31 on the 31st

My brother-in-law Daniel turns 31 today, on the 31st.
The once in a lifetime - matching age to date -birthday.

My card to him reads:
You are hereby awarded the
BROTHER-IN-LAW
MEDAL OF VALOR....

...for EXCEPTIONAL
JUDGMENT
in choosing a wife
and for UNCOMMON
PATIENCE
and BRAVERY
in the face of your
IN-LAWS!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY

I could not resist buying a funny card.
Normally, I choose the sentimental, sweet ones.
I am not going to touch the "in-law" subject.
But almost at the 10 year mark as part of the family,
I couldn't imagine it without him.

Daniel is a tremendous help with "techie" info -
camera, photography, computer, etc.
A great co-shooter for these weddings we have had.
I could think of a lot more, but it is late, I'm tired,
 and we celebrate later today.
So, I'll end for now....

Happy Birthday Daniel - hope it is the best year yet.

day 30

ice storm
ice photos
here is just one -



img 1066 edited
manual mode
no flash
f/2.8
1/100
awb
raw + jpg
iso 400

not much editing, just some sharpening
one of my favorite shots

saturday shopping -

"shopping the house" at least - for this mantel makeover result:

A winter storm came through and left an icey, wintery scene.  So, I did not leave the house/yard today. ;)  I walked outside to take some photos, but I did not stay out long because I still have yucky cough/cold stuff.  Thankfully, the power did not go out - just a few flickers. 

After sleeping in (rather late), I ignored my to do list today, cleaned up, and helped my mom some.  I bought a lamp at Kirkland's Friday night; a cute "D" monogram  on the shade prompted a change in my bedroom.

And then my mom said that I could work on the mantle in the den.  It only had a red plastic strip covered with lace on the mantle, leftover from Christmas.  Above the mantle, a gold/brass trim mirror hung between two empty sconces.  Serious help needed. :)

Off to shop -

I went to my extra bedroom and pulled two things out from under the bed.  From that, I used one item for the mantle - the center photo (me and the siblings.)  The photo is actually mine, but I promised to frame a 10x13 like this for my parent's Christmas present LAST year (2008 - not 2009.)  My mom did not pick out a frame, so I told her that we could switch.  I would give her my framed photo and take her unframed photo.  Fair trade I think and that completes an iou. 

I loved how the photo looked on the mantle.  So, we stripped everything from the mantle and on the wall above it.  Then I started with the center frame and added to it.  My mom had the black candleholders in the den with a red frame for Valentine's Day. (These candleholders came from my grandparents' estate - the praying hands also.)  A third red candle is needed, but it works for now.  I pulled the praying hands from my parent's bedroom; they helped secure the frame, which is just propped there.  The smaller black frame also came from my parent's bedroom - I covered the photo in it with a family snapshot.  After that, I still needed one more thing. I played around with several options and finally pulled another black frame that had a photo of me (which I changed to a different one of me.)  The photo balanced the red candles and that completed the mantel redo.

Check it out here - I cropped from a photo taken about 2 weeks ago.
Before

(today it did not have that photo in the before)

and now the improved -
After

Some dusting after I took this photo also.

(faded, edited photo shown here to cover flaws)

Overall - much better!
And something that will make me smile when I walk through the house.
Smiles are good -

day 29 photos

I took these in the bathroom, no flash.
The flowers are in front of a mirror.

I did not really like the photos.
But they will have to work.

So, I tweaked them a bit.


img 1035

Manual mode
f/2.8
1/80
iso 400
raw+jpg


and some texture with this one too-



Red brown earth texture credit:

Texture by adamned.art:
www.flickr.com/photos/hanne_exurban/sets/72157622112724335/



a different view
img 1032 tweaked also

friday family feature

My first niece - Paige -
who is growing up way too fast!


photo taken 1.24.2010, church scenes

She is anxiously awaiting a new puppy soon.
A sweet little girl who is always dressed to "the nines." ;)
I just "had" to share a photo of her since my other two nieces
appeared in an individual post this week.

day 28

{self-portrait}
          of sorts


img 1009
taken in the bathroom
with brighter lights

Manual mode
f/2.8
1/80
ISO 400
AWB
RAW + jpg
no flash
PS raw adjustments
PW's boost action

one of my favorite scarves

cute camera strap

I looked up a camera strap from

MckMama's giveaway page.

And I fell in love with one of them.

So, I have started a wish list category.

Now - the test is to see how long I wait to buy it.

family fun

Some of my favorite things:

1
Spending time with these 6 kiddos.
I know that this is not a large number for nieces and nephews.
But trying to get them to stop playing and smile is not too easy.



2
Playing games with the family
This Connect 4x4 game is super fun, requires you to think, pay attention.
And now I want to have game night again soon...





For the record: coughing, colds are NOT among my favorite things.
But having happy thoughts can outweigh the negative.

day 27

{Kennie's} Glasses

princess girl

Emma and her princess car -

She talked about a "pink car" for months.
And how she wanted one for a present.
Christmas time arrived and she is now the proud owner/driver
of this cute little vehicle.
It has "PRINCESS" across the top of the windshield.


Definitely some tweaking with the photo to make it interesting
and to hide the neighbors vehicles in the distant background.
I used a grunge texture from ishtexture and plan to share it here:
www.flickr.com/groups/ishtexture/

A new concept for this post also: I did not upload this photo here.
Super cool lesson learned that will make my life easier.
From my smugmug website, I can choose a link to embed a photo.
To embed the photo, I just have to copy and paste a link.
This will cut down on "time consuming" uploads to the blog and webiste.
If I ever print the photos (which I have "years" to catch up on),
it makes sense to upload them to my website only.
{updated january 2011 - removing smugmug links so 
that album condensing on smugmug
 would not take the photos from my blog}

I should schedule this to post tomorrow because I already have a post today.  But....I want to see if my photo will link.  So I will just have two posts for today. =)

why should I worry?

Out on the water, the storms raging high
Waters around them were troubled that night
Fear filled their hearts, and they thought they might die
But they failed to remember the Master was nigh

When He spoke the words the winds all stood still
Even the waters obeyed His will
And He’ll calm your storm just like He will mine
If I’ll just remember He lives deep inside

Why should I worry

And why should I fear

That very same Jesus

He stays always near

He lives in my heart

And he hears when I cry

I call on His name til the storm passes by

We read in the Bible

How He walked with them

Gave light to their darkness, when their way grew dim

How great it would be to have His steps leading mine

And to walk with the master all of the time

When trouble came and death drew nigh

They searched for the Master and He came on time

And when I’m in need and my body is in pain

All I have to do is call his sweet name

(note: I have no idea who to credit for copyright on this song's lyrics.
And the words are how some people sing it at my church -
so they could be different from the author's pen also.)

{updated: check out comment number one. thanks E!}

day 26

"An Apple a Day"

img 0971 sooc
Manual mode
no flash
ISO 400
AWB
1/60 shutter speed
f/2.8 aperture
RAW

Perfect example of how RAW Mode is
a good thing when the lighting is low.
I did not want to use a higher ISO
 to produce a lighter image from the camera
because the photo would have more grain.
I knew that I could correct the exposure later.

edited
tweaked exposure in Photoshop Raw
adjust recovery, clarity, vibrance
PW's Boost action

Much better than the original.
And now for some more FUN!

texture added

from alphabet studio's flickr site
"Amber" texture
used MCP action - crystal clear web resize
The end result:

something artsy and cute!

****************************************

Musings on day 26:

I need to:

 "balance" my time,

 catch up on editing,

organize my photos by year,

burn CDs and/or DVDs for storage,

and start using a new purchase - an external hard drive.

sweet little girl

Little girls bring such delight with hearts so warm and smiles so bright!

- Author Unknown

Playing around with free actions I downloaded

MCP crystal clear and gallery frame

added to an already tweaked photo

Enhancing Brooke's pretty blue eyes

day 25

"Creating"

Not only did I pick up flowers from the ground

(because these blossoms do not grow close together on this bush)

I also nipped a flower from another section to create this group

This is enhanced with PW's boost action and sharpening.

And then the fun started:

I added two different texture layers

"Amber" from alphabet soup studio

and "Grunge" from ishtexture

and then used PW's warmer action

Learning is good, but this could easily zap some of my free time.

This could become canvas art! =)

And I added a texture called "snokeh" from ishtexture to this one.

day 25 - i am loving the addition of textures to my photography.

day 24 photo

"In Remembrance"

And adding some texture -
my very first photo to do this.

credit for texture to:

Texture by adamned.art: www.flickr.com/photos/hanne_exurban/sets/72157622112724335/

week 4 photo challenge: {texture}

 Tree Texture

click on the button below for
talented texture entries at iheartfaces






I thought that I had to add texture (via PS)
 to a photo for this week's challenge.

So, I remembered a texture post on MCP actions blog.

After I found this, I downloaded an applicator from MCP
 and a texture file from a Flickr group.

Then, I tweaked a few photos - without really knowing what to do.

The two I saved, an object and a person, both need work.
I plan to follow up on this with some study - like reading this post here.

I read over the entry post/rules again,
and saw that one entry had "natural" texture.

So, I went back over my archived photos.

And pulled my entry from last August.

Kennie is a Twenty10 graduate -

my ninth senior (i think) photo op

This is one of my favorite shots of her.

sunday 1.24.10

Sunday morning -

The youth choir sang "Use His Name"

I wish that I remembered all the words.

One of my favorite lines is:

Use His name - His name moves mountains...

And the end of one of the verses is something like this:

Jesus left us with a weapon, a sure way of defence.

Speak with faith, the Lord did say -

Use His name.

The name of Jesus is powerful.

And beautiful.

Wonderful.

A name to be cherished.

after church:

I took some photos of kiddos  (posted on my website with January photos.)

I "heart" the new organization for my photos on my website.

Last week, I finally implemented a months-old plan.

This little girl is a cutie:

Sunday night, the sermon title was "A Just Weight."

Proverbs 11:1 

A false balance is abomination to the Lord:

but a just weight is his delight.

God weighs our hearts, according to our understanding.

Having Christ in our lives,

living with integrity,

having humility,

and following after righteousness -

this is what gives a just weight.

And so with God's help, I want to have a well-balanced life.

Balancing time for God with this life's details -

 including finding time for sleep.

day 23

"cat eyes"

Levi turns { 7 } today

Levi
Kirby-Alan

I spent the evening of 1.22.10 going through photos, finding a photo from each year.  Going through seven years makes it hard to choose just a few.  So after I post a ton of cute photos, my project -and purpose of the search is posted at the bottom.

flashback 7 years ago

January 23,2003

A school day during my senior year of high school. But we had a light dusting of snow - which means cancelled school for our area.  I remember cautiously driving to the hospital with my mom.  Spending some time with my two sisters in Labor & Delivery room.

My sister had a rough delivery, but “Levi Kirby-Alan” arrived healthy, cute, chunky, and with a head full of dark hair. 

He captured my heart. A second nephew, another cute little boy to love.

One of the my most hilarious/gross moments with a diaper-change happened with Levi. Randa and I babysat both of the nephews when Levi was probably less than a month old.  A diaper off and uh-oh, here comes more. Zac hops around the bed laughing.  We have some dirty sheets, mustard colored (ewww) stains, and some almost helpless moments.  Needless to say when Randa and I found a bib the next day reading “These Cheeks are Loaded” – we got it because it seemed somewhat appropriate.

Levi and proud big brother Zac

Levi had what I call on “screw-on” legs - a roly-poly baby.  With wild hair - as shown in so many photos.

Levi did not have a haircut until he turned one in 2004.   And these haircut photos are the starting point for my on-line sharing and viewing. Daniel posted photos from the first haircut on his Webshots account, so that Levi's proud aunt could see them while she was away from home at Clemson. (ok - third person going back to first person)  Instead of having to wait until I drove home, this photo sharing was "almost" the same as seeing him in person.  He looked so cute afterwards - and neat! =)

He still had wild hair days if his hair grew out. 

And Levi absolutely loved a pacifier.  He obviously liked to take baths also - because he hopped in with Zac fully clothed.  Back to the pacifier, his parents even had to make a grocery store trip late at night because the crying baby would not go to sleep without a pacy - and his could not be found.

 Levi and Zac on Easter Sunday (2004 I think.)  I miss those days.  And I love those big ole eyes.

Here is Levi at ages 2 (2005) and 3 (2006).

And more three year photos - a themed party and an aisle "breakdown" at a concert the night after his party. Levi definitely has some rhythm in his blood.

I discovered free printing of posters at Clemson. Too bad it was near the end of my college career.  So, I took advantage of this freebie to print posters for the kiddos parties.  Levi had a cute basketball cake to match his theme this year.

Here is Levi at 4 (2007) and 5 (2008) years old.

More five year old photos.  He had a football cake this year - from the themes, it should be obvious that Levi is INTO sports.

Aww - his cute lil grin can melt my heart.

 

And here are the 6 year old photos - just last year in 2009.  This cake has 6 candles, one is just slightly hid behind the other.  Levi loves sweets and candy.  This cake is his favorite, a layered chocolate cake that he called - "brown cake." 

Whoosh

 Could not resist posting

 He wants to cut his own piece.

 Digging in.

Opening gifts with big brother looking on.

He played "baseball" in 2009.

I love that he has on a Clemson shirt.

K5 graduation in June 2009.

He is a "smart cookie" in school. =)

Good grades, high district scores.

Very competitive. But he needs to kind of work on the sportsmanship part.

He loves making those “cool” signs.

Loves the beach and swimming.  Oct 2009 Vacation

Loosing teeth stage.

With his parents and siblings.

And repeating the very first photo in color.

It is Levi - now! (well last month anyways)

A few more snippets about Levi:

He calls his Nintendo DS a “DenTS “ or something like that.  Not only does he like playing sports, football computer games are one of his favorites.  He is in first grade now - trying to sound out and read everything in sight. He gives good hugs. He weighs about the same as Zac. And is even on this "working" out kick.  He feels muscular and solid for sure - sigh...he is growing up too fast.

Finally, here is the reason for this super-long post. A collage that I created to go with his gift.  Whew - long hours. But well worth the effort.  Now to see how it prints.

Happy Birthday Levi!

~ Much Love ~