EditMe challenge wk13

EditMe challenge wk13

This week's guest judge is someone who has been participating in the challenge since the very start! It is Pam from Kassie's Beach. Here is a little bit more about her:

Hi, I'm Pam Bowers and I blog over at Kassie's Beach (named for my puppers Kassie and her favorite place to play). I started blogging in 2007 mostly to keep up with family and friends across the country. In 2009 I got my first dslr camera. That is when my blog started it's journey into photography. I have always had a passion for pictures. Learning how to shoot a dslr in manual was like having blinders removed from my eyes. I had no idea there was so much more to photography. It has been so much fun learning my way with many of you through your blogs both in photography and in editing.


Here is Pams SOOC image

My edit

• Opened in CS5.
• Cropped the image.
• Ran a couple of Coffeshop actions.
• Adjusted curves.
• Adjusted vibrancy.
• Shapened the image a tad.
• Added a vignette and ajusted the mask.
• Added a 30px border in Black.

Thank you as always to Branson and Stephanie for hosting this challenge. You guys do a fabulous job and I really enjoy taking part in this every week.
Thank you to Pam for the lovely image and for being guest judge.
And a big thank you to you guys for reading this far. If you think this is a challenge that you would enjoy taking part in then please head on over to the EditMe blogsite, download the image and have a go OR if you prefer then simply head on over and check out all the other awesome edits.

Garden Planter & sewing table

Wow, have we had some scorching weather this week!
It's pretty darned unheard of for us to be hitting the 20's at this time of year, especially living smack next to the coast. What's been even nicer is that we have had no wind here either, maybe a little breeze every now and again but nothing really.
But in good old UK tradition the weatherman talked of snow by the beginning of April!!!

Anyway, I thought I'd show y'all a couple of my latest projects.
This is my new from old sewing table

It looks better in person honestly!
The room it's in isn't finished yet. It's an office slash craft room and isn't on our list of priorities at the moment - it still needs skirting, painted walls, curtains, pretty much everything really.
I'd hoped to add a bit of colour in this room and have been hankering over Duck Egg but hubby happened to mention he hated the colour and seeing as the Office is his part of the room then I spose I better take his opinions into account - see how nice I can be!
Then I decided on Sage instead. Sage! A weird choice I know but as I was dithering about the perfect colour I happened to notice a photo frame in a Buffy the vampire slayer re-run. It was Sage and I thought it was gorgeous!
Yes I did just admit to watching Buffy re-runs! I watch Angel too - is that just sad?
However, at the store buying the paint (my only purchase for the table) my daughter hated my choice in colour and she and my hubby insisted 'Morrocan red' would be the perfect colour to warm the room. So I gave in..................and hate it!
The drawers are a set that was gonna be thrown out so I grabbed them and the table top is lengths of wood I have stashed away in my Polytunnel (to dry out) so other than the paint this project cost me nothing.
You'll notice the lack of drawers handles. The old ones were awful and I can't find some I like that don't cost the earth so until I do find some.................................

Next is my latest garden planter

Excuse the garish green surround but the garden is a mess at the moment and if I'd left the image as was then you're eyes would have been drawn entirely to the mess surrounding the planter.
This planter was made completely from scrap wood I had around the place and the legs have lead coverings top and bottom to prevent rotting. I pinched borrowed the lead from hubby who always have some laying around and then pinched borrowed his lead cutters to cut the stuff to fit - not easy!
Anyway I build these things adhoc and have no clue as to what I intend to put in them. This one will house a Rhus tree (staghorns sumach) but it's only a tiddly sapling that I grew from seed a couple of years ago so I've chucked in a few Peacock Orchid bulbs and heuchera plants to give it some Oomph until the tree looks, well, like a tree!



And because the last few days have been so lovely I snapped away at a couple of the Spring bulbs shooting up

While Daffs are not necessarily my most favourite of Spring flowers I do love their scent and  I love that they brighten up a room, though I do feel terrible for picking them - I guess that comes from being told off for picking them as a kid!

Muscari, how beautiful! These are bulbs that are planted in a tub containing a Fig. Lovely scent!

Linked up to:
Under the Table and Dreaming
Keeping it simple 
White Wolf Summit Farmgirl 
Niftythriftythings 
JAQS studio 
Primitive & Proper 
Not just a housewife

Editme challenge wk12

EditMe challenge wk12

 This week's fabulous judge is Beth from Snaps of Our Life! Here is a little bit more about her:

I am a SAHM to two girls, Lauren is 4 and Avery is 2. I love taking photos and have recently taken up the treadmill, which I do not love. I have been married nearly 5 years and we've lived in Minnesota for 4 of those years. I love to drink dark chocolate campfire mochas, and play Words with Friends on my phone. My blog is a mix of pictures and advocating for my daughter, who has Down syndrome.

Here's the SOOC

 

 

 

My edit:

 

 

 

I really enjoyed editing this image so Thank you Beth, I've had fun!

• Opened in CS5
• Created a copy 
• Cropped and rotated the image and moved the crop bars around till I got the piece I wanted for a closer up image.
• Cloned a few twigs from the image (actually I used the Spot healing brush cos I couldn't get the clone to do it properly).
• Opened curves and played.
• Opened HDR and played.
• Opened a vibrancy thing by accident so played with that too.
• I think I may have even added a warm photo filter at some point as well.
• Added a border via canvas size. While working in canvas size I clicked on 'other colours' and used the eyedropper to pick some colour from the berries and used that as the border colour.
• Flattened and saved.

Thank you as always to Branson and Stephanie for hosting this challenge.
Thank you to Beth for the lovely image and thank you to you guys for taking a look at my edit. If you fancy having a go or checking out the other fab edits then head on over to the EditMe blogsite and join in.

Happy Mothers Day

Happy Mothers Day!

OK, I know it's almost over already but for now, here in the UK, it's still Mothers Day and I've just spent an hour or so looking over some photos I took recently, adding watermarks and borders, downsizing them and now I'm putting them up here - all 4 of em!

I've done a couple of posts lately on a fabulous ebook by Katie Evans called 'The key to taking pictures like a professional photographer' and so I put some of that 'newfound knowledge' to the test with these piccies.


This first one is my daughters Buzzard, Darla (yep, she went through a Buffy stage many years ago lol). This poor bird was a rescue case and had been kept in a small razorwire cage, this resulted in her looking more like a chicken than a Buzzard when she got to us.

These next two are of the Camelias that are blooming in my polytunnel. I would so love to get this shrub outside where we can see it from the house but sadly it won't survive and I don't want to risk losing it, especially as this is its first year of flowering.

This next one is Huntly my Great Dane, he just luuuuurves his teddy bears. (I played around to make this one more of a HDR effect).

Thanks for looking and Happy rest of Mothers Day!

ColourMe weekly #11

Photogaphy ebook Giveaway winner*

The winner, picked at random, for the fabulous ebook 'The key to taking pictures like a professional photographer' iiiiiiiiisss.................

Lyndsey. Well done Lyndsey, if you could contact me with your full email address I will get the ebook straight to you.

Don't forget though peeps, if you head on over to Katies website you can purchase the ebook or the hard copy and get a 20% discount using the code 'coachhouse'.

Thank you to all of those that took part in the Giveaway, I wish I could offer you all a copy.

***********************************************************************************



Wow, I almost missed it this week. I've not done much blogging over the last few days, not really sure why, I guess I'm having a Blah to blogging week.

This image is of a Camelia I have blooming away in my polytunnel.
I took the picture over the last couple of days - I must remember to get some of the entire shrub as it is absolutely smothered in blooms - for the first time I might add.
Such a shame it has to sit away in the polytunnel  where I'm the only one that gets to see it but Sadly it won't survive the salt laden sea winds we get here and I lost the last one  so I ain't risking this one.

I'm quite suprised by how many colours I managed to pick out of this Camelia. I figured there'd be one or two tones of Cream only - who knew!
One day  I'll have to learn how to make all those little colour boxes the same size, at the moment I'm having to create each individual colour box with the rectangle tool and then grab the colour with the eyedropper tool and fill it in with the paintbucket tool - soooooooo tedious!

I'm linking this one over at Rosies 'Leavesnbloom studio' as always and would like to thank her for hosting and hope she has a speedy recovery soon.

Edit Me 2012 Wk 11

This weeks guest judge and owner of the photo to edit is Belle from Belle pics photography.

Here is the SOOC

and here is my edit:

I really struggled with this one - makes a change huh - NOT!
Take my word for it these boys look adoooorable with googly eyes - no offence Belle but I couldn't resist. I just love putting googly eyes on people.
Anyways here's what I did with this edit:

• Opened in CS5
• Cropped a little of the edge off. This picture was just about perfectly composed but I wanted to make a square one because I wanted to focus on the boys.
• Ran HDR effect. It may look like I cloned the yellow lines out but I actually just blew them out with highlights.
• Adjusted the Highlight and shadows seperately again.
• Added a border.

Thanks for reading and if you'd like to join in with the challenge or just check out the other awesome edits over at the Edit Me Challenge blogsite.

Thank you as always to Branson and our newest co host Stephanie for hosting this fab challenge.

I love Promarkers

 I love Promarkers PLUS a Photography GIVEAWAY


I've had some Sarah Kay images for a while now and have been itching to get them coloured in with my Promarkers so when I was thinking about cards for my daughters 21st birthdays I figured why not!
I was a bit apprehensive that Sarah Kay was maybe a little childish for 21 year olds but then I though 'so what!'. I'm 40 and I'd love to receive a Sarah Kay image on a card.

So here they are:

That one was Leannes card and this one

was Staceys card.

I'm really quite new to this Promarker way of colouring. Before getting the Promarkers I would probably not really have considered colouring an image myself except for the odd one done with watercolour pencils.
I'm now addicted to Promarkers - I love em!
My main problem with creating these cards is that my Cricut machine is broken so I'm having to cut everything by hand - good job I kept all those fancy scissors huh!
The flowers were cut from any old paper or angel paper I had. First I had to print out a flower shape onto some card, cut it out and then use that as a template on the paper. Once I'd cut the flower shapes I just crunched em up a bit and then glued them into shape using 3 flower shapes for each individual flower. Then I just punched a hole through the middle and popped a brad in.
At this point I had real issues finding a glue that would stick the flower to the card due to the metal brad on the back, here's where my 'Fixsall glue' comes in again - I love that glue and it stuck the brads in seconds.

These will be the first 2 cards I ever enter into a challenge:

I Love Promarkers challenge blog
Make it Monday 
Trulymadlycraftychallenge 
Simonsaysstampandshow

WEEKEND GIVEAWAY

'The Key to taking pictures like a professional photographer' Giveaway

We all love a giveaway don't we, so I'm really chuffed to be holding my first ever giveaway right here, right now.

I recently posted a review of Katie Evans ebook 'The key to taking pictures like a professional photographer' and thought what better way to follow up on that review than to host a giveaway, so today we're offering 1 winner a copy of Katie Evans ebook.
PLUS Katie is offering a 20% discount on all purchases for 2 weeks using the code below.

I have owned many point & shoots over the years and figured a DSLR would be just as easy to use and produce better images at a click of a button  - simple as that!
Yes, I really was that naiive!
Most of my pictures that turned out half decent were basically flukes. I had no idea what all the buttons did - despite reading that 200 page in depth manual that came with the camera -  and I had no hope of understanding ISO's, Fstops, shutter speed etc.
So I bought a book and then another book and then another book and then an.........Ok you get the picture right?
All of those books lost me within the first few pages. As soon as they mention the need for multiple lenses and gravity defying tri-pods in order to take a decent picture (not to mention all the filters) I would shut the book and try to get my money back on EBay.

Katies ebook is different in many ways but for me the most important way is that it is easy to read and easy to understand.
As a visual learner I found the images in the book helped me to understand how a certain setting should look and what I need to do to get the shot I want. Katie explains every single detail we need to know to take that camera off Auto and get those professional shots.

74 pages of easy to read but detailed explanations and some superb photographs to illustrate her points and meanings.
Katie really does cover everything in this book from those o so confusing Fstops to composure to editing - it's all there.

                         DISCOUNT ALERT:- Get 20% discount on ebook and hardcopy.
                                          Use Discount Code: Coachhouse


                                                                        Giveaway:

1 lucky reader will receive a copy of Katies ebook ' The key to taking pictures like a professional photographer'.

                                                                   How to Enter:

1) Leave a comment on this blog telling me what y'all are up to this weekend (required)
2) Follow this blog on GFC or Linky and leave a comment letting me know (optional)
3) Follow Katie Evans FB page and leave me a comment letting me know (optional)

This giveaway will end on Friday 16th March @ 6pm GMT. Winner will be chosen at random.

Linked up to:

Blog Giveaway Directory
O so savvy mom

Double prizes 
Niftythriftythings 
Joy2journey 

Tempus Fugit

**** Giveaway here*****

Tempus Fugit & why parents often make better grandparents.


21 years ago today at just 19 years of age at 0:05am I gave birth to twin number 1, Leanne Sheree, who weighed in at a good 5lb despite being 3 weeks premature.
At 0:14am she was followed by Stacey Lauren weighing in at 4lb 8oz.

For the next few months my husband seemed to adopt that 'slapped by a wet fish' look, probably wondering how the hell he had managed to go from having a slim, carefree wife at our wedding in July 1990 to being the parents of twin girls by the following March - lucky guy eh!
Oh and his wife was suddenly 4 stone heavier and had severe - O so severe - acne due to hormones!

Parenthood did not come naturally to either of us and I have to say we fell seriously short many a time learning as we went along.
I remember cooing over them as babies (cos that's what you do isn't it?) and eventually thinking ''it'll be nice when they actually do something''.
Then they 'did something' and we'd say "Can't wait for them to start crawling".
Then they crawled and we'd say "It'll be so much easier when they're walking" (yes, we reeeeally did think that).
Then they'd be walking and the next thing was "Can't wait for them to start talking properly, to hear their voices".
They started talking - apparantly! At least that's what Stacey & Leanne thought it was. You see twins have this whole other language that no one but they can understand and bizarely they DO understand it.  To us it was just a whole load of "ndjdfkfggitnoavgrt?jwicbo!!!!bjjb wss"
Along with this fabulous new language came Staceys realisation that she didn't just love dogs she wanted to be one! And be one she would! The next 3 years were spent with Stacey (and sometimes Leanne till she got bored) being a dog. Crawling on all fours, cocking her leg and pretending (thankfully) to pee, trying to eat from a bowl on the floor and to top it off if we told her off she'd growl at us - seriously growl! If we told her off more she'd bark at us - the growl was a warning apparantly!!!

So we figured 9 - 10 would be a good age, can't wait for that.
9 - 10 was a good age, Stacey had finally lost her 'being a dog phase' but then a couple of years later the hormones start to kick in - two girls going through the same stuff at the same time - it was haaaaard!
"Be nice when they're 16 and are a bit more independent".
16 comes round and all of a sudden they think they're adults!!!! They have no clue.

"Be nice in a couple of years when they're a bit older, wiser and more grown up". (We appear to have suddenly forgotten what it's like to be 18 years old)
So they hit 18 and are now legally adults. I can no longer use the long arm of the law to scare them from everything from dropping litter to swearing to drinking. (We should have just trusted that both girls know right from wrong anyway)
"Be better when they're 21 cos parents can stop worrying then, they're job is done right?"  Wow, did  we ever really believe that!
At 21 all you really do is worry about their future, mistakes they will make that you can't protect them from, moving out from the protection of their home, heartache, dangers and pervs in vans (still).
The boogey man suddenly seems as real as ever!

"Why can't they be 6 again? Whhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhy?????"
We spent so many years looking forward to them being grown up that we didn't appreciate the actual growing up and that, right there is why, IMO parents often make better grandparents.
We actually do get a 'do over'.

We're lucky!
Stacey & Leanne have turned out to be young ladies we are proud to call out daughters.

Happy 21st birthday Stacey & Leanne - we love you always & forever - Mum & Dad xxxx

Photography Giveaway

WEEKEND GIVEAWAY

'The Key to taking pictures like a professional photographer' Giveaway

We all love a giveaway don't we, so I'm really chuffed to be holding my first ever giveaway right here, right now.

I recently posted a review of Katie Evans ebook 'The key to taking pictures like a professional photographer' and thought what better way to follow up on that review than to host a giveaway, so today we're offering 1 winner a copy of Katie Evans ebook.
PLUS Katie is offering a 20% discount on all purchases for 2 weeks using the code below.

I have owned many point & shoots over the years and figured a DSLR would be just as easy to use and produce better images at a click of a button  - simple as that!
Yes, I really was that naiive!
Most of my pictures that turned out half decent were basically flukes. I had no idea what all the buttons did - despite reading that 200 page in depth manual that came with the camera -  and I had no hope of understanding ISO's, Fstops, shutter speed etc.
So I bought a book and then another book and then another book and then an.........Ok you get the picture right?
All of those books lost me within the first few pages. As soon as they mention the need for multiple lenses and gravity defying tri-pods in order to take a decent picture (not to mention all the filters) I would shut the book and try to get my money back on EBay.

Katies ebook is different in many ways but for me the most important way is that it is easy to read and easy to understand.
As a visual learner I found the images in the book helped me to understand how a certain setting should look and what I need to do to get the shot I want. Katie explains every single detail we need to know to take that camera off Auto and get those professional shots.

74 pages of easy to read but detailed explanations and some superb photographs to illustrate her points and meanings.
Katie really does cover everything in this book from those o so confusing Fstops to composure to editing - it's all there.

                         DISCOUNT ALERT:- Get 20% discount on ebook and hardcopy.
                                          Use Discount Code: Coachhouse


                                                                        Giveaway:

1 lucky reader will receive a copy of Katies ebook ' The key to taking pictures like a professional photographer'.

                                                                   How to Enter:

1) Leave a comment on this blog telling me what y'all are up to this weekend (required)
2) Follow this blog on GFC or Linky and leave a comment letting me know (optional)
3) Follow Katie Evans FB page and leave me a comment letting me know (optional)

This giveaway will end on Friday 16th March @ 6pm GMT. Winner will be chosen at random.

Linked up to:

Blog Giveaway Directory
O so savvy mom

Double prizes 
Niftythriftythings 
Joy2journey 

EditMe wk10

EditMe challenge wk10

Yay, this week we have an animal to edit and not just any animal mind, a bootiful horse in a bootiful pasture!
Problem is, the image was already so gorgeous I couldn't really figure out what to do with it!

Anyway the bootiful horse was submitted this week by Amy Sands  of 'Little Adventures'. Thank you Amy, I just luuuuurved this image.

Here's my edit:

• Opened in CS5
• Cropped and straightened the fence line a tad.
• Cloned out the house in the background.
• Cloned out the headcollar and leadrope.
• Ran a couple of 'Coffee shop actions'
• Boosted the colours even more.
• Sharpened a teeny bit.
• Added a Black/White/Black border.
• Flattened the whole lot.

Like I said I really enjoyed this image.
Thank you as always to Branson for hosting this challenge and to our new co-host Stephanie, I love this weekly edit!
Thank you also to Amy for this fabulous image.
And finally Thank you to you guys for staying with me this far. If this challenge looks appealing to you then head on over to the EditMe site and join in the fun, or if you'd rather just look at all the other fabulous edits that's Ok too.

Wow, that sounded like an Oscar acceptance speech didn't it!

Linked to:

It's a Hodgepodge Life
The Shabby Nest 
Craftjunkie too 
Sassysites 
Fun on a dime

Herb planter & Fish food holder

Herb / Tomato planter & Fish food holder.


I have so many projects on the go at the moment and nothing actually finished so what's a girl to do when it comes to writing a post for her blog?
I considered doing nothing but that just felt wrong!
I considered featuring someone elses blog but I've done that so many times that it feels like that's just a lazy cop out!
I even considered posting nothing but some cute pictures of my pets but I figured maybe you guys won't be as gaga at their cuteness as their biased owner is - so what to do?

Well, I scraped the barrel - literally - and decided to show you 2 projects I did way back that may have no interest to you but then again they may.

The first is a Fish food holder.
I know, who needs one of those right? Well we did!
We have a natural mini lake here and just before we moved in we emptied the contents of our teeny weeny pond into this lake.
The fish seemed to dissappear from view and for a couple of years we didn't see them, until one day a huge Golden fish appeared, then another and then a silvery looking one followed by a load of Orange or Black Goldfish (huh, how ironic - Orange & Black Goldfish!!).
those Golden ones and the Silvery one turned out to be Koi and they were thriving in this natural pond so we bought a load more. They too thrived and we had some humongous fish that we loved to sit and watch and feed.
This is where the feed holder came in:

Schlepping about for fish food can be tiresome when you get to the pond and realise you've forgotten to pick it up so that's why I decided to make this holder. It means we can fill the inside container with food and then just close the lid and lock it up, it makes it so much easier to feed those fishies.

(excuse the state of the boat, I forgot to turn it over and now it's full of water - oops)
All made from scrapwood too as usual - yay!

Then I have this herb/flower planter to show ya!

You need a bit of imagination for this but originally this was 2 seperate containers.
In my never ending search for greenhouse spacesavers I came up with this idea for growing my Tomato plants.
Imagine the top container isn't there - got that?
Now imagine a couple of bamboo canes inserted through holes drilled into the upright stakes - kay?
So now we have that bottom container with the two side stakes and 2 horizontal bamboos. Next I would fill it half way up with compost and then sink 2 open bottomed plant pots into the compost. Fill the plant pots with compost and put 1 Tomato plant in each pot - perfect Tomato grower and light enough to move around as needed.
Perfect for Herbs too.

I grow Tomatoes in my PT now and use raised beds hence why I turned 2 of the Tomato grower boxes into one space saving planter.
I'm thinking upright Fuschia for the bottom and trailing Fuschia for the top - I luuuuurve Fuschia!

Linked up to:
JAQS Studio
Threemangoseeds 
AthomewithK
TipJunkie 
Notjustahousewife 
DIYhshp