{Feet} Corner View

Last week's theme was hands.
This week it's feet.

This morning I took the little fella on his first big walk around the lake!
He loved it.
So much to see!

For a bit we even ran, thanks to a big dog barking through the fence at us!
Barkley wasn't hanging around ... he took off running!

Luckily, I can keep up with tiny puppy legs!

He's all tuckered out now!

And sound asleep ...

**

Corner View was created by Jane at Spain Daily and is now hosted by Francesca.  It is bloggers from all over the world, posting photos of a specific weekly theme.  To join, just post to your own blog and then link up over at Francesca's Corner View for the week.  Then, visit the other Corner Views ... that's my favorite part !  Seeing the interpretations of the themes, visiting different cultures, learning something new !

Sunday

The first bit of Christmas hit our house last night.
I have been wanting to put some fairy lights up around the window 

that my computer sits in front of. 

Yesterday, I found some that had tiny little lights

and sparkly snowflakes ! 

Perfect !

This afternoon I got to spend many hours in our garden. 

I weeded, pruned herbs and flowers, planted zucchini, spring onions and echinacea , thinned the leeks,

transplanted a chili, watered the gardens and then moved a few things around on the patio!

Like this bird feeder. 

It was out back on the patio but the birds 

fling the seeds around when they eat and we had 

plants growing all up through the 

patio tiles as a result ! 

I've moved it out to the front now. 

It's in a much better spot ! 

Plus, I'll be able to watch the birds from my desk !!

I also hung this bird cage that I got at Target the other day. 

I'm always on the lookout for fun candle holders. 

I love this one.

Especially at night. 

And especially especially with the outside fairy lights lit up too !!

day 113 {aFrog} 365

alia with yesterday's frog

day 112 {jFrog} 365

excitement in the garden this morning

jono and the frog

day 111 {hammock} 365

on a day like today ... i could happily spend it all in the hammock !

day 110 {watching} 365

day 102 {FB40} 365

more on what this means tomorrow

day 42 {play} 365

some days it is impossible for me to pick
up my camera, let alone post a photo
yesterday was one of those days

so, i'm posting one from
earlier in the year
that i love

{stages}

I was outside playing with my camera the other day and shot this.

I love the different stages on the one plant.

Reminds me of life.

And people.

Alia's Op Shop Find

Alia found this fairy dress when we were at the op shop the other day.

She put it on as soon as we got home !

The kids loved shopping

at the op shop !

I am

glad they did

because we were in there

for almost and hour. It was a big one

and there was just so much to look at ~ and so many

great bargains. I was after plates and bowls and pretty things for

my food photography. I took photos to show you what I found ! I'm hoping

to have those posted for you tomorrow !! Anyway ... as we were leaving the shop ... one

of the kids said "that was the best shop EVER !"

Like I said ... they loved it !

Ch {A} lk

Life is Like A Box of Roller Blades

She's six.
She wants to roller blade.
She gets her bother's blades on and off she goes.

She falls.

She gets up.



She falls again.



She gets up again.



Over and over.
Until finally,



she gets it !

precious gems ...

jono and i have been having an ongoing discussion about opals
at the museum the other day we saw a display on precious gems
this furthered our discussion but this time i was able to point to the display as i explained
and then on the way to the train station we saw an opal dealer
and we talked again about the stones in the window

this morning he came running in from the back patio
asking if i thought this could be an opal

he found it in the back yard ...

School Holidays ~ Day Four

School Holidays ~ Day Three

to answer a couple of questions from yesterday ... 1.) we are eating churros. no i did not make them. we found a restaurant called 'chocolateria san churro' that makes them. the churros themselves are pretty close to authentic ... but they come with chocolate ... not hot chocolate ... to dip them in. but guess what ? my sister has previously posted a recipe to my cooking blog for churros. none of us have tried it out but if you all are keen ... here's the link !! 2.) ice age 3 was goooooooood ! it is my favorite of all three. i laughed throughout the ENTIRE movie. i'm serious ! 3.) it is the dead of winter here ... i know ! i love it !

my friend khrista sent us the most amazing package !! i cannot get green chiles here ... CAN NOT get them ... it's a crime really. but look at how many cans she sent me ! i can't wait to try this recipe. i've said it once, in fact i think i've said it twice but i'll say it again ... THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU !!!!! can you see the other goodies she sent ? things i love but can't get here. bugles. corn nuts. bazooka gum !! and needle protectors for my knitting needles !

School Holidays ~ Day One

{cherish}

a small reminder


my baby girl loves her daddy
pictured here holding his hand on a fishing expedition
with him and uncle eddie

{the same but different}

the kids had a day off from school yesterday. we spent a lazy morning at home doing laundry, planning the menu and doing the shopping on line ! our groceries arrived this morning and i've put them away already ! it's 7:38 am (love it) i couldn't do all the shopping on line though because i needed stuff for dinner last night. but that's a whole nother story.

getting back to this story ...

about lunch time, we finished hanging the last load of laundry and got ourselves packed up for an afternoon at the beach.

welcome to winter in queensland !!!

the kids actually wanted to swim but the best i'd go them is walking in the water, and dodging the spray of the waves on the rocks. i took my camera, of course, and many many photos were taken. last night, after the kids were in bed, and while rory watched the footy, i sat and played in GIMP.

i did this photo with many different effects and can't decide which one i like best. what do you think ??

this is the straight out of camera photo ...

if you are here visiting from melody's SOOC Saturday, you may want to stop reading here as the photo above is my submission for this week ... the photos below are anything BUT sooc !!! :)

here's my basic formatting ... what i usually do to most of my photos. i played with the curves, brightness and saturation just slightly and added a vignette to the edges and a black border around the outside.

here, i used 'apply threshold' and it changed to this lovely black and white. i used a white paintbrush to get rid of everything but the kids and their shadows ... added a black border too.

for this next one, i used the colorize feature and then messed with the hue, saturation and lightness to get this blue overall tone. i also rounded the corners.

after i'd done a few of these, i decided to do a few more. i really was just liking all of the effects that were happening and thought i'd just try some stuff that i'd never tried before. the next one was an accident. i was playing with the brightness and saturation to make it vibrant enough to change to a nice sepia or black and white but i liked what it did so left it.

what i did was make it quite bright and then pulled the saturation up as well. this made the background pretty much disappear. i used the clone tool to get rid of the little rocks in the sand as i wanted just the kids and their reflection left. i did a vignette and rounded the edges. i love vignettes !! do ya'll know how to do them ? i can do a little tutorial if any of you are interested. it's easy peasy ! just let me know in the comments ..

this last one might be my favorite. i don't know. i just can't choose. but i love what happened to the color of the sand and water !! i was messing with the 'auto' features on this one, where the program just does automatic adjustments. i used the auto equalize, auto white balance, auto color enhance and auto normalize. a little tweek with the brightness and contrast and here's what resulted ...

oh yeah, i rounded the corners on that one too !

so, tell me ... do you have a favorite ? and what is it about that particular one that makes it your favorite ??