The things they learn!

Take your time.  Concentrate.  Hit the ball.  This is what my tot says when we are bowling with her play set.  It’s a riot!  Just when I thought she learned these phrases from the hubby, Livi and I were watching an episode of Jake and the Neverland Pirates and sure enough I heard these same phrases from Jake.  Of course they were playing golf, hence the “hit the ball” instead of “hit the pins”.  I’ve been trying to teach her to say “hit the pins”.  Either that or “throw the ball”.  You know something that makes sense.  My little one is way too smart.  I just love how she uses her words in the correct context and she picks up on absolutely everything.  She is truly amazing and such a BIG girl!

Free collage template (9 photos)!

This is going to be a less words on Wednesday for me!  I’m resorting to my Instagram shots; haven’t been able to pick up my camera in a few days.  If you like the collage below, feel free to grab it HERE!  It’s a .psd Photoshop file 850 px wide.  As a reminder, you just click on the layer named “PLACE PHOTO HERE”, that I highlighted in red, and go to FILE / PLACE to choose the image you’d like to insert in the square.  My template does not include the text.

Maybe I’m just happy

It was a good day today!  The hubby and I got Livi out of the house to see her cousins.  Apparently just in time too because it just started snowing and we are supposed to get around 6 inches of snow.  You will never hear me saying anything positive about snow.  I’m not really a Winter type girl.  I don’t like any snow sports, I hate scraping my car, I am petrified to drive in it, can’t stand to walk in it, and am freezing just thinking about it.  I will say this though…

Free storyboard template with 6 photos!

I’m on a roll I guess!  I’ve been feeling creative, hence the new storyboard!  Not sure what I’m going to call it but the bottom layer reminds me of cork board which is kind of cool.  Feel free to grab it HERE!  Hope you guys like it!  It is a .psd Photoshop file and is 850 px wide.  As long as you are even a little familiar with Photoshop you should have no problem using the template.  Just click on the layers that read “PLACE YOUR PHOTO HERE” then go to File / Place and choose the image you’d like to insert.  If you have any problems downloading, feel free to leave me a comment.

Free set of frames!

I think my post title says it all.  I just created the following frames and I’m so excited to share them with all of you!  Each frame is numbered below and correspond to the file names within the folder!  This will be my first time uploading an entire folder (instead of one file) to Google Drive so I hope the link works okay.  Please let me know if you have any trouble downloading.    

This too shall pass

I’m loving tonight.  I finally got Alivia out of the house even if it was only for a couple of hours.  I think she’s been going a little stir crazy.  You’d never know it the way she keeps herself so busy and happy.  I’m lucky she is so independent especially these past few months I hadn’t been feeling well.  Unfortunately, I had been reduced to watching her from the couch.  While I rested, she would play.  It was getting a little depressing there for awhile having to watch and not being able to participate.  I’d find myself wiping tears from my eyes when she wasn’t looking.  I think I was a little sadder than I wanted to admit.  I guess that’s what illness will do to a person.  I just had to keep reminding myself that it was temporary. 

What type of edits do you prefer?

So here’s the deal.  The last time I posted I wrote of image insertion problems and that with my new blog design I was unable to post images larger than 700 px wide.  This has been very disappointing seeing as my new posting area is around 900 px wide.  I forgot to mention that I am using Windows Live Writer as my posting tool.  Since inserting pictures hasn’t been working out for me too well I decided to try and upload my images to Flickr to use HTML code instead.  If you are familiar with Flickr, you know that it allows you to share your images in various ways including URL links, HTML, BBCode, etc.  Sounds great right?  Well, hold on.  Apparently with free accounts you are limited to image size uploads.  So even though my image was sized at 850 px wide my free account was only creating html code for 283 px wide!  Really?  How freakin’ frustrating!  So what did I do?  I paid the $24.95 and upgraded to a pro account where I can upload my original high resolution images.  If the images in this post do not publish correctly, I’m considering giving up.  I’ll have to find a way to be satisfied with not being able to utilize my entire posting space.  So fingers crossed!

Not a care

I’m a little discouraged.  Since the blog change (I updated my blog design last week) I am having trouble posting images larger than 700 px wide which is very disappointing.  I was looking forward to utilizing the new wider posting space.  It’s weird but when I post an image larger than 700 px wide, it’s almost as if the image quality suffers even though the image has been resized and saved specifically for web viewing at 850 px.  It’s puzzling really and I guess I’m curious to find out if anyone else is having this problem?  I am currently using the SIMPLE theme template on Blogger if that helps. 

The other thing I’ve noticed is that my page is inserting shadow boxes/outlines around all of my images.  They are white so you have to look carefully.  Anyhow, it’s very frustrating!  Looks like I’m going to have to look up HTML code for removing this.  It never ends!

In the meantime, this little girl has NOT a care in the world.  It must be nice!

The day after the day after

Well I thought I wasn’t a big fan of Valentine’s Day until my little one changed my mind.  She absolutely loved this holiday!  It all started on Wednesday when my mom bought her a Happy Valentine’s Day balloon.  She walked around with it everywhere.  It’s been her best friend for two days now.  She even fell asleep with it in her hand while she napped on top of me today.  I wanted to snap a picture of her with my phone but it wasn’t within reach unfortunately.  As if the balloon wasn’t enough she received some Valentine Day cards in the mail too.  One from Nana & Papa and one from Grammy.  You would have thought she just discovered gold the way she lit up opening those envelopes.  Then yesterday, in addition to a card, I gave her a little stuffed monkey (see color picture below).  She was so excited!  Wait.  I’m not done.  Later that night the hubby gave her the cutest gorilla (see black & white picture below)!  It didn’t take long before she was off on her own with her new stuffed toys clutched under one arm while the other carried around my card and Nana’s balloon.  The best part, though, was listening to her say “It’s Valentine’s Day” about a hundred times!  And with such enthusiasm each and every time!  Even today, the day after the day after Valentine’s, she is still saying it!  

In short, I am now a Valentine’s Day enthusiast and I look forward to seeing her reaction next year!

So what… (is it Wednesday already)?

• if I am still afraid of the dark at times. 
• if I rather have contractions than have nausea or a toothache.
• if I eat little neck clams but will not try an oyster.  It doesn’t make sense to me either.
• if I’m not very good at math and I sometimes have to write it out on paper. 
• that I love the look, the feel, the smell of books.  Seriously, I could pile them up and look at them for hours.  It’s a wonder, really, why I haven’t photographed any yet.
• that I believe in spirits/ghosts but haven’t ever seen any.  That is not an invitation either.  All spirits, please stay away!
• if I’m addicted to the bowling and memory game app on my droid.  Livi’s diaper change can wait.  Just kiddin’ folks!

Before & After

Even as I’m not feeling well, I’m happy to find myself showing interest in old loves.  Like processing photos.  In between the nauseous, vertigo, and exhaustion, I’ve been having a ball learning new tricks in Photoshop to really make my images pop!  I thought I’d share a few before & afters.  Dare I say I’m almost more in love with editing than I am with photography?  Nah. 

As I’m attaching this first example, I’m thinking I could have cooled the picture down a bit.  I don’t know, what do you think?  I know everyone’s monitor must be showing the image differently.  I am viewing mine on a calibrated retina screen so colors are sometimes too vibrant.  Colors can sometimes appear too rich.

It should be simple

I’ve been away from my blog for so long I feel like I could easily write a book.  A lot has been going on.  Good things.  Not so good things.  Photography and blogging were put on the back burner.  Every time I’d look at my camera collecting dust on the floor, I’d wonder if I still remembered how to take a picture.   The thought was a little depressing.  Just when I was starting to improve and feel comfortable with photographing, I had chose to put it aside.  I’d like to say I had no choice so I wouldn’t feel so guilty about it, but it wouldn’t be true.  I had to prioritize and let’s just say it fell to the bottom of the list.  Along with blogging unfortunately.  Without the two, I’ve been feeling a little lost.  Don’t get me wrong, the break has been rather nice too.  I know confusing right?  I don’t get myself sometimes.  My hiatus, though, gave me more time to confirm, yet again, that I am definitely not an extremist.  Never have been.  It may work for some people, just not me.  I wasn’t happy dedicating every spare minute I had to photography and blogging, and I wasn’t happy removing these things completely from my life either.  Yeah, I’m more of the happy medium type.

So what if…

• I don’t wash my hair everyday.  Or even every other day.
• I eat cheesecake for breakfast and don’t feel even the slightest bit guilty about it.
• I spend more on kids clothing than I do on my own.
  

You know what I’m grateful for?

This little face.

Just when I think it’s impossible to think about anything else other than how crappy I feel, this little face makes me forget about everything.  My runny nose, congestion, achiness, scratchy throat, and exhaustion seems to disappear for the split second that I’ve locked eyes with this little one.  That’s it, I’m mesmerized.