Crutches, a Spider Bite and Other Nonsense

Two of my  little cuties!
They don't look like sisters at all, not one bit ;)

We had a very busy week, but mostly staying home.  Most of the business was business.  As in, I was busy in my home business, Snap-EZ Inc.

We were also getting caught up on Laundry, washing the van, washing the trailer and mowing the lawn.  The weather had finally turned out some gorgeous days and we took advantage of it! 

My knee is doing so much better that I have been able to get around the house some of the time without the crutches and without pain! I've also reduced how much Ibuprophen I'm taking and it's still almost completely pain free - I feel some pressure in the knee in the evenings, but I wouldn't call it pain.   I am so thankful for this!  I have an appointment in a couple of weeks for my knee, but I am really hoping that I can call and cancel it!  I haven't used my crutches at all today and still not pain!

I did have to go see a GP this week, Wednesday,  as I got some sort of bug bite that went a little crazy.  I tried lost of different essential oils and they helped with the itching, but it just kept spreading.  When it got hot I decided it was time to see a doctor.  This photo was taking before it got worse - it started spreading more up my arm and got hot the next day after this photo was taken.  The doctor prescribed a cortisone cream, with a prescription for an antibiotics that I could have filled later if the cream didn't work.  I'm so thankful to report that the cream is doing the job. If you didn't know I had a bite, you couldn't tell now!

 Thursday we did a HUGE shopping trip and then relaxed at the lake again.  We just got a new video camera so I only took that, so no photos of the lake this week.  I'm hoping to get the hang of the video camera soon and share some of that.  So far we filmed with too large of images, so I can't upload them.  I know how to fix that now, so soon!

Attempting stylized motion blur!

I'm still studying the Photoshop for Dummies, and I've learned a few new tricks, but they aren't exciting - mostly how to work the system better like work space and keyboard shortcuts.  I'm hoping to get to some fun stuff in the book soon!

I am feeling so much better that I am now going to start taking back some of my jobs.  First of all I'm taking back caring for Esther - diaper changes, medications and therapy.  We haven't been doing any formal therapy this summer, but I want to start that back up again now.  She gets lots of informal therapy with all the brothers and sisters who play with her and challenge her every day!  I want to focus on small motor skills and learning some new words/sign language.  In the past she did well to learn the sign for a word and then she'd learn the word soon afterwards.  I'm also doing the little girls' laundry again.  I've also cooked a few meals too!  I even played my  violin today!  I just need to think about my priorities and slowly get back into the swing of being an involved, healthy mom and homemaker.

Photography Leaning Take 2

This photo was experimenting with aperture once again, but I almost got it perfect.
The only adjustment to this photo was a slight increase in the brightness
I got the aperture right, as you can see from the very unfocused background!

This one only needed a slight crop as there was a corner of a blanket that got in the photo

This photo was taken by our living room window on a cloudy day
The light could have been better, but the photo turned out great,
only problem was she has all those mosquito bites! So....

With Photoshop I was able to easily fix those flaws
and you can't even tell that I fixed anything!

  

This was my attempt at motion blur in low lighting...cool effect, it looks like butterfly wings!

  

Each of these next three photos were taken with the exact same light, 

but I made different adjustments to the RAW image in Photoshop to correct the problems.

Poor lighting/cheap lens makes for needing lots of adjustments
But I shot in RAW for the first time so I was able to!

The graininess of this is due to my stock lens and low light.

This was also low light, so I had to mess with the colors as it was very yellow

I wasn't happy with the final coloring, so I really like this one in black and white!

When Carese first opens her eyes, she always has a big, sleepy grin...
today I captured it on film!

Below are photos taken by my sweet friend, Renee.

She started her own home business, Little Earthling Photography,

 of birth and newborn photography a few years back.

She has helped me with learning the ropes.
She also has a wonderful blog about her family, A Baker's Dozen and Apollo XIV

Here are the photos she took when Carese was about 2 weeks old.

Carese was not being cooperative, but in spite of that,

Renee managed to get some incredibly beautiful photos:

After what was to be the first part of the photo session,
Carese puked all over Renee
(Renee said she's had worse, but Carese got her pretty doused!)

 and would not stop crying,

 so the photo session was over just after it began.