Fix-It Friday @ I Heart Faces

My work is done for the day and I can now have some fun with Fix-It Friday!




Original photo.



Photo with the eyes sharpened and the contrast bumped up a bit.



Photo with sepia action applied and saturation increased.




Finally, on this one I sharpened the eyes and the tear on his cheek, and then applied the "old photo" action but reduced the opacity to about 35%.

I had fun with this. Now I'm going over to I Heart Faces to see how creative everybody else is!

I Heart Faces, Let's Hear It For The Boys!

Here us my adult entry for this week's theme - Hubby and the newest member of our family checking out the new dog run in our backyard.






I realize the kids category seems to be mostly little kids but my boy, although getting big, still doesn't look like an adult to me so I am entering him in the kids category this week. I love when I catch him off guard - I usually get the "real" smile from him instead of his Kodak smile...

Be sure to head over to I Heart Faces and check out all of the photographs in both the Adults and Kids categories.

My Son's New Summer Pasttime.

Since school ended, my boy isn't spending much time vertical. I could have an entire blog filled with photos of him sleeping - in the recliner, on the love seat, on my office floor, on the sofa, and in his bed. When he's not eating, he's sleeping.

My husband capture one photo of him and the two dogs about a week or so ago. I then grabbed the camera since I was sitting at the other end of the sofa.

We got a break in the weather with an absolutely beautiful day today but that's all ending tonight. We are expecting a lot of rain this weekend. The weatherman just said today was the 5th day this month with no rain!!!

Other than a bit of a tussle with a bunch of ants, this week was pretty calm for us. Every time I think about the ants, I shudder. But, I got it all under control fairly quickly and I think I got them all. I don't like ants....

PS Vicki, if you stop by my photo blog, you'll see that I featured the dinner bell on your front porch!

Skywatch Friday

It has rained all week here so no "fresh" sky shots were to be had. I had to dig up a prior shot. But, if you head on over to Skywatch Friday, you will see lots of sky photos from all around the world and they will be "fresh ones" I am sure.

Life Is About Adjustments

I am learning to really start to roll even more with the "punches". I am a person who adapts to change pretty readily but as I've gotten older, sometimes it's just a bit more difficult to be flexible but I am working on it daily....

Last week was the third annual parish carnival that our sweet pastor started back in 2007. I think it was a success but the final numbers won't be in for a few more weeks. The tough part is that our pastor was transferred from our parish and won't be here to deliver the final results - very sad. While I am happy that this is a promotion for him, I will miss him so very much. I promised him I would compile all of the photos of the carnivals that I've taken through the years on to a CD so that he will have all of the faces of his time here to cherish forever.

These are some of the photos I took this year. I didn't edit any of them. They are all SOOC.

One of the photos is of the St. Anthony Society Parade. Our pastor invited this organization to join our carnival last year. It was such a success that he invited them back this year. They had a mass and then a parade through the streets of my town carrying a statue of St. Anthony. They even brought a roast pig to sell at the carnival.

The kids are done school now and summer is in full swing. My daughter got a full-time babysitting job for two young boys so she's gone almost all day. My son - well he's been sleeping in but that will stop in two days as he begins his 30 hours of classroom study to prepare for getting his driver's license. Scary thought.... I just keep rolling with it....

Skywatch Friday

The other day we had a few really amazing thunderstorms early in the day. By evening, it was like the sky was washed clear and we were left with an amazing sunset. This series of photos was taken over the course of about eight minutes. The color change was so fast and intense.

I did absolutely no editing on any of these photos - nature provided the vibrant color all by herself.














Be sure to go and visit Skywatch Friday and see photos of skies from all over our world.

Blue Bandanas

Here is Ruby sporting a blue "bandana", actually a piece of my quilting fabric as she is too small for the bandanas I have. Be sure to visit The Portuguese Water Blog to see other dogs sporting blue. Thanks to Sue for asking Ruby to be a part of this!!!

A Cause Near and Dear

Here is a link I'd like to share. June is always Alex's Lemonade Stand time throughout our country, and especially at our local grammar school. The school featured is my kids' grade school. Little Alex Bilotta is the younger sister of one of my son's classmates and Danny Hammond is my daughter's friend since first grade. Lauren Brown's mom is a friend of mine through our many volunteer activities at school throughout the years. Since both of my kids graduated were finished as of June 2008, I no longer see Michele as much but my thoughts are always with her this time of year.

If you get a chance, take a look at this video. Danny is a living, breathing, walking miracle - in third grade he was given a prognosis of just 18-24 months and now, along with my daughter, he is getting ready to enter his senior year of high school. All of the money raised has funded research that has provided Danny with new drugs each time his cancer has recurred.

He never ceases to amaze me.

Skywatch Friday, Cityscape, #47

The skies as we headed over the bridge back to our home town. A lot of the shots contained the rails of the bridge which then made the photos very blurry but I managed to get a couple in between the rails.

Be sure to head on over to Skywatch and view amazing skies from all around the globe.

Did I Offend Someone?

I lost a follower today and when you only have 19 to begin with and you lose 1, it seems rather a large percentage. I hope I didn't offend anyone. My guess is that I don't update enough. I used to update just about daily and then life got in the way. I wonder if there is any way of getting that follower back.......

I plan on getting back to my blogging roots once the school year comes to an end and a portion of my volunteer duties are over with until August when I assume my new position as Secretary of the Band Parent Association at my kids' high school. I purposely took the position of the head of the baked goods table last summer just so I'd be helping out the band without taking on a lead position. For some odd reason, that didn't work and they asked me to be secretary because "they are aware that I spend a great deal of time in front of a computer" and then they also offered to relieve me of my job as the "bake table lady". I hope I don't disappoint as the secretary. Thank goodness it will not require me to speak in front of all of the parents again - that part of the best part!

Tomorrow is another blogging day and I even may have pictures to put with my day's entry. I actually have my Skywatch photo ready!! Some days I do have it all together...

I Heart Faces, Week 21

This week's theme over at I Heart Faces is "Happy Birthday" (for the kids) and "Anything Goes" for the pets. I actually have a photo I took of Freckles on his 11th birthday on February 1, 2009. He even posed for me in a birthday hat!

Be sure to go on over to check out "I Heart Faces" for lots of other photos in each of the two categories this week!