playing in photoshop

I know I know ive already posted these pics but its my blog and i can do what i want right? HaHa no really i was just wanting to test out this new template not sure I am that crazy about it i wanted to change the white to a scrapbook pattern but it wouldnt work guess I have to keep researching???

A Birthday Collage

Ok so as promised here are the pics from Wills FTM buddy Callums first birthday party. Will had bunches of fun with all his friends even if ms Helen Grace gave him a wedgie (thanks Mary) bahahahaha! Good Times!

Nurses dont get snow days and neither do mommys

Ok so the title sounds bad but it was awful. Technically I didnt even know we were in for snow until 0400 this am at work when someone walked in the unit and said have yall seen the snow outside? I was like huh? and sure enough there was already a blanket of snow covering the ground! Luckily I had no gas in my car so i had taken Joeys truck (with 4 wheel drive) to work but even with his truck I have never driven in this mess! And to make matter worse I sooooo didnt nap yesterday so I was up for 24 plus hours. Once I got home I of course went and played photographer in the yard while Joey got ready for work (no snow day for him) After that I proceeded to hit the hay until Will had other plans. You see have you ever seen "those kids in the stores that you swear your kid will NEVER be like" yeah Will was "that kid" this am in the pack and play. He was SQUEALING HYSETERICALLY but i was so delirious that i knew it wasnt safe to put him in the bed with me and even when I gave up and tried he still sreamed and slapped me (i dont think it was intentional but who knows hehe) so anyways i called my mom and said HELP! Luckily the roads were ok enough for her to get her. She snatched him up nd away the went into the living room then i got a much needed nap. So I slept from 11-2 but then it started sleeting and she said she better get home so we have been up every since but hey I am very grateful for the nap! So we have been cooped up all day but I will leave you with some fun snow day pics!

A little of this and a Little of that

Ok so if you have noticed I have changed the blog around a bit yeah I figured out the whole blogs I am following thing to show them on the side :) and my past blogs. Minor touches but it got me pretty excited! Today has been such a crazy fun (busy) day first of all I worked last night so i got home and snuck in a little nap then it was off to pick up Will from GIGIs and head to Callums First Birthday. It was bunches of fun and I think Will enjoyed himself even if he hadnt had a nap hehe. Then when we left the Birthday we headed out to Bartlett to Lauras baby shower for baby Baker. Since both parties were at the same time I got there a little late but it was fun to visit with everyone. I took some fun pics on Emilys moms camera so as I get them I will post some (bday pics will be posted once i upload them from my computer) Will finally crashed at the end of the shower but this led to quite a fight at bedtime :( We dont have issues very much anymore but i skipped the bath part of our routine and well I dont think he was too happy about that. After some on and off screaming he finally pooped out ( i didnt give in i just freguently went and laid him back down.)Tonight was boys poker night so me and Sandra watched us some renovation realities. It made me want to redo my bathroom but I want a laundry room first so i gotta keep my priorities straight hehe. Other than that we have been laying low Will is cutting his 5th tooth (eek) so hes touch and go but he LOVES playing with all his toys at home. I havent really gone any further with photo shop but I will leave you with another example of the action set except instead of a beautiful picture of me (that was a joke haha) and I used will this time :) so enjoy
Here is Will

original sooc (straight out of camera)

edited with the Autumn glow action

vintage gold action

sunshine action

perfect portrait

orton action

Fun Giveaway checkout this site

http://todayscreativeblog.blogspot.com/

I dont know how to link stuff ( I know I am a little slow) if anyone could help me that would be greatly appreciatted :)

A Little Bit of Everything

ok so i had so much fun today playing in photoshop, I feel like i have learned so much and I am just dying to try everything. Well the one thing i did get accomplished was Wills Valentines Card, of course I cant post it bc then it wouldnt be a surprise on valentines Day so everyone will just have to wait and see hehe but i will tell you it is TOO CUTE i am quite excited a) that i made it and b) that its a fun little personalized happy! If this is a hit then i am gonna start scoping out ideas for his bday invitation! Onto NON PHOTO related news I am officially MISERABLE yes it only took four days of calorie counting to turn me into a mad woman because I am STARVING! Why is it that you only want sweets and caffeine when you cant have them I mean hello i have the occassional dessert and yes I did drink to many moutain dews but I didnt think I was that bad but maybe I was bc ALL i can think about is SWEETS and MTN DEW I have started counting calories bc I really need to lose some weight and then i think it was monday I worked out well it is now thursday and I can just now start to move like normal so needless to say the working out hasnt gone as planned but i think I oulled every muscle in my body i mean it hurt to sit down to use the ladys room (tmi but this should explain my pain level)not to mention I have been scared to death to hold Will and walk anywhere bc my legs have been jello so we literally havent really left the house bc i dont wanna fall haha how lame am I! So to break it down this week I HAVE stayed within my 1288 calorie intake and I DID work out two days which is not every day or even everyother day but compared to my zero workouts previously atleast it is a start! Maybe it will get warmer next week so I can walk outside and yes I hear Jillian calling my name but I think I have tuned her out :( So next weeks goals are as follows. Continue staying within my calories, work out 3 days, have a treat but promise to burn off atleast half the caloried of the sweet with some kind of exercies. Reasonable Right?

I am in Photoshop Heaven

Ok so the other night while battling some insomnia i went blog surfing and stumbled across "Dont Stop Believin" (see blogs I am following) and she had tons of AWESOME photography posts and after commenting on her blog she sent me some VERY valuable information so while little man has napped today I have been working away and I can honestly say I am VERY pleased with my findings so a BIG THANKS to Claire for furthering my PSE knowledge below is just a taste of what i have learned. Ok so you caught me what i actually learned was hoe the CHEAT and get Actions sets for PSE that people have already made can we say heaven now! But anyways about the pics this is just a funny shot of me (not Will for once) that I took the other day while trying to get my manual settings right. I dont know what it is about it but i thought it was fun and funky and a good pic of me even though it is close up and cropped. But since I liked it i decided to run some of the actions i downloaded on them so have fun checking it out and if you have pse and want the actions click on the Free PSE Actions under blogs im following! I cannot wait to have some pretty weather for some photo shoots so i can use these bad boys!!!

I think this is a record(i know enough already but this is insomnia at its best!)

Ashley I dedicate this post to you lol! You are like me when it comes to pics always wanting to learn more well missy I have found the big mama jama (sp?) blog to help us. Just go on over to thepioneerwoman.com she has a whole tab dedicated to photography and she goes through step by step how to edit shots. the only down fall is she has the mega sweet photoshop cs4 so you have to search her blog for the elements stuff but either way it is just really good insight i just learned how to use the hard and soft light layers the hard light is good for making snow pics pop or atleast that what she says and i now agree here is a before and after pic :)

Full of posts this evening

Well although I love the night shift I must say that my slepp pattern is more than a little off. Atleast I only work two days a week but still i am such a night owl now and by that I mean i lay awake in bed (not exactly the most fun thing to do when the whole house is asleep! So anyways when I cant sleep i blog stalk (if that is a word) but you know what I mean all you blogging moms its one of the only ways to keep up with friends/family when you are cooped up in the house. well anyways two blogs caught my attention today the Love From Texas: Favorite Verse post and Kellys Korner post on the Simple Pleasures. I dont have tons of Bible Verses yet seeing how I have just started my journey of exploring the bible ( I went over that tid bit in my new years res. post) but i would have to say the verse that i hold so close to my heart these days is 1 Thessalonians 5:16-18 This verse is what really pushed me over the edge (in a good way) to start getting to know God better than I ever have before. When Lyse Terkheurst came to hope to speak her whole talk was over this bible verse and I dunno if it was her or the verse itself but WOW it had a very powerful impact on me so although I dont have more to contribute I hope this can touch atleast one other person out there the way it has touched me!

And for the Simple Pleasures well its just that, Kelly talks about a friend who had this game she use to play called simple pleasures where you list the little things that make you happy! We have been kinda discussing things like this in my Monday night Bible Study. In a world where it is so easy to get caught up in the "whats wrong with my life" mode its nice to remember whats "right" with the world!
Some of my Simple Pleasures would be watching my son grow into such a wild a crazy fun little man, oh and the giggles and smiles he is always so eager to share with me (especially at bathtime), knowing I have a husband who will do anything for me and his child, glade plug ins in hawaian breeze and clean cotton, pedicures, Edward Cullen, One Tree Hill, those few weeks of awesome windy weather between fall and winter and then again between spring and summer, scarves and tunic tops, uggs, having the sunroof open and windows down on the above stated days, sushi nights once a week, and oh the list could go on and on and on. And my biggest simple pleasure would be knowing that I have more on my happy plate that i do on my sad plate! I love with I come across things that really put it into perspective for ya!

The Door from last weekend

ok the top pic is my shutters which I want to look like the third pic the second pic is the cedar posts that I want to replace my nasty rod iron and then the doors are a before and after.For some reason blogger doesnt let me see the pics anymore when I upload its just the mumbo jumbo writing???? Is everyones blogger like this? Help?
This is still a work in progress but atleast we no longer have the "trashy door" or the "80's mullett" door as I liked to call it. See I was origanally gonna paint the doors and the shutter but i started peeling the paint and in true Cassie fashion got a little lazy so after a few months (way to many) with the not so sightly door we now have my dream door and all it needs is a few more coats of stain (it has been too cold to take the door off thehinges and stain and dry well you get the pic) so as soon as we get a temp increase it will be done then its on to the shutters and the rod iron!

an awesome day for a photoshoot!

Ok so today was not the best day for an impromptu trip to the zoo (it was not quite 50 and sunny like the weather said) but after leaving the zoo I decided to stop in front of the Brooks museum and well the pics tell it all. Will was ALL smiles today and I had him in the cutest little pirate sweater and I was wanting some Valentines pic for a little something I am cooking up :) So I thought it would be fun to get a new background, on top of the fact that I am always taking pics of everyone eles little kiddos and havent taken a lot of Will lately so these also count as his 9 month "photoshoot". Just thought I would share these with everyone bc I am a proud mama. And you can see all his teeth hehe!

I am the Biggest Loser....

or atleast i hope to be! So today Feb 1st is officially the first day of the new me and I survived. The message at church on sunday was about well to put it bluntly be a big fat heffer and well that is not exactly what God wants us to do with our body and well after having Will I am not ashamed to admit that I have my fair share of "baby weight" to shed so it is ON! They have this crafty little app for iphones called Lose it! You can enter your stats and it tells you how many calories you can have a day and then you can add what you eat and keep up with it...awesome I know. So I am under my total today (not by much but hey its a start) and I had breakfast which is a weak spot for me. See my prob is I dont eat and when I do eat it isnt the most healthiest of choices so my body is storing all the bad food bc it doesnt know when it will eat next. Talk about screwing myself up haha! So my goal is to eat right and work out a little. you see I am no marathon runner in fact I cant run down my street but I did get a wii fit for Christmas and I got the biggest loser game and lets just say today was my first night and Jillian kicked my butt! Now this may be no form of exercise to some of you but I am at home alone with Will all day everyday and right now it is just to cold to get him outside so for now this is all i got ( I dont know of any gym around here that has child care OR that I would trust a gym daycare for that matter). Overall i would say the workout was successful. I am definitely NOT the cheerleader i once was and I am for sure starting in the beginner phase so after a 23 min workout I only burned 41 calories but you know what atleast it was 41 calories and not 0! so now that I have made myself feel better and feel like I could puke in the same sentence I am retiring to bed :) So I can be ready for round 2 tomm am! My goal is to lose 20 lbs which only 10 is left over from Will but I figured why stop there I have a whole closest full of expensive jeans that I can fit into but lets just say i wouldnt be caught dead leaving the house in. So it is blogspot official I must stick to this and get back to feeling a little bit better about myself and get my body back into the shape that God gave it to me (I definitely have not kept up the temple lol) Goodnight to all!