Maya came up with this idea after seeing a cute little parasol out in the Michael’s Arts and Crafts store. Michael’s has the best props sometimes and great prices for fames and mats. We got the parasol and some other stuff and she told me she wanted to take pictures in a pretty dress with white shoes on. I was very impressed with her ability to put together a look after seeing just one element of it. Here goes, Maya as Southern Bell.
Here is my original
I took this with f/5.6, ISO1600 (WOW, surprised myself). Focal length 105mm shutter speed 1/320sec camera Canon 50D, edited with CS4.
Here is the edit
I used Rita’s Coffee Shop Vivid in CS4, brightened the eyes, channel mixed the color.
Thank you in advance for your comments.
Ok, we have been so busy lately, I’ve been taking a very interesting photo class with a world famous American photographer Christopher Verene. It’s been very challenging for me, as his style is not like anything I’d ever do, well never say never I guess. This guy certainly has a lot to give, so I’m all open to whatever he thinks I need to learn to do. First I want to share some new pictures of Maya and say that she is doing great, her speech is pretty much at 100% intelligibility and she is loving school, although she is in an inclusion class (as a model student, make little sense to me why) there are 36 kids in her class, 2 teachers special ed. and regular ed. and 1 aid. Other therapists/teachers come in and out for kids with special needs. She loves her school, loves her teachers, so far we are doing great!
Here are the pics, this year’s Halloween costume, we think. Subject to change without notice.
Here are some pics from our back yard a few days ago.
She is getting into this modeling for me thing now, although she likes to take pictures much better, I’m getting her a camera for her b-day, one of those kid digital ones.
Now down to business, many people want to know how to make the eyes pop in your pictures, well there are a million ways of getting it done, but I have a very simple way of doing it that I’ve worked out after seeing many tutorials. Blue eyes are easier to work with than brown, if you are working with very dark brown eyes, what my husband calls “olive” eyes where you can’t even see the pupil, leave them alone, or if you really want to you can burn the iris with the burn tool and dodge the whites around it with the dodge tool, or you can paint the whites with a brush set to white on 20% opacity with a soft light mode. I’m using Photoshop for this tutorial, but all these can be done in elements as well.
For light eyes you can do this;
I never work on the original, always make a copy of your background layer, if you don’t like what you got, you can always delete the layer. So, go to layer and make a duplicate layer.
Next, zoom in nice and close, make sure your color is set to white with black background, and using your dodge tool, go around the pupil and dodge at a setting of your chose, always use a feathered brush, I’m using 52% exposure, dodging shadows
Next, go to burn tool, select the size you need and the exposure you like, I’m using 37% and burn around the most outer part of the iris.
Next, you’d need to define the pupil a little bit, so use the burn tool again, set the size you need to cover the entire area of the pupil and burn it until it is dark enough to your liking.
Some people like to recreate pupils, I don’t I think it looks more natural to just darken what you have with the burning tool.
Last step is to use the sponge tool to saturate the iris. Just click and hold on your burn tool, select sponge, select the correct size and flow to taste and sponge the eye, make sure you are set to saturate mode.
Of course these example is very extreme, I use large values to really make an impact, in reality you won’t need this much intensity, but this example carries my point across quite well, I think.
This is from a shoot we did in NYC for my friend Anna who is a musician and currently a musical director on Broadway (Jersey Boys). I am so proud of her!
My Goodness, it sure is hard to keep up with posting in the summer time. Well, all is good here. Odessa turned 1, we are still working on her big birthday bash planning, will probably do two in one at the gym, huge jumping castle, sports, face painting, balloon animals, etc. We’ll do it closer to Maya’s birthday. Rob started a new job, we are very excited, hope this one turns out to be the one he stays at till retirement. Maya is doing great with her tubes, so far only one ear infection and her hearing has definitely improved, her speech is much better too, although, still not age appropriate in my opinion. I just hope no one gives her a hard time at school this year, there were some issues in camp, not a big deal I guess. One of her friends told her she was not a big kid because she doesn’t talk like one, she was very upset. She has improved since then though. We’ve been going to the city a lot, to visit my parents and to hang out. Turns out Maya’s favorite place is F.A.O. Schwarz she can’t get enough of that place, they have story time with music and singing (real singing, trust me these people can sing, they must be working nights on Broadway) plus central park across the street, the horses and everything else, she is loving it. Here are some pics of Maya in the city.
Looking up at Manhattan sky still makes me cry, I lived in Manhattan during the attack of 9/11, I doubt I’ll ever be over it.
That’s peacock face paint, after a day of smudging.
Subway chill out.
Bronx Zoo
I know it’s a total picture overload, but who knows when I’ll get a chance to post again. Here are some pics of the baby’s birthday shoot, continued.
Not the best lighting in my dining room but we both tried to make the best of it.
Pondering life…
There really is enough hair to clip a bow to!
Odessa turned one today! Here are some pics of my baby and one of her little cakes. There will be more tomorrow, we got another little cake and a cute outfit to try on. The party will be in a few weeks.
I asked the baby what she wanted for her birthday, just playing obviously, she can’t talk, and Maya answered, “Hair!”
How very nice, she is my comedian.
Here is a pic I edited recently, it’s from a birthday party of a friend’s son.
Before I forget, I’m on Facebook now, come be my friend!!!
So, I’ve set up a new challenge for myself. I wanted to be able to take studio quality pictures outside, with a relatively simple portable setup and no necessary editing after the fact. I tried some things like a tripod with a sheet draped over it and that was cool, but didn’t give me enough background coverage, I needed to edit to get it to look good. Well, I discovered something every photographer should have for a prop. It’s a bamboo rug!
It’s the best thing since sliced bread people! I use two of these rugs 5x8, I lay one down and stand one up on top of the other one in a semi-circle! I drape the fabric of my choice over it and ta-da! Unless there is a strong wind out this setup is very reliable, but I still have someone stand behind it just in case it starts to wobbled, which it doesn’t usually. The kids love it, they find it very interesting, like a tent or something. Here is the final result, please let me know what you guys think.
This one was taken inside, so not so much of a challenge, the outside shots are a lot trickier, the sunlight is stronger and all little things become visible on the image. It’s also a little edited.
This one was taken outside, no editing.
Just for kicks, here is a fun edit of this pic.
Here is one I liked, outside, some editing. Unlike the indoors picture, this one really showed all the wrinkles on the sheet. So, it was either iron the sheet and roll it to avoid wrinkling it or use a heavier fabric, like upholstery fabric, which can be purchased in a fabric store, sometimes for a few dollars a yard, I get 3 yards, it’s plenty.
Here is one with upholstery fabric, outside, very minimal editing.
Here is another image, same set up, only a different F stop, to give the image more depth of field, I was not sure which one is better, I might like the one on top better, although studio pictures generally have a pretty big depth of field.
This was taken on different days, different time of the day, different type of sun, same equipment, notice how yellow the background looks on this picture.
I am not taking any classes this session, so I’m trying to school myself by coming up with these challenges. Now, I need your input, would you bring your kid to my outdoors studio? Want to try to set up your own? Make sure you put your setup in the shade, direct sun will create too much shadows and your kid will squint.
Here are some cool antique edits.
Maya had her post op appointment yesterday, her tubes are looking great, I got to see them with the help of the little magnifying tool docs use. Very cool, everything looked very clean and neat in there, the little tube is right in there, looks like it belongs. Anyhow, I’m happy she can hear better, but I don’t see much of a speech improvement. We’ll keep praying and have her evaluated again next school year, provided there are no improvements until then. Odessa’s birthday is coming up, August 4th she’ll be 1. I am so excited, my baby is getting so big and beautiful. Here are some pics and there are a lot more on my photo website, check them out www.realmemoriesreallife.com
And here is one more fairy from my back yard.
This is going to sound crazy, but here I go anyway. I have some new pets or maybe neighbors, I am not entirely sure what this arrangement is, but one thing is for sure, we have an understanding and it is as follows;
I don’t destroy their home and they don’t sting any of us. Ok, it’s just a small nest that some yellow jackets have built in one of my decorative shells on my porch. I can just see everyone’s expression reading this post right now, call me crazy, but it’s working out great so far.
Here is the picture of the shell they call their home.
Sometimes the shell gets knocked over by the wind, I guess, and they are all swarming around all confused and upset (ok, I’m crazy, we’ve covered that part) so I’ll pick it back up for them and they get back in there right away all happy and cheery. Ok, I’m not afraid of them, maybe it’s because I’m not allergic, I don’t know, but I’m telling you, they know me!
How else would you explain that I am able to turn the shell over, photograph them inside and put it back down without any issues. They don’t even move when I touch the shell!!!
How cool are they and it’s not even a zoom lens! It’s 100mm f2.8! They totally love me. Mutual respect, works every time!
Here is a cool picture of my fairy princess.
My apologies for my horrible tardiness in posting lately, but I have been so busy with the business picking up and Maya being out of school and in her little camp for only 2.5 hours a day. My Mom has been away too, so not as much free time as I’d like, plus it’s so nice out, we try to do a lot of outdoorsy things too.
Here is the round up, Maya got her tubes!!!!
The whole procedure took 30 seconds, she only had the nitrous oxide for the anesthetic. She came out of it fine, it took her about 15 minutes to get up and walk out of the hospital talking about getting a new toy. So far I don’t see a huge improvement in her speech, but we have all the time in world to work on it. She is doing great, making new friends at camp, having lot’s of play dates, etc. I feel things are coming along great.
The baby is now taking the bottle! How cool is that? I can have someone other than me feed her now and it only took 11 months :). She is getting bigger and stronger, still not eating much though. She can stand while holding on to something, but doesn’t try to walk. She is very curious and there is definitely nothing wrong with her hearing, so far, knock on wood, she turns her head to the slightest noises and tries to investigate, scooting closer on her butt.
I shot a beautiful Baptism the other day and designed an album all by myself, here are some of the layouts I really loved.
They are such a beautiful family, I hope they have lots and lots of babies! There are hundreds more pictures and a lot more collage layouts. It was so much fun, I can’t begin to tell you. I might be doing another Baptism soon, this one is for a little boy and I have two weddings coming up too, very excited. I always did what I loved, for work, that is, but this is on my terms and it makes so much of a difference, I can’t begin to tell you. If any of you guys are interested in learning how to make these let me know, I’ll do a short tutorial, most of this can be done in elements.
As I mentioned earlier I recently started a photography class at a near by College. It’s a summer session class, so lots of the people who take it are kids from other schools who just need to pick up some cheep transfer credits from random subjects, most often than not they care very little about the class or about their grade, all they need is a C- to transfer the credits. There are a few mature students like myself, who are there for fun and profit as well. I was talking to a few of the younger kids and they were all like, “ I got Photoshop CS4 for free of the rapidshare site, you can get anything there…..”
I don’t have a full version of Photoshop cs4, and it is a requirement for my class, they supply it at the school, but it helps to have it at home and since I don’t, it’s a bit of a problem with homework assignments. I’m feeling all blue about it because there is no way I can afford it right now, even the student version, still too much money. So, I - the old fool, decide to look into this rapidshare thing and basically it’s shady to say the least, but that doesn’t stop me, so I try to get the cheap membership and see if I can get Photoshop for free, I get all happy. I give them my credit card info and they decline it. I was surprised initially, but happy in retrospect, thinking, “ Why did I even want to go that route? Oh, yeah, free Photoshop.” Anyway, minutes later my blackberry is blowing up with new e-mails, from crazy vendors I’ve never heard of, confirming my memberships to places I never signed up for and thanking me for my fist monthly payment!!!!
Oh, no! I start calling them, but it’s late at night, no one is available anywhere. I was so upset, now I have this huge debit card problem, I’m all freaked out, I call my bank and inform them of this development, they freeze my account and file fraud claims, they also suspend my existing debit card and give me a new one. Now I’m feeling happy, because I’ve solved my big debit card problem, still no Photoshop, but now I’m happy without it, crazy ain’t it? The best way to solve a small problem, apparently, is to create an even bigger one and overcome it, then in all the relief and excitement the small problem will seem completely inconsequential.
A few minutes later I get an e-mail from a friend who informs me that she found a great site where you can get a Photoshop cs4 download for $100 bucks. I laughed and wrote her back about this whole thing I had just been through, she writes back assuring me this sight is legit and very helpful. Finally, I give in and check it out, it really says $99.90 for Photoshop cs4 extended download. I was pretty stunned and very skeptical, but I went for it, and I am glad I did, I now have perfectly functioning cs4 extended and I didn’t use a shady site to get it. It was not free, but it was a lot more affordable. I still don’t have a debit card though, but it should be here in 7-10 business days,lol.
If you are interested, the site address is http://sun-oem.com
Here my very first Photoshop cs4 extended edit.
Back a few months ago Tami did this Lazy round up post and other people linked up, that was a neat idea, so I’m doing it today, although I’m not linking up. I guess it’s not really lazy it’s more of overtired, sleep deprived, emotionally drained, disappointed and somehow still functioning round up, lol.
To begin with Maya’s IEP was taken away, which means she will not be getting speech therapy anymore, it also means that if we want her to get it we will have to get her reevaluated and go through all of the processes all over again, fun!
Maya will be getting tubes put in her ears on the 17th of June, hopefully it will solve her hearing problems and help with speech as well. Her last hearing test showed mild conductive hearing loss in one ear only. I am not sure that’s the cause of her speech problems, thought her speech has gotten much better lately, I have to admit, but still not 100% intelligible. The committee meeting was a joke, they knew from the start they were going to deny her, why they held the meeting - I don’t know. They provided me with a parent advocate, whom I have met several times at social functions, she was completely useless, she said nothing the whole meeting and at the end when I was about to tell them all to go you know where, she decided to tell me to be happy with their decision because they know what they are doing! Ha! What a way to advocate!
Everyone was supportive of us, the speech pathologist, the pediatrician, Maya’s teacher and the audiologist, and we got nothing, because her scores were age appropriate and that is all they cared about.
I am trying to stay positive and think and pray that by the beginning of Kindergarten she is all set and 100% intelligible. I will try to work with her myself, but it’s not the same when a parent does it.
The baby is doing better, eating better, sleeping a little better and she cut her first tooth a few days ago, my little busy bee. We go to the gym and she stays in the nursery while I work out and Maya takes her swim lessons, the baby never gives them any problems, I think this will be good practice for nursery school, I’ll be putting her in when she is 3, we have a free program at the public school.
I started my photo class, it’s really great, I am learning so very much. I am able to work in manual camera settings, I understand how everything works, almost and I’ve taken some great pics lately which I‘ll share at the end of this post.
My Mom and my aunt are still having a really hard time, they are going through my grandmother’s things and cleaning out her house, it’s been really hard on them. I can’t imagine what that feels like. I can’t be very helpful to them because I am here with the kids and when I bring my kids with me than I’m there with my kids and too busy taking care of them to help. That makes me feel useless.
My website is looking good, a lot of positive feedback and a lot of customer form submissions, very encouraging. www.realmemoriesreallife.com
Here are the latest pics, hope you like.
I decided to host a give away this week, I’m thinking it will cheer us up a bit. My Mom’s birthday was yesterday and I want to celebrate by having a give away here.
The rules are
1. If you are a follower, leave me a comment or two or as many as you wish, don’t forget to wish my Mom a happy birthday! Mention which prize you’d like to get.
2. Mention this give away on your blog.
3. And don’t forget to check back in on Tuesday 5.26 morning next week.
If you are not a follower, become one and then follow steps 1-3.
And the prizes are:
1. A picture frame for your child’s spots activity, includes a picture of your child and a picture of the team.
2. A beautiful 16 page 12x12 photo album/scrap book with magnetic pages.
3. And, of course, the prize of all prizes a $25 gift card to Target.
I’m sure we all have seen one, but here is a picture anyway.
Good Luck everyone!
I am starting to come out of my coma little by little, today I’m keeping Maya home from school and we are taking a short day trip to a nature reserve by our house, I’m also trying to fit in a small shoot in that trip, will see it mashes well with the customer’s plans. It’s a beautiful day out and I’ve been thinking about my grandmother nonstop since her passing on Saturday morning. She is free now, free of her pain and of everything else, everything that clutters your mind and doesn’t let you see the forest for the trees. She is free and I am trying my best to rejoice in that, but thoughts of my childhood with her keep coming up, the pink flowers on her windows, her cooking, the way she said my name….. It’s just so hard to let go of all that, of her…..
I wanted to share these pictures with you guys, they are from the past two weeks. When we went to the park, the river beach and fishing with Maya’s big cousin Mike.
No fish or frogs were hurt in the making of these pictures.
This is the time of the year when many little 8 year old boys and girls have their first communions and it’s such a special this for a kid and their family. I had the pleasure of shooting another communion this weekend. This one was for my beautiful little niece, she is such a gentile soul with the most expressive big brown eyes. Here are some pictures. Her wonderful parents arranged for a very generous celebration, it was a lot of fun and a huge privilege to be their guest and to be their photographer.
God Bless you sweetheart!
Maya had her ENT appointment and we are in the process of scheduling her tubes surgery sometime in the next few weeks, I am told it will be quick and that she will not be intubated for this. She will get the gas mask and will only be out for a few minutes. Pray the everything goes smoothly.
When I was at the ENT with Maya, I asked the doctor to look at my ear because it was acting funny, turned out I had an ear infection. He cleaned it out and gave me a prescription which I could not fill because it required a pre-authorization. I’ve never heard of that before, got to call him later today, oh well, they better think of something because my ear needs the help! It’s no big deal really. We saw our new pediatrician this week too and I was not impressed, think I’ll keep shopping around. Please say a prayer for Maya’s surgery to go without any issues.
I was very sad to hear and passing of Kayleigh Ann Freeman, I am praying for her family and I take comfort in the fact that her pain is over and that she is with God enjoying his complete, eternal and infallible Love.
This Saturday was my first official photography job. I took pictures of my niece’s first communion. It was a pretty easy job because I was shooting a beautiful girl and her big loving family, during the most amazing experience of her life, not to mention her parents are the coolest people in the world, so all that made my job very much enjoyable. And Kim, if you are reading this, thank you for letting me take part in your celebration! Here are some pictures from Saturday, all comments are welcome.
This one is her photo album cover, I love it. God Bless you baby! This was a blast I had a great time shooting this and putting everything together, plus I was very generously rewarded!
In other news, Maya had her audiologist appointment and we found out that she still has fluid behind the eardrums, her hearing is at about 90% in the left ear and about 50% in the right ear. We’ll be seeing the ENT next week, we’ll see what he has to say about the tubes.
Kiesha’s blog now has a button, I just added it to my side bar, it’s way cute!
I did mine too, so grab my button before you leave!
Here is my edit for this Fix it Friday using Photoshop Elements 7, I got the CS4, but I am so attached to the Elements, can’t stop using it.
Original
Edited
Now, it’s your turn, head over to I ♥ Faces and give it a try.
This award was presented to me by Carrey from '>Life in the carpool lane for respecting Mother Earth and as Maya would say “recircling”. Thank you Carrey for the award and for blogging about green living, you rock!
…. my new photography blog/site is officially open, lol, click here to visit.
I wasn’t sure what season it was this weekend, because I went from sleeping with the heat on to sleeping with the windows open. Seriously weird stuff!
Anyhow, we had a really nice weekend. Maya had a birthday party at a local private sports club and after visiting I’ve decided to join on monthly basis. I know Rob really needs this out of all of us, he works so hard and never gets to play :(
It’s also great for the kids, they have an amazing nursery and a great activity room, a hot tub, a huge pool with all the kid stuff, all kinds of lessons for kids including yoga, they do parties of several themes, amongst them wet and wild, which would be awesome for Maya’s b-day in October. And somewhere amidst all this fun, Mama can loose 10 lb or so for herself. So, I’m doing it!
Here are some pics from the party.
There are more great shots, but I’m trying to avoid posting pics of other people’s kids. There were several classmates of Maya’s at this party, the b-day girl included. I made all of them personalized CDs with their pictures, they are all so cute! She had a blast there, imagine how much she will love coming there a few times a week, plus the pool. It’s cheaper than any camp I can find and the pool is an indoor pool, so no worries about sunburn and sunscreen, I hate using that stuff, once you know what goes in it, oh well, it’s better than skin cancer. So, today, Sunday, that is, we played in the back yard and here are some pics of Maya, I will take some pictures of the baby too when she wakes up from her nap, I’ve been waiting to take some pictures of her outside in the grass. I’ll add them to this post later. Also, Maya’s special education committee meeting is scheduled for May 26th, same day my photography class starts at the Community College, that should be a fun day.
I know this is a total picture overload, I am sorry, but I’m just loving this weather and all the greenery! None of these pics are edited, I know they can be much better with a little TLC, but no time right now.
Here are some pics of the baby in her beautiful pink outfit, thanks aunt Marina!
It’s too sunny here!
Way too sunny!
Hello? Too sunny!
Thank you, finally, I only had to say it 5 times.
ok, come here, let’s play!
Hope everyone had a nice weekend!
Here is another project from I ♥ Faces.
The original photo of the most precious cooing baby.
I miss this so much already, even thought it was only a few months ago that my baby was this small.
Here are my numerous edits, ‘cause you know I can’t do just one, lol.
1.
2.
3.
What a beautiful face!
Now, it’s your turn, head over to I ♥ Faces and give it a try.
MckMama posted recently about prayer, if God already has a plan, what is the point of prayer? Although God’s plan may not be the same as yours it is important to remember that God’s plan is the perfect plan and your plan is not, our simple minds can not fathom the greatness of God’s plan. God is aware of everything, past, present and future, God has computed all possible outcomes for all things and came up with this. This is what we are living and even if we may be suffering today, if things don’t seem to go our way, it is still for the best, God wants it this way because anything else would be worse. God is Love we were created with so much love, God is abundantly generous with His Blessings, He loves us and plans our lives to be victorious, full of joy and happiness. Think about it, the ones you love, do you not want them to be happy? Sure you do! There is pain in our lives, but when it comes we have to remember that we are meant for glory, for love, for happiness, we are Blessed, our Heavenly Father wants us to be happy, is doing all possible to make us happy, we just have to TRUST IN HIM, in His Love. God hears our prayers, it’s important that we pray it’s our only way of speaking to God, He hears our prayers and answers them in His own way, regardless of what you ask for, God will give you more, it’s already in the plan. We don’t know what is possible in our lives until God shows us. God’s ways are not our ways, we may be praying for health insurance, but instead God will cure us of our ailments. We can not always understand God’s ways, but if we trust them our suffering will subside. God wants us to pray to let him know we have surrendered to his will, to tell him what we want to see happen in our lives and in lives of others, God rejoices when we speak Blessings over our children, our family and friends. And with that in mind I want to ask everyone to pray for:
My dear friend Kiesha who has lost the use of her legs recently, pray for healing. Pray for her children and her family.
Baby Stellan who is fighting heart disease at the age of 5 months and for his family.
Baby Kayliegh and her family.
Baby Veiyah and her family.
And anyone else who needs you prayers, love and support.
Also, please say a prayer for my grandmother who is in really bad shape and is in the nursing home once again.
God Bless
I don’t know what else to say other than I am shocked and saddened beyond all reason about the current development in Kayleigh’s condition. If you are not familiar with Kayleigh’s story click here to read the update and if you are familiar with Kayleigh’s story, please pray for her and her family with all you got. If you like you can copy this picture and put it in your praying for Kayleigh post, she needs all the prayers she can get, let everyone know she needs them.
Thank you
This post is part of "Laughter Lives! Tuesday" on the Riggs Family Blog. Check our their blog to read everyone else's "Laughter Lives!" posts.
I am joining Tami in her lazy round-up meme today. The reason why I’m doing it is because much like many other bloggers I know, I just can’t get as many post out as I’d like lately, so here goes.
1. Odessa’s tear duct is officially open, no more pus, no more swelling or dry skin around the eye. She is growing up so fast, I took her for a walk around the block and people were coming up to me saying, “That’s not a baby, that’s a big girl!” Kind of makes me want another baby, well, not really. Here is my big girl’s picture
2. Maya is doing great at school and her hearing seems to have improved, I’m going by my own observations, not an audiological exam. We’ll be going in for one on Maya 5th. Maya is having a lot of attitude issues with us, so time out time is here big time! She told me she wants to take ballet classes again which is great ‘cause I really think she needs to do some sort of dance, she’s got rhythm. We are looking at camps for her right now, so far we have two choices, her old preschool and a summer program for classified kids, we do have to get classified first, pray that we do.
3. I started buying props for my photo business, even though I feel ridiculously unmotivated lately, I need to get a job, I say there is something in the air. Anyway, I got this fur rug, it looks like a bear skin rug, only it’s beige. Here are some pics I took using it for a background.
4. I finally got my workout videos, Core Rhythms very cool stuff, I did a little today and loved it, Maya loved it too. My goal is to drop 10lb, which should put me at about 150lb, I’m 5’10”, so that would put me at size 6, I’ll be happy with that in the summer. I’m sure my father will hate it, he feels the more of a woman there is the better, his words, not mine. I grew up in a Dominican neighborhood, anything under a size 14 is just not worth looking at to the guys over there. I like being able to squeeze into the largest size available at Guess jeans, I know it’s a funny mark, but that’s how I do it.
5. The CVS people finally got back to me with an apology, but no coupons lol. I wasn’t really expecting any, but a friend of mine told me she got some when she had a problem there.
6. In conclusion, this weekend I hung out with my beautiful little cousin and we did a little photo shoot, tell me this girl is not the hottest thing out there!
So, if you are like me and can’t seem to post often enough, join in the fun at Tami’s blog and start keeping up.
This is a very simple trick that I wanted to share with everyone. Often times your over all picture looks great, but one important detail, like someone’s face is too dark and you just want to lighten it up a bit, here is how.
We start with the original
Let’s say we want to lighten up Maya’s face.
We go to brush tool
Select these settings
The size of the brush is up to you, but you do want to set mode to overlay or soft light, or even hard light, depends on the effect you are after. I just want to lighten up her face, my opacity is at 22% in this case. You al so want to make sure that you selected the right color to use with your brush, I like white and sometimes yellowish-white if I’m trying to make it look sunny.
Next I start to paint over her face with my brush tool till I’m happy with the results.
Here is the before and after.
Hope you’ll find this helpful.
I am just so overjoyed with the results of my participation in constructive feedback on I ♥ Faces , I had to share my new edit with you guys and even though I might have gone a bit overboard with this one, I have learned tons!
Here is the picture
I am loving this portrait now, thanks so much everyone, can we do this again next week?
Here are some of the pictures I took today, we had a little shoot for my girls, I decided we needed some together pictures, so here goes.
I used a function called vivid from the Coffee Shop to edit these pictures. I got a lot of functions that I use everyday from this phenomenally talented woman and I highly recommend you checkout her blog and her work.
![[I_Heart_Faces_Feedback.jpg.jpg]](http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_e8uQ573dyZk/Sd8-9f4nA2I/AAAAAAAAB-Q/ab5T5_Np96Q/s1600/I_Heart_Faces_Feedback.jpg.jpg)
Here is the picture of my 8 months old Odessa - Princessa.
Original
Edited
I took it in my bedroom where there isn’t a lot of light. My settings were f/5.4 1/100 sec ISO 1000 135 mm, I think, not really sure about 1/100 sec part. I edited this picture with elements 7. I like this picture, but I’m dying to know how I could make it better. Thanks so much.
Click here to see everyone else’s work at .
I am going through a bit of writer’s block lately. Well, not just writers block, but an over all creativity block, since I have been sleeping less and less lately. Odessa is up a lot at night and her naps are getting shorter everyday too. She has a cold and I’m sure the teething is getting worse too. She wakes up at night and stays up for 1-3 hours before falling asleep again. She used to wake up to eat and go back to sleep which was not so bad, now she just stays up, food or no food. I tried putting her in my bed, she was even more miserable there, Maya was the sane way, sleeping with us never worked for her, till she was about 3. I’m doing Easter this year, for the first time ever, usually we go out to my sister in law’s house, but this year she is not doing it, so we decided to do it. I am very excited, I’ll be making leg of Lamb. I’ll take pictures and post them later.
I’ve been kind of down lately, very tired, very busy and just out of it. I felt like I had no goals and it’s hard for someone like me to not be working towards a goal. Of course, my kids and family obligations are goals, get them fed, dressed, exercised, played with, bathed and tucked in those are my everyday goals. They are very important goals but I felt like I needed something else, maybe something for myself, so I decided that I would take a class at the local college, a digital photography class. Very exciting news for me. I’m planning to go back to graduate school too(not for photography), when Odessa gets a little older, but right now I’m starting out small, one class twice a week, summer semester session 1. Once I’m done with the class (possibly several classes), I’ll really start a photography business. I was thinking to do just a few days a week, 2 or 3 at the most, if I’m shooting a wedding, just one day that week. Really slow start. I’ll assist another photographer a few times next month to learn in practice. That’s the plan so far.
Maya is on spring vacation all this week, so lots of fun for her. She loves candles, I never burn candles in the house, my cats like to brush against them and set themselves on fire, true story, both cats have done that. So, now we don’t do candles, but she begged me the other night and we lit up one of my decorative candles, she was fascinated with it, here is a picture of her, it’s very Rembrandt he-he.
Happy Easter everyone!
Today is Odessa’s 8 months birthday. My baby is getting so big, she can sit now and eat bitter biscuits all by herself! If you think about it she is 8 months chronologically, according to her birth, but factor in the fact that she was born 5 weeks early and developmentally she should only be 6 months and 3 weeks old. She is doing so well, thank God! Her entrance into this world was a rough one, but being Blessed as she is, she has overcome all the challenges. My only remaining request of her is to start eating solids the way she should, she still eats very little. Here are a few pictures of the birthday girl.
Happy birthday little one, Mama loves you!
Here is this week's original
Here are a few of my edits using Photoshop Elements 7
1.
2.
3.
Adding one more, last one, promise!
This was a really fun edit, hence the tree versions.
Now, it’s your turn, head over to I ♥ Faces and give it a try.
Odessa is teething, she stopped eating solids almost entirely and only nurses now. She is really miserable and only takes one nap a day, it’s a long one, but it’s only one. I would love to post a picture of her, but she’s been so unhappy, I’m afraid it’ll be a really sad picture, plus the flash makes her extra crabby. She does still enjoy her baths though.
Maya is doing great! I had a parent teacher conference this afternoon and apparently she is doing very well in school. Hearing that made me very happy, even though she can’t hear well she is still keeping up! It seems that everyone is on the same page with her disability status. The speech pathologist will recommend more therapy and the teacher is in agreement as well. The committee meeting will be held in May sometime, God willing, she’ll get to keep her classification and get therapy next year. Apparently, I need to demonstrate that she will regress when without therapy, if I want her to get the services during the summer. I have no idea how to do that!
After the conference we played in the yard a little and I took these pictures of her on the tire swing. Remember when you were a kid and were able to completely disconnect from everything while on the swing? Like if you had homework and you didn’t know how to get it done, or if someone was mean to you, or if there was something you wanted but couldn’t have. Once you got on the swings it would all disappear, because you were having so much fun? Ok, maybe it’s just me, but you still got to love these pictures.
And here is one more from the other day, titled “Why not, Mommy?”
She looks so much like her big cousin in this one, let’s call this cousin Sporty spice, as I don’t have her parent’s permission to post about her, but here is a “faceless” picture of her.
She is a real good kid, we should be so lucky with Maya down the road.
That’s exactly what Maya announced to a diner full of people while holding up her biohazard bag with an empty cup in it.
We had a doctors appointment and they suspected a UTI, but later changed their mind after checking her ears and seeing the horrible ear infection. However, Maya was not about to let the bag go, she liked it too much, so she took it home and when we stopped to pick something up at the diner, she shared her excitement with about 30 unsuspecting people. I was mortified, we were there for 10 minutes waiting for the pick up order and the whole time people didn’t stop laughing. Maya got her antibiotics and is feeling much better now, poor thing had an ear infection and strep.
For those of you interested in the hula-hoop I use, it does exist, and it does work quite well, but don’t get the really heavy one right away, get the recommended for your weight or lighter.
These hoops are the coolest thing ever, they just melt the fat around your waist while you are having fun.
I was tagged by Kiesha from 30 Something and Still Finding My Way and by Carey from Life in the Carpool Lane. These two amazing ladies have been faithful followers of my blog and are very encouraging and supportive of my photography efforts and ambitions.
Here are the rules of this tag:
I need to link to the persons that tagged me.
I need to share 7 things people may not know about me.
I need to tag 7 people to share 7 things and link to them.
I need to let them know they've been tagged.
My seven things:
1. I hate to work out, it’s a very taboo thing to admit to, almost not PC, but it’s true. So, to stay in shape or to appear that way, I dance and do the 5lb hula-hoop.
2. I hate amusement parks, I only go to watch my kids have fun and take pictures. I hate rough rides, especially water ones and rollercoasters. I’d rather go to the beach and swim.
3. I was an art student before someone important convinced me that a life of a starving artist was not for me and I switched to science. Let me tell you, there is not that much more money in science and a whole lot less freedom.
4. I love to cook but I don’t like to eat my cooking, I’m not a bad cook, this kind of goes with everything I make. I don’t like to wear the cloths make (sweaters mostly), I put it on once and give it away.
5. I don’t like it when my foods touch on the plate, it’s just not very pleasant looking when your green beans have mashed potatoes all over them. I know I’m a basket case.
6. I am an only child and swore I’d have more than 1 kid myself. I knew I’d have two daughters before I met Rob. When we designed my ring I put 2 pink sapphires on either side of the diamond for each of my girls.
7. I didn’t start driving till I was 27, no need for a car in NYC.
Ok. now it's my turn to tag people.
Kat from My Turbulent Twentys.
MiMi from He and Me + 3.
Kristi from My Three Sons.
Erin from Erin, Ben and 4 Little Men.
Stephanie from Baseballs and Tutus.
Lauren from The Murchison Family
Muma Meee from Muma Mee blog
I was not planing to do a not me Monday this week because I've been so busy, and I just found out about poor baby Stellan's troubles. I know there are thousands of prayers being said for him all over the world right now and ours are among them,
I’m joining in kind of late, there is a lot going on around here lately. My favorite moment was when I left my computer on with Photoshop elements left open. Maya got in my chair and she wanted to “make colors”. So I told her to go ahead and surprisingly she was able to do some really cute things. I filmed her with my cell phone. Here is the video, don’t mind the mess on my desk. I call it “I’m a PC and I’m 4 years old”
When watching this video, turn off my music player on the sidebar in order to hear the video, you might need to turn up the sound a bit, it’s a cell phone video.
Yesterday I took some pictures of Maya playing with her cousins, it’s so cute, her cousin is almost 6 and he is such a little man. He was holding doors for us and helping Maya climb up rocks, it was sweet.
Sneaking up on geese together.
And his big sister took care of Odessa, she loves babies and she is so good with Odessa.
It was a really beautiful day out yesterday, much cooler today, brrr.
I am so excited! I decided to make this post into a meme. Here we go, I'm pumped, alrighty than :)
If you like this picture style and you have photoshop elements 7, then use one of your own pictures to make it antique using this tutorial, make a post and show off your new creation then link up to me with the Mr. Linky at the end of this post to let me know you are playing. If you don't have Photoshop Elements 7 go to the Adobe website and download the trial software, you'll be able to use it for 30 days for free, then you can either pay for it, or let it go. There is a third option, but my husband has very strong feelings about me posting it, so I'll respect his wishes today and not post about it.
Here is my button, unfortunately I don't know how to put the scroll down window with code in my post, or anywhere in my blog for that matter, so please just post a link to my blog the old fashioned way. By copying and pasting this
Welcome to Weekly Edits! This blog carnival was created by Tanya. You can visit her blog Maya and Odessa to see what she and everyone else has been editing.
Thanks so much and sorry for the inconvenience. And if someone can teach me how to put the scroll down code window in I'll be forever grateful. I hope it's not a paid service provided by Mr Linky tho.
Here are the antique picture I created.
The truth is I am not good enough to tutor anyone and the reason why I have several versions of this picture is because I was trying to figure out how to do this myself!
I learned that there are many ways to get this effect, so here is the fastest simplest one.
Start with your original,
Next, click on create adjustment layer and choose Hue/Saturation
Next, adjust Hue to the color you’d like your picture to be tinted with, in my case it’s a yellowish-green tone. My hue setting is at 55, on Master color setting.
Next I adjust the saturation, till only a tint of color remains.
Next, I will use the eraser tool to erase the hue/saturation layer from Maya’s coat. Make sure you have the hue/saturation layer selected,
and click on the eraser tool, on the left sidebar.
Select a fuzzy stroke in the top left corner by clicking on the stroke box below the pse sign and the little house.
Begin to erase the hue/saturation layer from the coat
until you achieve the desired effect.
That’s about it. Hope this helps, like I said there are a lot of ways to achieve this effect, but in my opinion this is the easiest.
Here is a video of my baby trying to feed her self as she tells me what she really thinks about my feeding job. She usually hates to eat, I never realized she wanted control of the spoon!
I’ve not been very diligent about posting lately, I’ve been feeling a bit overwhelmed with everything, but I’m feeling better now. It is possible that we will have medical coverage as early as next week! I spoke with the enrollment rep. yesterday and she told me everything was in order and that I would be receiving my letter and cards in a week. I am very excited, tough skeptical, hoping nothing happens between now and next week, keeping my prayers going. Thank you all for your support and prayers.
The girls are feeling better, Odessa is eating again, she was refusing solids for a few days, living on breast milk alone, so I was loading up on all kinds of nutritious foods and vitamins, hoping to give her everything she needs. She is doing great, I on the other hand, have gained 5 lb. Wonderful arrangement!
Maya and I went to church today when it was completely empty, it’s so nice to do that sometimes, so peaceful. We lit candles, wrote prayer requests and prayed for Grandma. I took some pictures too.
A long time ago I had a picture editing software which had an action called antique photo, I have since forgotten which software it was, but if one of you guys knows, please tell me, I love that particular antique photo function. I threw this together in elements, it’s not as good as it could be. I couldn’t find a set function for this in elements, again, if I missed something, let me know, I need all the help I can get :)
Here is the original
I am going to photograph two first communions in May, I’m very excited. They are for my two nieces which is even more exciting. I finished their invitations last night, haven’t gotten any feedback yet, I hope they like it. Here is one of them in the sample form.
I’ve actually created a lot of cards lately, it’s so much fun!
I don’t think I’ve ever introduced you guys to my fuzzy babies. Their names are Lili and Lulu and today I’ll introduce you to Lili. She is a fluffy fuzzy mutt and we love her. Here she is cleaning her face.
The last picture is done up a bit, but she didn’t even need that, she is so beautiful!
I have some really cute moments this week. I took Odessa with me to a store while Maya was at school, on the way back Odessa fell asleep, I felt bad taking her out of the car seat, because unlike Maya, Odessa wakes up easily while being moved. So, I let her sleep while we were in my driveway, we had an hour to wait to pickup Maya from the bus, so I turned off the car, it was really warm out, and we just sat there. I had my camera and I saw some really cute little birds flying around the bird feeder in my neighbor’s yard, so I took a few pictures. These guys wouldn’t let me get too close, so the pictures are not as good as they could be, but still cute.
I love these little guys. I really enjoyed that hour while my baby slept so peacefully and the birds kept posing for me :)
My Grandmother is feeling much better, she is not on dialysis anymore, she being treated for this virus they think she has, her pain is more manageable, we are hoping she can come home sometime soon instead of going to a rehab facility for the aged. The girls are sick with colds again, I am praying we don’t need to go to the doctor again, we already owe them too much money, having no insurance since January. Today I got a letter in the mail, they want some additional information in order to make a decision of our qualification for the insurance we applied for. I got really worried at first, I was thinking, “Why do they need this stuff, I gave them enough info, what’s going on, is this going to drag out the process, is this their way of turning me down?” But now I’m starting to realize that it’s really out of my control, I can only pray on it and jump through whatever hoops they put in front of me. The bottom line is God is in control and He has never forsaken me, every time I asked I got more than I could have hoped for. It didn’t always come the way I wanted it to come, but it always came without a fail, so I am faithful that we will be okay. Please keep praying for us. Thank you.
In conclusion, the vote are in and the poll is closed, #2 is the official winner, coincidental it is also the picture I used in the template, so you can see the exact card at the end of last post. Thank you all for playing.
And now that you've shared my moments with me won't you please go over to Pam's blog and join in the fun!
I am in the process of designing Odessa’s Baptism invitations. I got the image I like, but I need help picking the edit. Here are the finalists, please help me pick one. I’ll also post the card template with one of the pictures. I’ll make a poll and put it in the side bar, please vote and leave me a comment about which one you liked and why. Thanx so much!
#1
#2
#3
#4
Here is the template
I have been so out of it lately, can’t even gather my thoughts to make a real post. Too much going on right now, but I guess everybody has a story, right? Anyway, I will just share my most concerning issues, my grandma is feeling better she was extubated yesterday and breathing just fine, the kidney function is still bad, but we hope will improve soon.
After the latest ear infection and cold Maya’s hearing has become terrible. I think she has lost all hearing on one side. Having a conversation with her is close to impossible, I have to repeat myself constantly and sometimes she still doesn’t get it. I can only imagine how difficult it is for her to play with other kids. She must be dealing with a lot of rejection. The good news is that once she gets the tubes it will all be over, the bad news is we still don’t have medical insurance, we should hear something by the end of the month, please pray we get the coverage.
And now the wordful Wednesday Photoshop theme. If you want to join, click the button above.
Here is a picture of a view from the park in NYC, this is the park by where I grew up, it’s a very beautiful and unique place. I bring my girls there as often as I can. It may not look like it was edited a lot, but trust me it really was!
Here is a picture I took to use for thank you cards. When I have a lot of thank yous to write I make my own cards. I also do this for party invites and other things.
Here is the card I made with this picture, I an in the process of getting these printed now, having some computer problems it seems.
Next is a picture of a little birdie, when I started working with this image the bird was hardly visible, I had the camera set to a different setting, but saw an opportunity to get this shot and took it.
Here is a picture of my beautiful sister in law and her husband with my baby, also may not look very edited, but it really was.
I like to use my Photoshop to bring out the best of what is already in the picture, but is not visible yet, if that makes sense.
Lastly here is my big princess and her very first big girl necklace, other than her Baptism cross which she is not allowed to play with. This necklace was given to her by our dear neighbors who are also the owners of the bird feeder posted above.
Originally the chain is gold and the turtle has a green stone for a shell, but I like this deep blue. If you guys are interested there is a really cool blog where you can get free actions for your photoshop and elements, here is the link http://coffeeteaphotography.blogspot.com/. I got a whole bunch of stuff from this wonderful lady and use it all the time.
This week my moments are all in pictures. We finally made it out to the park today and here are all my moments that I did not miss.
Maya loves the swings, she knows how to swing on her own, but hates to watch me standing around doing nothing, so she she lets me push her :)
I call this one “face to face with the beast”.
Rob was throwing her up in the air, but it looks more like a scene reenactment from the Lion King :) Yet another new hat, I ended up making 5.
That’s my great moments this weekend.
Unfortunately I have a sad moment as well, I lost the only pictures of my Grandmother holding Odessa when I reformatted my hard drive and now I don’t know if I’ll ever get another picture of them together. I pray that I do.
And now that you've shared my moments with me won't you please go over to Pam's blog and join in the fun!
I wanted to post again today to ask you guys for your prayers for my Grandmother. She is in the ICU, she is intubated and on dialysis. Her blood pressure is out of control and they have asked us how we feel about keeping her on life support should she need it. They seem to think that this is all a result of a virus which they can treat and she could recover, there is that chance. Please say a prayer for her and for my mother and my aunt as they are in a lot of pain watching their mother suffer like this. Thank you all for your support.
In other news today, Maya had her ears pierced last night. She asked me repeatedly to have it done and last night I finally gave in. She didn’t cry, she was about to, but excitement outweighed the pain and she stopped herself from crying. She picked out little heart earrings, not what I would have picked out, but it’s her ears, this much freedom I allow her.
While the girl was piercing her ears she saw Maya’s birth mark, inside her ear. It’s a cross, like a Catholic cross, the girl looked at me funny and said, “Did you do that?” I thought to myself, “Did I tattoo my kid’s ear? Well, I think piercing should come first!” I said: “No, God did that.”
And Last, but not least here is Odessa in her new hat.
This is my second week participating in fix it Fridays. This is a picture of a precious little boy. Here is the original
Here is my edit
And here is my edit using Photoshop Elements 7. This picture I didn’t want to make into a creation type of thing, just wanted to get the most out of the photo without making it look like a painting or a print. I used Level adjustment on the boy only, lightened the face, used blur tool to even out the skin tone, sharpened the eyes, lips and hair, made sky bluer using the soft light layer, created a mild illusion of reflection by adjusting levels around the face and blurring out the edges with a fuzzy clone stamp, enhanced the color of the eye. I cropped the picture as well. I am very sorry to say that I was not able to use all of the actions I downloaded to my Photoshop elements, I can see them, but I can’t use them, very disappointed. So, I’m making do with the bare minimums here :)
So, now is your turn, head over to I ♥ Faces and give it a try.
Since we are on the photo topic today I wanted to ask everyone’s opinion. I’ve been taking pictures with a decent camera and using Photoshop elements for editing only a short time. A friend of mine who’s been self employed as a professional photographer for about 10 years tells me I’m good enough to assist him on some jobs and that he would even let me do some editing. I need the money! I am excited, but skeptical, here are some pictures I took and edited recently, I would like your honest opinions, please, do you think I could hack it? I love my pictures because I love everyone in them and they always look beautiful, but that is a very biased opinion :)
Thanks guys
We participate in "Pray for Me... Pray for Others" on the Riggs Family Blog. Check out their blog to add your prayer request. Join a community of friends who care about you, and hope you will care about them.
In Maya's own words, "we need to put a small baby in the toy room and surround the baby with stuffed animals, then we walk in the room and say, "Where is the baby?" And she has to make a sound, and then we look for her."
In closing, my baby is seven months old today and here is her picture in one of her new hats. She just learned to take them off, so they don't stay on longer than 10 minutes, but it's long enough to take a picture.
If you guys are not using Windows Live Writer to make your post you must try it. Tho it is entirely possible that the entire civilized blogging world uses it and I just found out about it today, either way it is way better for picture posting, there are size options, tilts even cropping and exposure settings. I edited this post using it just now, wow! You just download it to your computer and write your posts in it, that's it! It has lots of other options too.
And here is my edit, oh she melts my heart. My Odessa is about the same age.
Here is my rundown;
I used Photoshop elements 7
1.Remove scratches and blemish from the shoulder with healing brush.
2.Auto Contrast
3.Level Adjustment to lighten up the face.
4.Sharpen the eyes, eyebrows and mouth, by using Lasso tool -Enhance-Unsharp Mask, settings Amount 50, radius 3.5 pixels.
5.Adjusted Saturation to mellow out the redness in the cheeks.
6.Used blur tool to smooth out the redness of the face and the shine on the forehead
7.Used burn tool to mellow out the sharpness of the flash in the iris of the eye.
8.Added background as an extra layer by overlay, used eraser to clean that layer off the baby, used the fuzzy stroke on eraser tool to soften the transition from baby to background.
9.Used smart brush tool and more detail function to make the face pop a little more.
So, now is your turn, head over to I ♥ Faces and give it a try.
To this
Andrea was also very helpful with some tips for Maya's speech therapy continuation.
Tammi and Courtney were also very helpful in this matter, I can't thank you guys enough for your input. Maya is in dire need of help where speech is concerned, not so much on paper (testing wise) as in practice which makes it much more difficult to keep her services going.
And finally the funny moment!
I was done giving Maya a bath, the water was draining and I was ready to rinse her off with the hand held shower. I felt the water and it was warm enough, so I started to rinse her off, and she started to play the Diego game. This game goes like this, she is the animal that needs help and I or Rob are Diego, she screams, "Help me Diego!" And we have to help her. The onset of this game can be sudden and unpredictable, it can happen in the supermarket, in the car or in her bed. This time it happened in the bathtub, she starts screaming;
Maya: "Help me Diego!"
Me: "I'm right here, what kind of animal are you?"
Maya: "Help me please, stop the water!"
Me: "Ok, almost done, what kind of animal are you?"
Maya: "A cold one, the water is too cold, help me!"
Apparently, the water got colder as I was showering her, it sometimes happens in our house. She cracks me up with her Diego stuff!
And now that you've shared my moments with me won't you please go over to Pam's blog and join in the fun!
We participate in "Pray for Me... Pray for Others" on the Riggs Family Blog. Check out their blog to add your prayer request. Join a community of friends who care about you, and hope you will care about them.
Here is one of the baby relaxing on the bed.
I know how blessed I am with a loving husband and my beautiful daughters, but I've been really down lately, because of all the financial difficulties we are having and the absence of medical coverage. I chose to stop working and now it seems I couldn't find a job even if I wanted to, which I do not, since there is no way we can manage without me at home. If I did full time daycare for the both of them it would be disastrously expensive not to mention hard on the kids and if Rob worked any more than he already does, we would never see him. I am really concerned, but I'm sure we'll be ok, no choice in the matter. God willing, we'll be ok.
Thanx for listening or reading rather :)
She still looks so cute even with the attitude which she does not have.
BTW, we did make it to school, I drove her in, but I meant to anyway, because I had to talk to the teacher about Maya's speech therapy, which the teacher will support, yay!
It seems I can't finish this post today, lots of stuff going on. My grandmother is getting really out of control, she is not well at all and the aid can't handle her. My mother and my aunt are so upset and so am I, but I am sure it's worse for them, I don't know what to do to help, there really isn't anything I can do. I think Grandma will have to go back to the nursing home and I know she doesn't want to, but at this point ....
I know not me Mondays are about fun things, but I am so frustrated and just had to get this off my chest. Another thing I wanted to get off my chest is this, apparently I offended this really sweet woman by a comment I made on her blog and it was really not my intention, I never mean any harm, and I am truly sorry if caused her any grief. I commented on her blog to let her know, I hope it helps.
Back to not me Monday, I did not get unreasonably upset with Rob because he removed the baby's car seat and her little kick frog mirror from my car and didn't put it back in the next day. I didn't then apologize and make him his favorite dinner. What kind of message would that send?
The school nurse did not call the house earlier today and tell me that Maya's eye looks pusy, she probably did not catch this from the baby, the baby has this thing because of the blocked tear duct, I am so calling the eye doctor!
That's all for me, so if you have something you did not do, and you want to share it with everyone, you can head over to MckMama blog to read what she and everyone else have not been doing this week.
I had to add to this post because I remembered something absolutely hilarious that happened this week. I was at the library with Maya and Maya had a t-shirt on that read "Ukrainian Princess". An older woman came up to me and said, "Why do you dress your Italian child in Ukrainian cloths?"
I was blown away, before I could come to my senses and answer she was called on by her grandchild and walked away. I called my Mom and told here about it, she laughed, so I started seeing the humor in that, but at first I was like, my "Italian" child?
This post is part of "Hi/Lo Thursday" on the Riggs Family Blog. Check out their blog to read everyone else's "Hi/Lo" posts and for a chance to win $100.
Take one food dye container, pick your favorite color :). We used blue, if the water in your toilet is already blue, use red or yellow. Remove the top of your toilet tank and drop some food dye in the tank.
Close the tank and do not use this toilet for 1-2 hours. When the time is up check the water in your toilet and if it looks like this,
That means you have a leaky toilet and you are wasting water and paying for it. Your toilet doesn't have to make a lot of noise to be running, it can be a very quite leak. If in fact you water turned a different color, you would need to replace this thing,
This plug-like thing is called a flapper and you can get it at Home Depot or any hardware store. Now isn't that easy? I'll post more about plumbing in the future, Rob tells me there are lots of easy things you can do at home to prevent calling a plumber.
And in closing, SPRING IS HERE!!! I took a picture of this guy growing in my back yard, isn't he cute?
Here is my beautiful baby, not having a great time during tummy time.
I hope you guys like these.
I just wanted to tell you all that when I started this blog less than 2 months ago I thought this would be a cool way to stay in touch with friends and family. I thought I would post some pictures once in a while and maybe write a few lines about the holidays we've had. I am so glad that it's so much more than I though it would be. I am so happy to have blog met each and every one of you, it's so great to be in the company of such wonderful people, thank you all for coming here and spending time with me and my family, thank you for praying for us, thank for all your encouragement and for signing up to follow my little blog.
We participate in "Pray for Me... Pray for Others" on the Riggs Family Blog. Check out their blog to add your prayer request. Join a community of friends who care about you, and hope you will care about them.This post is part of "Laughter Lives! Tuesday" on the Riggs Family Blog. Check our their blog to read everyone else's "Laughter Lives!" posts.
If I think of anything else I'll add it to this post, but right now I'm coming up blank and I'm really tired. Good night everyone.
I saw this contest posted on Mimi's blog and decided to enter my babies, the theme is Wonder this week. To check out the contest click the button above. Here are the pics I chose.
This is a great theme for Maya because she is such a space cadet! 
I'm entering two pictures of each kid, I hope that's allowed, I couldn't find the rules of the contest, I must be very tired. Averaging 4 hr of sleep a night for the last few days.
I know Odessa is wondering what's on her head.
She is liking these a whole lot, ate 2 eggs the other day and was very happy to do it.
Here is my happy customer.
How do I love him let me count the ways.
Bon Appetite Daddy, here's your heart shaped chicken parm and a whole lot of brown rise, just like you like it.
There sure is a lot of drama in my house, Rob says he trips over drama every morning when he gets out of bed. Maya is such a drama queen! Not me, of course :).
Happy Valentine's day everyone!
With Much Love, from all of us.
Ballerina
Hard at work 
I got you Mom!
This post is part of "Hi/Lo Thursday" on the Riggs Family Blog. Check out their blog to read everyone else's "Hi/Lo" posts and for a chance to win $100.We participate in "Pray for Me... Pray for Others" on the Riggs Family Blog. Check out their blog to add your prayer request.
This post is part of "Laughter Lives! Tuesday" on the Riggs Family Blog. Check our their blog to read everyone else's "Laughter Lives!" posts.
Later she told me he was a prince and she was going to kiss him to bring him to life.
I figured if it works we could have him shovel the driveway, but to my surprise it did not!
and some of this
If you are taking the subway you might see this
and if you are out after dark, some of this
and if you are driving over a bridge after dark and happen to be stuck in some traffic, there would be this
However, you might also run across some of that
Oh well, we were not that far from grandma's house, all was restored, wet feet, socks and boots.
Today, however, the mermaid mania has subsided dramatically, and we decided to make some fried dough, Maya was in charge of dough "roughing up" you'll see exactly what I mean in a moment. I had so much fun doing this with her today and she seemed to like it too, I was very tempted to ask if washing the truck is just as much fun for her, but I held back. I don't think I can handle hearing a "yes" answer to that question, just kidding!
Fried dough with powder sugar and chocolate syrup drizzle, so delectable!
Smells like banana!
Got your nose sis!
My poor boo-boo.
The original Tinkerbell
Last but by no means the least, my baby is six months old today! She celebrated by eating an ounce of mashed banana. Here she is in all her glory,
Happy 1/2 birthday my Love!
We participate in "Pray for Me... Pray for Others" on the Riggs Family Blog. Check out their blog to add your prayer request.This post is part of "Laughter Lives! Tuesday" on the Riggs Family Blog. Check our their blog to read everyone else's "Laughter Lives!" posts.
Unfortunately, the wedding was not going according to plan, the parlor lost electricity and had no generators. It was the end of June, pretty hot and humid outside yet still better than inside without air conditioning. We waited a few hours and then decided to proceed by candlelight. The brides maids and grooms men had made their way down the isle and it was Maya's turn. She walked in the chapel and said very loudly,
" Mom, I'm hot and I can't see anything! I can not throw petals down because I can't see where I have to go!" It was said in the manner of "I can't work like this". The whole room shook from people holding it in trying not to laugh. I put her on the path down the isle and she said, "Ok, that's better"I gestured to her to be quite and the rest of her performance was flawless. The electricity came back on shortly and a good time was had by all.
During the reception after my nephew's conformation Maya felt compelled to make a speech. She looked like a little angel once more;
Maya insisted on using the microphone and positioning herself in the middle of the dance floor. I expected that she would get shy once she got there, but I was wrong. Maya was very comfortable, she took the microphone and put it to her lips and proceeded to whisper incoherently. I tried to couch her to say, "Congratulations Michael, we love you", but she continues to whisper. Now I was the one getting shy in the middle of the dance floor, trying to pry the microphone out of her little hands. Finally she gave it up and as everyone applauded she suddenly screamed from the top of her lungs, "Happy Birthday Michael, we love you!" She was a big hit at that party.
These next two fiascoes didn't take place at a family event, but I'm posting them anyway.
It's a bird, it's a plane, no it's....
When Odessa first came home she weight in at under 5lb, she was tiny and very yellow. A visiting nurse came the next day to check on her. The nurse put down her things and set next to me. Odessa needed a diaper change, so I laid her down on the couch where I had a changing pad, coincidentally that was also where the nurse had set down her purse. As I was changing her diaper Odessa sneezed and a big load of florescent, yellow, stringy, breast fed poop flew out of her butt and landed right on and in the nurse's purse. I was mortified, the nurse thought it was funny.
In the shower
It was a snow day and my husband was staying home from work, school was cancelled, so all of us were home enjoying family time. Maya was very excited about playing in the snow.
I was cleaning the kids bathroom and Rob was taking a late shower, in our bathroom. My cell phone rang and Maya picked it up. It was my auntie, she asked Maya if I was home.
Maya, "Yes"
Auntie, "Can you give her the phone please?"
Maya, "No, she is in the shower."
Auntie, "What about your Dad?"
Maya, "He is in the shower too"
Auntie, (I hope with disbelieve) "What are you doing?"
Maya, "I'm going to play in the snow!"
By then I heard her on the phone and came downstairs to see who was on the line, my aunt was very amused.
I did not forget to put some money aside for the much anticipated Home Depot bill. And when confronted about it by Rob, I did not come up with perfectly sound explanation and recovery plan short of nothing but a power point presentation. And when walking away from me Rob didn't say: "You forgot all about it didn't you?", no he didn't.
"Look at me, I can sit!"
Watch me dance!
We participate in "Pray for Me... Pray for Others" on the Riggs Family Blog. Check out their blog to add your prayer request.
This post is part of "Laughter Lives! Tuesday" on the Riggs Family Blog. Check our their blog to read everyone else's "Laughter Lives!" posts.
