2011.

Dearest blog,
I have abandoned you. And I feel terribly guilty. I know, I'm a terrible person. I love reading blogs and I hate when the people I follow don't blog in forever. And now I see that everyone does it. Including me. Shame on me. Anyhoo, I have resolved to blog this year! I want to post pictures and do all that fun jazz. So, dearest old blog, I will return to thee!
I'm not the greatest writer, but maybe with blogging that will also improve!
So let's hope and pray that I DO write on you more often this year!
So until my next post--which will be very soon, I promise!

I Heart Faces: Fix-It-Friday #60

This Friday (like every Friday) I Heart Faces is hosting Fix-It-Friday! I'm so excited. Except for the fact that the other computer crashed and I totally lost Photoshop. But I'll get past that. So I had to settle for Picnik. And I have to say for me to be editing with Picnik, I really like the result. No offense to Picnik, I've just never been good with them. ANYHOW.

Here is the original picture taken by Susan Keller who is a contributor on I Heart Faces and an amazing photographer OF COURSE.

Then here is my edit. And DON'T ask me what I did because I have no clue. I just know that cross-process is my new favorite effect. (:

I'm totally loving the sun flare. And how cool it looks with his shirt.

Head on over to join the photo editing fun over at I Heart Faces!

I Heart Faces : Week 25 - Celebrating Teens

Oh goodness. Sorry, blog. I have abandoned you. But now I'm on summer vacation and I can get back to blogging and participating in I Heart Faces, which is what I'm posting about right now.

This week at I Heart Faces is all about celebrating teens!  It's pretty exciting because I'm a teen myself! My picture is of one of my friends, P.

 She's a cutie! Now head on over to I Heart Faces to check out all the other teens being featured on there.

Have a good day!

The Butterfly Circus.

Ok, so I haven't blogged in forever. But one of my teachers showed this to us in our English class and I really liked it!



Go check out the website.
Very nice film for it to be a low budget.

Just thought I'd share that!

Of doves and pigeons.

So maybe smart people know this. But I obviously didn't. Here goes the story:
My dad asked me what pigeon was in Spanish. And I told him it was paloma. But then, I was like oh but paloma is dove. So I looked up the word dove and the translation was paloma and then I looked up the word pigeon and the translation was paloma. I am not a person that is easily confused. But this really confused me. I was like, "How the heck are they the same thing?!" But then I digged deeper, and paloma is the name of the bird family or whatever and in Spanish it just stays the same. Umm, thanks Spanish language creators for not creating a word for dove in Spanish. Or a specific one for pigeon.

So this is a stupid random story that no one cares about. But I thought I'd share it anyhoo. (:

TWLOHA. ♥

TWLOHA stands for To Write Love On Her Arms. This is like an awesome cause for helping people with suicide issues, and other stuff like that. I'm not good at explaining so head on over there. Today was like TWLOHA day. But I think they have a couple a year or something like that. But today was one of them. And it was awesome because a big part of my very small (60 ish people) had LOVE written on their arms. It was pretty cool, to me at least. You should totally become a fan on Facebook. Or follow them on Twitter.
But today you remember all those people who have committed suicide, all those who have killed themselves because they didn't feel LOVED. (These TWLOHA people do more awesome stuff {which is why you should go check them out!} but the suicide part is what really stands out.) So, go tell someone you love them!

Mouth-Watering Hatred.

This week over at i heart faces they are doing a desserts challenge. But I'm not going to participate. But the judge is Bakerella and I had sadly never heard of her before. So I went on over to her website and found this. Yes, they are mint-chocolate brownies. Me, being the young missionary kid girl living in Central America that had never heard of mint chips hated myself for even looking at them knowing it would be a while before I could try them. So that is me being a masochist. Oh but just go look at it. And be prepared to fall head-over-heels in LOVE.  

I Heart Faces: Fix-It-Friday #49

It is once again time for Fix-It-Friday over at i heart faces. Every Friday the participants are given a photo that may need a little (or a lot of) embellishment. This week's picture was so adorable that I don't think it needed very much! 


Meet Violet (original picture):

Here is my edit:

I did a few things:

• Sharpened
• Adjusted levels
• Ran an action that makes eyes pop!
• Lightened
• Ran PW's Warmer action
• Ran PW's Boost
• Ran PW's Seventies at 39%
• Loved it and stopped editing!

Head on over to i heart faces to check out everybody else's fabulous edits!

 

Cute Stuff.

Some very nice friends of my family (and mine!) are in the country for a visit with their less-than-half-a-year old baby. He is a cutie! And oh his hair. His hair. Gosh, his hair. It's stinkin' hilarious!

Here he is:

I told you he was a bunch of cuteness!

More pictures to come. (Especially one involving the hair I've babbled about!)

Happy Maundy Thursday!

I Heart Faces: Week 13 - Dramatic B&W

This week's photo challenge over at i heart faces is dramatic black and white. This picture of V came to mind.

She is sooo adorable!
Go over to i heart faces to check out the other 1000+ entries!

I Heart Faces: Fix-It-Friday #48

It is FIF over at I Heart Faces and this is the beautiful picture we were assigned to edit!

Here is the original:

Here is my first edit:

I sharpened the whole image lightly, and also sharpened the eyes. I ran my favorite PW action: boost. I ran a seventies action at something like a 45%. I warmed the picture up a little and then I added a texture I got from deviantART and another texture from the same person over there.

 Now for my second edit:

I ran a PW B&W on my first edit and that was it!

Head on over to I Heart Faces to download this picture and play with it, or just to check out other people's entries! Have a wonderful weekend. (:

Awful-bad.

I've been so awful bad at blogging lately. I is sorry. I'm not a good writer. I'm a much better talker. I'm not doing much lately. Just listening to the Black Eyed Peas, which just happen to be amazing, and all that good stuff.
Today, I ran around with a bunch of second graders as their treasure hunt guide for my youngest brother's birthday party. So, I learned that I have way less energy than a bunch of second graders. (:
But on the other hand, I made some amazing brownie cake (well something like that) for the party. Everybody said it was amazing. So here goes the recipe. It's wayyy easy! Umm, I got it from a missionary friend back home, but I have changed it a tad.

Brownies.

Ingredients:

• 3/4 cup of vegetable oil
• 1 2/3 cups of granulated sugar
• 2 tsp. vanilla extract
• 2 eggs
• 2 tbsp. water
• 1 1/3 cups all-purpose flour
• 1/2 tsp. baking powder
• 3/4 cup cocoa powder
• 1/2 tsp. of salt (Yes, half a tsp. is perfect! I can add a tad bit more, because I need enough saltiness with my chocolate.)

Prep:

• Preheat oven at 350°F
• Mix all your ingredients together in a large bowl.
• You may sift your dry ingredients if you please.
• Pour into an 8" x 10" pan.
• Bake for 15 minutes or until it's the texture you want. Some people like chewier brownies, and some like theirs more cooked!
• Enjoy!

So, pictures to come soon. I have spring break in a week. I cannot wait! Just this next week of school and then finally spring break! Here I will leave you with the amazing Oh Africa video by Akon. The song isn't as good as the actual video!




Have a wonderful weekend! (:

Things I Love. ♥

In honor of the month of February (which I can’t believe is almost over!), I am going to show some pictures of things I really love.

 

1. My chucks.

 

 

 

They’re just a year old and I love them. They match with everything and are just amazing.

 

2. Yellow & Black

 

3. Water

 

4. My glasses.

 

5. My friends.

 

6. My “family”

 

 

7. My REAL family

 

I love about a gozillion more things. But the person I love the most is GOD!

What do you love the most?

I Heart Faces: Fix-It-Friday 45

It is once again time for Fix-it-Friday over at I Heart Faces.

 

Here is the original:

 

Here is my fix:

 

First, I cropped it until I liked it and ran PW’s Boost action. Then I lightened the picture some. I ran PW’s Seventies action and lightened up her eyes just a tad. I added a texture by sanami276 from deviantART and chose a normal blending mode. I created a new mask layer and with a black brush made the little girl’s face more visible above the texture. Or however it is you are supposed to say that. (:

 

Head on over to I Heart Faces to join in the fun, or just to look at other people’s fixes!

 

You Capture - Shapes

This week, like most weeks at I Should Be Folding Laundry, Beth is hosting You Capture. This week’s challenge is SHAPES. I love shapes. Especially circles. Sooo amazing.

I love how shapes are everywhere. I mean pretty much everything has a shape!


Happy capturing!

Go check out everybody else’s awesome Shape entries!

More Texture. ♥

Yes, I have fallen terribly in love with texture. I’ve been playing around with some pictures of flowers I took.

 

Here are the results:

 

 

This last one isn’t necessarily my favorite because of the blending mode I chose. But it’s ok.

 

Hope you like them!

Musical Texture.

This afternoon, I decided to download some textures and play around with them. I had previously downloaded Jodie Friedman's FREE texture applicator which is super amazing and if you, like me, had never used textures before, you will love this! It takes you step by step, pretty much! So, I downloaded two textures for this picture, both from deviantART. One was just a music texture and the other one was called Vintage Musk.

Here is my picture:

 

I'm pretty sure it looks overdone. But I was just playing with those specific textures and wanted to see what I could get. I think my smile also looks pretty posed in this picture and I don't exactly love super posed smiles. I like the natural, carefree, REAL smiles. 

On another note (bwahaha), we are facing a cold front or however you are supposed to say that. So, we are getting a lot of rain! I loveee rain and I am fascinated by the fact that it has rained pretty much all day today. Even though that is a pretty typical Costa Rican day!

Gone with the Wind.

We have two little rose bush thingies in our "yard." It's so small I don't think it should be even called a yard, but that's what it's called anyway. Sometimes we just leave the roses there or we pick them and put them in vases. This little bud was left there and the wind blew away all the petals and I thought it was way too cute.

 

I love this picture. My mom happens to think it is not cute at all. What do you think?

Old goodie.

Today I was randomly at one of my ex-teacher's blogs.
And I found this picture:

This is me and my classmates in 6th grade. I'm in 8th grade now so it wasn't that long ago, but it feels like it was forever ago! Livz, So, JCook, Yayo, Savanna, Mr. Turkeyman, and me of course! Only three of them are still my classmates. Mr. Turkeyman, Yayo, and Savanna. We've all changed so much since then that it is hard to believe that was us, but it was! (I would never wear clothes like that right now!)

Oh, and I know this picture is like super bad quality, so I'm sorry!

Love to all!

Of Friendship and Love. ♥

I personally think that February is one of the best months. Ever.
I mean, what could possibly be better than friendship and love? Yes, you’re right, NOTHING! I mean like it’s a Fruit of the Spirit and it’s mentioned all over the Bible. What else could you want?

Lately, I’ve been writing reports about the Boston Tea Party and John the Baptist, reading books about girls who find love in Italy, solving multi-step equations, drawing maps with tectonic plates, and not taking many pictures.
I know, terrible!

So since I’ve been such a terrible, terrible person, I will show you a pretty picture. Hehe.


I absolutely love this picture. The old vintage-ish feel to it is just amazing.

I thought I’d tell you some random facts about Valentine’s Day:

• Women buy 85% of all Valentine’s.
• In the Middle Ages, young men and women drew names from a bowl to see who their valentines would be. They would wear these names on their sleeves for one week. To wear your heart on your sleeve now means that it is easy for other people to know how you are feeling.
• The Italian city of Verona, where Shakespeare's lovers Romeo and Juliet lived, receives about 1,000 letters addressed to Juliet every Valentine's Day.

 (Head on over to St. Valentine's Day to see the rest of these fun facts.)