Family portrait

Well, the important men in my household weren't too cooperative with the theme this week and posing for my camera, so I've resorted to a family portrait as represented by our Wii Fit Mii characters. The blond with her back to us is DD's BFF. I call her daughter #2, so it's fitting that she is in our 'family portrait.' (How convenient that her character turned away when I took the photo of my TV screen since I don't have permission to post her photo on the blog LOL.)Look what a porker my Mii character is! It's a little demoralizing getting on the balance board to be weighed and watching your Mii character blow up like a balloon. A little demoralizing and completely hilarious. :-D
I've heard that that the Wii Fit sometimes tells people they're fatter than they are (check out the funny video below), but in my case I'd have to say it's pretty accurate.




Two thumbs up from me on the Wii Fit game, by the way. Not a great aerobic workout, but really fun.

Links to the textures I used in yesterday's photos: http://www.flickriver.com/photos/ghostbones/sets/72157603698161108/
I got this by following a link that Amy (MommytoTen) posted on her blog. Amy rocks!
http://pifphoto.com/
You'll have to scroll to find them, but there are lots of goodies there. (Most of you probably already know about PIF; I learned about it from you.)

White trillium again

Thanks for pointing out my pun in yesterday's post. I had to go back and read what I wrote because it was definitely unintentional. :-D

Playing with one of my flower shots from a couple of weeks ago, adding some free textures I've collected:
In the post below this I've shared some photos of my own that I thought might make good textures.

Sharing some textures

Just thought I'd share some photos I've taken the past few months to put in my "textures" folder. I haven't really played with any of them so I don't know how they'd work, but if you like to collect textures like I do, feel free to right click on any of the photos in this post that you want. I'd love to see what you do with them. They're all JPEG files, and I think they're all saved at 300dpi but haven't checked.

Cemetery

I had time to kill the other day and went shooting in a cemetery. I prefer old cemeteries for the interesting aged stuff and textures, but I did think this grave marker was kind of cool. When I saw her up close, I have to admit she creeped me out a little. I hope she's not modeled after anyone real, because I'll probably get struck down for calling her creepy.
The flower detail was kind of pretty. This might make a good texture.
I haven't been pleased with the photos I've been taking the last few days. I think the heat and my busy schedule this week have sucked my energy and enthusiasm away.

It's whining hot

It's whining hot. The kind of hot that makes me whine. The kind that makes the backs of my knees sweaty. But at least I don't have to play baseball in the heat. Here's a very sweaty important man in my life, my DS on the mound at a Babe Ruth baseball game. We bought him some bigger pants after this game. But the one-sleeve thing is intentional. Even big boys like to imitate the major leaguers, and one of our beloved Red Sox, Jacoby Ellsbury, sports the one-sleeve (throwing arm) look.Like I said, it's hot. Here's Baxter waiting for me to open the gate so he can go swimming:

A collection

Here's just a crappy photo of something ridiculous I thought I'd show you. These are my bathing suits. Why do I have 18 LLBean bathing suits, most of which still have tags on them? Because I live in LLBean country, where occasionally they open up clearance centers and sell things at really low prices. Grand total paid for these 18 bathing suits: $18. If you have a pool you know how rough the chemicals are on suits and how many you go through, so I consider this a good investment. But I'm struck by the irony of a 41-year-old fat lady with body issues having 18 bathing suits. I have friends who won't put on a bathing suit in my backyard, never mind in public, and I used to be the same way. But now I just don't care. If I'm hot, I'm going swimming, and if anyone wants to use my pool they'll have to look at my fat a$$ in a bathing suit. Life's too short, I am woman hear me roar, power to the people, let your freak flag fly, etc.
But you won't see me in a bikini. I'm not THAT evolved (or abusive :-D)

Important men in our lives

So this week's theme is important men in our lives/Father's Day. My Dad arrives from Florida for a one-month stay starting this Friday, and I'm so excited! This photo is of one of the other important dads in my life, my father-in-law. Here he is with one of my nieces. I took this last summer when I didn't know a thing about cropping and postprocessing, so if you have any tips for improvement I'd welcome them. (Or if anyone wants to play with it that would be awesome too.) I just love the way you can see the love between them in this shot and the contrast between her youthful skin and his rugged, weathered skin.