Fix-It Friday (a few days late!)

Hello, my name is Danielle and I'm addicted to taking and editing pictures. I decided to take a break from editing Cadie's pictures for her memory book and took on a challenge from www.iheartfaces.blogspot.com. I hope to do this every week.

This week's photo was submitted by JaimeLee at Candidly Grateful. Here is what she wrote about her photo: "This is a photo of my twins at 6 weeks old. I love the photo because of their interaction and their faces, but I feel like it’s a little drab or flat. It needs some life."

Here's the original:


And here's a couple of edits I did:


I didn't write my exact steps down, but this is what I remember:

1) Cleaned up and softened skin tones with coffeshop's Baby Powder Room
2) Tweaked with the Brightness and Contrast
3) Used a soft brush to color in the background
4) Applied some textures to just the background
5) Boosted the white
6) Cropped the photo

Then I added the Coffeeshop Creamy Chocolate action and adjusted the opacity until I got the look I wanted. I added a few more textures (erasing on their bodies on all but the top one) to give it a vintage look.

I hope that these have the "life" that the poster wanted.

You can check out how others edited this picture here.

The post where I apologize AND sing!

Its been a long time
I shouldn't have left you
Without a dope beat to step to
Step to, step to, step to
Step to, step to
Freaky-freaky
It's been a long time
I shouldn't have left you
Without a dope beat to step to
Step to, step to, step to
Step to, step to
Freaky-freaky, baby girl uh

I've been a very bad blogger and I apologize for my absence. I've returned back to work and I admit, it's tiring. I am so exhausted, I thought all the way up to lunch that it was Wednesday. Ugh, I was so disappointed when my coworkers pointed out that that wasn't the case.

Cadie's not taking the adjustment very well. She's been super cranky all week and just wants to be held. I just can't wait until August when school starts back up and I have to drop her off at a babysitter's instead of my FIL watching her. Because I'm sure she'll do great with that. I'm sorry, I drip in really bad sarcasm when I'm tired.

I have work tomorrow, Friday and half day on Tuesday. Then we get to spend a few days together as a family. Two Mondays from now, Cadie and I board a plan to NJ to spend 2 weeks with my family (OMFG I am SO excited!@!&!").

So as much I'd love to tell you I'll be posting soon and often, I can't. I need to survive until summer break and then I plan to fully enjoy my little vacation. I promise after that, I'll be back in full swing. I'm thinking of adding a new feature during the summer, but we'll see how I feel after my trip.

PS- if you were wondering what the lyrics were from, click here.

2 months old!

So, this is a bit late, but Cadie turned 2 months old on the 8th. I cannot believe that my sweet little newborn is growing so fast! She'll be borrowing the keys to the car before we know it!

We had her two month check up today and the bug was awesome! She cried for a few moments after getting her shots, but was fast asleep before we walked out the door. Tylenol has kept her pretty sedated since. She's over twelve pounds and right on track with all of her measurements!







So we're sitting in the waiting room. This lady (picture this: heels, crop pants, and tube top) comes in and makes a big stink up at the receptionist because she forgot her daughter's insurance card. She says she'll drop it of tomorrow because she works at the hospital.

So she sits down and gets her cell phone out. Not even 5 minutes into waiting, her baby starts fussing and the woman just ignored her. The fussing quickly turned into crying, which turned into chocking sobbing screaming. Not only did she continue to ignore her, but she actually told the person on the phone multiple times that her daughter was fine (I guess they heard the ruckus through the phone). This went on for 30-45 freaking minutes. Everyone else in the waiting room looked at each other like this:

I wanted so badly to go pick the poor thing up and ask the mother which part of the hospital she worked in. If you can't take care of your own child, I definitely don't want you taking care of mine.

Mother's Day

We decided earlier this week to celebrate Mother's Day on Saturday instead of Sunday. It was basically to avoid the crowds. Tom and Cadie picked out a beautiful necklace for me. It's white gold with a heart-shaped aquamarine stone and diamond chips. It's absolutely beautiful and it's so special since it's Cadie's birth stone. They took me out for dinner to one of my favorite restaurants, a tiny little sushi place in town. I had not had sushi in well over a year, so let's just say I really enjoyed it. Then we came home, snuggled on the couch and watched Julie & Julia, which totally makes me want to learn how to cook. Not just mac n cheese type of cooking, either. The real kind.

We took it easy today. It was tough because not only was this my first Mother's Day, but it was the first without my mother in law. I wonder if these things ever get easier, and then realize that it probably won't. You never truly get over the loss and days like this just bring it back up to the surface. Eventually the pain decreases some, but you always remember.

The Happiest Place on Earth

is not at Disney World. It's in Cadie's nursery!


Yes, it doesn't matter how fussy or cranky she is, as soon as I put Cadie on her changing table, she's all smiles and giggles (or at least the beginning of giggles which at this point sounds like a giggle-cough). I don't know if it's because she knows she's getting a clean diaper (well, wouldn't you be happy, too?) or because we undress her for her favorite time of the day - bath time!!!- here, but I've got to say it's her favorite place in the house.

To put things into perspective...

Every Christmas growing up was the same song and dance. My mom would tell us that she was cutting back this year. Don't expect as much as you got last year. Christmas morning would come around and there would be just as many presents under that tree as every year before.

Now right after Cadie was born, we had a talk about how quickly the time goes. She really put it into perspective. Children start truly believing in Santa Claus when they're 3 or 4 and stop when they're 10-11. That's seven years. Seven years to indulge in the wide-eyed wonder that is a child's Christmas.

When you're a kid, that year in between Christmases seems like it lasts forever. Sometimes we wondered if Christmas would come at all. Like somehow the world has played some cruel trick and stopped so that we'll never enjoy opening another red and green wrapped gift ever again.

To a parent, that year goes by quickly and Christmas day is even faster. Blink and those seven years are gone. Like somehow the world has played some cruel trick and your little Santa Claus believer who asked for Barbies and GI Joes has been switched with a someone who wants tvs and stereos (they still call them stereos, right?).

My mom told me to enjoy every day, which is the best parenting advice I've gotten. During pregnancy, I was so afraid that something would go wrong that I wanted to speed through it. It wasn't until the last week before my induction that I realized that I hadn't really taken the time to enjoy what I had because I was so looking forward to what I was getting.

I will not do that for her growing up. I am totally enjoying her as she is. It fascinates me to see how quickly she's growing and what she's learning. Those seven years will go by in the blink of an eye, but when I get to the other side, I want to know that I enjoyed it as much as I could. If that means not seeing my tree from all the presents too, then so be it.