Photo update

These shots all come from a hike we took this last weekend. The weather had just brought us storms the day before and so the falls we knew would be beautiful. Besides...we hadn't been able to go do this hike in two years.

So off to Petite Jean Mountain we went.
The boys thought the ride up was just too cool, of course we like to yell at cows as we see them, nothing rude, just Hey Cow! Of course, the rocks at the top of the mountain proved to be just as cool.
Afterwards we had to go explore the old building up there.
The wind was high so we managed to get close to a gorgeous butterfly who posed several times. My camera only caught him a couple of those times. The time he landed on Hubb's hand thought it missed. However the boys had fun trying to get a shot with their camera as well.
Afterward we headed over to the climb. We had a quick picnic at the top and the boys sort of posed for a shot for me at the top...
Of course they wanted a pic of me too. (Which...ended up being the stuff behind me. *chuckles*)
The hike was rewarding. There were little falls all down the path. And not just the knee scraping kind. Almost all the places where a large rock was cracked, you found a small waterfall. All converging to the path leading from the main fall at the bottom.
On our way, the boys spotted a rock that they thought looked like a pirate ship. We had to agree, especially with the tree that happened to be right where a mast would!
At the bottom, we got some great shots of the fall itself.
The puffy clouds above us gave us a small sunny shower for about five minutes of our time down there. Which was amazing to see, but not something I could capture in a still. I did get a video of it, but it's very hard to see. The raindrops looked like they were coming off the cliffs surrounding the falls.

The boys made it through the whole hike without a problem, so we took their picture next to the trail sign. We promised that soon we could go hike another trail and they could add it to their Adventure book.

I can't wait for our next excursion.

But first, lol, the paper! (Which if you've not checked out the post below, please do!!!)

I'm entering a contest ^-^

So I saw information on a local book being put together by the Dem Gaz and a book company that I thought I'd enter. ^-^ Its going to be a book full of photos from all around the state.

So I entered a few tonight and I may enter a good bit more tomrrow depending on my afternoon, but what this post is really about is a request.

If you wouldn't mind....I'd love it if you clicked that pretty little button over there with some of my photos in it and voted away. Don't feel like you just have to vote for me though! Vote for every photo you like. Believe me it's hard to break away from though. I've been voting for an hour!

Anywho, thanks in advance if you decide to vote for me. ^-^ It would be so cool to be in a book! Oh! And enter yourself if you have any photos you'd like to contribute. (then whisper my direction and I'll pass a vote to you too ^-~ ) As long as the photos from Arkansas they are more than happy to have it!

I promised a more peaceful post

And whats more peaceful than flowers?
I snapped some shots of the flowers outside while our family reunion ebbed. They were doing clean up and I had a cranky kiddo. So outside we went!

There were lots of flowers to photograph but the grouping of red poppy(poppies?) caught my eye first. They've always been one of my favorite flowers. ^-^
There were several metal crosses scattered through the little seating garden and I loved their rusty texture.


And last but not least, I found this little guy snug as a bug (well perhaps waiting for one) in a great big plant. He was too cute to pass by without snapping a few shots.
**Please don't swipe my photos. I've not watermarked the snap out of them because I dislike seeing words in front of an image. So please, please, if you want to use them, contact me and we'll talk. I don't bite! *

Zoo Day!

Ok, so I know I said one main photo post a week.....but I had to share our trip to the zoo. ^-^

The tigers were not happy with each other today and though I didn't get a photo of them sparring this guy was pacing quite a while.


I've always loved these birds, I'm not sure why. Perhaps its our taste in hair color or style.....^-~


Hubb says this photo really speaks, that it's sad looking. I don't know, it's just a very pretty elephant to me.(She actually has a bit of a smile to me, mischievous gal!) But I can see where he's coming from I guess.


The obligatory artsy shot. *chuckles*
I took this one in action mode so they weren't total blurs, but I really want to go shoot them when they aren't moving. I've always loved carousels and the fact that this one is a restored historical one makes it even more special.
There were a ton more. I took a total of 165 photos today, lol. I'm a snap happy momma ^-^ I got some of the boys, just haven't edited them yet.

For now, that was our trip!

*Oh and um, don't steal my photos, lol. You want to use them, contact me and ask. I'm usually more than happy, I just don't like theft. I mean who does.*

Resizing your photographs for etsy- a small tutorial

There was a question posed in the forums today about how to get the right size photo to upload for etsy. Basically from a larger image.

So I thought I'd share my reply since I know that when I got my new camera I encountered this problem. (That thing takes some HUGE pictures) It's made editing a bit faster since I don't even have to go through the process of cropping anymore.

______________________________________________________________
What I've done is to take and make a 1000x1000 pixel document in photoshop. Then when I take photos of items I just add a layer on top of that square and size it down.

Um, let me try to explain that better.

1000x1000 pxl document in photoshop, just a blank canvas.
*open picture to adjust*
Ctrl-A- to select the whole picture I'm trying to adjust to size.
Ctrl-C- to copy the image
*back to the blank canvas*
Ctrl-V- to paste the image to the blank canvas. (will create a new layer on its own unless your starting from the background or base layer. I tend to make a new layer when I first open the blank canvas square)
Move tool- to slide the picture around a little bit
Click twice while moving or go to an edged to scale down and it will change the tool to free transform

Then just scale to the right size for the square. Sometimes I crop the image by not using all of the picture and just scaling it to where I want, and sometimes I have to make the picture smaller than the square to do a rectangle. But overall it just scales your image. That way if you have one that can't be cropped because the item is all the way out to the sides, you don't have to.

Plus it means that all my thumbnails are square. (unless its one of the rectangle smaller ones of course, but even then you still see the whole picture in the square thumbnail alotment)


Hope that made sense. It's worked out easy for me. Of course I'm also using a camera that takes extra large photos, so it may depend on your actual picture size.

Best thing I can say is just to play with it!

Picture time!

I decided that even if my family reads my blog....they won't really know what they are getting as I'm only sharing one thing I made with the fabric.

I got the other stuff done...but haven't photographed it yet. So anywho...heres the pincushion I made myself since I screwed up one of the other ideas...and it turned into this! ^-^

Then theres my Christmas Tree. See that candy cane hanging off the left? Thats a hand made knotted one from my grandmother on my dads side. And that fun little snowflake right in the middle? Thats from my grandmother on my mom's side. I have sets of each and neither has made any for years. I love them.

Oh yeah..that ballerina. She's from my mom, I danced for 12 years. Most of that ballet. I'd have a whole tree of ballerina ornaments if I put them all up. She's just my fav.


Then there's my latest painting to list. It's not the newest one I've done, but it's one I never can photograph right. Its a floral grouping. Kind of like a puzzle, I promise to send the key to whomever buys it, it is six 5x5 square canvas blocks. They can hang or sit. though sitting I wouldn't stack them all up right like I have them here. They are propped up against a candle stick. Hence the photoshoping.



Last but not least. Jess. I keep wanting to call her Pim and I get evil looks. She's going up for sale.


Oh by the way...these are all taken in my new photo studio box. Not sure how much I like it actually. I'm having to do a lot of photo shopping to make pictures I would consider good. These just break even. But this is my first time playing with it. The lights are nice. I think I had them too close.

Back to working! I need to wrap some gifts. Not just the ones that came yesterday but also the ones that arrived today! Still more on the way, so don't want to lose something in the mix. ^-^



Oh oh oh! I almost forgot. In one of yesterdays packages, I got the cutest little extra! A bundle of roving in this fab sherbert coloring! Just had to share!

New pics

Manged to get all the pictures I'd taken of the pieces in my shop off the camera. Been busy working on halloween costumes for my kiddos so I kept forgetting. Now the pics have a common theme, though I haven't finished all the pictures.

I finished a new necklace that I have to photograph now as well as put up my entry for the costume contest. ^-^

I love Halloween. Such fun.