challenge and vote for my entry #3!!!   Thanks so much!

36/365

What would I do without my phone?

Week 5 in Review

29- Boys at Chalk Ridge Falls
30- Cowboy Woody Jessie Aaron
31- Jumping dog toy
32- Sweet boy after bathtime
33- 100 days of school
34- napping toddler
35- Snow in Texas

Joy of Love- Day 4 What They Wear

 


On any given day, you will find my oldest running around in his undies. He's got the cutest little back dimples! :) And look at those knock knees. What a hot mess! But I love him! :)

35/365

 
 
 
 

 

It was a snow day in Texas. Laughable by northern standards. To me it's just ridiculous they they call so much off down here. I know they don't have snow removal equipment, but there wasn't much snow to speak of.

I had to go to work. No biggie, except for some reason other pharmacists felt like they were entitled to snow days. UHMMMM WHAT? You work in healthcare. That means leave earlier than normal and get there. DUH. I guess not down here. Made me super irritated that I had to be there, but they were given a "pass."

So I did snap the first 3 photos just before I left for work and then came home and found that the kids had left their mark while I was gone. I would have loved to take snow pics, but it just wasn't happening.

34/365

 


My napping baby! Snug as a bug in a rug!

Shoot and Edit Week 4 Red:

 
 
 


It's edit day with Ashley Sisk! With this photo all I really did was a basic levels adjustment and high pass filter. I darkened up my blacks and adjusted my white balance. Then ran the high pass filter and adjusted the opacity down to 50% or so.

After that I decided to play some in PSE with the shape tool. (Honestly, I have no idea what the real name of it is, but it makes shapes. Then I filled in the rest with a piece of Valentine paper and added some text. Pretty basic, but I'm not very good at building cards, etc and figured this was good practice.

Joy of Love- Day 3 Then & Now

 
 


When I saw today's theme I just knew what to go look for. I dug up the sweet picture of my oldest son Ian holding his brand new baby brother Aaron. This photo was taken in July 2008. Aaron is about 10 days old here. He was none too pleased with being held by his brother but they looked so cute in their "gator" jammies that I photographed them anyway. Fast forward 2.5 years and here is my Aaron wearing the same pjs that his older brother wore on that day in July 2008. He's grown so much. I can hardly believe that my baby really isn't much of a baby anymore. Definitely makes me a bit sad. I've been truly blessed with amazing children and I thank God for them every day. I just wish I could put some of this babyhood sweetness in a bottle and keep it forever.

33/365 and a Couple of Weekly Challenge Submissions

 
So today's photo is Ian in his 100 Days shirt for his 100th day of school at MCA today! We're having some seriously cold weather and even though the public school system was on delay, Ian went on time today and had a lovely time. He's super proud of his shirt. The back has 100 finger prints on the back in varying colors.



 



This week, Faith's Simplicity challenge is Vintage. I snapped this picture of Rosie, my grandmother's doll. Rosie always sat on Grandma's dresser and when I was a little girl we would go in her room and look at her. We talked about her and Grandma would get her down and let me see her, but she always went straight back up on top of the tall dresser. Grandma always promised me that Rosie would be mine when I grew up and had my own place. Sure enough, when I got my first apartment on my own Rosie became a resident. Rosie is quite special to me and now sits up high on a bookshelf. I hope to one day pass her on to my granddaughter.

 


This week, Chelsey over at The Paper Mama is hosting a photography challenge and the theme is Birthday. This picture of our little friend AA was taken at a friend's birthday party. She seriously couldn't be any cuter sitting on her daddy's lap enjoying some cake. :)

32/365 and Joy of Love Day 2- How They Look

 
 
 


Well, I am happy to report that I have completed one entire month of photos for the 365 day challenge. I admit to this being harder than it would seem. Inspiration can be lacking some days and I find myself ho humming around the house looking for something to photograph. Today was one such day. I just wasn't being inspired by dreary cold weather and just felt blah. But tonight after bath time, Aaron was being silly as per usual and I though a-ha! Here's my shot. Well, then I had a hard time narrowing it down to just 1. I think the middle one will be my "official photo", but I had to post the other 2 also.

Adding that this is going to be my JOY of Love Submission for How They Look. Day 2. :) To link up, go to The Joy Of Love on Willette

Joy of Love - Day 1

 


Today is the first day of [willette} photography's Joy of Love online class. This class is FREE and there is still time to sign up so don't delay and go sign up now!

Today's assignment was to capture a loved one doing something they do. Well, this is my youngest son taking care of his "Baby Sam." He's loved this little doll since he found it in a stash of things I had set back for our niece that I just had to let him have it. So he's played with her on and off in the past year or so. But his love for her has been rekindled ever since meeting the real Baby Sam who is daughter of a friend of mine. He's so attentive to the baby and takes her everywhere showering her with hugs and kisses. It's just so sweet.

I had to sneak up on him to get the photo today so the quality isn't my best, but it's still a sweet photo of my dear little Aaron who is going to be an amazing father one day!

31/365

 
 


On this last day of January, I decided to do a sequence photo. It isn't perfect, but I wanted to show the motion of Ian's jumping dog toy. To do this I set my shutter speed high and my aperature around f/2.5 I then took a series of photos as the dog jumped. Yes, a they are a little blurry indicating I should have had my shutter speed a touch higher, but the lighting here prevented that. Then to practice using my Lasso tool in Photoshop Elements, I decided to take the dog out of each photo and add it to a new photo. Again, not perfect but something I had never tried before.

I Heart Faces- Best Face Jan 2011

 


Baby S cracked me up with her "stinky face." :)

Carla's Candids Launch Giveaway- Winner!

Congratulations to DAWN for being the winner of the Bokeh Master's Kit. Send me an email with your address and I'll get it in the mail!

Thanks to everyone who entered.


(I used the random generator, but can't seem to figure out how to post the link.)

Shoot and Edit - Week 4

 


This week's theme is red. As I was running around the house this morning, I decided that I would just use my sock monkey props and put them on my newest backdrop. One monkey is definitely red and the other has a red heart tummy. They are part of my Valentine's photo props that I will be using this week.

To link of to Shoot And Edit, ever Monday link up with Jill at FNA Photography and then on Thursday return to edit with Ashley Sisk.

So come join the fun and learn something new! It's really interesting to see how everyone interprets the theme.

30/365

 

Cowboy Woody Aaron Jessie! ;) Aaron found the hat and vest and insisted he was Woody Jessie! Too funny!