Hiatus

It's been awhile, and I'm sorry for that, but I come bearing bad news. I have a lot going on in real life now. A lot of family issues that I wish no one else had to go through. Issues that make you question everything you previously believed in. Issues that if you were on the other side, you'd feel completely different about it. Issues that make you feel completely judgmental for ever creating an opinion on something that seems so black or white, without knowing the whole story. There is so much gray out there.

I need to step away and set my focus on non-computer things. I'm tired of refreshing google, waiting for news updates and I just can't do it anymore. So I am stepping away for a bit, for my own sanity. I will return, at some point of another, but I will not blog about this again. I feel it's not my story to tell, especially with so many hurting.

So here's until we meet again.

How Out of Character of Me!

I admit that I am not an uber-mom. Far from it. Cadie is fed formula by choice and uses disposable diapers. And somewhere down the line, she'll dunk double stuffed Oreos into non-organic milk. So sue me.

So I was genuinely surprised when I had the urge to make my own baby food. It has nothing to do with cost of baby food, or making sure I know what my baby is eating. I think it has more to do with actually spending the time to make her food instead of just popping open a jar. Ok, so the cost has a little bit to do with it.

We had ham, crock pot mashed potatoes, and green beans for dinner tonight. I decided to go ahead and blend up the remaining green beans. So I still have 2 weeks until she can start eating it, but I figure it'll keep for a month, so I should be good. I am beyond excited that I finally got to use the magic bullet!

Fix It Friday

I'm home from a relaxing two weeks visiting family, so I promise this blog will be updated more.

Yesterday's photo was quite the challenge. I am addicted to cloning right now, so you'll see a lot of that used below. I'm really happy with how it turned out.

Before:
After:

Fix It Friday

This picture was taken by one of the official contributors over at I heart faces. It fits into their weekly photo challenge baby feet. I'd like to eventually do the weekly challenges, but it's kind of overwhelming at this point.

Original:



Edit 1:

Edit 2:
Hope you like them! Check out how other people edited these pics here.

Horses!

I pass this field of horses every day. I always want to stop and take pictures, but don't because I'm on company time. So today, on the last day of school, I packed up my camera and talked my husband into a little pit stop on the way home. I got to play with my Canon 75-300mm (think far range) which I never ever get the opportunity to break out. I'm really pleased with how they came out.

BTW- I just love this baby horse!

Enjoy!

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.