MIA this week!

Yes, the week has gone by and I didn't blog!! Yikes, what happened?? It all started because I was bagged on Sunday - spent, burnt out, tired, lazy etc... Well it turned out that Sunday night, Gillian decided that sleeping was not for her! She went down at 7 pm, then by 11:00 pm she was up screaming and that lasted basically until 2:30 am!!! Off and on, waking every 30 min (I heard this is used as a type of torture technique in the news this week) screaming like I have never heard her scream before. We tried everything, milk, Tylenol, Oragel, cuddling, crying it out, and basically nothing except finally her exhaustion got her to sleep. So I finally fell asleep around 3, woke up at 5:15 am to bike to work and try and work. HA!! like that was going to happen. I sat there for a good 30 min, with my EXTRA-large Timmy's coffee trying to figure out what in the hell I was doing when I left work on Friday, and couldn't for the life remember! Needless to say I took off at 2:30 in a dull haze, drove home (which I probably should have been doing) and thought I would get a little cat nap in before picking up the girls. Unfortunately the washer/dryer repair guy, came by so I had to stay awake for that, then run to get the kids, then rush to get dinner ready...etc.

I basically spent the rest of the week trying to catch up on sleep from Sunday night. I bought some Valerian Root, which my neighbour had recommended to me last winter (which really, isn't the way I recommend finding out about drugs ... but this stuff really works!), so I relaxed a little better and was able to fall asleep faster. Otherwise I would end up lying there in bed all tense and anxious just waiting for Gillian to start crying, and hours later I'd still be awake!!

Oh I also had two hockey games this week, so I was out both Wed and Thursday nights playing, which of course didn't help matters much, and I'm sure my mom is rolling her eyes right now as she reads this, thinking "she is doing too much". But I paid to play, so I'm going to play!!

And that brings us to Friday night. Girls night in the Partington house! The girls were in really good spirits when I picked them up. Abby was happy because her favourite boy Max was at the daycare today. I'd say that Max would be her first crush! She was hugging him, saying good-bye to only him, jumping on him, and really only talking about Max in the car ride home.... "I want to see Max", "I want to go to Max's house", "I want Max to come to Maine" !! It was really funny!
Gillian was happy too, she just hung out with me, drinking her milk, while I got dinner ready. We played a little game of hide and seek with a towel on her face, she thought that was just so funny and giggled her head off, which is just priceless!

After they got to bed, I came down to play a little. I read Jessica Sprague's Photoshop Friday about her "Photo ShaZAM" technique, I thought it was really good! There are just so many combinations and permutations for layers, blending modes, correction techniques, that I love when I find one that others use, that work...like actions!! Because until I've practiced the techniques that I'm learning in my resotration book, I just want to go with a quick fix that will work! Here is what I got:

This is my "before"

And this is my "after"

To summarize what I did:

1. Ran my Noiseware filter
2. Added a photo filter (blue) adjustment layer to reduce the green of the pic (not sure if this was the right colour of filter to use)
3. I then went through the ShaZAM process (I used Overlay @ 65% and Screen 25% - I think?? didn't write it down)
4. Cropped and Resized
5. Flattened
6. Smart Sharpened 85% / 1.1
   
7. Burned the edges
   
8. Added the border

I'm going to give it a try on some other photos!

I'll post if I get a chance tonight, otherwise later all (all two of you who read my blog :) !!