Holiday Season Craziness...

Sorry I haven't been around... I was working on getting things together for a small craft show at the beginning of December... and well... it's sort of went out of control. For the show, I made several of these cute owl hats... sold out of them... and I thought I was done. But, no. So many people wanted them, I started taking orders.... so every extra minute I've had has been making hats... hats... and more hats... It has been nice but it's totally taken me away from other things I love doing... so after I finished my orders... I've received another 15 orders... which will be put off until after Christmas, so I can focus on Christmas and my family...

Anyway, Rainee and I have been going cookie crazy... and this has to be our favorite... Rudolf the Red Nosed Reindeer.... it's such a fun cookie I had to share it with you... I hope your Christmas is delightful and your Christmas is full of Christmas wonders!!! And I'll try to be better at blogging....

Tongue-Tied To{day}...

Rainee enjoyed every moment of taking care of the butterflies for Mrs. Baguyo. And when the time came to say good-bye... one butterfly just didn't want to leave... he stayed around enjoying Rainee's company. And I enjoyed watching and taking photos of them together. Thanks again Sharon... Rainee loved loved loved taking care of them for you! This was a blissful butterfly day!

Enjoy your Thurs{day}...

Tongue-Tied To{day}...

Some every{day} moments!

Setting butterflies free...

Fort day!

Donut day!

Have a happy one!

Happy Birthday Rainee... & One Year...

Happy Happy Birthday to my wonderful little Rainee... I hope today is extra special... enjoy it my little love... enjoy it!

And before I go.... I wanted to say it's hard to believe it's been a year since my dad passed away. It's been a difficult year without him. It seems like just yesterday I could reach for the phone to tell him about something that was going on here... or to let Rainee have her cute little chats with him... which they both loved. He taught me so much and he continues to do so even now.... I was blessed with a loving, kind and generous dad and will be forever grateful. At the time is seemed a bit sad that his passing was on Rainee's Birthday... but we've come to see it as papa giving her one last birthday present... leaving behind with her a little piece of his beautiful heart. One very special gift. Love you dad... and we still miss you.

Rainee's Party... Party... Party...

Rainee's 'real birthday' is on Thursday... but yesterday, as Rainee would say... we celebrated her 'fake birthday'... at Chuck E. Cheeses... something she's been wanting to do forrrrrrrever. But I've been putting off doing because well... for too many reasons... but we did it!!! And she loved it!

Our party time was 1:30pm... but her day started at 6am... wanting to know when would be leaving. ... by 8am she had eaten breakfast.. brushed her teeth... and was completely dressed and ready to go! So for the next 4 hours she tried to to amuse herself... which was difficult with the excitement building up inside... she just couldn't wait... so by the time noon rolled around we had to leave, because I don't think she could have maintained herself much longer.. cute... too cute!

Anyway... the day was filled with... lots of very special friends... lots of food... lots of fun... and a very happy happy birthday girl! It was a very happy happy 'fake birthday'!

Easter Fun...

From the moment Rainee woke up Saturday... there was excitement about all things Easter... our weekend was full.... making carrot cake - Cake Pops... coloring eggs... finding Easter Baskets & eggs... singing praises in church... and going to the movies. This was an Easter filled with... blessings... love... forgiveness and laughter.  I hope your holiday was full of wonderful memories too.

Butterfly Photo Tutorial...

I thought I would do a tutorial on one of the butterfly photos from my layout yesterday... for some this may not be new... for others, it may be something you've wanted to do but didn't know how... so I think it will surprise you how simple this really is to do with your photos.

I will be using Photoshop... on a mac. But most of these simple principles will apply to whatever photo-editing application you may be using...

1. Once your photo is open, make a duplicate of this layer.

2. Rename it to whatever you'd like... I named mine is Black&White copy.

3. Go to Image, then Adjustments, then to Black & White to make this layer Black &White.

4. A window will come up for you to adjust your photo... lighter or darker in black&white... most times I leave this on the default settings... if I do adjust anything it is the reds and magenta... to make the photo lighter or darker... play around with this for making your photo darker of lighter.

5. Enlarge the area you want to have the color on.

6. On your Black&White layer... choose your Eraser Tool. Now adjust your Eraser Tool to size.
For large area choose a large eraser... for small area... choose a small eraser.
I always like to erase large parts first with a large eraser... then adjust the eraser for the detailed areas.
Now erase your image on the Black&White Copy layer.

7. After you've erased the large parts of your image... now adjust your Eraser Tool to a smaller size for the more detailed areas... the edge of the image or like mine the legs and antennas...
now erase the small areas.

8. And you're done!!! Easy right?

9. Now... SAVE this file as a layer document (.psd), just in case you want to go back and make more adjustments. I save mine as the file name + a number, but you can save it as anything you want.

10. Save your file again as a .jpg, this will flatten the layers for you and saving the .psd file.
NOW this saved .jpg file is what you will print....

I hope this has helped you... and you will try using it on some of your photos.

See you tomorrow!!! Enjoy your day!!!