This past week I pulled a bit of a switch in my schedule and instead of staying up late and dragging my butt around in the morning, I have been getting to sleep at a decent time which amazingly enough means that I actually wake up before my kids and I even wake up feeling great!
So yesterday morning I was out side at 7am watering my plants when I saw the sun come over the ridge and highlight this big ol dandelion. I was captivated. I ran and grabbed my camera and started to play around with this cool image.
Anyway I was pretty happy with the results - I am thinking of printing a couple of them to hang in my newly reno'd sunroom (which I will post about really soon!!!)
So all too often I know that choices I make come down to dollars and cents.
Over the past six months though I have been very lucky to have access to free trials and beta softwear. I started out with Lightroom and really liked it but all too soon the beta closed down because they released Lightroom 3 (The beta is a freeware working copy of the program so they can get feedback and make changes before releasing it)
Still nickle and diming my way along I found that I could sign up for a free trial of photoshop CS5 itself....(Angels singing). Wow. Thats all I have to say - what an awesome program. Until the trial runs out and you go to see how much it costs and wake up to find that you passed out on the floor from the pure shock of it all. Photoshop CS5 - $1200. Ouch that doesn't really fit into my financial planning right now.
So I was feeling a little lost - no beta - no photoshop trial...and after tasting such creative freedom I questioned if I could chain myself to the cumbersome GIMP again. Then a small window of hope....another trial for the now completed Lightroom 3 - and so for the next 30 days I am happy. I honestly don't want to think beyond that...
Although at around $400 Lightroom leaves a little more air in your lungs.
And I was really happy to find that some of the bigger issues I had with lightroom have been resolved. Here's a before and after I was playing around with today...its a crappy picture I quickly snapped while setting things up for my brothers passport photos. It was kind of a worse case senario test. The before of Gabe not only has exposure issues but it is quite grainy (especially when zoomed) Not to mention all the dried grossness all over his face. This edit was done in about 5 min...simple, practical and quite effective for all the basics. I cringe at the day when I will have to dish out for softwear but for now at least I have Lightroom!
Before After
Saturday was Eliana's 4th Birthday Party and we celebrated at a local pool. Eliana let me know about every 5 minutes that this was her favourite birthday ever - which was so cute to hear.
It really was a great day and it is just amazing to think that my little button is 4 already. She is a precious, vivacious little thing and I thank God every day that she is our daughter.
Soooooo we went from a perfect day Saturday to a perfectly bizarrely random day on Sunday.
Ed went to go run some errands with Eliana Sunday afternoon and I was going to stay home with Gabe who was napping (and was sick with a fever) when Ed called back home almost immediately after he left telling me to look out our window. To my surprise the mill yard across the road was on fire
Not wanting to sit around we packed up Gabe (and our cat just in case the fire decided to hop the road) and headed out to my parents farm for the afternoon. It wasn't until supper time that we got word that our neighbourhood was evacuated due to the fire so we spent the night at the farm. It was quite the little spontaneous adventure but we were up for it and had a fun little 'camp-out' on the living room floor. While I can quite confidently say 99.9% of the population was praying that our homes would be safe...Ed was busy praying that our place would burn down. LOL.
His reasoning?? He figured it would be easier than fixing it up and selling it! Ahhh I love my husband.
Well luckily the majority won out on that one and the next day we were all aloud back in our homes - which yes, were all still there.
Yay for a weekend full of family, friends and adventure.
