garage sale madness

original photo

I am planning a garage sale next weekend and trying to get things priced made my living room look like it threw up clothes everywhere! I went thro 480+ stickers all $.50 a piece and I'm not even half way done... Its gonna take awhile :( but for a break I messed around in photoshop elements 7 with this photo and I like 3 different edits....

My original edit I played with the levels, contrast, crop, saturation plus the smart brush in pewter,  added a touch of urban grit via thecoffeeshopblog, and added an aged wood texture.

My second edit (is my husbands favorite) Ididn't crop as much and instead of a pewter backdrop I added a brown photo filter and put a vignette around it.

This edit is the same as the last but I added a texture called oil painting from shadowhouse creations. First layer being a soft light overlay and a second layer as a regular overlay to deepen the effect. Now I am torn as to which edit to submit for the challenge....since only one can be submitted I am entering this last edit because I love love love the oil painting look for this. Did I make the right choice?

Who doesn't love a mess?

 I love messy face pictures and totally LOVED this one of Logan his expression is just so adorable and absolutely the best of him.  What I did not LOVE was the trash can behind his head that I did not notice as I grabbed this shot .... oh no another editing challenge for me LOL  so what do you think did I make it look better?

SOOC

Tollhouse Pie

My favorite dessert hands down!

one 9" unbaked pastry shell
1/2 cup butter or marg (soften)
2 eggs beaten
2 tsp vanilla extract
1 cup sugar (I use 1/2 white and 1/2 brown)
1/2 cup flour
1 cup tollhouse semi sweet choc chips
1 cup chopped pecans

cream butter, add eggs and vanilla. Combine sugar and flour add to cream mixture.  Hand stir in choc chips and pecans.  pour batter into pie shell bake 35-40 min @ 350 cool for one hour serve warm. (but its just as good if not better cold from the refrigerator for breakfast the next day!) undercooked a little is better than overcooked.  Pie is done when knife comes out looking buttery not doughy.

Tuesday blog hop fun!

I am adding this to crazy faces.  Sunday I was shooting from a distance and could this expression on Ty's face it was wonderful (of course it is zoomed in to catch the effect on just his face so the quality isn't as good as I hoped but its perfect for this hop)

I get to go to the Eye DR today and get my prescription updated so I can buy more contacts.  My eyes will LOVE me today!
My friend Jess is on her way over to visit that will be fun and more grown-up than my days usually consist of!

Submitting this shot of Logan for: Sweet shot Tuesdays!
Have a wonderful day everyone!

yikes!

This next week is gonna be pretty busy for me! But to start I will recap my weekend..

SOOC

Friday I got a new play toy for my camera! Yay me! I had to go and take some flower pictures to test it out: I know that they aren't chalk but I thought that the vintage look I put on the edited version made it look like chalk effect so I am still submitting it for the good to wow.

Then Saturday the kids and I went shopping and got more flowers!  Sunday we had a family gathering which was lots of fun!  I got so many pictures that I have tons of editing to do but I can share the two that I have finished. This first one is my hubby with Lexi I thought it was a darling moment.  This last one is of a cousins daughter that is so cute!

All of the kids had a blast playing with one another.  My kids were so tired they slept most of the way up to Glasgow were we shopped for my sisters birthday and went to Lowe's.  Big mistake going there I spent way too much money.  We got more flowers... now not sure where to plant more! LOL good problem to have I think.  Kaylee got to spend some money on strawberry plants. I will have to post more pictures when we get them in the planter. Now as to this upcoming week:  Today I am writing this as my tollhouse pies are cooking for a birthday dessert since my baby sis is coming up to visit for her birthday.  I think the plan is to take the kids to the park between school and Stevie getting off work. Then we will come home have dinner, watch a movie, do presents and pie! Fun night planned! Tomorrow I get a friend to come visit and help with garage sale set up then she is gonna watch the kids so I can go in for an eye exam its gonna be yay to new contacts! whoo hoo!  Thursday one of my hubbys cousins is bringing her baby to visit and look thro baby clothes my boys have grown out of so she can put them to use.  Sounds like busy times to me but its gonna be fun! Off of here to take the pie outta the oven! Happy Monday!

I like a challenge

I found another editing challenge and had to participate. I think it helps me grow when it comes to using photoshop for my own pictures. So here is the picture we were given to edit. I started simple and just touched levels slightly, bumped up the contrast a tiny bit and of course added a touch of saturation. (I like color to show thro) then I did a gradient fill to add the color to the sky and came up with this:

 I couldn't help but see what some texture would do either:

As a side note I was pretty impressed with my edit but its a bit intimidating to see so many great edits that others have done and ashleysisk is so close to what I did but the subtle differences make the picture truely look so different! (BTW I also used a Kim Klassen texture called warm grunge)

before and after editing

Monday I posted my SOOC shot of my children not cooperating:

now I edited it using Photoshop Elements 7 first adjusting the color for their skin tone, bumping up the saturation +25, and editing the levels.  I used CoffeeShop action called urban grit.  Finally I added the vignette using a technique I learned again from CoffeeShop.  I love that blog I think that is how I finally learned my photoshop elements capabilities.  I think that it turned out pretty good (other than not being able to go back and make them behave).

a day in the rain

Well this weekend was a guard weekend meaning that 0700 Friday until 1700 Sunday it was just me and the kids.  So Saturday morning while it was still sunny but overcast I thought I would take the kids to the park and play until it looked like it would rain and then we would head in to town to do some grocery shopping.  First off Alexis was in no mood to take pictures (I wanted just one good one before they played) and this is all I got:

SOOC

This was taken when they got distracted by water and as it turns out was the only way I was gonna get a picture of the 4 kids together.
The next attempt was sitting on the bench and as you can see lil miss wasn't having ANY of it!!! And if you look close you can see the rain starting.  I decided to give up with the pictures and head back to the car, no playing today as the rain didn't hold off long enough.  In fact as we were heading to the car its like the clouds opened up and proceeded to just dump the rain on us!!!  I passed off my camera to Kaylee to run with and I grabbed the twins and had to run to the car.  The babies were yelled "ahhhhhh" the whole way cause of the rain.  Logan was very amused by the whole thing and Alexis was pretty upset by it LOL!  All of us were drenched by the time we reached the car and then..... IT STOPPED!!!
Well Kaylee, Gavin, and I got a good laugh out of it!  Off to the grocery store soaking wet, lovely!  Since no more outside adventures were planned due to the rain we rented lots of movies and hung out snuggling on the couch at home.... what a weekend!

Does this mean it actually is Spring?

I am getting a garden!!! The spot is now picked out and tilled thanks to my wonderful Hubby last night. Now to get something growing out there....
Thinking we will have tomatoes both red and yellow and yellow squash but not real sure what else to plant

I had THE MOST DIFFICULT time getting these shots of him tilling cause it was so muggy out last night and the camera had been in the cool house that the lens kept fogging up... guess it kind helped with the "soft" effect. Not only the moisture but the light was fading on me as it was dusk and so the pictures were rather dark but I was determined to get at least one good shot of my new garden spot!

I love how the dog was just watching his best friend work so I am entering it in the spring photo contest over at littlesomethings.
<

Gavin Tyler

 Pizza and an all blue cake as requested....

Family visiting and a few presents to unwrap! Yay Gavin I hope you enjoyed your day,
Love,
Mom

A little sad today

It's never fun being home alone with 4 kids I am always looking at the clock waiting for 5.30 to roll around so I can have some relief from doing it all by myself. Well this week that relief isn't going to come. Yesterday at 4pm my husband got a call to duty report time 0600 this morning to head out to Western Kentucky to help flood victims. I am proud of what he does being able to help people in their time of need but it does still leave me sad that there is an emptiness in the house where his presence usually is. Thankfully an active call was for inside the state so it's suppose to only last 7-10 days. Maybe it wouldn't seem so depressing if it wasn't raining so much here too, dreary days like this aren't all that good for uplifting the spirits.
I can say this about so much rain 1) it's not snow! 2) it has made things look like spring outside... nice and  green 3) on the downside it means cooped up inside with 3 kids looking for things to do.... pull out all the kleenex one by one,  play with the pots and lids banging them together making my ears ring, and the list goes on.
I almost wish I could pull the covers back over my head and wish things on to next week but since that can't happen I guess I will settle for snuggling with my kids on the couch watching Max and Ruby.  Sounds like the next best thing to me!