another photoshop tut!!

I'm about as happy as I can be, Tammy from Scraptivity has I think started(I hope a regular feature) on her blog photoshop tips. Today was defogging. Very cool, thanks so much Tammy! I love learnign new stuff, I am such a sponge!! I tried it out and I can definitely see the difference. Here is my before & after

Very cool Tammy! Thanks so much for sharing!!

Not up for mother of the year!

The photo says it all I think!! yep that's m'boy with his juicy leg stuck between the rails of his crib!
For those who don't know, we've been having trouble for oh say the past 9 months getting him to sleep at night. We have tried everything, cry it out, pick him up, put him down, pat him, rock him sing to him!!! Oh it's been tough! He's been sick for the past couple of days too... but I knew he was good and tired today when I put him down for his nap. I heard him crying, which isn't anything new... but Brianna also wasn't feeling well so I was staying down with her to cuddle, hoping and praying that he would settle himself down in a few minutes... well he cried for 10... while I tried to keep Brianna calm as she needed medicine and had a fever... well suddenly the crying stopped.... I grin and think what a great mom I am... I actually let him cry it out and look it worked, he fell asleep. So I finish up with Bree, and think I'm going to go and check on him and see how cute he is... and this is what I saw. The poor little thing was wailing for me to come and unwedge his leg from the bed!!! I managed to poke it back through and crawl out on my hands and knees so he didn't see me, and he fell back asleep!!! Adventures in mommyhood!

photo challenge

I was just over reading Crystal's blog and she had a photo challenge to use your camera to it's "fullest". As I'm still learning how to use my new camera, this is a great challenge! I am totally hooked on taking pics... so much fun!! I got some good depth of field on this one I took of my oldest and dearest friend Gayle on Monday. Brianna & I went to have lunch with her, and I asked if I could snap a few shots. Her home is in Hockley Valley, so nice to be out in the country!! (if you click on the photo it will open up bigger in a new window)
Isn't she a cutie?? single too (we need to hook her up with MR AWESOME!!!)
Thanks so much for the challenge Crystal! I hope Tuesday photo challenges become a regular thing on her blog!

Beautiful day!

You never realize how much you miss the sunshine and nice weather until you've had a week and a half of cold rainy blah!!! Today is glorious! And sadly(but not really) I am going to be spending the entire day inside working on the June kit for Scraptivity! I'm so excited to be the guest designer for June! What a thrill! I got my kit yesterday despite my annoyance at canada post!(They left a card in my mailbox saying they tried to deliver but I wasn't home... I was home all day!) Anyway, it's here and it's beautiful and I am having so much fun!


I'm also trying to get back on track with Weight Watchers. Ih ave been on hiatus for about 2 months now and some pounds have already started to creep back on! I am not going back to what I was!! Nothing tastes that good! And besides I have no clothes left in bigger sizes to wear so I just have to get back on it again! My weight loss buddy and I are going to email each other our daily points to help hold each other accountable! I think this will work, as lately I have just been slacking! IT's so easy to just be lazy... I want better though!

My scrapbook table(aka dining room table) is calling me!!

blog surfing

Is so much fun! I love when I have some extra time in the day to check out what neat stuff people are sharing on their blogs!! I was reading HeatherM's blog yesterday, and she shared a technique she had learned from JessicaSprague's Blog. Man I love when people share cool stuff!!! Jessica had shared photo masking and this neato technique in PS to make a photo look handtinted... sooo cool! what a neat effect! Here is what I came up with. I love the soft effect this gives this photo! I think I may have to use it in a layout soon! A big Thank you to Heather & Jessica for sharing this neato technique! I am a photoshop junkie and just eat this stuff up! I will definitely be tuning in regularily to Jessica's blog to learn more!!

Happy Mother's Day!

Happy mother's day to all the moms and Moms-to-be out there in blogger land!! It's our day to take off and be appreciated!!

My family spoiled me, even after I said not to get me anything since Chris just got me the new camera. First gift, Ian slept through the night... we have been trying every different strategy to get him to sleep... and nothing worked, last night... we did nothing and look he slept!! And I got to sleep in! I havn't slept through the night since I first got pregnant in Nov/04, so yes I consider this the most precious gift!!!

Christopher picked up some scrapbooking items, gardening knee pads and a book... then he dropped the best news... "oh and I don't think you should go back to work in the summer". He has been thinking about this for a while apparently. It has been my hearts desire to stay at home with my kids, especially while they are small... and enjoy them! We're mostly certain we don't plan on having any more children, so this all makes sense. We're not entirely sure how we're going to afford to do it financially, but we're trusting in God to take care of the details.
Walking by faith, not by sight.
I couldn't have asked for a better gift. I keep welling up with tears every time I think about it. This means so much to me, and to our family. I know we're going to have to make sacrifices for this to work, and maybe I can do something in the evenings... but this just feels right. I know we have to be faithful.
best mother's day ever!!

Thursday

Thanks Stac for letting me know that the link to the photos wasn't working, I have fixed it now. I need to change the colour of text so you can actually see where the link is... oops!


I just got a great CD from Jamie(Heather's dh) who we travelled with to FL. He burned all the great photos that they took of our family while we were away too! Thank you so much you guys for that blessing of photos!! Greatly appreciated!You took some amazing ones. I already have them off to be printed so I can scrapbook them.
One of my favourites goes along with this photos of this baboon. Isn't it a great photo?? You'd think I'd need to have a really BIG lens to take something like that right??? well I got to use the lens of my DREAMS! We were at the Lowry park zoon in Tampa Florida and we were walking around enjoying the animals, snapping photos as you do. Well there was this guy walking around with the BIGGEST camera lens I have ever seen. He had a guy carrying a bagful of supplies ... so I figure he must be a professional for some magazine or soemthing. Well my darling husband goes up to him the next time we see him and says, "my wife has major lens envy!" They guy was awesome, he smiled and glanced over at my wee little new Nikon... and said, "hey why don't you hook up the body of your Nikon to my lens and take a few pics?" Patti's jaw drops to the floor!!! and so I did, and took this photo. The guy worked for some autism site and was taking photos I think for a calendar for fundraising. I wish I had have been paying better attention to what he was saying so I coudl ahve looked him up. I felt a bit like charlie brown listening to the adults(you know the wah wha wah wha sound they made?) It was such a cool experience! Here is the photo of me with the 800 mm lens...

If you click on the photos, they will open up in a new window, much bigger.



and a family pic of us on the boat when we went looking for dolphins.

We're back!

Had the most wonderful vacation! The kids were good! The weather was perfect! The company was fantastic! Just what I needed!!

I have uploaded my photos to my ofoto account and tried to write a blurb about most of them if anyone is interested in seeing them,
http://www.kodakgallery.com/Slideshow.jsp?mode=fromshare&Uc=10uu2phq.88htqunu&Uy=1y47h2&Ux=0

Here are a couple of my favourites too
Ian is having some major separation anxiety, so I'm typing 1 handed. Will try to update more later!