Wordless Wednesday - a special bond

....she just adores her older brother and he loves it.

The photo wall

I have always wanted a photo wall, I see them in magazines, websites, and other blogs, and I love them. So after our vacation I ordered a whole bunch of photos all different sizes, this was my first mistake. After I got the pictures back from the printer, I loved them, but since I order them all willy-nilly there was symmatry to my photo wall I hated it. I didn't even get them up on the wall, so behind the couch they went until I came up with a plan. Well a plan I finally came up with and with my wonderful hubby's help, I finally have a photo wall in my family room.

The verdict, I LOVE IT!!!
Since I was putting up a photo wall, I had an old window in the garage, that I saved from our remodel, boy I wish I would have saved more, I added some photos from 2009 of my kids and then I added a some rub-ons directly to the glass and some flowers. All I did to the window was clean the glass, that's it. I think it's a perfect addtion to my family room. Plus I can change the photos out every year.

On the wall opposite my photo wall, I hung a shelf and added more pictures. It looks great. The best part of all of this was the price, both my shelves together were under $10, window frame, free, picture frames all found on clearance, under $40 for everything. Having all my memories on the wall to enjoy, PRICELESS. (I know so cheesy, but I couldn't resist hehe).




hugs,
a

I ♥ Faces - Fix it Friday

.....on Saturday. I know I am a day late, but I had to fix this photo because it's mine.


I know it an awful picture, this is right after I got my camera and had no clue what I was doing. I also didn't realize that my apparel could affect my picture, but it can... See here....

It's not only my red shirt, this picture is severely underexposed and to be completely honest with you if I would take a picture like this now, unless it was really special to me I would just trash it. I wouldn't even mess with editing it.
But since the title of this post is "Fix-it Friday" here's my edit.


Go check out I ♥ Faces and see all the other edits of my picture of Big B.....

out for not...
*a*

I ♥ Faces - Let's hear it for the Boys

Here is a picture of all three of my boys on vacation.



Click on the I ♥ Faces button at the top to check out all the other great picutes.

I ♥ Faces - Sephia Toned

This week at I ♥ Faces the theme is sephia toned photos, now to be honest I don't use sephia tone very much, well really not at all. My favorite is chocolate black and white or just plain old black and white. I decided to give it a try and you know what I liked it, I really liked it(I sound like the old Life commercial). Here ya go, a picture from our vacation last week of my oldest and youngest....



What a sweet moment, not really, I think she was trying to bite his shoulder, oh well, I love this photo, loving moment between siblings or not....

Make sure you go check out all the other great photos at I ♥ Faces .

hugs
*a*

I ♥ Faces - Pets

This week at I ♥ Faces they want to see pictures of your pet. So here is our Otto: Just being himself, taking a nap out in the yard, now that's a good life.

Don't forget to go check out all the other cute animals over at I heart faces.

*a*

I ♥ Faces - Fix it Friday

Here is the original picture posted up at I ♥ Faces
Isn't she just a doll...

Here's my edit, I working in PS.

My Steps....
I ran it through Noiseware
defog
curves
adjusted the levels
and then converted it to BW and adjust the contrast and brightness, till I liked it.

If you want to see more fix-it's on this photo go check out I ♥ Faces.

*a*

I ♥ Faces - Silhouettes

This week at I ♥ Faces the focus is silhouettes. I have tried for the last week to get a decent shot, but I haven't had much luck. My problem is that we live in the mountains, and it's really hard to get on the same plain as the sun. Today I was going to try to one with a window, but it rained, now I am not going to complain about the rain because we really need it. So here is my shoot, not the greatest of silhouettes, but it will have to do.

In two weeks we are headed to the beach so hopefully I will get some good silhouette shoots of my family. Make sure you go check out I ♥ Faces for some awesome shoots.

out for now
*a*

Week 19 - "Favorite Photo Ever!"

This week at I ♥ Faces it's more of a contest. We are supposed to pick our favorite pictures. Well I have only had my camera for a little over 2 months and the whole month of March I was sick so I don't have much to choose from. While I was purusing my photos I found this one of Big B that I love, it's so him.


Go check out all the other fabulous entries over at I ♥ Faces .


I am submitting this photo into the www.iheartfaces.com Blurb book photo contest. If chosen, I grant I ♥ Faces permission to use my photo in a printed version of a book for commercial use and possibly advertising of a photo book on both the Blurb and I ♥ Faces web sites.

I ♥ Faces - Laughter

This week at I ♥ Faces the photo challenge is Laughter. As I was looking through my pictures I found one of Bitsy girl that I took last week, she was blowing on a ball and making silly noises and thought this was the most hilarous thing ever. Oh to be 18 months and be so easily entertained.

Make sure you go and check out all the other fabulous photos of people laughing.

hugs
*a*

Contructive Feedback

Today at I ♥ Faces is Contructive Feedback Friday, I have been debating if I wanted to upload a problem photo, well as you can see I decided to go for it. I am never going to get any better if I don't know what I am doing wrong and hopefully be able to do better shots in camera instead of spending more time in photoshop. Though I do love my photoshop.

This is a picture I took of Big B yesterday.

Nikon D60, 1/100, F5.6, ISO Auto (I have no clue why I had this on auto because I was shooting in manual), 55mm

I know this shot is really under-exposed and red. I had a red shirt on, so I don't know if it's a color cast from my shirt.

My Fix


I did curves adjustment, a levels adjustment, selective color, and sharpening but now I think it's a tad yellow, I do love his eyes though.

Okay guys let me have it, I would love to know your thoughts. Thank you in advance!!! By the way I am using PS7 to do my editing. (I know very old school)

Looking to get better,
*a*

I LOVE Spring!!!!

There is just something about spring that I love so much. It might be the fact that we can finally go outside after months of being cooped up in the house and my kids driving me bonkers, or it might be all the beautiful blossoms on the trees
and our yard coming to life after a long white winter. Me and Bitsy girl did a yard walk the other day and looked at all the pretty flowers and of course I couldn't resist taking some pictures.

We saw this....

and got a close-up (I think I need a macro lens)

We thought these were pretty too...

then we couldn't resist smelling them.....

So go outside and take some pictures.....

hugs
*a*

Hats and My Girl

I just found this great website I ♥ Faces , and since I love photography it's right up my alley. This week their photo challenge is hats, so I decided to participate. Here's my girl wearing a hat.


Go here check out all the other entries, they are really fabulous.

hugs
*a*

I think he's a keeper....

I have been wanting a dslr for awhile now but they are pretty pricey. So since the fall I have been saving money for one and I thought that by my birthday, in June, I would have enough money to purchase one. Well my hubby last weekend said lets just go to Ritz's and get it. They were having a pretty good sale and I got 2 lenses with it. I ended up getting a Nikon D60, it's a entry level dslr and so far I love it.
Right now I am figuring out how to use it and take better pictures. Here are a couple I have taken of my kiddos. They thought I loved to take pictures when I had my Kodak, they haven't seen nothing yet.





So what do you think? I think they are pretty good and they can only get better from here as I learn to use this baby. In 15 weeks we are going to the beach so I better get practicing and reading. So I do believe that my hubby is a definite keeper. Love ya babe and thanks so much....

hugs
*a*