Photoshop before and after

I shared this photo back in October, but I processed it a different way for today.
SOOC:

Orton effect using ReDynaMix plug-in, cropped, cloned out wires, blue sky using Smart Brush tool in PSE7, USM for web at 50/0.3/0.


Another from back in the fall that I hadn't shown before.
SOOC:


Same Orton technique as above:

Shamrock

Cake and Snuggies

DD's birthday cake. It looked better than it tasted.

I got her a Snuggie for her birthday. It was worth the money just to watch her crack up when she opened it.

13

Thirteen years ago today my little baby girl was born.

We got this in the mail a few weeks later. It was one of those, "Hey, thanks for spending a bajillion dollars with us!" gifts from the hospital where she was born. It's porcelain and about 3 inches long and has all her birth stats. Sweet memento.

Well, except for this:
Her name is Delaney, not Deloney. We did get a huge kick out of imagining the worker who personalized it saying, "WTH kind of a name is Deloney?" And this little shoe is why one of her nicknames is Baloney..

Photoshop before and after

Before:

And after. I didn't do much, just boost contrast and color and USM:

Suckage

We've had over two feet of snow in the last week. Last night the power went out and didn't come back on until late this afternoon.

Cam went out to clean off the satellite dishes so we'd be up and running when the power came back on.


That's a four foot fence. The TV satellite is almost completely covered, and the internet one is caked with snow.

My dad always wants to know how much snow we got in the latest storm. It's always hard to tell when there's already snow on the ground. Last night we got this much (that's the light on my garage):

We think it was somewhere between 18 and 24 inches. My in-laws got 3 feet; they're 1-1/2 hours north of us.

Who needs Craig's List?

Who needs Craig's List when you have Uncle Henry's weekly swap it or sell it guide? You can buy a car, a gun, livestock, puppies (that's how we found Baxter), computers, old exercise equipment and on and on.



One of my favorite categories is "Free for the taking":
Take out the bit about the stray beagle, and it's like he could be selling me.

"Good for pets or soup." Heh.


I also like the "Wanted" category:
Yeah, that's not creepy at all. "Excuse me, m'am, but I'm going to need to do a strip search. I'm an officer of the law."


Family jewels and old jugs. That just appeals to the 12-year-old in me.

Sea urchin

Post Snowstorm Sky

A short respite in our latest snowstorm.


Thank you all for the decorating advice!

New furniture

My new furniture got delivered today. Now that it's here I'm ready to look for a new window treatment. Any suggestions? I'm also not sure I like the pillows, but they were free and I can find different cheap ones somewhere like TJMaxx if I want to. (I also need to polish those Baxter nose prints off the coffee table.)
From the other doorway. I'm not sure the beige chair still works. I plan to change the lamps too.
I'm having a hard time getting the color accurate in a photo.Now that the furniture is here I'll also start choosing what to put on the walls. I did get these:
I was thinking of putting them something like this (the black squares I Photoshopped on the wall), but the lamp is troublesome. I may put them up on either side of the window instead. I'm also planning on putting a tall plant in that corner on the left.
I'm pretty unskilled with home decor, so I'm happy to get any suggestions!

My Mommy Loves Me

The stack of books my mom gave me last weekend.

Recycled photo

A couple of different versions of one of yesterday's shots. I used the free Virtual Photographer plug-in I have and tried the "Fashion" b/w:

And the "high key" one:

My Valentine present

I dropped a hint to DH that I'd like to have an orchid for Valentine's Day instead of something more traditional. He couldn't find one (and now I'm glad since I now know they can be difficult to care for), so he got me this really cool plant instead. Its leaves are a deep purple that looks black in some light. They also look like butterflies.

And it has these pretty little light purple flowers with kind of wavy stems:
Here's a (crappy) photo of the whole thing in its pretty midnight blue ceramic pot. I need Pat (or Lauren or anyone else please!) to identify it for me because DH forgot to save the info thingie. I could Google or call the florist shop, but I like it when Pat identifies plants.
The other part of DH's gift is taking care of it for me so I don't kill it. Yay!

White Rose

Yet another reminder that my kids keep growing up despite all my wishes to the contrary. DD got her first Valentine flowers from a boy. I was already about to turn into a puddle of tears when she told me how it came to be white roses. The boy had asked her what her favorite flowers were and she told him white roses. I asked her why white roses, and she said, "Because of you and Dad."

She was referring to the story of how her dad and I met. We were in college, and my sorority was having a winter semi-formal, and it was called a "trust your sister date party." Anyone who was interested put their name in a hat, and whoever pulled your name out of the hat found you a date. My DH turned out to be my date. A couple of days before the dance, he sent me a white rose with a note that said he was looking forward to meeting me. It was the beginning of my falling in love, and I still have the card.

Look at that. I can take a sweet milestone story about my DD and still make it all about me. :-D

Jelly Belly revisited

Sprinkled With Love

Canon 40D with 100mm macro lens on tripod
ISO400 F22 SS3.2

Crayons

Canon 40D with 100mm macro lens. ISO400 F18 SS20 on tripod.

To tie it in with this week's "love" theme:

Jelly Belly

Love...

This week's theme is love, right? First of all, I love you guys. Thank you so much for the birthday wishes here and on Facebook!

I also love my Vera Bradley birthday goodies. (Yes, I'm materialistic.) I got a new wallet, checkbook cover, and (free with purchase!) pouch in a couple of the new fabrics.
I keep thinking about gathering all my Vera Bradley pieces (and DD's since she loves them too) and putting them together for a photo, but I haven't gotten around to it yet, partly because I fear the excess would be embarrassing.

Birthday present

My DH walked in today, handed me this, and said, "Happy Birthday!"

BAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAH!

Random summer photo

The only thing I shot this weekend was my son's track meet, and since badly lit, snapshot-like photos of the back of his head while he throws a shot put equals boring to anyone but family, I pulled out another summer photo that I hadn't edited yet or looked at in months.

Fries, lobster, and Giffords Ice Cream on the pier in Wiscasset, Maine. That says summer in Maine to me.

Home Sweet Home

For me, a house is not a home without a dog to love.

Fuzzies

I took this back in July but just got around to processing it.

Home sweet home

My new everyday dishes. From Target. They're chipping already. You get what you pay for. :-)

Pink tulip

Original with regular editing:

I forget exactly what I did on this one. I know I used a turquoise color layer and then changed the blend mode, but I can't remember if I changed it to hue or saturation or something else.

Using one of the preset actions (sepia with grain) in PSE7:

Sparkly macros

A few macros of the stickers from yesterday.