Trendy Treehouse Shutter Love Tuesday ~ Blue

Blue is the theme this week at the Trendy Treehouse! :) I immediately thought of this picture. It IS from my archives (the girls' 2nd birthday, so September 13, 2009) but it totally fits the bill! Blue shirt, blue wall, blue expression. Who knew turning two years old was so upsetting!

Share your Blue pictures with the rest of us over at the Trendy Treehouse! :)

Touch Up Tuesday with The Paper Heart Camera

~ Touch Up Tuesday with The Paper Heart Camera ~

I edited this picture a while ago intending to use it for something and never did. But I really like the way it turned out so I shall share it today. The original was pretty crummy. I didn't make sure to get great family photos in the hospital (oh, if I could only go back in time!) so I was glad that I was able to edit this into something I liked.

~ Before ~

Yikes! The brightness is terrible in this picture, you can hardly see the one baby's face. I squint every time I see this.

~ After ~Much better. It's darker ~ almost as if there wasn't enough light ~ but I think it's a good dark. I like that Hubby's shirt pops out and that I can finally see both of my babies' faces. I think the blurriness around his head is also a little better in this edit.

Different edit. But still cool. I like the color touch up best.
Fun! Sorry I don't have the steps I took to editing these. You'll just have to figure that out yourself! ;)

Share your Touch Up pictures over at The Paper Heart Camera!

the paper heart camera ~ Show and Tell Photo Challenge ~ Beauty in the Everyday

The Paper Heart Camera Photo Challenge ~ Beauty in the Everyday

I totally knew what picture I was entering. I just took it this week!

My Beauties:

Share your Everyday Beauty pictures with Chelsey at The Paper Heart Camera!

the paper mama Photo Challenge ~ Fingerprint

the paper mama Photo Challenge ~ Fingerprint

I took this photo in January of this year when my daughter was ten days old. It was luxurious to revel in the 'free time' I was enjoying with having only one newborn baby to take care of ~ I was in a daze at this point with the twins!! I love this picture of S's little feet, almost lackadaisily (did I spell that right?) propped up as she lounges on our bed for an afternoon doze.

Share your Fingerprint photos with the paper mama!

I Heart Faces Photo Challenge ~ Smirk

i heart faces ~ smirk

~ Teddy Bear Day at Preschool ~

Trendy Treehouse Shutter Love Tuesday ~ Cake

This week's theme is Cakes. After ALL the birthdays this month (so far!), I definitely have some choices for a picture to enter! I really like the way the girls' cake turned out this year. I had Whole Foods bake it and then I decorated it, which saved me so much time! And way less mess!! I made the submarine and all the sea animals out of colored chocolates (melted, then used parchment bags to freehand the designs). I used the invitations (thank you Target!) as inspiration for the deco. I used to work at a bakery so I really like doing this sort of thing... but I have no time to really do it as anything more than a hobby. So I really only do it in September. :) And I guess I'll be doing in Decembers too, since our baby has her birthday in December. Anyways...
Here is my entry for this week's photo challenge:
(...yes, I browned out my kids' names...)

And here are some more pictures of the cake, just for fun. Cause I'm proud of it this year!!

Oh, and the cupcakes! Those were cute, too. I made those. And my friend, Lo, came & helped with some of it... and also kept me sane because I was doing all of this while my husband was at a golf tournament (with her husband).
This guy was my favorite. That grumpy little frown!
Share your Cake pictures over at the Trendy Treehouse Shutter Love Tuesday!

Alphabet Photo Shoot Challenge ~ C

Alphabet Photo Shoot Challenge ~ The Letter C

~ from my favorite coffee place ~

Share your Alphabet Photo Shoot pictures with One Photographer's Journey!

I Was Featured!

Totally awesome news upon my arrival home from this weekend's getaway...

All of us who particpated in The Paper Heart Camera's first ever Show & Tell Photo Challenge were featured as her favorite entries! :)

Whoohoo!!! My first... "feature"! Fantastic!!

Thanks Paper Mama! And Congrats to the rest of us!! :)

Back from a Weekend Vacay!

Hubby & I just returned from a fantastic weekend getaway. And I'm beat. And I can't wait to check out everything that's going on in PhotoWorld since I've been away! :)

The Blue Door Makeover!

I receive many comments on our blue door. How much y'all like it! Thanks!! I like it too! Came with the house!! Here's the thing though. We've gotta repaint. And we're hoping to list the house by next summer so we're giving everything a fresh coat!

I definitely want to keep the blue door (sometimes I imagine us taking it to our next house because... I'm weird like that), but I want to change the trim/accent colors. I'm not crazy about the current colors (two shades of green). And I plan on keeping the blue as close as possible to the color it is now. My only issue is choosing the trim/accent colors. I have no idea which way to go ~ bright, muted, white/black, white/red (is that too July 4th? I was thinking like a deep cherry/creamy white, not Yankee Doodle red/white/blue) .... the possibilities really are endless. OR do we get rid of the blue door all together and pick something else that's just as cheerful?

And I'd love to know what you think about paint colors!!!

Leave me a comment (please. pretty pretty please.) and tell me what colors you think would go well with that sort of blue. We'll be painting the trim around the windows to match the colors on the door (not sure yet if we'll make the window trims blue or go with one of the door accents as the main window trim color - did you follow that?). So... keep in mind that these colors aren't just for the door, we'll be putting them on the windows too. Maybe I'll figure out how to make one of those polls and I can take a poll once I get some actual colors picked out.

My husband has no opinion and looks at me with E-G-O (...Eyes Glazed Over, my dad made that up when I was a teenager...) any time I mention anything related to home improvement, specifically painting or redecorating. Therefore, I'm really in charge of the whole thing. And since I can't figure it out, I'm asking you for help! :)

So please!!! Tell me in the comments section!!!

What colors should I paint my door?

~

I almost posted the picture below as my example photo of our door. Then I decided that the girls detracted from the actual DOOR which was the purpose of this post. So I found a picture of just the door and used that instead.

Then, I decided to post this one anyways cause it always makes me laugh.

Mardi Gras 2010. Let's hope they don't get this many beads when they're 18.

Alphabet Photo Shoot Challenge ~ B

Alphabet Photo Shoot Challenge ~ The Letter B

~from a building near our house~

I determined last week that I'll be shooting simply the Letters themselves for these challenges... but most of the rest of us are shooting things that begin with the Letter B (or C, or D, and so on).

You should participate, too! It's only the second week so you really haven't missed much! And it is easy! I took a walk for ten minutes while my husband made the kids pick up their toys before bed. I snapped some pictures and came home to a clean house! Not everyone will be as lucky as me but my point is that it took as much time as picking up some toys at the end of the day!

Join in the fun and share your alphabet pictures with Barb Phillip's Photo Journal!

the paper heart camera ~ Show & Tell Photo Challenge ~ A Day in Your Life

The Paper Heart Camera is a photography spin-off from The Paper Mama! FUN!!! And of course, what good would a photography blog be without a photo challenge! The Paper Heart Camera will be doing Show & Tell Photo Challenges (kind of like the Shoot~N~Tell that I love so much at the Franklins)!

Show:

Tell:

A Day in My Life. Not a typical day in our life (but certainly part of our big crazy birthday week). Gigi & Papa (Hubby's parents) had just arrived for the girls' 3rd birthday party ~ We were celebrating with their very first real birthday party. Gigi's car was STOCKED FULL of presents! J & M were SOOOOOO excited! They are totally spoiled by Gigi & Papa but I don't care a bit! :) This was actually just yesterday (which was my birthday, which is five days after Hubby's, seven days after my sister, and the day after my dad's birthday) and it's the only picture I've taken off the camera so far!!! I'm SUPER exhausted from the party/festivities. But these girls made me a mama, darn it! I wanted to Show & Tell "them" because I love them so much & it makes me so happy to be their mama. :) AND I really wanted to contribute to this new photo challenge cause I like the paper mama so much! ~ so I mustered up all my energy, auto-corrected the picture, sharpened/reduced noise, and watermarked this sucker!

Hope you like it!!! I can't wait to share more pictures from yesterday! We had so much fun!!!

Show & Tell a Day in Your Life with the paper mama at The Paper Heart Camera!

the paper mama Photo Challenge ~ Brown!

Brown is the theme this week at the paper mama's weekly photo challenge!! I immediately knew what picture I was entering. Immediately! This was taken about a month ago ~ but I just unloaded it off the camera... so I'm not really pulling from the archives this time.

Here is my entry! It's by far one of my favorite pictures that I've ever taken!

~ my daughter (M) playing dress-up in her great-great grandmother's fur hat ~

Share your Brown pictures with the paper mama!

Shoot N Tell Thursdays ~ Looking Up

This week the theme for Shoot~N~Tell Thursdays is Looking Up! I've got plenty of pictures of the kids looking up but... I wanted to branch out a bit and post a picture of something other than my kids. A little variety is the spice of life, right? My entry this week is a picture of Uncle Dan. He's one of my husband's best friends, he is godfather to our firstborn, he introduced me & Hubby, he was one of our groomsmen, and his firstborn was born two days after our thirdborn... and until he had a child of his own, he'd tag along with us and carry our diaper bag, push our stroller, and more or less be our "manny". He is a great friend and truly like a brother to us (and especially Hubby who is an only child). I took this picture during July Fourth celebrations at Hubby's parents' lakehouse. It was just the three of us (me, Dan, and Hubby) out for a cruise around the lake. I love this picture for a million reasons but mainly because it exudes Dan's love for life, pride of being American, and his generally awesome attitude!

PS. My editing included: the watermark, sharpening/reducing noise and cropping. It's an almost SOOC shot! :)

Shoot~N~Tell your own photos over with Natalie & the rest of us at The Franklins!

Trendy Treehouse Shutter Love Tuesday ~ Bloopers & Outtakes!

The theme this week over at the Trendy Treehouse is Bloopers & Outtakes. I definitely have more than a few of those. But I ended up picking this one because it really was a blooper. And it actually wasn't the only one that night ~ ALL of my pictures from my daughters' first real Halloween (they were only a month old the first time they had one) turned out blurred/out of focus/no light.

I was pretty disappointed not to have any great pictures from their first Halloween.

Until a few months ago, someone tagged me in a picture on Face.book and it turned out to be one from that night. Of both girls. In their costumes. Looking at the camera!

Saved my photobooks & memory boxes for the girls, it did!! Gotta love the FB. Sometimes.
Share your blooper pictures over at the Trendy Treehouse! :)

I Heart Faces Weekly Photo Challenge ~ My Summer in Review

It's a non-contest week at I Heart Faces and the theme is My Summer in Review. Because it's a non-contest week, we can use as many photos as we want! Fun!

And as much as I'd love to participate this week... I can't. And I'm bummed because next week is an off-week, too. Unfortunately for me, this is the Great Big Birthday Week for our family. See, Hubby's birthday was yesterday (Sept 7) and my birthday is Sept 12 and our twins birthday is Sept 13. That's FOUR birthdays in the span of six days. And I shouldn't forget to mention my sister on Sept 5th. And my dad on Sept 11. And my mom on Sept 21. (And two cousins on the 3rd. The 14th. Another on the 22.)

Seriously, I could go on and on ~ there are many more September birthdays in the family. But mainly, we're busy this week because it's the girls' birthday party on Sunday (my birthday ~ which is fine because I really prefer my big day to pass under the radar) and we have house cleaning and party decorating to do before then.

So in order for my sanity, I'm tagging myself out for this week. And you BET I'll be back with some Cake pictures for I Heart Faces in two weeks. It'd be impossible not to get one of those in the next few days! :)

But if you're free this week, share your Summer In Review pictures with everyone else at I Heart Faces!

In A Yellow House Photo Challenge ~ On the Water!

I had a hard time deciding which picture I wanted to post. There's the sailboat one from Point Loma. Or the beach one from La Jolla Shores. Which to choose, which to choose...

I went with the beach one. La Jolla Shores Beach. My favorite vacation place in the world.

Share your On the Water photos in a Yellow House.

Alphabet Shoot Photo Challenge ~ A

Barb Phillips' Photo Journal is hosting a weekly photo challenge. The theme? The Alphabet! What a fun idea! I immediately thought how neat it would be to use the pictures to create an alphabet next time I'm designing a nursery... or a frame with our last name spelled out... ooh, the possibilities are really endless! :)

ANYWAYS.... so it just started this week, which means the letter A. Next week will be the letter B. And so on and so forth. Let's start at the very beginning. I give you...

~ The Letter A ~

~from a dave matthews concert poster~

Join in the fun and share your alphabet pictures with Barb Phillip's Photo Journal!

Scavenger Hunt Sunday!

It's my first Scavenger Hunt Sunday! Just for fun... and because there was a jukebox emergency and Hubby had to go fix it or there'd be no music in the bars today. So... I can blog guilt-free until he's home! Haha!! :) Okay. So this week the items for which I'm hunting are...

Red ~ Homespace ~ Fence ~ Rock ~ Sharp

red ~ the new indoor/outdoor carpet i got from target. on sale.

homespace ~ generally what ours looks like!

fence ~ our fence. and my favorite birdhouse.

rocks ~ my daughters' rock collection on our front window.

sharp ~ i was going for the sharp corner of this old radio cabinet.

Go on your own scavenger hunt for these things! Share your photos at Ramblings & Photos Scavenger Hunt Sunday!

I'm Gonna Go Ahead and Say It...

Editor's Note: I moved this post to my other blog as I determined it was more appropriate to post my rant on Dugger-Family-Haters on that blog instead of here. Thanks! :)

In A Yellow House ~ Work & Play

The In A Yellow House Photo Challenges are still being hosted by Ashley over at Ramblings & Photos. I loved this challenge because it really did "challenge" me. I really had to think about this one. So what did I end up with? This:

It's the wall in my kitchen, right next to my fridge, where my daughters lovingly scrawled in crayon. They did this months ago... possibly a year ago! I love it for so many reasons. Creative, I thought, of them to use the wall for a canvas. Creative, I thought, of them to 'match' the abstracts I have hanging in our kitchen. (I hung all my old college paintings in our kitchen.) I love the childness of it, the use of colors on the bright green background, the fact that someone randomly & miraculously drew a cursive L towards the bottom (do you see that too?). Of course, we had to discipline them when it happened - but now it serves as a reminder to them that drawing on Mommy's wall is a "No-No". And they tell me that often! :)

So how does this tie into this week's theme?? Work & Play??

Work for Mommy*. Play for Kids.

(*Well, I guess it would be work if I ever tried cleaning it up!!*)

Share your Work & Play pictures with the rest of us over at Ramblings & Photos!

TMMAPC ~ Pets!

It's my first time entering the "Two Moms Made A Photo Challenge" (TMMAPC) Photo Challenge! This week their theme is Pets! My picture is an oldie ~ I had to pull it out of the archives because it's just so cute! (Well, I think so!) Our twins just as they were starting to stand and hold up on stuff... with my in-laws 18 year old (not exaggerating!) yorkie - who also wears diapers.

Three in Diapers:

Share your pictures with the rest of us over at Linkie Lueville!