I Heart Faces weekly challenge

Ha, apparently I don’t read directions well. I had read I heart faces’ directions as to not enter more than one post. But I was only supposed to have one picture in the post. So even if it was something I posted before, I need to make sure I post that picture again by itself. (Sometimes it is nice to have the excuse that I am blonde.) =)

This week the challenge is hands, feet, anything other than the face.

Success

Sometimes success is better measured in smiles received, giggles heard, and hands held, than in dollars earned, deadlines met, and kilos shed. ~~Mike Dooley, Inspirational Author, Speaker and Friend

Fix it Friday

editing fun #88

Before:

I got into Picasa and then Picnik. I played around in Matte, not sure exactly what I did because I kept changing the color and the fade. I went into Blemish Control and removed the bug bite on her arm and then I went into Focal Point and clicked on the flower in her hair:

After:

My Cry for HELP!

The other day I cried HELP! Tonja tried to help me. Thank you. I went into my HTML codes and tried shrinking my header size and that still didn’t help.

Our Page Elements should look like this:

I borrowed this from Clover Lane when I was trying to follow her making a header in Picasa tutorial. She has awesome headers/banners. Though it is a little blurry, see how you can click on Edit on the Clover Lane (Header) (where I placed the red arrow)?

Mine doesn’t look like that. Most of it does but the (Header) box is cut off on the left side. I wanted to capture the screen to show you but I don’t know how to do that.

LOL, as I was going back and forth from here and my blog and Clover Lane I seem to have made my header line smaller while trying to make my banner bigger. So I no longer have this problem. I do, however, have a new one.

I have done this before. I had a perfect sized header. I now have the banner I want but it is too small. I played around with the size many times, exporting it each time from Picasa until I got it the perfect size (but I couldn’t tell you which one it was). I finally got it. I also had to borrow the CSS code from Clover Lane to center the perfect sized banner. Thank you so very much Sarah. 

It is a very good idea to share the tips and tricks you find every once in awhile because there does come a day when you need them again and all you have to do is search your own blog to find them.

HELP! And some advice

I have updated my blog today. What do you think? Is the background okay or too busy? I can’t change the color of the sidebar and footer because I think I must have it set in the HTML codes. Another day maybe I will figure those out.

As for the header. I wanted to change it up. I can’t. When I go to the Page Elements under Design I can’t click on Edit for the header because it is off screen. Any one know how to fix this?

Phone Photo Challenge

I know I already posted 10 random pictures today but those were taken with my Nikon d90. has a weekly photo challenge, that has to include a human face, and this week the challenge was phone photos. I just so happened to have this picture I took over the weekend on my iPhone4. I tried several times to get my niece, but the light coming in from the windows behind her were causing an issue. Finally I took the picture without HDR (or maybe with, I am not sure what it even is) and got this (I used the vignette in black on Picnik to smooth out the edges). The fact I got her face like this was just luck.

 

I also had this picture that I wasn’t sure if I wanted to enter instead (I took it in the rear view mirror and cropped it in the iPhone Photoshop app.)

10 Random Photos

A rock ant in the front flower bed

Not sure what kind of tree this is, it came in a little snowman at Christmas time. It will need to go in a bigger pot soon.

A lone feather stuck on a baron branch on a restaurant patio.

My latest project, a cheese cloche, I love how the glass came out in the picture.

My mom had a big party for my dad (turning 60 March 1) and his brother who turned 60 last month. This bottle was just sitting there so I took its picture.

I think it is amazing how you can’t see the dust just looking at the candleholder, but the camera sure picks it up.

Some carnations from my son for Valentine’s day.

My nephew and his papa.

My beautiful, spirited niece.

My dad was hammered when I got home from work, my brother wasn’t far behind. Not sure why he was hitting on dad. Kept making him fall out of the chair. My uncle was laughing so hard he was bright red. Made my brother keep doing it and my dad could barely breath from laughing. I thought he was going to throw up.

Wild Thing

And Max the king of all wild things was lonely and wanted to be where someone loved him best of all. –Maurice Sendak

Achieving Bokeh

Happy Valentine’s Day to those of you that celebrate it. My mom got a yummy ice cream cake from BR. I had actually just told her she didn’t need to get those for my birthday any more because they hadn’t been that good but they changed things up on this one.

I have recently discovered Tracy’s Trinkets and Treasures, I believe through iheartfaces. Tracy gives some great photography tips. Not that I understand them all. It was suggested I check out the Dummies book for my camera.

Tracy is having a Bokeh party and I think I have some pictures that fulfill Bokeh. She explains what Bokeh is as well. 

I have shared this picture before, but apparently I achieved Bokeh without even trying (see how the flowers pop because the background is all blurry?). It’s too bad I don’t know how I did it.

Today my son gave me some pink carnations. I played around trying to achieve Bokeh here and I think I might have done okay.

 

I also used some editing in Picnik to achieve Bokeh on this picture.

Hearts for Valentine’s

14 hearts around the house in honor of Valentine’s Day.

#1

#2

#3

#4

#5

#6

#7

#8

#9

#10

#11

#12

#13 I created the heart in the next two, but I couldn’t help it…

#14

Pretty Honeysuckle Bowl

Pantone’s Color of the Year, Honeysuckle

As you all may know I am a huge fan of Kristi at the Speckled Dog. I want to point that out as I share this bowl pedestal with you because for once I wasn’t being a copy cat. I just happened to put my pieces together after she shared how she did hers. =)

I found this wooden bowl at Goodwill and already had the candlestick. After pulling the metal part out of the candlestick (where the candle sits) I glued the two together with my trusty Gorilla Wood Glue.

Then with my Purdy brush, I painted on a coat of Folk Art’s Parisian Pink. The brush ended up being too big so I only did the one coat with it. I also switched to Folk Art’s Hot Pink for the next two coats because it looked closer to Honeysuckle.

Once the paint was all dry, I decided the pedestal needed a little bigger base so I glued another circle on the bottom with the Gorilla Glue. I painted the base Hot Pink. Then I roughed up the whole piece a little and used my black glaze mix from before. Then I sealed the whole piece.

There we go for my use of Pantone’s Honeysuckle, color of the year. It is very vibrant and yet refreshing.