Four Different Ways

Yesterday, when I took the kids out to photograph with the quilt my grandmother made, I had one shot that immediately jumped out at me. I began to edit it and couldn't decide what I wanted to do with it so I edited it four different ways. In the end I entered a different photo altogether, but I still love this shot of my kids.

In the end I think the second and third ones are my favorites. Which do you prefer?

Wrapped in Love

This week it was easy for me to decide what I wanted to use to complete the I Heart Faces challenge of creating a nostalgic picture. I knew immediately that I wanted to use the quilt my grandmother made for my dad. For years it laid unfinished in the bottom drawer of my dad's dresser and as a little girl I would pull it out, lay it across my lap to study all the patches and listen to my dad tell the story of each one.
This patch was from the year my grandmother sewed all 11(surviving) kids matching outfits in a red bandanna type material. This patch was from her favorite church dress; this one from an old apron. There was no pattern to how they were laid out, but it was beautiful to me.
My grandmother had actually made one for each of her children and there were a couple of others besides my dad's that didn't get finished before she passed away. Finally, my aunt finished them for everyone and it was returned to my dad who passed it down to me when I was 18.
With those memories, I took the quilt and my two youngest outside and used it to photograph them. The picture I chose in the end wasn't even my favorite at first. But after editing, it became "The One".

The ABC of guilty pleasures

This week was the third in Gotta Pixel's Scrap Star contest. This week's challenge was to scrap about our guilty pleasures using as much of the Oh Snap! kit by Colie's Corner.

I spent much of the week tossing around ideas trying to decide what to scrap about. It seems I have more guilty pleasures than I realized, but I finally settled on my top three: red wine, books and chocolate!

If you'd like to try this challenge you can get this great kit here.

Wildflowers

One of my favorite subjects to photograph is flowers. Sometimes I'll buy a bouquet of flowers just so I can pull out my macro lens. And in the spring I love the flowers that start popping up in my flowerbeds and the ones that grow wild in the woods behind our shed.

These were some purple flowers I noticed last year. I was wandering around the yard with my camera when I saw them sitting at the edge of the woods. I loved the sun filtering through the leaves onto the purple petals so I took a few pictures.

I missed them this year when they didn't come back.

New Look

Today I've spent much of my time changing the look of my blog. I think I'm finally satisfied. The template I chose is Photoblog II. I adjusted the color scheme and finally made a header that I don't hate using a picture I took on Independence Day of Amelia giving her daddy a kiss.

Bubbles

This week's challenge at I Heart Faces is Bubbles. I wasn't going to enter until Anakin started getting silly today when taking a bubble bath. He decided to lay down in the tub and was completely covered in bubbles but for his face. It was too cute not to capture and so I have my entry.

Nothing fancy or special about this shot, but it was cute and I couldn't not share. :)

Geppi's Entertainment Museum

So Saturday before we went to the airport to pick up Claudia we went to Geppi's as I discussed in my previous post. When we arrived we found out it was a game day meaning that everyone 5 and over got in for a dollar. Much better than the $27 we were expecting!

We spent an hour there and even though we went through all the rooms, I'm sure we missed things as it was hard to choose what to look at first. So much so that even though I took nearly two hundred pictures, I missed more than that and have only uploaded 15 to share.

The first room we went into was the comic book room. All the walls were covered in cases holding more comic books than you could imagine. There were comic books of every kind, from the typical superheros to ones featuring the Three Stooges.

Jason was especially excited to see the copy of Action Comics #1; the first issue introducing Superman.

I love seeing the old advertisements for products such as Coca Cola and for movies. There were movie posters displayed up and down the main hallway and in many of the rooms.

Gone With the Wind has long been one of my favorite movies so I loved seeing this old paint book. Vivienne Leigh was beyond beautiful.

And of course Jason and Anakin were thrilled to see all the Star Wars items.

Also displayed was concept art by Ralph McQuarrie from the first trilogy.

I think one of my favorite items was from the All American Girls Baseball League.

And what about Charles Lindbergh, or my mom's favorite Felix the Cat?

And the Beatles? Who doesn't love the Beatles?

Jason was even inspired to strike a pose by the Woodstock poster.

While I fondly remembered sixth grade and my love for NKOTB. Never mind that I own those dolls sans boxes of course. LOL

And who can beat this autographed poster of many of America's favorite characters?

In the end we spent a little more than an hour there and had an enjoyable time. It was fun for us all and the price couldn't be beat. Especially for a place that was so nicely cared for. I don't think I've ever seen a cleaner public restroom!