Sunday Scavenger Hunts

Walking Empty Streets

Repeating Patterns

Floor

Then and Now
Kiera in 2008, age 1, and in 2011, age 3.

Fingertips

My very first FREE storyboard!!!

Recently I have learned how to make my own storyboards in Photoshop.  I have also decided to share my storyboards with all of you.  This is the very first one... of many I am sure.  

The download is a PSD (sorry but currently photoshop cs5 is the only editing software that I use).  It includes clipping masks already installed. If you are new to clipping masks, they are very simple.  You have two options.  Option 1: download GroupIt, a free action by The Coffee Shop Blog and run the action according to the directions on their website.  Option 2:  Open your images in photoshop like normal.  Use your rectangular marquee tool to select the entire photo and use Ctrl + C .  Make sure that the clipping mask for the layer you are wanting to place the photo is selected and use Ctrl + V.  Right click on the photo (make sure that the layer with the photo is still selected) and use Free Transform to resize your photo to fit in the space.  I try to leave a little outside the frame.
The black square is not a space for a photo but for your logo or possibly a name.  There is a white boarder around the storyboard.  The color can be changed by selecting the fill tool and your color.  If you have a blog that has a transparent background then you may choose to remove the background all together.  Simply delete the background layer, flatten the image, and save the file as a .PNG file.  
I hope that you enjoy using my storyboards.  Download this one here.

5 on Friday

1:  I will be honest:  I have done almost nothing this week with my camera.  I have not really left the house and I have nothing interesting to photograph here anymore.  Kiera doesn't like to be a model anymore and I have done nothing fun.  Just being honest.

2:  We did take a short walk up and around the block.  It is just too hot to really get outside and do anything right now.

3:  There were some bales of hay that Kiera and our dog played on too.  We had no idea that our dog could jump high enough to get on top of the bale.  We were very surprised!  Seriously, our dog prefers my husband to hold her when we go swimming.  Guess that she is smart and not as out of shape as we thought.

4:  Thanks to a tutorial over on The Coffee Shop Blog I now know how to make my own storyboards.  I am super excited about this!!  I actually made both of the ones that I used on here.  I am thinking about sharing the ones that I make on the blog.  I will have to figure out how to do that first though... I am sure my husband will be able to do it.  He is good at things like that.  He hosts my website and (soon to be) my store through our living room... I don't see why this would be any more difficult.

5:  After gymnastics on Wednesday, Kiera and I stopped at the gas station just up the road.  (It was very hot, no air conditioning in the car... I was thirsty.)  I got her a orange icee and we proceeded to go pay.
Clerk:  I like your outfit.  It's really cute.  (Kiera was still in her leotard from class.  It was not said in a creepy way.)
Kiera:  pretends not to hear
Mommy:  Tell her Thank you or I am going to keep your icee for myself. (I was just playing around... I don't even like the orange icee)
Kiera:  That's okay.  You can have it.  (walks away to look at something on a shelf)
Clerk:  busts up laughing That's the funniest thing I have heard all day!!
Am I the only mom who hangs her head and sighs this much?  


That was my week... how was yours?

57/365

I know that I had a frog earlier in my 365 but I took this one and it was too good to not include.  I love how clear his little eye is.

56/365

55/365

King Princess of the Mountain

54/365

Today I happened upon a bit of irony.  If you asked me yesterday what a passion flower was or looked like I would have said a flower.  I'm a bit of a smart-alec.  It just so happens that I liked {My}Perspective on Facebook and today they featured a post by Picking Poppies.  I liked what I read and started to read older posts.  Kim had an entire post on Passion Flowers and why they were so named.  It was interesting to read and I provided the link above (just click on passion flowers... you will have to scroll down the post a little before you get to the flower part).  Mine is not as boldly colored as Kim's flower but I think that the subtlety makes it beautiful.  They are growing wild on a hill in my neighborhood and I would not have recognized them at all if it wasn't for Kim's post.

53/365

Bales of hay are so fun.  They remind me of when I was a little girl.  I lived on a farm until I was 7.  Mainly cows and chickens... and a couple very large garden spots.  My uncle would store the big round bales in the unused half of the chicken house.  My sister and I would sneak in and climb all over the bales.  I am sure that there were snakes and all sorts of critters living in them, but as children we never thought about any of that.  We just knew that it was fun to use them like slides until they were falling apart.

52/365

Since getting back from vacation, I have not really done much with my blog.  I am currently 3 days behind and know that if I do not get on it I could become so far behind that I would not be able to catch up.  So without further procrastination...

Who wants to make s'mores with me?  We BBQed hamburgers with the neighbor the other night and I snapped this quick photo while the coals were heating up.  Nothing like impromptu cookouts!

51/365

She picked me a flower.

Vacation to Mexico or days 44-50

This past week I went on a cruise to Mexico.  I had never been on a cruise before.  I ended up taking over 700 photos over the course of a week.  This post is a little different than my posts usually are.  

Our first day there we got to Mobile, AL very early... like 7 am early.  We couldn't get onto the ship yet so we decided to go see the U.S.S. Alabama which is retired in Mobile.  The couple that we went with took the tour inside the battleship but we stayed outside to walk around.  It was so hot and humid and cloudy that day.  The battleship park has more than just the battleship... there are tanks, fighter planes, ground cannons, and a submarine there too.  

44/365

We left the Port of Mobile a little after 4pm on Friday evening.
45/365
Serenity.

“The Sea, once it casts its spell, holds one in its net of wonder forever.” -Jacques Cousteau

Our first full day away from land was a full day at sea.  We laid out on the deck in the sun, swam in the pool on the top deck, and relaxed.  We did a lot of that.
46/365
Ocean Bokeah. 

Our first port was in Progresso.  The Progresso pier is 8 miles long because the water there is so shallow.  Our tour guide explained that the the water looks green because of the shallow water.  Progresso is on mainland Mexico.  We booked an actual excursion in this port and had to ride a bus about 30 minutes to get to our beach.  We passed armed guards on the pier.  The buildings are all tiny and run down looking.  The beach was nice though.  It was the first time that I had ever set foot on a beach or into the ocean.  I was at once in love with the sea.  We swam and enjoyed the sun.  My husband also started a sea weed fight.  Yuck!  We were walking in the ocean... we were probably about 15 yards from the beach in about 4 feet of water... and my husband almost stepped on a starfish.  He wouldn't pick it up... but neither would I.  I don't have any photos of the starfish though since we were out in the water... next time I will definitely have a water-proof camera!
47/365

Our second port was in Cozumel, Mexico.  This is not on the mainland and the water is much deeper there.  It is also not green.  It is beautiful blue!  And amazingly clear.  If you have never gone I strongly suggest putting it on your bucket list.  We didn't do an excursion there.  Our friends wanted to do some shopping and really we didn't have to do one.  There was a public beach right there at the pier that we took full advantage of.  Cozumel is more rocky than Progresso was but it was still wonderful. 
48/365

We only had two ports on our trip so the next day was a full day at sea as we began our journey back to Mobile.  I was really hoping to see a dolphin or a shark somewhere in open water but that didn't happen.  We did, however, see jellyfish!  There were hundreds of them!  I took the photo of them out of a window on the 9th deck.  There were jellies everywhere.  As far out to sea as I could see.  I don't know how long we had been going through them before I got there... it could have been miles for all I know.  
49/365

The next day we were back in Mobile.  It was sad to leave the ship.  It was even more sad that we still had an eleven hour drive back home to make.  There wasn't much to see but I did take a photo of Mississippi swamp land out the car window.  Neat... different... doesn't compare to the ocean.
50/365

Friday morning was a little depressing to me.  For five mornings I woke up to the ocean... Friday I woke up to grass... stupid grass... and it needs to be mowed.  *Sigh*
We have already started planning our next vacation!

Vacation here I come!!!

Just letting everyone know that I am not going to be posting for a week.  We are leaving in a few hours to drive for 12 hours to Mobile, AL where we will then get on a boat and head for Mexico.  
I will have so many photos when I get back!
I will get caught up on all my 365s as soon as I can... probably the day that I get back.  I will have photoshop on my laptop with me on the cruise so I am sure that I will be editing some every night.  Photographers can't ever REALLY take a vacation.  
I am going to miss reading all your blogs and doing the photo challenges.  This week's scavenger hunt sounded like fun!  Oh well, until next week...


Have a great week!!!!!

43/365 & Texture Thursday

This is a CT photography blog first.  I did not take this photo.  Nor did I edit it.  My husband did both.  These are wooden roses that he bought for me at the county fair the summer that I was pregnant with our daughter.  She will be four in September.  They have held up pretty well.

42/365

Every Wednesday Kiera has gymnastics.  At the end of every class the kids all get stamps on their hands, knees, and feet.  This is this weeks stamps.  Frogs and fish.  Nothing a little rubbing alcohol can't fix.

41/365

I have looked at this lamp and thought that I should take a photo of it a dozen different times and just never have.  Tonight I finally did. 

Touch Up Tuesday

Yet another first.  This is my first time to take part in Touch Up Tuesday.  

Both images were cropped the same.  I then used Coffee Shop Blog's Perfect Portrait 2 and Soft and Dreamy Texture Action with an orange tint.  I added two more textures on top of that. 

Quotography & 40/365

This is my first time participating in Quotography.  I thought that this was the perfect week to start though since the theme was our choice.  When I started to think about what I should use this was really the only quote that came to mind... the photo quickly followed.

I really love that quote.  It makes me wish for a larger bathtub.

After thinking about it, I am also making this photo my 365 for Monday.  I just simply did not take any better photos today.

39/365

Another photo to add to the Country Charm collection.  I played around with this photo for a long time.  I had it in full color, the version above, and black and white.  This is the one that my husband picked.  I wasn't over the top about any of the edits.  It just seems like it needs something, but I couldn't figure it out when I was editing.  It will come to me I am sure when I look at it in a few days. 

Sunday Scavenger Hunt

Things that look like a letter
We visited an old (very old) playground.  This is one of the bars.  From the right angle I thought that it looked like a Z.  Maybe?

Weather
The weather here has been mild all week.  Clouds and a lot of heat but no rain.

Bling
Fairy princess bling.  I was really grasping at straws for this photo.  

Tangled
What could be more tangled than ivy vines climbing up the side of a building?

Dark
The moon and stars.  The photo of the stars is pretty cool because when I looked through my viewfinder I could only see one star.  I set the exposure to 30 sec. and just let it go.  I really like how it picked up the blues and reds in the stars.

38/365

My little model.  This pose was an accident.  When I want her to pose, she refuses.  But she really does pose all the time.  We were out walking and we were all hot and sweaty. I am not sure exactly what she was doing with her mouth but the rest was nice.  Silly little thing... love her!

Paper Mama Photo Challenge: Sweet

This was not the photo that I originally had planned when I started out.  Theory- have her wear the ring pop and hold her hand out in front of herself.  Simply focus on the ring and she would look cute in the background slightly out of focus.  Reality-  The focus on the ring was great.  She was blurry in the background... making the most anti-sweet faces that you could think of.  Luckily her daddy was outside and she decided to watch him out the window allowing me to snap this wonderful shot. 

37/365

I think that I am going to start a series called Country Charm.  This is one of the photos from that collection.  I am looking forward to working on this series.  I already have several great ideas for shots.  I will share them as I go along.

5 on Friday

1:  Of course this week was the 4th of July so I have to mention that here.  We really didn't do much.  No big fireworks or anything of that nature.  Nor did we attend any public shows.  My brother-in-law (he is 9) begged his mom long enough to get some of the smaller fireworks... the fountains and such.  We were over there while this was going on so I did manage to get a few nice pictures.

2:  As you can probably guess from the fireworks photos above, I found something new and fun to play with on the Coffee Shop Blog.  She has a ton of great storyboards and frames.  Something new to play with every week.


3:  Kiera attends gymnastics on Wednesday evenings.  I am mentioning this because this week for the very first time she did a complete sit down, stand up.  This was the first time ever!  I wish that I could have gotten photos of it but I don't take my camera to gymnastics.  Besides the parents are in a room above the trampolines so it would have been an ugly photo anyways... straight down and at an angle.  Blah!  But totally GO KIERA!


4:  This was too good of a photo to not share with you all.  I was going to save it and post it as a project 365 but did this first and didn't want to wait.  I love that it gives the feeling of country relaxation.

5:  I will not have a 5 on Friday next week because I will be on my to Mobile, AL.  We are going on a cruise to Mexico.  Progresso and Cozumel to be specific.  I have never been on a cruise and am super excited!  I will have tons of photos to share though when I get back.


So this week was more talk than photos... boring on my part... how was your week?