Stockings

A sunshine filled day and I wanted to play with camera settings.  I have reading on all my camera settings and trying to snap in manual instead of auto settings.

The stockings were my models.

Next year's project, another stocking for my soon-to-be son-in-law.

Summer Time

Oh my gosh, it has been over a week since my last post.  Summer is in full gear around here and we are busy watching the twins play softball, starting the wedding planning, sewing some quilt items for my friend, gardening, swimming and doing some home improvement.

I have been staining the deck and front porch - 3 coats on the deck, 2 on the front porch - using this product

Kaitlyn and Mike went up flying with our friend and she took my camera.  You can see my work, I cropped the pictures quite a bit so very blurry.

Part of our yard:

I finished the quilt for my friend but forgot to take a picture, will get one later.

Now I am making a quilted pillow for The Pillow Talk Swap 5 (found it on Flickr) here are the fabrics I am using but I took out the green, just wasn't working.  I am using a spiderweb pattern.  Pretty cool quilt pattern but I am really happy it is only a 16" block!

Next up some new knit tops for me.

Valentine's Day 2010

We had a very nice Valentine's Day at home.   A nice lunch with the table decorated for the day.  This past week the Pioneer Woman had some wonderful information on aperture and shutter speed.  I practiced with this shot:
Here are the articles about aperture and shutter speed:
Article 1
Article 2
Article 3

Here is more decorations for the table. 

We hung our Valentine Cards:

And I used my husband's grandmother's china.  Isn't it so pretty and perfect for Valentine's Day.

Our big project of the day was homemade donuts.  The Pioneer Woman posted a recipe for donuts earlier in the week and I really wanted to try them.  Kaitlyn did, too.  I tell you they are delicious, super-delicious. 

You can find recipe for donuts here
Happy Valentine's Day,

Pictures

I have spent the last couple of days making my way through my pictures. I have done a good job of getting my pictures from my camera card to my computer but then it stops there. I have been making my way through all the files and doing a bit of work on my pictures in Photoshop. I am happy to say, I am ordering prints right now. Yea, pictures on the way but that mean scrapbooking 180 pictures, plus the stack waiting to be scrapbooked (including tons of wedding photos) on my desk area. I will get to it someday!

I wanted to share one of the pictures with you. Kaitlyn took this at the Butterfly House at Coastal Discovery Museum in July. Isn't it a beautiful picture? And it was taken with my little point and shoot Nikon.



For the most part, I have finished McCall's 5717, the wool coat and I am very pleased with it. I have to decide on buttons and then this project will be done. It took all of December and this first part of January, too much going on with the holidays and 4 birthdays in our family.

Next projects, knit tops, quick and easy for a bit.

Now a few quick resolutions:

1. Sew More
2. Try to scrapbook 2 pages a day until I am caught up.
3. Menu planning
4. And once again, Sew More
   
   

Sewing, Pictures and Painting

We will start with the sewing part of the title:

From this burlap home dec fabric to update a couple of window seats.

Here is the before:




I ordered 2 yards of this fabric, only enough for one window seat. The additional 2 yards came in this week, so I need to recover the second seat. Then pillows, it is always something, right?

The after:




Now to the picture part of the title:

Geometry homework for the twins. First, they have to make bridges from Popsicle sticks or tongue depressors. They can only use 30 sticks, at least 8" in length and it has to be able to hold the Geometry book without breaking. They called their civil engineer oldest sister, her advice, "Triangles are strong, remember that." We purchased 200 tongue depressors and they each made a test bridge. It held 8 books and the glue popped. The second and final bridges are in progress. I think we might have another engineer in the making, Kaitlyn really enjoyed this project. A second part of the homework, pictures. They had to go out and take pictures of bridges and towers, then print out 3 pictures, highlighting the geometric shapes.

This was fun to explore the country gravel roads for old bridges and other structures this weekend. Here is a couple of their pictures.








Now the Painting:

No sewing this past week. Mike and I have been painting the basement family room and the stairway down to the basement. We painted old paneling, so primer, then 2 coats of paint. Replaced a couple of old lights and then stained the concrete on the unfinished side of the basement. This was a test, as I want to stain the family room floor, too. Mike is thinking it looks pretty good. I agree but I am getting tired of the brush in my hand! I just put the second coat of sealer on the stain. Mike is going to re-do the stairs, with stained oak treds. The basement looks so much better and brighter. Hopefully we will be all done this week, then I can sew again. I am so ready to get back to my machines.

Togetherness and my 300th post

Stacy is having Theme Thursday on togetherness. Here is my entry for the theme, our annual trip to cut our Christmas tree. Use to be 4 daughters on this trip, but the 2 college girls weren't able to make it. We still have lots of fun but we do miss them. It was very, very cold and starting to sleet. We were able to select our tree very quickly!

This is the one:

Christmas decorations:

Some Santas:

This is what I am sewing #104 from 10/2008, it is taking me quite awhile, just 15-30 minutes of sewing here and there.

I can't believe this is my 300th post. A giveaway is in order, let's see....... I went and found 4 purse patterns (Big 3) and they have never been used. Leave a comment on what you are sewing/crafting for presents and you will entered into the drawing.

End of Summer

Stacy has Theme Thursdays and I have been very lapse in my participation. This week's theme is favorite photos from summer. I went looking and found something quite surprising.... I did not take many pictures of my girls. This was an enlightening moment, the camera has got to come out more. I think part of the reason is we just hung out at home and went swimming. So here are a couple of my favorite photos, just the twins and remember they are 13 year olds, sometimes grown-up and sometimes silly. These are silly photographs

Summer and Sewing

What beautiful weather we are having, it feels like September not August. One thing we know around here, it will get very hot the day school starts. If that is correct, look for a heatwave around the 18th. Probably will be more like the 16th, we move dd#1 to her college, then the 17th move dd#2 to her college.

Last night we were out swimming, making s'mores and enjoying the tiki torches. My flowers were looking so pretty at sunset, I had to snap a picture.



I played with some settings on my camera for this flower bed.
Here is one tikit torch

Sewing I made a shirt for dd#3, a "That's So Raven" pattern. I made it from an PRR knit (stripe) that has been in my stash for 5 years. This was late night sewing and I didn't get her stamp of approval first, when I showed her the shirt, I got the big nose wrinkle. I suggested dying the fabric, and that was met with a reluctant yes. I did that yesterday and now the top is a hit or will at least get worn (I think). Dd#3 says it looks like something she would buy at Aeropostale and now she will wear it. I will get pictures today and then next up dd #4's shorts.

Theme Thursday - Winter

Okay, this isn't a very good picture. I took 4 and this was the best one, sorry. This is what I do in the winter, especially cold, cold days. Baking when it is cold means wintertime to me. It is in the teens right now and blowing snow, so I bake to keep warm.

Each of my 3 daughters (still at home) picked a dessert/sweet they wanted. Apple pie for the oldest, Chocolate chunk cookies for youngest and the middle daughter picked the cinnamon roll-ups. They are still in the oven at picture time, what are they? Pie crust rolled out then piled with cinnamon and sugar, cute into strips, rolled up and then bakeds. This is the only time I make pie crust and it is usually a double or triple batch! What about hubby? He likes all three, so I bought him Cool Whip for the pie.

Now to finish dinner, I am not hungry as I have been sampling the goodies as I bake!

Theme Thursday - contrast

I am participating in Stacy's Theme Thursday although I missed last week's color theme. This week is contrast.

Here is a photo of Carlos by Carlos Santana pump my 18 year-old daughter received for Christmas from her grandma.

The first contrast is with a few adjustments in Photoshop. Unsharp mask and then bumping up the blue contrast so the jeans pop. I like okay



Now some variations with black and white

Here is just converting to black and white:





More contrast for this look:



Lastly, I played with shadows and highlights. I like this the best.




Any other votes?

Theme Thursday

Stacy at The Land of K.A. is having a photography theme with tips. This week is windows lighting and here is my take on the theme. I didn't have a live model so I used the artificial Christmas tree in the living room, east light and it was late morning. I played with aperture a bit, then did some Photoshop. Do you have a favorite?

If you are interested in photography, check out Stacy's blog, you will find a wealth of information and inspiration.

Nighttime Pictures

We have a very slick sheet of ice all around our house but I stepped out this evening and it was beautiful. A bit of fog, the ice and the glow of the Christmas lights, I had to take some pictures. A perfecto opportunity to practice some of what I had learned in my photography classes. I was so nervous carrying my nice camera and slip sliding around!


Some of our trees.



My living room tree


The single tree, I played with this in Photoshop quite a bit


Next two are playing with aperture.

Another picture

Okay, shutter speed practice.

I worked a bit last night on my Ottobre jeans, messed up the fly front zipper, did some unsewing and then did it correctly. I will maybe get back to it on Wednesday.

Practicing my Pictures

Okay, I went out to practice what I learned at my photography class yesterday. First aperature:





Then a bit of photoshop.


I was at a covered bridge in our area - so inside the bridge



I little photoshop.


Okay, too much changing in photoshop? Stacy, if you are reading, what do you think?

Now back to the yahtzee game. Meredith just rolled 4 yahtzees in one game, too bad she is too young for the gambling boat, I do believe she is lucky tonight!