Southern California Beaches
Posted on | March 30, 2010 | No Comments
Spent a day in California beach hopping from Dana Point Beach, to Newport Beach, to Huntington Beach. Funny thing is that before we left for California, I knew we would be going to the beach. I just didn’t think the weather would be nice enough for us to actually play in the sand and enjoy the water. Boy, were Mica and Rinoa furious that I didn’t pack any swimsuits for them – not even shorts!
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The girls got soaking wet from a big wave in Newport Beach, so I had to buy them new clothes at a nearby surf shop. (Yeah, I didn’t bring any change of clothes for them that day either. Thought we were just going on a picnic by the beach. Didn’t get the memo.)
Thanks to my Uncle Manny for a great day!
Tags: beaches > California > Dana Point Beach > Mica > Orange County > Rinoa > Troy
That Gritty Look
Posted on | March 29, 2010 | 2 Comments
In one of the training videos I was watching while organizing my recent vacation photos last weekend, Scott Kelby showed how to create this cool gritty post processing look that’s popular in commercial photography nowadays. I tried this technique on some of the photos from the wedding.
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| This is the unretouched photo of my cousin ML. (Photo taken by Troy Redington.) |
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| This is the image after applying the gritty effect in Lightroom. |
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| This is the unretouched photo of my other cousin DJ. DJ and ML are brothers, by the way. I know, their parents had this obsession with acronyms. (Photo also taken by Troy Redington.) |
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| And this is the image after applying the gritty effect in Lightroom. |
There you go, instant print ad models. (Oh, did I mention how I absolutely love these two cousins of mine?) If you’re interested, Scott Kelby shows how to do this gritty look here.
My Cousin’s Wedding
Posted on | March 28, 2010 | 2 Comments
I am back from a very refreshing and much needed 2-week vacation away from the cold weather here in the midwest. Troy, the girls, and I flew to California to attend my cousin Joyce’s wedding, and then just relaxed and hung out with the cousins, aunts, and uncles for several more days after that.
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| My cousin’s wedding was a small, outdoor wedding overlooking the Maderas Golf Course and rolling hills of North San Diego. Very nice and intimate! |
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| The bride and groom, Joyce and Carlos, make a handsome and very tall couple. We got to know Carlos a little better during our trip, and both Troy and I easily connected with him. We think he’s a great guy. |
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| After the wedding ceremony, we enjoyed some cocktails outdoors while waiting for the reception doors to open. Here I am posing with my two aunts and cousin, Carrie, while Troy takes the shot. (If I haven’t mentioned in any previous posts, I cut my hair short at Troy’s request. And yes, I miss my long hair but I’m also having fun styling my short hair.) |
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| Two of my favorite cousins, DJ and ML, making the most of cocktail hour. |
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| Mica is enjoying the company of ML’s girlfriend, Constance. (Actually, we all love her. Isn’t it great when your family is growing and you’re surrounded by great company?) |
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| My lovely family. If only I can get Mica to give a genuine smile. (And I know, she’s taller than me now! Of course, I’m also slouching in the photo – taken by Carrie’s boyfriend, Roger.) |
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| Here I am {again} posing with my Aunt Liwie and cousins Jan and Ferd, with their little boy, Gavin. Remember Gavin? I was able to spend time with him during my vacation. (I’ll tell you more about it on a future post.) |
To view more photos taken during the wedding, here’s a slideshow for you to enjoy.
Travel Scrapbook: Europe
Posted on | March 9, 2010 | 4 Comments
This is a project I started a few years ago. During my recent winter blues, I was finally able to finish it. It’s a scrapbook of a vacation I took in Europe with my mom, brother, sister, and Mica. (Mica was only 4 years old then.) We visited about 18 cities in 30 days – that in itself was an experience!
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The scrapbook consists of three 8-1/2 x 8-1/2 albums. I like working with this album size. It limits me to only two 4×6 photos on each page but it challenges me to think of ways to make the pages interesting. Most pages have a repetitive pattern – makes it faster to finish the project. Here’s a quick look at some of the pages:
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From left to right, top to bottom: (1) Cover page; (2) Journal page with little Mica on the photo; (3) Most pages look like this – two photos with a circle journal block; (4) I had leftover coins from each country so I added them to the pages (We went just before they shifted to Euros.); (5)My country page looks like this (I used photos from brochures.); (6) Another journal page (I used masking tape on the photo.)
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From left to right, top to bottom: (1) My city pages look like this; (2) Sometimes I would just group several small photos on the page; (3) Another journal page; (4) A variation of my standard two-photo page; (5) A variation on my city page; (6) Another two-photo page.
Speaking of vacation, I’m off to California tomorrow. I will be back in two weeks.
Fab Find: Graphic Drawing Tablet
Posted on | March 3, 2010 | 2 Comments
Yesterday afternoon, I saw light spilling from the sidelights of our front door into our foyer. It made me happy. This morning, the weather was warm enough that a light jacket sufficed when I went out to see my dentist. It felt really nice – not having to lug my 5-pound winter coat, I mean, not the visit to the dentist – although my dentist is really nice. I’m digressing. Spring is definitely near and I love it. I read in another blog last night that one thing the blogger doesn’t like about spring is the cleaning. I’m actually looking forward to it. My house can benefit from shedding a few pounds.
Anyways, on with what I really wanted to share. For those wanting a pen tablet but waiting until you have enough money to splurge and realizing you might have to wait until your kids are all grown, married, and out of the house before that happens, I have a fabulous find for you – the Monoprice Graphic Drawing Tablet. The 8×6 is only $37 and it comes with 2 pens, each with over 1000 pressure sensitivity levels, and 3 extra pen tips. Or for around $3 more, you can get the 10×6.
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| I hope Monoprice doesn’t mind that I stole their image since I’m endorsing their product. |
Troy said he was going to surprise me with one last Christmas but it was out of stock. Last month, it went back in stock, and so he bought me one. {So sweet, right?} I haven’t really used it enough to give a valid review – I usually wait several weeks before I use new things, it’s just the way I am. But so far I’m satisfied with it. Troy played with it last night and he loved it. I was going to show you this quick awesome flame drawing he made but I just realized that Mica drew and saved over it. {Shhh, he doesn’t know it yet.}
I think it’s worth $40 to try Monoprice before you end up spending hundreds of dollars. It does have good reviews online. If you’re not satisfied with it, then you can put Wacom back in your wish list.
Wrapped in Duct Tape
Posted on | March 1, 2010 | 4 Comments
It’s almost spring. Hurray! Time for a wardrobe change for Mica and Rinoa. Problem is Rinoa has an unusual body shape – thanks to Troy! It’s really difficult to shop for her. So while I was at the bookstore one evening, I decided that I would try and make clothes for the girls. Operative word being ‘try’ since I’ve never sewn clothes in my life – except maybe an apron for my Sewing Class in grade school.
I bought this book, Sewing Clothes Kids Love by Nancy Langdon and Sabine Pollehn. I fell in love with the clothing designs in the book – whimsical enough to tease kids’ imaginations but practical enough to wear everyday. I’m actually excited!
Now the author proposes making your own dressform. Here comes the duct tape. The author calls it ‘kinderquin’, and it is made from duct tape and old snug-fitting T’s and leggings.
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Rinoa took about 45 minutes to wrap since Troy and Rinoa laughed like a maniac the entire time, as I took pictures. I helped with Mica, so she took less time, but a lot more tape, than Rinoa.
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Here they are in all their superhero and sidekick looking glory.
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Here’s me releasing Mica from confinement after she’s had enough of being wrapped up, which is really just a minute or two after we’re done. After retaping the form, we filled it with styrofoam peanuts, old clothes, and random garbage we found in the basement.
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Here they are! Custom fit dressforms for 10 bucks worth of duct tape. When the kids have outgrown this size, they’ll make great Halloween props or scarecrows!
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© 2006-2010 Johwey Redington.
Please don't steal my text or images, it's disrespectful and you'll be subjet to karma! If you want to use any of the images, please email me for a written permission. Thank you.
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