Create Something Today

hello all!

Ok...so it's been a super long time since I posted only for me to tell you that I will be back soon ^_^ I have been doing my thing over here. Met a blog sista and I can't even tell you how much I miss her already. Kody did great at the allergist. I never knew he was allergic to cats lol! I know I am :) The girls cleaned their rooms so well I almost cried! And they were so proud! They even made up their beds and put the same sruffed animals on them...so sweet. They also love to lotion me up! Big help because I can't reach much more than 45% of my body as of now! I'm devistated over MJ but I will be ok. That first day was the hardest.....so yeah....Oh, got my bag all packed! I'm ready to go!!! I have a doctor appt. today and it's going to be a doozy.

I hope you all are doing well, I have much to share with you all. Thanks for being patient ^_^ Speaking of thank you's...during the time I spent with my blog sista, I came across an old quote book. Here is a dialogue between Kody and me.

August 4, 2006

Kody: "Thank you"

Me: "You're welcome"

Kody: "Gracias"

Me: "De nada"

Kody: "Thanks"

Me: "No problem buddy"

.....so thanks guys and I will be back in a hot minuet!

-out

so true, so true

lol....yeah you guys are right. Like of course. But you have to admit, he looks mighty....well...camouflaged there hu? I think poor Kerry was scared out of her scrap room over that one  o man...

So yeah, look out for that movie. Alice. Although I'm not sure how many kids will see it but I know my booty will be glued to a seat for sure! It's going to be art plain and simple.

I went to the doctor today. No ultrasound or big bangs. Just the opportunity to ask questions, a strep B test, scheduling of the c-section and some jewelry candy they gave to the kids that made them super chalky all over. I mean they had it all over their arms, faces and legs! I also went to Babies R Us and got some essentials. That part is always fun. The only thing left to do is get my stuff ready for the hospital stay. I don't have my bag packed yet so I better get crackin'

Well, I better go. I'm a bit thirsty and my eyes are sore. I have no idea what's up with that lately but oh well.
Later guys!

-out

guess who?

• I love him
• I was only like 15 feet away from him once. (here)
• I think he is one of the greatest actors ever
• And I love him :)

Who is he?????

freebie: 02

Well, today isn't just Fathers Day ya know ^_^....no but really...Happy Fathers Day guys! I hope your weekend is going great :) I've been taking it slow lately. Enjoying family life the way it is now before it changes forever. It's been swimming and eating out and movies and games and wrestling and toys and everything under the sun it seems. But fun all the way. I usually sit back and watch the action. While snacking on something of course :) Ok...let me get to the point of this post lol!

I have a new freebie for you all. Something super simple. Some Fathers Day inspired brushes.

There are 6 frames + a star and a heart. Just a little something for your projects. These would be super cool to print off too!  You can download it

here: Download Kd_FathersDay_Brushes

If you have any questions or anything then email me and I will get right back with you! :) I made a little something with the 'Remember This' frame

I caught them playing games together in Kody's room. LOVE this picture! So yeah, enjoy the rest of the weekend and I will be back soon!

-out

by a thread

How have you all been? This weekend was super busy for us. We got a new kitchen table and chairs. OMGoodness..the table was so heavy like I felt sorry for DerRick. :( but he did good. At least putting it together wasn't that bad.

As far as me and the babies go...I feel like I'm holding on by a thread to be honest. I mean this recti thing is getting worse. It's getting bigger and it hurts to the touch. I have an appointment tomorrow so they will look at it then. I really don't think there is anything I can do at this point but stay hydrated, and try to relax. The only issue with that is my stomach belt. I've had it for a while now and it helps soooo much with all that belly weight. But now I can hardly wear it because it because it hurts too bad Oh well. Enough complaining :)

I just thought I would vent your heads off real quick and show you a new outfit I put together at Polyvore.

Awwww...comfy. Now this looks like something stylish and comfortable at the same time. Love the silver and blues together.

Well, I'm outta here. I need to clean up a bit. With the help of the Monchichi trio of course ^_^

-out

baby canvas + a lucky boy

Hello all :) I had SUCH a good sleep last night. It's been a while let me tell you what. I woke up only twice and I was like wow..... so yeah, I think I'm feeling extra wonderful today ^_^

Yesterday DerRick surprised Kody with a huge gift. We had been talking about how he did so well in kindergarten. Been a trooper through the allergies. (not to mention the girl who terrorized him on a regular basis) and still managed to finish the top of his class. Ok, ok...so it's not like he was in the last year of high school but still. We are both very proud of him. So DerRick took him to pick out his very own 

 

Ok. So he is over the moon of course. Jumping and skipping all over the place. He was eating a ring pop as we were getting it out of the box and he says "Can you wipe my mouth off so I can kiss it?" O Lordy...here we go ^_^  So yeah, he is very happy :)

Speaking of happy, I'm able to crop again!!!!!! Oh freak yeah be'be'. I took the time to delete all the junk from my computer and BAMB! I'm cropping all over the place. It sure feels mighty good.

And so I'm feeling good because I got some sleep right? Then I got PS to behave. I mean what else can a girl do but celebrate by creating something extra fantabulous? lol!!!! It's been so long since I touched a canvas. Glad I did today. I made a baby canvas here

Hush Little Baby

 

[supplies- Canvas: Michaels; Lace paper: KI Memories, Letter + word stickers, paint, metal baby feet, chipboard circle & heart, ball chains: Making Memories ; Circle rub-ons: 7Gypsies; Jewelry tags: Staples; Metal rimmed tag: Office Depot; Ink: Stampin' Up!; Letter stamps: Unknown]

I'm going to hang this up so they can see it! Um? Wait..they won't be able to for a while lol. But you know what I mean. I made this by

1. ...taking one of those flat 4x6 canvases from Micheals.
2. I prayed it with spray adhesive. I then turned the green side of a swirl lace paper over so that the white showed. I put that on top of the tacky surface.
3. I painted the whole thing a pale blue. Then took some white and painted from the bottom a little ways up.
4. I added white border rub-ons that are hardly visible in the pictures. As I added my second border it liften off some of the lace paper. SO...it's a good idea to make sure your paint is super dry first. I actually like the way it turned out but still :)
5. then I added the title and yes...a butterfly. I might need medical attention. I'm addicted to them for sure!!!
6. I used my Crop-a-Dial to punch holes in the bottom left and dangled a mess-a-stuff there. Stamped tags, charms etc. And that's it!

And just to let you all know, I added three lists to my side bar. Photoshop Action Resources, Digital Tool Resources, Gift Ideas and Useful Downloads. A lot of the links came from this post. The Picasa download is now available for Mac users as well as PC users :)

Alrighty, I'm hungry!,

-out

s-l-o-w

O my goodness. My computer is seriously starting to tick me off. It's running slower than a pool of molasses on a cold winters night let me tell ya. So yeah, I may have freaked some of you out who tried to come to my blog earlier. I was thinking I was going to make some big changes but I got frustrated lol. I just changed the color instead. Can't seem to keep it the same for too long. I did like the purple better though ^_^ So anyhoo...how are you all? What's bee going on? Nothing much here. Very gloomy and rainy so we are entertaining ourselves inside the house.

This post was super short. I will be back soon! Later gaters!,

-out

Drop Shadows + Backrounds

I have another tip up over at One Little Word. It's all about drop shadows on your photos! And I have one more tip for ya.

Are you bored by the backround color in Photoshop? I am. And although when I'm  in regular preview mode and my screen saver shows through, I till get distracted by it. Here are two examples of what I mean:

This is what my screen looks like by default.

 

You can see my screen saver + my dashboard items back there and sometimes it get too distracting. Especially when I'm doing a painting ^_^ 

So when I Switch to a different view mode that get's rid of the back round...

 

I get this. {blah}

 

I mean it's ok. But after a while of seeing it for so long it gets super boring.

So to change that backround I simply select my Paint Bucket Tool. Pick a color. Hold down Shift and click on the backround! I chose a blue color and ended up with this

 

Awww....mucho better. And I can change it anytime I want. The cool part of it is that it stays after you close PS too! So that's neat-o.

A quick note about Full Screen Mode:

It's easier to scale large things down in this view. Also if you have a brush that you want to go off the edge of your project, you can do it in this mode and it won't dissapear from being too large. ( I hope you all know what I mean :) Also...text is a lot easier to work with in this view mode do. I often find myself switching from this to standard because all the other things I have going on are hidden.

Ok...let me stop babbling before I get too confusing lol!

Happy creating!,

-out

swimming lessons and a take over

Ok so let me back track to Saturday. It was a day of shopping again and a birthday party. With a pony? Yeah, I walk up to the house and find a pony eating grass like it was no big deal. It shocked the living caboodles out of me! Maybe it's because I'm a Cali girl and that type a stuff just doesn't happen on the regular but yeah...a pony....And wouldn't ya know I left my camera at home. But luckily my girl Sharron came through and got a few.

 

lol...o man....

 

Chloe' looking all sweet n' stuff :) Below is an example of what I was talking about in the previouse post.

 

The one on the right is what I finished with. I didn't even try to do anything with Kody on the pony. O no sirree. That's quite alright lol!!! I'm not sure what Kennedy was up to at this point but I do know that shortly after Sharron took this picture Chloe' was putting pony poop balls in the pooper scooper. Yeah, so not cool. But hey, what can you say ^_^

So today Kody had his second day of swimming lessons

 

 

He's loving it so far. Tomorrow the girls and I will take a dip as well. I saw this really cute maternity bathing suit at Target. I got my eye it :)

I had a doc appointment today and I have stayed the same weight, 236, for a full month now!!! So my doctor was like. "I have no idea why I keep measuring you [my stomach] you're measuring so much bigger than usual" I asked her about the weight gain or shall I say the lack there of and she said it's all going to the babies! I was like whoa! That explains mucho because I know I've made a couple of fast food stops ^_^ My next ultrasound should be coming up soon so I will figure out exactly how much these boys weigh. Whew....

Well, that's about if for now. Look out for my tip tomorrow over at OLW.

Later,

-out

photography: 01

Now I am in no way a professional at photography. I'm not sure at what point you can call yourself one. But I know what pretty photos look like ^_^ It's all opinionated of course. That's the beauty of photography though, so many ways to get the shot + so many ways to 'enhance' it.

I have always been a natural photographer. No bells or whistles. Meaning...no studio equipment and for sure not the best gear on the planet. I use the light the good earth gives me and shoot. To be honest, photography scares me! In a good way I guess. I never think I'm doing anything 'wrong' when I take pictures but I think that if I was schooled I would get a good solid lecture on what I could be doing right.

To really dive into photography will take some effort. You would need to study and practice, practice, practice. You can't really get passed that part. Depending on what kind of photography you want to do, you will need the right gear. I can't even touch that because I have no idea what I would be talking about lol! A good photo editing program is a must. Especially if you're planning on going into business. A good rout to go would be to take classes and go from there.

The paragraph above does not apply to me ^_^ I would LOVE to do it but right now It's not in the cards for me. And that's ok. I'm just going to tell you how I roll with a couple of examples on how I make my photos shine through actions. Nothing fancy smancy or anything but yeah...take a look at this picture of Kennedy strait out of my camera

 

Now my little Monchichi is the cutest yes? (of course I'm bias n' all :) But uh...this photo could look some better. I mean it's just too dark for my taste. And all the jazz behind her: the hose, and legs, would probably be a 'photography no-no' but like I said. I just do what I do. So green snake looking things are welcome :)

Looking at this photo I know of some key points. 

• I have Photoshop
• I have actions

There ya go in a nutshell. I have Photoshop CS2 and would love an upgrade because it takes over my computer when I run it but that's another post.

Actions are like filters but way cool-er. You click on them suckers and watch magic happen before your very eyes! But be warned...they CAN be overdone. That's opinionated of course but still. Use your best judgment.

Ok...so I tinkered with this picture of Kennedy. I couldn't let her smile in gloomdom any longer. And this is what I came up with

Woooooooeeeeeeee....now that's a huge improvement yeah? All I really needed was a free action set from the fabulous Pioneer Woman. Download post here. 

It's been some days since I edited this photo so I'm not exactly sure how I did it lol. But I used those actions and I KNOW I ran the Slight Lighten a good three times lol. Remember...

1. Try editing your picture at it's original LARGE size. Most actions are meant to work that way.
2. Play with the opacity of the actions. Adjust to taste.
3. Do the eyes and sharpening last.
4. Have fun ^_^

Here are two more side-by-side examples (click on them to see them better)

 

 

The ones on the left are edited. I didn't change the pictures a whole lot. Just enhanced them. That's how I usually jazz up my photos. And of course you have the all mighty black & white conversion

 

 

Some pictures are just meant for B&W. My favorite action for black & white conversion is Robin's B&W. It's free but very difficult to get but if you follow the steps on this post you should be a-ok.

But yeah, actual photography...no real knowledge. Editing? I like to use actions to enhance my photos. BUT I do not enhance all my photos. NO WAY!!! I don't have that kind of stamina or patients. Besides my booty would hurt constantly. If it looks like it needs super help then I go for it. If it's cool then I leave it alone. Perfect example. These pictures in this layout are untouched.

 

So yeah, it's all up to you ^_^

Here are some action resources for ya :)

Action Central (free)

Pioneer Woman Photography (free)

Totally Rad Actions

Itty Bitty Actions

Maggie Homes

Dude...I can't even think of any more right now. But trust me. these are more than you'll ever need ^_^

Software + camera resources:

Photoshop (free trial available)

Nik Color (free trial available)

Lightroom (free trial available)

*** When going to the above sites they show the latest versions only. Shop around for older versions too :)

Canon

Nikon

Alrighty guys. Hope I was a bit helpful at least. Happy snappin'!,

-out