Front Porch and Photo Party Changes

Hi everyone. I  hope you are having a great weekend.  The wind finally calmed down a bit here and the temperature is rising after our cool front passed.  However, I will take the wind over the deadly tornadoes any day. My heart goes out to those that were affected by the storms. 

Last week I got my flower bed cleaned, trimmed and mulched.

When the the trimmed plants and the newly planted flowers grow I will post an updated pic. 

I put a few flowers in some pots.  I didn’t go overboard this year.

This pot with the purple salvia is my favorite.

I bought the grapevine ball last year at a thrift store and I keep a solar light in the middle of it. 

I was going to paint some stripes on my pots this year, but there are only so many hours in the day and I always feel like it’s not enough. 

Which brings me to my next topic, photo linky parties.  It looks like we will be having the parties once a month. I think most of you are too busy to participate twice a month and it takes me a lot of time as well.  I am going to have them the 2nd Tuesday of every month.  I might add a special one in here and there.  I am trying to decide what the challenges will be.  I do know they will be simple and hopefully not confusing. 

Don’t forget we have a party coming up May 10th. 

My Photography Hobby Paid Off

My day started out eating breakfast with my husband’s family at Cracker Barrel.  My lazy tired husband slept in and didn’t join us.  He had some relatives in from Colorado.

Not too long after a long leisurely breakfast and goodbyes I received a phone call from one of my friends that works with JDRF (Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation).  She said she needed a photographer and asked if I would be interested in photographing Bret Michaels (from Poison) a the hospital visiting sick kids today.   Ummmm YES!!!!  I would be a fool to say no right?

  I was nervous.  Not to meet him, but because I wanted to give the foundation good pics and because I am a beginner I always worry.  I think indoor shots are harder and it was an event not a sit down and pose photo session.

Bret has had diabetes since he was a small child and this foundation is near and dear to his heart.  He was in town for a benefit concert for JDRF and wanted to visit the sick kids at the hospital first. 

Did I get a photo with him?  Ummmm YES!

Did I love following him around taking his pic?  Ummm YES!!!  It was such a great experience.  The man is super super nice and so down to earth. 

While we waited for Bret this guy gave me the thumbs up because he liked my camera.  I liked him.

I felt such a bond with the kids.  I was so in my comfort zone talking to them. 

Bret finally made it and here he is coming down the hall.

I know the grown ups were more excited than the kids because we grew up listening to him.  You have never seen so many giddy nurses. 

One of the first things he did was sing this kid’s guitar.

Here he is sporting his future rock star look.

And then this kid’s cast.

He talked to everyone about his emergency appendectomy followed by a brain hemorrhage and then a  coma. He was in a coma just last April.   He also talked about growing up with diabetes. 

He answered questions.

And signed T-shirts and bandanas.

He autographed this kid’s cd cover.

He spent one one one time with the kids.

And then he headed to some rooms to visit patients that weren’t able to join everyone.

I fell in love with this sweet girl.  My heart melted at the sight of her.

His last stop was a little baby.

Here’s some solo shots of him.

I am so glad my photography hobby allowed me to participate in such a great event.  This opportunity confirms what I preach.  Push yourself and practice what you love.  You never know when it might just pay off.

Linking to

Saturday Night Special @ Funky Junk Interiors

Sunday Showcase @ Under The Table and Dreaming

Remodelaholic Feature

One of the exciting things I have to tell you is I am a guest blogger today at Remodelaholic. If you didn't read my Hutch Transformation post or you wanted more details then head on over to read all about here at Remodelaholic.  I am so honored Cassity asked me to guest post on her blog. 

I have to say I am still giddy about my other exciting news. I don't know when I have had so much fun. I can't wait to show you pics!!!!

PS Here is a hint at the exciting news to come.  “Every rose has it’s thorn.”

Exciting News Coming Up

I have 2 very exciting things coming up this weekend.  My stomach hurts from nerves.  I will be sharing soon.  And no….I didn’t get a call from any home décor magazine or show.    That would be exciting too though.

Photo Linky Party Winner

First of I must apologize for such a confusing theme this time and thank you for linking up.  I asked Sarah @ Faded Country to be our guest judge. 

Here’s her results.

Hey I looked through all the entries and I am going to go with #10.

Debbie @ A Day In My Life

I love the simplicity and the way the photos create a soothing feel. It makes me want to go there and lie in the grass and take in the beauty that abounds. What a great place to live and I love the detail of the rope on the poles. Gorgeous place!

Here’s your ribbon if you want it for your blog.

<center><a href="http://tracys-trinkets-treasures.blogspot.com/"><img border="0" src="http://i175.photobucket.com/albums/w136/tracyntx/blueribbon_edited-2.jpg" /></a></center>

I am waiting for the poll to end on the sidebar, but I think there will be some changes to the photo parties. 

There will still be another one in about 2 weeks on May 3rd. 

The challenge is simple!  Yippee for simple. 

Take a photo of a sunrise, sunset or sun flare.

If you aren’t sure what a sun flare is or looks like then go visit a great post I found about it @

Photography Blogger. 

The post is called 25 Excellent Sun Flare Photography Examples.  You can read it here and see the awesome photo examples.

Thanks again to those that linked and thanks to Sarah for being the guest judge.

Do You Push Yourself?

Do you push yourself to learn new things?  It’s how we grow.  Remember when you first learned to comment, link to a party, write a blog post, use a new product?  Now that you are comfortable blogging, what do you do to push yourself to be a better blogger? 

Most of you know that I have become passionate about learning photography and editing.  It takes a lot of my time, but I enjoy it so much that I don’t mind. 

The more I read photography blogs the more I learn there is more to learn.  I recently read Everyday Elements blog post about editing RAW images.  You can see it here. RAW images scare me.  I know nothing about them and they take up a ton of space, but it seems they produce the best photos for editing.

So I took my camera outside in the 50mph wind and took a few quick shots in my front yard in RAW.  (RAW is an image quality choice with SLR cameras)

Here is my before photo.

And after.  The colors are correct and the lighting is more even and doesn’t have severe hot spots.

And the next thing I pushed myself to learn is mouse overs.  My friend Antita at Going a Little Costal inspired me to try a while back and I didn’t take time to do it.  Tonight I decided to follow Layla @ The Lettered Cottage’s tutorial for mouse overs.  You can read it here. 

I am pushing myself and trying it.  I am not sure if it will work until I publish it.  If it doesn’t I will keep trying until I get it right.  Hopefully when you mouse over the image below it will show you the before and after. 

UPDATE:  It took me forever but I got it to work.  I finally had to try Shadowhouse Creations tutorial (here)and it worked.

 

I think mouse overs make it easier to see the differences in before and after posts. 

What have you done to push yourself lately?  What is something you have always wanted to do or learn, but you haven’t tried yet?

It’s Not a Party Without Friends

Usually I don’t ask for things on my blog, but today I am begging. 

I am having a linky party

and I am the only one who showed up.  If you have a minute to take some pics of a room, your yard, your work, a store, a park, etc and link them up I will be forever grateful.  My guest judge might not have anything to judge if I don’t beg.

Party ends tomorrow at 6pm Central time.  I am putting a poll up on my sidebar if you have a minute to vote.  Thanks.

Click on the party button above to get to the party. 

360 Degree Photo Linky Party

ATTENTION:  You don't have to link your pics together like I did to make pano.  I just did it for fun.  This was suppose to be a challenge to take photos of somethign all around an area.  For example showing of a room in your house.  I am sorry this was so confusing. 

With warmer weather it is a perfect time to get outside and take photos of nature wakening up after months of winter.  That’s what I did for my examples I shared with you yesterday.  You can see my backyard photos here.    I also considered sitting in a room in my house and taking 360 degrees of photos.  Anyway, I took a few more outdoor pics in the backyard (I did only about 180 degrees because I already showed you so many pics previously).  This time I used my shots to create panoramic photos in Photoshop Elements. 

I wasn’t able to use all 5 photos for one panoramic so I created 3 different ones.



I thought this was fun.  I hope you did too.  I can’t wait to see your links. 
Our guest judge will be Sarah @ Faded Country

Link up will end Wednesday the 27th at 6pm Central time.
Next party is sunrises or sunsets.