Today, my daughter was born for the second time. After eight years of having “not stated” next to the Father’s name on her birth certificate, she can finally say, with absolute certainty, that she has a dad. We had our adoption hearing this morning and my husband, who just yesterday was only a step-father, is now a true, legal father. I plan to write more about this, but just wanted to share my joy in this moment.
{this moment} – A Friday ritual, inspired by SouleMama. A single photo – no words – capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember.
One of the reasons I wanted to start a blog is because I derive so much pleasure from looking at the gorgeous photos that other mamas take of their kids and the events in their lives. I wanted to share my own life in that way. We have an okay camera, the Canon PowerShot SX10 IS. It’s not a total piece of junk, but it’s not a DSLR. I used to find it endlessly frustrating that I could get great shots lined up, but the color always looked washed out or the photos came out grainy. Some of this is user error (okay, most of it), but some is just the equipment and that can’t be remedied by adjusting settings.
However, one day, while I was mindlessly cruising around Pinterest, I came across The CoffeeShop Blog, a site created by a stay-at-home mama named Rita. Oh my goodness. I am in love. (With the site not with Rita, though she seems nice enough!) This amazing woman has created Photoshop action sequences that can be downloaded *for free* and applied to your photos in a matter of seconds. No more trying to learn the 85 steps necessary to make your photos look like they were taken by a professional. Now, you just click a button or two.
Usually, I don’t like cheating. But, in this situation, I am all for it. Just check out how awesome some of my pictures have turned out using her actions!
My daughter Lillia at her Waldorf school’s May Day celebration, 2010.
For some of her actions, Rita includes multiple choices for different effects, which is really helpful.
Lillia at home on May Day this year, 2011.
Both sets were enhanced using Rita’s CoffeeShop Color Pop 2 Action. I highly, highly, highly recommend you visit her site, if you have Photoshop or Photoshop Elements. You will be amazed at what your photos can turn into with just a few clicks!
Thank you, Rita, for your talent, your creativity, and your generosity!
We have an unfinished basement in our new house. It is John Deere green. It was painted this horrid shade by the previous owner. I am not joking. I have photos to prove it.
When we bought our house, we had about two months to move in before our lease on our rental was up. I thought, “Fantastic! we can actually be methodical and move things in and put them away, instead of throwing everything in the basement!” But, I was pregnant, and we had to wait for some electrical work and painting to get done, and pretty soon we had just a couple of weeks. Then, I got a kidney stone. Ouch! In the end, my parents, saints that they are, spent the greater part of a weekend moving most of our stuff for us, with help from my husband. With the time constraints in place, guess where everything ended up? That’s right, in the basement.
Here is a photo of its current condition:
Horrifying, I know. The good news is that beyond the hideous color, it is actually in great shape. Our house is 960 sq. ft. (pretty darn small). But, if we were able to actually use the basement as living space (i.e. playroom, office, etc.) it would be like having two houses! Awesome!
Unfortunately, we are living on one income while I am home with the little one, and we just spent the year buying houses and having babies and kidney surgeries, so we don’t have much in the way of a budget. Read: our budget is non-existent. However, we would eventually love to put up some insulation and sheetrock the walls, and then wall off the ugly oil burner/oil tank area. We don’t want to create rooms down there, per se, but getting rid of the utility eyesores, and then creating spaces within the larger area for playing/working/laundry would be ideal.
Of course, we have all kinds of exposed beams, and joists, and pipes, and whatnot on the ceiling. Drop ceilings are expensive, and very basement-y looking, so that’s not a good solution for us. However, as I was looking on Pinterest the other day, I saw an image of a room with a white painted ceiling. It had exposed beams that looked very similar to how our basement ceiling looks. Here’s the inspiration photo:
So, I started thinking, “Hey, I wonder if anyone has actually painted their basement ceiling before?” Turns out, many people have! Here are some great examples: (Note: you can find the source info for these photos by visiting my Basement board on Pinterest.)
Personally, I would love to do a light blue, kind of like these rooms (neither of which is a basement, so you’ll have to use your imagination):
That’s my plan, for now. Of course, the first step is taking care of the “stuff” that is everywhere! I plan to donate, recycle, and/or toss anything and everything I can. I planned to do that as we moved but, for the reasons mentioned above, that didn’t happen. Updates to follow as we make progress!
{this moment} – A Friday ritual, inspired by SouleMama. A single photo – no words – capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember.
