I Heart Faces: Play

I Heart Faces' theme for the week is "Play" - oh, what fun!

I have so many photos, but this photo jumped out at me when I was considering a photo for this entry. In April when we were at a family reunion, I snagged this photo of my husband's cousin's daughter playing the piano. I simply vintaged the photo & added a border.

Play on, Miss K!

Check out more "Play" entries here.

I Heart Faces: "Barefoot Week" Photo Challenge

This week, the photo challenge at IHF is bringing attention to a charitable organization called Soles 4 Souls.

Soles4Souls is a Nashville-based charity that collects shoes from the warehouses of footwear companies and the closets of people like you. The charity distributes these shoes free of charge to people in need, regardless of race, religion, class, or any other criteria. Since 2005, Soles4Souls has given away over 7 million pairs of new and gently worn shoes (currently donating one pair every 9 seconds.) The shoes have been distributed to people in over 125 countries, including Kenya, Thailand, Nepal and the United States. Anyone can join our cause, and we need your help.

In May I took this photo of my son playing in the grass for the first time (yes, it has been a very, very long Calgary winter!!)

However, I wanted to do something unusual with this photo... I antiqued it then added the polaroid border.

Check out more "Barefoot" photo challenges at I Heart Faces.

I Heart Faces: "Yellow" Photo Challenge

This week's photo challenge theme at I Heart Faces is "Yellow."

What to do when you don't have a yellow house, yellow wall, yellow clothing, or big field of yellow flowers????!! Oh, and I have a boy... and boys don't generally wear yellow!

So, I looked around the house... and found this pale yellow laundry bag... placed my 8-month-old son in the yellow bag... and this is the result.

Check out more great "yellow" photos here.

I Heart Faces: Faces & Flowers

This week's photo challenge at I Heart Faces is "Faces & Flowers."

Last month was my husband's grandmother's 90th birthday. Her 8 children had a song sung while they presented their mother with roses. Grandma was very touched by this gesture.

I just love this photo of Grandma on her 90th birthday. I added 2 textures & a frame to give the photo an aged look.

Check out other great photo challenge entries here.

I Heart Faces: Smiles

Boy + First Swing Ride = All Smiles!

Check out other "Smiles at I Heart Faces.

I Heart Faces: Chocolate Pudding Delight

This week's photo challenge for "i Heart Faces" is Desserts.

I love to cook, and baking is low on the to-do lists! Admittedly, I'm not really a dessert fan, and I don't take photos of desserts.

This past Saturday, we let our 7-month-old son have his first taste-test of a dessert: Chocolate Pudding. Oh, how he loved it... & he made a scrumptious mess! Life's too short not to have fun!

So here's my son after he tackled & enjoyed Chocolate Pudding!! What a treat! Yum!!

Check out other great dessert photos here.

I Heart Faces: Dramatic Black & White

This is my second "I Heart Faces" photo challenge, and I wanted to challenge myself by venturing onto new learning paths.

There were so many photos to consider, but I liked this photo of the blind beggar lady that I encountered during my travels in India in 2005. This lady was standing outside the gated area where a wedding was taking place. It was very interesting for me to watch part of the Indian wedding ceremony. Guests were coming & going; a beautiful white cart decorated with flowers and 2 horses were at the ready to whisk the bridal couple away. There was such a contrast of colour & festivities vs the lone woman in drab clothing begging for a few rupees.

The original colour photo was quite drab looking and I just "didn't know what to do" with that photo. (If you would like to see the original photo, I've added it on my blog after this entry.) Thanks to this photo challenge, here's what I did to create the finished "dramatic" look:

• convert photo to B&W
• run a portrait action
• add vibrance
• add 2 textures
• make needed adjustments (levels, curves)
• burn around the edges
• add a vignette
• frame

Check out some of the other participants photos here.

I Heart Faces: Focusing on Angles

This is my first entry for "i heart faces" (www.iheartfaces.com) and this week's challenge is Focusing on Angles. The weather has not been conducive for venturing outside today, so I tried a new angle while indoors.

Before my son settled down to sleep, I took this photo.