Snippets - finally arrived

It's HERE!!! Lain Ehmann's first book Snippets has arrived via the man in brown to my door today. (Thank you man in brown! You always are in a hurry to leave my house, but I love you!)

I just finished reading chapter two... rolled over and asked Dan, "What's an embelishment?"
"You mean in general or for scrapbooking?"
"In scrapbooking."
"It's flair."

Hmm, looks like Lain isn't the only one with her hubby talking scrapbook lingo!

If you haven't ordered your copy, go do so, it's a hilarious read!

The love language of acts of service

My Dad's love language (according to Gary Chapman) to us is acts of service. He shows his love by doing things for us like washing our car, changing the oil, mowing the lawn, fixing house stuff, etc. He seems to enjoy it and enjoy doing it for us.

This Christmas Santa brought me a new radiator and new battery terminals, my dad and Dan graciously installed them while I was out with the girls on Monday. I feel so spoiled!

Fantastic weekend!

What a fantastic weekend for me! I got to spend time with 3 of my nearest and dearest friends.
Dominique came down with her adorable girls for Dan's b'day party this weekend. She and I have known each other since we met through Mike in college... the year 1991. We've been through ups and downs, shared the experience of our first pregnancies together and have watched our oldest children grow up together. Something I look forward to doing for the rest of our lives. She is a strong, intelligent, and confident woman who has taught me to be a better mother, embrace beauty and walk tall. Her impact on my life is permanent and I'm blessed to know her!

Today, I got to spend the day with Beth and Laurie whom I've known since elementary school. Why they still put up with me, I'll never know yet we get together as frequently as we can, now that Laurie has moved out of state. Today was lunch, shopping, pedi/manicures and, of course, cold stone. YUMMY! Laurie, a working mother of two has a wonderfully realistic perspective on life. I envy her ability to focus on what's important and always face life with a smile and sense of humor. Beth is a math wizard... one of the smartest people I know! Without her, I never would have made it into grad school. She and her hubby share our passion for kitties and they have a tender heart towards strays near their house. Both of these ladies make my world a better place. We have stood by each other through think and thin. I'm sure we'll know each other until we're little shrivelled old, gray-haired ladies, driving like the snowbirds that drive us crazy.

How blessed am I? :) :)

The OTHER women...

Most women wouldn't be so tolerant to hear that their husband has other women as the apple of his eye. However with faces like those, who can get angry? These girls: Genna, Becca and Abby are the OTHER women in Dan's life and the adoration seems to go both ways. Dan prides himself on being tied for the coolest unlce slot. Abby in particular is so dearly fond of Uncle Dan.

These girls are such a blessing to us! If we could ensure daughters like this, Dan and I would sign up in a heart beat!Genna

Becca

Abby

Happy Birthday Baby!

Dan doesn't officially turn 35 until Dec 24th, however trying to party with friends then is next to impossible. Plus allowing a few days in between enables us to celelbrate JUST him. Something he well deserves.

We were blessed to have family: Mom & Dad, Joe & Kenzie join us along with Dan's good friends Brad & Nancy, Mitch and Jennine, and Dominique (with Brian absent cuz he had to work. We so missed him!). Along with the adults we had about 10 children playing upstairs. With wonderful family and friends surrounding him, I think he enjoyed his special day.

Thank you to everyone for making it special!

HOW do they DO that?

Okay, still feeling super crafty/creative. MUST be the holidays. :)

In anycase, been having LOTS of email traffic conversations with my dear friend Tig on HOW do they DO that? It must be a photoshop trick, no? Maybe a CS4 action or something? Pro photographers are taking these decadent "hangin' at the house" pictures and making them super stellar. Want an example? Okay, check this out, to see what I mean:

Karen Russell - an average B'day party but the shots are photobook quality. Karen Russell has the two below posted on her blog. Although ALL her photos are just phenomenal. HOW do I do this with my pictures?It seems there is just a bit of vinagetting in the corners of the photo, now?

Okay, so spent a few minutes tonight playing with gradients in photoshop elements 6 to see if I could do something similar. Here's what I came up with from some photos I took of the boys.
Before: as shot with some saturation/exposure adjustments


This is with some circle gradient added in photoshop elements 6.



Better or not? You decide...

Cool photo things I found today

SO, reading through my January issue of Popular Photography and ran across some cool stuff.

1) I was completely intrigued by Dina Goldstein's photography, very cool stuff! (pg 52 January 2009 Pop Photog magazine)
2) Stephen Poff undertook an adventure to teach him self creative lighting by shooting one photo each day. He posted all the results on flickr and then created a spin off group of folks who are trying similar things. (pg 57 January 2009 Pop photog magazine)
3) From there I was cruising through his pictures and found a "do it yourself" light box (from stuff you pobably have lying around your house...) WAY COOL STUFF! So gonna have to try this over Christmas.

Trike Racing

Dan went to a team builder yesterday all day. After they did some super hero good for the community, they got to play. As such, part of the fun was team basketball. And tricycle racing? Yup, THAT my friends is MY husband... I proudly claim him!

Creativity

I am exhausted and ready for bed, my contacts are completely dried out and I think my eyeballs are glued open at this point. Dan is on the couch next to me playing with his online pals and in wave 15 of Gears of War 2. He's looking for boomshot... whatever that is! Oh, and this game? NOT recommended for the younger ones, so we won't be playing this during "family time".

I've found a number of cool things to do with my spare time!

1) Days of December from Ali Edwards
which times in nicely to
2) Journal your Christmas which I've signed up for and am in the process of writing. Not many pictures taken as of yet.
However, this ties in nicely to some altered art journal and distressing techniques I found online at
3)Tim Holtzs' blog. Where he's doing 12 tags of Christmas. His pictures and step by step instructions make them look so darned easy! And I'm a sucker, LOVED some of the stamp sets he's using so ordered them. Wonder if they'll show up before Christmas?
4) From TIm's blog I found some ranger tutorials and while mine don't look quite like the picture, I have been having a blast plying with Tim's products. As for the ornaments? I think maybe I need to watch the video again...


Lots to do still on the creative front, I need to package up the rest of my secret santa cosmo gift for shipping (and received my package yesterday. It's sitting under the tree and BEGGING to be opened but I've vowed to wait till Christmast day). Pages for the yearly scrap books I'm continuing to make for my folks, Joe & Kenzie, Kenzie's folks, & Aunt Beth. Wrap presents, bake banana bread and the like.

At least Joe and I finally strung a good portion of the outdoor Christmas lights. Not the hanging ice-cycles yet as I've been too lazy to get the ladder out. May have to live with out them this year.

So, off to bed I go with fingers stained red, brown and black from tonights ink play. Time to curl up with Janet Evanovich before lights out.

Breakfast & a stunning sunset!

Had enough time to make the boy a bar-gin (or barfin') waffle as we fondly call them in our house. Joe couldn't remember Belgian Waffle was the true name for a week, so he made up a name sorta in between.

No outside Christmas lights up yet, but maybe this weekend. Lots going on but hopefully I can squeeze it all in. In the meantime, on the drive to Chipolte to meet Dan for dinner, I took some "driving" sunset pictures. Had to snap fast as the sun nd gorgeous light was GONE by the time I arrived at my destination.

Decorating the Christmas Tree

With the boys' help, we got the Christmas tree up and decorated. Didn't use all the ornaments this year, but that's okay, still looks great!

I love Hallmark's ornaments! Every year I get a Scarlett and Scarlett and somebody ornament. We've come to love the Star Wars ornaments, and Joe has his eye on the Imperial Shuttle! Other interests have included Star Trek, Scoobie Do, Veggie Tales and the like.

No outside lights up as of yet, was hoping Dan might have done it for me this weekend, but oh well. :) Hopefully tomorrow or so...

Michigan and Ohio

Some of my favorite pictures from our trip.

Most of the Synk Clan:

Delicious homemade blueberry cheese cake from "Scary" Uncle Rogerand homemade pumkin pie from Aunt Betty.

My folks and us
Most of the Kuhn Clan