I Clicked It Up A Notch-July

I didn't have my camera for most of July, but I took a few million after I got it back.  Here was one of my favorites and exactly why I missed my camera so much--documenting sweet, little, everyday moments.

p.s.  I used this new awesome FREE photoshop action to process this photo.  Thank you Rita from the Coffee Shop Blog!!

Quarterly Top 5 Photos {of your kiddos}

So, I totally got ahead of myself and posted this last week! Then, I realized I was a week early.  Ooops!  

I'm linking up with the always awesome Amber from Click, Pray, Love, Ashley from Ramblings and Photos, and Sarah from Naptime Momtog.  If you have never visited their blogs. . . go now!  I'll wait. :)

So here are some of my faves from the last three months. . . 

1.  A kiss in front of the ugly garage door.  My kids are always sitting and standing on the little stoop in front of the door that leads to our garage.  It's an eyesore, but I actually love it because I have so many memories captured in front of it.  In this photo we were headed out and my kids were being so sweet with each other.  I grabbed my camera and told them to "do it again."  This is what I got.

2.  Stella was focused on a little toy and I was focused on the monring light coming through the window.  This girl ALWAYS has crazy, messy hair and I have to chase her down to get it brushed.  I'm going to miss that whispy, toddler hair.

3.  My SIL got this rain gear from a garage sale.  It's a litle big, but whenever it rains, Miles goes to closet to put on his Fireman outfit.  He loves to watch the rain hit his umbrella and splash in the puddles.  I don't always bring my camera out in the rain, but I on this day I risked it. :)

4. and 5.  Both of these are my kids lost in thought.  I think Stella was looking out the window waiting for her daddy to get home.  Miles was watching big trucks drive down Pierce Butler.  I cherish these quiet, mellow moments because our house is so rarely quiet.

It's always so hard to pick only 5, so I'd better post before I change my mind ANOTHER time.

Now go link up and check out all the other amazing entries here!!!

Thanks for looking! :)

The Paper Mama: Yellow

Linking up with one of my faves, The Paper Mama.  This week's theme is yellow.

Stella is most definitely YELL-ow!, as in loud.

Go check out all the other yellow pictures this week and play along!

Finagle A Foto

Linking up to Finagle A Foto hosted by these three fabulous blogs Happy Jax, The Artsy Girl Connection and The Foreign Domestic for some of my favorite photos of the week!  

First, I babysat two of my favorite little people while their ma and pa got to see Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros.  My brilliant godson and his sweet lil' sis sat pretty for me--love them to pieces!

Then there were these two cuties. . .

. . . but this weekend I met Yogi and I almost passed out from cuteness overload.

Edit Me and Flip Flop

Two editng photo challenges in one!  I didn't have a ton of time so I kept both edits pretty simple.

 First off, it's Edit Me with this adorable photo by the lovely Branson!  

Ran my usual clean edit in Lightroom by upping the blacks slightly, clarity, fill light, recovery for some of the blown highlights on her skin.  I used the sharpening brush on the water to make it stand out a little more.  I cropped in tighter, as well. Then I brought into photo shop and ran Amber sun from the left to warm up the sunlight that was already shining beautifully down on her.

Now on to the second edit!  

This is from the Flip Flop Challenge on Amy's sweet blog Little Adventures.  Here is her adorable son Wyatt!

In Lightroom, I straightened the horizon line and cropped out some of the window.  I used the cloning tool to fix the scratch on his face.  I also used the brush to sharpen and slightly lighten up his eyes.  I did some skin softening using noise reduction and played a little with the hues.  Then I brought into picmonkey and ran Intrepid at a low opacity and added a watermark.  I think that's it!

21/52 Dream

Finagle A Foto

Linking up with these three lovely ladies. . . Melanie from Happy Jax, Marilyn from The Artsy Girl Connection and Kirsten from The Foreign Domestic!
This week's theme is your favorites from the week.  Here are a few of mine.

Gardening, swimming and just some overall griminess!  Summer fun is upon us! Hooray!

Thanks for looking! :)

Edit Me and A TAG

I was just working on some edits for a friend when I checked my facebook tonight and saw there was a new photo up on the Edit Me Page!  It was the perfect timing for a little break from editing to do . . . more editing;). 

Here is the original photo by Nancy from The Rural Journal.  Make sure you go take some time to check out her pretty pictures!  And check out this cat!  Totally lounging in the sun.  If I had a margarita and was sitting next to that cat right now, I would be a happy camper.  I think the happiness may have more to do with the margarita than the cat, but I'm sure he/she would be fine company.  

Oy!  Can you tell I've been editing too long tonight?

SOOC by Nancy from the Rural Journal

Photo by Nacy from the Rural Journal

As you can see, I kept it pretty simple for this edit.  I brought into lightroom and did my usual increase in blacks and contrast.  I actually brought the exposure down a little and then increased the fill light.  I went to the hues and toned down the green.  I cropped, increased clarity, sharpened.  Then I brought into photoshop and add a slightly pink tone at a very low opacity (to play with that sun light on the cat.)  I finsihed off with a little sunshine at about 25% opacity.  Then I finished up in picmonkey by resizing and adding a watermark.  That's it, I think!

Thanks for looking!

Hopefully I'll remember to link up tomorrow! :)
You should link up tomorrow, too!



Oh, and one more thing!  This lovely lady tagged me and told me to show what I was wearing on my feet.   Now that it's nice out, I'm barefoot most of time or I throw on some old flipflops.  Please don't look too close.  That is the same nail polish that has been on my toes since March!  I am most certainly a beauty FAIL.  Those extra toes belong to Miles and Stella.  This is where they spend much of their day--climbing all over me. Oy! I'm pretty sure I'm supposed to tag other people, but that seems like a lot of work. ;)  Now you know not to send me a chain letter.  I will most defintitely break the chain, but if you want to play along and show off your foot wear or lack thereof, please do!  Let me know so I can check out your footsies!  They HAVE to be prettier than mine!  

Mommy Moments: Photo A Day, Flip Flop and The Paper Mama!

Tomorrow is the last day for this fun challenge so I wanted to get my last pictures posted!  I finished the challenge.  Not in order or in a timely mater, mind you, but I did it! Whew!  Now go check out all of the amazing entries. . .

1. Where/What I Spend My Day.  {Umm does Target count?  We are frequent visitors and it looks like Stella's eyeing up a new pair of galoshes.}

5. Just Can't Get Enough {of the time when she is NOT demanding something or torturing her brother.} :)

Also linking this one up to The Paper Mama's awesome Photo Challenge.  This week the theme is pink! Go Check it out and play along!

8.Makes you go Hmmm?/ or Yumm! {Miles enjoying his favorite fruit on a warm spring afternoon.  Definite YUMM!}

12.  Thankful/Blessed {that I'm not doing it alone with these crazy kids.} ;)

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

And before I forget, I think you should head on over here (Amy's fun blog, Little Adventures) and try out your editing skills!  It's a fairly new challenge and I'm the guest judge.

For those of you that know me well, you know what a tough time I'm going to have in picking a favorite!  Go play along and make it harder on me! :)

Paper Mama Challenge

Linking up to

Here's one of my Favorite Photos in April . . .

Now go check out The Paper Mama if you  want to look at pretty pictures, get beauty/style tutorials, or hear about motherhood from an honest perspective.  You can also check out all of the other April entries and enter your fave, too!

Flip-Flop Photo Edit Challenge

**Updated** 

Thank you so much, Amy!

Another fun editing challenge can be found here.

Stella is napping and I just couldn't reist this lil' cutie.  Here is the original photo by Amy Lillian.  Those little curls are killing me!!

And here is my edit!  I guess I'm having a black and white kind of week!

Took it into lightroom and converted it to a black and white with a preset called Caramel by My Four Hens.  Tweaked the levels by increasing the blacks and decreasing the contrast.  Used the brush tool to sharpen his eyes up.  I did lose a little detail when I cropped in close and straightened, so that sharpening really helped.  Then, I brought into Pickmonkey to resize and add a watermark.

That's it!

Now go check out Amy's cool blog and play along!!

:)

Photo Walk

After we dropped Miles off at school this afternoon, Stella and I headed out for a photo walk.  My kids both love using my old point and shoot around the house, so today we tried it outside.  She did great!  It took us about 30 minutes to get around the block, though.  She took pictures of EVERYTHING!  Ants, bird poop, leaves, rocks, some unfortunate angles of my back side (that I quickly deleted.)  It was pretty cute, I must say.  

Here are a few of mine. . . 

. . .and here are some of Stella's fabulous shots. I would say about 50% of them have her finger covering half of the photo. LOL

Pretty good, huh?  Once she gets the hang of lightroom, I might be in trouble. ;)

Also linking up to Mommy Moments #2) Put A Smile On My Face 'cause taking pictures with my kids definitely makes me smile!