I sort of feel like mother of the year when I look at this picture.  Mud makes me completely insane, I hate the unavoidable mess.  Yet!  Because my children ADORE mud, I let them jump and splash in the mud puddles in our yard after Friday evening’s rain.

At least the light was perfect and I at least I got a few shots of the children.  And at least I was going out that evening with friends and leaving Tate to clean up two very muddy children.  So not only am I mother of the year for letting them play in the mud, I’m also a genius for doing it on a night that I wouldn’t have to deal with the aftermath.

You can see my entire set of photos for my project 365 {2010} on Flickr.

©2012 Playgroups are No Place For Children. All Rights Reserved.

Greetings from somewhere along our way up the Cherohala Skyway!

*******

It’s only my favorite photo of the week because the WHOLE family is in the picture!  Unheard of!  I used my tripod and felt like a real, live photographer!  Everyone is looking at the camera, I’m pretending that Ella’s eyes are open.  You can pretend, too!

*******

Saturday morning, we packed some lunches and the kids into the car and drove the Cherohala Skyway from Tellico Plains, TN to Robbinsville, NC.  From there, we headed back home via the Tail of the Dragon.   The Tail of the Dragon boasts 318 curves in 11 miles.  I don’t know which was more dangerous, the road itself or the copious amounts of gas station snacks we ate that day.

*******

You can see my entire set of photos for my project 365 {2010} on Flickr.

©2012 Playgroups are No Place For Children. All Rights Reserved.

My favorite photo of the week was a complete accident. It’s also one that I look at and sometimes think, “I ADORE this picture SO MUCH,” while other times I look at it and think, “I miss Photshop so much, it is physically painful to look at the mess I made of this photo.”

Ella has only recently started to get attached to a doll/stuffed animal/lovie. Up until a few weeks ago, she had no favorites, but now she can’t do anything without Fuzzy Bunny. This is a picture of snack time with Fuzzy Bunny. (Please pray that we can keep Fuzzy Bunny from getting lost because THE WORLD WILL END if she somehow gets misplaced. Amen.)

*********
Post #2

Have you all seen Team UmiZoomi? Well we in the Playgroupie household are BIG FANS. It’s probably because we’ve got mighty math powers.

Ella sings and dances along to the song at the end at the end of the show. For your viewing pleasure, please enjoy this 27 second video. If you don’t think it’s cute, then I suspect that you have you likely “have a dead fish for a heart. Good luck with that.” (Direct quote from Lotus, I am Lotus/Sarcastic Mom.)

**If you’re reading from Facebook or from a feed reader, you may have to click through to see the video.**

We all love Umi Zoomi from Playgroupie on Vimeo.

©2012 Playgroups are No Place For Children. All Rights Reserved.

For Christmas a year ago, her Nanny (my mom) gave her make-up that I stealthily hid in my closet for when she was older.

I guess she was finally “older” last week when after day after day after day after day of being stuck inside due to frigid and wet weather I had run out of ways to entertain her.  What I really needed was a peaceful shower, so I gave her the make-up with instructions to “have fun!”

She LOVED it.  In her true fashion, the messiest child on the planet had purple make-up covering most every inch of visible skin (not shown in the above picture.)

I loved that I was able to capture her joy.

You can see my entire set of photos for my project 365 {2010} on Flickr.

******

Remember how we got a new computer last week?  Temporarily insane, Tate bought it much to my delight.  There’s been a bit of a problem, though.  Tate has to regularly log onto work at home.  Imagine our frustration (read:  not OUR frustration, but Tate’s CURSING and YELLING) when he found out that Mac is not supported by his work.

Uh oh.

We are now ALSO the proud new owners of a brand new PC netbook.

I foresee a lot of rice and beans and beans and rice on our menu for the next few months.

©2012 Playgroups are No Place For Children. All Rights Reserved.

I tell him not to smile.  I tell him that giggles and being happy is NOT ALLOWED.

And this is what I get.  (My favorite picture this week.)

What a goofball.

******

My computer passed away this week.  It’s fine, she’s been very ill for a long time.

I did get a new computer, a shiny new Macbook.  Happy Valentine’s Day,  Happy President’s Day, Happy Birthday until 2015, Happy Arbor Day, and Merry Christmas until the end of time to me!  It’s all very new and fancy, I do love it…but…I don’t have access to Photoshop.  I’m going to limp by on iPhotos and Picnik until I can buy a new, Mac friendly version of PS.  I know, my life is SO HARD.

******

You can see my entire set of photos for my project 365 {2010} on Flickr.

©2012 Playgroups are No Place For Children. All Rights Reserved.

I am totally and completely in love with this picture of Ella, awake only minutes and already demanding to wear boots to go play in the snow.   And the sunflare!  I can’t believe the sun was in *just* the right spot for me to have captured such lovely sunflare!

Alright, I cannot tell a lie.

The sunflare was added in Photoshop.  I am both appalled at this new knowledge, that sunflare can just be added with a simple click and overjoyed that sunflare can just be ADDED WITH A SIMPLE CLICK.

“Tate!  Look at this picture!  Look at the sunflare I added!  I’ve been trying to capture sunflare with my camera forever and all I had to do was add it in Photoshop!”

He looked at me with a stern expression.  “Isn’t that kind of cheating?”

I don’t have an answer.  I don’t know!  Is it cheating?  (Even if it is cheating, I love this picture with the power of  a thousand burning photoshopped sun(flare)s.)

You can see my entire set of photos for my project 365 {2010} on Flickr.

©2012 Playgroups are No Place For Children. All Rights Reserved.

week 3.  escort.

This photo was one of those that I just snapped, there was no set up or begging the children to cooperate. I love it when it’s easy.

I wish I would have saved a copy of this photo SOOC (straight out of the camera) to show how great a few simple edits in Photoshop changed this okay picture into a pretty darn good one.

Speaking of Photoshop, one of the reasons I’m doing this whole 365 project is because I need to actually learn how to use the version of Photoshop that’s been on my computer for over 2 years (Elements 6).  I’ve found Photoshop to be incredibly frustrating, but I refuse to buy any books about how to use it because reading something like that sounds about as fun as a root canal.  I just want to magically know how to use it.

I did find a FANTASTIC, LIFE CHANGING tutorial on Pioneer Woman’s site.  It was so simple to follow and basically I’ve done a version of this very thing to every single picture I’ve taken the past three weeks.  This tutorial covered the whole “layers” thing, which is PIVOTAL to Photoshop success and explains why I never could get it to do anything for me before.

Of course, I still have a looooooong way to go with learning Photoshop.   For example, I need to start using some of the actions I’ve downloaded from Coffee Shop Photography.  It’s sorta kinda complicated to get the actions to work, so I just need about a month of uninterrupted time on the computer to work on it.  (See also:  Things that will never happen.)

Just for giggles, please note the picture below.  I decided to do some experimenting in Photoshop. The color?  Is atrocious.    In my defense, you shoulda seen it before I did anything to it.  It looked even worse.  I was sick of photo editing by the time it got to this point, so this was the final result.  GEEZ.  I’m LEARNING, okay??

For anybody who is still reading and decides to comment on this terribly boring photography babble post, I just want to say that you are a true friend.  For those of you who think Photoshop is sooooo easy, I’ve got my fingers in my ears saying, “La, la, la, la.  I CAN’T HEAR YOU.”

You can see my entire set of photos for my project 365 {2010} on Flickr.

©2012 Playgroups are No Place For Children. All Rights Reserved.

One of my goals is to continue to learn and grow as a photographer.  I’m so inspired by other’s creativity and risk-taking in photography that I decided to really commit myself to a project that would force me to open my eyes to the photographic possibilities around me.  I’m currently 17 days into taking 365 photos, one each day for the year 2010.

It’s hard.  It’s hard to always be in the mood to take a picture, to be creative, to relax enough to truly capture a moment.  I feel like if I don’t do this, though, I’m never going to be the photographer that I want to be.

On Sundays, I’m going to try and post my favorite capture from the previous week.  (Try.  Sundays are busy.)  Since I didn’t start until this week, I’m posting my favorite from the first and second weeks of the project.

week 1. the injustice

week 2. bath

You can see my entire set of photos for my project 365 {2010} on Flickr.

©2012 Playgroups are No Place For Children. All Rights Reserved.