decisions to make

I know it has been a long time since I have posted anything.  There has been a lot happening in my life since September.  
My baby, my last child, turned 1.  It about broke my heart.  I am so happy to see her growing but I am begging her to slow down a little. Isn't she a doll?

I just love her sweet chubby cheeks.   

My poor little family went through some very hard personal times through the last of September and into November.  Thankfully, by the grace of God, we came through them.  In that process, I decided that it was time for me to go out into the "real world" and take on a full time job.  I have been working since November 14th at our local Chamber of Commerce.  I do a little bit of everything but my official title is Accounting Associate.  I enjoy it but some days I really miss being at home.

My other two kiddos are adjusting well to the pressures of school and now daycare.  For the most part, anyway.

I had this conversation with my 7 year old the other day.

kale: mommy, did you have a job before this one you have now?
me: no buddy I stayed home with you.
kale: what about that picture thing?
me: no that was just for fun. would you like it if I had a job taking pictures?
kale: oh yeah! Then you could be home with me again.

sigh....
 
Now, I am starting to reconsider the whole working full time thing.  We have all been sick since Christmas and Kale has been asking me to come back to staying at home.  He misses his mommy being there after he gets off of school.  It is so hard to leave the new job I love but I have to think of more than me.  I am asking myself more and more, "what is best for them?"


That being said, I am considering starting my photography business again AND working on my scrapbooking designs more consistently.  There may be new freebies, actions, storyboards and scrapbook templates in the near future.  
Keep me in mind as I make a very big and very important decision within the next couple of weeks.

Sunshine on my window winner!!!!

I apologize for the late posting of my Sunshine on My Window kit and winner.

So without further ado...
The winner is...
Comment #1

BRE!!!

Please email me at lillylanemarketplace(at)hotmail.com to receive the kit.


Now...

Here it is finally!

{CLICK HERE}

Since I was late getting this to you and the sale is already off, I have a coupon just for this kit.  Now you can get 30% off just for this week.
Use Code:
somw_30percent

Sneak Peek and Giveaway

Would you like to win this?Just leave a comment and I will choose the winner on Friday.    

DST August Blog Train!!!!

Hello and welcome to my first DST Blog train!!! I am so excited to be a part of this huge group of amazing designers!
I would love to have a lot to say here but I think I will avoid torturing you and just give you my gift. :)

{CLICK HERE}


You should have come from Color With Caryn
and your next stop is Scrap with AW Design

If you have gotten lost please head to the
Blog Train Blog
for the full list of participating blogs.


Have a fabulous trip on this train!

A Week in the Life...Monday

This year I decided to hop on the Week in the Life train. It seems to be a pretty popular and fun thing to do. Plus it gives me something else to do besides all the other things I need to do. lol  For those of you who have absolutely no clue as to what I could possibly be talking about, AWITL is a really fun project where you chronicle your every day life for a week using photos, journaling and maybe even a few scrap supplies.  It is all about recording the every day moments.  Visit Alie Edwards blog for more info and to sign up.
 Here is my first day.

10:00-11:00 am
Time for a little My Little Pony, Transformers and Wii games for the kids.
Mommy took the quiet time to take a shower and get dressed
Kale is a great little babysitter.  He sat and watched Kaitlyn while I was in my room.
Kiara colored at the table.

12:00
Lunch time
Kale had Pasta with butter and Kiara had Beanie Weanies
Kaitlyn fell sleep on the floor in the living room with her milk.  So cute.



1:00 - 3:00
Naptime.
Blissful quiet.
All of them asleep at one time.
SHHHHHHHHHHH
Mommy is resting, too.

3:30 
Precious peace is interrupted by Kale running in my room to tell me that Kiara had colored all over her carpet with a marker.
I thought for sure it was the Sharpie I left on the counter.
Thank goodness it was a washable marker and came right out.
Really wish I had gotten a picture but all I could think of was getting the marker out of the carpet while it was fresh.  I am sure there will be plenty more naughty things to take pictures of over the next few days.  They always find something to get into.  :)

4:00
The floor is clean, mommy is calm and Kiara has been properly scolded for her behavior.  Order has been restored once again.

5:00
Making Chili Lime Tilapia and fries for dinner.

6:00
Daddy heads off to softball and the kids and I get packed up to go to the little playground at Kale's old kindergarten.

6:15
Make it to the park.  It is still 100+ outside so we don't stay long.
I did get a few pictures of them at play.










Kaitlyn's first time in a real swing.  She had a very fun time. 


7:30- 8:00
Got ready to shower but the hot water heater was off.

9:00
Still no hot water.  The water heater turned off again.
Guess they will have to shower tomorrow.



That is pretty much it for Monday.
We don't lead the most exciting life but it is the life we have to live so we make the most of it.  Every day is a gem to be discovered be each of us and it is the discovery of the day that makes life so exciting.  I am so glad to be making this WITL journey so I can stop and appreciate the joy in each day I live here with my babies.

Recipe time!!!

I have this picture of my youngest baby.

It is just a little snapshot of my baby growing up. Not too special but something I wanted to share with family and not be embarrased about.

There was a annoying basketball hoop on the left side so I cropped it out. Here is the original after the crop.

I have some blown highlights and the white balance is a bit off so I took care of that first.

Then I used a Levels layer with the grey dropper and adjusted white balance. (I forgot my WB cap and had to use auto. DOH)

Flatten the image then duplicated the background and set to Luminosity at 40%

Open up Shadows/Highlights and adjust the settings to:

Shadows

Amount: 75%

Tonal Width 51%

Radius 30px

Highlights

Amount 89%

Tonal Width 60%

Radius 85

Adjustments

Color Correct +6

Midtone Contrast +4

Opened up a curves layer and set my output to 235

Reverse (fill the mask layer with black)

Use a soft brush to reduce the blown highlights a bit more.

Right now it looks a little dull and a tiny bit grey to me so I flattened it and ran Clowning and Painted lady from the Carnival set (unavailable but coming back soon) over it.

Here is what it looks like before adding my favorite two actions.

For this image I ran Clowning (Carnival set) first.

The saturation was a bit much for this photo so I reduced it to 0%

I also adjusted the density of the filter layer to 45

Reduced the color fill to 55%

Reduced the opacity of the entire action to 55%

Merged the group

I selected the "background" layer and ran Painted Lady (carnival set)

I then moved the Painted Lady group to the top of my layers and reduce the opacity to 65%.

Here is the final image:

And the before and after to you can see how it looks. :)

All in all it looks much better to me. Still a little bright on one side of her face but not as bad as the original. I also reduced some of the shadow on the right side so it balances out a bit more. Definitely something I won't be embarrassed to share with my family very soon.

Clickin Moms giveaway!!!

I wish it was me giving it away but alas it is not. My good friend Caryn is though.

Just CLICK HERE to grab your chance at the best photography community I have ever had the chance to be a part of.

Have a beautiful day,

Brenda