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Some Photos and Randoms

Tuesday, December 30, 2008

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!

17 comments:

  1. Oh, Queen Sleekness....

    You are blessed, and your life is SO amazing!!! Even if you have to tell (remind) yourself of that a zillion times a day, DO IT! You amaze ME!

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  2. Oh my goodness, that looks like some yummy hot chocolate. And calorie-free I have decided to convince myself.

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  3. WOW! You take amazing photos!! I love the first three and how you capture the focal points so well!!

    xoxo ellie

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  4. LOVELY cake-pops! But, I'm glad to know they're average-tasting--when you told me about them I wondered if they were too yummy to miss out on.

    What a treat--so many photos!

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  5. I love when you've been on a personal photo spree! It means eye candy for us.

    Can I just say - in the first picture of Noah on Santa's lap his shoes look like gold lame (insert accent for lamay). I was so ready to be in blog love with you even more. I guess gold lame shoes for a little boy who is not Liberace is a little much...

    And thanks for tip #3. I'm excited to try those on some of my snaps.

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  7. Great photos! Thanks for the tips...the cocoa and the editing. I'll try both!

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  8. All those photos are wonderful. I can't believe how big Noah is. He's adorable and so are you. Glad you got to enjoy your holiday. I had a horrible dream last night about you and Joe. So glad it was just a dream. We'll talk soon.

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  9. Glad to see you in front of the camera for once. That second shot of you and Noah kills me. You are such a cute mom and your creativeness amazes me. Glad to see you had a good Christmas.

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  10. The cocoa looks like heaven! I've really enjoyed your blog, it's a lot of fun.

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  11. Aw, Mommy and baby are sooo cute, you two could be in a commercial for Gap. Also, those cake pops look amazing.

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  12. Love your creative decorations and treats, it really makes me so jealous that I am not crafty. I can barely clean the living room let alone gussy it up with homemade crafts and then be an awesome photographer and take beautiful shots of it all...sigh.

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  13. What gorgeous photos you've posted! They make me so happy just looking at them.

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  14. What a fun post - just wanted to say that I'm still always reading, if not commenting. And boy - swap banner for Dawn is amazing!

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  15. Emily, you never cease to amaze me with your creativity! LOVE the banner, LOVE the packaging, and I've never thought of putting sprinkles on hot chocolate before. It's so striking with the red cups. I love and miss you, too. Wish you still lived in Utah. Nice job on the photos, Joe!

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  16. 1- I agree, the cupcake pops are cuter than they are tasty.

    2- I almost died at the cuteness of that moo card when I got it in my package. And I'm with you, I love the buttons on ribbon thing.

    3- that seems like an AWFUL lot of work for a mug of cocoa. I mean, don't get me wrong, it's gorgeous, and I'm sure it tastes amazing. . . but is it worth it?

    4- amazing photos, all.

    5- Noah is adorable with Santa. I can't believe how cool he was with that!

    6- you are adorable.

    The End.

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  17. Beautiful photo's, beautiful words...you always seem to amaze me Miss Emily! Sorry the Cake Pop's weren't that yummy. My sissy made them with chocolate cake and chocolate icing and they were VERY yummy! Maybe it was just your combo.

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