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Sunday, December 16, 2012

Photography

Today I decided to finally take Brealyns Christmas pictures. I made the outfit and bow she is wearing. I will have to do a tutorial on how all of this was done soon! Everything was relatively easy except for the words "1st Christmas" that I have across her onsie. Let me tell you, cutting out letters that small to iron on is a pain in the butt! It sure was worth all of the work though :) 



I taped a white blanket up on my bar and then had it coming out as a backdrop/staging area. I then taped up Christmas lights to add some extra dimension. 



If you do not want your lights to look like, well Christmas lights then I highly suggest going over them with the "blur" tool in the editing site I mention below. It makes a world of difference. Also in order to not blur your entire picture there is a paintbrush in the corner (you must click blur before it shows up) you can then erase the effect and add it wherever you want. You can do this with most of the editing tools :)  



Here are just a few of the nearly 100 pictures I took...  Can you say camera happy? 
No, my pictures do not come out looking nearly this good, I wish. I use http://ipiccy.com/ to edit my pictures (If you try to edit them using this site and it doesn't work try downloading Google Chrome. That is the only way it worked for me). Play around with all of their editing tools, they are A-M-A-Z-I-N-G! The curve tool is how I get my images lighter even though my lighting was terrible. I also colored her eyes in some of the pictures. Her pretty blue eyes just don't always show up in pictures. 
I hope you enjoy!! Please leave my comments if you need any more information!
  

Saving Money

I love saving money in any way that I can, so I have started making my own baby wipes! I have also tried cloth diapers, but they are just not for me. I know there are many brave moms who use them and have great luck, but we just didn't. The baby wipes, on the other hand, are amazing! They are so much softer then regular wipes and they are much easier on Brealyns sensitive skin (her skin breaks out from everything including baby lotion).
Another money saver I am going to try is making laundry detergent. I have found a few posts on pinterest (follow me her http://pinterest.com/aesmith1992/)showing detergents that work well on cloth diapers and easy ways to make your own powder or liquid detergent. I can't wait to make these and test them out. Let me know if you have any great recipes for things that are easy to make and save lots of money! I am always on the look out for something new to try :)