Huge Preview for Christy

Meet Baby J. He's my friend Christy's newest addition to her beautiful family.
He is already adored by his older siblings!


I really like the new basket I got. I got it at Hobby Lobby for 1/2 off, which makes it even better. I like the texture of it near J's new soft baby skin. He reminds me of a baby Moses in it.


Have I mentioned before how much I love baby feet?







Thank you to Christy and her family for letting me come into their home, rearrange their furniture, and make a big mess with the fake fur to take these!

Good Vibe-rations

Ren, a fellow photographer from 2peas, is opening her brand new website tomorrow. It is going to be full of goodies for photography. She is holding a contest now for $100 vouchers for her Vibe Blog, so be sure to stop by and sign up!

Winter Blues and Walnuts

I thought I would take a small break from editing photos (Christie, yours are comin') to share my distaste for January in Minnesota. Normally it doesn't bother me much, but the weather is seriously starting to make me cranky. The temperatures her have been sub-zero for weeks, with the exception of this weekend. It was a balmy 40 degrees, just enough to remind us of how real people have winter. Here's a photo of the sunset on Sunday. I didn't notice until now how the wind-swept snow looks like the ocean.

Here's another. I really love the old oaks in the winter. You really get to see how snarly they are without their leaves, branches twisting every which way.

Here is the same photograph with Matt's preset applied. I like the silhouette it makes.

This morning, due to the extreme cold, the kids had a late start, which meant Bodie didn't go at all. The temp was -11 when Tye went to catch the bus. I make sure to bundle him up really well. We always joke about how he end up looking like Ralphie's brother in "The Christmas Story". He can barely move with all the layers he must wear.
One more thing to add-
I was helping Tye proofread his homework tonight and noticed something in his creative writing. He wrote about his new magnet kit he bought, and the cool things you can do with it. It came with several magnets, paper clips, small washers and nuts, even a metal fish to catch with the magnetic fishing pole. "I can make a walnut man," he writes. Walnut man?
Me: "Tye, what do you mean by walnut man?"
Tye: "You know, like walnuts and washers and screws."
Me: "Oh, you mean nuts and bolts."
Tye: "Yeah, walnuts and bolts."
I laughed so hard,I cried. I think he just had his first blond moment.

Playing with textures and presets

I wanted to play with some of the presets I made and adding texture overlays. I really love this look, and think it would be really fun for senior photos. For this one I used the Shamrock preset. I think its cool what it did to the purple wall color (see the original coloring on the post below). I really like the urban acid feel of it. I added the Texture layer, set on Hard light.

For this one I used a preset I haven't given away yet, called Morning Kiss. It's a bit of a brightening action, but with a cool tone. The purple wall turned blue, giving it a different feel. Once again, I used a textured overlay layer, set on Soft light.

31 down

Today's my birthday. 31 one already. I took some time out today to do a few self portraits. I always try to do at least one around my birthday, because its usually the only one of me all year, since I'm the photographer and not the photographed. I'm never really pleased with them, but I do like the coloring in this one.

I had a really nice day, actually. We went for Mexican food tonight, which was delicious as always. I'll share a picture from dinner later. And Barbara made a scrumptious cake. John and the boys, got a video game for the Wii as a present for me. But they were too excited so they gave it to me last night. All in all, a very nice day.
For the Photographers out there, I have a gift for you. Here is a new set of presets!

You can download them here (<---*expired*----See new post here for link.)

Take 2

Because I know you want more...