End of July already?

Wow! Where did the summer go? I can't believe that August is just around the corner and that my daughter goes back to school on the 5th.... I feel like she has only been off school for two weeks... (ugh to getting back up at 6am) So to mark this event I am going to participate in Click it up a Notch's best photo of the month with this:

It is by far my favorite picture of July! It so gives the summer spirit and of course pictures of three little angels....who could go wrong with that?!

Photoshop Issue

I have been having some photoshop issues today with the program wanting to quit on me... guess messing with the actions was causing it grief so until I track down my disc and reinstall it I was without any actions so I used textures to try to go with the effect I wanted for todays challenge.
We were given this image from Beth at Our typical life

now normally with a image of people I wouldn't go as far as adding this much texture but with the program issues I ran into and the image I had stuck in my mind of the old oil paintings of cherubs I came up with this:

I'm not sure how it will do this week with the guest judge but I hope she likes the creativity anyways!
And like always if you would like to see other interpretations of this photo check out the other edit me submissions!

Living room makeover!

Saturday I had the opportunity to pick up some new to me living room furniture so I could finally get rid of my hideous couch! I have always had hand me down furniture gotten from people getting new stuff and this is the first time I have had something I have picked out (well with my husband) I am so excited with the way it looks:

Please ignore the blue blanket stuffed into the couch. I didn't realize thats where the kids had stuffed it until after I uploaded the picture!  

Saturday after my husband got home from work before picking up the furniture we all took a walk through the city park:

Hubby stole my camera and snapped a few pictures of his own (these are the results after I changed it to auto... the first few on manual mode werent so good)

and last but not least I have my edit for the edit me challenge over on Branson's blog.  The photo this week was from Ginger

I edit with Photoshop Elements 7. I had aquired several actions so in reality I was playing with this photo ALOT! I used a Kim Klassen texture called Serendipity played with the levels and the sharpness.  honestly I should have written down the steps I did but with the un-doing I would have messed that up to, next week I will try harder! LOL hope you enjoy!
and head over to see more edit me submissions!

Bottle removal

I have had an awful lot of people react to my twins still having bottles and they are 1 1/2. Not that I really think it is their business as to how I raise/deal with my children but I have talked to the dr about it.  They are not overly concerned with the twins still on the bottle because they assume they were preemie.  Now I believe they were not 6 weeks preemie so maybe I should go back to my own original deadline of bottles gone at a year so now *sigh I am 6 months behind schedule.  I tend to resist hard and taking bottles away is never easy especially with 2 lil ones begging for them ... at 3  A. M. !!! Not exactly prime time for my patience.  I stuck to my resolve and have not given in to the temptation of giving back the bottle but I am very sleep deprived today and hope I can stick to my guns again tonight.
Now to fun stuff!

SOOC

  I got this picture fourth of July weekend.  My sister's daughter is only 4 days younger than my twins and all 3 of them sat down together on the front steps to help shuck the corn. I love all 3 of their expressions but didn't really care for the cooler and bucket cluttering up the photo so here is my edit:

adorable right?  I think it also captures the essence of summetime!

The 9th week of Edit-Me!

As you all know by now I love entering this challenge! So here is this weeks photo to edit submitted by: Mandy

I thought there was an awful lot of room between the lil man and the flowers so I cut and pasted him closer and cropped up the photo.  I ran a levels layer a PW action called lovely and ethereal and an action called pure soft summer.  I played with the color by adding a gradient layer and a photo filter of lavender.  I also added a texture from kim klassen called stained linen.  So with all that in mind here is my result:

To see more edit-me's head over to Branson's blog:

Family fun!

Of course the 4th of July weekend isn't complete without visiting family! Here is a few photos I took of the weekend fun:

 My sister, her hubby, and two cute kiddos

 Logan pointing "over there".

 The best corn shuckers EVER!

 a private moment between sisters

and the best made face of the weekend LOL

Prints

Recently I ordered a few things through the web involving picture printing on special order type things....
I ordered Fathers Day cards from two different sites:
Site #1 was for my husband from Tiny Prints and from site #2 two cards for both grandfathers from Card store
I found that both printers did an excellent job even with the freebie coupons I had.  On the other hand tiny prints ended up being free all the way around including shipping and came 2 days earlier than the card store.  I am kind of a late thinker and ordered the cards the Monday before the actual holiday and the tiny prints order came in plenty of time where the card store order came the Monday AFTER.  (Not that the grandfathers complained about getting such a cute card one day late!)
Then I ordered from Walgreen's a 4x6 brag book with a freebie promotional they were running.  I am pretty disappointed in this one.  Their expected delivery date was off by 5 days!!! So in real life that is FOREVER to see how it turned out and the wait wasn't worth it in my opinion.  The quality of the printing is pretty grainy and the laminating on the back cover is already got small bubbles in it.  Bottom line is I wouldn't pay full price for their brag books and I would use them for maybe distant relatives rather than a grandparent gift. :(

edit challenge week 8

This week we have been given this wonderful old west photo from Jen

 I use Adobe Photoshop Elements 7 for my editing
step one I ran a levels layer and adjusted the gray slider to 1.57
step two I bumped the saturation up +14
next I ran a photo filter on the sky only to give it an extra blue boost
then I ran a Pioneer Woman action called Lovely and ethereal
next I ran a Coffee Shop action called urban grit only on the wagon
I used a Kim Klassen texture called yester year 2 times first on multiply 100% then multiply again at 10% then on color burn 28%.  I then used a texture from Shadowhouse Creations  called vintage 2 twice. first on saturation at 27% then on color dodge at 60%...... So what do you think?

Go Here to see more edits!

Quarterly Favorite 5

I thought and thought about these and finally decided that my favorite 5 photos from April, May and June are as follows:

 This photo of my oldest daughter is by far my favorite picture of her!

 This photo of my baby girl and her dad is just too sweet!

 Look at Lil man peeking at me!

 I made this collage of the kids from the slip and slide pictures we took on memorial day and had it printed on the Fathers day card I gave my hubs. 

The hubby plowing the garden with the dog watching is just a great photo and I loved it! (the dog is one of our children so it counts right?)


So that is my top 5 favs... what are yours?

edit challenge week 7

so in spirit of fourth of July we were given a great pic taken by Branson

and my processing was:
1) I ran a define and sharpen Pioneer woman action
2) I used a fireworks digital background that I had and brought the flag over onto it
3) I used this wonderful quote to symbolize my meaning of the 4th.
simple really but oh how it changes things up LOL

I hope you like my spirit of the 4th interpretation! Have a safe and happy weekend!