Shoot from yesterday.

Here's a few of the photos I did for our friends yesterday. I definitely like doing these kind of photos better than that wedding...no stress! That, and I actually have the hang of my camera now! I think I've pretty much fine-tuned the conversions I like to make. I have all my little steps that I like to go through on photoshop.

They came over a little after 5pm, and it was overcast, but it ended up working well, because there was nice even lighting. I had them sit on the tailgate of my truck to add some more color. And the baby is adorable! He's 6 months old, and I hadn't seen him since he was a few weeks old. Of course, he started smiling and laughing up a storm when we got back to the house.

Now, I need to see about getting some actual scrapping done!

Look at this face!

I was 'warming up' this morning for the mini-session I'm doing this afternoon for our friends. I'm doing a family portrait of the 3 of them, and of course, I'll have to do some baby ones...I've never done baby portraits, and I can't wait to try!

So, of course I had to take some pictures of the 'kids'. I just love how this one turned out. I'm getting much more comfortable with photoshop, and know more little tricks now, so I think my conversions are looking pretty good...not as much loss of detail in the highlights like I used to have....all I used to know was desaturate and brightness/contrast.

We're going to be grilling tonight, so I've gotta go get the deviled eggs and pasta salad made now so I can sit down and do either some scrapping, or work on some more photos. I have a bunch of cool ones I took at Fort Zachary Taylor when we went to Key West that I haven't touched yet. Need to get to work!

Thursday Blog Challenge: About Me

1. FIRST NAME? Penelope
2. WERE YOU NAMED AFTER ANYONE? Yes, my Aunt Penny (Penelope)- Grandma's sister.
3. WHEN DID YOU LAST CRY? I can't even remember...I'm a pretty happy person!
4. DO YOU LIKE YOUR HANDWRITING? Most of the time.
5. WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE LUNCH MEAT? Boar's Head brand Turkey
6. DO YOU HAVE KIDS? Yes, Marley and Pickle, our dogs.
7. IF YOU WERE ANOTHER PERSON, WOULD YOU BE FRIENDS WITH YOU? I think I would. I try to be kind to everyone, and I would hope that I'm not boring!
8. DO YOU HAVE A JOURNAL? Yes, besides my blog, I have a Gratitude Journal. Every night before I go to bed, I write about 5 things I am grateful for.
9. DO YOU USE SARCASM A LOT? Yes, but not as much as I used to, and only with certain people.
10. DO YOU STILL HAVE YOUR TONSILS? Yep!
11. WOULD YOU BUNGEE JUMP? Not just no, but HECK NO!
13. DO YOU UNTIE YOUR SHOES WHEN YOU TAKE THEM OFF? Nope.
14. DO YOU THINK YOU ARE STRONG? Physically: fairly, Emotionally: Yes, I've gotten much better over the past few months!
15. WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE ICE CREAM FLAVOR? Ben and Jerry's Coffee Heath Bar Crunch
16. SHOE SIZE? 9
17. RED OR PINK? Pink, DUH!
18. WHAT IS YOUR LEAST FAVORITE THING ABOUT YOURSELF? I'm actually pretty happy with myself!
19. WHO DO YOU MISS THE MOST? Grandpa
20. WHEN AND WHERE WERE YOU BORN? 1980, about 1-something in the morning, in Little Rock, Arkansas.
21. WHAT COLOR PANTS AND SHOES ARE YOU WEARING? Normal color jeans and light tan suede Birkenstock sandals.
22. WHAT IS THE LAST THING YOU ATE? Peanut M&M's.
23. WHAT ARE YOU LISTENING TO RIGHT NOW? XM Pops (I'm on a classical kick right now!)
24 IF YOU WERE A CRAYON, WHAT COLOR WOULD YOU BE? Again, Pink, duh!
25. FAVORITE SMELL? Chad when he gets out of the shower, and the outdoors when it's about to rain.
26. WHO WAS THE LAST PERSON YOU TALKED WITH ON THE PHONE? Our friend, Paul. I'm doing portraits of him, his wife, and Baby Paul this weekend.
27. THE FIRST THING YOU NOTICE ABOUT PEOPLE YOU MEET? How tall they are, I guess. Never really thought about it!
28. DO YOU HAVE A SPECIAL TALENT? Yes, I have very dextrous toes.
29. FAVORITE DRINK? Water and Diet Pepsi.
30. FAVORITE SPORT? To play? None! To watch? College Football.
31. HAIR COLOR? Blonde
32. EYE COLOR? Blue
33. DO YOU WEAR CONTACTS? Nope, just my black cat-eye glasses for reading.
34. FAVORITE FOOD? Zattarain's Dirty Rice!
35. SCARY MOVIES OR HAPPY ENDING? Happy Ending
36. LAST MOVIE YOU WATCHED? Madagasgar
37. WHAT COLOR SHIRT ARE YOU WEARING? Light Pink
38. SUMMER OR WINTER? Winter...here it's like Spring everywhere else!
39. HUGS OR KISSES? Both! But I guess it depends on who they're coming from!
40. FAVORITE DESSERT? Cheesecake
41. WHAT BOOKS ARE YOU READING? I'm in between books right now.
42. WHAT'S ON YOUR MOUSE PAD? At work I don't have one, because I have a trackball mouse. At home, my Wacom Tablet is my mouse pad.
43. FAVORITE SOUNDS? Laughter, Chad's truck pulling up in the driveway, anyone I love singing!
44. ROLLING STONES OR BEATLES? Beatles, baby!
45. THE FURTHEST YOU'VE BEEN FROM HOME About 2100 miles, when we went to Vegas.
46. IF YOU COULD PICK ANY TWO PEOPLE TO HAVE DINNER WITH, WHO WOULD
THEY BE? Grandpa, just because I can't anymore...and I would really like to be able to meet my Dad's parents (they both died long before I was thought of!).

My "sister-in-law" Zoie.

We've been watching Chad's parent's Miniature Schnauzer for the past 2 weeks while they're out of town. They like to joke with him and say it's his sister. Anyways, I wanted to do a photo or two of her to give to them when they get back. I'm very happy with how this turned out...I've really been into the glowy type black and whites lately. I darkened in the background so it resembled a billowy velvet background. And it looks awesome printed out. I HIGHLY recommend Kodak Matte Paper Heavy Weight. I LOVE LOVE LOVE this paper for black and whites. It's okay for color, too, but it depends on the print....color takes more ink, so it tends to warp the paper. I got mine at Office Max, and it comes in a few sizes, even 12x18 (I think that's the bigger size...?).

My first Poppy Ink kit!

I finally broke down and subscribed to the Poppy Ink kit! I haven't been buying anything in the way of scrapping supplies lately...I kinda like getting kits, cause you get a little of everything. Plus I've enjoyed scrapping with arts and crafts supplies and found objects, too. So I'm doing pretty well with this, Jenni Bowlin, and Tie One On.

The kits are way cute, and more on the eclectic side! It all comes packeaged in a big plastic bag with the little tag tied on. We got 10 sheets of different patterned papers from Urban Lily and American Crafts, 5 sheets of Bazzill, fabric and instructions for making fabric fowers, lots of cool ribbon, two aplha sticker set, and lots of other goodies! Not to mention the gallery on the site is always to die for. Those are some talented lades! Can't wait to start playing today. I've already got alot of ideas swirling around in my head.

Studio Friday: Aha! Moment

This week for Studio Friday, we share something that evolved into something completely different than we had planned. "I'm sure we've all had a moment when we're creating something we've had in mind and then something totally different results by accident."

These photos are one of my Aha moments. A little over a year ago, I was reading a book about sparking creativity, and it suggested playing around with scanning random items on your scanner. I was expecting to do just some funky, fun stuff (which I did), but these ones actually turned out GOOD. They're all done with nothing but a scanner, and some slight tweaking (plus B&W conversion) in photoshop. The lily was accepted into a local art exhibit, and the sand dollar one was my most popular print at a small art show I participated in. I guess you could say this was my first venture into digital....the 'gateway' experiment, hehee.

Father's Day Gift

So here's my latest masterpiece (hehee)! I had this picture of my Dad and me, and thought it would make a cute gift. (Yes, Momma, this is a COPY!) I really hope he likes it! It's 8x10, and will be framed. I adapted the quote from one I found online. The original said "To her the name of Father was another name for love." -Fanny Fern. This just fit me better. I also found him a small cast iron skillet (he uses them for campfire cooking and such), but I think maybe I'll wait and give that to him later. It'd be awful heavy in a Priority mail box (plus it might break the frame!). What do you have planned for the Daddies in your life?

Bathroom Stuff

I just wanted to share some of the stuff I picked out for our bathroom. I went for a kinda cottage-y look. When I saw this faucet, I fell in LOVE. It's the coolest faucet I've ever seen. I love that it looks like an old water pump:


Here's the matching shower/tub set:


And here's the toilet I picked:


I got these pictures online...my bathroom isn't actually done yet. I couldn't find a photo of the cabinet online, but it's white with beadboard doors, and I got knobs the color of the faucets (brushed nickel). I'll take a picture of the cabinet and the tile later. Chad'll be finishing the tear-out next week, and we're getting all the tile put in next weekend. Right now, we're just with out a sink in the bathroom, so we're just using the kitchen sink (yep, our house only has ONE bathroom!), which is no big deal. I just propped the old mirror behind the sink and I'm all set! I'll also snap a photo of the bathroom now, even though it's halfway torn apart, so everyone can get an idea of the 'before'.

Lots of gorgeous Autumn Leaves papers!

This is what I received for having my name drawn from the Stitching Challenge on the Freestyle Blog. A ton of different Autumn Leaves papers, 48 sheets to be exact (yes, I was a dork and counted them!), including some yummy Rhonna Farrer papers! There's even some Dad papers in there, too, which is perfect timing for Father's Day. I love those papers cut into shapes... I can definitely see myself wanting more of those.

I was also able to get ahold of some of those elusive White Uniball Signo Pens. I can't wait to try them out. I found them in stock at Jet Pens. So, I've got lots of goodies to play with...it's awesome that everything showed up just in time for the weekend!

Chad is starting to tear all the tile out of our bathroom as I type this. We're completely re-doing everything but the tub. I picked out alot of neutral stuff, but we got some glass inserts for the walls, and a cool tumbled marble tile for the floor. Not to mention the most AWESOME sink faucet I've ever seen.....the water pours over the top, looking like an old water pump. I forgot to take before pictures this morning (this house was built in the late 60's, I'm sure you can imagine the lovely Harvest Gold floor tile...but I had made it look cute!), but I'll definitely post after pics. Everything will be done in about a week, so I'm looking forward to that!

More artwork.

Here's another collage I made on Saturday. I didn't do much else...I had another KILLER migraine on Friday, and I was out of work. I did this in stages on Saturday, because I didn't really feel 100% until yesterday afternoon. This migraine thingy is weird- I'll get a couple fairly close together, then I won't get another one for over a year (not that I'm complaining!). I just wish I knew what set them off! Luckily I had called my Doctor after that one I had a couple weeks ago, and they refilled my perscription for my headache pills.

ANYWAYS- I'm really getting a kick out of doing these collages. I have so many ideas floating around in my head. I do want to sit down and do some more Layouts, too. I came across another Design Team that I'm pretty sure I'm going to submit for. I just have to wait for the right ones to come along, and this one looks like it fits me pretty well. There's still a couple weeks until the call closes, so I figured I'd wait and see if I come up with something else I LOVE.

New Artwork and some cool news!

I was so inspired after reading the first Collage Discovery book by Claudine Hellmuth, that I wanted to create some mixed media collages of my own, and give photo transfers a try. I'm so thrilled with it! And the best part is, you use photocopies so you don't ruin the original photo.

AND, something cool: Remember how I posted earlier about submitting my hand stitched layout for the Freestyle Challenge? Well, my name was drawn for the prize (not sure what I get, but I know it'll be cool!) and they posted my layout on the Freestyle Blog! I don't even care that it was random....I am just awed to see my LO on a site with all those talented ladies! Yay! My sister's famous, now. Hehee.