I love Photoshop

So those of you know know me (that is, IF anyone even reads this darn thing besides me?)... you know I scrapbook. Well....back it up. I USED to scrapbook, years ago, I started right after Myka was born, loved it, then started an online business with it, and (thank God) the business took off like crazy - dang near overnight it seemed.

So I never seemed to have much time to actually scrapbook then, and that went on for a few years while I continued to hoard super cool supplies and papers and stickers and embellishments along the way. I knew one day I would get to scrapbook again.

Then in 2007 I sold the business, and thought "Yes! Finally, I will be able to scrapbook for myself again!".

And then one day in October of that year I got this wild, crazy, semi-mad idea that I wanted to go back and get my Nusing degree. I say go back, because I had originally started this process those early years after Myka was born, until the business took off and I had no time to go to school. So, in a brief moment of insanity, I registered again for school, and got into the program. So.... since then I havn't picked up one piece of scrapbook paper to do anything with.

Honestly, I haven't even printed pictures for the last few years (thanks to my Nikon D70 and a FreeAgent 750GB hard drive). But I have been secretly admiring the new world of scrapbooking - the digital version where you create your pages in a photo editing program (Photoshop CS2 for me) and then print them out and slip 'em into an album.

Well I FINALLY started this process awhile back and though it's been slow going, I have almost completed my first project: Myka's PreK album. WHOOO HOO!!! Pop the champagne!

So here is a page I did tonight, and I thought I'd make it my photo for the day - and then I'll post all of it when I am done, hopefully next week sometime. Or next year. Who knows.

3.19.09
Credits:
xOxO Kit from Oscraps
Template (I Love My CT3) by Darcy Baldwin from Sweet Shoppe Designs

Week half over...whew!

3.17.09
Myka and MiMi playing Wii - boxing to be specific. This thing is great. We just got one a few weeks ago, and my mom just got one, so we were showing her how to use it, and she was pretty good at the boxing - pulled a TKO on Myka.

3.18.09
Myka watching his Derby car race to the finish line...

A good team - after getting the 2nd place ribbon. Later that night, before bed, Myka said "We made a good team Dad!" (I went and got a tissue to wipe my eyes...snif)

(Greatest) Grandpa, Grandma, Papa, and Grandpa Larry at the Derby

FIRST PLACE! In this race... overall Myka's car finished 2nd in his Tiger Cub Den, and he got to go to the finals, which consisted of the top 3 cars in each Den, so a total of 12 in the finals, and his car finished 5th there. So we were all pretty proud. And it was a great experience for Myka to see how his effort paid off.

Whew - halfway through the week. Amen. Only 6 more weeks of school for me. Watching American Idol - wishing I could sing other than belting it out in the car. Should be going to bed since I was up at 5:30am for clinicals, but I am stubborn.

The super fast Derby car...

3.16.09

Well, still no luck with the lost pictures. I think my CF card for the camera became corrupt. If so, better the CF card than the camera. So I am still working on getting pics...

In the meantime, here is the car with a finished paint job. The thing had enough coating or whatever it was that it probably could have slid down the track just like this, but we did put some wheels on it.....

Well, crap.

I forgot to put up a picture last night, because I was so tired when we got home from dinner at my moms. But here is a picture I TOOK last night so that should count for something...

3.14.09

And today was a HUGE day for us, because it was the Pinewood Derby for Mykas Cub Scout pack. Myka and Josh worked so hard on the car, and Myka did a ton of it himself, which in and of itself is a big acomplishment - he had a great time doing it. And it paid off for him today. But I won't tell you how just yet because I have (had?) some great pictures from today, BUT something really screwy is going on with either my camera or my memory card so I am working on getting some pictures, then I'll make a nice post about our big "Derby Day".

We also had some special visitors here for it as well, Greatest Grandma and Greatest Grandpa from Georgia, and Papa came to watch.

THEN, later tonight about 7:45pm we were going out for celebratory ice cream, and we saw the SPACE SHUTTLE that had just launched. It was very cool! No I didn't have the camera, but I wish I did. But, trust me, it was super cool to be able so see it, even though we're on the other side of the state! It was just a stream of orange smoke, then we saw the flash of the rocket after it broke apart from the boosters.

So, all in all, a great day, but I am having some "Oh, crap" moments here hoping I can get my pictures back. Thank goodness Josh's dad was there taking pics too, so if I lost mine, I can get a copy of his.

Getting it done

3.13.09 - Myka came home the other day after Tae Kwon Do and with the time change, it is still so light out, that everyone was outside in the yard so he hopped up on Josh's truck and started his homework.

Lego creation & and some fun

So I have had a Nikon D70 for about 3 years now, and it is a great camera (so they say). It is the best darn thing on automatic... well since that's all I knew how to do on it until now. I have always wanted to really learn the SLR cameras and lenses so I could take those pictures that make you say "Wow!" instead of my normal ones of "What is that?"

So today, thanks to The Pioneer Woman's Tutorials on basic photography, I have figured out what the aperture and the shutter speed mean and do. So it was a baby step forward, and one I hope I remember tomorrow. So below is my pic of the day, and then the rest are others I took today playing with my new found knowlegde.

Myka's Lego contraption we built - it's a real candy dispenser. Fill it up in the top hole there, and push that thingymajig on the right, it goes in, candy falls into a smaller hole, and when the thingymajig pops back out - TA DA: you have some candy.

My fist picture not on full auto-mode. "Bear Cub" is our newest family member and 100 millionth stuffed animal. At church, each child got a stuffed animal with a tag attached that had a child's name on it, who was living at a childrens home. We bring it home and pray for the child who's name is on the tag.

I had fun getting creative with this one in Photoshop, but this one I used a f-stop of 4.5 on the camera to get Josh in focus and the background blurry. I used the A (aperture priority) mode on the camera since I am too scared to go full manual. Thanks again to Pioneer Woman's great tutorials for walking me through how to do this.

This was Myka 70 years ago, when cell phones were only for the cool kids who liked to talk on the phone. Yeah, so another fun Photoshop action, and this was tonight when Myka talked to Greatest Grandma & Grandpa about their upcoming visit this Sunday.

Whew. So nothing spectacular but I am having fun playing with pictures now.

10 minute escape...

Sometimes, when the going gets tough, the tough (me) goes to Starbucks.

Photo a day... give or take

Ok so I have been really inspired by a cool trend in the online blogging world: something a day. Well most of the ones I have seen are a photo a day, a.k.a. Photo 365, etc. So, while I am scared to commit myself to a photo a day for a whole dang year, I figure I'll just call mine a photo a day...or so.

This way it kinda forces me to work on my photo taking skills, and I get to play in Photoshop more.

3/09/09 Here is my Photo from YESTERDAY (nothing like starting off a day late). My sweet boy fresh and ready for school on Monday morning (note the HAPPY smile!)

3/10/09 And here is todays. One of my newest time consuming things: The 7th book in the Sookie Stackhouse series. One of the most fun series I have read!

All Together Dead (Southern Vampire Mysteries, Book 7)

Now, I mentioned some other cool once a day bloggers, and here are my two favs at the moment:

If you have kids, especially boys (or a husband - they count the same for this site) you need to check out A LEGO A Day

And if you like to crockpot, this one is worth checking out too A Year of CrockPotting

Ok.. off to finish a care plan so I can finish my book, and sleep somewhere in there too. And watch American Idol.