Still Life Standouts

 

 This is my favorite still life photo from July.

Project 365 ~ Week 30

1. Catching some air...
2. I took my niece and nephew to play in the water fountain at Viejas.
3. Downtown Ocean Beach, CA.
4.  Miss grumpy pants was mad because her mom wouldn't let her read a book. I know, I know...odd, but she reads a lot. Her bestie was in the pool with her though. She was being kinda rude to her friend.
5. The thinker.
6. Self explanatory.
7. I took my stinky puppers to the beach. I left my camera at home so this is a cell phone pic. Sunsets at the beach are the best!

5 Question Friday

1. Vow renewal ceremonies-yay or nay? Sure, I mean, why not?

2. What sound(s) annoy you the most? Someone else clipping their finger(or toe)nails. I HATE that sound. Mostly because I imagine the clippings flying all over the place. Yuck!

3. If you had to pick, would you have only all boys, or only all girls for kids? All girls because I could dress them up and do their hair like they are dolls.

4. Do you believe in alternative medicine? Sure

5. Would you take a family members children and raise them if they needed it? Been there done that. But we only had my niece for a year. She has since gone back home to her parents.

And...just for fun...a pic of me with a gaggle of other peoples children.

Edit Me...

This week the picture has been provided by Beth at Our Typical Life. This is her precious daughter. I will be taking very big liberties with how I see this sweet girl in my edit.

SOOC by Beth

Edited by me

I opened the pic in Adobe Camera Raw,
Did a few tweeks to the exposure and lighting,
Moved the pic back to Photoshop cs5,
Ran Pure's action Pink Summer Days.

I turned the pic into a 6x4 format,
added a soft yellow background,
tediously masked her back into the picture,
added the angels wings,
done!

I've got a cronic case of the nothings...

This summer has been such a struggle for me. I just don't have the drive to do anything. My camera has been cast aside. It barely gets used for the 365 photos. If I had not made the commitment to do that project I would probably never pick up my camera. Every week I write down the prompt words for the scavenger hunt and then proceed to NOT shoot any pictures for it. I've done this week after week after week for a couple of months now. I just don't know what to say. I love photography but I'm in the worst slump evah!

I had my niece and nephew overnight from Saturday to Sunday. On Saturday my mom and I took the kids to the Viejas Outlets to play in their water fountain. They open the fountain up to the kids during the summer in the daytime and it's FREE! At night they do a water show which is also free.

All day Bradsen complained of a tummy ache but seemed fine. At 9 PM we set a movie up in our bedroom for Kathleen and Bradsen fell asleep immediately at the foot of the bed. An hour later he sat up, gave a funny look then threw up all over the foot of the bed. The poor guy got a 24 hour virus. After cleaning him up and moving him to a more permanent sleeping spot for the night he slept till 9:30 the next morning. Lucky him...he got to play the wii all day Sunday. Very unusual in our house.

Hubs went to Northern CA for 2 weeks for work. I'm all alone!!! Weeeeell...my mom's here, but otherwise...I'm aaaaaallllllll alone!!! Whatevah shall I do with myself? Today I went to Ikea. Tomorrow??? Hmmmmmm...(insert evil laugh here...)

Project 365 ~ Week 29

1. A guard bird?!!!
2. So we aren't getting hit quite as hard with the heat wave but...we have plenty of traffic to spare.
3. Nom nom nom...it's a summer must have. S'more's!!!
4. Lucy Kitteh!
5. Don't you wish this was in your back yard? It's one of the pay offs for the horrible traffic.
6. Flower
7. I went with my friend to the tide pools and this little guy was just hanging out, cool as a cucumber. He was letting people walk right up to him for photo ops. Silly bird.

Edit Me...

This weeks photo is from Ginger over at My Life As It Is.

SOOC by Ginger

 Edited by me

I opened the photo in ACR.
I usually lighten my photos there but this time I darkened it a bit.
I moved the picture over to Photoshop.
I ran the action Daybook.
I adjusted the layers to taste.
Done.

Project 365 ~ Week 28

I'm shocked! I went to write my post up and saw that mommytography is closing up shop. I had fun participating with them so far this year.

1. My cousins baby. Such a cutie.
2. Snack time.
3. Anybody want to come paint my house???
4. I caught the full moon a few days ago. It was a gorgeous night.
5. We went to the drive-in on Friday night to see the final Harry Potter movie. It was a full house...er...parking lot.
6. Mimi's has the best muffins...and they gave us 2 for free on Thursday evening. Woohoo.
7. Lazy kitteh! Has anyone seen Meow Meow? Aria's friend is lost(probably somewhere in Wegowand). Let me know if you ever find a dirty stuffed kitteh. I know a little girl who wants her kitteh back.

The Full Moon aaaand 5 Question Friday!

Did anyone see the full moon last night? It was simply gorgeous! Oh, the sunset wasn't half bad either.

1. If you knew your best friends spouse was cheating on her/him, would you tell her/him? Absolutely! YES, I would! Be warned spouses of all my friends!!!

2. Soda, in a can or bottle? In a can please!

3. What do you wash first, hair or body? I shampoo my hair then leave it in while I wash my body.

4. What advice would you give to a new mama? I would suggest taking your kids on long walks(preferably on the beach), feed them regularly...like twice a day(but never table scraps), make sure they go poo(take them to the park to do their business if that's the only place they'll go), give them occasional treats, make sure grandma doesn't give them too many treats, don't forget to give them a bath every once in a while(cause they start to stink), lastly, let's not forget to love on them lots!!!

5. What is your best hangover remedy? The best hangover remedy out there, evah...to JUST SAY NO! That's right you lush. Put the bottle down!

Before and After

So, I am trying the mouse over effect for the first time. Some edits are so subtle that it seems more obvious when viewed this way. This is my cousins oldest son. He's 3 years old and hates the camera. I was lucky to get this shot! To view the before image just put your mouse on the image and it should change. To go back to the edited image just move the mouse off the image.

Edit Me...

This week the picture is by Mandy of A Sorta Fairytale.

SOOC by Mandy

 Edited by me (my official edit)

 This edit I did a clean edit in camera raw. Then I ran the Coffeeshop action Golden Vintage. I adjusted the layers to taste. Done!

Edited by me

This edit I did a clean edit in camera raw. I ran PW's action Fresh and Colorful. I adjusted the layers to taste. Done!

The Toy has been FOUND!

For everyone who helped in the search, for the tweets, facebooking and all the ideas...THANK YOU. We are happy to say we have found the little guy. Well, my nephew's daddy found it with LOTS of google searching. The character is from a show called Planet Hero and the characters name is Mercury "Zip". We are all sighing a huge relief. Nobody wants to see their little boy(son or nephew) upset when his favorite toy breaks. Thankfully, we can purchase a new one on Amazon at any time. Woohoo!

Calling all moms!!!

Hey moms and anyone who knows their toys. This is my nephew's all time favorite toy. He's had it since he was 2 or even younger. It is his "security blanket" when he's going through a rough patch. He calls it Yellow Mikey. The toy has a crack in the leg and we fear it will break very soon. Does anyone know what this toy is called and how we can find it for a replacement? Please help!

Project 365 ~ Week 27

1. I'm a little behind on my People reading!
2. My new wireless mouse for my new laptop.
3. My nephews all time favorite toy.
4. Last Saturday's swim fest celebrating Bradsen's 6th birthday. (He's the one on the top.)
5. The cutest 6 year old evah!
6. My super small flash drive.
7. My moms birthday cake. Yummmm...Lemon!

Edit Me...

This week the photo was provided by Jen at Mama Schell Says. The photo was taken during a trip her family made to Tombstone, AZ. Ya'll remember Wyatt Earp, right?

SOOC by Jen

 My edit

What I did:
I opened the pic in camera raw.
I made a few adjustments to the lighting and exposure.
I moved the picture back into regular Photoshop.
Then I ran PW's action Heartland.
I adjusted a few of the action layers to taste.
Done!

Scavenger Hunt Sunday

Pop of Color

Crossing Threshold

Uhhh...yeah...I have nothing. Therefore, you get a swimming picture. And a totally rad swimming picture at that!

Xray

This poor boys job was selling those hideous pig noses at the fair.

Toy

This picture has already been featured on my blog but was well worth a second look.

Farm

This is more a ranch than a farm. These 3 pictures are from the archives and they were all scanned negatives. I grew up on a chicken ranch. We had 240 acres(that's huge by CA standards) with 80,000 chickens(very small compared to mega-ranches with a million chickens). I loved being a country girl! I love to eat chicken but I HATE eggs.

Baby chicks only a few days or a week old.

This is how chickens live on farms that are solely for producing eggs. Think about where the eggs in your next omelet are coming from. If this is too much for you then you can actually buy eggs from free-range chicken farms. It's a little more expensive but might ease your mind.

Just to answer a few possible questions...

Yes, there were that many cobwebs in each barn.

No, the place wasn't crawling with spiders. It took a while to build up to that.

Yes, there were a million, gazillion, eleventy thousand flies.

Yes, it sometimes stunk like poo poo and other chickeny smells.

No, we didn't kill and eat our chickens. The feed to produce good eggs makes the chickens meat too tough.

Yes, we ate waaaaayyyyyy too many eggs. That's why I HATE eggs.

No, I wasn't a working farm girl. It was run by my dad, a few uncles and some ranch hands.

Yes, we got to hold those cute little baby chicks.

No, they didn't stay cute for very long.

Yes, baby chicks smell just as bad as adult chickens.

No, we didn't have any roosters who went cock a doodle doo. Roosters don't lay eggs so they were considered worthless.

Anyhoodle...any other questions?...just ask.