Test of Photo quality

I desaturated the photos and upped the exposure... the first photo is uploaded at it original size. The last photo is uploaded at 50%...It did get darker. I have noticed that when I upload photos on the blog it gets darker? Go figure. Thanks for the input on uploading Kate....at http://chroniclesofacountrygirl.blogspot.com/

My Daughter

Sophia. My daughter. I miss her. She is spending the week at her grandparents and enjoying the time without her brothers. I think she misses us. Not that she would ever admit that. She is eleven and as far as she is concerned I am a pain. The one that nags her to clean her room, stand up straight and eat right. Her brothers are, well, her brothers.

I hope there will be some time soon that they will actually start to like each other. To appreciate that they have each other. I do try to remind them how important they are to each other but I may as well be speaking Cartoon...BLAh, Blah,Blah,blah BLAH!

My brothers and I, not close. I think that is more of the 10 year age difference. At least that is what I keep telling myself. Maybe I will realize soon enough just how important they are to me?

Summer

Summer is crazy isn't it? I feel like I have not had time to breath between working 2 jobs and trying to let the kids enjoy their summer. The girls and I decided to make a power trip to Virginia Beach in one day. Four moms and thirteen kids spent the day and the beach swimming and hanging out. We really had a great time and came home sunburned and exhausted, but it was worth it. I LOVE the beach! I miss living there. Thankfully my husbands family is there so we get to visit but not nearly enough.

Body surfing! Skim boarding!

Being cool...

...hanging with the girls!

North End on Dwellable

Laila Rose Foundation

I had the very special honor of being the event photographer for the first annual Laila Rose Foundation fundraiser.

Sheep races....I didn't win... :(

I have pasted a portion of the website to my blog.

The Laila Rose Foundation was established in 2006, in loving memory of our precious Laila Rose Engh, whom we lost at the tender age of four in a tragic automobile accident, along with her devoted mother, Lisa Engh. Laila Rose was an exuberant ray of sunshine in the lives of all who knew her. To our family, she was a pure delight for the short time we were blessed to hold her. Laila was a beautiful child, secure and confident in the warmth and love of her family. For Laila Rose, each day was a celebration of dance, song and utter joy. Our lives changed forever the day we lost Laila Rose and her incredible mother, Lisa. As a result of this tragedy we resolved to turn our grief into action and find a way for Laila's legacy to bring the sort of joy to others that she brought to our lives as a daughter, sister, granddaughter, neice and friend.
The mission of the Laila Rose Foundation is to provide financial assistance to meet the medical and surgical needs of adopted children and their families. Our hope is to give children the gift of confidence and joy that Laila Rose exuded every day in her short life.
Please consider joining us in our mission. The Laila Rose Foundation has already made a difference, and we hope you will help us bring more smiles to beautiful faces and strengthen the families who have opened their hearts and homes to these precious souls.

The foundation raised over $17,000.00...all from gracious donation from their spring fundraiser.

Here are a few of the photos I took from the event.

We had been having an amazing amount of rain this spring but the Lord gave us a break and provided us with the most incredible weather with a beautiful sunset.

You cannot have a celebration on a farm without sack races!

ArT WoRk

This is the frame that I made for my middle child's 3rd grade teacher as an end of the year thank you gift.
My "Sammy's" self portait. Love it!

Another view of the frame.

This is a Kindergarten auction project that I did for my youngest sons school auction. It is so much fun to do and well received by parents of the youngster. Read as "lots of bids" resulting in money for the school.

How did I do it? Let me tell you.

First of all I have a wonderful neighbor who has an amazing workshop and willing to help me out. He made the frame from 8 inch wide clear pine boards and attached a sheet of wipe board/dry erase board to the back. Hardware stores sell large sheets of this for a very reasonable price. I then prime the wood frame with white primer paint like Kilz.

Next, I have all the children draw a self portrait on a 5x7 piece of paper and color it with crayons. I encourage them to use bright colors and to stay away from the browns and blacks. Then I photo copy each one. Black and white copy works best.

Each bw copy is laid on top of the frame to find appropriate spacing. If a picture is too small or large you can reduce/enlarge on the copy machine.

I start in a corner working from left to right (because I am right handed) so that I do not smudge my work as I go along. Place on BW picture on the frame and trace with with a ball point pen, pushing hard to leave a mark in the wood of the outline of the child's portrait. Using carbon paper works best but I cannot ever find any. I then start using acrylic paint that I get from Michael's/AC Moore and paint the picture using the exact colors that they have used. Using skin color for the faces. The children's pictures are very basic because they are kindergartners and they do not to intricate work. I then outline all the colors with a black paint pen, this also works well for eyelashes. Sometimes it takes two to three coats of paint for some of the colors to get the pop of color you want. When I am done painting the pictures I print their names by their picture and let it dry for one day minimum. Then I spray paint the frame with a clear gloss to seal the paint.

If you do not have a way of making a frame this also works great with premade wood furniture from Michael's. I have even done it on a large unpainted book shelf with a storage cabinet that I purchased from Lowe's. If you use items that are prepainted you will need to make sure that the paint is not glossy and and will accept the acrylic paint.

The next frame that I am going to make for my home will be of my sons pictures that he drew in Kindergarten, I love having a fun way of displaying his artwork.

I hope this is understandable. It is really very easy with great results.