Reflections...

Yesterday we took the kids to the park. It seemed so nice out, but ended up being much colder than it looked. The kids wanted to stay and play longer, but I only lasted about 20 minutes. I loaded these pictures onto my computer and when I pulled this one up of Jack, my initial thought was that something looked creepy about his eyes. He had these red marks in them and I hadn't used the flash. When I zoomed in I found a reflection of me and everything behind me. Pretty cool huh?

Blackmail pics for later....shhh

Haley said that he "wanted" to wear the tutu, so she helped him into it. Apparently he thought it was pretty cool and kept it on for a while. I thought it was kinda funny, but then, he started vaccuuming in it. hmmm, should I be worried?

I'm always wearing hand-me-downs.
I don't get stuff that's new.
My mom won't take me shopping.
I don't know what to do.
The dresses always fit me fine,
But high heels give me blisters.
It's not easy growing up,
A boy with older sisters.

Can you tell I got a flash for Christmas?

..up until now, i've concentrated on using only "natural light". But I was pretty excited to find a flash under my tree(thanks dad!) because I've been sick of ISO 1600 crappy noise! grrr. So now i'm off to figure out how to use my new toy. Pretty fun stuff!

Bella's Black and White.. UPDATE

First of all I want to Thank everyone who has been interested in and tried out my Black and White Action. It has been so flattering to see so many people interested in something that I created. :) The stats show that there have been over 800 downloads! I couldn't even believe it myself! It really makes me excited to want to create and share more.
However,....There have been several people receiving error messages. I'm 99% sure that this has something to do with the GS website that I used. I know if some of you will try to download again, you might have better luck. Several of you have e-mailed me and I promise that I'm trying to respond to all of your e-mails and get you a working copy. I am overwhelmed at the moment by them, but trying hard to get to you all. Thank You and please continue to be patient with me.
Now for the hard part... I really didn't want to be scrooge... but.... after the holidays I will be taking the link down. There has just been too many problems with it and it's making me tired and sad. But... I will try to perfect it and get it back out there. I'm also going to be working on some other actions. I don't know if anyone will be interested, but I guess we'll find out. Give me a little time though, my kids, my hubby, and my house have been quite neglected lately. I keep telling my kids that Santa won't come if they don't clean their rooms. Then I figured out that on christmas morning they're gonna wonder why I got anything at all since my room is such a mess. That wouldn't be fair, now would it. So.. I'm off to cleaning my house and play with my kids. :) Thank you for all your nice comments. I'm soooo sorry and I hope you all will understand :). Happy Holidays!
~Amanda

We got a little SNOW today!

...and Bella wouldn't even take the time to change into something warmer before going out to play. If you look close, she has a short little summer skirt on and a light windbreaker on top. Silly little girl. She did make sure that she had her snow boots on and hat. Oh... and she couldn't find her gloves, so she's wearing Jack's moose mittens. She doesn't care what she looks like, so why should I, right?

Merry Christmas PS users!

I had such an awesome response to my black and white conversion, so many people loving it and wanting to know how i created that I thought I'd share it here. Click on the link below and enjoy your download. Thank You so much for all of your great comments! I never thought in a million years that I would be able to create a conversion that would be acceptable on my own photos, much less someone elses. Enjoy and please share what you've done with it. Can't wait to see to what ya'll do with it.

FYI... At the first stop, I usually adjust the Levels layer to 0% opacity unless the image needs lightening and the Curves is usually set to around 50%. Then at the second stop, depending on how "warm" I want the image, I set the opacity to 50-60%.Please let me know if you have any more questions.If you'll notice, I changed the name. I know that there is another Amanda out there that has created some fabulous actions "amanda's actions". So... not to be confused, I've named this one after my beautiful Daughter in the above pic, Isabella!
Enjoy!BELLA'S BLACK AND WHITE

Bella in her new Hat!

I like taking hat pictures when it comes to Bella. If I stick a hat on her head, I don't have to bother with her hair. Which, believe me, is not fun! I couldn't resist this one when I saw it at Target. I had to have it. I might even go back and get another one so her and Haley can both have their own.

Angels We Have Heard on High...

is the song that Haley played for her Christmas Piano Recital. She did a beautiful job. I'm proud of you Haley!

Some Random-ness

...from the last little while. I did 3 photoshoots last weekend and here's a few from them. And then I had to throw one in there of Bella from today. You're not sick of her yet, are you?

just because I have the pictures...

...I'll post 'em...




and for you photogs out there...the top one is Breda'sb&w(love it!)and then I had some fun trying some new actions on the others from anniejo -> found at indie-actions.blogspot.com. fun stuff!

Christmas is coming...

and I can't believe it's that time of year already!! We haven't done a thing to get ready. This isn't even our tree. This picture was taken at Christian's house last week. Looking at it definately puts me in the mood for some good christmas music by the fire. I guess it's time to go get a tree too. This is the first year that I'm actually debating buying a fake one. So taboo, I know, but it seems like it will be so much easier, and cleaner, etc. I'll just buy christmas scented candles and that will be good enough, right? We'll see, I guess. For now, I'll just enjoy this picture of little Jack!

Happy Birthday Haley!!!

I can't believe that Haley is 7 years old! It seems as though I feel older on my kid's birthdays than on my own.
I hardly ever get pictures of this silly girl, but I couldn't forget today. I wouldn't even let her have her after-school-snack til I was done shooting. I was too afraid all of the good light would be gone. So here she is, my pretty little birthday girl!

MMMM...Snow

Bella would not stop eating the snow. She loved it!

In the Mountains of Montana...

I witnessed a small accident. heeheehee.. This is my brother and his wife have a fun ride down the side of the mountain. And then....


..they hit a tree!

No worries...she was just fine.. :)

This was WAY too Fun!

Here they are...my first paying Clients (I guess that's only if they order something :))This was way too fun for me! I could do this all day with families like this one. The kids were soo good and easy to work with. Not to mention absolutley beautiful! Look at them! The whole family! I think they made it too easy on me and I'm sure to hit disaster next time. I'm not even 1/3 of the way through proofing, but i'm finding so many that I love. I hope the family is happy with these...

Cheap Entertainment...

Dash's Doghouse arrived this week via UPS and this is the box that it came in. The thing is HUGE. It has been entertaining the kids for days now and I think that I'm going to hate to get rid of it. It's gonna have to go sometime, but until it falls apart, it's our cheap entertainment