Photoshop Actions From the Pioneer Woman Save the Day

Last weekend I got to see my niece and nephew again, and boy are they growing! My entire family (minus my husband who had lives to save) went to Colorado and being the doting Auntie that I am, of course I took a million pictures of them. The difficulty of this task is enormous. They can walk now so you have to be ready to put down the camera to save them from falling off cliffs, drowning in rivers, chasing dogs, eating mulch and other perils at a moments notice. Did I mention there are two of them? Oy vey! They also don't really enjoy facing the sun. Luckily they sat still for a few moments every once in a while, so even though they weren't facing the light like I wanted them to (probably not a good idea to burn their retinas in these formative years) I was able to capture some in-focus shots of them. This my friends is a very big deal. I am not so good with my camera, but with the help of the Pioneer Woman's Photoshop Actions, I was able to touch up some of them and am really happy with the results! ** Just a disclaimer, these kids are constantly smiling, the fact that I have no pictures of them with smiles is not representative of their demeanor **

Straight out of the camera (his handsome face is hiding in the shadows)

Boost + Lighten (just on his face) + All about the Eyes = Much Better!

Straight out of the camera (this isn't doing her rosy cheeks or her blue eyes justice)

Boost x 2 +All About The Eyes + Lighten = Oh so pretty!

Happy Mother's Day

This year my sister-in-law became a mother, and she has done a great job raising these two little buddies:

Potamus and The Bear (this is his serious face), 9 months

If I have vicariously learned anything from her experience, it is that being a mother requires super-human amounts of patients, love, and laundry detergent. So Alexis, if you are reading this, Happy Mother's Day. I am in awe of how easy you make it look. Thank you for being such a good mommy!

Vote in the Latest Minted Challenge, Birth Announcements!

Voting is now open, so head on over and check out all of the awesome designs that people entered.
I submitted three for your consideration, lets start with my favorite shall we?

Grid in Green Baby Announcement  

I wanted a modern boy color scheme, and this can be adjusted for a little girl too!

Sunny Baby Announcement

I like orange and magenta for little girls, and was inspired by French bistro menus

New Package Baby Announcement

Honestly I wish I had a few more hours to spend on this one, but I love it anyway. I wanted to make it look like a cereal box (lets not forget that I spend my days designing food packaging). 

Anyway, head on over and vote! You can find my portfolio of designs on Minted here if you are interested.

Niece and Nephew

I am feeling a bit under the weather today, so I am just going to leave you with this:
Last weekend I brought the new lens with me up to visit my cute niece and nephew. They are almost 4 months old, but for some reason they still do not understand commands like "find the light with your eyes" or "stop eating those leaves" or "can you please stop squirming, my shutter speed is really low". They are so cute and well behaved that you cant help but forgive them, especially when they let you bury them in leaves to do an amateur photo shoot.

//via Me!

The Leap Frog is in the first picture, and The Bear is the star of the next. as you can see they are very confused by the mounds of leaves surrounding them. So sad I won't get to see them until Christmas time, they are going to be so big!

A Quilt for Baby Tse

Yay! my coworker Konrad and his wife are quickly approaching the due date of their first baby, a little boy!

Konrad has a serious aversion to butterflies and chrysalises (good thing he isnt having a girl!) but hopefully not sea creatures because they are all over this quilt.

I finally made the pilgrimage up to Purl in NYC, something I have been dying to do for EVER. It was just as amazing as I had hoped! They have a wonderfully edited selection of fabrics arranged in rainbow order (as all things including sweaters, crayons and books should be) from floor to ceiling.

I found the cutest little fat quarter set including Alexander Henry's Marina print, some cool faux bois (eat your heart out, Martha!) and the most delicate white fabric with teeny tiny blue circles.

My sewing is really improving, i was even daring enough to attempt actual machine quilting for once instead of using my hand ties that I have done in the past. Just one rectangle of it, but hey, you have to start somewhere! All of this is a warm up for the extreme task that lies before me: Quilting not one, but TWO blankets for my niece and nephew that are due this summer. Thats right, TWINS!