I want to learn photoshop. I don’t know why, but I do. Oy, I think I’ve actually flipped my lid!
I started out with Photoshop CS4. I haven’t had much time to learn it or even play with it. The other day though hubs was telling me to start with Photoshop Elements. Learn that first and then proceed on. So he loaded PSE8 on my laptop and away we went… but it’s not quite that easy.
I downloaded a few actions to help me out and they are fun to play with, but let’s get serious… How in the heck am I going to learn anything. So I bought a book. A lot of people recommend Scott Kelby so that’s where I went, plus I’ve bought some of his photography books and they are easily read and understandable.
So, in my mission to start learning PSE8 I chose a photo.
Subject A:
Don’t ask me why this is the photo I chose, but, it is. Simple as that.
This wasn’t even taken with my big Nikon, but the Nikon Point and Shoot that we have. My mom took it in Hawaii while we were waiting to go parasailing on our 1st anniversary.
So Here is the photo after I got done playing with it…
I think it looks better… at least we all look like we have a tan, right :).
Here’s a second photo:
And… now edited….
Now, do we think I’ll remember how the heck I did this come tomorrow?
What do you think of this photo, did I do ok? or was the original the better choice?
Ever since Sunday Night dinner this last weekend and Earl talking about misspelling Christmas to Chritmas (she got distracted), that’s how I seem to want to say it.
Don’t worry, I know the reason for the season and I’m all about Christmas and not Xmas however I did have someone show me how the X is a Roman or Greek or something (I forget now) symbol that stands for Christ somehow… but anyway I’m still all about spelling it out!
Anyway since Christmas is Sunday and I’ll bet some of you still haven’t run out and bought me a Christmas present yet, I’ll do up my Christmas list for you…
1. Back in junior high, a kid that sat next to me in Science class was always in to these foreign sports cars. I learned at a young age what a Lamborghini was, and so I’ve always joked that I would like one. It wouldn’t be very practical for me, but heck, a girl can dream big right?!?! Then a couple years ago I made a deal with some guy at work that he’d buy me one if something happened (heck maybe hell had to freeze over, I don’t really remember the deal), but I told him I wanted a lime green one.
2011 will work, the 2012 would be better, but I would like a F350 Super duty, King Ranch, Crew Cab, 4×4. I really don’t want a dually, I prefer the single wheel although if you want to get me the dually, I won’t object! And have you seen the interior of a King Ranch? It’s the Cowboy Cadillac of interiors!
3. Now, as I walked around the Futurity a few weeks ago and oooh’ed and ahhh’ed about the living quarter trailers, I’m torn. My mom has always said, if you’re going to “go on vacation” because showing horses is fun, why have to clean up after yourself… so she has a point… so I’m not sure if I’d like a trailer with living quarters in it or not… But I would like a 5 or 6 horse slant trailer please. I won’t be picky and you decide if you want to buy the living quarters or not for me, k? I do prefer an aluminum one though… lighter weight, better gas mileage for the truck 🙂
**via**
4. Now that we are decked out to drive to work, haul to horse shows… let’s move on to a new house. I would prefer a thousand+ acre ranch, but I won’t be picky. I’d settle for 250-500 acres.
5. I also like a good Tiffany’s anything. Can’t go wrong with Tiffany’s! Ask Holly Golightly (Breakfast at Tiffany’s played by the lovely Audrey Hepburn)
But the truth of the matter… I went extreme extreme here. What do I really want for Christmas? I want my family. All the money in the world can’t bring what really matters to me for Christmas. Yes Money is nice and helpful but let’s not lose sight of the TRUE reason for the seasons. With the economy the way it is these days, not everyone can afford a lot of things, and it’s ok to say, No, I can’t or won’t buy you that.
That’s not to say that if someone gave me one of these or all of things I would turn it down… LOL… So please send all presents to me…
Haha, but truthfully remember what the reality of this time of the year is and never lose sight of that. We really need to teach our children this too so that we never lose sight!
This weekend was a fairly busy weekend, being the last weekend before Christmas. Wow, can you believe that Christmas is this coming weekend!?!? Unreal!
So I can’t completely tell you what I was up to this weekend, anyway not Saturday. It involves a Christmas present that I’m not ready to reveal yet… but here are a couple cute shots…
Audrey and I were hanging out on the trampoline. There are steps that we’ve given the {step}daughter & friends to use to get up there, Audrey has learned how to jump up them, but Miss Marlie hasn’t yet. She wasn’t quite sure how to get up there…
I about froze my butt off on Saturday. By the end of the afternoon, I was chilled to the bone, but see, I was out there right along side hubs, dad & FIL (Father-in-law)
Then, hubs threw Marlie up on the trampoline with us. Once Audrey and I jumped down for a few, Marlie wasn’t sure she wanted to be up there anymore, but was unsure how to get down.
Then Audrey got back up there with Marlie. They got all excited when my FIL walked past them.
I know, so vague but I don’t want to share presents just yet 🙂
Sunday I went to my parents house to help my mom get ready for her work Christmas party that is tonight.
I should mention that Saturday, while sitting outside all afternoon, I really, really wanted cinnamon rolls. So since I was at mom’s house already dirtying up her kitchen cooking food for her party tonight, I made cinnamon rolls! 🙂
So one of the things that I made for mom’s party is stuffed Mushrooms. I thought with Christmas and New Year’s coming up and possibly all the parties you may attend, I’d share her recipe with you, since it is different than mine :).
Mom’s Stuffed Mushrooms Ingredients Hamburger Mushroom caps & stems Small can chopped Black Olives Mozzarella Cheese Butter
Directions 1. Brown up the hamburger
2. Then wash the mushrooms. Separate the stems from the caps. Keep the stems though.
3. Chop the mushroom stems up real fine. Add to the hamburger mixture.
4. Since mom bought the small can of already chopped black olives, just open the can and dump in. If you don’t buy the chopped, well chop them up real fine 🙂
5. Finally finish off with melting in Mozzarella Cheese.
6. Now this was the point when my mom decided to tell me to spray the pan with cooking spray {I never do so this was new to me} so I had to hunt somewhere down to move the mushrooms to so I could spray my pan.
7. Now start stuffing your mushroom caps
8. Once you have all the mushroom caps stuffed, this is where you’d put them in preheated 350 degree oven for about 20 minutes or until the mushrooms are cooked.
And take the horses words for it… they’re kicking good… LOL
So every year when we head to Ft. Worth, it is for a reason. That reason is the NCHA Futurity. So in a nutshell, it is babies (horses) that are 3 years old and never been shown in front of a judge. The show starts right around Thanksgiving and runs until usually right around this last weekend. There are only 3 divisions, Amateur (Never won $50,000), Non-Pro (Basically you can be a professional rider but you don’t train other people’s horses, just your own), & Open (The trainers).
This big show is held at the Will Roger’s Equestrian Center there in Ft. Worth.
On Saturday’s there is this thing called Super Stallion Avenue or also known as Million Dollar Alley. Basically it is a way to promote your Stallion (the male horse to use to breed the mares) but the catch is, the stallion has to have Lifetime Earnings (LTE) of 1 Million Dollars. The way LTE is figured is not only the stallions winnings from showing, but his off-springs earnings are figured in there as well.
Sorry about the blurry picture, but some promoters go all out. They have these big booths set up, they give away free things, they cater, One year one did free drinks (alcoholic or virgin), they bring the stallions in so you can see them (and boy do they sparkle and shine), They give you cards that show the write up about that particular horse, etc. They go all out basically!
Unfortunately I can’t remember which stud this was, but they made his own pillow for his booth. I got silly glare.
One of the things a few of the stallion breeding stations did was offer free breedings to a particular stud. Heck hubs and I both signed up, plus signed up dad (b/c he wouldn’t), mom (she wasn’t with us, she went shopping), my mother in law (she doesn’t own a horse, but she’d give it to her loving kids). 🙂 Then once we’d made our way through, we headed off to pick up my mom and head to the Old Stockyards.
Hubs had never been on the Will Rogers show floor, so since the show wasn’t going on, we were able to run in and see the arena from the floor.
You have no idea how exciting it was to be down there. I’ve never gotten to show here, but I have ridden around in this arena. My goal is to show here someday!
Isn’t he cute?
Yup I was there too 🙂 Nope, not my hat. It’s dad’s hat. You have to wear a hat to be on the floor, so dad gave me his hat for a few :). I left mine at home (I get bad hat hair!!)
So now that were back in Missouri it’s time to start studying for finals. I’m not going to lie I am sick of bones. So last night I was looking for every excuse not to study. When I heard a new e-mail tone from my phone. Of course I just HAD to stop studying and check it! I read the e-mail and it caught my attention so I walked in to the kitchen and asked Husband which mare we are going to have bred? He looked at me funny and said what the heck are you talking about? Me: I just won a free breeding to smoother than a cat. Hubs: How do you know that? Me: I just got an e-mail!! Hubs looked at the e-mail and I swear you would think we had just won a Million Dollars!!! So we grabbed the phone and called my dad and went through the same thing with him! However I don’t really think it totally sunk in because about 10 minutes later we got a call from him saying… “I was just thinking about that phone call and that’s GREAT!!!” You can use ANY Mare on my place… that’s GREAT!! We were all floating on cloud 9!! And I had to go back to studying the bones… but who can study after news like that!!!!!
Isn’t He Gorgeous?
Picture courtesy of http://www.smootherthanacat.com/site.htm
So Friday morning hubs and I had to be up bright and early to hop on a plane to head to Ft. Worth. Hey we got 2 tickets for $5 (taxes)… um… I can’t drive there for that! And my parents ROCK! Dad flies a lot and has frequent flyer miles so it works!
So this is how our Friday morning went at my house….
4:45am the alarm goes off
Hubs: Honey, you need to wake up
Hubs:{about a min later} Honey, you need to wake up
Hubs: {about a min later} Honey, you need to wake up
Me: Don’t say that again! Hubs gets up and leaves the room I roll over, Grab my phone, look at the time, ah 5 mins and I roll back over and close my eyes. A few minutes later Hubs walks back in the room, Honey you need to get up.
Me: I have 4 minutes.
Hubs: 4 minutes until what?
Me: 5
Hubs: No, you have a minute. I roll over, check my phone, I have 2 minutes and I roll back over and close my eyes.
I’ll have you know, I got up at 5 🙂 and I was ready to go when he wanted to leave at 5:30 🙂
Now I’ll bet I was a cute sight walking through airport security. I usually forget to take my belt buckle off at security and set off the alarms so I packed it up and sent it with my parents in our luggage. I decided to wear my jeans I can’t wear a belt with because of all the pretty doo-dads they have on the waist line… then I realized the silver brads would set off the security alarms so I went through in my shirt (black and really cute), my brown sleep shorts, my tall boot cut socks and my cowboy boots plus my big furry coat. Yes I was quite the sight! no sorry no pictures were taken….
And don’t worry, I sent my jeans through on the conveyor belt with my boots and then changed in the bathroom once I got past the metal detector!
A couple weeks ago Tbug came over on a Saturday night. When she got to us, she hadn’t eaten yet, and neither had we. Now right after Thanksgiving, I’m not sure how many of you were kind of tired of turkey, but we were getting to that point, so we started putting it in things because you can only eat it regular and on a sandwich so many times. I tried to get creative, but it didn’t work so well.
I happened across a recipe that Jacin posted on her blog right after Thanksgiving for Turkey Pot Pie. I looked at hubs, told him we had everything for that if he wanted to attempt it, and attempt it we did 🙂 It was chilly outside so girlfriends wanted to come in, instead of staying outside and playing. This is pretty much what they did the whole time we were cooking.
Courtney’s Pot Pie Recipe {via Jacin} 1/3 c. butter 1/3 c. a-p flour 1/3 c. chopped onion 1/2 t. salt 1/4 t, pepper 1 3/4 chicken broth, I use the bouillon cubes 2/3 c. milk 2 c. cooked, cubed chicken (in this case, swap out with turkey!) 1/2 pkg. frozen peas about 1 c. fresh peeled and chopped carrots
Heat butter over low heat until melted. Blend in flour, onion, s & p. Cook over low heat, stiring constantly, until mixture is smooth & bubbly; remove from heat.
Stir in broth and milk. Heat to boiling, stirring kind of constantly. Boil & stir 1 minute. Stir in chicken (turkey) and veggies, reserve. Ease pastry into square pan, 9x9x2″ (or thereabouts);
pour chicken filling into pastry lined pan. Roll remaining dough into an 11″ square (something like that); place over filling. Roll edges under; flute. Cut slits in center to allow steam to escape. Cook uncovered in 425 degree oven until crust is brown, 30 to 35 minutes.
The last few times I beat an egg and brushed the crust the last 10 minutes, it makes it look golden and PERFECT.
Haha, then you have the uncooperative camera woman 🙂
So I’m not going to lie… sometimes I can be a nerd. Sometimes I actually like studying! Although I had to learn the Axial Skeleton {your cranium + face, your ribs & your vertebrae} the for a test I took earlier this week, yeah by Monday night I was sick of the axial skeleton and that’s how these photos came to be…
What can I say, I should have been studying, but I kind of already knew the bones, processes & foramen of that particular skeleton that I was getting bored studying it. Anyway now I get to go on and learn the Appendicular Skeleton {all the rest of your bones basically… namely your limbs because well that’s what’s left}. Whoohooo! so you might get some fun pictures come next week too, I’m just sayin 🙂
So lately I’ve gotten into LOVING Collage photos. There’s just something about it. You can tell a story with them:
Or you can let them tell their own story:
Or you can use it to make a Chronological time line: {Thanksgiving}
You can just randomly throw photos together and call it art:
Ok so maybe that’s not art… but you get the picture, right?
So as of lately, I’ve been on the hunt to find pictures to make my different collages. See I told you I’m a nerd! Yesterday though, while looking for a specific photo (the first one I’ll show you) I ran across two photos that I absolutely love. Obviously I told you one I was looking for, the other I ran across while looking for this one. There is something about these two photos that I absolutely LOVE!
The first one was just playing around with hubs {friend at the time} Nikon Point & Shoot, where my arms were stretched as far forward as they’d go, hoping I’d get us both in the shot and the other was right after I bought my first dSLR and he agreed to help me learn how to use the dang thing. That one was done with a 10 second timer.
We’ve taken a lot of photos since first hanging out, remember we were just friends right at first, to the point we upgraded my dSLR {which I’ve had that one since um… sometime before Thanksgiving last year}, yet there is something about those 2 pictures that I always go back to because I just love them.
