No Family Allowed

Anders has been in a pretty grumpy mood for the last several days, complaining and whining about nearly everything. He was mad at lunch today about something (not sure what- surely something deeply concerning, like the color of his cup) so he went to his room for a few minutes then came out with the above sign and asked for some tape to put it up on his door. I love the giant slash through our family. It's like we're a giant cigarette in his no-smoking zone. I gave him some tape. He explained that when his door is closed and this sign is up he just wants to be alone. If, however, the door is closed but he's not in his room, then we're free to enter his room. Great.

I have to say, it's a very effective sign- clear and to the point. Kudos to our little grump.

The Amazingly Messy Aani

Oh! So this is why the kitchen floor is AL-WAYS dirty!

Be not fooled by the mildness of the mess below her; I had just swept (for the 4th time today).

Even with that messy, goopy face, hands, arms, shirt and floor, I could just eat her up.

Fun with AAA

To spare you all from the horrible post below, here are some pictures of my beautiful children for your viewing pleasure.

Ready for church

Addie and her new hat take a swing

We went to Nils' brother's birthday party where they served the infamous Costco chocolate layer cake. Addie has a special knack for getting food all over her face.

Happy news: Yesterday was Aani's 9 month birthday. To celebrate I weighed myself 'cuz I'm wild like that. I was at my pre-pregnancy weight! 9 months on, 9 months off. It made me happy.

Caucasian Balls

Anders has been asking what color our skin is. If you know Anders, you know that he's very literal, so if I were to tell him that our skin is white, he would have a problem with that. I mean, it's not actually white, now is it? So, I broke out the word Caucasian and let him try it out for size. He seemed quite satisfied and has used the word every now and then.

Nils was pouring himself a bowl of granola on Saturday morning. Anders said, "I've never seen that kind of granola before. It kind of looks like Caucasian balls."

Changing the subject completely from skin color and balls, we came across a pretty cool website recently called Storyline Online. If you want your kids entertained for a few effortless minutes, famous actors read wonderful stories. Our kids love it. And we love that they love it. And they love that we love that they love it. Shall I go on?

Digital Nip & Tuck Session with Today's Guests, Fernando & Fernanda

On Wednesday I took some engagement photos for a co-worker, who we'll call Fernanda and then asked her and her fiance, who we'll call Fernando, to pick out three or four that they liked the best so I could edit them. She chose three but she left out one of my favorite shots so I decided to go ahead and doctor it up anyway. The above image is the original.
My first step was to fix the colors just a bit.

Then I commenced the nip, tuck process. Starting with Fernanda, I slimmed the neck, removed some chinnage and smoothed out her skin. To do the neck/chin I mostly just adjusted the solid shadow and extended it to the light area so there was no grey area of shadow. Just light and dark. I also used the smudge tool to push her skin in a bit and thin her jaw/neck area out.


Then on to Fernando. I'm not quite sure why I'm using fake names. I guess to protect the innocent. Anyway, Fernando had a happier face in another shot so I decided to gently remove his head from the other shot and carefully place it on to his body in this shot. It was painful for him but more so for me because the smiley head was photographed in a different part of the park and needed some tweaking to work with the bridge version of Fernando. I gave Fernando a nip and tuck, too. Again, extending the shadows to make a solid chin then smoothing out the skin and removing highlights on the forehead and cheeks.
When Fernando's new head looked so nice, Fernanda got jealous. She too wanted a new head so I granted her wish. With the new head in place, a new nip and tuck session was necessary. I took care of that the same way.

I showed Katrina the results and she said it looked better but the blowing hair on the side of her face was distracting so I politely asked Fernanda to pull back her hair. She obliged.

At that point the editing was pretty much taken care of, or at least the surgical procedures. I then played around with the mood of the photo and settled on this.


Here's the finished product. Of course, the full color version is available to her if she prefers that. Also, because I did this all in photoshop, she can choose which head she and her fiance have and how her hair is done simply by making layers visible or invisible. Aaah, Photoshop. I was meant for this dispensation.If anybody else would like a nip and tuck (digitally only- sorry) then feel free to send me a photo. I enjoy the practice.

Indulgences

I've been taking a little blogging hiatus lately as you may have noticed. I've just been too busy straightening my hair to blog. I got a Chi flat iron. Holy schneikes, it's awesome! It works so fast and makes my hair look so normal! Anders doesn't think I'm his mother when it's straight. He keeps telling me I'm prettier with curly hair. Despite the trauma to my son, I do enjoy having the option of straight or curly hair now.

Last week I was invited to a shoe party. I loved all the shoes there. They drive a trailer full of shoes to the house, so when you buy a pair, you take them home that night. I bought three pairs of shoes! THREE! I BOUGHT THREE PAIRS OF SHOES! YES, I AM YELLING THIS! They were all under $20. I felt it was my obligation as a citizen of Earth to host one myself. So, everyone in the world is invited to my shoe party on May 7. Well, everyone except criminals and would-be criminals.

It took me an hour to leave the house on Friday because I couldn't decide which pair of shoes to wear. 3 pairs of shoes for $60. Not too shabby!

Illusions

I should be in bed but I came across an interesting website and, among other things, thought this collection was pretty awesome. Check it out.