Just a Little Shy

I haven't posted about Kota in a long time. I think that last time I made an update about him was because he had heartworms. Well, he got through treatment and he is doing great! He has tons of energy and he is almost always by my side.

Until, I point my camera at him. Then I have to beg him to look at me...

Just a second before he was all in my business. Has been ALL morning.

So, I call him. "Kota" and he looks just a little. Like he is fooling me...

I get really sweet. "Kota, Mommy's baby... look here at Mommy"

And he can't take it.

Then he lays down.....

I switch positions and he switches sides...

Maybe it'll be better now, since he obviously finds the door so interesting!

Ehh... of course not!

This dog is a difficult case.

So, I finally  tell him to lay down and to stay. Then I get in front of him.

"Now, that's a goooood boyyyyy" I say in my sweetest voice.

He stays this way for quite a while and I get some shots, but they are all blurry!

(that's one thing that kills me about this lens.. alot of my photos are blurry)

Here he is thinking he hears something.. maybe.

"Kota, Koooota, KOTA... Look at Mommy"

Yup.. definitely heard something. And he's off until I can wrassle him down to be still again.

It sure is hard getting shots of this pup.

Must be camera shy....

A Day in the Life....

This week, I woke up at 5:30. Why, you ask? I thought I smelled pancakes. I walked in the kitchen thinking maybe I would find my husband setting out short-stacks. No such luck. He was cooking down some okra, though. Now, why did my brain turn that smell into the smell of pancakes? The world may never know!

Anyways, moving on...

This morning after all the girls got on the bus and left, my husband and I went to his friend's land. He has a crawfish pond and a duck blind there. My husband was going to help him out and dig a trench and put a levee around the blind so that it wouldn't fill up with so much water. Of course, I had to bring my camera with my new lens attached. I think I got some really nice shots.

some random weed

pretty pretty

I LOVE THIS LENS!!

The front wheel of the crawfish boat*

hard at work (that's the duck blind buried about four and a half feet deep)

he had to bale out water that had filled it up

setting up the blind to camouflage it

the finished blind..

it was freezing cold. I even brought my favorite blanket

never in my life have I been so happy to see this!!!

None of these photos have been post processed other than being resized. I love this lens and I will have to practice a lot more, but I am definitely enjoying it!!!

I'm So Happy!!!

Last week I posted a link on facebook of the lens that I would like to have...

My husband seen it and made a funny little comment, but he went ahead and looked at it and we even went to a store around here that was supposedly supposed to have it. When we got to the store, they said they didn't have it. So we went home and I showed my husband the website and when I walked away he ordered it!

Sunday, after church, we were on the way home and he said he had to go back to town to pick something up. Well, he didn't tell me what it was, so ( I ) said "Its probably a present for you since he didn't tell you what it was".

He finally gets back home and he walks in and just hands me the box. I had NO idea that he was getting it for me!!! I didn't actually figure it out till he said he had to go pick something up, and I just GUESSED that's what it was.

Here's some pics...

Another Night of Fun...

This month has been busy! My cousin Lauren is in Piano Lab at her school. Its one of the only Piano Labs around here that is offered through school. Every year they have a recital at Acadian Village. This was Lauren's 2nd year.

Acadian Village is a cute little place. They have a town set up and they decorate it for christmas. You can go and see the lights and they have different shows. Recently, they started putting of fair rides, and they definitely add to the fun!

This just a small part of it.

She played What Child is This. It was beautiful!

While walking around, you come to these little scenes where you can take pictures. This one was really cute!

Its my cousin David and my husband Ivan (he's sucha good sport)

and here is the pianist, Lauren, with Hannah (we are all cousins)

They have been best friends since they were old enough to play together. They are only a few months apart.

They are so fun to be around. They crack me up!

We had such a fun night. I'm so glad we could make it out to hear Lauren play! Its a beautiful place to visit and we always try to go once a year. The kids enjoy it, we enjoy it. It really gets you in the mood for Christmas!

Thanks for stopping by!!!

And I certainly couldn't go over there with ALL those lights and not take any bokeh shots!!

After the Stroll...

After the stroll was over, my sister and her besties wanted to take MORE pictures. So, we hung around and snapped a few. These guys go to our church and they are just so funny and sweet!

I had forgot to clear out my memory card and actually filled it up. I would have had wayyyy more if I wouldn't have filled it up.

The three besties...

Walter, Paige, Trevor

These guys are brothers, and after I took the group pic I told them to take a picture together.

Walter, who is the little brother, did this to Trevor.

It was SO funny!

This is the real one. They insisted that I frame it this way...

When we got done, I snapped this one. I thought it came out really cool!

So, we had a blast and I'm so happy you took the time to check us out. Thanks for stopping by!

Tupperware Party & The Christmas Stroll...

Its been busy and I haven't been blogging, so I have a lot to say. And.. I'm gonna take my time, so I have blog post for the next little bit!!!

On December 3rd, I had a Tupperware party. It was my first one and it was SO fun!!!
The Tupperware Lady said it was the biggest party she had and the longest party she had.. We had some fun!! The game was so cute. We all put straws in our mouths and passed a thimble. The auctioning game was the most fun though.

Then a few nights before that we went to the Annual Christmas Stroll. The musicians from our church go there to play every year. Its wonderful. All the businesses are open and you go around and get stamps on a paper. Once you get them all you enter for a drawing to win huge baskets. We didn't get any stamps, but we did walk around and look at the different shops. Some shops even gave a way free food and hot chocolate. The kids had so much fun!

Of course, she would be the one to find the free food!!!

My family was there, so of course I took pics of all of them! We had a blast!

Paige (sister), Hannah (cousin), Lauren (cousin)

Abigail (cousin)

Morgan (niece), Ivy (s-daughter), Mariah (niece), Abigail (cousin)

Hannah, Lauren, Bobbie (aunt), Ellie (aunt), and Paige (down front)

I have a video of our musicians playing but its on my phone and I don't know how to do all that fancy stuff to transfer it here.

Thanks for stopping by!

Fix-it Fridays @ iheartfaces...

I am so excited to be apart of this again! Its so fun and I really do enjoy it!

I have one edit today, and it may not be that great. I probably did too much to it, and maybe I could have simplified the process. Although, that is the joys of learning!!

Here is the original photo:

picture taken by Dana Suggs (contributor at iheartfaces)

Now here we go...

These are the steps I took to reach my final process.

Paint the Moon's Simple Lighten 50% (default)
Coffee Shop's Little Perk 30%
Coffee Shop's Vivid 2
    no levels adjustment, vignette 10%, Soft 72%, Urban 83%
High Pass set to overlay blending mode 1.4 at 30%
Cloned out a few pumpkins
Cropped
Simply Vintage
   Lighten 55%, Soft Haze 2%, Color Mute 9%
Paint the Moon's Timeworn Soft texture at 68%, Blend mode Darker Color
Layer Mask to take the texture off the face.
Additional Sharpening..

See what I mean!!!! That just seems too much. Really I just play around until I like it, but for Fix-it Friday I wrote all my steps down. Maybe that's why I noticed the excess..

So... here it is!!

And here is the Before & After!

I love this diptych from CoffeShop!

I hope you enjoy your Friday and thanks for stopping by!!!

Fix-it Fridays @ iheartfaces...

This is fun!!

I just recently found out that I love to post process photos!! I may not be great as some, but I like what I do!

Here is the Original Photo (I did NOT take this photo):

I love using PW's actions for PSE. The first one I used was a boost action. Just to bring the color up a little more. I used the dodge tool next to make it a little lighter on her skin and face. Then I decided on a soft & faded action. Which decolorizes the photo, so what was the point of the boost.. its all about learning!!

Then I saw that they had a straighten tool. So I straightened and cropped. Unsharp mask set at 80% with a radius of 2.0 and a threshhold of 0.

Then I decided to put an edge burn and that just wasn't working for me.

Just this morning, I was cruising around Flickr and I happened upon a texture group. Someone in this group made a whole bunch of free textures because she just loved it so much. So, hey!! Why not get a few (even tho.. I wanted them ALL) They are really good. So I used this one.

Laid it on top, set the blending mode to multiply, maybe decreased it alittle. Don't think it needed it though. Then flatten and save.

I really love how it came out and I hope you do too!

























Ok... I had to add another one.

In this one, I added clouds in the background. I took some off of another photo and then just layered them on top. (yay! I'm excited! first time!) Then lightened her face, blurred the line between the clouds and rest of pic, boosted the blue part on just the clouds, and then boosted the over all color...