:: Team-up Thursday ~ Beginning ::

There’s always something about this time of year that makes my heart swell.  I love so many things about the various seasons, but the possibility, the promise of an approaching summer with days less-filled is a friend I welcome with open arms. 

The warmer weather we’ve had recently has the whole family ready for summer.  Calder keeps asking, “Today can we get my pool out of the basement?” and Seneca has rekindled her love affair with the swingset.  I have a feeling we’ll be spending oodles of time outdoors this summer!

When we chose our theme this week ~ a combination of new, beginning, and possibility ~ there were so many ways I thought about interpreting it.  Then I noticed the purple and white blossoms of little crocuses in our garden and smiled.  The fact that Jaimee’s was also nature made me smile too.  I love the crisp detail on the branch and the way the buds seem to be reaching up for warmth and light.  I can’t wait to read Jaimee’s write up about her shot – the coolness might be completely natural thanks to the recent snowstorm!

Thanks Megan and Melody for hosting this challenge!  Be sure to swing by and see what’s blossoming with other teams today!

Theme Thursday ~ Holiday Aftermath

I don’t know if this qualifies as “aftermath” necessarily, but I’m using today’s theme to catch up on the third, and I believe final round of family Christmas pictures…until next year.  Or would that be this year, considering it’s already 2009 and I’m just getting around to posting now….Hmm?!

It seems like the theme for end of the year holidays was togetherness.  For Thanksgiving, we had my entire family together for the first time since January and for Christmas this year, Garth’s entire family was together for the first time in a while as well.  We thought we’d celebrate by capturing some great family shots.

Today you get to feast your eyes on the “formal” shots of our holiday gathering.  Just curious if anyone else has trouble with their images getting “goofy” when the size is adjusted to fit the display window?  In some of the shots below eyes are squished, lips disappear among other oddities.

Little ones + sugar + crowds – naps = a very real snapshot!

Think they’re proud grandparents or what?!

The entire family!

I really like this family picture!  Seneca’s expression is such a reflection of the little personality she’s starting to flaunt! 

I wanted to try a texture here because the picture was too bland by itself.  I like the sepia tone of this background, but forgot how to replicate it for the one of them together.  And, I know I erased too much, but I had to run and was too lazy busy to come back and fix it.  I also wanted to fix her hair where the light was hitting it, but I was having no luck with the paintbrushes!  Believe me, it wasn’t pretty!

This “surprised” look was the best I could do to get them together.  For a good laugh, take a peek at this outtake!  I’d love to hear ideas or suggestions about better ways to use texture to enhance images.  I’m all ears! 🙂  If anyone wants a hand at processing these images differently, I’d love to see other interpretations!

Theme Thursday ~ Imagination

The more I’ve played with PS, the more confidence I’ve gained.  While I still have so much to learn, it’s exciting to play and to get a feel for my likes and dislikes.  Before I started playing, I thought I would play up the frames, the colors, the texts…but I find that not to be so.

This is the first “project” I’ve done, and there’s certainly a few things I might’ve changed, but I wanted to wrap it up.  I love it for today’s theme, because not only did putting this together take some creative imagination on my part (even though it’s not altogether exciting), but it also begs the question about the workings of Calder’s imagination in these shots. 

These were taken two weeks ago while the guys were splitting firewood.  He wandered around for at least 30 minutes!  He went from aimless wandering to marching on a mission – oh how I’d love to know what he was thinking as he climbed around fallen limbs, tumbled into the damp leaves (which he didn’t love), and proudly wore papa’s hat!

For other imaginative work, swing by Stacy’s.

If I could, I would

create a time machine.  It would be a multifunctional piece of engineering goodness.  Not only would it allow me to go back in time (perhaps one of the unwritten rules of blogging, so my apologies if I have committed the utmost blogging crime!), but it would also manufacture time.

Sounds great, huh? 

Yeah, it would collect all those little bits of time that don’t really allow for anything productive to take place, and store them all together into a big batch of time.  It’s sorta like the defragment feature on your computer.

Sadly, or ironically, it would take too much time to create this fancy-schmancy do-job, so I guess I’ll just take the few minutes I have here and give a quick update.  Anyway…I’m still here.  We’ve been having lots of fun and I hope to post some pictures soon.  And I do have to commit the timestamp treachery again because I really want to post my hubby’s birthday wishes on his actual birthday….which was last Thursday! 😦  I’m sure he appreciates the time I’ve spent with him much more than time I’d have spent finishing my writing about him!

On the fitness front, I did weigh in this week, and was very pleased with my 4.2lb loss!  I’ve gotten out running about 3 times this week, which isn’t saying much because I can’t go very far just yet.  But I did register for the Turkey Trot on Thanksgiving Day, so now I’ve got me some motivation.

And just an FYI, not that I anticipate my absence will cause major trauma in the lives of many, but I know that in a few short weeks I will be quite fickle in my posts.  Between preparing for our presentation in San Antonio at the National Writing Project annual meeting, and getting things around for heading back into the classroom, I’m sure my plate will be heaping.  Which means, if I am here…it’s probably because I’m putting off completing something else and would rather share pictures and write about the fun stuff going on in my life! 🙂

I’ll leave you with a little shot of one of our recent outings.  There’s a new indoor playground at one of the local churches.  Calder had a great time and we’re hoping to get back there again before too long!

Since I don’t have much today, head over to Stacy’s to see what others have created this week!

Theme Thursday ~ Fall

The weather has been simply marvelous lately.  The slight bite to the air warrants a comfy sweatshirt or chunky sweater, but the warmth of the sun affords mid-afternoon walks, crunching through the leaves, or enjoying a few more back-and-forths on the swing.

While I’m well aware that flip-flops aren’t the most practical, supportive, or fashionable shoes, they are a staple I’ve grown to love.  The fact that I can still wear them well into October is happiness indeed.

This was a test shot I took for my first “official” photoshoot for some friends.  I thought the colors were too pretty to toss into the recycle bin.

Taken at dusk and perhaps photographically unimpressive, I can’t help but smile when I see those chubby cheeks.  Knowing his upturned eyes are gazing admiringly at his daddy makes my heart flutter!

Drop by Stacy’s for more Theme Thursday!