It's Fix it Friday....and it's hot!

The picture we get to play with this week is beautiful!

Here is the original.......

and here is my take.....

I cropped it, warmed it, added some texture, softened her skin and sharpened her lips because they are gorgeous, I also sharpened his eyes, added some contrast....and some more stuff. lol!  I got carried away! ha!

Head over to iheartfaces to see lots of other fabulous takes on this fabulous photo! 

I Heart Pets!

This week is all about our furry friends. We have three furry friends in our house. Sophie our boxer, Tuffy our three legged kitty and Miss Kitty our sassy kitty. I can't imagine our house without animals in it. They are so loyal and just plain make you smile with their antics.  Although Sophie may look like a dog she is most definitely not a dog!  We call her part human and part cat.  We are pretty sure she thinks she is a cat but she is also such a part of our family.  We have 4 boys so I figured we just needed a dog.  I am not a huge dog person myself (okay, I am scared to death of most dogs. lol!) but it just seemed right.  Sophie came along and has just completely won me over.  She sleeps as much as the cats, she looooves to sneak the cat's food. She even loves to lay in the window sill in the sun like a cat!  Whenever I talk to her about her favorite things she tilts her head waaay over like in this photo and makes me chuckle every time.  She sleeps with me every night.  She's my girl. :)

Please head on over to Iheartfaces to see many more great pets!

Iheartfaces is all about orange this week!

This week the photo challenge is all about the color orange!  I love orange.  One of my favorite colors in fact!  Pumpkins are orange which remind me of fall fun.  Swimmies are orange which brings up lots of beach memories.  I looked through all of my photos and orange comes up a lot!  However I kept coming back to this photo of my husband and I on the beach and I am wearing my orange shirt.  It's not an award winning photo and we are not super models but it's us.  My husband and I.  We have something so special, so wonderful.  We have now been married for 10 years and have created 4 beautiful boys together and somehow we have stayed 100% happy through it all.  I am so grateful to have found my true soul mate.  He gets me.  When I am in a bad mood, he just lays low.  When I am emotional he holds me.  When I am happy it makes everything in his world happy.  He protects me and takes care of me.  When he looks at me and tells me I look beautiful I really do feel like I am beautiful in his eyes even though I hate what I see in the mirror.  I love him so much.  He is my better half. :)

Sometimes when you play with a toy enough, it starts to look like you. :)

      My boys LOVE legos.  I can't even tell you how many hours they have spent together building and imaging.  They like when I build with them but I can only make a rectangle and then when I touch anything made of lego's it seems to explode into 1,000 pieces, sigh.......
      The good news is that I am pretty good at taking pics of their projects they make and they love that!  My son Toby made this version of my son Avery one day and it was so funny! His imagination is priceless! Enjoy my collage and when you are done don't forget to go to I heart faces to see some more fun photo stories!

Is it a lake or is it love?

I absolutely adore Lake Michigan.  I feel so lucky that I live so near such a treasure!  Walking on the beach makes everything in my world okay for the time that I am there.  We bring our 4 boys there quite frequently and the words "I'm bored" has never even crossed their lips once.  We swim, make sand castles and sculptures, dig holes and soak up the sun.  A warm breeze is usually kissing our faces.  It's a different lake each time we go.  One day it will have big waves that we ride on like a wave pool and the next it will be calm and clear revealing all of the colorful rocks and fossils that we treasure hunt for.  Going to the beach is our way of unplugging from the world.  No t.v's, no movies and more important NO XBOX!  I feel so relaxed riding home at the end of the day at the beach.....I ♥ Lake Michigan. :)

Oh and by the way, the beach is an amazingly gorgeous place to take lots and lots of pictures! Here is one of my four boys. Enjoy!  ;)

Grab a boat and cruise on over to Iheartfaces to check out some more great beach photos!

Fix it Friday fun!

This is such a wonderful picture to work with and a gorgeous little girl! I love this Fix it Friday! Thank you iheartfaces!

Here is the sooc...

here is my version....

head on over to iheartfaces to check out some more awesome edits!

Fix it Friday is here!

This picture of two little girls is adorable! There is nothing like a good friend to share things with when you are a child........

here is the original.......

I wanted to give it a little bit of a dreamy feel so I sharpened it a little, then I used the "adjust color for skin tone" feature, adjusted the levels, saturation and contrast a little and last but not least I dodged around the edges a little.

make sure you head on over to Iheartfaces for more great edits!

I heart faces Fix It Friday is BAAACK!

I missed not having a photo to fix last Friday! This weeks photo is fabulous! So very fixable and a great finished product! Enjoy my entry and then head on over to Iheartfaces to see some more great entries and maybe learn a thing or two while you are there. :)

Here is my "fix"
I started out burning the edges a little
Then I outlined just the girl with the magnetic lasso
I used unsharp mask on her and adjusted levels and bumped up the contrast a littleThen i selected the inverse of her to make adjustments to the background behind her
I added some gaussian blur and lightened the saturation a little
then I deselected and added a warming filter over the whole thing
went back and burned the edges a little more and voila.......here it is. :)

I heart faces theme of the week? PETS!

I love this shot I got of our Sophie girl. I am not a dog person at all but this pup has captured my heart. She may look like a dog but in all honesty she thinks she is a cat. She is a faithful friend to our four boys and she desperately wants to pal around with our cats. A little shy at first once she gets to know you she loves your forever. She has become a family member for sure! Enjoy this picture of Sophie Jane!

Hop on over to i heart faces to check out more great entries!

My Baby Turns 2!

 

Did it really happen?  Did 2 years really pass already?  It’s been 2 years since I snuggled him for the first time, his warm newborn skin against my bare chest.  His sweet little cry when he needed something from me.   Now he is a big boy (most of the time).  He wants to keep up with his brothers and he wants to be independent.  We celebrated this milestone with family and friends in our backyard……

His favorite thing in the world is to play with a ball.  So….

He got lots..

and lots of them.

He had delicious cupcakes for his birthday.  He enjoyed every bite of BOTH cupcakes he ate!  One cupcake for each year. Hehe!  He wasn’t to sure of what to think about being the center of attention while we sang him happy birthday.  He was pretty sure it was cool but looked serious just in case. ;)

   

 

He did a great job blowing out his candle.  I think all the practice he got blowing out our candle while the power was out helper. ;)

He has a wonderful and special day. :D

Fix it Friday! Woohoo!

I really love the sunlight in this photo! So nice and warm feeling! Here is the original.....

Here is my take

First I cropped and rotated the picture.

Then I selected just him with the magnetic lasso

Next I used unsharp mask and adjusted the levels

Then I selected the inverse and applied a guassian blur to the background

Next I adjusted the brightness and the contrast of the whole photo

after that I increased the saturation everywhere but his face

and last but not least I picked the feature on PSE8 that adjusts the color to his skin tone.

that is pretty much what I did. Still extremely new to photoshop and have lots to learn! haha!

Don't forget to check out more great edits at www.iheartfaces.com

All About Babies (i heart faces)

I love this weeks theme! What can make you happier than looking at a sweet baby smiling or sleeping peacefully. The picture I chose is a baby I have been photographing since she was a newborn and now she is 7 months already! We worked so hard for this shot but it turned out to be priceless! I got the camera ready, dad threw the hat on her head and brother stood behind me trying to get her attention. The next moment right after this the hat was off again! lol! She is so cute! So here she is.....

Check out more entries at iheartfaces !!

Fix it Friday time!!

I am loving Fix it Friday! So fun to see everyones creativity with the same photo! You should go on over to www.iheartfaces.com to see lots more great entries!

Here is the original.....

Here is my version....

Fix it Friday

Here is my first attempt at entering a Fix it Friday photo on the website http://iheartfaces.blogspot.com/ ! I love to look at what everyone else does and it's also so fun to play with someone else's photo. I used Photoshop Elements 8 to do this.

Original

My version. :)