Some Photos and Randoms

Having the month of December off for professional photo shoots has been MARVELOUS for my own personal photo taking. I swear, my December photo folder is CHOCK-FULL. So, before the Christmas-ness of this month gets too far away, I have a few seasonal photos to share.... And these are just the pre-Christmas ones. If I get on the ball, I might even have a post of Christmas Eve and Christmas Day sometime in the next couple of days!

For now, bring on the photos and randoms!

First up-- making Bakerella's Cake Pops with my sister-in-law Mary!

(Note: these are a dang lotta work for a kinda-average tasting treat. More fun to look at, in my opinion!!)

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Next: Anthropologie packaging was SUPER cute this year... And I added a MOO card of my own to make it extra special... I may have to finagle some button-festooned ribbons of my own next Christmas. I love it!!

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Next: A garland I made for my friend Dawn for our Christmas Swap...

(it says "Love + Joy" and is made from wooden circles painted, then layered with cut soda cans and cut tin cans eyelet'ed on and joined with rick-rack.... In Dawn's favorite color combo...)

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Next: A lil' note for my UPS man so I wouldn't miss Dawn's swap package back to me! (Oh, and let me tell you... Dawn's swap package?? A post of it's own. It is a masterpiece.)

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On to our Santa Visit: Noah was a gem... darling and cooperative and everything!! (Love the throne!!)

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And Christmas Cocoa: I've begun making it with 1/2 evaporated milk and 1/2 water, microwaved for two minutes in my Pyrex measuring cup, then poured over one packet of Swiss Miss cocoa and one heaping tablespoon of Ghiridelli's Hot Chocolate... Add whipped cream and red sprinkles and YUM oh YUM YUM!!

(Joe's a fan, too...In fact, he is more of a cocoa drinker than I am, if you can believe it. Love that man!)

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And lastly, a series of shots taken mid-December with my other favorite boy, Mr. Noah himself....
Taken by Mr. Joe, who really is a reliable photo-man when I hand the camera over to him. I love that! I don't get IN the photos nearly as much as I should, so when they are good, I gotta show them off!

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Randoms:

1. I never straighten my hair. NO time anymore... So the above shots are a rarity. And it turns out, my haircut is not conducive to straight style. There is a huge chunk of random layering there that is kinda weird-looking. I need to get that fixed. Ha!

2. I got Noah to finally smile and look near the camera by running us towards the camera, then running back into position, making "zoooooom" noises. He loved that! I'm impressed Joe managed to get the dang photos focused, we were moving so much!!

3. My "fast-edit" for photos, when they are already pretty nicely exposed? I just--
a. do a "curves" bump to lighten it
b. do an "unsharp mask" to sharpen it (numbers: Amount: 250%, Radius: 0.5 pixels, Threshold: 0)
c. do another "unsharp mask" to "defog it" (numbers: Amount: 20%, Radius: 60 pixels, Threshold: 0)
d. (I usually do the "defog" on a duplicate layer so I can play with the opacity a bit)
e. Ta-Da!

4. #3 was just a random tip for any photoshoppers out there. Feel free to ignore it!

5. It is 12:23 a.m. right now and I should be in bed.

6. Today was a GORGEOUS day-- 66 degrees!!!

7. I miss my Utah girls.... Kate? Sarah? Katie? Melody? Rochelle? You out there?

8. Tomorrow we are going to go get Noah's hair cut. Really.

9. I am so blessed... Joe is amazing, Noah is heart-melting, my home is warm and cozy, my family is so remarkable... I have NOTHING to complain about.

10. I need to stop "random'ing" and get my little self to bed.

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G'night!