Edit Me participation!

I have to make this a quick post as I have a class to teach today for work but here is another lovely adorable even picture from Jamie given to us to put our edit magic to work!

and this is my final edit:

I did several things to the photo in Elements 7.  I adjusted the levels and made curves pop with Coffee Shop action curves.  I also used Coffee Shops action called baby powder room on the skin of the girls and the Urban Grit action 25% on the rocks.  I also used a Pure action called Pure soft summer to give it a little Glow effect.  I hope that hits on everything I did LOL... I was going for a nice color edit that showed off all the wonderful color in the photo and the fun relationship between the girls!
check out more Edit Me's at Bransons blog:

Many changes this week.....

I have been absent from the blog more than usual and am soooo very late in my opinion to linking up with the edit me challenge but here goes:
This is the original photo given to work with from Amy

and then of course this is my interpretation

 I started by adjusting the layers (in photoshop elements 7.0)
I also used a couple CoffeeShop actions... first s-curve and then urban grit on the boat.
I ran a couple Pioneer Woman actions as well edge burn and changed the color to blue and then lovely and ethreal and did the lighten layer over the dock.
I then used a copy layer of the background with an artistic twist opacity about 50%
finally I added a Kim Klassen texture called canvas love in lighten mode

So whatcha think?
Check out other edit me submissions here:

Now onto the changes in my life! Goodness the biggest change is that my boss at work quit and moved thus leaving her position open for the taking. So I am now officially the Office Manager! wow and yikes all in one. Assuming this role at this time of year means lots of catching up cause I have a class to teach to get new tax preparers in the office and all this is new to me. And I bought myself a laptop... first thing I did was install Elements LOL Well life is gonna get just a bit crazier and I'm still trying to not have that change my blogging world too much!

Edit Me week 13

After a week of guest judging I am glad to be able to participate in the editing part of this fun link-up!
Here is a photo taken by Amber from Amber's Articles

it is a very moody storm chasing picture and this is my interpretation:

lets see if I can remember my steps now LOL
first thing I did was adjust the levels that seems to be a favorite to do first for me.
then I also did a layer of levels with everything but the ship masked off so that I could lighten just the boat some
I ran a Pioneer Woman action called Lovely and ethreal and used the lighten layer on just the sea
I added a photo filter of blue to tint the color some
I next cropped the photo
I ran another Pioneer Woman action called Edge Burn and adjusted the height of it so that it didnt darken the photo back up and put it on about 45% opacity
I ran a Coffee Shop action called S-curve to pop up the color just a tad more
Finally I ran a Coffee Shop action called Sun Kissed to put the lens flare on it.  I put the flare on the edge of the cloud peaking out and then removed the orange tones layer and contrast bump layer.  I also played with the opacity on the lens flare layer itself.
I think that it added a sense of optimism to a dark and moody picture and the crop style I used more like a panoramic view cause I can see it framed and on the wall in the long style like that.
and of course if you would like to see more edits of this lovely photo please stop by Branson's blog and check them all out!

First Day of School

It's not even Fall yet and already the kids are headed back to school! I never remember starting school quite this early but my oldest was so excited to start her new year as a 4th grader!

this is the morning after I had a complete mental breakdown crying on my living room floor over the RED Kool-Aide packets.  Which spread red (waiting to dye anything RED) Kool-Aide dust all over my couch that I have had less than a month! What possessed these kids to think it was Fun Dip? It can't possibly taste good! After a strong vacuuming, bathing 3 lil ones, and some quick spot clean-ups I decided I had had enough for the night and put everyone to bed early including myself.  It doesn't seem quite so stressful today but last night I COULD not handle it!  That could have something to do with the fact that my husband has been MIA due to his two weeks of annual training (thankfully that ends Saturday....tomorrow) He can't be back soon enough cause I almost lost my sanity!

Photo Touch-ups

Since being a Guest Judge over at Branson's Edit-Me challenge I was missing the editing for this week and then I found Faith at Simplicity-my life in photographs wanting this picture edited... So yay I can do this!!!!
Here is the SOOC:

It is a gorgeous picture already but I thought I would touch it up just a bit like soften the skin and lighten the red tones on the baby.... its not a huge change but I like the softness of it

and if you wanna see a side by side of it:

I thought it looked really good what do you think?

and to see some more edits head over here:

Edit me Guest Judge

Good Thursday morning to all! I meant to do this post yesterday but got distracted...
This week I am the guest judge for Edit Me!!! Wow I am so excited to see this picture

Get editing touches by some very creative people.  Just looking at some of the submissions this morning and I will have a BIG job cut out for me! so follow this link:

and help me out by letting me know which ones you like the best!