Week 19 Photo Challenge

This week at i heart faces, we are entering the very best face we have ever captured. I don't know if this is my best, but it is one of my all-time favorites. I love everything about it. I've bumped myself up to the professional category.... the competition is going to be stiff!

I am submitting this photo into the http://www.iheartfaces.com/ Blurb book photo contest. If chosen, I grant I ♥ Faces permission to use my photo in a printed version of a book for commercial use and possibly advertising of a photo book on both the Blurb and I ♥ Faces web sites.

Lily of the Valley

Last One, I Promise

Fix-It Friday

I'm participating, once again, in fix-it friday over at i heart faces. Below is the original image we were given to 'fix.' I love it! I chose not to clean up her dirty arms, because there is a pureness to showing that a beautiful little girl in a white dress can find joy digging in the earth. I also went against the rule of thirds (placing her eyes at the top third of the photo), because I really 'felt' the space above her (not sure how to explain that one technically, grin).

What I did do:

In Photoshop CS2: TRA's Oh, Snap, Yin/Yang (lightened face and body), flattened, PW's Boost, flattened, then TRA's Pool Party and Punch Out! (100%).

In Picnik: Slight crop, resized, sharpened, Cross Process (fade at 70%), adjusted curves slightly, and added frame. Voila!

A Short Break

We interrupt this trip to the laundromat to bring you....
More pictures of my Leif. Am I predictable, or what?!

ETA: Could this beautiful little boy REALLY be the..... the..... the SOMETHING that just put a cup of frozen blueberries in the fabric softener dispenser while a load of clothes was being washed?!!!!!!!!!!! Sigh. (Or was that a scream you just heard...)

More Love at the Laundromat

Goofing Off

Seriously, you'd think these two were newlyweds. Do they look like they've been together for over 16 years?!

Laundry Babe

No Playing in Laundry Carts!

Swing

Ben & Shan

I had a crazy-fun photo shoot with my sister, Shannon, and her husband, Ben, today. It will take me a million hours to go through all 400 photos and edit my favorites, so here is a sneak peek!

Girls' Night Out

Laugh

A laugh is a smile that bursts.
~Mary H. Waldrip

Laughter is the sun that drives winter from the human face.
~Victor Hugo

It's time to laugh at i heart faces.

I'm entering both the kids and adults category this week.

Motherhood

Most of all the other beautiful things in life come by twos and threes, by dozens and hundreds. Plenty of roses, stars, sunsets, rainbows, brothers and sisters, aunts and cousins, comrades and friends - but only one mother in the whole world.

~Kate Douglas Wiggin

Mom, thanks for being one of my priceless treasures!

Happy Mother's Day to all the other mothers out there.

In celebration of motherhood,
I am exited to give something new a try....

Mothers are often the family member behind the camera, documenting the life of their family.
Mothers occasionally have difficulty thinking of themselves as a separate entity from the family unit, and an even more difficult time thinking of themselves as beautiful women.

I would like, very much, the opportunity to photograph mothers of all ages.

You are important.
You deserve to feel beautiful.

Announcing:

Mothers Portrait Sessions

These mini-sessions will be $50
(due at time of session) and include:
20-30 minutes with you, the mom!, on location
(travel within 20 miles of Albany, OR)
and a CD of 5-10 edited images
for you to use as you like
(available within 2 weeks of your session).

Limited availability. May - June 2009 only.
Email me at heidi@poetsgarden.com
as soon as possible to schedule your session!

Rain in Its Season

Spring Cleaning ~ Day 2

I love having so many windows in my front room until it is time to dust the shutters! I got them clean yesterday. Windows are on the docket for today, along with the floors.

Some things are easy for me to toss (well, not many things), but I have the hardest time purging magazines. I am just sure that I will find/make time to go through them and cut out all the great ideas/recipes that I will never do/make. I managed to let go of this stack:

I only saved a few. I would really like a basket or bin on this (very distressed) tea cart to hide the piles I can't part with. Oh, and another bin for containing stuff on the cabinet just inside the front door. I also want one of those 'recharging stations' that contains all the cords for recharging all our mobile phones. I'm making my list now....

This desk was filled with junk that I cleaned out. Now I have 9 empty drawers to use for my new paperwork system! Wahoo!!

While we're chatting about storage, the following cabinet houses my smaller decorating items that aren't being used at the moment. (I've been asked about that before and haven't answered yet... Sorry! I need to finish up all those questions next week!)

I covered the glass doors with paper (heavy wrapping paper that looks like vintage postcards) so that I wouldn't have to have the clutter inside organized:

The lower half of the cabinet houses scrapbooking/craft stuff that needs to be organized, as does the library cabinet below. That organizing project is going to have to wait for some other week...

On to the windows and floors.... Ugh.

Friends and Followers...

A couple new things over on my side bar... I finally added a subscription link as well as the followers gadget. I hate the term 'followers' for some reason, so I am just going to consider you all friends, is that okay? So, if you are interested in subscribing to Mt. Hope Chronicles, or want to add your face to the pictures of my friends, now is a great time to do so! Maybe then I could picture your faces instead of feeling as if I'm chatting with my computer. Big Grin.

The Real Me

Y'all have no idea the guts it took to post the following pictures, but I'm trying to be honest here. Anyone else participating in Simple Mom's Spring Cleaning Party? I'm a day or two (or three) off her schedule, but I don't think that's important. What is important is that I'm doing SOMETHING.

Monday, I had my first real photo shoot (and spent quite a bit of time editing images). The photos below were taken on Tuesday morning. As real (if you want to put it that way) as I get. I worked as hard as I could on things the rest of that day as I got a chance (you know how it is trying to accomplish anything while parenting 3 small children, don't you? Don't you?!). Yesterday (Wednesday) we got a few things done in the morning. Late afternoon and evening were filled with piano lessons, dinner out, and family night at the swimming pool. We came home, got the kids to bed, watched (luckily we have a DVR) Lie to Me (my favorite new show) and American Idol, and then promptly went to bed. Priorities, people, priorities. So I'm back to the grindstone this afternoon.

So, I figure a few of you will love me for these photos, a few of you will be amused (or not), and some of you will be appalled and never return to Mt. Hope. Sigh.

BEFORE:

The kitchen:

Laundry:
Recycling mess:

AFTER:

I finished up the laundry and got it all put away, cleaned/straightened the laundry nook, cleaned and organized the mess on the kitchen counter (left) a little. (I put a fresh quote on the chalkboard after I took this picture.) I emptied the dishwasher, did the dishes, and cleaned off the counter around the sink.

More kitchen counter cleaning, put the recycling in the bin outside, etc.

Took all the photos off the side of the fridge and cleaned it. Removed more things from counter.

Put the month of May up on the dry-erase board, cleaned off the corkboard, cleaned up the school basket and math bin, put the math balance scale away since we aren't using it right now...

But.... I still have a few piles of paperwork that I need to work on this weekend. I desperately need a new system for bills, to-do stuff, and filing!!

On to the living room...

BEFORE:

(Don't you like my dead pots of grass? Nice.)

This cabinet by the front door is always the catch-all. It drives me crazy!!

Shoes and coats multiply by the front door. I had the boys bring in their mess from the back seat of the Suburban. And this is where it ended up.

AFTER:

Ahhhhh. Piano books and school books organized and many put on the little book shelf next to the desk and behind the couch so they are still handy.

Bad photo, but I took down the dried wreath that was driving me crazy, removed the pots of dead grass, and cleaned off the remotes and DVDs on top of the TV cabinet. (I LOVE being able to close the doors on the TV and all the DVDs. (I also removed some dead branches and the bunnies off of another bookscase, and replaced them with a couple birds. Sometimes it doesn't take much to freshen a display.)

Purged coats and shoes by the front door, and cleaned off the top of the drawer cabinet. Removed a basket of toys that were no longer being played with.

And that's it, so far. Whew!

More cleaning and organizing coming up in the next few days.

Oh, yesterday afternoon my neighbor lady stopped by unexpectedly to borrow some eggs. I'm strangely intimidated by her, but I was able to give her a big smile and invite her in while I got her eggs. (Luke, being helpful, managed to drop 5 on the floor before we got to the kitchen. Sigh.) At least I'm glad she didn't come by Tuesday morning...

I Spy

I spy

with my little eye

something beginning with

Aa

A while back I was lamenting about the fact that I couldn't find a good alphabet book with both uppercase and lowercase letters. I've mentioned my favorite first alphabet book before, Museum ABC, and now I've found my second favorite. I Spy: An Alphabet In Art features a letter (both uppercase and lowercase) cleanly typed on a white page and one art masterpiece on the facing page in which the child can find something beginning with that letter. This provides the parent with a jumping-off point for discussing the art with their child. Excellent!