Monday, January 18, 2010

Adobe Lightroom...


is AMAZING!!!  I am using the trial for 30 days, and though there is MUCH more to discover, I have finally found a way that I like some of my wedding photos!  Yay!!

Here are a few I've played around with a bit this evening:


























I know they are no where near what other people can do, but I think it's at least an improvement...right?! Or am I delusional? ;)


Sunday, January 17, 2010

i heart faces "family" challenge

I've decided to start taking more pictures, and especially more creative pictures. I found a great blog that has contests every week, so I am going to try to take up the challenge of doing it every week, whether I post them on their site or not.



The theme on http://iheartfaces.blogspot.com/ this week is family. You can see more entries here.

This is one of my favorite pictures of Daddy and Baby G. Baby G was so happy that day, just smiling away, and Daddy was taking such joy in his little girl.

Friday, January 1, 2010

Reading Challenge Wrap Up

With all that's been going on the last month, I'm proud to be LESS THAN a month late for this wrap up post! Even though I didn't read very many of the books that I had on my list (wait, I think I only read one on there, come to think of it!), I feel very successful because I finally made time for myself and to enjoy one of my very favorite activities. It was some much needed "me" time, and I read whenever and wherever I could! In the bath, blow-drying my hair, whatever! I even once asked J to take care of the baby cuz I needed a break, and I read for over 3 hours...straight!!! I don't think there's been much in the last year or so that I have been able to do for that long!!

That being said, these are the books that I actually read/listened to:
The Guernsey Literary and Potato Pie Society (Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows)
The Color Purple (Alice Walker)
Odd Mom Out (Jane Porter)
Julie and Julia (on CD) (Julie Powell)

And the books I partially read are:
Cure for the Common Life (Max Lucado)
Pride and Prejudice (Jane Austen)
Finding Your Purpose as a Mom (Donna Otto)

I absolutely loved TGLAPPS, and had to keep reminding myself that it was fiction! Thought they did a wonderful job of making very real characters, and I found myself looking at the last page to check to see if the end was what I thought it should be!! I NEVER do that! I guess I just needed to know that everyone would be ok.

The Color Purple was...different than I had anticipated. I hadn't heard anything about it, other than, well, just hearing about it! It was a heart breaker for quite a while, and I think I actually missed quite a bit of it. Not sure if I will go back to read it to catch what I missed, though.

I was also really disappointed in Julie and Julia. I listened to the first few chapters on CD and then took a break because of all the bad language. As much as I hate bad language in books, I think it is SO MUCH WORSE to hear it read out! At least with an actual book you can kind of skim over it, but when you listen to someone drop the F*bomb all over the place while you have your one year old in the kitchen, THAT is a different story! After a while I rented it from Redbox and thoroughly loved the movie!! So I thought I'd continue to listen to the book, just in case it redeemed itself. It didn't. One of the few cases where I enjoyed the movie more than the book!

I had two other other goals for the challenge: to read my Bible more and to read to G more. Still working on the Bible reading, but at least I am doing it MORE. And G is now addicted to books. Her favorites are anything that have bunnies in them, and Moo Baa LaLaLa (Sandra Boynton). She sometimes even goes to bed with them. Pretty cute :)

Alrighty, I am going to go ahead and post this so I can check it off my "to do" list! I actually started it December 21st (the day the challenge ended), tried again on January 1st, another time in between then and now, and obviously today. I just keep telling myself, "At least I did it!"