Finally Playing with Textures

OK, so I've really been wanting to play with textures!! I've seen some beautiful images that have texture applied to them (check out http://www.lifescapturedmoments.blogspot.com/) and I haven't been able to get over how much life, story, and details they add to the image. Plus, I'm a huge fan of the "vintage look" and adding textures really seems to bring that look out of the photo. So here's my first couple trys... I took these photos for a family back in November and thought they'd be good to try some texturing on:

Especially this one: sweet girl is playing with a vintage-type telephone. The crackled texture on this image makes me think of an old picture in a frame I might see hanging at my Great-grandma's house. :)

Well, I'm going to keep playing around with these! Loving them... I wish I had never been so intimidated by this process. That's another reason why I've continued falling in love with photography... there are endless learning opportunities, and with every new thing I try, my confindence grows and grows!!!

Random Images from this Morning

I finally pulled out my camera this morning...grrrrrr! I have not taken any pictures lately, esspecially indoors. I'm such a brat. I really want an external flash and I'm convinced I can't take pictures indoors til that happens. But today I gave in and took some anyways. Avery was goofing off on my bed and trying to put my glasses on. I couldn't resist trying to get a shot or two of this!

Then she started snuggling with her blankey and being so sweet and precious (which is a welcome sight because lately we've been throwing a few temper tantrums a day over the silliest, smallest things, and of course I never thought my child would ever do such a thing... YEAH RIGHT THEY ALL DO!!!) and I caught this one of her face really close up:

She's so beautiful, I'm forever going to be astonished everyday; her daddy's going to have his hands full in the years to come with 2 little girls to watch out for!!

I'm Still Here...

...Just really busy lately! The latest exciting news is that we found out we're expecting another little girl. I'm so thrilled! How special for Avery to have a sister. There's no other relationship like it! We lucked out this time and received a few 3D images from our ultrasound last week. This is a picture of her precious little face. The technology is so amazing these days!!

I was lucky to have a girls weekend this last weekend over at my parent's new house in Eastern WA. My cousin and good friend headed over for a weekend of scrapbooking, eating, and sleeping in. It was wonderful. We made so many beautiful things (although I did not bring my camera) and I'm still trying to organize myself now that I'm back home again. :) We're also getting ready to put our house up for sale, I'm actually meeting with our agent today. So things have just been CRAZY here. Hopefully I'll have some great shots to post after Easter. Avery's going on an Egg Hunt tomorrow morning. Her first one!!

Playing around...

...thanks to Jordan!! (Her blog is in my Favorites..."Just My Crazy Little Life") Thank you so much Jordan for sharing how to get rounded corners on our images. I haven't got it figured out completely yet... but here's my try at it:

You can only see 3 of the round corners because the picture is in black and white with a black frame around it. I also tried adding some film grain to the picture but to me it mostly looks like it's glowing and blurry? Like I said... just playing around. :)

Just Veggin'

It's been a while since my last post and this picture is from a few weeks ago, but it really shows what we've been up to lately, unfortunately. Last Sunday and Monday, Avery had a little 24 hour flu bug which then turned into a cold. She's much better now, but mommy caught the cold (real fun while being pregnant) and so we had a slow rest of the week! But now, all's well and everyone's happy again at our house and everything is back to normal! Hope everyone else is happy and healthy too! Oh yeah, two more weeks from today we find out the sex of the new baby!!