benefits loaded daily

I'm Still Alive!

I don't know why I've been going through a non-blogging phase lately. But I'm back, and here's some of what's been going on.

A couple of weekends ago, we went back to the beach with Mark's sister and her husband. We stayed at a beautiful place in Panama City. The condo had a wrap around balcony and this was our view from it:

It was amazing. We had a great little club next door that had food and live music. And we went out to Captain Anderson's restaurant one night, which was our favorite eating place on those high school beach trips. Very nostalgic. We also went to a new shopping venue, Pier Park, which was lots of fun. It also reminded me of our high school trips because it has an amusement park with a ferris wheel just like the old Miracle Strip Amusement Park. Well, maybe not just like that rickety old thing!

Last weekend, David "met the parents." He went home with his girlfriend Katy who was celebrating her 22nd birthday. It seemed to go very well. I made them stop for a photo before they left.

I'm taking some Photoshop classes at lynda.com and practiced some on this photo. 

And I read this fantastic book. 

And have to say I'm so proud of our Crimson Tide for their win against Penn State. Just can't wait till Mark Ingram and Marcelle Darius get back out on the field! Till next time!

All scrapbook supplies from Digital Scrapbooking.

Flower Pot

flower pot, originally uploaded by Amy LJ.

This is the pot on my porch...caladiums, impatiens, vinca and begonias.

Camouflage

camoflage, originally uploaded by Amy LJ.

Can you see this little guy? He was stuck on this lantana leaf for awhile. That's basil to his left. I am just amazed that a bug knows how to hide like this.

Snapshot of Summer

I made this layout for a challenge at Designer Digitals to scrap a food you like. While we were visiting friends last month, we were served this beautiful assortment of fruit. The photo really makes me think of summer. I quoted Mark Twain who said, "When one has tasted watermelon he knows what the angels eat." 

 

Too Late I Think!

Check out the Pioneer Woman Photography blog for her latest contest which is on bug photography. I finally got outside this morning to take a shot, but I've had a busy day and just now got it uploaded. I think she is about to post her last group and I'm probably too late for the contest, but as usual, all the incredible photos were so very inspiring. I found this little guy crawling around one of my daylilies!

 

Beautiful Pond

pond, originally uploaded by Amy LJ.

A photo from our weekend getaway to our friends' place. He dredged this pond himself about 20 years ago. It's so relaxing to sit on the dock or float in the water. Thanks guys for a fantastic visit.

A Silly Bird

twitterpated, originally uploaded by Amy LJ.

We went to visit our friends Dennis and Joan over the weekend, and we noticed this cardinal continually swooping down from a nearby tree to land on Dennis' truck. He really was mad about that other bird he saw in the mirror!

Photoshop CS5 is Here!

Adobe recently released their new Photoshop upgrade, CS5. Wow, there are so many fantastic new things to play with in this program! One of my favorites so far is the new Mixer Brush, which is bundled with the brush tool. There are lots of tutorials and videos online about this exciting new tool.

The difference for me between this tool and previous Photoshop tools I have learned to use is that this tool actually requires some artistic talent. The basic concept is that it treats your canvas (either one you have drawn yourself or a previously taken photograph) as a wet canvas. Just like everything was painted there all at once with oil paints and now you have a brush that can mix it all together. Actually you have tons of brushes to choose from, all with different bristle tips, and you can set everything from the length of the tips to the way they respond to the pressure of your hand. You have settings that can make your canvas anything from completely dry to very wet, and you can "load" your brush lightly or more heavily. Again, this requires talent that is lost on me, but after watching a few videos on this, I decided to give it a try. 

I started out with this photo of a rose from my garden:

 

I played around with this for awhile using brushes with different tips, and loading various amounts of paint on the brush. This is what I came up with. If you click on the images, you may be able to see better detail:

Using search terms such as "paint", "CS5", and "mixer brush", you can see lots more of this stuff. And this is only one of the many upgrades to the program. 

 
 

Out to a Mexican Restaurant

What a fun night...all the boys were in attendance as we went out to dinner to celebrate my husband's birthday. He chose the Iguana Grill. It is a wonderful spot with the best ambience. I just had to try a few shots with my iPhone. 

 

 
 

My Lamp

I got a really great lamp for my computer table. For the $$$$ price, you would have expected it to work! It has a halogen bulb which is supposed to last a long time, right? Well, after a few weeks of use, I went to my computer one evening and it, the lamp, and my external hard drive, all plugged in to the same power strip, were off. Not good since I didn't shut the drives down. After messing around with all of this, Mark decided that the lamp was shorting out the strip! Replacement bulbs for this lamp are hard to find, so after several trips to the internet and local stores, we finally found the right one. When we inserted it into the lamp, the filament glowed ever so slightly but there was no light!

Enough. We called the store and they were good for the product, except it's now sold out. So we replaced it with a more expensive model with 10% off. Whatever!

Meanwhile, I couldn't see much at my desk, so I brought down my funky Pier One lamp from one of the upstairs bedrooms. Not great for task lighting, but very cool to look at. So I took a photo of it today before it heads back upstairs. And the UPS man delivered the new lamp while I was at it! Let's keep our fingers crossed!