So I am going to give this vlog thing a try. Do you know how hard it is to vlog? Sheesh. I thought looking at myself in my 52 week self portrait project was tough try listening to yourself too! Seeing as it was my first time doing this I watched it back and had to laugh at my "phone voice".
What do you do in a day. If I had a more open house there would have been a lot of Jessie's but we have an older split level so you get to see a part of my day in just the living room. I wonder how many of these PS'd selfies we are going to see. Ruby loves to put together puzzles and will go and get them and bring them out for me to put together with her. I take them in the bathroom when I need to shower and she is content putting them together the whole time. Love it! Matt is going to chuckle at me actually folding the diapers. They live in the corner of our bedroom lately and when I need one I go to the basket. I remember when I loved cloth diapering. I would fold them immediately and put them in the appropriate baskets so that they were right there and easy to use (so Daddy would use them). When Violet was born I still had Piper in dipes because she was only 17 months old. After your third kid though it isn't as fun anymore and your fluff isn't as clean. Lots of poop stains. I am sorry to the cd community but I don't have time anymore to sun my diapers for nice clean insides and it is too cold for me to drag my happy butt outside with my drying rack. Oh, and I got a super great deal on diapers from Amazon so I am not even a die hard anymore. Lastly, there could not be a shot into my daily living room activities without a shot of nursing Ruby. That child has absolutely no intention on letting it go. By the way. Marley laid in the exact same spot sleeping the entire time we were doing this. I am not happy with the lighting because I had to use my little Speedlight. You would think that with that big window my living room would be lighter but it wasn't.
On Monday after we left the house I took the pictures of the girls at we climbed in the car and they all immediately fell asleep. As I was driving home I decided to make a detour and try out a location that a photographer friend has used before. They all got 30 minute naps and when we got to the park I asked them if they would let me take just a few more pictures. They said no. Not only did they say no but Violet burst into tears over it too. It's all good. We walked to Kerr Mill which was right next to the park and I tried to explain to the girls how the old water wheel used to make power for things. I must admit that I have problems wrapping my mind around stuff like that too but I tried. How I wish my engineer husband would have been there to assist with my lame explanation. It sure was a relaxing scene though. Since they didn't want their picture taken I decided to shoot a few of the wheel. This was actually the picture I first used Pioneer Woman's "Vintage" action on and I liked it. That then made me use a tweaked version again yesterday. I go though really liking something and playing with it a ton and then you might never see me use it again.
I can never let a good thing alone. When I saw my stack of quarters I was bored *yawn* so I played, and I played, and I applied an action, then played some more. Step away from the PS Jessie! There was absolutely nothing wrong with the original it was just, like I said, boring. I love seeing what other people read and what interests them and Angie's shot this week gives us a glimpse into what she reaches for. I have not read a whole book in a few years now so I do not know one of those titles. After I get the girls down I over edit pictures and blog or visit blogs. Maybe I should read a book, hmmm.
Or at least for the past year that I have been really visiting other blogs. What or who do you ask? Google Reader that is what! I never spent much time in there because I follow so many blogs because you have to in order to enter most contests and honestly I don't really want to read all of them. I do however want to read people's blogs that I find interesting and especially to follow people's blogs who comment on my blog. What I have done in the past is just go to my own blog a few times throughout the day and look at the very bottom which is most of the blogs that I read daily. Then, I took some time with Google Reader and made a new folder and put all of my daily reads blogs in it and it has changed my life! For the blogs that I didn't really comment on anyway I easily read through the posts. It is all right there in a nice little package on my computer. Maybe I am catching up with the rest of the world finally!
A shot from our beach trip last September. I am cold! I want spring to be here! I want September to come soon so we can go back to our beach!
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Why yes. Do you remember me entering a little giveaway a month ago well I won! Heck to the Y.E.S. I did! What did I win you ask? A $100 Amazon gift card (yet unspent but will probably go for something boring like a booster seat) AND wait for it...an 18X24 canvas from uprinting.com. Seriously psyched until I saw that I have a deadline for such canvas and it is 2.10.2011. Umm, I got nothing! So, seeing as though the kiddies didn't have school on Monday I decided "What the heck" and took them to one of my favorite places to get THAT shot. What do they say about best laid plans? My normally smiley girls turned into grumps with fake smiles.
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I was going to have the focus be somewhere on my body (earring, tattoo, freshly painted finger nails) but decided instead to focus on the little gadget that is visiting the zoo because I haven't returned it yet. Sorry Rachel it will find it's way back to you soon! To get this shot I had the older girls hold a black sleeping bag in front of me. To get an even background I duplicated the background layer and adjusted the curves until the background was nice and black. Then I erased back the camera. Normally I just burn the background a little and it works but it would have taken longer on this shot and I am an impatient PS'er.
What do you get when you take an old Kodak Brownie and play around while the babies are sleeping? A really fun time for mama! I have heard of people making adaptors for their old cameras and then taking pictures with their digitals through them. Really? How fun! My girlfriend Rachel lent me a couple of her old cameras. One was a Kodak Brownie Reflex that I immediately was drawn to. It reminded me of the camera that my great grandparents used to have. Doesn't that kind of memory just give you a warm fuzzy feeling? THEN I found a group on flickr called Through the Viewfinder. They only take pictures through the viewfinder of other cameras. I don't have an adaptor and I am no pro but I very shyly submitted one of my self portraits this week. When you hit the submit button you just hope people are kind or just not comment :) Here was me playing with this toy this week.
How funny is it that Angie and I both came up with unprocessed black and white shots? Her's could not be more black and white :) How cute is her cat? On a cow rug? I bought some roses the other day at the store. They were on clearance :) Such would be me - cheap. I chose this shot because I loved how simple it was.
I am in a black and white mood. Our TUT theme this week is black and white. My idea for the 52 Weeks of Me project is going to be b/w (if it works). Another 52 week project I am doing on flickr is Shades of Grey too. Trend here?
I have been walking Marley since she came to live with us. Before that I wasn't doing much of anything. Marley doesn't love going to the backyard by herself and I worry about her getting enough exercise because she lays around much of the day. Oh the life of a dog. Saturday Matt only worked half a day and after I got Ruby down for her nap I grabbed the yellow dog and went for our normal 3 mile walk. We got to the top of our hill and Metallica came on my iPod.
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Cara's list of themes is only getting harder! I knew that I wanted a single eye shot when I saw the theme and I knew it was going to be a challenge. Lately I have had this love of shooting wide open and I wanted to try and shoot my eye the same way (f2 on this one). I had a lot of fails but this was close lol :) I also liked the way it looked b/w rather than in color. Looks like I need a good tweeze!
As Piper is growing up she is invited to a lot of things that Violet is not. I have tried very hard to give Violet her own little life without Piper as well but the 3/4 year old crowd doesn't have a lot of independence yet. Wednesday during our 3rd snow day home I received a call from one of Piper's school friends. They were wanting to pick her up for a playdate. How excited was she? My Violet was heartbroken because she was supposed to have had a friend over here that same morning but the little girl was sick. Now Piper was getting to leave and she had to stay here. So unfair! I got out the paints, let her eat her crackers & hummus in the living room, and sat through no less than 5 books that she wanted to read to me.
A little bit of snow here in NC will shut things down for a day but put a little bit of ice on top and it is a week before we are recovered fully. Businesses close, school is out, and parents are trying to figure out new indoor things to do with the kids. I enjoy having them home with me on these days but it all comes at a price. No day off in January, no day off in February, and I believe now we are into March. Just hoping for no more storms so that our spring break is safe.
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This is our first TUT of the new year. Angie was sick last week and I totally spaced that we might even have had it :) We are back though and ready for a fun new year of team ups. When I saw this week's theme I knew exactly what I would do for it. I am sort of cliche that way. Angie's is cool. I don't ever see that line of buses because I am home waiting for ours to bring Piper to us. I love her interpretation this week a lot!
A few weeks ago my husband and I were talking about a shirt that Violet got him for Christmas. I asked him if he'd like another. He said yes. I was talking about a shirt he was talking about a kid. Today I am ovulating. I know this. TMI - maybe. I asked him if we should try again right away and he mentioned something about a bad back. I asked him if he was afraid our baby would have one. He laughed. We are not trying, at least not this month. I don't think I am near ready or know if I want to chance miscarrying again. This time was just too hard on me. My dreams are still filled with my baby. They won't go away and I still wake up each morning at 4 am. Sometimes because of the nightmares. The m/c that I can't seem to get out of my head. Sometimes just because of a noise but it is no better. Most days after an hour or so I fall back asleep but it is that hour that I cry. It is during that time I can't get my lost baby out of my mind. It is tonight as I read about yet another pregnant mama due around the time I was that I can't help but cry. I am so sad. I am so pissed off. Why does this keep happening to me? I should be half way through the pregnancy but here I sit without my baby in my belly. I will be 40 years old in a few months. When I tell people this they so sweetly say "Oh, I know of people who have had babies much later than that" - really? I know that I am high risk and I am not sure that I want to risk it. Was it my age? No one can tell me. No one can give me a reason. Habitual aborter. That is what is on my chart. Really? If only you could feel the pain in my heart for just one minute. I eat too much. I drink too much. I cry too much. I am yelling too much (again). When will this change? I wonder if I will ever feel normal again?
Read more...What do you get when you take this
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She is full of them that is for sure. This was taken on Monday and we were having a snow day. The girls and I painted our nails, watched some movies, and ate popcorn. Violet was happy and it shows. Even though her mama was totally slack and didn't bring them outside because it was too cold (below 30) and Ruby wouldn't have lasted 10 minutes. Go ahead and call me a slacker, I am wearing my big girl panties :)
Last year I tried to get a shot of the girls and I every month but sort of slacked. Again this year I will try but it is hard to do. I was trying to do a reflective surfaces shot for my 52 week project and everyone came running to investigate. Even Marley is in it. The other dogs hide when I get out the camera because they fear that I might dress them up I think. Unfortunately we tried a princess costume on Marley from our stash but it was too small.
Nap time. It is my quiet time. Some days I blog and some days I just sit around and enjoy the peace. Yesterday I had a self portrait to do. I dragged an old mirror upstairs and went to work. I liked this one best because I knew what was going on in the house. Nothing. I also liked it because even though I had cleaned the mirror it appears that before they went to their rooms a little hand had investigated it first. That made me smile when editing.
We dog sat Marley last year. For almost 2 weeks she lived with us. While here I just couldn't believe how well she fit with our little family. The other 2 dogs had no issue with her whatsoever. This past November her owner called and asked if we would take her to be ours. Matt and I talked a lot about it because we weren't in the market for a new dog. I have never even thought of myself as a lab owner. They are pretty crazy dogs but this one wasn't. It was my husband who finally said yes because he REALLY liked her. Marley's old owner decided at that time last November that she couldn't give her up and I can totally understand that because this is one great dog. This past Tuesday though I got a call from her again and this time she made her decision and was ready to live with it. Her father brought the dog to us that night. I will say it again, this is one great dog!
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