Happy Chaos

Big words

2009-11-10T23:34:00.001-05:00

Show and Tell…

What to bring? This is always the question that comes up some time during the week before Friday comes along. This time Mark came up with the idea.

“Hey, Nathan, would you like mom to take a picture of your secret room so you can show it to your class for Show & Tell?”

My immediate question was whether Nathan was allowed to bring a picture. I have discovered throughout the year that Mrs. Gerber has some strict restrictions to what can be brought in.

Nathan thought on it and then replied in his drawn out speech:

“Well. You see. If I put a photo in my bookbag, it might get bent and ruined.”

I reassured Nathan that we could keep it safe in his homework folder.

“Well…I don’t think I’ll bring a photo. My intuition tells me that the photo could get ruined so I better not.”

Whaaaaa? Did I just hear the word intuition exiting my 5 year old’s mouth?

“Nathan, how in the world do you know the word intuition?”

“I know it means something in your mind that tells you something.”

“I know, but how in the world do you know that word? Does Mrs. Gerber say it?”

(Long silence)

“Cmon, Nathan,” I begged, “Spill the beans. Mommy is super curious to know where you have heard that word.”

(Long Pause)

“Okay…

It’s from Scooby Doo! They use their intuition, you know.”

Who would have thunk it? Scooby Doo, of all things!

I Heart Faces - Balloon Theme

2009-11-03T18:29:00.001-05:00

Are you ready to head to the dark side?

I swear, I’m not going over the edge.

Nor is my son. :)

I just couldn’t think of anything for the balloon theme…

My son came home with a science experiment he had done at school the other day that involved baking soda, vinegar, a bottle and a balloon. We were going to do that, but my kitchen is too messy for pictures. (Like that’s out of the ordinary.)

After buying all sorts of balloons at Dollar General this evening, I came up with the bright idea to blow up three balloons, put a face on each, and then have the kids try to mimic the faces. Only problem…my kids don’t follow directions. I think I need a couple more years to put that idea into action.

Finally, I had Nathan pick which face he wanted. He chose the angry face. I tried to get him to make his own angry face to match. Since we have such a troubled balloon in the picture, I figured I’d go all lugubrious on y’all with my dark, gloomy editing. (Yep, I’m throwing those 7th grade vocabulary words in the mix too!)

Don’t cry. The balloon is now taking anger management courses. (His anger should be “deflated” soon.)

Sorry for the depressing moment. Not to worry, all the other entries on I Heart Faces are chipper and cheery. Go have a look!

Another free class!

2009-11-02T17:32:00.001-05:00

Jessica Sprague is offering another free class. I took the last one, learned a few new things and got some beautiful scrapbooking materials for free! It was definitely worth it.

2 ninjas and a pirate

2009-11-01T18:25:00.001-05:00

Every year, our family has a tradition. My side of the family goes trick-or-treating together in a family-oriented neighborhood nearby. We all experience a bit of guilt trick-or-treating away from our neighborhood, but both of my sisters live in the country. There’s nothing available where they’re at. I live in a shady area (da’ hood…okay not that bad) and prefer this arrangement anyway.

By the time we got to our spot, dark was approaching quickly. I managed to get a couple snapshots in before it became impossible to get a good photo. My brother and sister-in-law were there also.

Two of Janine’s kiddos:

By the time Angie got there, I wasn’t able to get any decent shots from my camera. She brought her flash, so I’m hoping that she got better pictures.

This was the one and only shot I got of Nathan. Filling up that basket became his serious priority, and there was no stopping for pictures!

This little cutie hung out with me for a little bit until Uncle Jon got a hold of her. He had some devious plan to use her cuteness to rake in the goodies which he thought maybe he would get her to share with him. Clearly, Jon does not understand the extent of Jordyn’s sweet tooth.

This photo was taken at the second house we went to. Jordyn insisted on having that sucker, which did not leave her mouth for the rest of the night.

Jon very sweetly carried Jordyn around on his shoulders. That lasted a few minutes until I saw Jon quickly hand Jordyn off to Kathy. It seems that the sucker permanently lodged in Jordyn’s mouth was producing massive amounts of saliva which Jordyn deposited on Jon’s head. Gotta love Jon’s face! :)

Jon decided that Ben was a bit less risky. He allowed Ben to go up and get his candy. As soon as Ben came back to his uncle, he got a speedy transfer to the next house with Jon lifting him up and running.

Thanks to Jon taking care of Ben, and Janine watching over Nathan, I had a pretty easy night. It got even easier when Mark put Jordyn in the car with him and let her watch movies and eat her candy!

We finished off the evening having dinner at a local Mexican restaurant. It was nice to get out and just have fun!

Impromptu Fall Pictures

2009-10-31T12:00:00.001-04:00

When I went to pick Nathan up from the sitter’s (right next to Mark’s parents house), Mark and Dale were out tending the lawn (aka playing with the leaf blower) which created a HUGE leaf pile. I couldn’t pass that opportunity up!

These two photos brought to you by…

2009-10-31T07:38:00.001-04:00

…the “Where’s the bunny?” trick.

I pretty much said, “Ben, Jordyn, I just saw a bunny!” and held up two bunny “ears”.

I’m pretty sure that trick will only work once. :)

Akron Children’s

2009-10-29T23:56:00.001-04:00

Ben was so much fun today during his speech testing. The first thing that was done was a test of his hearing. The speech pathologist, Aubrey, had him point at pictures when she said the name to make sure he knew what all the pictures were. She then put headphones on him, went into an adjoining room and had him point at the same pictures when she said the word. The first time Ben heard her voice through the headphones was so dang cute. He got this really surprised look on his face, covered his mouth in awe with big wide open eyes and then just started beaming and giggling. It’s hard to describe. I only wish I had my video camera! Just one reason of many that I love the three year old stage.

The results of the speech testing was pretty much how I expected it to be…low but not low enough to be a clincher for services. The recommendation is to get him speech services, but I figure that I’ll have some resistance by the schools to have him in an integrated preschool. Ben is currently almost 3 1/2 years old. His expressive and receptive language is at 2 1/2 years. Knowing how much speech growth can occur in a year at that age, this seems like a significant enough difference for me. He was classified as mild to moderate.

I was kind of surprised that Ben’s receptive skills weren’t higher because he seems to understand everything we say at home. Part of it might have had something to do with Ben wanting to make his own rules for the testing. One of the time, Aubrey showed him a picture of 4 different dogs.

Which dog is wet?

Points -->Dog. Wag Tail

You’re right, but which one is wet?

Points –> Dis dog eat.

Yes, he is eating. But which one is wet?

Aw. Dog cry-een! (Pointing at the dog who is dripping water all over)

Or another test…

Here are two children wearing shoes. Can you point at his shoes?

Dat one Nay-nay an dat one Ben.

Listen, Ben. Which picture shows his shoes?

One, figh, two, thee, eigh, o (pointing at every photo pretending that he knows how to count)

As the testing got more difficult, Ben pretty much pretended to count on every picture. I have to admit, he was cracking me up. By the time testing was done, Ben was starting to get tired and grouchy. (He doesn’t do well without a nap.)

Aubrey said, “You did a great job! You’re a real trooper!”

Ben shoots back in an offended tone, “NO! I BEN!”

Anyway, Mark and I are hoping to get him into preschool at the same school Nathan attends. The integrated preschool is all day Tuesday and Thursday which would be perfect because he could ride the bus with Nathan there and back. I’ll keep you posted on our efforts in that area. The next step is to get him tested by the school. If they’re anything like many schools, Akron Children’s testing probably won’t be accepted in lieu of testing by the school. (Darn it!) That’s okay. I’ll be strong and fight. If a special education teacher can’t successfully present a convincing argument for services, I don’t know who can! :)

It’s about time for an update…

2009-10-26T23:58:00.001-04:00

I don’t deserve to be called a blogger. Happy Chaos needs to be changed to “All Posts…I ♥ Faces”. Right now, I’m supposed to be reading a 22 page article (and then 2 more of the same after that), write questions for the article, post them, and then respond to all the responders. Does that make any sense? Week after week, that’s what I do with a few scholarly papers thrown in for good measure. College is not fun, but it does give me a sense of accomplishment. Don’t get me wrong…if someone said I could have a Master’s degree right now, I’d grab it and be done with it. It stinks having less time with the kids than usual. Anyway, I thought I’d give an update with some random photos thrown in. They’re the same ones on my photo blog, but only Rebeckah and Dot ever venture over into that uncharted territory! :)

This Thursday, I’m taking Ben to Akron Children’s for a speech assessment. I have been putting it off because Ben has made some great strides with his speech this summer. He still is nowhere near close to where he should be with speech. What clinched it for me is that Jordyn is starting to talk, and she is gaining on Ben very quickly. It’s almost unbelievable. She throws a new word out there on a daily basis. (computer, water, see you in the morning, night, night, on and on) I’ve always heard that girls catch on to speech much more quickly. Nathan barely said a word until after he turned two. (Mind you, there was no stopping him after that!) Jordyn is seventeen months. She definitely has her brothers beat.

See, doesn’t this make my droning on seem more bearable?

Nathan is amazing me with everything he has learned in school. He is reading short books to now. When the teacher sent home the sight words list at the beginning of the year, I thought No way is he going to learn all this. Somehow he has. He was really unsure at the beginning, but now he is getting much more confident and can actually sound out words. An update post is not complete without some Nathanisms:

Nathan is all about drawing lately. He came up to me with a whole booklet of art that he had assembled.

Mom, how do you like my pictures?

You did a great job. I really like that one. Is it a spaceship?

No, mom. (said in an exasperated voice) That’s MODERN art! It’s a very important type of art, you know.

Or today at the park…

I had a lot of fun at the park today!

Great!

I met lots of new friends.

You did?

Ya, and they were actual humans!

(Either Nathan is used to non-human friends, or he has adopted the Arthur habit of referring to everyone as humans.)

My dear Ben loves, Loves, LOVES the cartoon Chip & Dale. He won’t call it that, though. Instead he says, “Mom, I want Too Time!” I’m sure everyone knows the song as Ben likes to sing it: Too Time, Too Time…come snehen uphon hu n Too Time, Too time…..Ch..ch..ch…Chip n Dale…. (Otherwise known as, “Sometimes, some crimes, come sneaking up on you, but these two, gum shoes….) I was singing it the correct way the other day, and Nathan got all huffy mad when I said “gum shoes”. He was convinced I was calling Ben and him names. He threatened to turn my “card” from green to yellow. That’s a serious threat in the Riley household. No, I don’t do cards at home, but Nathan’s kindergarten teacher does. She somehow granted him the unalienable rights to institute her card policy at our home. At least Nathan thinks she did.

Anyway, Ben seems to be the singer of the bunch. He loves music. I play Baby Einstein DVDs on the way home from the babysitter’s house, and Ben can hum perfectly to the music.

Tomorrow, we’ll be singing a ditty known as Happy Birthday. (Heard of it?) The old man will be 36! Forty is looming menacingly closer with each passing year. I’m not liking this one bit! My dad also celebrated a birthday last week, and I forgot to even call him. (I’m sorry, Dad!)

Shari is going to watch the kiddos so we can actually go on a date! Should be mucho exciting for Mark as I read college articles the whole way there and back.

Well, it’s time to take a cue from Jordyn, and head to bed. I’ll try not to wait so long next time to deliver the oh-so-exciting update on the Life of the Rileys.

I Heart Faces - Halloween Costumes Week

2009-10-26T23:01:00.001-04:00

You would think it would be easy. Put costume on child, take her to the park, snap 5 or 6 pictures, and load the beautiful masterpieces on to your computer. Instead, child won’t look at the camera, she runs away any time you get near her, and there’s no way any staging is going to take place. Oh well. It’s not like this is a surprise for me. Instead, I took this mediocre picture and added a bit of “age” and grain. Now, if only my kiddo would have kept the pirate hat on for more than 2 seconds! :) I’ve gotten a look at the first 80 photos, and WOW! There are some amazing photos out there!

Go check them out at I ♥ Faces!

Fix-It Friday #33 – Andrea Riley’s Contribution

2009-10-23T06:09:00.001-04:00

(Before to After)

I thought last week’s fix-it was tough until Carebear upped the ante. :) The photo this week has similar issues to last week: extremely overexposed and underexposed areas. I can see why a mom would want to save this picture, though. Just look at that expression on Little Beast’s face! There wasn’t much I could do about the overexposed areas, so my goal was to remove as much overexposed area as possible and lighten up the underexposed areas. I tried so many things on this photo, that I’m not sure whether I’ll remember every step. Here’s a run-down of what I remember:

1. The first thing I did was reduce the noise using the free Community version of Noiseware.

2. Adjusted hue to remove some of the pinks.

3. Filled in the overexposed portion of the cheek by duplicating the layer, using the healing brush tool heavily on the top layer and then reducing the opacity to blend in with the lower layer. This creates a more natural look.

4. I flattened the layers. I duplicated the layer twice and changed the middle layer to screen blending mode. I then created a layer’s mask (free action from Coffeeshop) on the top layer and brushed in the shadowed layer to lighten it up. (Then flatten)

5. With the lightening up, I found that this poor boy was getting what looked like age spots. I hate to create blur in a picture that lacks sharpness, but I needed to downplay the brown spots. I again duplicated the layer twice. On the middle layer I used Gaussian blur until the skin looked smoother but not overly fake. Again, I created a layer’s mask on the top layer, and brought in the blur just in spots that needed it. I did my best to stay away from areas that needed the sharpness. (When done, flatten.)

6. I ran the new (free) S-Curve action from Coffeeshop and reduced the opacity. I feel this action adds a bit of warmth to the picture.

7. I then cropped the picture to eliminate some of the severely overexposed sections of the picture.

8. I touched up sections of the photo with the blur tool to help downplay some of the noise that remained.

9. Finally, I used a free Defog action to sharpen up the picture overall.

I have been waiting for the perfect picture to create a particular scrapbook page. I’ve had a look at the upcoming fix-its, and this one fits the bill the best. I created a scrapbook page based on this inspiration:

I used a tutorial from my favorite digital scrapbooking store, Designer Digitals. Cassie Jones writes tutorials that focus on different scrapbooking techniques. I was afraid when I bought this that I wouldn’t learn anything new. I was wrong! This tutorial taught me shortcuts for some things I was already doing, and I also learned a few new things along the way. Another cool thing is that included with the tutorial are all the elements (designed by Katie Pertiet) you need to mimic the exact layout that Cassie creates.

The tutorial comes in PDF format, and it is very detailed. This particular tutorial was 35 pages long! Don’t let that intimidate you. It’s not all directions. There are tips, explanations of Photoshop tools, and just tons of useful information. The directions are given to be done in Elements or the full version of Photoshop. I think this kit was worth the price I paid just to get the blanket stitching and the border clip mask. The regular cost is $7.99, but I bought this for cheaper when Designer Digitals was having a sale, which they do periodically.

So here’s the result of mine. Keep in mind that I’m learning. :) I ended up using the free Dinner party scrapbooking kit from Shabby Princess because the colors matched better with this photo. I also adjusted some of the materials included in the kit so that they would match better.

Oh, and in my typical stalker-like fashion, I scoured Carebear’s site for more pictures of her little guy.

Look at some of Cassie’s other the cool tutorials! (And nope, I do not receive compensation for loving Designer Digitals. Everything I use, I purchase.)

I Heart Faces - Pink Theme

2009-10-18T23:02:00.001-04:00

It may not be comfortable, but sometimes you just gotta let them be squeezed. :)

Okay, I’m pathetic, but hopefully the message above is a fun way to encourage you to do monthly self-exams, and for you ladies forty or older, get those mammograms! Can’t wait to see all the pink entries this week representing Breast Cancer Awareness Month.

Fix-It Friday #32

2009-10-15T22:35:00.001-04:00

(Before to After)

Whew! Let me just say…this was a tough one! The main issue I found with this photo was the harsh shadows. These shadows can be lightened up, but one has to be careful to not over-do it. The human eye is very discerning. The way the light is directed in this picture, the eye knows that there should be shadows. If the shadows are taken away, the photo starts to look very fake. This is what I discovered in my edits. I way overdid it at first, and it wasn’t looking natural at all. To fix this, I layered the original photo overtop of my editing and reduced the opacity down. This brought back some of the natural shadowing to make the photo look less “Photoshopped”.

Here are the other steps I took:

1. Opened in RAW and made some major edits in lighting. The photo that resulted looks very strange:

2. I opened this photo and the original in Elements. I copied the original and pasted over the above photo. I then used a layer mask action (from Coffeeshop) and painted in only the shadowed areas. I then flattened the layers.

3. Duplicated the new picture twice. For the middle layer, I changed the blending mode to “Screen”. I then added a layer’s mask to the top layer. Once again, I painted in the shadowed areas to bring more light. (This was where I started discovering that perhaps I was bringing in too much light. My fix for this was mentioned above.)

4. The next step was to take care of the triangle of light under the shadowed section of her eyes. I actually took a triangle of skin from her cheek using the wand, copied it and pasted it over her eyes in a new layer. I decreased the opacity way down, erased areas and then flattened the layers. I then used the healing brush around the perimeter of the new section for blending. This is similar to what the patch tool does in the full version of Photoshop. I then used the clone stamp and healing brush to make some further slight adjustments.

5. Used the healing brush to take away a few flaws on the face. (stray hair, baby acne, some drool) I then saved the photo.

6. Opened the photo in the free community version of Noiseware and reduced the noise using the strong color noise option. I saved this new photo and opened it again in Photoshop.

7. Adjusted the pink tones using a hue adjustment layer. I used the layer mask with it to really focus only on the hands and part of the skin. I wanted the skirt to still have bright pinks.

8. Ran Rita’s new S-Curve action (Coffeeshop) and reduced the opacity to 25%.

9. Used Pioneer Woman’s method for sharpening eyes.

10. Ran a Defog action to sharpen up the photo.

11. Adjusted the skin tone.

12. Did some boosting of saturation and contrast and slight adjustment of the levels.

13. Cloned out the wall and replaced with the flooring.

14. There you go! That got me to the final product:

Just for fun…I’ve added a 12x12 scrapbook page made with the free kits Promise and Shabby Mommy from Shabby Princess.

This page literally took me five minutes to make because I used a pre-made page from the kit “Shabby Mommy”. (I changed the hue of it slightly.) I then added a sanded overlay from the same kit and the words from the “Promise” kit. (I clip-masked the words with scrapbooking paper.) Easy-peasy!

Now I have to get back to college work. I have the day “off” tomorrow…which means my sister is going to watch the kiddos while I take an exam and write two papers. It’s going to be a fun day! :)

I Heart Faces – “Excited” Theme

2009-10-11T22:00:00.000-04:00

Nothing makes Jordyn more excited than riding her four-wheeler. One of these days, I’ll share a picture of Jordyn’s face when we take her off the four-wheeler. I’ll just have to wait for the “despair” theme. :)

Oh…I don’t know that there is much time (the contest ends some time on Monday 10/12), but Jennifer Bowen is giving one lucky winner a Canon lens in celebration of her 100th post and her blog makeover. Don’t own a Canon? That’s okay…she has a Plan B: a new blog redesign! I don’t know about you, but both of these options sound about as good as it gets. Hurry on over and check out this contest before it’s over!

Click on the logo below to go check out more entries at I ♥ Faces!

Fix-it #31 - I Heart Faces

2009-10-08T23:21:00.001-04:00

(Before)

For this week’s fix-it, I thought it would be fun to use a picture for a practical item.

I’m thinking I may just start doing this with pictures of my kids. It was super easy to do!

My instructions for editing are on I ♥ Faces.

Happy Friday!

A Few of My Favorite Things…

2009-10-05T23:17:00.001-04:00

The problem with this week’s theme is that it reminds me of THAT SONG and now THAT SONG is stuck in my head, replaying over and over and over. Hopefully now you have THAT SONG stuck in your head too, and I’m not the only one going nuts. ; )

(disclaimer: most of these pictures are not mine)

So, what are my favorite things? It’s so hard not to pick all technology things. Since it’s obvious that I love photography, digital scrapbooking, computers, on and on, I’ll try to share some new juicy tidbits about me. Okay, they’re actually pretty dry boring bits of info, but ya get whatcha get…

1. Obviously, I’d choose my family above everything.

2. Teaching…I really do enjoy teaching, even after twelve years! Since this is about “things”, I thought I’d share some of my favorite teaching schtuffs. Now, who doesn’t like grammar?

Well, at least this book makes it a bit more bearable. If I recall correctly, it cost me a whoppin’ 35 buckeroos, but it was worth every penny. It’s full of grammar games that are set up to be fast and easy to put together. The kids love the games too!

I don’t teach science, but if I did, I’d get the whole set of these computer lessons. They’re funny, motivating and set up for groups. In fact, I love just about everything Tom Snyder puts out including Reading for Meaning and Math Mysteries.

Here’s another hard-to-find book. It’s only around $7, and the activities looks deceptively easy to kids. When I give them an activity from this book, after a couple minutes, I get comments like, “Hey! This is challenging!” (I know…how dare I?) Basically, there is a picture on top. Underneath is a description. As the students read, they have to fill in the missing details that aren’t showing in the picture. Doesn’t sound hard, but it turns out to be a thinker!

3. Reading…if only I had more time to read. I love it! The last time I really got to sit and enjoy a book hour after hour was when I went to Puerto Rico with my sisters. Mark stayed home with the boys. (Ben was just a baby then.) I got to enjoy 3 days of lazy, glorious days on the beach.

I mostly read middle school level books. It’s may have to do with my maturity level or the fact that I teach seventh graders, but there’s something to be said about young adult literature. Some of the most talented writers out there author children’s books. Here are a few of my favorites:

These two books are set in the Depression era. The grandma in this book is saucy and hilarious. It’s a must-read!

You may have seen the movie, but the book is even better. The way the author ties together so many different events across time is genius!

I’m sure this is a little gem that 99.99% of you have never heard of. I used to work at a warehouse type of bookstore. We would get the most random books into the store. One day as I was stocking the shelves, I came across this one. I read it over my lunch break and was brought to tears. Just like the cover implies, it is an illustrated story told in rhyme. There are so many lessons crammed into this book: dealing with oppression, pride, over-parenting, acceptance, special needs, etc. I adore this book!

4. Flowers…I’m actually not a fan of bouquets of flowers. It just makes me sad because so much money was spent on something that is only going to last a week or so. I’d much rather have something techie. That being said, if someone were going to get me flowers, Gerberas are my favorite, especially if they’re still growing in the dirt.

5. Country Apple Bath & Body lotion…it’s discontinued, but it’s really not about the product. (Update: My SIL let me know that it can be bought from the online store. Yay!) It’s more about the memories evoked when I smell it. I wore this scent back when Mark and I were dating. Ah, nostalgia! It may also be because it reminds me of the skinny days…you know, back when I thought I was fat. :)

6. Autumn…it’s my favorite season. I love everything about it except that it’s too short. The leaves, the crisp, cold air, bonfires, apples, pumpkins, hayrides, Halloween, Thanksgiving….I could go on and on.

7. Food…sadly, I like food too much. I’m a sugar-aholic. Candy of all kinds are my weakness. Here are some of my favorite junk foods.

(minus the tomatoes)

Yep, I always choose wholesome, nutritious foods.

8. Corny videos (educational or otherwise)

9. Hidden object games…Call it a grown-up’s Highlights game. Back when I had time, I could kill many an hour staring at the screen for hidden objects.

10. I really don’t get much sleep. When I finally crawl into bed at night, I am so grateful for:

~ down pillows – once you buy a down pillow, you’ll never go back

~ memory foam mattress cover

~ratty 20+ year old blanket (I’ll spare you that picture.)

Ahhhhhhhh!

Well, I can’t spend all night on this, although I probably could think of a million other things. Hopefully this weekend I’ll get a chance to see everyone else’s favorite things!

I Heart Faces - Blue

2009-09-27T22:47:00.001-04:00

I didn’t come up with any ground-breaking ideas for this week’s theme. Since I’ve never tried the “everyone jump at the same time” shot, it seemed like a good week to give it a try.

What was I thinking?

Like my kids would really all jump at the same time. Only one of my kiddos was cooperative, and it was the one who really doesn’t know how to jump. She sure did try, though! My non-blue eyed child is representing blue here with her blue jeans and blue sky behind her. Yay, Jordyn!

Now head on over to I ♥ Faces, and enter a photo of your own!

Fix-it Friday #30

2009-09-25T00:06:00.001-04:00

Back “in the day”, a photo like this one would have been considered a lost cause. With the RAW editor and great photo editing software, this photo can be brought back to at least being useable.

Here are the steps I took:

Adjusted in RAW upping the exposure quite a bit
Levels adjustment
Hue adjustment (to tone down the pink)
Brightness/Contrast adjustment
Healing brush to get rid of distracting elements
Crackled texture on “Soft Light” blending mode with reduced opacity
Noise reduction using the free community version of Noiseware

The original:

My fix:

There is something out there in the digital scrapbooking world that I love! They are 4x6 brag albums. I think this is such a cool idea because 4x6 prints are so inexpensive and easy to get.

Brag books come in at least 2 formats: layered blank PSD files that are ready for you to add your own papers, etc. OR ready-made albums that just require placing a photo behind the layer. I picked a ready-made album designed by Jeni Cantrill at Polka Dot Potato. There are so many cute 4x6 albums available for purchase there.

Here’s just one page I made from this set using this week’s fix-it Friday photo:

I think this is such a fun idea.

Take the challenge this week and give this photo a go! Then go check out all the great fixes at I ♥ Faces.

Update…

2009-09-21T23:24:00.001-04:00

Can you tell summer is over? Once the school year starts, I pretty much disappear. To make matters a bit more stressful, I’m currently taking 6 credits towards my Master’s degree. I feel bad because I haven’t had any time to keep up with everyone’s blogs. I try to peek in here and there, but leaving comments is next to impossible.

Here are some exciting things that have happened recently:

1. I became an aunt for the 14th time!

Johanna

I haven’t gotten to see her yet which is a big bummer. Hopefully I’ll get to see her around Thanksgiving. There’s something so precious about a newborn baby, especially one that I don’t have to wake up with in the middle of the night.

2. I’m the proud new owner of…

The Adobe Master Collection

Oh, baby!

Let me share with you one of the few joys of being a college student.

I got all of this:

…and should have had to pay this:

But here are the college prices:

Rock on!

Actually, the best deal is probably the Web Premium package, I figured, though, that I’d just go for broke and buy the big collection since I’m only allowed to buy one. Now I just need to learn how to use all this stuff. My new web banner was made with Flash. (That alone is $699 if bought by itself!)

3. My baby brother got married! The wedding was so beautiful, and I got to see family members that I haven’t seen for quite a while. One of these days, I’ll get the wedding photos posted. Here are a few:

My niece, Caryn

My niece, Weslea

My nephew, Wyatt

My parents

My brother, Jon, and his lovely wife in the background

Yikes! It’s me! (Angie took this one.)

I have a feeling the photographer will have to do a lot of Photoshopping on this one. i can’t imagine she got a photo with all the kids looking at the camera. :)

Jon and my new sis-in-law, Kathy

Congrats!

I’ll have more pictures some time soon.

I Heart Faces - Totally Candid

2009-09-20T23:59:00.001-04:00

My “baby” brother (2nd from the left) got hitched on Friday. Here he is singing “Friends in Low Places” with his buds. My other brother is on the right. Aren’t they just too cool? :)

Seriously, though, I am very happy for my brother. He married a great gal! Can’t wait to see all the totally candid shots this week. Candids are my favorite!

I Heart Faces - Contemplative

2009-09-13T22:46:00.001-04:00

Wish I hadn’t taken this in direct sunlight, but I do like the expression on my son’s face. What’s better to contemplate than the wonder of a frog? Whether it be worms, frogs or bugs…if my guy sees one, he is enthralled. Now, if only I could get him as excited about writing! :)

This week is all about being contemplative. I’m sure there will be many different takes on this theme. Go check it out at I ♥ Faces!

I Heart Faces - Fix-it Friday

2009-09-10T21:48:00.001-04:00

This week’s fix-it baby is ADORABLE!

(Before)

(After)

My steps for fixing the photo are on I ♥ Faces. Hopefully you’ll join in on the fun too!

I Heart Faces - Back to School

2009-09-07T01:08:00.001-04:00

Nathan was such a booger about pictures on his first day of Kindergarten. He didn’t leave me with much to choose from. Out of the slim pickings that I do have, this one is my favorite. I love it because there are so many emotions in play.

I took this photo right before walking Nathan into the school. Nathan was nervous and very reluctant to go inside. At the same time, he was also excited (thus the smile). Nathan was so proud of his backpack and being a big 5 (“almost” 6) year old. Oh, and he was also annoyed with his mom for taking picture after picture of him.

I love this little guy and have not quite come to terms with my baby being in school.

Join in on the fun and enter your back-to-school picture at I ♥ Faces!

An Experiment

2009-09-06T01:53:00.001-04:00

After getting home from school yesterday, Nathan went on and on about how he needed to do an experiment.

“I need milk and food coloring…soap….a toothpick.”

Huh? I don’t think so.

“I need to. I want to make fireworks with milk!”

I managed to distract him, until…

Bright and early this morning, Nathan woke me ready to continue the fight. The boy wore me down. Through further conversation with him, I realized that his teacher did an experiment with the class using all those items he kept mentioning.

I googled the ingredients. Sure enough…there was lots of information about the Milk Fireworks experiment.

Ignore my voice in the video. It was early, and I have a cold. :)

I Heart Faces ~ Fix-It

2009-09-04T00:07:00.001-04:00

(Before)

I feel like I’m on vacation! Okay, not really, but I have the advantage of already fixing up this week’s photo during our last Constructive Feedback Friday. This one was so much fun to fix-up and really was such a beautiful, sharp capture!

My directions aren’t very specific, but hopefully it will give you some idea of what I did. Below is what I wrote after fixing up the photo:

I was then asked what a screen layer was. Screen layers are something I discovered when following directions online for lightening eyes. In this case though, the effect isn’t in lightening the eyes, but rather lightening and brightening the skin.

As was said above, you don’t want your screen layer to be full capacity. I always start at 0% and slowly move the slider over. I usually stop on a very low number. It’s just enough to really bring a glow to the skin. If you ever find that it changes the hair or something that doesn’t look quite natural, use a Layer Mask and paint back with a black brush parts that you don’t want change. Coffeeshop has a free action for Layer Masks along with a great tutorial on using it.

Here’s the end result:

I’ll throw a B&W in there for good measure! :)

Next stop: Hollywood!

2009-09-02T16:24:00.001-04:00

Okay, maybe not, but I had to share that Jordyn is the featured kiddo at Totally Tots! This neat site was introduced to me by the McFadden family. Their handsome little man was featured in early August.

The mission of Totally Tots is

“to unite and encourage Christian moms to train up their children in the way they should go. We desire Totally Tots to be a place where we encourage one another in love, and joyfully share ideas that will strengthen us in training up the next generation of Kingdom warriors. We believe that we can learn from each other's experiences and provide wisdom gained by them.

We believe that one of the best ways to do this is to encourage each other in faith, by our spoken and written words. It is our hope that as we unite women in Christ, the young will glean wisdom from the old, one will gain strength from another, and together we’ll shed light to the world. Our greatest hope is that through all we share on Totally Tots - that our children will be a reflection of our hearts on fire for His glory.”

If you haven’t checked out this site before, go have a look. It offers great educational activities for young kids, healthy eating tips, books reviews…you name it! It’s a fun site with lots to offer to mothers of young children.

What I didn’t know is that this site is connected to Carisa, a regular I ♥ Faces participant! You can check out her site called 1+1+1=1.