Wordless Wednesday

Decorating with Portraits

I started following Kristen Duke Photography a a few months ago because I think her photos are beautiful & they inspire me in my attempts at portrait photography.  She has been doing a series of posts about  how to decorate with portraits and asked for submissions.  Desiring to glean some insight from her experience, I sent her a couple photos of my living room & shared my decorating strategy & struggles.  She featured them today!  See what she had to say HERE.  Thanks Kristen...One of these days I'll dare to go BIG and get the large horizontal portrait you suggested! 

I Heart Faces: "Collages"

Mom n Me Monday

Momentous Monday: Week Two

This week I soaked up the giggles of my baby; lingered in the hugs of my girls; breathed in the smell of my husband.  The moment that I cherished above all others this week however was this...

Jasmine, my second born, is my "spirited" child.  She has attitude; she is independent; she is stubborn.  She can be the sweetest little thing in the world--she just exudes sugar--but it has to be on her own terms, in her own time.  There is no forcing anything with her.   As such, the hugs are fewer, the kisses quicker &  the loving words are fleeting.  Thursday, I was sitting in the recliner feeding Acacia & Jazzy was sitting at the bar eating breakfast when I heard her say something but I didn't catch what she said.  I turned to her and asked her to repeat herself.  In the sweetest little voice she says, "You know what, Mama?  I love you."  I was a puddle.  I told her that I loved her too and that she just made my day so happy!  She smiled and continued eating.  But I...I held that moment in my heart for several minutes just soaking in the sweetness and wishing I could carry that moment with me forever.

Read other bloggers' Momentous Monday moments by checking out the links HERE.

The way to this bibliophile's heart

So...my husband is great!  For many reasons but one of the ways that he is great is his handy-ness.  Not only did he basically remodel our kitchen by himself but over the past few years he has demonstrated his love for me through the building of shelves...lots & lots of shelves!   

I am a book fanatic.  And an avid organizer.  Shelves are my good friends.  My husband is a fantastic maker of shelves.  He knows that the way to my heart is through the act of providing a way for me to organize my books and other items!  He'll try to tell you that his shelves aren't right or that they were pretty basic but don't let his perfectionistic comments deter you from acknowledging the blatant truth--his shelves are fantastic and they make my heart so happy it could burst.   Please let me show you all the shelves he's provided me since we moved here nearly four years ago....

This is the wall that started it all.  When we moved here from Colorado I had totes & totes & totes & totes full of books...my husband, my father, & my father-in-law all were a bit sorer from carrying heavy tote after heavy tote down to the basement of our new home.  After a few months I was itching to get them out of their plastic prisons & out in the air where they belong so, while I was out-of-town on Saturday shopping with my parents, Russ built a wall of shelves.  I was so thrilled!

Then when I redecorated Eden & Jasmine's room two years ago I asked him to hang some shelves on their wall.  I painted them white...he did the rest. (The brown shelving unit is a cheap Target unit that we bought before we moved here and has since fallen apart.)

I, also, decided that it would be more efficient to remove the closet doors & have Russ build shelves in there to hold totes of toys.  I was VERY happy with the results.

And because I was so happy with Eden & Jasmine's closet...as time wore on I determined that I must utilize this same system in our closet and then Acacia's closet.  And Russ lovingly accommodated me by fulfilling my requests.

During our remodel I got a hankering for some more book shelf space (specifically for the girl's books) so Russ took a break from working on our kitchen to build me a custom, movable, stand-alone bookcase.  It started out in the girls' room but when it became clear that they aren't old enough to take good care of their books it was moved into our room.  I love it!

I recently requested shelves in the coat closet and in our makeshift pantry.  As always...he came through and blessed my heart!  (The white shelf in the pantry was a pre-made thing we took off the wall of our old kitchen & screwed to the wall in our "pantry".  He built the other shelves.)

I've already put in my request for the next shelving project...more bookshelves in the basement.  (I have A LOT of books and will get a lot more over the course of the next several years as I begin homeschooling in the fall.  Plus I can't go to a Goodwill without bringing home at least one book!)

Anyway...don't I have a great husband?  He's certainly captured my heart and blesses me in so many ways...building shelves for me is just one of the things he does that makes me admire him all the more and I just wanted to brag him up!

Love you so much, honey!  I appreciate all your hard work.  *smooch*

Every last drop of light

Photo Makeovers

 For today's post I thought I'd participate again in Pixel Perfect's weekly Before & After blog hop.  I love this hop because it is amazing to me to see how much work actually goes into making a photo really pop.  The difference between SOOC (straight out of camera) & the post-edit shots can sometimes blow your socks off!

Sometimes on my photos I barely do anything except maybe up the contrast a bit;  other times I like to give the whole photo a makeover.  This week, since I have more young adults & senior portrait sessions in my future, my photographic goal has been to learn how to "makeover" these young people in my photos to make them look their best & downplay some of their temporary blemishes.  I have been practicing on some photos I took of my sister a few years ago.  I thought I'd acknowledge my photographic learning process here by sharing one of those photos in this week's blog hop.

What do you think?  I use Paint Shop Pro 9.  Any advice from other photographers who know the program how I could improve in this area?

And don't forget to go over to Pixel Perfect's blog & check out what other people can do with their photos.  It is so much fun!

Eden's new bangs

Eden's hair has always been a problem...

First of all my kids have not been blessed with long flowing, fast growing hair...oh, no!  Instead they have to wait until their 2nd birthday before they can even claim to have hair!  On top of that Eden was cursed with her father's double crown & my unevenness.  The hair on her sides has yet to truly reach her shoulders.  But the one lucky thing is she did not get my cowlick so she has the ability to sport bangs.  I have cut/trimmed her hair very minimally and have tended to be extra cautious when I have taken scissors to it.  But after having several people ask me if we were growing her bangs out, I decided that perhaps it was about time I attempted to give her "real" little girl bangs.  So I did.  Unfortunately, Eden hates them.  She just cannot stand having the hair sit on her forehead! She spent a half hour crying about it this morning before dance class and she spent a good portion of the afternoon complaining about them & trying to push them out of the way.   I'm hoping she'll get used to them.  I spent half my life trying to force bangs in spite of my very, very horrid cowlick so it pains me to see her training them to fall to the sides.   But if she still insists in a few weeks that she doesn't like them,  I guess I will let her have her way & grow them out.  What do you think?

More Cute things my kids have said

March 15, 2010:  Last night Jasmine was worried about monsters & pirates; Eden 'reassured' her by explaining "There are no monsters & pirates in our world--only bad people."

March 23, 2010:  I was singing the alphabet song to my girls skipping every other letter and Jasmine speaks up and say, "Mommy, stop it!  That's making me frustrating!"

March 25, 2010: Jasmine is the queen of random comments. Eden & I were talking about how Daddy & I love each other & got married and got kissed and Eden says we didn't have any kids and then my tummy got big and we did have kids and then Jasmine speaks up..."No! Monsters don't have three legs!"

March 27, 2010:  Russ was playing with Jasmine and she said, "Daddy carry me in there!"  He asked her "why?" She answered, "be just cuz." 

 

March 28, 2010:  Eden: "Is God a cloud?"  Me: "No, God made the clouds." Eden: "Is God made of gold? What color is He?" Me: "God is all colors because God is Light." Eden: "I want God to be a cloud."  I told her that God could be in the cloud but wasn't actually the cloud itself.  She says: "I don't know what God looks like." Me: "I don't know what he looks like either."  We discussed the nature of God a little bit and then I told her, "I think He sparkles like a diamond!"   Eden replied "No, I think he has skin & has a brown thing on him.  I asked her what the brown thing was and she eventually got across that she was talking about a rope that went around his robe.  I kept trying to get her to explain further and she started getting frustrated.  Finally she rolled her eyes, crossed her arms and said,"Oh, just forget it!"

 

April 5, 2010:  At lunch today Eden said, "I'm just going to drink water. I don't want juice because it will make my brain fall over dead."

 

April 13, 2010: Eden (who is suppose to be cleaning her room) comes out and asks, "What did the cow say when he went over the house?" I said, "i dunno, what?" "Moo!" I laugh at her & she smiles to herself. She then asks, "What did the cow say when he jumped over the moon?" "what?" She ponders a second with a little grin..."ummm...... moo!" I laugh..."Go clean your room."

 

April 14, 2010: Today while Jasmine was getting dressed she says, "I'm completely compared." I have no idea what she meant by that. I think she was just trying to sound grown up! :p

 

April 14, 2010: Eden just called her rotini, "Doingy noodles"! I like that.

 

Making a beautiful case for having a large family

One of the blogs I follow is Storing Up Treasures,  which is written by Courtney, a mom to ten children...some adopted, some biological.  Today her post is called "The Greatest Gift" and I thought it was beautiful and worth sharing.  Please visit Courtney's blog & be blessed, as I was.

"Momentous Monday": Week One

My blogger friend, Tiffany, at 'A Moment Cherished' has started a new blog hop called Momentous Monday in which we highlight for our readers everyday moments that we have cherished during the week...In her own words she writes what inspired this bloghop,

"James 4:14 talks about how our lives are just a mist. God has used that verse to impact me in my mothering and roles as wife and homemaker in very significant ways. Because my life is just a mist, I want to make sure that I am doing everything I can to preserve and cherish the everyday moments. I do not know what tomorrow holds, but today I can count my blessings, find the glorious within the mundane, and cling to a moment cherished."

This week I have purposed to noticed everyday moments with my children that I know I will look back on as they grow and be the small things that I will miss.  Since a camera is never far from my hand, I tried to catch the essence of a few of these moments in photographs as a way to cherish them longer even as they slipped as water through my fingers.

Tuesday, I watched as Jasmine carefully, one-by-one picked up her Easter coins with her precious toddler fingers and placed them in her piggy bank.  I reflected on how quickly those little sticky fingers will morph into the hands of a little girl holding a fistful of cash to a woman with her own bank card.  Aww...how I love these tiny, smooth, grubby hands.  Moment Cherished.

 

Thursday, I filled my Ipod with music and started it playing while I picked up the kitchen.  In no time my girls had turned the dining room into their own personal dance floor!  Mommy HAD to join in!  We country swing danced to 'Alabama'; we ska danced to 'Five Iron Frenzy'; we rocked out to Elton John's "Crocodile Rockin"; we slow danced to 'Rosemary Clooney'.  Moment Cherished.

Saturday, I let the girls help me make supper (bbq chicken & corn).  Eden put the corn in the pot of water and Jasmine (dressed in her dress-up clothes) poured the Bbq sauce over the chicken.  She got it all over the counter, too, but how wonderful it was to share the dinner preparations with my 2 year old!  My girls delight me when they willingly desire to help.  Moment totally Cherished!

What moments did you cherish this week?

Please hop on over to Tiffany's blog and check out what everyday moments other bloggers have cherished.