July 30, 2012

Software Price Comparison & Mackenzie’s Birthday Bash!

First, for those that are here to view pictures of Mackenzie’s birthday bash, feel free to scroll right down pass my ramblings!

If you’ve been following me, you’ll know that I purchased the Macbook Pro with Retina Display last week!  I made a trip to Best Buy this weekend to check out the prices of Photoshop CS6, Lightroom 4, and Office Home & Student.  I started a price comparison at home and found Amazon to be the least amount for all three programs.  Even though Adobe was offering $50 off when you buy two software programs together, Amazon was still the cheapest.  I thought I’d share my price comparison information with you in case any of you were in the market for the same programs.

 
   Best Buy     Adobe     Amazon   
             
Photoshop CS6  $      699.00    $      699.00    $      670.00  
Lightroom 4  $      149.99    $        99.99    $      123.99  
Shipping  $               -      $           9.90    $               -   ($0 if you are a prime member)
   $      848.99    $      808.89    $      793.99  
             
Office Home & Student  $      119.95    $               -      $      102.95  

I asked the Best Buy Associate if they would price match and guess what?  Yep, I walked out of there with all three programs under my arm and a new Mac mouse to boot!  In fact they even gave me Office 2011 Home & Student for $99.99 which was less than Amazon!  It was a great day! 

Now I just need calibration software for my monitor.  I’m still doing research on this one!  You can expect to see a post on this maybe later in the week.



Okay I’m going to switch subjects on you so try to stay with me! 

We attended a birthday party this past weekend and I got some great pictures!  You may remember seeing this little red headed cutie, Mackenzie, on my blog before.  She is the daughter of very good friend of mine.  Her mother and I have been friends since we 5 years old!  Crazy right?  Anyhow, her little one turns 3 on the 31st of the month and they celebrated with a fantastic outdoor birthday bash!  The kids had a ball and it was so much fun watching them all play together!

Oh, and before I forget (not that I really could since it was so darn cute), when we arrived at Mackenzie’s and walked into the house, Mackenzie saw Alivia and said “Has everyone met my best friend, Livy”?!  She made my heart melt!  After that, I got a little emotional.  How crazy is it that her mama and I are such great friends and here we are with kids of our own watching them become friends?!  It truly IS amazing!

As a reminder to those interested in having a copy or copies of any of the following photos, these ones that I have posted are low resolution watermarked files and are not meant for printing.  If you would like prints, please feel free to contact me Winking smile.

Enjoy!

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012 in PSE with midtone contrast and spot removal

This next shot is a little blurry but there was no way I wasn’t posting it.
Look at that smile!

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I loved this next one so much I had to do one in color and one in black & white!
Love the expression on his face!

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I am in love with this next shot! 
This is Mackenzie’s mama, Nancy, with Alivia! 
Nancy looks lost in the moment with her eyes shut!
I have to print this one out and frame it!

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This next shot is of Nancy’s brother Joey and his wife Lisa.

You can imagine that if I were friends with Nancy all of
those years that her brother was like a brother to me too!

I have to keep reminding myself that we are all adults.

It seems like yesterday that Nancy and I we were spinning Joey
around by his ankles until his pants would come off!

Of course, this used to be when Joey was a lot smaller than us.
Now, it’s quite a different story.
It would be so easy for him to crush us now.
We are lucky he’s good to us!

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Warning: you are approaching cute piggy toes!

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For this next shot, I have one question.
Will Alivia ever grow into her cheeks?  Open-mouthed smile
I sure hope not!

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Don’t think this Mickey Park was just for the kids.
Oh no, no, no. 
I was in there getting my bounce on as were some of the other parents!

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And it’s PRESENT TIME!
Although, with all the presents, it seemed more like Christmas!

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Can you stand the face in this next shot?
She is a riot!
And look at those curls!
Her hair is usually straighter, but with all the humidity it didn’t have a chance!

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This last shot makes me smile every time I look at it!

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I bet you thought the pictures would never end huh?  Sorry to make your head spin!  Hope you all had a wonderful weekend too!

5 comments:

  1. Wow...that was quite a big birthday party. Of course I loved the piggy toes coming out of the net...too cute♥

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  2. Aw, so very sweet! How wonderful that your kids are friends with your good friend's kids (that's a mouthful, lol).

    And yea! for new software. I upgraded to LR4 and CS6 recently. I'm totally loving LR4, I have a lot to learn in CS6 and I'm still getting used to the new layout. I"m sure I'll love it when I get up to speed. I need to calibrate my mac also. I'm curious to hear what you find. So far I've been looking at Spyder on Amazon, but I don't have the budget for it at the moment.

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  3. I thought I commented on this one- perhaps I did not! Or thought I did !! Haha! I do love that picture with Nancy and Alivia (with her eyes closed)- that is a keeper for sure! I am digging that Mickey Mouse bounce house - Juiianna would be in her glory if she saw that! She would be pointing and squealing MOUSE MOUSE! I love Mackenzie's red hair - so pretty. She is in for a lifetime of compliments no doubt! Great pictures- fun times!

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  4. AWWW! The Birthday party pics are gorgeous, as are the hair in your family! Alivia's amazing locks, & then those red curls... so cute.

    I AM SO JEALOUS. Girl, you now only got Mac, but ALL the software! SOOOO jealous. All's I have is PSE9, & trying out Light Room now. I also need to get a calibrator. Looking forward to you research on that! Lol... you do all the work for me, it's great! haha) P/S Were you able to get the "student" LR4 version. If so, what if anything do you have to give as proof to get that one? Thanks Elena..!

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  5. thanks for checking out my blog! I promise you'll like the cake! Your daughter is beautiful....gotta check out more of your blog when I have time.

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