random thoughts... all free today

Photography class - results

Only one week left of the Portraiture class I'm taking over at Jessica Sprague.  I've learned SOOO MUCH from the Oh Shoot! Class and now the Portraiture 101 with Candace Stringham.  I now know the mechanics of how to get what I want out of my camera but I'm still learning on how to be consistent with my results every single time.  I've learned a lot on lighting, posing and working with my subjects to get the look or pose I want and not beat them to death to get it.  I'm doing a lot of practicing and both the boys are PLENTY sick of me taking their picture.  The price of being the offspring of a photographer - what a rough life.

Here are some of the photos I've taken.  These are the ones I consider the "keepers" and are some of my favorites.  There are quite a few and even more that I want to share but I'll put those up at a later date.  This is going to be a very photo-heavy post.  :)

I hope you enjoyed, I know I had a lot of fun taking them.

Thanks!

~h

And the winner is...the dirt?

Well...it wasn't Jack.  My poor sweet baby.  The track was crap.  Well, let me clarify that.  The track was probably pretty decent as far as desert tracks go.  The track ended up being crap because the people that put on the race didn't rent a water truck to wet the dirt down before the races.  Seriously...when you live IN THE DESERT and the dust is UNBEARABLE you kinda need a damn water truck.  From what Norm told me, every year for the past 5 years it has rained the day before the race.  This year...NO RAIN.  Not a single drop.  Still...these idiots should have been prepared.

Anyhoo...pictures so you can get a "taste" of exactly HOW dusty the race was.  I swear I still have the taste of dirt in my mouth and grit in my teeth.  nah-stay.

 

 

 
 
That's my baby in his truck.  Yes...please look CLOSELY.  If you squint and use your imagination you MIGHT see something in that large brown cloud. 

Still coming around the corner.  Oh LOOK!  I think I maybe might be able to see him??

 

OH THERE HE IS!!!!  HI BABY!!!!  Jackson???  Can you SEE ME Jackson?  Can you even SEE the TRACK???  (look at his visor...COMPLETELY covered in DUST)

 

And as he passes me by (I had to stop shooting so I could wave and cheer him on) you STILL can't see his truck much less him or anything else.  

BUT...he still LOVES IT and still wants to race.  Just look at *THIS* face.  Happy it's over but ready for the next one.  (which will be MUCH less dusty)

   

A few detail shots of his sweet face, truck and tires....absolutely FILTHY...all of 'em.  That's dirt on his face..that nice golden brown color.

Those aren't freckles...it's DIRT on his nose.  His eyelashes?  DIRTY TOO.

Tires CAKED in dirt....glad I don't have to wash them LOL    

 

In every crack and crevice...this is some serious DIRT.

And you guessed it....more D-I-R-T.

If you've gotten this far you can probably get a feeling for my distain for dirt in all it's forms.  D-I-R-T = G-R-O-S-S or better yet W-O-R-K.

He ended up taking 2nd place.  Considering there was only one other kid in his bracket it was either 1st or 2nd place and the kid that took 1st had an EXTREMELY modified truck and ended up lapping EVERYONE in the race.  Some of them 3 brackets ahead of him.  It was pretty crappy for Jackson.  It sucks when a parent puts their kid in beginner's class, gives them a crazy modified truck and then the kid (OF COURSE) takes 1st place and completely sandbags everyone else.   Norm made SURE that the race organizers were aware and that this kid will HOPEFULLY be placed in a higher bracket.  It's just not fair to the kids that are out there racing because they really LOVE IT or in Jack's case are really GOOD AT IT.  (sorry...i had to brag on my baby....he really is a natural at this stuff...his 1st race he was beating kids that have been racing for at least a year if not more...he still took 3rd even after he flipped his truck - he's really good is all i'm sayin' but that's a post for another time)

Anywayyyy.....there you have it.  2nd place in a really not fair race.  He didn't really care much, as long as he finished better than his last race (he took 3rd in that one) he was very happy.  Although I am disappointed that he didn't want to wait for the awards ceremony.  He said "Just tell them to put a stamp on it and mail it to me."  Typical Jack-Jack fashion.

Casey and I had already left but entrusted Norm to take video of the awards ceremony.  He caved and let Jack leave without accepting his trophy.  And before you give me the "you're a bad mom" garbage, we HAD to leave.  It was a 3.5 hour drive to get to the race venue.  We left at 5am and got there at 8:30.  Race was at 11.  We left at 2:00pm after hearing the awards wouldn't be until 4:30pm.  We left the dog at home and had to get back to him before his bladder busted.  We'll plan better next time I guess I'm saying.

If you have made it this far, thank you for reading.  I love that little stinker soooo much and him racing makes me one VERY proud momma.  

Have a WONDERFUL Wednesday!!!

~h

I finally took the plunge...

I've been wanting to take this class for the LONGEST time and finally took the plunge last week.

 

First lesson is today and we're learning about shutter speed.  I know a lot of you might be very surprised that ME of all people is taking a photography class but I really want to know more about my camera other than the stuff I've learned by reading and teaching myself.  I don't always get the results I want so this should fix that problem.  And let's face it, seems i have less and less time to be able to play and see what works best.  Now someone can TELL and SHOW me what works best and how to get what i want out of this camera.  Be warned, I might be knocking on your door for new subjects once Casey and the kids are tired of me sticking a camera in their face.  :D

Happy Labor Day everyone - BE SAFE!

 ~h

Tah-DAHHHHH!!

Just finished taking photos of the LO I did for the Seasons of Change Blog Hop over at Scrapbook Challenges.  If you want to blog hop too there's still time!  All you have to do it start here at Pamela's Blog  and hop all the DT blogs then for another change to win, use the sketch below and make your own page then post that you did and where we can find it here on the forums.  I finished it Friday but yesterday was an all day event with Jack's race.  (more on that later - it deserves a post all of it's own)

To remind you, the sketch looks like this:

And here's what I came up with:

 

A few detail shots cuz i {heart} this sweet little birdie and the button cloud:

   

 

 

Initially when I got these papers from Pink Paislee in a grab bag I was NOT liking this color combo WHAT-SO-EVER.  I have boys and the combo of lime green, raspberry, navy and black just sounds very GIRLY.  I couldn't for the LIFE of me figure out what to do with it.  But I gave it a shot anyway, figured the sooner I used this stuff up then i wouldn't have to look at it anymore LOL.  I have to admit I adore how this page turned out and the color combo grew on me.  I still have a few sheets and embellies left from the grab bag and I'm almost sad I didn't get more for this line if you can believe it.

NOW - take this sketch and go get your scrap on girls!  Casey and I are off to Goodwill to scout more camping equipment.  So far we haven't found anything yet but maybe today will be the day.  Camping trip next weekend with Nequal and her family, I'm so excited.  The spot we are going to is absolutely GORGEOUS!

Happy Labor Day!

~h
 

Wanna join me on a HOP?

 

 

So i've been again hopping all over cyberspace and currently there's a blog hop with some TRULY inspiring ladies and some WAY cool prizes if you participate soooo....PARTICIPATE ALREADY??!!!

Blog hop begins HERE - CLICK ME! at Pamela's blog.  Then just "hop" to the other DT members, check out their cool stuff and leave a comment.  There are a few ways to win but I'll leave the details to Ms. Pamela so I don't mess it up.

The sketch is this:

I've finished my take on it and i LOOOOVE how it turned out BUT...it's after 6pm here and the light is C-R-A-P.  I'll take a photo tomorrow (hopefully).  Jack's next race is tomorrow morning and it's a 4 hour drive away.  We're leaving O-M-G-early at 5am and probably won't be back until tomorrow afternoon.  I'll get a photo up before Sunday though, don't want to miss out on those fabby prizes!

Take care peeps, i'm off to happy hour for cheap wings and beer with my family.  (well NO beer for the kids OF COURSE but momma needs a pint!)  :D

happy F-R-I-D-A-Y!!!

~h

Who wants some candy???

Who doesn't like candy...especially some SAH-WEET blog candy????

Check it - click here!!!!

So if you don't want to click ^^that link up there^^ then you can see the yummy goodness below and THEN click ^^the link up there^^ and check out Natalie's pretty dang cool blog.

 

 
OK SEE??? you know you want some!  So go HERE - click me and hurry!  might be gone if you don't go NOW!

~h

Blog Hoppin' (aka i finally scrapped!)

So i was poking around the blog-o-sphere Friday and came across this Blog Hop at Sassy Lil' Sketches .  I'm sooooo glad i did!  Not only was I treated to all the wonderful inspiration but it inspired me SO MUCH that I actually MADE A PAGE.  

Using this sketch:

 

I made this:

 

Photo is a little wonky because i got home late today to take the photo (connor needed a physical to go out for flag football tomorrow)

I really love these photos, connor was only 5 at the time and he's soooo little!  he's 12 now going on 30.  :D

back with details later, I have to make dinner for the hungry family.

Thanks for stopping to peek!

~h

 

 

Mystery in the Making - project COMPLETE! (finally!)

Hey guys,

I participated in Amanda's Mystery in the Making project.  I had fully intended on having this done LAST weekend but we celebrated Connor's 12th bday and my house was full of 12YO boy noise and chaos (sleepover...oh JOY)

Anyhoo...i finished it!  just in time for mother's day and a brag book for my mom.  You can find Amanda's original instructions (complete with video how-to's) right here.

So here's my take on it.  I built in more pages than specified on Amanda's post but I also put photos on both pages.  I have a lot of siblings and they have kids so I needed to expand to include everyone.  Can't have a mom/gramma brag book and leave anyone out!  The colors are WAY wonky because i snapped the pics saturday night after i finished and i'm soooo not asking for it back from her to get better ones.  :D

 Enjoy and THANKS Amanda for a super cool project!

~h

Lady Killers R Us?

At the dinner table this evening Jackson was telling Casey about a girl he thought Casey would think was "really pretty" and that he should "check her out".  Casey wanted to know why Jack wanted him to check out another girl "Don't you think your mommy is pretty?"  Jackson didn't really answer that question but responded with:

"But Casey, you just gotta see Marisa.  When you look at her you will have hearts in your eyes."  (he said this is a semi-dreamy tone which was absolutely ADORABLE)

We both bit our tongues to try and keep from laughing because it was soooo darned cute.  After dinner Casey probed a little further and it turns out jackson really likes marisa.  he thinks she's pretty and nice.  I'm absolutely amazed because jack is pretty anti-social.  It's part and parcel of his ADHD but this is a new development and i have to say i'm pretty relieved.  I've seen my son soooo many times all alone at the playground because no one wants to play with him.  He's bossy and controlling and sometimes just plain loses it because things don't go his way.  My heart breaks everytime i see it.  You don't WANT for your child to not have any playmates but with jack i'd just kinda figured that's the way it was probably gonna be.

anyway....onto miss marisa.  *this* is a blessing.  I've seen him playing tag or chatting with this little girl quite a few times when i pick him up from school and i was happy to see him finally opening up a little and letting someone try to be his friend.  she's a little cutie too, big brown eyes and long dark hair.  she's chatted with me a couple of times and she's very sweet and has good manners.  i have to say i'm a proud momma.  not just because my son apparently has an innocent little crush going on but that he's finally, maybe even just a little, gaining some life skills and learning how to relate to other people and isn't afraid.  He's not acting shy or stand-offish.  He genuinely likes spending time with someone else and to my recollection he's never been like that with his peers.  Poor sweetie...i thought he'd be a loner forever.  thank goodness for sweet little brown-eyed girls named marisa.  :)

~h

more scrappy magic :)

I have done more scrapping in the past few days that i have in months.  It makes me very happy but it also makes me NOT want to quit.  it seems if i get to scrap a little i want to scrap ALL THE TIME.  So getting up early or staying up late or ignoring the absolutely GORGEOUS weather just kinda happens because i become obsessed with the next project.  Hopefully i can figure out how to strike a perfect balance.

The LO i did is a photo of Connor's first day of 4th grade.  He's about to finish 6th and will be in junior high next year (godwilling with his crappy grades).  Yes....i'm a little late in getting school photos scrapped LOL)  I totally dug through my stash and used some VERY old Cherry Arte papers and letter stickers that I've been hanging onto for what seems like ages, maybe as long as 4 years now maybe more.  I also used the I-top punches that are supposed to make toppers for their brads.  But i used them as regular ole punches and they turned out SUPER cute.  They totally look like cogs which are perfect for boy pages.

Products:

Pattern Papers: Cherry Arte

Punches: Imaginesce - I-top punch

chipboard: Best Occasions

alpha stickers: chatterbox

alpha stamp: (th) see-d's by stephanie barnard

brads: Bazzill (large silver), Joann's (small silver black and white), Making Memories (pewter) Imaginesce (black with silver)

circle clips: Target office supply

ink: Momento Dew Drop - tuxedo black

pen: Zig Millenium

circle cutter: Making Memories

On a side note we went to the shooting range today with the boys.  We gave Connor his birthday gift a couple days early so we headed out to put it through it's paces.  Not at all disappointed in the purchase.  We also let jackson shoot casey's old .22 rifle that he was given when he was about jack's age.  jackson LOVED IT and now wants to go to the range everyday to shoot.  Photos to come on a scrapbook page soon i'm sure.

Time to get off the computer and get some laundry and chores done.  Goodbye long weekend, hopefully i get another one of you soon.

~h