Found Photos

I love found photos. And when my face fills up more than half of a photo. I know who it was taken by. Every time. My husband. He is dangerous with the zoom lens. :) But I love it. I actually like this photo a LOT. I totally earned all of those lines in my face. The laugh lines, and the wrinkles that are beginning to form around my eyes. I think that I may scrapbook this photo. And journal about how I got those lines. {homework and kids} Have a great weekend! A little bit of work and then some scrapbooking and more photo organization. Yay!

Surprise!

It was awesome having you home and getting a chance to visit with you, Sari! Love you! More on the weekend coming up later this week...

The Ranch, Part II

Horses out in the pasture while a storm rolls in.
MMMmmmm.....bacon.....

Lots of doggies...

The bunkhouse-we spent the night here on Saturday night. Sunday night we slept in the guest bedroom. Wish I'd taken photos inside the bunkhouse. It was very beautifully decorated.

Elizabeth and William playing Fusbol in the game "house."

The llama. He keeps an eye on 86 when she gets out. He doesn't leave the fenced-in area, but he hangs out nearby.

William on the four-wheeler.

Elizabeth learning the controls on the four-wheeler.

An intense game of fusbol while Elizabeth plays with the barn kitties.

Pike's Peak from the south as we were heading toward Colorado Springs.

Bryan on the four-wheeler.

We had such a wonderful time at Laura and Charlie's. I wish I could post ALL of the photos that I took. But that would take far more time than I have. It was great and I can't wait to go out and visit again. Thank you! Happy Friday!

Coming Home

One of the best parts about going on vacation is coming home. My garden/backyard changes daily during the spring and summer and being gone for a week always amazes me. The yard explodes into various colors and textures. One of the tall sunflowers bloomed while we were gone. So beautiful. Happy Sunday!

Grilling Out

Clear and Sunny Skies Time together!

Pepper Jack and Colby Jack Cheese

Toasted Buns

Shadows of Togetherness

I am so loving summer right now. Happy Thursday!

Zinnias-July 2009

The zinnias are in full bloom! Zinnias are my most favorite flower to grow in the yard. They are so inexpensive-so easy-you plant some seeds and in return you get flowers that keep giving all summer long! I love to cut them on weekend mornings, or in the afternoon when I get home from work-and enjoy them in a vase all over the house all week long! Happy Thursday!

Camping Memories- 2003

Look at how small these 2 are! Tigger was just a puppy still and Bryan was tiny too! This is the only year that we took Tigger camping. She loved the water and even got to go canoeing!

This camping trip was a lot of fun-but it sucked that Elizabeth couldn't go with us. I bought each of the boys a disposable camera that year and it was VERY interesting to see what they thought was important enough to take pictures of. We have lots of photos of stuffed animals and of Tigger. I will try to post those as well!

(grungepaper5 by fudgegraphics and font karabine)

I love this look so much that I just might use it for my Christmas card. So if you get a Christmas card this year that just shows sun tea on a table....yea...that would be from us...but anyway..

(grungepaper4 by fudgegraphics and font karabine.)

This is SOOO easy. Loving this free class by Jessica Sprague. This last 2 weeks marks the first time that I have used textures in my photos. Now I want to use textures on all of my photographs! I may have to join textures anonymous-I am just that addicted to textures....

Anyway...Last year I created a Summer mini-book {insert photo here-I lost one of my cameras and don't feel like going upstairs right now to snap a photo anyway} showcasing our "everyday" activities throughout the summer. I have been trying to decide what I want to do this year. In a way-my blog is my showcase of everyday life-whether it is summer, school year, or holidays. So I might just post to the blog and be done with it. Or I might use the photos that I post on my blog to print out in 4x6 and put them in a photo album. It just might be that simple. Anyway-I'm getting excited about our trip to Colorado! Off for more planning and figuring out how I'm going to pay for gas! Yay! Happy Tuesday! Hope it's a great one!

Through the Viewfinder

Still playing with new techniques that I'm learning on Jessica Sprague's class. This technique simulates the practice of taking a photo with your digital camera through an apparatus that connects to the viewfinder of an old camera in order to get the "square shape", black frames, and other assorted vintage goodness. It turned out way cooler than I would have hoped!

How it works:

First, I desaturated the photo and gave it a sepia tone. Then I used FakeTTV_8 (free on Flikr) and the multiply mode and a brush from HOF3 Sampler Brushes. It was WAYYYY too easy.

I plan to upload some photos and post something new later tonight or tomorrow.

Happy Sunday!

Grunge Look

{Products: Daguerrotype 2 and Subtle Grunge 5 from Lost and Taken, and Brown paper texture from jessicasprague.com}

Still playing in Photoshop Elements 6.0 with new info from jessicasprague.com from her free class this week. I am totally loving this look!

Almost Twins

14 and 16-the best thing about having a brother...is "borrowing" his clothes....

the best thing about being an older sister...knowing that he is NOT going to actually hit you...and if he does......well.....then he's in BIG trouble....

Learning a few new techniques from jessicasprague.com and her free class. Her classes are really awesome-her voice is soothing and filled with knowledge. Anyway-the original photo is below:

Totally loving the tie-dye shirt that Elizabeth made with a friend that was part of the huge purchase of "Summer Projects" that we made a while back. So glad it was put to good use. They did a great job creating them!

So you'll see that while I love the color of the shirt, I also knew that it was SO colorful that de-saturating it wouldn't detract from adorable Elizabeth. Using Photoshop Elements 6.0, I desaturated the photo, cropped it, and then colorized the photo slightly, giving it a bit of a sepia tone. I chose not to colorize her cheeks. I totally love the result! Miss you Elizabeth! Looking forward to you coming home soon!

Project 365-June 2009

Here it is-June in a nutshell {help! how do I get out of this nutshell?} he...he...Anyway-we were VERY busy throughout the month of June. Good times. Looking forward to July!

Edited: We bought snowcones and lots of summer projects at Michaels. The birds have been eating like crazy out of the feeders. We had a 5th grade celebration for Bryan and an 8th grade graduation for William. The guys have done lots of mowing with all the rain. I painted Bryan's room blue. We celebrated father's day. There was storm followed by some beautiful sunset colors in the sky. Bryan found the first 2 cherry tomotaoes {still waiting for more}. I took the kids shopping at Coral Ridge for Elizabeth's birthday, celebrated Elizabeth's birthday, and Bryan started his first trumpet {cornet} lessons. Good-bye June!

Happy 4th of July!

Wishing everyone a happy, healthy, and safe 4th of July Weekend! Not much going on here. Rainy day-great for the flowers-not so great for being outside! Great for relaxing inside! Happy 4th and have a great weekend!

Flashback

this is now

that was then

Flashback to a time when the kids loved to go camping! When they had fun. When they didn't need technology to have fun...as much anyway....When we'd come home smelly, hot, dirty, and sunburnt. I miss those days...I also miss having time to camp. Perhaps again someday...

Birds at my Feeder

Birds were eating out of the finch feeder for about 2 weeks before I caught who was doing it.
Here are the Goldfinches.

I have also caught Mr and Mrs. Housefinch eating at the feeder as well.

These guys spook pretty easy in our yard, so they don't hang out long. Maybe they will hang out longer once the Zinnias start blooming.

Sometimes, the sparrows eat at the finch feeder too. But more on that another day. Happy Monday!

Fave Photo Right Now

Okay-I can never choose one photo for my favorite. I love the first photo because it is so rare that I am able to get my teenage son to actually pose for a photo with me. And the second photo shows how he is always trying to pull away from us-even when he really does need us. Love you, William. (Post in response to "Describe your favorite photo right now" for Ali Edward's sponsor giveaway this weekend.)

Mini-Book

Here is a look at pages that I created for a mini-book. I started it as a way to experiment with watercolors on cotton duck canvas fabric. The photos were printed on the "wallets" setting on my computer, and the pages are 6x6. The paints I used were just plain old Crayola watercolors with water. I love the effect! I plan to sew the pages together soon, but I wanted to scan them individually first. Happy Tuesday!