Doodles, Balloons and Great Photos!

Just wanted to send a shout out to fellow blogger, Thimbleanna. She took some wonderful photos of dogs and balloons in a recent post. Just excellent photos! Since the dogs are doodles like my goldendoodle, I got an extra big smile out of them. :) Enjoy!

Thursday's Helpful Apps

Today I will be listing my favorite/most used photography apps from my phone. I love to take pictures of my family, my yard/flora/fauna, my pets, many things, actually. I primarily use my iphone5, now. I have a nice Canon camera that I used to love-it has a wonderful zoom! However, it's large and to take it in my purse to capture everyday moments is just too much. I only bring it to special occasions, now. Granted, my iphone can't capture everything as well as a regular camera, but it does a pretty good job. And, as I mentioned in an earlier post, the new iOS7 update for the camera has some nice features.

• Like I said, I use the "camera" app-just the basic app that came on the phone-quite regularly and its new updates like the swipe from regular camera to video or panoramic are much easier to use.
• Instagram, I have also mentioned before, is a good way for me to take pictures and instantly apply an easy filter and post it. I can also have it share that same post to Twitter or Facebook from the instagram app. Via itunes, they mention "Over 150 million users love Instagram! It's a simple way to capture and share the world's moments on your iPhone.
  
  Customize your photos and videos with one of several gorgeous and custom built filter effects. Transform everyday moments into works of art you'll want to share with friends and family.
  
  Share your photos and video in a simple photo stream with friends to see - and follow your friends' photos with the click of a single button. Every day you open up Instagram, you'll see new photos from your closest friends, and creative people from around the world."
• Picstitch is a fun app that will take two or more pictures, and like Instagram, you can apply filters to the photo, but you can also put multiple pictures into one picture. Their info on itunes says, "Quickly combine multiple photos into one beautifully framed picture.
  
  Pic Stitch packs a simple design with a powerful editor to give you everything you could possibly want to make your photo's simply amazing.
  
  Share your masterpiece on your favorite social media networks including Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. Or order prints from your local Walgreens for in-store pickup.
  
  Use Pic Stitch to create a before-and-after sequence, combine great photos of each of your kids, or produce a photographic series."
• Beautiful Mess is a cute app that can put symbols, words, etc. onto the picture you've taken and then it can be shared. It is cute and fun! I have enjoyed playing around with it thus far. Some info from itunes states, "Add new life to your favorite photos with custom filters, fun fonts, and hand-drawn doodles by Elsie and Emma, creators of the award-winning lifestyle blog, "A Beautiful Mess". Then share your creations with friends through email, or by publishing them directly to popular social networks — Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter (hashtag: #ABeautifulMess).
  
  Whether you're sharing personalized snapshots with friends and family or broadcasting your life's most beautiful moments through social media, the photo app from A Beautiful Mess makes it fun and easy."
• Ceiva is an app I use to upload pictures to a digital frame. My husband's grandparents have the digital frame in their apartment connected to wifi and it will upload pictures we send them so they can see the latest shots. They both have really enjoyed it! 
• Also, I just recently saw this article from How Stuff Works on the "10 Great iphone Camera Apps"

Do you have any camera/photo apps you love, Reader? I have heard of a few others, but haven't brought myself to purchase them, yet. Do you have any suggestions?

Photo

I posted this photo on all my sites: Instagram, which posted to Twitter, which posted to Facebook. :) Our girl came home after the funeral this weekend. Our dogs had really missed her and wouldn't leave her for long, coming for snuggles. She loved it, as she had missed them, too!

20 photos in 2 minutes

Becky Higgins' post a few days ago talked about "real life: home office". I know I love to organize my home office, but cannot always control the clutter/paper mess as it enters the room. She posted that we should take 20 photos or so, in 2 minutes. 20 photos took me closer to three minutes, but I captured photos I liked.

Here is the shelf where I keep all my school files, information I have already documented, copies of timecards, etc.


Colorful thread, to hand sew or sewing machine, I just like how the colors look


Inspirational items taped to the door: names of God/Jesus through the Bible inserted into www.wordle.net and a quote from a dear friend: "Worry often gives small things a big shadow.-Swedish Proverb"


The shelf above my desk with scrapbook magazines, journals, books to finish reading and my two favorite willow tree angels-well my only two. :)


This is where I sit-my chair and mac


My mom/parents got me these two containers-the big basket holds papers, embellishments, in plastic sleeves and the container with the green lid has hanging file folders that hold sets of matching papers and embellishments.




My scrapbook table with an exercise ball to sit on while I work, if I want. :)


Project Life binder (above) and items to go in it (below)



Basket of yarn... I always love the idea of knitting, but I don't get very far and I only know how to "knit" not pearl, etc. But the yarn is pretty... :)



My Sam and Sara box. This is important to me because it holds memories of the two babies we lost. It has things like our ultrasound pictures of them, pictures of our girls painting the nursery with Dad, and condolence cards sent to us.


Messy desk

This picture I loved, bought from an artist on etsy.com and then, when decided on how to redo this bedroom into my office, I used it as my inspiration.



This is a picture of an Australian beach. A dear friend took it. I printed it out on canvas to hang in my laundry room, to invision I was on the beach not in doing laundry, but loved how it looked in here. :)

Inspiration bulletin board



Love this, can't wait to clip up other inspirational things or things I'm working on


my board of embellishments above my scrapbook table


My dog, who isn't supposed to be upstairs, sneaks up while I am working and "protects" (naps ;)) in my doorway.


My mom and dad got me this willow tree angel. I love her. Her tag says "Close to me"-even when we're far apart, you're still close to me/my heart. Isn't that sweet? I love her-my angel and my mom :)).


This angel-the angel of good health-is another of my favorites. My husband and daughters got her for me as a good luck gift before my first marathon in 2005.


There you have it, twenty photos into my office. What does your work spot look like? :)

Last of the photos from the scavenger hunt

I have previously posted my photos for the scavenger hunt at Postcards, but still had three more to post before the sadness hit my household. Here are the last three (keep in mind these were taken on my phone, so the quality isn't as good):
a park bench-there are two, on both sides of the big, old pine


a big truck (I posted two: I took a picture of the UPS truck but it was rather far away, and a bit blurry. Then I saw the second truck on my street.)




and a bridge


Hope you've enjoyed my photos! :)

February 10 2011 More Pics

I started posting my photos yesterday from Postcards from the PP site. Notes from yesterday: Molly, computers were the way to go, but I still love the piano! :) Thimbleanna, the shoes are actually very comfy, and I am not normally a fan of things between my toes, but the material they are made of is wonderful! :) Can't wait to wear them outside more! :)
Here are some more photos! :)
Newspaper Headline from the day after we got more snow and ice:


a postbox-our white mailbox in front of our white, snow covered yard: :)


eyes-my youngest daughter, sorry I couldn't get a great one close up enough to see her beautiful blue eyes, in the morning of the snow day. :) Also, some pics of my dogs' eyes. :) They were snuggled all in on the snow day, too. :)






Something heart shaped and something red-I have both these items, with both these last two photos for today




I have three more photos to share later. They were the hardest for me to find. :) Hope you've had a great week thus far! :)

February 9 2011

I have mentioned lately that I have been working on photos for the scavenger hunt on this blog and thought I'd show some of the photos thus far. Here are:
my shoes-these are my vibrams that I haven't worn much lately due to all the snow and ice and treadmill dreading. I'm looking forward to some warmer days in the next week or so, hoping to get out in them.


something with stripes-my beloved snowmen from my collection (wasn't sure which photo to share, so I picked a simple one)


a musical instrument-my husband's grandmother's piano. She let us have it when she moved from a house to an apartment. Our girls have taken piano lessons, played many times on it filling our home with delightful music.


And last for today, a round face clock. My in-laws got us this for Christmas one year. They gave hints as to our Christmas gifts, including it's too big to fit in your car... my husband thought big screen tv! :) We got this clock. We found the perfect spot for it and I love it. I especially love the smell of wood on the inside. It reminds me of, fittingly, my grandfather and father, who enjoyed carpentry. More to come tomorrow! :)