Bath time is play time

Friday night we had a wonderful relaxing night in with the kids, movies, and pizza. Ok the movie we rented wasnt all that good but it was nice. Saturday I woke up and my hubby had already been gone for sometime hunting with his brother in law so I got the kids ready dropped them off with a friend of mine and went to an estate auction. We got kinda bummed because the house went for higher than it should have because the guy owning the farm around it wanted more land (whats 1.7 more acres) its disappointing because we just want a nice house not to buy up all the property like monopoly. We stuck around and got a 2 boxes from the auction tho. One was a huge box of kitchen pots and pans, it ended up having 3 cast iron skillets in it and a small crock pot!!! The smaller box was kitchen utensils we bid $10 on and one lady wanted the old egg beaters out of it and gave the $10 just for those so she bought our box. Picked up the kids had a late lunch with them and come home. Was getting all the kids ready to go spend the night at nanny and pas and the twins got ahold of my phone and threw it in the toilet!!! ugh so run up to the cell company before they close to get an old phone hooked up while my other one sat in rice to dry out. Then we dropped the kids off and headed to date night where I got a wonderful dinner and then taken out to midnight bowling. I was soooo excited it only took 7 games but I finally beat my hubby with a huge score for me of 176!!!! YAY...

another creative challenge

I simply can't pass up the chance anymore to put my creative side to work and on photography!!?? forget about it I am solidly hooked:
this is the original picture this weeks challenge is asked to fix:

 After my editing it looks like this:

 I think I did so much to it that I don't know if I remembered all the steps in order but I use PSE 7.0
First thing I did was made a copy of the pic and use the skin color correction tool but I layered it on in overlay mode about 50% then I used the saturation tool increasing the background color like 60% but masked out the couple.  I then put a bokeh called Sound of music from Katie Lloyd Photography blog but again masked the couple.  I used a feathering technique to put a vignette along the outside of the photo and lightened the shadow from under the bill of his hat.... quite a few steps but I like the final look.

PhotoShop Challenge Liquify

 Before editing SOOTC

my b&w plus liquify  hope you like it!

a wee bit wednesdays

{one} what time do you normally wake up?

I have to get my oldest daughter moving at 5.30am once I have her on the bus at 6.10am if no other kids are awake I sleep more until they start moving which is normally about 7.30 am

{two} do you have a go-to song for karaoke?

I have never sung karaoke don't know that anyone else wants to hear it either.  I save my singing for in the car.

{three} if you could only see black and white except for one color, what color would you choose to see?

blue, it maybe would help keep me serene.

{four} what color best matches your personality?

maroon, full of punch and vibrancy

{five} if you could choose one meal to cook better than anyone else, what would it be?

Alfredo (shrimp, seafood, or chicken) then my hubby would be in heaven

{six} how many keys do you have on your key ring?

I have two sets on that i use all the time and one set that is used less often on the first is my house and my car keys on the other set I have a lock key, my house (in case I leave first set inside and lock myself out) my parents house and when I am working my work keys.

{seven} do you give your pets birthday/Christmas gifts?

no I am not really that animal friendly I have enough kids demanding affection

{eight} when your plate has different foods on it, do you mix or not?

I have started to learn the benefits of mixing but when I was little it was a definite NO!!!

{nine} if you could hire someone to do one thing for you all the time, what would it be?

Clean my house but mostly just do the dishes... I detest dishes and long for my own house so I can buy a dishwasher!

{ten} when flying, do you prefer the window or aisle seat?

Doesn't matter to me one way or the other.  I have no preference.

It's Wednesday again time for some black & whites

I am so thankful for the time I have with my kids and the fun we had this weekend at the park.  The kids played so long and hard that in the car on the way home within moments they were all asleep! Very peaceful drive for me.  I am looking forward to next week.  Not only is it Thanksgiving but my birthday as well.  My oldest will be out of school all week and I am hoping to get a family picture taken for my christmas cards.  (my hubby doesnt want one with just the kids... coulda knocked me down with a feather I thought he hated pictures! :p)  Tomorrow we go for the first of many Christmas dinners, this one being for his work.

Crazy crazy weekend!

When it comes to weekends its never really dull around my house but I truely think this one could have gone better.  It started off really good I went down for a playdate at a park with my mom and sisters:

but then Sunday I went out to go shopping with my kids.  Hubby opens one of the rear doors and I don't know how it happened but somehow in the process the back window of my van shattered.  Scared the living daylights out of everyone!  Shopping trip then cancelled and now onto calling around to get repairs done.  Thank goodness for full coverage insurance taking care of the glass.  Shew....