A Bit of Scrappin'

I've done a bit more scrapping recently. It is something I can sit and do when I am feeling tired, so I have gotten two pages done.

This one uses a picture I have shown off here on the blog on two other occasions. Can you tell that I really love it? When I saw this fun background by Julie Mead (Cottage Arts), I knew this would be a great photo to use. Extracting Abi on the swing out of the photo was a bit time consuming because of the chain and her wispy hair, but it was worth it. I am really pleased with how this came out. Credits for the page can be found here.

This other page a did a few days ago. It captures my littlest bringing me a flower which is a new thing that she has learned. It is just so sweet. Credits for this page can be found here.

I want to thank you all for the kind words and well wishes in response to my announcement. It is wonderful to have others excited with us about this new baby! My sister-in-law even wrote the sweetest entry on her blog. Not many people understand our conviction to leave our family planning up to God. I figure that I am only human and not always real smart, but HE is the creator of the entire universe, all-powerful, and all-knowing. I think He just might have a better idea of what is best for our family. ;-)

Several people have asked me about my due date. I haven't seen the doctor yet to get her official date, but according to an online due date calculator, we are looking at January 25th. I am in my 11th week. I'm experiencing the typical nausea and tiredness, but everything seems normal so far. Thanks for all your sweet words of encouragement!

Announcement - Big News

Can you guess my news?

I think most of my "real life" friends already know this, but I thought it was time I spilled the beans and told my online buddies. I'm expecting!

So if I seem quiet, it's not that I am away, I'm probably just napping [wink]. I get pretty wiped carrying babies. I am in my 11th week and I am hoping once I am officially in my 2nd trimester, some of my energy will return. I am tired of craving a nap everyday because it is not often realistic to take one.

The whole family is getting excited and my son has already informed me that he wants a BOY and has begun to pick out names. For his sake, I hope he gets a little brother because he is woefully outnumbered with 4 sisters, but I hate for him to be disapointed if we have baby girl. I keep telling him that God knows best who should be a part of our family and that may end up being a girl.

I created this scrapbook page to journal about some of my thoughts and emotions. Credits for it can be found here.

Here is what I wrote:

The Faint Pink Line

There is was, staring me in the face…the faint pink line on the pregnancy test telling me that I was carrying a brand new life. Wow! It is hard to explain the abundance of emotions welling up inside of me: joy, excitement, fear, thankfulness, insecurity, and more. A new baby – what a blessing! I think about holding a sweet little newborn in my arms again and get so excited. Then other thoughts crowd into my mind. I am 39 years old and I already have 5 precious children. I wonder, “Am I physically and emotionally strong enough to do this?” Each of my pregnancies has been successively more difficult for me. Having a baby at 24 is quite different that at 39. But, I am comforted to know that God is in control. He would not have given me this precious life to carry without also giving me the strength to do so. A peace washes over me.

I relax and relish is the joy of the knowledge of this new little life. That is, until I think about sharing this news with others. I don’t feel ready to face the reactions I will receive. When you announce a first or even second pregnancy, everyone is overjoyed for you. By the third pregnancy, the excitement of others has waned. By he fifth, the reactions can be quite different:
“Are you crazy?”
“Don’t you know what causes that?”
“Don’t you know how to prevent that?”
“Glad it’s you and not me!”
“And you’re happy about this?!?”
These are actual responses I have received on more than one occasion. I want to cry out, “No, I am NOT crazy!” Every one of my children is a precious gift. There is not one that I would choose to give up. A child’s value is not dependent upon their birth order. My fifth child is just as special and important to me as my first. I know that God created even this sixth child I carry for a special purpose.

Feeling unready to face the reactions of others, I keep my news to myself. It is nearly a month before I reveal this to anyone, even my husband. It is a little secret that only God and I share and I can take joy in the knowledge of this new child untainted by the words of others.

Now, as we slowly announce our news to the world, I steel myself for the comments that I will inevitably receive. I pray that God gives me wise words to use in response. I have to choose not to let others steal my joy away and continue to cherish this new little blessing of life I carry.

Thanks for letting me share!

Capturing Today: Family Emergency Preparedness Series

Capturing Today: Family Emergency Preparedness Series
I stumbled upon this little gem this morning. It is a series of articles about emergency preparedness and I found it very informative. This is an area that God has been nudging me in. I have done a small amount of collecting resources, but there is much more I could and should do. I believe that whatever situation arises, God will take care of us, but I also believe that He wants us to be wise and be prepared for life's uncertainties. Perhaps our resources may even be used by God as a blessing to others in a time of crisis.

Pledge for Today

Ahhh....it's Monday again. Whether I want to or not, I have to jump right back into busy life: swimming lessons, schooling, doctors appointments and more. There are days (like today) when I just don't feel like it. But whether I feel like it or not, life goes on, the children have needs and there are responsibilities.

I thought I would share this little pledge I got from a friend. She said it is the official pledge of her daughter's school and is said each day after the Pledge of Allegiance. I think it is great and have it posted on my fridge so I can read it myself each day. Of course, my kids don't appreciate it nearly as much as me.

Pledge for Today

I will do the right thing today,

even if I don't feel like it.

I will treat people right today,

even if I don't feel like it.

Today, I will remember that my power

is stronger than how I feel or what I think.

All things are possible today,

good things are heading my way.

I think Philippians 4:13 should be tacked onto this which says,

"I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me."

because it is certainly not through my power that I am strong but in His. That is where true strength comes from.

Dinner with Debbie

It's late and I am off to bed, but I wanted to post one of my photos from last night when I had dinner with Debbie Macomber, the famous author! My book club that I am a part of at church read one of her books last fall. My friend who was leading it noticed on Debbie's site that she was having a book club contest to win a dinner with Debbie. She signed us up and we WON! I have more photos to share later, but here are my book club buddies with Debbie (who is holding the book) along with her editor and publicist. (I am the second from the left.)
Debbie is a delightful lady and I think we all just fell in love with her. She is very real and her faith is evident. She is one awesome lady.

TTV: Fun new technique

If you aren't familiar with TTV, if stands for Through The Viewfinder and it refers to a technique of using a modern camera to shoot a photo through viewfinder of an old antique camera. The result are usually dirty, scratched and distorted. AND kinda cool. You can also fake this in Photoshop (which is what I did).


I was reading a bit in the blogsphere and stumbled onto Katrina Elizabeth's site that talked about this technique. I had seen it before, but usually they were the real TTVs. Since I do not own an old camera, I couldn't try it for myself. Her site also had a link to a great group on Flickr that is full of overlays that can be used for this purpose. I got excited and had to try one out real quick. I think it's very fun and you will probably be seeing more of these from me in the future.

Photo Colorization and Tinting Tutorial

What is it about a kid that makes them act like this when you stick a camera in front of them? I know they can't be thinking, "Hmmm...THIS is how I want to be remembered."

This is a photo SOOC (Straight Out Of Camera). I can't remember who had snagged the camera from me on this day and taken this - it was either my oldest daughter or my hubby. Either way, I thought it was cute scrapbook material. I have to have something to blackmail my children with later in life. Right?

I rarely use a photo SOOC because it doesn't take much adjustment in Photoshop to make a good photo even better. I am not going to take the time here to go over everything I like to do to a photo. What I wanted to touch upon today was how to colorize a photo. I decided to use a playful set of elements on a blue background to create this layout. (Credits for this page can be found here. )

I thought that a color version of the photo wouldn't blend as well with this page, so I decided to convert it to a black and white photo with a slight blue tint.
Like this:

This is pretty easy to do. I will show how I did it in Photoshop CS, but I am sure that something similar can be done in many photo editing programs.


The first thing you do find the half black half white circle at the bottom of your Layers palette in Photoshop. This will bring up a list of adjustment layers that you can create. Click "Hue/Saturation." If you aren't familiar with adjustment layers, you should be. They allow you the freedom to change your photo in a way that is 100% editable later. If you change your mind, you can tweak or even throw away the adjustment layer and your original photo is still intact. An adjustment layer adjusts all the layers that are below it.

When I clicked on "Hue/Saturation," a new adjustment layer was created with its own layer mask. We'll talk more about that in a minute. A new Hue/Saturation window also opened which is visible in the screenshot above. In this I clicked the "colorize" button and made adjustments to both the Hue and Saturation sliders. The Saturation is moved to the left which removes color from (desaturates) the photo. If I moved this all the way to the left (0), I would have a grayscale-looking black and white. I left it at 9. The Hue slider adjusts what color tone is applied to the photo. I am using a blue-ish tone, but with this slider you can pick any color of the rainbow. When you are pleased with your results click "OK." If you want to adjust this later, just double-click the layer icon and this window will open again.

Now I took this a step further. I really liked the dark red stripes on my son's shirt and wanted to see them in the finished photo. I clicked on the layer mask in the Hue/Saturation adjustment layer to work on it. Layer masks are great tools. The mask is created solid white. Anywhere you paint black on this mask you will block out the current layer. I selected my brush tool. Using a small round brush and painting in black, I drew on the photo where I wanted to block out the colorized effects of the adjustment layer, allowing the colors from the layer below to show through.

This is a useful trick if you want to "tint" the eyes and cheeks of a face in a black and white photo. By using a brush on the layer mask, you can effectively "tint" a black and white photo with its original color.
This is also the technique I used on this photo. I used a black brush set to low opacity and lightly painted on several areas of the photo to bring out these pretty colors.


Give this technique a try. It is really fun and easy to do. And if you have any questions, leave a comment.

Arrg! There be PIRATES about!

Actually, I feel like I should title this post, "Arrg! I can't keep up with my photos!" because these are from over a month ago. Shiver me timbers!

My daughter was in a church musical called "The Pirates of the I Don't Care-ibean." She was the cutest pirate up there. (Naw - I'm not prejudiced or anything ;-)

Whenever I think about this musical, I am going to think "Just a Reminder..." because every note we got concerning an extra practice started that way. Of course, every note like that was the first news we had gotten of it. I wouldn't have even known when the performance was if it wasn't for the church newsletter. The the powers that be must have thought they sent out a master schedule, but no one I talked to had ever seen it. So now, I like to walk around announcing things by saying "just a reminder..." It's fun just see people's reactions.

Checking in...

I know that I have fallen off the face of the earth (or at least the blog-sphere). It's been a busy week. I have completed most of my duties for our church's Photos of Faith contest. I am so proud. My two oldest daughters both entered photos. Elizabeth won both first and second place in the youth division with these photos:

My daughter Anna entered this one.

It did not win a prize, but the judge we spoke said it was also a favorite. I, personally, love it.

Even I won a prize in the adult division. I got second place for this photo:

I think the judges liked it because it was unique. I am VERY excited! For the first time ever, the judges awarded an Honorable Mention. They thought this photo with the ferris wheel reflection was good enough to take not of even though it was not in the top three. How cool is that?

This weekend is another busy one. Patrick and Abi have their last soccer game and awards ceremony on Saturday and my oldest is getting confirmed in the church on Sunday. We are having a little luncheon here afterwards and I really need to clean and shop. My motivation is a bit low today. I think the 20 - 30 degree jump of the thermometer is making me feel a bit under the weather. My body is not used to this sauna-like climate yet. That is why I decided to sit for just a moment and check in here.

Hope your weekend is great and you can keep cool!

You think you have obstacles in your life?

Here's a man who may be able to give you a new perspective. His faith is so evident through his words. You need to watch this.



For more information abut Nick, check out his website.