Photography - Black & White

If you can't tell, I am obsessed with taking pictures of my children. I am constantly trying to improve my photography and my new venture is learning more about editing. I have barely even started but I was inspired by THIS post to work on my black and white pictures. I love to have black and white pictures printed and hung around our home, but all I do to edit them is hit "desaturate" in the color box. What do I get? Grey photos! Well, I decided to play around a little bit and I need some improvement, but I can already see a difference. What do you think?

Original photo. I thought I would use a picture with something black in focus.

All I did here was hit the "desaturate" button.

This is after playing with the contrast and lighting options. I included two different edits, on a little more extreme. I guess it also depends on your personal preference.

McFatty Monday - Here We Go!

I am 6 weeks post partum and it is time to get back to normal. Posting more, going back to work, feeling better, and exercisng!



Does anyone know where I can find the time to do the 30 Day Shred with a toddler and a newborn? Anyone?! I thought maybe I would get up and do it this morning before Brooke woke up but Molly wanted to cuddle for awhile. My next option is during Brooke's nap. Even if Molly isn't napping I can put her in her bouncy seat and hopefully my sporadic movements will keep her entertained for 25 minutes. Of course, Brooke did not nap at all this weekend so what if she decides to make it a pattern? Option three would be working out tonight after Dustin is home. We only have one TV and as much and I want Dustin to watch me work out -- Oh wait, I don't! -- I will probably have him take Brooke on our nightly walk and do the work out while he is gone.

So I will weigh myself this morning so that I have a starting point, and then hopefully next week I can report some good results!

This past weekend was quite eventful. We spent ALL last week working on a surprise birthday video for Dustin's sister and we got to debut it Saturday night at her party. It was also a fiesta theme which meant two of my favorite things: enchiladas and margaritas! Sunday we had our friend's Matt and Randi and their daughter Teagan over for dinner and a play date. We have been quite busy around here!

Brooke and her Auntie Jena

Dustin and Jena

The girls in their matching outfits

Sunday- What, the girls wanted a drink! ;)

Something in the picture is not right!

McFatty Monday - The Beginning

Even though I said I wouldn't, I weighed myself. I am not ready to talk about it in detail yet but I have about 20 pounds to lose until I get to my pre-pregnancy weight, and another 10 pounds past that until my "goal weight". This part is the frustrating part. I know losing the weight is possible, and I know I have done it before... it just feels so far away. I want to drop it NOW. I want to look good NOW! I want so badly to wear my pre-pregnancy clothes and feel normal again. I am trying to have patience, I really am, but it is hard! I did take some before pictures yesterday as motivation to get to some AWESOME after pictures.

Picture #1. Baby pooch, large butt, double butt chin



Picture #2. Love handles, spare tire, saddle bags, wide waist/hips



Picture #3. Large, floppy arms.

Molly is 1 month old!

I had this post ready to go for Thursday and forgot to put it up! Hey, give me a break, I am working on 5 hours of sleep a night! Molly was 1 month old on Thursday but it feels like it has been much longer. Last night Dustin and I were talking about how she was due July 5th and should only be a week old right now. I sure am glad she made the decision to come a little earlier because we are pretty busy this month.

McFatty Monday

Starting in a few weeks I will be participating in McFatty Monday. It all started with Heir to Blair several months ago in her efforts to lose baby weight. Now Steph over at The Adventures of Goober Grape & Monkey Man and Heidi at It's just me... Heidi-D are starting a link up! Steph has lost almost 100 pounds and her story is really encouraging, I urge you to go read it.

I have a goal weight and once I get approval from my OB to work out it is GAME ON. I have The 30 Day Shred by the DVD player and a list of healthy meal ideas. Once I find out my starting weight at the OB in a few weeks (I refuse to use my own scale just yet) I will post a graph with my starting weight, weight lost, and goal weight. Every Monday I will "weigh in" and post about my successes and my struggles that week, and maybe even include some pictures every now and then.

Feel free to join us!

In case anyone was wondering...

My girls look NOTHING alike!

Brooke - 1 Day Old

Molly - 1 Day Old

4th of July

Did everyone have a great weekend? I know we did! Our neighborhood has an annual party for the 4th and it is a pretty big deal. It is held in the backyard of two homes behind our house -- who happen to be brothers -- and they go all out. They bring in bands, bounce houses, have a pig roast, and even have a firework show at the end of the night. And this firework show is the real deal! But Dustin and I don't like to actually attend the kegger-- I mean celebration. We "participate" from our back yard and watch the fireworks from our patio.

Sunday afternoon my parents came into town to meet Molly so we had a small cook out and relaxed in the warm weather. Once the girls were in bed we started a fire in our fire pit, made some s'mores, and watched the multiple firework shows taking place in our neighborhood and the ones surrounding.

This morning we headed up to a big flea market about 10-15 minutes away. Dustin and I have been several times but this was the first time my parents were getting to go. We spent the morning shopping away and had a great time out with the girls!