Momma in Focus: Yellow

This week's Momma in Focus prompt is yellow; now that everything is blooming, I figured I could easily find something yellow and cheerful to pose next to with Sammy.  Well, I thought wrong.  I wound up driving around for about a half an hour yesterday until I finally came across group of daffodils along the side of the road.  Now here's where things get fun: I had remembered my camera and my remote, but didn't even think to bring a tripod so I wound up having to balance my camera on top of the stroller.  Here's what I ended up with:

You can totally see the remote in my hand, the wind is doing some crazy things to my hair, and Sammy looks like he's seconds from bursting into tears, but for some reason, I really like this photo.  And after you see some of the outtakes, you'll see why I think this photo was the best of the bunch:

1. Not bad, but we're completely out of focus.

2. In focus, but missing half of our bodies.

3. Remember those missing halves?  Found 'em!

 Be sure to check out the other lovely photos this week by clicking below:

Shoot and Edit Challenge: Up (after)

The lovely and talented Ashley and Jill have teamed together to share their awesome photo editing tips and tricks; this week’s prompt/theme is up so I used a photo of Sammy showing off his new skill of crawling up the stairs. Here's what I did in Picnik:

1. Manually adjusted the exposure.
2. Manually adjusted the color temperature ever so slightly.
3. Applied "vibrance" at 20%.
4. Applied "eye bright" at 70% fade.
5. Cropped the image.
6. I decided to have a little bit of fun with the photo and applied the effect, "black and white"; I then clicked on the "brush" icon and painted over Sammy so that he would be in color while the background and everything else was in black and white.

Here's a side-by-side comparison:

I've always wanted to try this effect, and while this may not have been the best photo to try it on, practice makes perfect, right?  In any case, I really like how the effect places all of the focus on Sammy.

If you'd like to learn how to make your photos go from good to wow, be sure to click below:

Vloggin' Vednesday: Significant other

Welcome to this week's edition of Vloggin' Vednesday; this week's prompt is "significant other" so I've decided to tell you a little bit about the man behind the woman behind this blog.  Hope you enjoy it!



Want to join in, too?  Visit the official Vloggin’ Vednesdays page to find current themes/ questions along with the corresponding Vednesday and then link up at Adeline’s Daddy Blog each Wednesday Vednesday.  C'mon, you know you want to!

Shoot and Edit Challenge: Up (before) with a surprise

The last few days have been rough around here.  I've been having all sorts of trouble falling to sleep thanks to my sky-rocketing anxiety levels regarding the impending move to Texas.  On top of that, Sammy is cutting four top teeth at the moment, which results in him waking up, screaming in pain, several times through the night.  And to add insult to injury, I've had a persistent headache since last Friday; at first, I thought it was due to eye strain and dug out my trusty computer glasses, but the nagging dull ache remains.  Sigh. 

Okay, enough complaining; onto this week's shoot and edit challenge!  This week’s prompt/theme is up.  Saturday I was catching up on some much-neglected housecleaning; I finished vacuuming the first floor and went upstairs to return the vacuum to the office closet.  This is the scene that I came across when I came back down to the living room:

In the two minutes I was gone, Sammy figured out how to crawl up onto the first stair landing and was working on crawling onto the next stair with a little bit of help from the newel post.  Needless to say, I was pretty surprised by this new milestone and grabbed my camera to get a shot of him in the act.

If you'd like to learn how to edit your photos so that they go from good to wow, be sure to click below:

I'm also linking this photo to the Paper Mama's photo challenge who's theme this week is surprise; be sure to check out all of the other awesome entries by clicking below:

Getting a flower fix

I got tired of waiting for spring to arrive in northern Virginia, so I took matters into my own hands and organized an outing to the U. S. Botanic Gardens this weekend; joining me on Saturday's trip were Lisa and Samy, Cheryl and Gabe, and Cheryl's mother.  Although it was gray and gloomy outside, the inside of the conservatory was awash in all the colors of the rainbow.  I managed to grab some photos of the lovely blooms in between pushing Samy and Sammy around in the stroller (they shall henceforth be known as S-Squared).

As we were leaving the National Garden, we were bid farewell by two very friendly ducks who marched right up to us; Gabe managed to get up close and personal with them before they waddled off in search of some snacks.

I'll be honest--I was actually a little worried that the kids would get bored, but fortunately my fears appeared to be unwarranted as they seemed to really enjoy people-watching and looking at all of the different plants.  I think a return trip will be in order once things warm up a little bit around here; there were several outdoor gardens that aren't open yet, including a children's garden that looked like it would be a lot of fun for the more mobile set.

Foto Friday: Laughter and Momma in Focus: Outside

Happy April Fool's Day everyone! Sadly (for me) yesterday's post was not an April Fool's Day prank, but I do want to thank everyone for their kind words of encouragement.  Anywho, today's Foto Friday theme is laughter, which is rather fitting considering what day it is; I picked this photo of Sammy having a grand ol' time in the tub the other night.  The faces he made as he splashed around had me laughing almost as much as he was.

And now onto Momma in Focus; this week's theme is outside.  Unfortunately, it's been pretty damp and nasty this week, so Sammy and I spent most of our time indoors.  Here we are, trying to will the rain away.

Be sure to check out the other lovely photos this week by clicking below--and don't forget to show Kim and Casey some love.  Have a great weekend everyone!

MilSpouse Friday Fill-In #36

In an effort to learn more about fellow MilSpouse bloggers, Wifey from Wife of a Sailor started this weekly meme;  here are this week's questions.

1. What romance movie scene reminds you of your s/o or spouse and the LOVE you share? submitted by Simply Sunshine and Daisy's

Um, the Princess Bride?  (Sorry--I don't really watch romance movies, so this was the only one I could think of, twue wuv and all.)

2. If you were allowed to deploy with your husband to a war zone would you and why? submitted by I & J

The stress of being in a war zone and the resulting temptation to misuse my weapon would be too much for me, so I'm going to have to go with a firm no.

3. Have you ever done anything (intentionally, or unintentionally) to embarrass your spouse/significant other in front of his military cohorts?  submitted by Marrying the Navy

Not yet, at least!

4. What is your most irrational fear? submitted by Eights on the Move

Cockroaches.  Just typing the word gave me the chills.  **Shudder**

5. If you could only live in one kind of climate for the rest of your life, what would it be and why?  submitted by Many Waters

Indian summer in Virginia; crisp fall evenings with warm, sunny days, temperatures in the 70s and low humidity.  What's not to like?