Inspired by the SouleMama blog's {this moment}, I am posting one image every Friday, taken that week, that really makes me happy. If you end up doing the same I would love to see your photo linked in my comments!
Ever since I had that horrible knock-me-on-my-heiny mono this summer I have not been very motivated to exercise. I am busy with the boys, life, and the computer so I keep on putting it off. "Tomorrow I will start exercising" I tell myself as I sit on the couch watching Netflix for hours while crunching on chips and chocolate-covered almonds.
I am pretty lucky and I don't gain much weight when I stop working out, but I get flabby and a bit bloated. Sorry, I refuse to post a photo even though I have one of myself in my undies for motivation. One look at that photo will usually damper my snacking a bit.
Exercise also works like a mild anti-depressant/anti-anxiety drug for me. If I stop working out I start getting easily overwhelmed. I also feel lazy and tired and about twenty years older.
So the other day while I was hanging out in the backyard with the boys rereading The Stand: Expanded Edition
, stand and gloves and scoffed "What in the world did you buy? You are never going to use that".Inspired by the SouleMama blog's {this moment}, I am posting one image every Friday, taken that week, that really makes me happy. If you end up doing the same I would love to see your photo linked in my comments!
Thank you for all of your comments on my Florabella post. After reading 570 comments, it is obvious that you love Shana's actions and textures. And I am pleased to announce that Random.org picked 201, The Recke Family!
2/16: The giveaway is now closed and I will announce the winner and post a new free action tomorrow! Thank you so much for entering!!!
If you have been following my blog for a while you will know I am a huge Shana Rae of Florabella fan.
Not only does Shana create beautiful actions/textures/designs, she is also a talented artist with published work. And did I mention she is also incredibly sweet AND a work-at-home mom with three beautiful young children? I honestly don't know how she does it, but thank goodness she does.
I want to wish everyone a happy Valentine's Day. I hope you can spend some time with your loved ones, even if it is not romantic. ;-)
I am trying to find a new affordable file hosting site for my actions
I completely forgot to post my {Friday Photo Bliss} photo yesterday, mainly because I had no idea it was Friday. I have had so much going on that the days become a blur and I am really exhausted. I think I will be a 100% housewife this weekend and my house in shape and worry only about my family. Funny, I used to dream about being a successful rich businesswoman or famous scientist, and now I dream about being a simple housewife before computers.
Thank you so much for all of your comments and advice on my post about whether I should invest in an EBook device. So many great comments, and now I am more confused than ever. :-) I have to confess I went to the library yesterday and checked out a huge pile of books and felt so happy and serene, so perhaps I will wait on the electronic devices for now. There is something to be said about holding a real book and I don't think I am ready to move on quite yet. But when I make the plunge I will let you know what I ended up buying.
I love LightRoom and use it all of the time for basic color/contrast correction, but if I want something a bit more "arty" I will usually open the corrected image in Photoshop or Photoshop Elements. I can be a creature of habit. ;-) I have written a few LightRoom presets, but I have to confess I really enjoy writing actions more, so I have only a limited selection of my own presets on hand. However, I would love to do more basic and artistic editing in LR.
That is why I am so excited to announce that Laura Thomas of Pretty Presets is now a sponsor of CoffeeShop and has inspired me to play with presets! I have been talking with her for a while now and I must say that Laura is not only lovely and talented, but incredibly sweet. Let her tell you a bit about herself. There is a special discount coupon for my readers at the bottom of this post.
If you follow my blog (and look at my photos) you know that I am not a professional photographer. I love photography but decided I prefer shooting for myself rather than trying to make a business of it. I think that many of you who read my blog are in the same position.
Most of my favorite images are natural light lifestyle or candid snapshots. Sure, I love a beautiful sharp portrait of Imp or Duke, but usually the images that are dearest to me are the ones that show our daily life in all of its messy glory. I am still amazed that I can capture a moment in time and have it forever. However, often these images are not technically the best.
I blogged the other day about my decision to purchase an inexpensive flash (Canon Speedlite 270EX Flash for Canon Digital SLR Cameras
I do not like using my pop-up flash on my snapshots because my images usually look this:
Inspired by the SouleMama blog's {this moment}, I am posting one image every Friday, taken that week, that really makes me happy. If you end up doing the same I would love to see your photo linked in my comments!
We received our baby chicks this morning and so far out of 28 only one is ill and probably won't live. Of course, it is one of two silkies I bought for the boys... It is hanging on but I don't think it will make the night. I made some sugar water this morning (suggested by the chicken place) and have been dripping some in its little mouth throughout the day.
It is sad, but I have had some of my own hatched chicks not make that first day or two... And these chicks were shipped in freezing cold weather. I am amazed any of them made it.
I will post pics in a day or two of the remaining chicks. I can't tell you how exciting it is to pick up a small box full of peeping pooping fluffy chicks at the post office. I consider them my Valentine present from my husband. Who wants flowers, chocolates or jewelry when you can have baby chickens! I know, I am odd. ;-) The boys are crazy about them and are working on making them tame.
I am almost finished with my newest portrait action. It is meant to be used on an image that is already color/contrast adjusted. It has my normal eye define and eye bright layers, but this time I figured out a way for it to soften skin automatically! Yes, no painting on layer masks in most cases.
This took forever for me to figure out, because I could do it using Color Range in Photoshop, but then found out PSE does not have this adjustment. After hours I realized I could use Replace Color instead with a work-around. It was stressful but exciting figuring this out. I have this thing that everything I post must be able to work in both Photoshop and Photoshop Elements. I will explain what I did when I post the action for those of you who are nerds like me and want to know what is going on behind the scenes. I am really proud I figured this one out, without even googling.
This action will also brighten the skin automatically and add some contrast to everything else. Everything is adjustable of course. And like all actions, it won't work on all images, but the portraits I have against darker background have turned out great. I posted a before/after (taken in my barn "studio") below. I overdid the after so you could see the effect more, but you will probably want to have a more subtle effect.
We love our dry-erase board. We use it for school, and the boys use it for drawing their art. This keeps me from hoarding millions of their pictures on paper (I already have too many as it is) since we admire and then erase. But sometimes I pull out my camera because I have to save a copy. This is one of those times.
Imp usually draws quite abstractly, so you can imagine my shock when I found this little jewel. He was quite proud of his work. "This is a log mover Mommy", he said. And I could actually see it!
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