New fun blog photo contest!

So, I was reading a blog I follow and found another site that does weekly photo contests. I love contests like these because I love seeing others people's entries and I love getting the feedback from others so I decided to join in on the fun.

This week's theme at Trendy Treehouse is summer fun. I have tons and tons of pictures of my kids enjoying summer activities ranging from eating melty-sticky popsicles to playing on slip and slides, or hanging out at the beach which makes my choice a difficult one.

In the end I chose a new edit of a picture I took last summer which still stands as one of my favorite beach shots. This is a picture of my oldest, Jesse heading out into the ocean with the boogie board for his first time.

Playing Catch-Up!

I have been taking pictures, but not posting them for the past week. Wednesday my husband and I celebrated our three years wedding anniversary. He took a few days off and we've mostly relaxed but have also gotten some things done around the house/yard. Mainly we enjoyed the beautiful weather we've been having!

Here's a quick description of what we've been up to!

On March 12th I made peanut butter cup brownies with a thick layer of icing on top. Mia especially liked them.

On March 13th Mia fell asleep coloring at the kitchen table.

Moments later, Anakin followed suit on the couch, clutching his wrapping paper tube lightsaber.

On March 18th Mia held her daddy's hand while rollerskating down the street.

and Anakin

practiced his Jedi moves.

And today, Jesse became a member of the mob while attending his girlfriend's birthday party.

Procrastination

All day long I kept putting off getting out my camera. "I'll do it later." I never did it later.

Frankly, I'm bored. I am tired of being stuck inside. I'm tired of snow, of muck and mud, of cold weather and cloudy days. I'm tired of my boring house. Right now, very little inspires me and I'm in a complete rut. I need Spring. Badly.

My imagination is on winter hiatus.

So, I left it until that last minute. Until I realized the day was almost over and I had nothing to share. My husband is sleeping on the couch next to me and the 13 year old is socializing on the computer. As usual. So I got them both. LOL

Notice the earbuds in his ears? Yeah, that's so he can totally shut us out. I wish that would work for me. Instead they just get louder and badger me to death. LOL

Snow Fun

Today we enjoyed the snow!

Snow really does make the world beautiful. :)

Last Minute

Today was yet another last minute day. I've really found that it's hard for me to find time to get my camera out. Most days I don't think about it until the kids are in bed and I finally get some time to myself. By then it's late and I just want to relax. On top of all that I feel like it's getting a little monotonous.

The good thing is that I really feel like once Spring comes, the lure of getting a picture will get me out of the house more. It'll be a great excuse to go to the park, the zoo and other fun outdoor places. For now, it's cold (barely making it to freezing today) and wet and dreary. I don't do cold.

The bad thing is that Spring is still weeks and weeks away.

Today I finally decided to pull out an object from my past. My first lunch box was a PacMan lunch box and I absolutely adored it. I remember how my sandwich fit perfectly in it, how I would swing it by my side by the handles, how different it was from everyone's plastic lunch boxes. I'm not sure it was ever meant to be used as a lunch box, but that's what I used and I loved it. And eventually lost it.

Years ago when ebay was a new thing I was searching for items from my childhood when I found it. My lunch box. I bid on it immediately and was thrilled to win. Now, every time I see it on the shelf, I smile.

And to add to things that make me smile:
the Teenager.
He was on the computer, shooting me odd looks out of the corner of his eyes while I photographed my lunch box. I'm sure that he was telling whomever it was he was chatting on facebook with that I was totally weird and crazy. So I turned the camera on him. >:)

I love how he can't totally ignore me but he's trying so hard not to smile. LOL

I woke up this morning with a horrible headache. The kind that feels like someone is repeatedly stabbing you behind the eyes with a hot poker to the beat of a bad polka song. The kind where you vision swims, your stomach turns, the slightest noise makes you cringe and all you want to do is crawl back into bed and pull the covers over your head until tomorrow.

Unfortunately that was not happening today. Instead I chugged a Dr Pepper this morning with a few advils to take the edge off. Repeat as needed.

The only other picture I took today was of Jesse with his new dsi.

His old ds had gotten a crack in it and he has been working to earn money and saving it for a few months now. Last weekend we looked online and ordered a package deal that included the dsi, two games, a case and for $10 extra an accessory kit that had a docking station, car charger, earbuds, screen protectors and a bunch of other things. It all arrived today so he spent the evening checking out all the new stuff it does.

Experimenting Again

Today I spent more time with my Lightscoop. I have to say that I'm even happier than I was yesterday. Today I spent more time playing with settings and seeing exactly what it could do. The reccomended settings for use are ISO 800 and shooting wide open with the shutter speed at 1/200th. It's also reccomended to shoot with the flash exposure compensation at +1 to +2.

Today I mainly shot at ISO 200 and the flash compensation at +1 at the most. I'm sure a lot of that has to do with my tiny home and low ceilings, but it was great to get such wonderful results with a lower ISO.

I guess even 13 year olds get upset when their heart lollipops break. LOL

Some before and afters:

I got a new toy!!

I have been considering getting a lightscoop for awhile and finally ordered one last week. It arrived today and I finally got to pull it out this evening and check it out. I was immediately impressed and am glad I bought it.

Don't ask, as I have no idea. LOL

Typical teenage exuberance.

Tonight Claudia was also playing with her Flytech Lightstar that she got for Christmas, and I got these shots. The focus isn't perfect because I didn't bother to get out my tripod. I can't wait to play with it more. Fun for long shutter speeds.

Project 365

I've seen others do this before and decided to give it a try this year. I take pictures all the time but will go days and days without uploading them from my camera and will go even longer between posts so hopefully this will kick my butt into gear. :) And since I'm too lazy to start a separate blog, I'm just going to post them all here.

Today we've had a pajama day. We all pretty much hung out and played Guitar Hero which was the family gift this Christmas. We got the whole band kit so every one's been taking turns playing the guitar or drums and singing. Actually, that's what we did last night, too. LOL

Anyway, when I finally got my camera out today Mia was on the drums (sort of) and Jesse was playing guitar.

On a side note, my older daughter, Claudia has also decided to try to post 365 pictures this year so I helped her set up a blog that you can find here. I also made a blog for Ethan to post pictures that while he may not be able to do the full 365 since he's at his mom's during the week, he can still try to post on the weekends and that one is here.

Gotta Pixel's Scrap Star Contest

Gotta Pixel is the digiscrapping site I spend the most time at. It's where I was introduced to digital scrapbooking and it's the site where I've gotten some of my favorite kits.

This month they are having a Scrap Star Contest. Each week there is a new challenge to be completed and at the end the winner will earn a place on their creative team.

This weeks challenge was to use the kit Comical by Amy Sumrall and Simply Scraps which is a very boy oriented and superhero themed in an unconventional way and to use at least 10 elements from the kit.

I threw around a few ideas and finally settled on this:

If you'd like to try your hand at it, you can get Comical at GottaPixel.net.