I Heart Faces Photography: Week 23

This week's theme at is "Play". I know that recently, I already showed these photographs in a small series, but I thought that it fit the theme too perfectly to chose a different picture to represent play. That, and I knew UNFORTUNATELY that I wouldn't have enough time to capture any new photos by tomorrow night! Call me lazy. :o)

Anyway, this photo has play written ALL OVER IT!


My oldest daughter Emma Claire and her playmates up at our lakehouse

And who else but a boy was at the other end!

Click here for more from this series.

Hugs,

A Sort of Greenish Brownish Thumb

As promised, I am posting some pictures of my adventures in gardening. Just recently, I decided that I was going to be the wife of my husband's dreams. This includes being Suzy Homemaker. ERGO, I am becoming a gardening, baking, cooking, and canning guru. It's a slow process, but I'm giving it my best shot. SO...I am not quite to the point of having a green thumb, but I suppose the chlorophyll may be seeping into my blood slowly, thus turning this particular phalanx a somewhat murky olive color. Don't ask me how I remember some of my 5th grade science vocabulary and college anatomy words, but can't keep track of my keys. Especially when I didn't exactly do outstanding in either course. Alas, I won't keep you in suspense any longer.

Here are some shots of my gardening escapades and projects!

My hydrangeas. Beautiful. But not my favorite flower. I love poppies. Poppies are my favorite flower. Just a random "about me" fact.


Fresh potted herbs. Cilantro, Italian parsley, and basil.




Shots of my square foot garden. If you are thinking about doing this, DO! I have not had to weed it yet, and it's been about three weeks since we put stuff in the dirt. Or compost, rather. I've got jalapenos, sweet peppers, cooking and canning tomatoes, beefsteak tomatoes, chives, radishes, broccoli, cabbage, cauliflower, green onions, red onions, and Vidalias. A couple of pumpkin plants and a few watermelon and cantaloupe (the running plants) are all planted up by the house in the flower beds. I like to mix my gardening in with the flowers. The cucumbers are in the flower beds along the other side of the house. The beans and the blackberry bushes are planted along the privacy fence.

These are shots of Emma Claire's planting season. She told me that she wanted to do it by herself, which translates to "go away", only much more polite! So I told her to fill the cups a little with rocks, then pile dirt, poke a finger in the dirt, plant the seed, and water. A lot for a little girl to remember. I just stepped back and watched it all happen. She didn't miss a step. Sure, by a horticulturist's perspective, there may have been too many rocks, the seed been planted too deeply, and then flooded till there should have been doves sent out to look for surviving life, but she did it PERFECTLY in my book.



Time to water!


Success (in her book. Drowned in mine. Hey, whatevs.)

Our cheering section.


Had to sneak in a shot of what Emma does best. Hopscotch. Yes, I know there is no actual hopscotch. What can I say? She is an excellent pretender! I am sure less than 24 hours prior to that, the chalk version was there in reality.



Happy Tending,

Lessons in Editing

If there is one thing I don't like, it is the clone tool. Don't get me wrong, it's handy as heck. But a pain in the NECK, it is! And TIME CONSUMING. Geez. Been messing with it for an hour!

Well, it's not perfect, and I BEG YOU, DO NOT TAKE TOO CLOSE OF A LOOK! Yes, it's shabby work, but you can't really tell the details. You just get the gist of what is going on. A hint. You are not supposed to know their secret conversation anyway! But I love this picture, and it was a spontaneous and precious moment for me. They were just having a BLAST. I didn't want to ruin it with, "Hold still! Mama's gotta move the carseat out of the photo frame!" We all know what Emma would do...Or if you don't you will. She RUNS! Fast!!! She is the WORST photo subject EVER. So when I do capture candids like these, I resort to the cloning tool. It would probably be easier if I was using Photoshop, like I hope to ONE DAY. But for now, I suppose www.paint.net will have to suffice. (It really is great for freeware.)

Before


After


Now, you can just focus on the girls enjoying the summer's first rays of sunshine!

Linkin' up to The Paper Mama's Photo Challenge

Piggies

This little piggy went to market.
This little piggy stayed home.
This little piggy had ice cream (TOTALLY better than roast beef).
This little piggy had none.
And this little piggy cried
Wee, wee, wee...All the way home.

I LOVE "pigs" as we call them around here. But only baby and little kid toes. Big people toes? Nah, not so much.

Over at we are celebrating Barefoot Week. YEAH!!! Us hillbillies here in the sticks of Indiana? WE LOOOOOVE bare feet. But some others would LOVE to not have to go barefoot. I Heart Faces is sponsoring a Photo Walk Across America to spread the word about Souls 4 Souls.

Soles 4 Souls is a Nashville based organization that collects shoes from people and donates them to people from ALL walks of life around the world. To those people who have no choice but to go barefoot.

Here are some of my favorite FEET photos (Sorry, some of them are repeats.)







Hmmm...I am thinking mani/pedi right now. HUBS!!!?!?! Pretty please?!?!

P.S. I probably won't be on here very much in the next week. My internet is not functioning. I called my providing and they said that they can't get anyone out until NEXT TUESDAY?!?! WHAT?!?!

I'm a Photo Contest Junkie

These are my girls. The younger two are mine, and the oldest is my cousin's little girl. My older daughter is similar to her cousin that it really is unbelievable. Both blonde haired and blue eyed beauties, but that is all just superficial. What reminds me most of Izzy is the actions and the facial expressions! They really are, not only cousins, but kindred spirits as well!

Photo Challenge

Fix it Friday at

Original:


My Fixes (made with my sad excuse for photo editing, Windows Photo Gallery):
Fix #1

I cropped, then turned the contrast way up and then unsaturated almost to a grayscale, but not quite.
Fix #2

Not unlike Fix #1, I cropped and turned the contrast way up, but this time instead of unsaturating, I turned the color temp up so that it added the pinky tones that we all love about a baby's skin.

Now, to convince the Hub's that a decent photo editing program is worth the bucks...

Shutter Love Tuesdays!

It is Shutter Love Tuesday at Trendy Treehouse, and I have just been itching for a reason to post this picture. Oh, who am I kidding? Do I really NEED a reason to post a picture? No, it was just the lack of motivation the past couple of days really...My arthritis and the weather are tag teaming to make me MISERABLE! But a picture of these two can always cheer me up!

This is what I wished for all of my life! A sister to share secrets with, a forever friend. I am so glad that we could give my girls the gift of EACH OTHER.

Oh, So Lonesome For You

Go to The Paper Mama to vote for my blue eyed girl!
Lotsa Love!