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A few pictures from the first day of summer break.
Did a quick little layout last night.
Been a while since I made a page.
Feeling inspired to do more.
If only my back didn’t hurt so bad that I can’t sit at my computer for more than fifteen minutes at a time. 
• Going through pictures from Scarlett’s bday party and found this one of Chloe. Played with a bunch of textures using Photoshop and got a few fun versions. I think I like the one on the lower right the best.
• Went to an anniversary party on Saturday for Laurel & Steve, my neighbors growing up. It was nice to see them and their daughters, April and Holly. We had a good time reminiscing about the good ol’ days.
• Did something to my back this weekend. Not sure what, but I am in a lot of pain. My lower back is extremely stiff and sore. Hurts to sit for long periods of time and when I do sit and then try to get up … it makes me wants to cry. Hope it gets better quickly.
• Watched “Facing the Giants” yesterday. A little family time! That movie is so wonderful.
• Lots of storms this morning, so we’re having a quiet day indoors watching TV, knitting, playing on the computer. Chloe and I sat on our front porch for a while watching the storms. She read some books and I knitted her a headband. It was nice.
• Hoping for some nice sunshine this week so we can spend some time in our beloved “Big Blue” pool.
Happy Monday everyone!
Today is Cowboy/Cowgirl day at school. Caught a quick picture this morning of my little cowgirl. 
For anyone interested, the vintage look I used on the photo is from Pioneer Woman’s free action set.
Have a happy Wednesday everybody! Yeeeeeeehaaaaaa!
I have been wanting to make a photobook from our ’08 trip to Florida for a long time and I finally finished it last week. Here are a few of my favorite layouts from the book:
To view a slideshow of the entire book, CLICK HERE then choose the full screen option to see it best.
I used several of Heather Ann Designs quick fill templates and papers for the design.
This year, before our girls days trip, I put together a little photo book with pictures from our trips from 2004-2008 and gave everyone an 8×8 book from Shutterfly. I did a very simple layout in photoshop using white backgrounds and text only. They turned out cute. Here is a slideshow of the design from my Shutterfly gallery.
saw this on elsie’s blog today. she linked to a fun little tutorial on making fake TTV (thru-the-viewfinder) shots HERE
I’m heading out tomorrow for my annual camping trip with my dear friend Jen. I look forward to this every year and I’m REALLY looking forward to it right now. I’ve had a really long couple weeks with the kids. They are getting on my last nerve and, while I’ve tried to stay busy with them and spend quality time together this summer, I am in need of a relaxing, quiet weekend away. So I’m doing laundry and packing up my stuff this afternoon. I’ve got my journal and my guitar and I’m ready to go chill out by the fire and roast lots and lots of marshmallows until my tummy hurts from all the sugar. yum!
Wow! Two blog posts in one day! I haven’t done that in a while. But I wanted to share a little layout I put together with Heather’s new Land I Love kit, now available over on her site. It’s perfect, and not just for 4th of July pics. A couple of the girls on the design team are not from the US and they had no trouble using the kit. Check out the gallery HERE.
I wanted to come up with some fun name for sharing photography and photoshop tips with you, but I haven’t had a chance to even think about it. And I think I’ll choose a day to do these kinds of posts each week, but again … haven’t figured out how I want to do it yet. But instead of waiting around until I come up with a plan, I thought I’d share something today that I use quite often. The patch tool. Yay! One of the things I use this tool for is touching up blemishes or dark circles on faces. It’s a good way to soften up wrinkles, too, but I always make sure to reduce the opacity so some of the original face shows through, otherwise it can look really weird and fake.
So, here I am. I was not blessed with perfect smooth skin, but I can help that a little bit using the magic of Photoshop. There are other tools I use to really touch up faces for professional prints, but the patch tool is great for quick improvements. Here’s a little step-by-step to explain how I softened up my dark circles (and some of my less-than-perfect complexion).
And here is the before and after, side by side, so you can see the improvement.
Feel free to email me if you have any questions or photos you want to share.
AJAXed with AWP
