Tutorial Tuesday: Watercolor

I'm joining in for another week of Tutorial Tuesday.

Parker is 17 months old

I did miss posting Parker's 16 month post. It's not that I didn't have much to post about Parker, but our new year has started off very busy. I kept putting the post off and putting it off until it was the 20th and I figured I would just wait and post it all in his 17 month post.

Stats:
weight: 20 lbs
height: 30.5"
clothing size: 18-24 months
shoe size: 5

Parker had a good growth spurt this past month. Not sure his height, but when I measure him, really quickly, it's around 30.5" According to the Wii fit, Parker lost a pound or so. We have been weighing him on the Wii fit since he was born, so we find it pretty accurate. He is such a busy little guy that I'm not surprised that he is really thinning out.



He is starting to look like a little boy, instead of a baby. I love these recent pictures of him.



Parker has picked up a lot of signs the past couple of months. He can now sign around 15 words. He's not perfect with all of them, like he uses his finger instead of thumb when signing mommy or daddy. He doesn't sign "more" perfectly, but the point is that he is able to communicate to us when he needs something.

Signs Parker knows:
Mommy
Daddy
all done/finished
wash
brush teeth
brush hair
eat
more
please
thank you
thirsty
hungry
milk
dog
dirty
change



We are teaching him:
cracker
stop
cat
ball
play
toy
share
pain/hurt
book
help



The outdoor season has arrived in the Valley of the Sun. It has been a beautiful 75 degrees for a couple of weeks now. It allows for more outdoor time including taking Parker to the Zoo and riding around in his Pirate ship.



The weather was so beautiful we didn't even realize that we had been at the zoo for over 6 hours.







We had a fun run in with the peacock.





Happy 17 months baby boy. We love you so much! Thank you for visiting.

Wordless{ish} Wednesday: Nessa & Dakota

I posted earlier this month that I bought a "new-to-me" camera. I had the chance to take some pictures at my daughter's riding lessons this past Saturday. She was riding a new horse named Dakota. What a sweetheart that horse is! I don't get a lot of opportunities to feature my daughter on my blog, she is pretty stubborn about taking pictures. She even has to approve photos of herself before I post them(I understand that, I'm the same way.) She is so photogenic that I don't think she can take a bad picture.

Edit Me Challenge

This is my first time doing an "Edit Me" photo challenge. I have little confidence (and experience) in my editing abilities. I usually just have fun with it. I was really bored and unable to sleep so I decided to play around with this challenge and edit this photo.
Photoshop is only on my hubby's computer and I was even too lazy to switch over to his computer so all my edits are done using completely free programs.

SOOC- Ashley Sisk (Rambling and Photos)



My edit-



I started with some basic edits in viewNX2(contrast,brightness, highlights, shadows etc.) Next, I ran the "portrait filter" using noiseware community edition. I then used Picnik, not much in this program. I believe I only played around with the airbrush feature. Last, I used Gimp2. I basically added a peach tint overlay that is available for free download from Shadowhouse Creations

Tutorial Tuesday: Making a lightbox

I was so excited when I saw Ashley from Ramblings and Photos and Branson of My Reflection of Something doing a new "Tutorial Tuesday" challenge.

I have been debating buying a photography lightbox to take pictures of the cloth diapers I'm making, but they are much too costly for me to purchase right now. The problem is that I have about 20 minutes every day that I can take photos because it's the only time the lighting is good in one of the bedrooms of our condo. That is not easy as it happens to be my Parker's room....and the door doesn't lock. So I'm always struggling with keeping him away while I taking the photos. When I saw that the first tutorial would be a lightbox, I jumped on the chance.

Here is the tutorial I followed. This took a total of 30 minutes...maybe. The longest was cutting out the holes. I will be re doing this using a larger box, but we had this box already lying around the house. I also used medium weight embroidery paper for the coverings over the holes since I didn't have any tracing paper at the time. You can't even tell in the final pictures that the white cardboard is too short, oops!


Love that lamp? Thrifted for $5!


I will definitely need to bring out the tripod for the next shoot. I will also be getting some help from my mom on the editing, at this point I was too tired to get to that point of this tutorial.



I'm so happy with the first try on this! I love how professional it makes my product photos look.



Here are so more photos from this product shoot I did. Thank you for visiting!

What a difference 5 minutes makes

Check out the other cute entries for The Paper Mama's "white" photo challenge.




And five minutes later.....

My two boys-I heart faces

I have to say I still know very little about my camera, but I already love it! We decided to go to the zoo this past Saturday to take some pictures. It was an absolutely perfect day, a little on the cloudy side, but beautiful none the less. It is days like this, that remind me how blessed I am.

I bought a new camera!

I'm so excited for the newest member of our family. I don't have a picture of her yet, but I have taken some pictures using her. The camera is a Nikon D80. It's nothing overly fancy, but I'm a novice and don't want to shell out a lot of money right now. I bought her used, actually I only paid $1.24 for the body and $75 for the lens (thanks to my dad and his amazing skills at wheeling and dealing.) Smoking deal for the condition the camera is in and barely used. I'm still waiting for the lens I purchased to arrive in the mail, but I was able to take some pictures using one of my moms lenses.

I can't wait to start learning all about using this camera! I didn't get a chance to edit any of these photos, I was too excited to start sharing.

Wordless{ish} Wednesday: Top 11 of 11

Memories, Dreams and Reflections-2011

Welcome to Memories, Dreams and Reflections 2011. I'm linking up with Ramblings and Photos and hundreds of other bloggers witha look back on 2011. I loved participating in this last year. It's fun to look through all my photo files and see pictures I completely forgot I had even taken.

Here was my MDR from 2010


1. Me


My kids and I when we took our trip to San Diego this past summer.


2. I Love You


I love my husband so much. He is truly an amazing person and I'm very lucky to have him in my life.


3. Still Laughing


This is my all time favorite video from 2011. This was taken just before Easter.

4. Winter Wonderland


I find so few pictures that I like of myself, but here is one just before the kids and my brother went to see santa.

5. Birthday


Parker was terrified when we started singing "Happy Birthday" to him during his party. To this day when we are singing this song at other birthday, he will bury his head in my shoulder. Not sure why he is so afraid of hearing the birthday song.

6. Friends


Love this photo! It is so cute, how they interact at this age.

7. I Was Inspired


I had been dabbling in making Parker's diapers since before he was born, but since I was so new to cloth diapering in general, it was really hard to know if I was making them correctly. Finally, I came up with this pattern. This is the diaper that inspired me to start selling them. Now, I have a somewhat successful home business selling custom cloth diapers, matching shirts and custom outfits.

8. Spring Fever


We are taking pictures and feeding the ducks with my parents at the park on Easter.

9.Travel or Vacation


We took a day trip in March to the San Xavier del Bac mission in Tucson. There are so many photo opportunities here. Lots of gorgeous architecture. It feels like this trip was such a long time ago.

10. Summer Days


Nothing like the beach to cool down on a hot summer day. This was Parker's first time at the beach.


11. A Day In My Life


Working, working away. This is what I do during the day while Parker is napping, or in the middle of the night. I'm starting a large co-op this month and I'm nervous and excited all at once.


12. All Smiles


Nothing brightens up my day more than a smile.


13. Autumn Harvest




14. Family or Home


Taken in October at our friends' wedding rehearsal. Had I not gone through all my photos for this blog post, I would have not remembered we had taken a recent family photo. Not the best quality, but it's still us.

15. Celebrate


Two of our very close friends were married this past October. This picture was taken at their rehearsal dinner.


16. Let's Do It Again


I know it seems a little bit odd, but we had so much fun time participating in the zombie walk this year. Definitely would love to do this again next year.


17. I Miss You


I think it is pretty awesome to say that I love my in laws. They are amazing people. Unfortunately, they live in Idaho so we don't get to see them much. This is a picture of my mother in law with my hubby and Parker. Nolan didn't say it out loud, but I know that he really missed seeing his family for the holidays.

18. Beautiful


My daughter is an amazingly beautiful person, inside and out. I hope she always knows that and never loses who she is.


19. Dress Up


Parker wearing his bunny set this past Easter. Probably the only time I will get away with having him wear this.

20. Macro


My daughter holding a snail, which I find a rare picture as my daughter is not very fond of slimy creatures.

21. Holidays


Happy New Year!

22. One Of My Favorites


I had way too many favorites to choose from, this photo is probably my most recent favorite though.

23. Don't Ever Change


I love the relationship my kids have with each other. Even with the huge age difference they love each other so much. I hope this never changes and that they always realize how important sibling relationships are. I hope they always respect each other and look out for each other.

24. Just Because...So There


Love my Picasso

25. Hopes and Dreams


Sitting back and seeing where 2012 will take us!


In 2011 my resolutions were,

I had planned to take the kids outdoors more, do more activities together. I definitely feel that I achieved that part of it. I had also planned to take more pictures of myself and be less self-conscious. I don't think I fully achieved that one, but it is a work in progress. I have learned A LOT about photography this year and hope to continue to do so this next year.

My "resolutions" for 2012

Most of my resolutions are family based this year and I'm really looking forward to 2012.

1.We decided that we want to take a family vacation camping trip. We have talked about going camping every year and it never happens.

2. We have decided to try to have another baby either the end of this year or Spring 2013!!

3. We are almost out of debt(minus our student loans.) This year we plan to use our income tax refund to pay off any remaining credit card debt. We don't have a lot of credit card debt but, when you live pay check to pay check the little debt you do have feels like a mountain each month when deciding what bills to pay.

4. Finally, 2011 was a rough year financially. We don't want to have another year like that. We are planning to put together a budget and stick to it. It's not that we spend frivolously, but when you have little to start with, every purchase you make has to be carefully thought out.

As far as some more personal resolutions

1. Being more health conscious
2. Taking time for myself
3. Spending more one-on-one time with Nolan. I honestly can't remember the last time we had a "date night" without kiddos.