she likes to dance

remember when i said she's crazy? the proof:

it gets good/scary/funny around 1:20. and please excuse, mr. nash in the background. he's still not used to not being the center of attention.



{don't worry, she didn't fall off}

happy anniversary

2 of a kind
+
4 years

______________________

happy easter!

Silhouette How-To

I've had a several people ask me how to make the silhouette's I've posted on my blog. First off, this is MUCH easier than you think, and secondly there are at least two ways of doing this. I do mine digitally, so if you have photoshop or other similar photo editing software, this is how I do it:

1. Take a picture-try to do it against a solid colored wall. A clean background will make things much easier.



2. Once you've uploaded the photo to your computer, open it in the photo editing software. I'll give instructions for photoshop, but the functions are basic enough that any other editing software should have something similar. The "tools" are shown in red circles to help you out.



3. Using the "magic wand" tool, select the background areas (simply click on the area and the tool will "magically" select the area to its edge). Then delete the selected areas (do this by using "ctrl+x" or on a mac "apple+x". Or if commands are too complicated for you, go to "edit" then "delete selection").

Selected Area:


Deleted Areas:


The "magic wand" tool will remove most of the background, but if you have some spots left, simply use the eraser tool to clean it up (you may have some edges that need a little attention too):



4. Now, go to "Image," "Adjustments," then "Brightness/Contrast."



Move the Contrast bar to the far right:


5. Finally, using your brush tool (black), fill in the areas that remain.




That's it! Print it and frame it and you're done!

If you don't have photo editing software, or you just want to do it the ol' fashioned way, my friend lauren has a tutorial here. The cutout method works especially well if you want to use a patterned paper for some added personality.



Good luck!

don't let the music stop

em and i went to the david archuletta concert last week. two old hags in a crowd of pre-pubescent girls chanting "david" anytime even a techie would enter the stage. and it was a blast! he's growing up and it's fun to watch. and dawg, that boy's got pipes! he could sing the phonebook to me anytime. if only he hadn't sung that blasted jason mraz song...

we were trying to take a picture of us at the show and had a rough go of it. for example, the picture above: we could easliy be at a monster truck rally or other such white trash event for all anyone can tell. and at one point we hit the "record" button rather than the "shutter" button. is it hilarious, or is it just us?



it's just us, isn't it?

new tradition

in honor of nie and her awesome family tradition (if you haven't read her post about this, you can read it here.):





she does these every year on april 1st. i've loved the idea of doing a silhouette of the kids every year, but i wasn't sure i'd be able to follow through. having a set date (a memorable one) might actually make this work for me. plus it works out pefectly because i did nash's first silhouette almost exactly this same time last year, so i'm not really behind!

and here's the half-way through of haven's-i think it looks kinda cool:

a good morning.

my computer woke up this morning (!) and not only did i manage to clear one whole memory card, but i found this gem in my gmail inbox:



does this mean that nash and haven can now check the "african american" and "other" boxes on their college apps? nash, for one, is going to need all the help he can get. apparently it doesn't matter how smart you are if you're a white male in this country.