Cracked Doll Makeup

My younger sister (19) wants to be a broken doll for Halloween. Although I don't observe the day myself, I thought it might be neat to do a quick photo shoot with the look! So, I let her practice on my face. Needless to say, she broke it.

This one is part of my #‎fivedayblackandwhitechallenge‬ !

Black and White Portraits

I have been playing around more with portrait photography. As you may have seen in my previous posts, people aren't generally my main subject! I have a dream of conceptual photography, so I decided I really need to learn portraits!!! I advertised on Facebook that I would be doing free shoots to get models (hehehe free stuff always works!). The top girl is my younger sister. The little boy is my Facebook find.

Super happy thoughts your way!

Textures From Oregon

I love texture. In fact, in my first photography class ever, that's all I wanted to take pictures of! Now I have developed to where I can take a picture of something with texture to create something as a whole. But, old habits die hard. While enjoying artist's block in Oregon, I reverted back to my original style: texture and close-ups. Oh, and a pair of birds.

Enjoy your Monday!!!

Duck Butts

The theme of my visit to Oregon seemed to be ducks. More specifically, duck butts. I thought I would share their cute little behinds with you. Enjoy your Sunday!

Water on the Brain

Good morning everyone ^.^

I had to get to a class early, and I couldn't help but jump out of the car and snap the pictures. The ones with the AIV Photography watermark are also mine, I just forgot to save them without the logo.

I was inspired by the mystique of the whole setting ... rising sun behind trees being sprayed with mist. I chose to do the images in a blue monotone to add to the feel. What do you think?

Some Bees for Thought

Hi everyone! Bees are a very hard thing to capture! You have to have the right setting for the light, a fast shutter speed, and be able to focus on a moving target ... oi. Here are two photos that turned out awesome.

Mother and Kittens

I love my mom a lot. We have a unique and special relationship that has developed since I moved out to attend college 5 years ago. Luckily, I still live close enough that I can go see her whenever I want or need. She doesn't like to have her picture taken, though. She has eased up since I have become a photography major but not a whole lot. Thus, this first image is my favorite of her.

She found these adorable little kittens, just at that age where they want to go out and explore but aren't old enough to be afraid of humans. I hauled my camera over to snap some shots of the cute little buggers, and here are my favorite pictures.

It Pays to Buy Smaller || Downy Unstopables ||

I have been getting ready to make my first batch of homemade liquid laundry detergent. I want to add Downy Unstopables for the scent, so I have been looking up coupons, doing math to find the best deal, etc.

First, let me share the site where I buy my coupons from. Klip2Save has almost every coupon available at reasonable rates. Shipping is generally $1 for 3-5 day shipping, and you can buy coupons individually. If you click on the link, it will take you to the Downy Unstopables coupon search results.

I found two awesome coupons that don't expire until 11/30/2014: a $3/2 and a $2/1. I bought three of each, just to get me started since there aren't any sales going on right now. The total, with shipping was $2.83.

Now for some math! I based the following math on Walmart's prices. They are advertised as the cheapest in town. This will show how much it will be for 6 DU's. You might have to break up the transaction into a set of 4 and a set of 2.

Walmart offers three sizes.




Oz                 Price     x 6   Minus Coupons       Plus Coupon Cost       Total Cost______________

9.7 oz     -      $5         $30      -$15 ([3+2] x3)             + $2                $17      for 6 Downy Unstopables

13.2 oz     -    $7         $42          -$15                           + $2               $29      for 6 Downy Unstopables

19.3 oz     -    $9.75     $58.5       -$15                         + $2                $45.6   for 6 Downy Unstopables


(I'm not sure why I did $2 instead of $2.83, but you get the general idea)

I am always one to check on the price per ounce, too...



Oz                 Price                 /6                           /number of ounces       Total Cost per ounce___

9.7 oz     -      $17/6           $2.83 per bottle            9.7 oz                          About $0.29 / 1 oz

13.2 oz     -     $29/6          $4.83 per bottle            13.2 oz                        About $0.37 / 1 oz

19.3 oz     -     $45.5/6       $7.60 per bottle            19.3 oz                        About$0.40 / 1 oz




So that's the breakdown of it! I was surprised by this ... normally its cheaper to buy the bigger packages. At normal price, the smallest bottle was only a penny more per ounce than the biggest bottle.

I will be holding on to these coupons for a little while ... hopefully there will be a sale soon so we can save even more! If I order the coupons on Sunday (when the sales come out), I normally get my coupons by Wednesday, giving me plenty of time to get my deals. Family Dollar always has them on clearance, also.

I hope this was helpful! Stay tuned for the recipe for liquid laundry detergent :)

My Brushes Pro

If you have an iPad or tablet and need a fantastic app to release your artistic creativity, I vote for the My Brushes Pro app! I like this a lot better than the adobe sketch app, but I do like the realism of the Adobe one. This was/is a free app, and I just use a soft-ended stylus that I got from the Dollar Tree. I found a style of art that I really like! The flowers were done using a mirroring technique the app provides. The others are more free hand.

What do y'all think of the results? I love the smudgey, blended, shiny look, but that's just me.

Numbers

Life is all about numbers, even if you don't like math. Here is my story in numbers.

12: the age I first became obsessed with my weight
220: the weight that first made me cry (at 12)
15: the size of jeans I wore until I started college
5.9: the height  I always thought was "perfect"
18: the age I left home for the first time, and the biggest size of jeans most stores carry
2013: the year I got married
263: the heaviest I have ever weighed in at
0: the number of friends that stuck with me after high school
175: my weight senior year
104: the times I chose to wear something baggy so others wouldn't have to look at my rolls


I mention a lot of weight numbers for a reason: even when I was thin at 170 lbs, I still thought I was fat. I still had rolls, my jeans were size 15, my shirt was an xl. None of my thin friends wore clothes that size. It has taken a long time (almost 5 years from the time I graduated high school) to realize numbers are all that I was worried about. Looking back at photos of me from that time, I can't believe how thin my face was! I know better now. Its not that I am any more used to purchasing higher sized clothing or that I have grown comfortable with the numbers, its simply that I recognize there is more to me than the weekly addition and subtraction.

A body is more than its fat content. Now that I'm in a spinning class, I can feel things differently. I can push harder and know that, even if I stumble out of the room, I did it. I have less fear of doing things, period. I am now able to measure my success by what I have accomplished, how I reacted to the situation, how hard I was able to push ...

Of course, it is also a huge help that I understand my body and how it works a lot better than when I was 18. We women are told to eat a little and exercise a lot, stay away from fatty foods, and that chocolate will cause you to break out. Here's a fun little fact: in the past month, I have lost 6 pounds by eatting high-fat foods. Fat is good for us to eat. Our body needs fat to function. And 900 calories a day is borderline starvation.

Quit basing your worth on your dress measurements! That goes for all sizes.

Nostalgia

Hi all! I have been taking a lot of time to revamp my blogs, including trying to find a new profile picture. As I was digging through my facebook images, I came across some that I wanted to share! It actually inspired me to create a numbers story ... so stay tuned for that!

Me at 18

 

 

 

 

My wedding day at 21

Me and my sister (18 and 15)

Me and my sister (21 and 18)

 

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