New Release by AnnaBV Designs

Anna is releasing Sun Kissed today just in time for scrapping all of those fun summer memories. There are so many cute elements and the color palette is gorgeous; you can use this kit for all kinds of photos. She's also made a coordinating alpha so head over to ScrapOrchard and pick them up!

Sun Kissed


Sun Kissed Alpha


My Layout


Ready for Summer Fun!
This picture of Dominic makes me think of yearning… that deep in your gut feeling of want. My sweetheart has been wanting to go to the beach this summer which is what prompted this layout.

My journaling reads:
You are so excited to go to the beach. We’ve had beach toys purchased since the end of May. I hate that we’re 3 hours away from the gulf but we will get there this summer, I promise!

Thanks for looking!

Fix-it Friday #61 at i heart faces

This Fix-it Friday photo was submitted by Angie Arthur Photography, an IHF contributor. Here is her before:


And here is my edit (image is clickable to see it larger):


I knew there would be a lot of really beautiful edits on this image and I wanted to do something different... something that popped, was a bit edgy, with an urban feel.

My workflow, using Photoshop CS4:
~cropped
~a little levels tweaking
~ran Florabella's Sapphire action from the new Luxe collection, customized adjustment layers and reduced overall effect
~Noiseware at low opacity
~high pass sharpening layer, masked out on skin
~texture (Concrete Jungle from pareeerica on Flickr) added on an Overlay blend mode, masked out woman

Thanks for looking!

So so so excited!!! New Florabella Luxe actions!!!

I have been making some money lately doing cards and photo editing so I treated myself to Florabella's new action set called Luxe. Wow! There are some amazing actions in this set and I'm super impressed. I can't wait to take some pictures of the kids and start playing around. Here is a shot of Dominic that I took in June, SOOC and then processed.

SOOC


Processed with Florabella's Luxe, Starlet + Vignette


I'm so happy with this purchase!!! I would highly recommend this action set to anyone who uses Photoshop (the Elements version is not available yet, fyi). Thanks for looking!

4th of July photos!

We have an annual neighborhood 4th of July parade that lasts all of 20 minutes, it's so small. But it's the perfect slice of hometown America and the kids love waving at the floats and grabbing candy. Enjoy some pictures!

Drift Away by Becca at ScrapMatters

Becca has teamed up with Graham Like the Cracker at Gotta Pixel to create a relaxing, soothing beach kit called Drift Away. It is a stunning kit filled with shells, beach glass, and other high quality elements. Coordinating add-ons complete this amazing kit... a gorgeous alpha and beautiful wordart are also available. Everything is available as a bundle too... so be sure to snap it up this weekend while it's on sale!

Drift Away


Drift Away Alpha


Drift Away Wordart


Drift Away Bundle


My Layout


I love this picture of Dominic. His eyes are so vibrant and deep and I often find myself drifting away when gazing into them… dreaming of the ocean, of the ebb and flow of life, of being his mother and realizing how lucky I am.

Thanks for looking!

Thoughtful Thursday: Where are my rosy glasses?

I was typing up a getting-to-know-you questionnaire for CrumbSnatchers since we have some new designers and one of the questions was "Are you a half-full or half-empty kind of person?" You know, I used to be a half-full person. I took pride in being happy and optimistic and tackling adversity head on. I did wear rosy glasses and I liked them! In fact, I rocked them! Do you know how I answered that question today?

"It used to be half full but then life drank it and now it's half empty."

How sad is that!?!

What happened to me? There are days when I just plumb don't like myself. Like today, sigh.

I couldn't sleep last night. I tried. My mind was awake and going into those twisty, dark places. Tick Tick Tick Tick. Toss, turn, my mind would just.not.stop.

When I woke up this morning, I felt like I'd been hit by a truck. A 8+ pain day on the Holly Fibro Scale. Which subsequently led me to be a grumpy, ugly person all day. Honestly, I hate to wallow in self-pity, I HATE it but some days, I just want to scream. Enough! These kids are so hard, my marriage is so hard, my pain and my own health issues are so hard. I'm tired, I just want to lay my head down and sob for a while.

But I can't. And I won't. And it wouldn't be in character either. I don't cry. I really don't. I'm strong.

I know once I get some sleep I'll be much better. It's amazing how much this makes such a difference. Anna needs me to be a half-full kind of mommy. Well, really, my whole family does. So I drag myself through this one bad day knowing tomorrow will be better.

It will, right?

i heart faces ~ pets

This week's photo challenge at i heart faces is all about pets! I've gotten some pretty incredible shots lately of animals (remember that tame squirrel at the park?*) so I had a really hard time choosing which one to submit. Since this is a pet theme though, I'll submit one of Charlie, our Labradoodle. Charlie is one year old and we got him from a breeder who donated him to our family because of Anna's special needs. I had hoped that Charlie would become Anna's dog and had intended on taking him through all of the delta training necessary to become a service dog. I had also hoped that he would sleep with her at night and alert us to any seizure activity. The good news is that Anna hasn't had a seizure since we got him (shhh! the 4th of July marks one year since her last seizure but we don't want to jinx the seizure gods by talking about that) so we haven't had a chance yet to see if he will detect seizures. As a result, I still sleep with her every night... maybe one day I'll sleep with my husband again. Charlie didn't bond with Anna as much as me so he's really become my dog. He is so funny and so human in many ways. He is a dog that is more than a dog, kwim?

I took this picture of Charlie a couple of days ago for my 365-Project and used my 50 mm prime lens. I love the DOF I got with his nose in focus and the rest of him gently blurring in the background. I used My4Hens Glee action from her Kiddy Pop collection (free!) but otherwise it is pretty much SOOC. I decided to use this picture because a photographer friend and fellow special needs mommy that I respect and admire so much told me, "It's a surprisingly human dog portrait." Good enough for me! Thank you, Mary!!!

Wow, there are already so many great entries! I'm number 364... I don't envy our judge this week! She is a teen photographer with an incredible gallery. Check out her work, Emilee Fuss, and be sure to visit i heart faces to see all of the fabulous entries this week. You can click this image to see a larger version.



* If you'd like to see all my animal and insect pictures, check out my Critter set on Flickr.

Thanks for looking and for visiting my blog!

Semifinalist in a photo contest!!!

I am in total shock! I recently joined Clickin' Moms, an amazing site for hobbyist and professional photographers. I have learned so much there in such a short amount of time. They recently held a Bathroom Photo Challenge, where you locked yourself in the bathroom for 20 minutes and picked your three best pictures to submit. Creative editing was encouraged as was natural light. One of my photos was chose as a semifinalist!!! OMG!!! You would not believe the talent there, I seriously could cry I'm so excited. Here was my photo... the faucet processed with a gradient and TTV filter.



Thanks for sharing in my excitement!!!

New Release by AnnaBV Designs

I haven't had time to scrap much lately. Luckily, Anna has been very kind to let me go part-time on her CT for the summer. Thank you, Anna! Today she is releasing a new kit and bundle called Jungle Babies. It is so cute! Look at all of these adorable jungle animals. Perfect for scrapping zoo pictures or photos of your own wild child, this kit's got you covered. She is also offering a separate alpha and wordart, or you can get the entire bundle!

Jungle Babies


Jungle Babies Alpha


Jungle Babies Wordart


Jungle Babies Bundle


My Layout


Thanks for looking!

i heart faces ~ teens

This week's photo challenge at i heart faces is all about teens! I have so many beautiful pictures of Jenny that I could share and I know the talent out there is going to be amazing but I have to show off my beautiful daughter! This was taken in January this year when we were in Corpus Christi for our first college visit to Texas A&M. Ultimately, Jenny has decided to attend there this fall as an incoming freshman to study environmental science. I couldn't be prouder of her! There is something about this photo that I love... it was a very candid moment, not posed... I'm not even sure she knew I was still taking her picture.



Thanks for sharing this moment with me and for visiting my blog!

Fix-it Friday #59 at i heart faces

This Fix-it Friday photo was submitted by Julie Rivera Photography, an IHF contributor. Here is her before:


And here is my edit:


As soon as I saw the image, I knew I wanted to go black and white with a really soft focus. (I think colored stripes in general are very distracting for photos.)

My workflow, using Photoshop CS4:
~cropped to focus on baby's face
~levels adjustment layer to lighten midtones
~reduce noise
~unsharp mask 100, 1, 10
~convert to black and white
~duplicate, gaussian blur set to 4, then selectively masked to increase softness
~a little tweaking of contrast to add pop

Thanks for looking!

i heart faces ~ babies

This week's photo challenge at i heart faces is all about babies! There are so many incredibly talented photographers out there, and the baby market is infused with amazing photography and art. I love browsing through the professional galleries and being inspired by the poses, the lighting, the processing, but most of all... the beautiful babies!

This is a sweet little baby that used to live in our neighborhood. When she was three months old, her mom said I could take some photos of her as I was trying to learn to use my camera off the auto settings. There was so much I did wrong in that session! Lighting, ISO settings, oy! But I connected with this baby, and that filled up something in my soul I didn't know was missing. I took over 600 shots of her in the space of a couple of hours and several ended up being quite good. I just love the eye contact in this photo and the processing too. I still have so much to learn, but this session is what really sparked my initial passion for learning more about photography.



Thanks for letting me share!