Texture Tuesday

If I’d had my head on straight I would have had this ready to go last night.  Ah well, it’s still Tuesday so I’m not technically late even though I feel like it.

My offering for Texture Tuesday this week is this scooter-turned-planter that we discovered on the Yarn Crawl.  It sits in front of Fancy Image Yarns and I think it’s adorable!

This is using one of Kim’s magic textures at only about 25% on screen mode.

Go check out Kim’s site to see what other people have posted for this garden themed Texture Tuesday.

Projects

Despite not blogging about it much lately I AM still knitting.  Admittedly, not as much as in times past but I’m on an upswing.  I have many projects in the works not the least of which is a lace shawl that I am working on in a mystery knit-along.

In a mystery knit-along the pattern designer releases only portions of the pattern at a time and does not show pictures of the end result.  I’ve progressed enough on this project though (a bit more than the picture shows) to know this is going to be beautiful.  I even know who I’m going to give the shawl to when I’m finished, the yarn told me.  Sometimes that happens.

I’ve got another lace shawl in the works but it’s been snoozing for a long time, I am also still working off and on on the wrap I designed and started on my little weekend getaway, a scarf/shawlette in peacock colors that is about 2/3s of the way done and that one I’m keeping for myself (or at least that’s the plan).  I also have two birthday presents I need to finish and FIVE gifts for a craft-it-forward that I’m in (you sign up on someone’s blog of Facebook page and receive one handmade item and you in turn post it on your blog or Facebook page and the first five people to respond receive a handmade item from you) and since my sis won a drawing of yarn from one of the shops on our yarn crawl I told her I’d make something for her with the yarn she won.  Lucky me!  The colors are SO pretty!  The hard part is deciding what to make.

I’ve also made up a few dishcloths recently (one with lavender SCENTED yarn – how fun is that?!).  They are one of my favorite go-to knits when I want to knit but don’t have the option of paying attention to a pattern (like when the kids are awake – ha ha ha).

So, see, I haven’t been talking about it much but my knitting didn’t die when I got back into photography. 

Texture Tuesday

Oh me, oh my, whatcha donna do?  The cord for my camera broke so I can’t get any pictures off it.  Good thing I took some quick pics of a few of the flowers from my Mother’s Day bouquet a few days before it broke. 

Isn’t she lovely?

And here she is again after applying Kim’s yesteryear texture with the overlay blend mode at 100% (that’s all I did):

Thanks, Kim, for another gorgeous texture!  I love what this one does!

A Quickie

Just a few things.

My camera cable broke and I can’t get photos off my camera at the moment.  BIG bummer!  But I’ll take this opportunity to get caught up on a few things this week and I may just get some knitting done.

Rosie is settling so well into our family that it’s almost like she was always here.  She’s such a neat dog.  Look forward to a lot more photos and stories when I have time.

Zion started ballet last week.  I nearly cried watching her first class.  I can’t explain why but apparently it’s not an unheard of phenomenon.  Moms are so funny, aren’t we?

That’s it.  I told you it was a quickie.

 

Good To WOW Week 19–Rain/Umbrellas Pt. 2

Just a quickie tonight, I didn’t have time to check on the edits earlier and I have a headache tonight.  The next few days aren’t looking hopeful for more time so rather than not post anything I’m just going with my first, and so far only, edit on one of my photos.

I like it though and sometimes I have a hard time continuing to try different things with a photo once I’ve done something I like.  So here’s my umbrella shot:

Seattle is typically gray enough without having to go B&W – ha ha – but as I was fussing around with this trying different things I just realized that I really wanted the background ALL gray scale.  Or all gray anyway.

Here’s the original:

The original looks pretty gray doesn’t it?  But once you work on the white balance and levels and such it’s SO bright!  It was RUINED!  LOL  I AM a Washington girl!  Give me gray!  But also give me a bright umbrella.  :)

Ten Months and Three Years

Just a little behind on Elias’ nine-month check up.  He saw the doc last Friday and got a clean bill of health.  My little guy weighs in at just over 21 pounds and is long enough (meaning, I forgot how long but it felt weird to not say something about it).  Gideon also had his check up and he weighs 29 pounds.  Yep, that close.  Gideon has actually moved up on the charts, he was around the 25th percentile last visit and about 50th this visit.  Mostly I don’t care about those stats but because of his growth problems in the first year (remember when he actually SHRANK between 9 and 11 months – scary) it pleases me to see him moving up.  We will need Gideon to see his allergist again soon and I’m praying for a good improvement there as well.

Elias is a smiley guy who claps and waves and says “Hi Dad!” and the when I ask him to say “Hi Mom!” he says “Hi, daDA!” as if the emphasis changes something somehow.  He is also pretty close to walking.  Lately he’s taken to “crawling” on his hands and tip toes with his bum in the air.  It’s really funny and kind of creepy at the same time (only because he reminds me of Samara from The Ring when he does that, I guess that means I shouldn’t get him on video doing it LOL).

They are both so sweet and funny and energetic.  I’m so blessed!

Texture Tuesday

Last week Kim gave us a heads up about this week’s theme for Texture Tuesday saying it would whatever comes to mind based on the word vintage.  My first thought was old cars.  I wouldn’t be my father’s daughter if I thought of lace hankies now would I?  :)

I did not get any new pics of old cars but I did dig out one that I took a while back.  Here’s that lovely old thing after running a vintage action and applying one of Kim’s new magic textures as well as her history texture.  I love the crackly effect the magic texture gives.

This one I took at one of my favorite restaurants over the weekend.  I think the chairs are a bit vintagy, don’t you?  This was after a MAJOR desaturation, addition of another of Kim’s magic textures, then I added a sepia layer and brushed over the chairs to bring some red back.

Lastly, and what turned out to be my favorite of the set is this old sewing machine that I found in one of the yarn stores I visited over the weekend.  I converted it to black and white and added one of Kim’s really extreme grungy type textures and that was it.  I really love what the texture did, really, really love it!

I’m looking forward to seeing what others have posted.  Go check it out:

Good To WOW Week 19–Rain/Umbrellas

My home state was MADE for this week’s theme and sure has given me a ton of opportunities to get shots of rain this week but wouldn'tcha know, it’s practically sacrilege to use an umbrella where I’m from.  LOL  We do have them though.  I had plans to break out the cute ones the kids have (which rarely get used) and get some REALLY FANTASTIC photos of umbrellas (and probably rain).  Can’t really explain what happened however.  I only ended up with four (and three of them are nearly the same).  None of them were what I had planned but shots I happened upon on my Yarn Crawl over the weekend.

One of the yarn shops happened to be using an umbrella to display some knitted hats.

This one is my favorite.  After the yarn crawl my friend, my sis and I stopped for dinner and it was POURING!  I used an umbrella.  I was the only one.  I’m afraid I might just have my Born and Raised in Washington status stripped from me.  Anyway, we had to wait for a table at the restaurant so my friend and I went outside to shoot some umbrella pics.  I had the sudden inspiration to have her spin the umbrella.  Whee!  I love to use slow shutter speeds to show motion.

Oh it was so gray and dark and rainy.  And my friend didn’t even complain that I made her stand in the rain with an umbrella but didn’t let her put it over her head.  What a good friend!

South Sound Yarn Crawl 2011

Phase One – Yellow House Yarns.

But first.  Though you might have guessed already, a Yarn Crawl, is much like a pub crawl.  Only more fiber and less alcohol.  A lot less alcohol.  And, in my opinion, a lot more fun.  Especially when you go with your best friend and your sister (also my best friend).

The South Sound Yarn Crawl is an annual event where participants travel from yarn store to yarn store getting their passports (provided at the first store or downloadable) stamped, entering drawings, receiving free patterns, touching yarn and probably buying some or a lot, meeting other fiber artists and just generally have a fantastic time.

I hadn’t planned on going this year but at the last second recruited by best friend to join me making the trip more enticing with the promise of massive photo ops.  At an even more last second if that is possible my sister joined up.  So early on May 14 the three of us, heavily armed with our Nikons, headed out.  There are too many pictures to show and too much to write for for one post so I’m going to break it up.

Now back to Phase One – Yellow House Yarns.

Yellow House Yarns is my LYS (vocab lesson, LYS = Local Yarn Store) so it seemed the logical place to start.

Yellow House Yarns is, surprise!, a cute yellow house.  It is cozy and inviting and the owners are super friendly and fun to chat with not to mention helpful.

Purple hats for the Period of Purple Crying Campaign.  Love that!  I wish I’d heard of purple crying when I was a new mom.  Gabe used to have screaming jags daily that lasted from 20 minutes to three hours, Zion screamed every second that she was in a car seat for almost her first year and any time I tried to nurse her (I gave up and switched to a bottle when she was six months old and she was fine) and Gideon, well, let’s not go into Gideon right now.  Spread the word, this is a great thing for parents to know about.

I mentioned free patterns.  Each store had one knitting and one crochet pattern to give away.  For Yellow House it was this knitted sock and a crocheted baby sweater.  So cute!

Yellow House also has the coolest bathroom.  Very photogenic.  And I assure you, the only bathroom I took pictures of on this trip.  I’m not in the habit of taking photos of public restrooms.  Not usually anyway.

I’m very fond of the kitchen at YH (so much easier than typing “Yellow House” over and over).  It’s bright and airy and the yarns are displayed in fun ways.  Like the ones on the dish drying rack and in the salad bowl.  LOVE!

And like this:

And this:

SWEET!

 

See what friendly folks you’ll find at Yellow house?

And that concludes Phase One.  I walked away with the free pattern and purchased a second one.  More soon!

Everything’s Coming Up…

…roses.

Or Rosie, at least.  We have a new member in our family.

 

Her name is Rosie if you hadn’t guess.  She is a one-year old Terrier mix that we adopted only just this evening.  A second family dog is something we’ve been tossing about for years.  Every once in a while I’d take a peek at Petfinder for dogs in our area.  I wanted something small to medium so the kids could play with her without getting knocked over, a female so I wouldn’t have to worry about marking on the kids’ outside toys (something Towzer does that drives me absolutely nuts) and a somewhat mellow dog. 

I had previously ruled out getting a terrier because they often aren’t good with small children and small pets and they have out of this world energy levels, something I don’t want to deal with. But something about her little face on the website made me inquire anyway.  Her foster mom and I went back and forth a few times talking about her personality before we went to see her tonight.  She was pretty mellow, we’ll have to see if she stays that way after she settles in.

Tonight she got a bath and played with her new toy for a while, tossing it up and trying to catch it – hilarious! And is now sleeping in her new bed.  Not bad for a first night.

 

Good to WOW Week 18–Mother’s Day Pt. 2

This was quite fun.  I only had time to work two of my photos today but I’m pretty pleased with the outcome.  First, my friend.

The original:

I love a good laugh.

Then the same picture with minor adjustments in ACR:

And lastly the same picture after applying a gradient map (the one that’s all purple and green if you’re interested), sharpened the eyes a bit and softened the skin tone with a layer of pink.  I love how sparkly her eyes are.

And then on to the photo I’ve named “Birdy Butt”.  The original:

The same photo with minor adjustments in ACR and a slight crop.

Then I picked a couple of gradient map colors at random.  The first couple didn’t work out no matter what blend mode I used (well, they might have if I was looking for something different).  Then I applied the orange one and my first thought was “Polaroid picture!”  So I cropped it square, added an action that rounded the corners and gave it a white frame and added a little noise.  Here’s the final birdy butt:

My only regret about participating in this photo challenge is not having more time to play after I find out what edits we’re doing.  Please comment and tell me what you think – oo, especially since I discovered yesterday that my photos look entirely different on someone else’s monitor.   I have no idea now what is too bright, too dark, colors off…  Will have to remedy that soon.  Thanks for stopping by!  Go to Ashley’s blog to check out more (if you’re not already coming here from there of course).

Jus’ Stuff

Wow, three posts in one day.  I’m going to give my (what 4 or 5?) readers heart attacks with the surprise of it all.  And not a photo in sight (well, until you go look at my other posts).

Elias likes to twist his tongue sideways.  We’ve started calling him Mr. Twisty Tongue.  I know, how entirely clever of me to think of something so creative.

Bacon is still Gideon’s favorite food, no change there.

We signed Zion up for dance classes at the Y.  Not sure which she is going to enjoy more, the actual dance class or going shopping for dance clothes.

Just now I looked at the clock and read 1:22 and thought “Wow, how’d it get that late so fast.” and a little bit of “Yippee, that means it’s naptime.” and then I realized the time is actually 12:29 but the 9 had been hidden by glare from the lights.  Darn.  Will have to wait for naptime.

Gabe…well, Gabe is Gabe.

Rob is not traveling this week.  Miracle of miracles. 

I called my father on Mother’s Day to let him know I was thinking of him.  Didn’t exactly tell him I guessed it’s a rough week for him, May 4th being the anniversary of my mother’s passing and all but he might have guessed.  He told me he bought a new car.  I should say he bought a “new” car.  ha ha  If you know my dad you can already guess that the car is in pieces in his garage.

It is.  And I can’t tell you how happy that makes me.  It’s a 2006 Mustang GT convertible and it needs a little work but I’m sure my dad will have it right as rain in no time.  I think next time I talk to him I’ll tell him he should get personalized plates and name the car “Jude” for my mom.  She always was a sucker for convertibles.

Texture Tuesday

I had a couple of really neat shots from my outing on Mother’s Day to play with this week.  I also had Kim’s magic textures that she just released to her Test Kitchen members.  I think the second magic texture matched well with this statue photo:

This is also with slight levels, brightness/contrast and hue/sat adjustments.  Upped the brightness, dropped the saturation.

And then there’s the fun pot bench.  I used Kim’s paperstained, chamomile AND the second magic texture on this one.

Not sure I love the crop I did, may go back and play with it more later. Alas, photo play time is over.  The kitchen won’t clean itself.

Go to Kim’s and check out more, textures are so much fun.

 

Sweet Shot Tuesday

How to choose, how to choose?  Thanks to my outing on Mother’s Day I have many shots to choose from.  Too many.  I s’pose I’ll bypass all the beautiful flowers and scenes from my outing because the people in my life are more special than those.  Still, it’s down to two.

This was a sweet scene I discovered yesterday morning while in the mad rush to get breakfast for everyone and get Gabe’s lunch made and get us out of the house in time to make it to the bus.  I ran to get my camera and only got the one picture before they moved and the moment had passed.  I give you my oldest and my youngest playing at the train table:

And then there’s my good friend who I went out with on Mother’s Day for lunch and a little picture taking time.  Yay, us! 

(And if you want to see some of the other pictures I got that day check out some of my other posts and come back for more posts to come, there were a lot of photos!)

Good To WOW Week 18–Mother’s Day

And what a Mother’s Day it was!  Rob made a wonderful breakfast and the kids blessed me with cards and hugs.  Gabe gave me a coupon good for one time of him preparing me a bowl of cereal.  I’ll take it!  Then we had a lovely time at church, I felt so blessed sitting there with my kids snuggled so close. Afterward we parted ways.  Rob took the kids to play at a park and I got to go have lunch with my friend and afterward we got to go on a little photo outing at a local nursery.  Though the lighting wasn’t the best it was nearly impossible to not get at least a decent photo in just about every shot.  So hard to choose just one or two or even three when you have a few hundred.  Arg! 

Please forgive me for not narrowing it down further, it was all I could do to get it down to just these. 

I thought the statue was hilarious.  Then I looked at the picture when I got home and realized all the tags on the flowers below him WERE him.  And because I can hear him saying “Gum, gum, dum-dum!” (Ever see Night at the Museum?)

My friend (you would know her as Cedar) who is truly a great friend and a great mom.

I so want these boots!

I was going to take a picture of this cute little bird but it mooned me so I got a picture of a cute little birdy behind instead.  :)

Check out the other entries or go enter yourself, everyone of is invited and there are varying skills so don’t think you aren’t good enough.