A little Christmas Cheer

I have been obsessed this holiday season to get good pictures of my tree. I found many great tutorials online but decided to go with the one from Kevin and Amanda. They not only showed a great way to get my lights to pop, but they added a fun little addition I had to try. She used an 85mm 1.8, but you could easily use a 50mm 1.8, or 35mm 1.8. For my photos I used my 50mm 1.8 lens.

Nikon 50mm 1.8
Manual Mode
f/1.8
1/30 sec
3200 ISO

Nikon 50mm 1.8

f/1.8

1/30 sec

3200 ISO

For this shot I used my manual focus and simply turned it until it was out of focus. You will see the light go from small to big circles.



Nikon 50mm 1.8

f/1.8

1/30 sec

2500 ISO

This is where I used the tutorial from Kevin and Amanda. It also made it seem like I used a fish eye lens.

Nikon 50mm 1.8
f/1.8
1/30 sec
3200 ISO

Here is Elfis getting in on the fun.

Thanks for stopping by my blog. I hope everyone has a great Holiday season.

A message from Santa!

My kids are 2 1/2 this Christmas so we have started out little traditions around our house. They are learning about Santa and the nice/naughty list. Of course, we also have our Elf on a Shelf named Elfis. I am an Elvis fan so the name is very fitting. The kids always have fun looking for him in the mornings and I always have fun thinking of what shenanigans the little guy should get into the night before. If you haven't decided to get one they are a lot of fun. I would have loved it when I was a kid.

Along with our elf tradition we have a message from Santa. My sister told me about a website called Portable North Pole, which you can find here. You can customize a message to your kids and receive a video email from Santa. It is really cute, and the kids love hearing Santa say their names and talk about that special present they have asked for. You can also send them to adults which could be fun for those scrooges in the family.

I hope everyone is having a great holiday season. Thanks for stopping by.

You know you're a mom when...

I thought I would take moment away from my normal sewing or craft projects to tell you about something I read the other day. The unthinkable happened a couple days ago, my Kindle battery died. :( I have had it since January and this is the first time I have had to charge it. I can't believe how long the battery life is. I was then forced to do something crazy and pick up an actual book. It felt so wrong, like I was cheating on my Kindle. :)

The book I picked was one that was given to me when I was pregnant called Life Lessons for  Busy Moms. It's kind of like a Chicken Soup book. I chose it because it seemed like an easy read to take outside while this kids played. I remember scanning through it while I was pregnant and didn't really relate to much. It's funny how life changes after becoming a mom. Something that stuck out to me was a list titled You know you're a mom when...

1. You plan your day according to when Sesame Street is on.
2. You have signed a check with a crayon.
3. You find Goldfish crackers in the glove box of your car.
4. You wipe other kids noses.
5. You have accidentally brushed your teeth with Desitin.
6. You have caught spit-up with your hand.
7. You leave for a date with your hubby with a diaper bag instead of a purse.
8. You have memorized the lineup of Saturday morning cartoons.
9. You have finally paid for all of your groceries and leaving when you realize your child has lost a shoe somewhere in the store.
10. You can recite Goodnight Moon and Green Eggs and Ham by heart.
11. You let your child sit in his dirty diaper until Oprah is over.
12. You have a fifteen minute conversation about your baby with a complete stranger at the grocery store.
13. You filled up your child's baby book before her first birthday, or tooth appeared.
14. You silently curse people if they call during nap time.
15. You forgot you mother in laws first name because you now refer to her as Grandma.
16. You arrange your travel plan based on McDonald's playland locations.
17. You are just as surprised when you sleep through the night as when your child does.
18. You consider the person who invented the sippy cup a genius.
19. You see a mom from your child's playgroup and know the child's name but not hers.
20. You consider it a major triumph if you shower by noon.
21. You justify every excessive crying spell with teething.
22. You pick up the phone and call your mother when your baby rolls over for the first time.
23. You have kept your favorite babysitter a secret from other mothers in your playgroup.
24. You have your pediatrician's phone number on speed dial.
25. You own the entire Baby Einstein DVD collection.
26. You find yourself humming the Rubber Duckie song in the shower.
27. You have dressed your child in whatever is on top of the laundry pile.
28. You cry at Johnson & Johnson commercials.
29. You would trade your whole life savings for one good night sleep.
30. You see your parents in a whole new light.
31. You consider parenting to be the best job in the world.

I have to say that I don't relate to all of these, but I related to enough to not be sure if I should laugh or cry. I do relate to the last one most of all. I'm blessed to be a stay at home mom, and wouldn't trade it for the world. I will admit some days are just harder than others.

I hope everyone has a great week. Thanks for stopping by my blog.

Valentines by Picnik

I hope everyone is having a great Valentines day. I decided to make some last minute Valentines, for my husband, from the kids. I used the Picnik program. I love using this program, it is so user friendly. I use it more than my Photoshop for quick projects. I just thought I would share these with everyone. I will be back this week with a sewing project, and a few more additions to the upcoming birthday party.

Blog Face Lift/ Now Advertising

I don't know about anyone else, but I'm ready for a season change. I have a bad case of Spring fever. I've started my spring cleaning around here a little early, and getting ready for yard sale at the first sight of warm weather. My motto this week is out with the old, and in with the new. I am including my blog in that, with a little face lift. I designed the header and buttons on Picnik. I love how simple this program is to use. You can use most of the gadgets for free, but can upgrade for a small cost. 


I also added a PR Friendly/Advertising tab at the top of my blog, if anyone is interested. 


I hope everyone is having a great start to their week. Thanks for stopping by my blog.

Vanilla Brown Sugar Scrub

I have been looking all over the web to find a homemade hand scrub for my extremely dry hands. As the temperature drop my hands seem to get more dry. I stumbled upon the vanilla brown sugar scrub over at Under the Table Dreaming by Stephanie. I love her blog for gift ideas. She is so creative. I loved that I already had everything I needed for this in my pantry, and I bet you will too. They are very common household items.

Ingredients:

2 cups brown sugar
1 cup granulated sugar
*Mix above two until smooth
 then add:
1 cup olive oil or sunflower oil
1 tablespoon pure vanilla extract

When all my ingredients were mixed well I put them in a mason jar. You can use any sealable container. She also had a instructions for a lemon scrub, but I didn't have any lemons. I may try that one when this one runs out.

Thanks for stopping by my blog.

Vampire Diaries Premier

I know this is not usually the type of thing I post about, but I thought I would share anyway. I will start by telling a little back story of why I would post this in the first place. I was recommended by a friend to give the Twilight books a shot, and was sucked in by the vampire phenomenon that we are in right now. When I heard they were making a show called Vampire Diaries I was really excited. When I found out it was on CW I thought it might be a little cheesy, but was pleasantly surprised. They had their season 2 premier tonight, and it was great. If you are a fellow Twilight lover, you may want to check Vampire Diaries out. If you don't care anything about the vampire craze, that's ok. If you would rather watch it for the really hot guys in the show, that's fine. Truth be told, that's half the reason I watch it. Seriously, where do guys that look like that come from anyway?