If you have Photoshop

I have a full blown version of Photoshop thanks to my old job. When I left, I asked if they wanted it back and they said "not right now." Whoo hoo!!!!!!

I know very, very little about how to use Photoshop... it's really quite a shame because I know it is a very powerful program that you can do lots of things with. It's not the easiest program in the world to use and so I have not devoted the time required to learn how to use it.

When I saw that Pioneer Woman was going to release some actions for Photoshop I was very excited about them. If you happen to have Photoshop, I highly recommend going and downloading these. They are totally free and as best I can tell very cool and open up lots of options for editing photographs while continuing in your lack of Photoshop understanding. They apparently do not work with Photoshop Elements but she is planning to release some actions for that soon.

I started playing with these actions this afternoon and I thought I would show you my first shot at it. I didn't have any cool photos with me that I wanted to mess with at the moment, so I stole this beautiful picture of Sarah from Amberly's site (I didn't ask permission... I hope she won't mind. :-)
There is absolutely nothing wrong with this picture straight out of the camera and I would love to print it off just as it is. But when I started playing with it I came up with this. I may have taken some of it too far but like I said it was my first attempt.

I hope to find some time in my schedule to start messing with Photshop a little bit more. I have always known it was cool but if someone does most of the "hard stuff" for me, that makes it that much more appealing.

Fun Stuff This Week

I've had a chance to hang out with some of my favorite people this week, so I thought I would share with everyone. On Thursday, I took off of work at noon and headed up the road an hour or so to take care of a few things and do some errand type things.

As a part of my day, I made a stop in to see Amberly and her family. I had not seen them since before Christmas so we exchanged Christmas and birthday gifts. Since I had seen them, I had a birthday, Sarah had a birthday and Abby Grace had had a birthday. So between the Christmas and Birthday gifts, we turned Amberly's house from clean to chaos in about two minutes flat! I think that the kids all liked the presents... Abby Grace in particular. :-) They got me a beautiful picture frame that has a quote about friendship. I can't wait to get a picture of all of us to put in it.

I ate dinner with them and Amberly prepared some of Sarah's favorites that we were supposed to have last Saturday but didn't get to because of the "snow." Everything was delicious and I might even have to try making the Pioneer Woman Mashed Potatoes sometime myself. I had a great time with them on Thursday but I had to head home before it got too late.

On Friday, Leslie called to tell me that her Wii had come in! We weren't expecting it until next week but it surprisingly arrived via UPS on Friday afternoon. Around 7:30 last night I headed over to her house to experience Wii for the first time for myself. I had heard great things about it and it was all true! We had a lot of fun playing tennis, bowling, attempting to play baseball (not very successfully) and a bunch of other stuff. I was surprising how tired it makes you and I think I threw out my shoulder playing tennis. :-) Just kidding... but you do make all of the motions just like you would if you were really playing one of the sports.

Today Brun and I are taking it easy at the house. We made a trip to the vet this morning for a nail trim and got to meet another Labradoodle!! I was much more excited about it than Brun was but it was cool to meet another Labradoodle in town.

This Week in My Life

I didn't get a chance to post my Weekend Reflections this weekend so I thought I would post an outlook for the coming week.

I started my week in my hometown for the Easter Holiday. I have had better holidays but it certainly wasn't terrible... and it had its good moments. Every year I try to get together some of the "kids" from church for our annual Easter pictures. It's a nice tradition and I have pictures going back for 16+ years. As you can see some of the "kids" aren't really kids any more. Here is a picture of three of my favorite girls.


Sarah (in the middle) you have met before. Keeley (on the left) I have known since the day she was born and her sister Lindsey I have known since she moved to my hometown just before she turned one. I love all three of these girls and I look forward to seeing all of them every time I go home. Lindsey has a big school trip coming up this week and I hope she has a GREAT time!!!!

Today was a typical long Monday followed by dinner with Leslie, CRB, ToolMan and my brother. I was tired from working all day so I don't know that I was the best company but it was fun to hang out with them.

The rest of this week should be pretty nice and relaxing. I am actually in town all week and a lot of the people from my office will be gone for two days. I like working with these people but with them gone I will be able to get more work done with fewer meetings and fewer interruptions. Definitely a good thing!

Other than that it's back to my hometown this weekend for a sewing class with my mom. More on the events of the week as the week progresses. I hope everyone has a great week!

Busy Saturday

What a great day! I am in my hometown for the Easter weekend... so that led to a busy Saturday. Early Saturday morning (or "early" for this non-morning person) my parents and I headed to Nathan's baseball game. Let me just say that if it is 40 degrees outside with a 10+ mph wind... all little league games should be cancelled! It was SOOOOOO cold! We all did our best to bundle up and keep our booties from freezing to the cold metal bleachers.

Here is the hearty crowd that braved the cold to cheer Nathan on. In the back row is my dad, Mr. John and Mrs. Betty. In the middle row is Amberly, Abby Grace and Tiara. On the bottom row is my mom and Sarah.


Nathan played a great game and the team gave it their all. Unfortunately it was not one for the win column... but they all seemed to have a good time. Here's a picture of Nathan up to bat.


After the game and after warming up a little bit, I tried to get some shopping done. I am not a big shopper but my hometown has better stores than the college town where I live, so I needed to get a wedding present for an upcoming shower and I needed to look for some clothes for me for work. I accomplished the wedding present purchase but no luck on the clothes for me.

After my brief shopping excursion I headed over to Sarah's house to get ready for the party. My dilema from earlier in the week continued and I never decided what to wear. So I decided to bring Sarah three options and let her decide for me. No surprise to me... she picked out my prom dress from ten years ago. It was definitely the fanciest of the three options... and I'm just glad that it still fit!

The party was a lot of fun! All of the guests looked beautiful and I think everyone had a great time. If you haven't seen it, click on over to Amberly's blog for some great pictures and a recap.

I'm usually not much for having my picture taken but here is a picture of Sarah and I in our fancy clothes. Looks like it is time for some new highlights for this "bottle blonde." :-)


Abby Grace tried to avoid having her picture taken but I caught her in this one. She borrowed Amberly's camera which probably resulted in some interesting pictures.


Thanks to Sarah for inviting me to her party. It was a lot of fun to dress up and hang out with a bunch of sweet girls. They definitely kept me entertained and smiling the whole time.

Somewhere to go with nothing to wear

This weekend I have a very special party to attend. Amberly's daughter Sarah is having a party and I'm invited. Sarah is an exceptionally sweet and thoughtful girl who holds a very special place in my heart. There is no way I will miss her party but I have no idea what to wear. The invitation says to dress up for an elegant girly affair.

I am not a very girly girl. I like to dress up on occassion but I am much more comfortable in jeans, a t-shirt and a ballcap. So in the last discussion Sarah and I had, I asked for her approval on several dresses that I have. She politely told me that they weren't dressy enough. :-) Sarah certainly meant no harm by this comment and I know that deep down she will be happy with whatever I wear... even if it is jeans and a t-shirt. But after a very helpful suggestion from my mom, Sarah suggested I could wear my prom dress from ten years ago. Aside from the fact that I'm not even sure where it is, I don't think I could squeeze myself into it. Add to that the embarassment factor of the fact that I once wore it to prom, I will probably add it to the "No" pile of dresses.

So the debate still goes on... whatever will I wear? I have a closet full of clothes but I'm not sure any of them are right for this "elegant girly affair." I have a couple of things that might work in my own closet and hopefully something in Leslie's closet that will work out better. I am going over to her house this evening to see what I can find.

Stay tuned for pictures and a final verdict on what I end up wearing. Whatever I wear, the party should be a lot of fun!