I’ll give you a hint… it’s “pregnant big butt.” Now really, when I was pregnant, I did not have a big butt, so why is this coming up so often? I need to google this phrase myself and see…

And here it is:

9 Months + 9 Months | Kimmama

Jan 4, 2010 … We were definitely trying to get pregnant, but that month I was sure it didn’t happen. … On a Monday night, Micah made his big debut: Just born! … and just today he learned how to plop down on his butt from standing. …

That explains it.

And while we’re at it, won’t you link to your Facebook page if you have one for your blog? Leave a comment with your link if you have one.

Anyway, I thought it would be fun to share some of the things I’ve found on the web this week. I am an avid Googler, and I love finding new blogs and shtuff.

Blogs:

A Bit of Sunshine
I am loving the photography on this blog – and all the creative ideas. Seriously, if I had the extra funds, the projects on my blog would be never-ending! But, I’ve decided to devote my extra income to paying off debt and saving up for gear upgrades.  In the meantime, I’ll drool over this blog. Hehe.

Kidnapped by Suburbia
Keli’s latest post about babymeat has me cracking up. She is an iHeartFaces contributor and her blog is lots of fun.

Recipe:

Easy Pork Ragu
I have made this twice and plan to make it again this week. It is seriously so good. Micah loves it, too. I buy the Bourbon Maple flavored pork loin at Walmart. I love the sweetness. I have been finding lots of favorite recipes on that site and it’s great because I don’t have to worry about Micah’s allergies.

Project:

DIY Show Off (craft room in a closet)
I love the DIY Show Off blog, and two different posts recently have shown what people can do with a closet…. and it’s amazing! One of these days I am going to turn one of my closets into a craft room.

And it’s not really a link, but I wanted to say that I have started using the Google Chrome browser this week. It took me a few days to get used to the different interface, but once I adjusted, I fell in love. It really is faster and more efficient. I don’t know… there are just so many little details that make it better. For example, I like how it puts downloads in a discreet bar at the bottom instead of popping up an annoying downloads window.

Step 1 – Create a New Document

My blog width is 640 pixels, so I’ll create a new document that is 640 pixels wide by 480 pixels tall.  I can select this size from the web preset.

Step 2 – Create the Photo “Windows”

Before I do any design, I decide where I am going to put the photos by creating place markers, or “windows” as I like to call them. Once we turn these shapes into clipping masks, they really will act like windows. We’ll only be able to see the parts of the photo that show through the window, everything else will be hidden.

To create a window, I use the shapes tool and set my foreground color to gray. You can use any color you want, as long as it shows up against the white background so you can see what you are doing. Now my pictures are 4×6 by default, since that is the ratio my camera shoots, so I’m going to make my main window the same ratio to preserve my original crop. First I drag a rectangle from top to bottom. The size doesn’t really matter, since I’m going to change it. After creating the shape, I press CTRL + T on my keyboard. If you are using a mac, you’ll want to use the Apple key instead of the CTRL key.

At the top of the screen, where it says 100% for both width and height, I’ll enter “480 px” in the height box, since that is the height of my document and I want to make sure it is exactly the same. For the width I use my calculator to figure out the 4×6 ratio. It’s not as hard as it sounds!

Height in Pixels / Height in Inches x Width in Inches = Width in Pixels

480 / 6 x 4 = 320

I enter “32o px” in the width box and hit enter. Now the shape is exactly a 4×6 ratio. If you are uncomfortable doing this type of math, you can use an online calculator like this one: http://andrew.hedges.name/experiments/aspect_ratio/

Okay, now that I have my main photo window, I’m going to make a few others. For these I am not going to worry about ratio. I am just going to make them look compatible with my first shape. To be honest, you don’t have to make any of the shapes a certain ratio, after all, it’s your creation, right?

But, if you are a super perfectionist, I’ll let you in on a little secret. Shapes will easily “snap to” guides. You can create guides by going to View > New Guide… and then input a percentage or pixels. Sometimes, when I really want a blogging template to be perfect, I will outline where I want the shapes to be with guides first. Once I draw my shapes, I clear the guides and I’m left with a perfectly balanced template. I do not expect you to go through all that trouble, though.

Step 3 – Add Some Borders

Borders are a fun way to add some definition to your photos. I like simple outlines, but you can do whatever you want. Select a shape in the layers palette and then go to Layer > Layer Style > Stroke

I’m going to change the width of the stroke to 2 pixels and leave the color black. I’m also going to change the position of the stroke to “inside” since it won’t show if it’s on the outside and my shape goes all the way to the edge of my document, which it does in this case. I’ll click okay and I’m done with that shape. Now for a time saver, don’t repeat this process with the other two shapes. Right click the shape in the layers palette and click Copy Layer Style, then right click the other shapes and click Paste Layer Style.

Now at this point, you could do a whole bunch of other stuff with your shapes. You could doodle on them, you could stamp little heart borders around them, etc. Just remember your picture will still need to show through!

Step 4 – Add the Clipping Masks

Now it’s time to turn those shapes into windows so we can add our pictures! Select a shape in the layers palette and then click the New Layer button at the bottom of the palette. It looks like a turning page and it’s the second button from the left.  Now hover your mouse between the shape layer and the new layer and hold down your ALT key. See the double bubble? Yes? Okay, then click once. Tah-dah! Your new layer is where you are going to place your photo, but don’t get too excited, repeat the process with your other shapes first.

At this point, you should save your document as a PSD so you can use it again in the future.

Step 5 – Place Your Photos

This is where the magic happens. Click on the new layer above the shape where you want to place your photo. Then go to File > Place… and select the image you want. Photoshop will put the image smack dab in the middle and fill the max width or height of your document. Hold down the shift key to resize it and then move it so that it fills your shape/window. Hit enter to finalize everything. Repeat this process for each shape.

Step 6 – Sharpen for Web

Some of you may not be aware of the importance of this crucial step. If you simply shrink your photos to fit in your template, they will loose all their nice crisp sharpness. There are actions out there to do this, but if you don’t have one, it’s simple. First flatten your image by right clicking the background layer and selecting Flatten. Then go to Filter > Sharpen > Unsharp Mask and copy these settings:

Then go to Filter > Sharpen > Sharpen. It will look terrible, but don’t fret. Go to Edit > Fade Sharpen. Bring it back down to about 23% or whatever looks good to you. The difference is amazing isn’t it?

Step 7 – Save for Web

To preserve your color space, you’ll want to save for web and convert to SRGB. To do this, simply go to File > Save for Web and Devices…

When you click save, you’ll get to pick a name for your new collage and choose where you want to save it. You’re finally ready to post it to your blog.

If you’ve made it this far through my tutorial, you get a gold star! (Actually, you just get a really cool, unique blogging template.) Please let me know if I have missed any important details that make it difficult to follow my instructions, that way I can fix it for the next reader.  Also, if you liked this tutorial, please share it with your friends by clicking “share” below. Thanks!

Crocheting newborn hats (and other stuff):

Sketching:

A little bit of cake decorating:

I also like to play guitar and sing, but I don’t have a picture of that. Haha!

To be honest, I don’t get around to doing these things too often. There are only so many hours in a day! My main creative outlet is photography, and that is also probably the skill I excel at the most. It’s also the easiest to incorporate into my life as a mom, since a camera is something you can pick up virtually any time of the day. If I don’t pick up my camera for a while, I get the itch… this winter has been tough because I haven’t been able to get outside and do portraits as often as I would like. This weekend we had some really good weather, so I pretty much insisted that my sister and her husband model for me.

Aren’t they cute? I’m going to print a few photos from this shoot and hang them up in my house.

I think when you are staying home with your kids, you just have to do something creative. It could be anything really. I know some moms who scrapbook, some who decorate, some who cook or bake, some who blog (ok, I know a lot who blog, lol) and some who play an instrument. I think exercise, while not necessarily in the same category as creating something, has the same effect for many moms as well. For other moms who work outside of the home, their job allows them to create and feel that accomplishment and sense of identity.

Creative outlets are all about doing something that you love to maintain that part of yourself that has always existed. When you pursue personal interests, you remain interesting. Your spouse and your kids will love you for it, too. As a kid, I loved watching my mom making us homemade Barbie dresses. I liked reading her poetry in her little yellow journal. We spent a lot of time drawing together and I’m pretty sure that is where I developed my love for art!

What do you do to create? Or if you’re left brained, what do you do that helps maintain your sense of identity?

I always wanted to invent a quote. There’s my first try. Someone should quote it somewhere for me to make it legit. Maybe I’ll start inventing more quotes and featuring them at the beginning of my blog posts. Maybe I won’t.

Anyway, that is not the topic for this post. I have been pretty MIA lately when it comes to blogging, so I have a ton of things to catch up on, and one of those things is that I have left the cloth diapering world.

*Collective Gasp*

I started cloth diapering Micah shortly after he turned one. I had a few reasons, one of them being that I wanted to save money. I went the cheap route by buying prefolds and covers. I got really into it, researching techniques for washing and trying to improve what I had by sewing my own liners and cloth wipes. For a while it was going really well and I thought I would continue on with cloth diapers through potty training and any future children.

Sometime after Micah weaned, his poop changed for the worse. And then he started getting routine diaper rash that would develop open, bleeding sores. As hard as I tried to keep these rashes at bay with intense washing of the diapers and expensive creams for his bum, I could not.  The only thing that would ever truly get rid of the rash was to use disposable diapers.

In December, I went through three weeks of intense illness. I had the flu, a cold, and a sinus infection back to back. It really knocked me off of my feet. During that time we used disposable diapers because I did not have the energy to keep up with the laundry and Eric preferred using disposables while he took over most of Micah’s care.

By the end of those three weeks, I realized how much I was loving using disposable diapers again. I dreaded using the cloth again, as terrible as that sounds. I used them for one day and immediately listed them for sale when Micah’s rash flared up after wearing just ONE cloth diaper (which was new, so it wasn’t build-up). Within 24 hours of listing my diapers for sale on my Facebook page, they were sold. Every single piece and accessory was picked up and gone by the end of the week. Eric was amazed. I sold my entire stash for exactly half of what I bought it for. I had used it for just 8 months.  Essentially, if you consider what I would have spent on disposables during that time, I was able to diaper for free during those eight months because the cloth diapers more than paid for themselves. So it definitely wasn’t a waste.

Every time one of Micah’s diapers leaks, I miss my cloth, but I would rather deal with occasional leaks than severe diaper rash any day. I just hated the sound of Micah’s cries and screams when I would try to clean his very sore bottom. I just couldn’t justify saving money when it was causing him so much pain.

So when I redid my blog layout, I removed the cloth diapering buttons, because I’m not part of that club anymore. Honestly, I hope to be out of the diaper club soon altogether. This mama is looking forward to potty training! I didn’t mind changing diapers when Micah was little, but toddler poop is so nasty!! He can sure clear a room!

What drives me really crazy, though, is something that I’m not sure I can fix. I spend a lot of time trying to get the colors in my photos to be just perfect. It’s essential that the colors on my monitor match my prints, otherwise there is no point in spending all that time trying to make them perfect.  If my monitor is wrong, my pictures could come out too bright, too dark, too yellow, or too magenta, etc. I have been using a color calibration device to make my monitor color perfect, and it does do a great job, but my stupid laptop won’t retain the new settings!!  Just about every time my laptop screen is turned off, regardless of whether it’s because the computer restarted, went to sleep or the display just turned off, the color calibration disappears when the screen comes back on. It drives me crazy!! I can’t leave my screen on 24/7, so I end up spending 15 minutes recalibrating every single time I want to edit photos. That gets old fast!!

I’m working on a Lenovo ideapad and running Windows 7. All I know for sure is that the graphics card is overriding my calibration with its own settings and the result is a very cool, blue looking screen that is way too bright and the gamma is all wrong. It drives me crazy! I’ve been trying to find a solution to make my graphics card “shut up” when it comes to color, but I have not found it yet. There are tons of suggestions, but most of them either didn’t work or only solved it temporarily (ie. until the next time my screen turned off.)

If I could afford to buy the iMac that I want, this wouldn’t be a problem. Macs are so much better for photo editing, but it’s also a pretty expensive piece of equipment. I’m saving up, but I know it’s going to be a while and I’m just cringing at the thought of calibrating every day for the next several months, if not longer. Ayeee!!

Dear Apple, please sell me your 27″ iMac with lots of RAM and hard drive space and CS5 for $1. Thank you! hehe!

I’m pretty sure that the only thing I got done this morning so far has been changing that monumentally stinky diaper which conveniently overflowed into Micah’s pajamas.  What would babies do without their mothers? They are so helpless and cute (and stinky).

Here’s a cute photo from this past week. I also entered it into Pioneer Woman’s Photography Assignment this week. (You can see the new watermark I’ve been working on, too)

Here is a sneak preview of my new logo:

(All images taken with a Nikon D3000 & a 50mm 1.4)

I was also getting buggy from staying inside all week (we were sick last week). Plus, it was 69 degrees outside! When it gets that warm in November, especially in the midwest, you have to take advantage of it. I know that it will only be a matter of weeks before the air becomes frigid and bitter. Autumn has got to be the shortest season around here. It always feels like there are two weeks of fall weather in between the sweltering heat and numbing cold.

We had fun. The only bad part was I had to keep blocking him from running into the road, and every time he would be running so fast that when I put my arm in front of him, it ended up knocking him clear to the ground. I felt so mean, but you know, he was giggling so I think he was falling on purpose. He does that  lot lately, actually. He is a little stuntman. Don’t be deceived by the ducky sweater. He is a tough guy.

I am loving my new 50mm lens. I have been making a point of practicing with it as much as I can. It is more difficult to focus because the depth of field is so shallow, but I am getting the hang of it. It helps that this is a fast focusing lens. I turned off the 3D tracking though, because I really don’t want my point of focus moving around with this lens. That was a great feature with my kit lens, but I am not a fan of it with this one. I want to have a set focus point, center it right on the eyes, focus, and then recompose my shot without the focus jumping to Micah’s hand or something.

I have been working so hard lately at my new photography business. There is so much to learn and I will be changing a lot at the new year in terms of pricing and policy. It is a little nerve-wracking, and yet, I am glad that I am doing this because by the time Micah (and any other kids we might have) are in school and I am ready to make this a 40 hour/week adventure, hopefully the kinks will already have been smoothed out and it will be an easy transition to “full time.” I always remind myself that the reason I am going into business (rather than remaining a serious hobbyist) is so I never have to work for someone else, ever again! That goal makes it all worth it.

Speaking of my photography business, I got my shiny new business cards today. What do you think?

On the other side there are three more pictures and my contact information in place of the logo. I ordered 1000, so if you want some to pass out to your friends, you can! (Shameless plug!)