Photo Editing....

 

I have decided the reason my pictures aren't the most fantastic things I've ever seen is because of editing! I thought it was the lens or the lighting or the F-stop, or the white balance......I'm sure it's all of these things!! Thankfully, I've discovered editing. This is not a new revelation. It's just something I've never wanted to do. I wanted to have the perfect picture SOOC, (straight out of camera). I now realize most pictures are edited......those who don't have to edit are geniuses with a camera! These are all pictures that are edited on Picnik. It's free.......very nice! It is pretty limited what you can do for free, but check out these pictures! I enhanced the colors a little and on a few.......rounded the corners!

I love this effect under the Create tab. It's called cross-process. This picture turned out so cute using that color effect! Probably would have been pretty cute without it, too!

There are so many more to play with. I highly recommend you go there now and PLAY! You may have been there before and not played around that much. I first found Picnik when I was looking for a way to shrink my photos in order to upload them to websites. So, for the first few years, that's all I did! Now, watch out! I will have lots of cool colors and black and white and on and on and on.........................

This picture probably got a touch of the neutral tool. It's where you click on something that is black or white (neutral) and it helps fix your color when your white balance is off. Did you know that when you are shooting with more than one light option, it throws the white balance into unbalance!!! In this picture we had natural light and tungsten.....If I had been trying to take a picture for more than just having these two in one...I would've taken the time to turn of the lights in the kitchen. Honestly, there could've been fluorescent lights in there, too!!

It really doesn't matter because this is my favorite picture of the day...it could have been blurry and dark and I would have loved it all the same!

Isn't she gorgeous?

Thankful

I am just sitting here watching some crazy ESPN documentary on football. Ok, your right, I'm not watching, Connor and the kids are! I AM watching them watch and feeling very thankful! I have so many things to be thankful for.

The health and happiness of my family and friends.

The new experiences I encounter every single day.
The networking and meeting new people and learning something every single day!

I can't wait to be with family tomorrow. Eat a ton of food. Rest.....

I hope you all have a wonderful day of Thanks and be careful if you are a Black Friday shopper! I'm not and I am thankful for that!!

Stay tuned to Talk of Alabama for a few gift ideas from me that you can find at the Old Town Christmas Market in Helena each Saturday from now until Christmas! Here is a sneak peek of the set! It's always fun to go on the show. Even if I do look a little dorky trying to figure out where to look and fake smiling!!I'm also very thankful for a brother in law that gets us a few extra perks as an Alabama Football player......Roll Tide!!

A little time on Talk of Alabama

I always enjoy going on Talk of Alabama. It's a morning show here in Birmingham, ABC 33/40. Nicole and I became friends when she married a friend from college. She moved here from Atlanta, Georgia. Her background is TV, which made for a perfect fit for a co-host of the Talk of Alabama show!

I've been on several times. I'm usually taking on crafts that I've made or doing a Spotted Zebra spot. Nicole text me this morning and asked if we could do a Show and Tell segment for the Thursday show. Well, the Spotted Zebra couldn't get anything together so quickly. I, on the other hand, had plenty of ideas! Since I've been working with Southern Accents, I have a good supply of things I've created with salvaged wood, old keys, and old windows! I thought it would be the perfect time to represent both of us!

You've seen a few of the things around this blog before......Do you remember these mixed media projects? The cross on the raw wood was from Southern Accents. It was a fabulous wood that I can't remember the name of now! One really cool thing about the wood is that it was taken from an old home that was being torn down. It was used as shelving to hold produce. You can see pencil marks that say tomatoes, vegetables, and other food words that are cut and I can't tell what they say. Some of the pieces have shelving paper stuck to the back...just another part of it's story!

I changed it up a bit for the Holidays! Christmas trees will be on the show kinda like this one....
Another post last Christmas was of these beauties! I love these trees. They are all unique. The salvaged wood used is from all different places. Some is trim, some bead board and some from shutters! All antique architectural wood.
Here is a little sneak peek of what you will see.......I have a few surprises up my sleeve....you will have to tune in on Thursday to see. I know, it's on at the same time as the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade......really? Do you want to watch that? haha, it's a tradition for me.....guess I will dvr it! That way I can watch it anytime I want! I love that parade!!

Christmas decorating!!

I love getting ready for the holidays! I've been itching to decorate and felt like it was a little too soon to do that here at Casa Farmer. Luckily, Southern Accents needed their windows re-decorated for Christmas in Cullman this past weekend! Yay! I was so glad to have somewhere to put up a tree! I dreamed about how I would do the windows. Actually, I only dreamed up what I would do on the left side.....the right would have to work itself out. I told the guys to have it all cleaned out and have the tree up when I got there on Friday.

Ok, so it was cleaned out, but no tree. I get the tree out of the box and stand it up.....yes, I said stand it up. It was only 4.5 feet tall....with the urn it was in!!!!! What? How can you have this huge window with a 4.5 foot tall tree???? You can't! Kolby gets on the phone to see if he can borrow one from his mom. He brings back a 4.5 foot tree. What is it with the short trees in Cullman?? There is an adorable florist right next door to the store and Steve, the owner, has a couple upstairs that he is willing to sell. GREAT! We will take them both! They are 6 foot.....that's more like it! Whew! I get Shane to start cutting off the lights. Yeah, you know those pre-lit trees....the lights don't work forever! He cut and cut and cut, finally 2 hours later they were off! In the meantime, we dug out a mantle, some shutters, an industrial cart, old piano keyboard and more stuff than I can name! The end result looked gorgeous!! ps. I ended up adding more burlap ribbon with these little rusted bells onto the tree to finish it. I was so pleased and HOT! Standing in the windows with the sun blaring in, I'm pretty sure it was over 100 degrees.....just ask Shane! He left for lunch and never came back! I'm sure he was sitting in a pool somewhere drinking something nice and cold!

The right window did indeed work itself out.....have I mentioned that I brought a helper? Daphney, you all know her, my crazy friend! She has this way of getting things done. I knew we could finish and get back to Birmingham in time to get the kids off the bus! I was delegating and she was working....HARD! I left her with the right window for the most part. It was getting all the leftovers. I was searching all over the store for red items....very hard to find! On the back side of the block, they will put out merchandise in a tag sale kind of way. I'm not sure they put tags on it, but there are items just sitting in the back. That's when I found it.......a Sunbeam sign, you know, the bread! It is 5 ft tall and each panel is about 3 ft wide! Shut UP! It is fantastic and makes a statement for sure! I'm very disappointed that the sun was glaring on my windows at the end of the day. They didn't turn out spectacular like I wanted. You can barely see Sunbeam and you can't see the mantle in this window, at all!! Trust me, its fabulous!!

Love it, want it, gotta have it! Now what do I do with it??

I love finding a cool piece that has lots of character and a story. Sometimes, it doesn't have a household use and you have to make one for it!

I found, well Kolby found, these molds in Chattanooga, TN. He was doing a little picking for Southern Accents and loaded these onto the truck! I was intrigued from the moment he sent the picture to my phone! I wanted to know what they were and what they were for! He gave me little information in the beginning.

We later learned they are patterns used to make industrial molds. They came from the Wheland Factory in Chattanooga, Tn which went under in 2005. The company’s foundries specialize in the making of brake components for the automotive industry and include two gray iron foundries and two ductile iron foundries. Wheland has for years been considered one of America’s largest foundry companies, with roots going back to 1866. The company’s facilities have a combined melting capacity of 190 tons per hour, and the company boasts that nearly half of all cars assembled in the U.S. contain one or more Wheland components.
Cool information, huh?!
It took a couple of weeks......ok, maybe a couple of days, but I found a great use for these at my house! Yay! I know how easy it would have been to just put some fruit in it and sit it in the middle of the table....but, I have a really cool dough bowl for that! Then, if I had some really awesome collection, I could have put it on my coffee table. Oh, that's right...no coffee table....Check out this post for the one I want!

I was still trying to figure out a great use for these. The moment I picked one up, I knew exactly what I would do! They were so light! I don't know why I thought they would be heavy. They look heavy, don't they?? Ok, I picked it up and knew I would hang them on my brick wall in my foyer. The wall is the backside of the fireplace and has two arches on either side. It's one of my favorite things about the house. Then there is this column right in the middle of it! Don't get me wrong, it's a gorgeous column. It was a beam from a warehouse in Chicago. It's load bearing and they placed it in the best place they could. It just keeps me from putting a piece of furniture there or hanging something like an oil painting or portrait. These are perfect.

I only have 3. I think I need 5! Five is a good odd number. I Love odd numbered things. These are close to the same size. I am hoping to add bigger or smaller ones.