More Photo Fun

I was bored a few weeks ago and ended up working on this picture. It's from when my fam, Kevin, and I went to Silver Dollar City in May 2007. We had so much fun!

Out on the town

Today my mom and I hit the town. We started out by meeting my dad at The Corner Cafe, a local diner on *in big epic voice* THE Historical Route 66! It was a cute little place that was bustling with activity. They had the most delicious club sandwich.

After lunch we went to some area thrift stores. At the first one I got a vintage tree topper and a sewing box, both for half price.

(This is not a picture of mine, but looks almost just like it.)

Then we hit the jackpot of all jackpots...it was book-a-palozza! By that I mean we got like 22 books for under $21. The majority of the books are quilting books that my mom likes, some are about building your own home (which we're going to do soon!), and I got Christopher Reeves' autobiography and a Lawrence Welk autobiography that is autographed by Tom Netherton. I know that sounds like a lot, but really the sale price on just one of the quilting books is $21.95. So mom and I are very proud of our thrift store treasures!

Christmas

I hope everyone had a great Christmas! My family got up, opened presents, then we played Scene It for most of the rest of the day. (It was one of my sister's gifts).

So I guess I am the only one in my family who likes to wrap presents so I was talked into wrapping all the presents except the ones going to me. I decided that this year I would only use paper that has been used before... hey if I'm doing all that wrapping then I can do it however I want to....right?!? It ended up being like a wrapping adventure. I know, I know...I'm a nerd. Anyway, when my mom started wrapping my presents I told her that I love unwrapping so please don't use many gift bags.

Long story, short to say that she wrapped one of my presents like this...




















All reused paper which I opened to find another wrapped box. I opened that to revile yet another wrapped box. I opened that to see another wrapped box...Jk it was a CD inside. However mom said that there would have been a fourth box but she couldn't find one :) It was so much fun and so cool that mom went to all that work for me because I told her I liked to unwrap presents. So I pretty much have the coolest mom in the world.

BTW is it possible to have Scene It withdraws in only one day since my sis is gone?? Anyway...wow I really strayed off topic. Christmas...it was fun...lots of quality family time happened. I think that was the point of this message. I think...

A new apron for mom and a new purse for me....

Ok...so a few weeks ago I mentioned that I had made my mom a Christmas present...and I can now say what it is! I made her an apron using this site. Now that it's after Christmas I can post a picture of it. I got my mom to model it but I'm not allowed to actually show her :) There are cute little pockets on it but I didn't really get a good picture of them...if you follow the link to the tutorial it gives close-ups of what they look like.

So while buying fabric for the apron I had no idea how much to buy, so I got a yard...leaving me with more then half a yard and no idea what to do with it. Then I ran across a page I had bookmarked more then a year ago. It was this tutorial on craftster for a messenger bag. After mentioning that I had no fabric to use for the lining, Mary Ann sent me this adorable fabric to use along with a cute little card.

Today I put all my fabric to use, along with a zipper, overall fastener, and two buttons I found around the house...and I made this....

I even took the time to make sure that the picture of the kids ended up front and center! I love it and I'm so proud of myself and how well it came out! :)

Merry Christmas...

So I got the idea while I was laying in bed Sunday night that my sister, my parents, and I should take a family picture while we're all in the same town. Here's what happens when a crazy family like mine tries to take a portrait...




















Ok...so our original intent was to take a photo that looks similar to one of our early family portraits. (We're so cute!)




















The first one is our Christmas attire and the second is dressy.




















Merry Christmas from my crazy family to you!

A Silver Dollar City Christmas...Part 3

Ok so once it got dark at Silver Dollar City the park got even more beautiful and magical then before. As I was walking around all I wanted to do was capture the magic on camera. So here are my attempts. They aren't perfect but I will show you what I did to improve them.

When trying to photograph Christmas lights there are a few things to remember. The flash is going to ruin it. I'm serious...

The first photo was taken using flash, the second was without a flash.

The colors are much more brilliant in the second photo because the photo allowed more of the surrounding light to come in. The problem with the second photo is camera shake. The way to avoid that is a tripod. However most of us don't carry a tripod strapped on our back at all times....I know I don't :) In order to get the effect of using a tripod find any steady object...a fence post, trash can lid, table, etc. and rest your camera on it while still holding on to it to take the picture.

With both sets the first pic was taken just holding the camera; for the second I used a fence post to keep my camera steady.

These pictures took 15-20 seconds each to take in order to allow enough light to get into the camera. Because of the long period of time anything that is moving in the camera view ends up blurred. That is why people look a little ghostly. (That can be used to your benefit at times...but that is a whole other story and in fact a project I did for photography II class). I hope my information and tips are helpful to you and don't come too late to take some great photos during this holiday season.

A Silver Dollar City Christmas...Part 2

If you missed part one...I took a trip to Silver Dollar City with my parents last Friday and I'm writing a kind of photo journal on here about the trip and will include some photo tips on Christmas lights.




















You can't go to SDC without taking the classic picture in front of the giant sign...whether it's your first or more like the 70th time to be there. So after hanging out with Santa I sat down with my parents to listen to the Cajun Connection (a zydeco style band including an accordionist, piano player, drummer, bass player, guitar player, two dancers, and Washboard Leo...he really plays a washboard!).

Then I took off to ride some roller coasters...and left my camera with my parents. (I'm kicking myself for that because there was the most beautiful sunset behind one the coasters and was a picture perfect moment). *kicking myself*

Then the festivities started up with the lighting of the 5-story Christmas tree in the town square. It's huge. It's beautiful. And the lights on the tree change color and pattern to the music as well as all the other lights in the square.

Ok...my next post will seriously include the photo tips. I just had to show off my other photos first :)

A Silver Dollar City Christmas

My parents and I made our annual Christmas trip to Branson (Silver Dollar City in particular) this weekend. It seems like we went just in time. We got there on Friday, spent the day at SDC, then spent the night at my grandma's in Arkansas. On Saturday when we left to come back home it was 62 degrees and it dropped 18 degrees in about 10 minutes. Anyway, I took a lot of photos at SDC that I want to share and I also have a few photo tips to share on taking pictures of Christmas lights. So here goes...this could take a few posts.

As soon as we got into the park at SDC we stopped to listen to some singers and they said that there were free carriage rides. So we of course wanted to ride! While we were waiting to get on the horse/mule/thing stuck it's tongue out at me :)

My mom got kind of hidden behind me in the pic. I was so excited...I got to ride up front with the driver :) Then I went and found me a new boyfriend, but he didn't look to interested.

So I gave up on him and went to hang out with the big guy himself...Santa.

To be continued...

Mini-scrapbook

Earlier this week I made a mini scrapbook (called a meandering book) using a pattern from the 2005 Winter edition of Cloth, Paper, Scissors. Cindy was so nice to send me the pattern when I commented about how cute her meandering books are and how I wanted to make one myself. At first I couldn't decide on a theme and finally settled on love. I'm please with my finished book; it's not perfect, but for a first try I think it turned out good. Now I'm going to make a little envolpe to put it in because the book folds up to a 2 1/2 by 2 1/2 inch square.

Snowman love...

Finding homes for the snowmen...and women...

This afternoon mom and I hit the local flea market and we found some adorable little snowpeople that need a home. So we brought home a snow couple who are believed to be candle holders, not totally for sure on that. We also got a cute snowman bank. After the 20% off special the three were only a little over $3.


I had already put the snowmen with the rest of our collection (I'll have a picture later) then I decided to take a picture of the three we got today. I took the first picture without realizing that the girl snowperson was turned away. Once I uploaded the pictures I saw that she looked flirty...so that picture is the keeper :)

New Sites

I've noticed some new blogs lately that I wanted to share with everyone. The first is by Mary Ann called indie-pendence. Every few days she writes an article showcasing an independent designer. It's a really neat site and it's fun to see what artists are out there waiting to be discovered.

The second blog I want to point out is very new and is...my dad's. He saw how much fun I was having with my blog and wanted to have one himself. My dad is a fan of Branson and classic country music (that's where I get it from). So his blog is entitled "Why are they not in Branson..." For each post he chooses a someone who is a "big name" in classic country, writes some about the person, and why he thinks they would be a perfect candidate to have their own theater in Branson. I had to help me dad figure out the whole blogging thing and trust me it was a long process *cough* I mean lots of fun ;)

I hope you check out both of these sites and enjoy them as I have.

Goodie Bag

I fell in love with this little bag tutorial from Fiona last week. I just had to make one for myself. So when I got up yesterday I started right in. I did make one change to the bag...I left out the pvc. My bag isn't to hold make-up so I really have no need to make it spill proof. I made my bag using fabric that Kevin's grandmother gave me a while back. The outside fabric is French Fryzz brand vintage fabric. I don't know much about the brand except most of the French Fryzz fabric was printed on potato sack like fabric. I googled the brand and couldn't find this fabric so I'm wondering if it was printed in limited supply. *shrug* If you know anything about this brand please let me know because I would love to learn more about it.














This bag was pretty easy to make considering this was only my second attempt at a zipper. I plan on making another bag soon and will post pictures of each step. Hope you like my new little goodie bag.

Photo tutorial

As promised here is the tutorial on photo editing…turning a photo B&W or sepia while leaving one object in color. I did my editing in Paint.NET because I don’t have Photoshop on my laptop. Paint.NET is a free editing program that can be downloaded to your computer. I did learn these techniques using Photoshop and they can be used on any program that has the capability to edit multiple layers. I used the Print Screen option on my keyboard in order to have step by step pictures to show.

First you must choose a photo and open it in your program. I choose a photo that is a favorite of mine. Not only is it of my Kevo, but he’s wearing the shirt that I really like.
















Ok, once your photo is open make a duplicate layer.

















You will want to change the top layer to either B&W, sepia, or put some other effect on it.
















Once the effect is on the top layer you will only see the original colors in the toolbox at the lower right hand side of the screen.

















In order to bring back the original colors you must choose the eraser icon in the left hand toolbox, choose a brush size, and begin to erase the areas you want to be in color.

















Use a larger brush size for the large middle areas and gradually go to a smaller size as you get near the small corners and edges. Zooming in helps for more accurate erasing.
















Tada…a neat-o looking photo, but you’re not finished just yet. You are still left with two layers and while that’s ok in the editing program it isn’t okay anywhere else. So select the flatten button in the image drop down list.

















Once the image is flattened into one layer you are done. Just save the photo (preferably under a new name so you still have the original) and show it off to all your friends!

Stay tuned...

I have had several people ask me lately how to edit pictures leaving one/several objects in color and the rest of the photo in B&W/sepia. I am working on a tutorial to show just how to do that. I regret to say that it will take a little longer then I thought to get it on here because my power cable went out today for my laptop :( I will get it on here as soon as possible.


An example...

If a picture is worth a thousand words...

...then here's fifteen thousand for ya'.


I got this from Mary Ann. The rules are 1. you must use a picture to answer each question. 2. the picture must be found by doing a Google image search. 3. the image has to be found on the first page of results from the search. So here goes...

Age on next birthday:




The twenty-one, not the elephants :)









A place you'd like to visit:

All the way down Route 66 baby

One favorite place:

A favorite object:









The two cameras I own







My favorite food:





Mmm...cherry cheesecake, especially mom's







Favorite color:













Favorite animal:




I used to want to be an orca trainer for sea world, who would have thought?!?








Name of first pet:









Where I live:






"Ooooooklahoma" doesn't that make you want to break out in to song?!?









First grade teacher's name:


















My middle name:











A bad habit:





I grew up not having a television and now I can't pull myself away from it









College major:

No...that man is not my major. It's mass communication.

My favorite holiday:

A small town Christmas

Every year for the last eight or so years my Dad has set up a village for Christmas. Each year we expand the village by getting a new building or person. I've taken up photographing Dad's village and decided to take a new approach this time. I went into the village. Turned my flash off and set the camera inside to get up close and personal pictures for the view of being a citizen of the town.

Here's what it looks like to an outsider.

Here are my mom's vintage Santa's that she wanted me to take a picture of...

Friday Feast Fun

Thought this was kinda cute, so here goes...

Appetizer: Make up a word and give us its definition.
Galastic- even better then fabulous

Soup: What is currently your favorite song?
Hmm...whatever is playing on the classic country station

Salad: What’s at the top of your Christmas wish list this year?
Gilmore Girls Season 7 and Coffee at Luke's

Main Course: Name a scent that reminds you of someone special in your life.
Potato Soup...my mom makes potato soup for me almost every time I come home. It's delicious

Dessert: Who is someone on television that you feel probably shouldn't be, and why?
Harry Connick Jr. because he ruined "Frosty the Snowman" forever by making it jazzy, so I don't really enjoy seeing him on Will & Grace. Wow...that came out a little more harsh then it was supposed to... :/ (BTW, yes I just turned Will & Grace on and yes Harry Connick Jr. is in this episode).

Home for the Holidays!

Finals are over! It feels nice to have a break, and I think I did good on them :)

I made it home this afternoon and luckily the electricity had come back on last night (the recent ice caused tons of power outages in the area). When I turned in the driveway I realized how bad the damage from the ice has been.

New things

I've learned some tips recently from Mary Ann about html. She explained to me how to do this...no that :) It is done by putting <> before the word or phrase and < /s > after. (Only make sure to take out the spaces). I've also learned how to search a page for keywords by typing Ctrl F then typing in the word(s) I'm looking for. I love learning new things...

I'm also planing on starting a new project when I get home. It is a messenger bag using this tutorial by Kategirl and this fabric. I'm not sure yet on what I'm going to use for the lining. Maybe I'll find something at home that I already have that looks good with this cute fabric.

Well, that's all I've got for now. Back to studying...

The holidays are upon us

~The cold weather is rolling in and unlike the usual up and down weather conditions in my area, it's just cold now.
~Yesterday some carolers came into the cafeteria and sang Christmas carols.
~Only three more days before the break.

These things made me realize that Christmas is approaching and I have done absolutely no Christmas shopping so far...I'm usually done by the week after Thanksgiving. Not only have I not started shopping, but I have no ideas on what to buy. I am planning on making my mom's gift (I can't say what it is because she reads my blog sometimes...Hi mom!) but I guess I'll be hitting the stores pretty hard after finals week.

Speaking of finals (you're probably getting tired of hearing about them huh?) I'm putting off writing a paper right now. Umm...can I use the claim that this is a brainstorming/pre-writing exercise for my paper?!? *Coughs* *Clears throat* Economy. There I mentioned the topic of my paper, so it counts. :)

I started knitting another scarf today. It is going to be sage green and pale blue. I found the yarn at Wal-Mart and thought it was too pretty not to get. I know that sense it only cost $2.04 each it can't be that good of quality, but I don't care I'm still in the practicing stage.

Ice Ice...Baby?

Ok so that was my lame attempt at a funny/catchy title...

Last night everything started icing over and things got steadily worse today. It appears that the ice/winter mix is going to keep coming tonight and tomorrow. So I have all intentions of staying in the dorms and not going outside at all until my first final on Wednesday. That leaves me all the time in the world to write a final paper and study for a final Biology test. We're all hoping that we'll have some snow days like last year.

From last year's three day weekend due to icy weather.

Hopefully once finals are over with and I'm back home I'll have time to do some crafting. This is an adorable like folding book that folds up to a size of 2" X 2". This is the one that Cindy from Yapping Cat Studio made. She was kind enough to send me the pattern for it and I can't wait to use it.

Fun...

I love my new editing program! I got it off of Paint.NET and the program I downloaded is a free. It took me a few minutes to figure out what all to do to get the program downloaded and working (but I'm not so smart when it comes to downloading). Here are a few pictures I worked on this afternoon.

This picture is from where I worked this past summer.















A picture of a friend of mine. Aren't they cute?!?




















These last two are pictures I found for example photos when I was taking Photography II class last year.


































I'm having more fun with this program then should be allowed :)

If anyone wants to know how to do some effects like this on your photos, just let me know and I'll try to help ya' out!

Only Two Finals Left!

I'm finished up with all my regular classes and only have 2 finals left! So now Im going to take the weekend to relax a little and hang out with some friends. Today I spent some time playing around in Photoshop and made some new pictures.

This is one I took at Silver Dollar City...and that is my dad in wearing the blue shirt. There slogan in "You have a great past ahead of you." I wanted to make a picture that represented that, so here's what I've got...the train ride taking us into "the past," or at these the color of the past. :)

This is a pic I took over the summer at the western style entertainment venue that I worked at. I made the background look western-ish and the young man stand out like he's John Wayne (ok...so the John Wayne part is just a joke).




















Anyway, that's all the new pics I've got for now. I'm working on downloading a new program that is like Photoshop so I can work on photos outside of school.

Oh the stress...but pictures help

Most people think that finals week is the most stressful time for a college student...WRONG! In my life it happens to be the week before. I have tons of homework and studying to do and on top of that I was just put in charge of a commemorative video that my Special Events class is putting together. We got the script for the video at the end of last week and it's due this Friday. You're probably wondering if I'm so busy then why am I writing this...good question. I'm to that point that if I study any more my head will just explode. So in order to ease my mind I went through my old photographs to find some that gave a glimpse of my world...as the blog title does suggest.

The first is a picture I took last April, a few weeks before the semester ended. I was sitting in the car waiting for Kevin, I got bored so I took a picture in the mirror. Then I went into photoshop and made only the reflection color.

Second, while on our one year anniversary picnic, Kevin and I ran across these three hearts drawn on the sidewalk at the park.

Third we have the giant crazy-looking cloud that I saw while I was driving home at the end of the semester in May.

And just because it looked cool!

This helped my stress level go down. Hope you enjoyed the glance at my world.

Field Trip to the Pow Wow

Yep, you read that right. I said pow wow.




















For one of the classes I'm taking I was required to go to a pow wow on Saturday and write a story about it. I had never been to a pow wow before and had no idea what to expect. A friend of mine went along with me and we nervously entered the arena where the pow wow was taking place. It turned out to be quite an experience. We missed the dancing competition, which disappointed us, but we still got to hear some of the drummers and see the dancers in their regalia.



































There were booths surrounding the dance area where Native American artisans were selling there handmade items. They were selling everything from jewelry to wooden jewelry boxes. We stopped for awhile to watch a young man carving a tiki style totems. Come to find out he goes to the same university as me. He was really nice and I ended up interviewing him for my paper.






















I ended up having a lot of fun at the pow wow. Seeing everyone there and the pride they have in their heritage made me want to trace my heritage back and see if I have any Native American ancestors. I hope I get the opportunity to go to another one soon, and hopefully get to see the dancers compete next time.