i ♥ faces - Week 13 "Dramatic B & W"

Not much I can say about this one except gorgeous.......

Now go check out everyone else and their Dramatic B & W work! ­ i ♥ faces

i ♥ faces - Week 10 "Jump For Joy"

My Beautiful niece on a beautiful day doing what she loves best......

Dancing!

Please click on the picture to see the full beauty...

Now go check out everyone else Jumping for Joy! ­ i ♥ faces

i ♥ faces - Week 9 "Hilarious Outtakes"

Somedays.....


The Outakes.....


Turn out to be....


The Best......


Pictures ever......


This was by far one of my favorite photo shoots. We had the best time and were literally cracking up pretty much the whole time. Despite all the giggling and goofball shenanigans, we did manage to get some really good pictures.

Now roll on spring so we can start all over again! ;)

Now go check out all the other "Hilarious Outtakes" ­ i ♥ faces

i ♥ faces - Week 8 "Hands On Fun"

I fell in love with this picture and was thrilled to see the "hands on" week so I could put it to good use.

Adorable squishy little baby hands lying on her first bible.....


Now go check out all the other clever hand pictures ­ i ♥ faces

i ♥ faces - Week #7 "I wanna Dance"

Another one of my niece. Edited in PSP. The location and day was perfect. The subject of course is beautiful so not much needed in editing. I just lightened up some of the dark areas. Sharpened a bit then added a sepia overlay.

Now go check out all the other edited versions of this picture ­ i ♥ faces

i ♥ faces - Fix - It - Friday

Playin' along......

Original Photo......



Edited Picture...


I used PSP for my editing. I cropped the picture down and edited out the busy background then lightened up the right side a bit and toned down the washed out side a bit. I couldn't resist making those gorgeous eyes POP a bit more using a combination of freehand selection and the unsharp mask. I just LOVE taking black and white photos or turning photos over to B&W so again I couldn't resist. Last, I merged all layers and sharpened the entire picture.

Now go check out all the other edited versions of this picture ­ i ♥ faces

i ♥ faces - Fix - It - Friday

Just playin' along......

Original Photo which could stand alone as is:



I'm fairly certain I'm the oddball here using PSP for my editing. What can I say I love it best :0)

My Edited Version:


In PSP I started with the One step photo fix. Next I used the automatic saturation enhancement to darken things up a bit. Sharpen tool then New art media layer. Sharpen tool again then promote background layer. Sparkle picture tube then finish it off with starburst and voila!

Now go check out all the other edited versions of this picture ­ i ♥ faces

i ♥ faces - Texture Challenge

I had the best time with this photo shoot. My niece is a dancer and was needing some professional dance shots. I of course wanted something besides the standard studio pictures so we headed to a local Lake. The sky was a gorgeous blue and the grass a vibrant green creating the perfect backdrop. I had a hard time choosing but this by far is one of my favorites. It also doesn't hurt to have a beautiful subject.

Now go check out some more textured faces at ­ i ♥ faces

Harvest Moon.........

Ooooooky Spoooooky!


Which can only mean one thing.....

Fall/Winter is coming! Booooo Hooooooo...

I do love fall but winter......

Blah...UGH....Moooooans

I'm not sure about you but I don't even feel like we've had a summer. We've been in the pool 3 times and two of those times the water temperature was under 68! Brrrrr chill! I'm seriously lacking in saratonin which is not a good thing for me heading into winter.

I will say the last week has been wonderful filled with sunshine and blue skies! Tammy tells me we're going to have a loooooong fall so it won't be that bad. My negative attitude tells me otherwise but, I'm hopeful she's gonna be right.

Jophie and I are wingin' it alone this weekend. It's loras off Saturday and tomorrow is Tammys birthday. She did come by this evening to help me change Jophies trach collar and brought along her 2 little sidekicks. Thanks for coming by to help on your day off Tammy and for bringin' the girlies.....You'll never know what a bright spot those girlies put in my day....:o)

I have a bazillion and one things to do which is not a good thing for me. I tend to start twitchin' with the enormity of it all and next thing you know I'm slumped in my chair doing nothing.

Lists do not help.......In fact they make it worse because then I can actually SEE what was once one itty bitty page has now become the entire notebook! ACK!

Don't get me wrong....I do make lists but for the normal/basic everyday things NOT all the junk I have floatin' around in my head that needs attention.....

Oh well.....I'm fairly certain something will get done just not all that needs done

Jophie will be fed and medicated
I'll be fed and medicated(If I don't forget) LOL

Guess thats it......

Big list eh? LOL

Trust me you don't want to see the "real list"

Make sure you to click the harvest moon picture so you get the "up close and personal" view of it! You don't wanna miss it cause it's really cool!

OK..Gotta Scoot!

Trina and Jophie

Give me your best shot........Shoo-Fly

Ok so this is a bit of a repeat for my regular readers but, for those of you Playing Along this little guy would have to be my favorite.

I know I know....
It is somewhat weird but, in a strange and even a little bit twisted kinda way......
I like this small freakish wonder....
Watermelon eyes and all!

Course the first time he sinks those furry fangs into me he's TOAST! LOL

Make sure you click to enlarge lest you miss all the freakish little details! :0)


Now go check out all the other best shots from this week!


Trina and Jophie

Shoo-fly.............

I was cutting grass Saturday. The dew was falling and the grass was getting wetter by the minute. Every few steps the lawn mower would die and then I'd groan because I knew that once again I'd have to repeat that torturous tug on the starter. My body was weary and every tug made it worse. I'd been at it for nearly 3 hours and honestly didn't think I had one tug left. I was just finishing up the lower end of my yard and the end was finally in sight when suddenly, I started getting dive bombed.

Thud! Right to the back of my head!

I ducked and moved a little faster.

Wack! Right on the top of my head this time!

By this point I'm zigging, zagging and ducking my way to the upper end of the yard forgetting about the weariness that nearly overtook me only minutes early.

This went on for the next 20 minutes and at one point the evil flying black blob dive bombers followed me to the upper end at which point I panicked just a bit. Well ALOT. You see I was attacked by a hornet when I was younger. That evil bugger got in my shirt and showed me no mercy nor I to him! Several stings and bites later I managed to kill that sucker. I was sick for weeks. Yes weeks! So you my fear is not unfounded.

I did manage to finish the yard free of any bites or stings from the dive-bombing mystery bug. I was however covered in mosquito and fly bites. At least they have the nerve to sit boldly while they feed on you. Regardless, I still had no clue what those flying black blobs were. I was however sure of one thing. I had ticked them off royally and in no uncertain terms they were warning me to go away! I gladly granted their request.

The next day I went out camera in hand ready to shoot the first thing that caught my eye.

I thought these would do just fine....

Pretty aren't they? They're weeds. Yep weeds. Funny how if we look a bit closer that ugly duckling turns right into a swan.

I was talking to them you know? The weeds and the flowers. I didn't realize it till my neighbor yells over and asks what in the world I was doing and WHO was I talking to? Yep I suppose I've lost it talking to weeds and all but hey, it's still a pretty weed wouldn't you say?

Now these are not weeds but rather my flowers we planted this summer...

Check out these Orange beauties...


How bout yellow?....


By this point I'm pretty drenched. It was late evening and the humidity was so high you literally could see moisture lying on your skin and on the flower petals as evidenced in the yellow flower. If you can't see the droplets just click on the picture and you should be able to see it in the larger version.

Pretty cool huh?

I'm just ready to go back inside when what do you think happens?

Wack! Thud! Oh no you didn't!? My mystery evil black blob flying critters were back and with a vengence! It seems that once again I had angered the flying black blobby gods.

I ran into the house and grabbed myself a weapon. Well a fly swat....I needed something to wack these critters away from me. When I got back outside I notice several have landed on my vans top. I sneak up to the van and finally I know what these mysterious flying critters were.

Horse flies! And let me tell you these suckers were BIG! They were all hanging onto the luggage rack and I swear I saw the van lift clean off the ground! LOL

I wasn't very successful other than to spook the whole lot of them away. The next morning I go out to look again cause well now I'm facinated with this colony of horse flies. What do you suppose I find? One lonely horsefly just sitting as pretty as you please on my deck. He was almost daring me to come near. I went and grabbed my camera because this little guy was poised to fight. He wasn't going to budge no matter how much bigger I was. I seriously was almost touching the thing with my lens!

This was only a baby compared to the others!


How freaky is that???! He has watermelon eyes! Ewwww! And, you have to enlarge that picture so you can see his "fang-like" teeth! That my friends is what they bite you with. No wonder it hurts like the dickens!

After many different poses he decides to fly fly away. I can honestly say there was no love loss at all.

I was just turning to go back in the house and what do I see next?

This little guy......And ya know what? He wasn't afraid either. I swear he was posing too! A little to the right. Ah yes left is my better side. Look how hairy that thing is??


Or maybe a full out front view? How bout some action in those wings? What? You think your tryin' out for the part of the Mothman?


OK so I've had enough of all things flying, stinging and pollenating so I retreat back to our castle and head straight for the kitchen. A girls gotta eat ya know! ;0) Besides, it relaxes me so much to cook.

Not long after I deposited this on the counter all gooey and ready for me to devour!
Mmmmmm! Blueberry Cobbler!


And yes it's completely sugar free and figure friendly. One more to add to our many recipes. :0)
For a little bit of Jophie news. He is well and seems to have weathered the Roid Rage storms. Dare I mention another reduction? Nahhh...We won't say the words out loud lest Jophie gets wind of it. Only in our heads will we know the truth. :0) I will however, be sure to let you in on the secret when I decide to do another reduction. :0)

The fundraiser is coming right along. We now have a venue! Yay! It's set it stone which means I can now give our flyer to the Hog man so he can have them printed.(The printing was donated by the way)

I will be posting the flyer on Jophies sight very soon along with a list of what we have and what we still need. We have many of the big items out of the way but still have quite a few things that need taken care of and/or arranged/picked up/workers ect....

We received another themed basket this week from my missionary friend Laura in Japan. Thanks Laura! We love all the goodies and think it's perfect for the raffle/auction!

Again, anyone who would like to help in any way just toss me an email and those who are local you can call or toss me an email as well. More details to come very soon.

And with that my friends this momma needs to grab some Zzzz's....

Trina and Jophie