A quick skywatch post

This was the sunset this afternoon, breath taking!

To see more great entries click below.



Have a great weekend.
N@

Red Velvet cookies, yummo!

Nicolas woke up early yesterday and after watching some cartoons, I was looking for a project to do with Nicolas.  I remembered I had all the ingredients for the easiest red velvet cookies ever. For the recipe click here.  I originally wanted to make a Pioneer Woman like post but I couldn't do it with a two year old.  So I only have 4 pictures; before, after and a few of Nicolas enjoying the finished product.

Here they are...

I hope you are having a wonderful Holiday Season.  Wishing you many more cookies this Christmas season. Yum.

N@

Skywatch from my car

I was driving home and I kept seeing the sky as the sun was setting and the clouds and sky kept changing colors. It was amazing. I kept driving and all I wanted is to find a spot to get the shot. But I settled on taking it from the inside of the car.

This is SOOC (I only cropped it). For more great skywatch and SOOC entries click below.

Have a great weekend!!

N@

Christmas Photo Card Revealed

I have been an official amateur photographer for a year now and I have no prints to show for it! The horror! So this year I told myself that I was going to make a photo Christmas card early and incorporate some of my pictures. I wanted to share my new skills and my family. I wish Pebbles would have been in the family portrait but she did not fit in the car. Oh well.

So I went on Shutterfly and found a cute template and here it is!

Sweet Tree Christmas

Make a statement with Shutterfly Christmas photo cards.

View the entire collection of cards.

I enlisted my father in law to take our picture after I set up the shot and it turned out great. We are all smiling and I love the fall landscape behind us.

Here is a larger version of the picture.

I hope you are having a wonderful holiday season! and I would love to see your Christmas photo card. So make sure to leave me a comment and I will gladly stop by and check it out!

Let the holiday season begin!
N@

Nic and Leo

We had a great long weekend and I took advantage and got everyone for a photo shoot on Saturday. Here is one of my favorites from that day. I love Leo's face because he looks so cute trying to make Nicolas laugh. And Nicolas was loving all the attention from his Papi.

I'm learning Photoshop Elements 8 (PSE 8) and after taking the skinny mini PSE course I feel a little better equipped. I downloaded The Pioneer Woman's PSE actions and played w/ them tonight. Here is the SOOC picture.

And here are my two edits. One is a clean edit, I ran it through ACR and then played a little w/ the layers and that was it. The B&W was an action and I just tweaked one of the layers, I think it was the bump layer to 70% opacity.

So what do you think? How did I do for my 2nd try at PSE? [my first try was for my Christmas card family photo but I don't want to reveal that just yet :) ]

Have a great rest of the week!

N@

A beautiful foggy sunrise

Foggy mornings really excite me and Monday was amazing. It was foggy and the sun was trying to poke through the thick white fog.

I pulled into my parking spot at work and had to get this shot. This is SOOC and I think once I get my computer space back (we have family visiting and our office is being used as a guest room) I will edit out the power line.

I'm entering this one in Trendy Treehouse Photo Challenge: Fall. The beautiful colorful and foggy sky screams fall to me. To see more great entries click below.


Keep clicking!
N@

Thankful Thursday-Vacation Edition

October 30th I ran my first long(ish) distance race since Nicolas was born. After training for a month or so the day came. The best part was that after jogging 6.2 miles we got snacks and a Blue Moon. It was a little early, 9:30 am, but it was a perfect way to end the race.



The weekend was beautiful; the sun was shinning, the ocean breeze felt amazing and we hung out with great friends.

We drove back to Raleigh on Oct. 31 but before we headed back, we walked along the beach. I was able to get a few cute shots of my two boys. So today for thankful Thursday, I'm thankful for my two boys. Leo is a great hubby and father. And Nicolas, what is there not to love.





Later!
N@

I dedicate this post to...

I dedicate this post to Nicolas. Why? Because I've been in a photo and blogging rut and he is my inspiration.

So...

Nicolas is 20 months old! I can not believe how fast his 2nd year is flying by. Not the greatest picture but it really shows how big he is getting. He is such an independent and adventure seeking little guy. He doesn't like the baby swing anymore, he is a big boy!

When I look back at how far we have come it takes my breath away. The first 3 months were hard, no sugar coating it. Nicolas was a pretty good baby but I was overwhelmed. I was anxious, sleep deprived, exhausted, nervous, etc. It slowly got better but I didn't feel like myself until Nic was 9 months. I'm not sure what it was exactly; Nic was sleeping better, not stressing about nursing as much, picking up a new hobby (photography), jogging again, or a more consistent routine. And although the first 9 months were hard, they are gone and all that is left are memories and pictures. And I'm thankful for that.

And speaking of pictures. Here is a collage of his first year

and his second year up to this point.

(the lighting and editing is all different, sorry. But this post is more to share a glimpse of mommyhood and less of a display of improving photography skills)

I have pictures to unload from my camera and challenges to enter so hopefully this weekend will be a productive photography and blogging one.

For those reading, thanks for letting me ramble and be all over the place.

Have a great Thursday and if I don't blog again a great weekend.

ETA: I don't usually blog hop but found this blog hop through The Paper Mama and thought it would be cool. So if you want to blog hop as well...click on the button below.



N@

On Cloud Nine Photo Challenge

I came across this photo challenge and remembered this cute picture of Nicolas and me. If anyone else would see this picture it is an ok picture of a mom and a son. But to me it is one of my favorites of Nic and me. It is in focus, we are both smiling and looking at the camera; I'm easily amused. So without further ado, here it is.

To see more great photo entries click below

ps: I found some more photo challenges and this picture still applies. So please link up to these to see more great entries.

Have a great hump day!
N@

Scavenger Hunt 10/24

Here is another entry for Scavenger Hunt Sunday. Most categories will showcase Nicolas since I didn't have much time to think outside the box this week.

Sky

The Raleigh skies have been amazing. Beautiful cloud formations and colors that range from black to pinks. Just amazing.

Child

I hardly ever try to go and get posed pictures of Nic but as I walked along the lake I tried giving Nic instructions and he actually listen. This is just one of my favorites from that session.

Dinning:

This one is a stretch but I didn't get one of officially dinning but I did get Nicolas eating an apple. Does this count? ;)

Five senses:

I tried with both Nic and Pebbles to get a picture of the 5 senses but I was only able to get Pebbles nose Nic would not sit still enough to even get one close up of his eyes. So instead I'm submitting this one because you can see 4 out of the 5 body parts that represent the 5 senses (eyes, nose, mouth, and ears).

Night

And lastly night. The moon was so bright and beautiful it was begging to photograph it last week when it was full.

To see more great entries click

I hope you have enjoyed my entries! Have a great week!

N@

Foggy Thursday

This morning I looked out the window and I could barely see the street in front of my house. The fog was so dense. I had been waiting for a morning like this because I was envisioning the most awesome pictures. I took a few this morning and while some turned out most were disappointing. Until I took the one below.

I love this picture; the sun, the path, the fall leaves, and the mood of this picture.

This picture is SOOC (straight out of the camera). This will be my first entry to SOOC Sunday and Simplicity. To see more great SOOC pictures click here and the Simplicity button below.

Have a great one!

N@

Hanging out with the boys

This weekend I met up with a few of my mommy photographer friends at a beautiful local park to take some pictures of our handsome boys. The park was perfect, old barns, tree lined paths, a rock retaining wall and much more. Here are a few of my favorite pictures.

To see more click on my flickr photostream on the sidebar. I hope you enjoyed them.

Maybe next time some of their girlfriends will join them. ;)

N@

Scavenger Hunt 10/18

I'm back to doing the scavenger hunt and this week it was tough. I tried getting some cool shots but ended up with kinda boring ones but I still wanted to participate.

1) Faces framed in nature

So I kinda cheated on this one b/c I made the eyes but doesn't this leaf look like an elephant?

2) Jack-O-Lantern

The finished product. By the way this was the first time we have ever carved pumpkins. Not to shabby.

3) Warm

A boring scarf.

4) Side lighting

I tried many different things and these were my two favorites of my two favorite things to photograph, Nic and Pebbles.

5) Sunset (from my archives)

And this one is a little different. I set up the shot and my BFF took the picture. I wanted to get a silhouette of Leo and me while on vacation. Not perfect but good enough.

I hope you have enjoyed them. Too see more great scavenger hunt entries click below.

Until next time!N@

Let there be light

The Simplicity's photo challenge this week is "light." There is so many different interpretations but tonight the moon just spoke to me and it said "take my picture". It was creepy, LOL. The only light in the sky was the half moon.

To see more entries for light click below.

This also works for skywatch. Click below for more entries.

Have a great rest of the week.

Black and White Wednesday 10/13

I've been running for about 5 years and never thought of this place as a cool photo location until I started seeing the lines and the beauty of the warm fall day. Nic was surprisingly cooperative and I actually got a few of him looking at the camera! This is just one of my favorite shots of the day. I didn't look at my meter and overexposed this shot (oops). I thought I could salvage it by turning it to B&W. What do you think? Does it work? Hopefully The Long Road to China will have its weekly Challenge. If not this was a good excuse to blog about my little guy.

Have a great hump day!
N@