A Man on the Moon

If there was, I am sure I could have seen him.

I stepped outside for just a minute last night, and when I saw the moon, I had Alex grab my camera.
And the big lens!! Here's the first picture, with the smaller lens...

 

This one, above, is with the larger lens, but without a tripod. Just me swaying in the wind. What a cool effect.

f/4.5  1.6  ISO 100

This last one is also the larger lens, but with me propping the camera against the house. It's not perfect, but let me tell you, I've NEVER been able to get more than a pin hole for a moon before. I can even see the little star above it (although, I still moved slightly here).

I called the Mr. and told him I needed a tripod.
*want

Now that I know what this camera is capable of, I can't wait to drag the husband out to the desert at night to get some cool shots of the city!!

FUN!

Capturing Fall {Before & Afters}

I know December is just days away, but here in Arizona, we are barely starting to see signs of Fall. I've been waiting and watching.

I've decided to share with you those signs... AND also what I've learned from taking the Shoot Fly Shoot course. I have three pictures that I am going to show you... the first version of each is straight out of the camera (SOOC), without any Photoshop edits (other than adding my watermark). After each SOOC image, I will then show you what I did to enhance them in Photoshop.

It's hard to believe that a year ago, I was taking pictures like this:

...thinking it looked good! lol... Of course, you can tell that I was way over-editing them in Picasa or the like. Don't get me wrong, Picasa and PicMonkey were great to me! But I am so glad to have taught myself Photoshop, with a little help, of course, from other blogge's posting tutorials! ;)

Back to fall...

f/5.6  1/100  ISO 200

Pioneer Women (PW) Action - Slight Sharpen 100%  PW Action Slight Lighten 75%

f/4.5   1/100   ISO 100

PW Action Slight Sharpen 75%   Natural Touch Action (author unknown) 100%

f/4.5   1/100   ISO 100

PW Action Slight Sharpen 72%   Contrast Boost, no color change 100% (author unknown)

This Ash Tree is near and dear to my heart. We installed it in January 2011... and she has grown into a fine looking shade tree.

So... do you see the hint of fall? In another month, that tree will have lost all of its leaves. And next Spring, it will be bigger and better, for sure.

Well, from a photography/photoshop front... how did I do?
You likey?

Guest Bath Reveal

Well, ladies & gentlegerms... I finally have the guest bathroom reveal for you. This is our third bathroom; it sits downstairs, next to the family room and my office. Here are all of the posts in the series.

And here are some before pictures of the space...

Sometime after...

 Not ugly, but definitely boring.

Now that it's all made over, a certain brood of rugrats are no longer allowed past the threshold.
For real.

I really wanted this post to be full of glory; to share the beauty of the room. However, I don't think the pictures do the room justice. Blame it on the photographer, go ahead. But... in my defense. There is NO natural light anywhere near this room. It's off of a small hallway and there is nary a window nearby.

And I am still trying to learn manual mode on my new camera (thanks to Shoot Fly Shoot). And the room is SMALL.  9x6 - an even rectangle.

I love the picture above - the artwork picture - from Hobby Lobby. It was $29, but I used my 40% off coupon. The colors are spot on for what I was hoping to achieve. And then you can see the paneling and moulding. Better shots to come soon, I promise.

We did... we took out the medicine cabinet... and in its place we added a towel bar. I plan to add some additional art above the towel bar, but for now, I have pretty yellow hand towels.

We also took out the builder grade mirror that extended almost the entire length of the room. Too much...

The sink was hard to decide on. Originally we wanted a vessel sink, but we couldn't find a counter-top that was in our price range. And considering this room didn't HAVE to be made over, we wanted to keep the spending to a minimum. It was important to us to get rid of the builder grade counter top that extended over the toilet. My husband thinks it looked too 80s; I agree. So we found this beauty of a sink at Home Depot for $139. We kept our existing vanity, but purchased a new light fixture (which my husband had to move and install) and a new faucet. Both in Oil-Rubbed Bronze, farmhouse style.

Marcos did the tile backsplash; his first tile job ever. It's white subway tile with a blue/green glass insert. I love it, mucho. Hey, look! In the mirror ($35 from IKEA, btw), you can see the paneling some more!

In this picture here (below), you can see the pretty IKEA curtain panels I purchased, originally for the formals. I like them in the bathroom. And I like how TALL they are! We have 9 (or 10) foot ceilings... we want to show them off!

The greige is Mega Greige by Sherwin Williams, color-matched to Behr. It's a shade darker than what we painted in the formals and I adore it.

I even added fake legs to the cabinet. You can barely make them out in the picture below!

I am keeping an eye on RugsUSA for a steal of a deal on a patterned yellow rug, I think that will FINISH the room!

Okay, I promise to try and get better pictures for the House Tour post... But I hope you can see the difference. The tan walls and yellow lights are gone. It's now fresh, white and purdy!

Edited to add a few more pics; better ones, I hope.

And finally, one straight out of the camera (SOOC)... that gives a pretty accurate reading of the colors in that room.

 
Have you ever made over any rooms that didn't really NEED it; just to add character?

Spreading some Holiday Cheer

While I enjoyed Thanksgiving, I am glad to be moving on. Although, December is a crazy month for us. Do you have one of those months in your family?

Nic's birthday is on Sunday, mine is on Monday, Marcos' is on the 12th, our 18th wedding anniversary is on the 16th, then there is the family Christmas Eve (what I like to call Christmas Adam) on the 22nd, the real Christmas Eve on the 24th and then Christmas Day on the 25th. Of course, then there is my aunt's anniversary on the 21st and my grandparent's on the 22nd (missing you, grandpa!). Then throw in wrapping parties, cookie exchanges, my neighbor's daughter's bridal shower and wedding - yikes!

Whew. I am just glad I remembered all of that.
With all of that said, I am not ready to put the tree up yet. For several reasons. The first is that Nic's having a birthday party on Saturday, here at the house. I want to celebrate his special day before we celebrate Christmas! ;) Second, I *just* completed my formals... why would I want to move things around now? I need at least a week of good, clean, fun. ;)

However, that doesn't mean I can't get my mantel and bookcases all dolled up.

I pretty much reused everything I had from years past. The Elf is new... and so is the reindeer glitter art, which was so easy and sits in a dollar store frame.

I printed off a picture of a reindeer from Google, traced it and filled it in with Elmer's glue and then sprinkled red glitter all over it. The tree art on the right is a gift bag from the dollar store... I just cut out the front and put it in the frame. Here are some posts about easy, cheap, Christmas crafts.

Even my couch is getting in the spirit. For now, anyway. This sweetie will have to move and make room for our faux evergreen come next week. I love my new pillow case from IKEA. Mr. and Mrs. Clause... and some random kids/elves/hired help. Did the Clause's ever have kids, do you know?!

That's it for now... just a little holiday cheer popping up here and there.
We are looking forward to two new holiday traditions we are starting; meeting our new Elf {on the shelf} and also our advent calendars! Yum, 25 days of chocolate. ;)

Do you  have any special holiday traditions?

Leftovers

It's family tradition to get together on the Saturday after Thanksgiving to enjoy leftovers. But, really, they aren't leftovers. We just call it that, because we serve food that could be considered leftovers from Thanksgiving. It's another reason to get together with the whole family.

Of course, I had to take along my new camera to see what I could capture in the way of beautiful people. In the shots below, you will see cousins, second cousins, third cousins... and aunts and uncles, who are grandmas and grandpas.

You get the idea.

First up, my two nephews (okay, really second cousins), Ben and Austin. Heart breakers.

My cousin Chell with our other cousin's baby, Rose Grace (aka Gracie)

Chell's husband, Darryl.

Proof that they weren't actually leftovers. A new turkey!

My Uncle Mark with his grand-daughter Gracie.

My third cousin, Ryah

And her big sister, Selah

My Aunt Anita and my niece (okay, second cousin, but her grand-daughter) Charlotte.

My nephew (er, second cousin) Evan

My cousin Chell and our second cousin Laurel

Third cousin Ryan and his grandma, our Aunt Barb

My Cousin Jonny's step-daughter, Lily (she's the big sister to Gracie)

And last, but never least, my daddy...

Isabel and Nic were with me, but tired of the darn camera in their face. They ducked. Often.

The weather was beautiful, the spirits were bright - we couldn't have asked for a better day to spend with our family.

Okay, now I am officially done with Thanksgiving. On to Christmas, people!