Welcoming the New Year with open arms!

I'm ready to say GOODBYE to 2010, and welcome 2011 with lots of hugs!! 

Let's see what happened in my life in 2010:
   
- Graduated from college (woo hoo!)
- Single for the whole year
- Unemployed for majority of the year
- When employed during this year:
          * Internship was over in April
          * Worked at Portrait Innovations in Sept. &  fired in Oct. (only 3 weeks of employment)  :(
          * Started working at Picture Me! in Nov.  & still working there, yay!!  :)
- Gained a bunch of weight this year ( I know it's silly to mention, but it happened and I don't like it!)
- Having to go through a lot of changes like: finishing school and being unemployed all in the same week.  I'm not good with change and well it took a while to get used it. 
- Worst thing: Daddy passed away.
- 1st White Christmas

That's the major stuff that has happened in my life for 2010.  I can say that I have survived it, and can see another year.  I would like to thank my friends & family for some great memories!  Also, for being there when times got rough.  Let's welcome this new year with open arms, because boy I'm wanting a good year (not the tire btw). 

Fart in Your Face.

What?  Fart in your face?  A funny story that I have to tell ya'll.  I just got back from the hositpal.  I took Mama to have a procedure done.  Everything went good considering.  Anyway, a nurse was checking her groin area where the procedure took place, and all of sudden Mama says, "I got to fart, and you're in that area.  I've been holding it back, but I can't hold it no longer."  To my surprise, the nurse didn't move.  I just started busting out laughing.  In Mama's defense, she was pumped full of meds from the procedure from earlier today. 

It just surprised me that Mama just blurted that out.  She's just a polite lady, and she's talking about farting in some lady's face. 

Anyway, the doctor did tell me that if Mama has anymore problems in the future, they might have to do a bypass surgery.  So basically our family needs to change our lifestyle.  It would be for the best for everyone.  We can simply change our eating habits, and that could make a huge difference in our health.  Plus, if we walk more or exercise more so than we do now, that will also help.  The next couple of days, we will come up with a plan and then execute that plan.  Plus, it goes well with the new year.  Even though I don't make new year's resolutions, this is something that needs to be done.  So wish us luck :)

Drives me bonkers!!!

I feel like smashing my computer to a thousand little pieces.  Then I would set it on fire!!  Then I would pull up a chair, sit back, and eat popcorn.

My internet has been going out multiple times during the day.  Shoot multiple times in within 15 mins.  Then my computer wants to act stupid.  So I usually don't get anything done when that starts happening.  I'm getting so frustrated with this thing, it's not even funny! 

Anyway, on a lighter note.  It was Mama's birthday today!!  We had cake and watched a movie.  It was a pretty cool day today.  She did receive bad news though :(  She has to go in have a test done on her heart on Thursday.  I just hope that the results will come back good.  But then again, the way this year has been going, anything is possible.  I'm telling you, it has been a very rough year for me and my family.  I'm just hoping the new year will be better.  I can only pray for it to be. 

I could probably write a book on just this year of my life.  So much happened in so little time.  God has really been challenging me.  I just hope he lets up for awhile.  I gotta take a breather sometime. 

I never know what to put in this box.

Things I did today:

• Eat
• Sleep
• Watch Tv
• Change the blog's appearance
• Being lazy

I have taken lazy to a whole new level.  I think about doing things. Like doing some scrapbook pages, cleaning, excerising, playing games, etc.  Guess what?  I haven't done any of that today!  I still have some time left today to actually do something. 

Scrapping is fun.  I just feel unsure about how to do it, and so I kinda wing it.  They say there is no right or wrong way of doing it.  As long as you like the outcome, it's all good!  I'm happy with the first two pages.  It seems that I do things on the conserative side.  Wonder if I can change that when I'm doing the scrapbook pages.  I have already done 2 pages so far.  I have 2 other pages to do.  The four pages is of summer camp photos.  Then I'll probably do another page about the time I played basketball & softball for church.  I probably could do another page or two for graduation, and then the same for prom.  I have a lot of photos already printed and then a lot on my computer. 

Anyway, the new year is coming up.  Have ya'll been thinking about your new year's resolutions?  I don't do those, because I always break them anyway.  I like to start things before the new year.  Werid, huh?  If i was going to make a resoultion, it will probably be to lose weight & quit smoking.  The first one is a dead give away.  The second one is something that I have been thinking for awhile.  Considering what has happen to my Daddy, I have given it a lot of thought to quit smoking.  I don't know how to start doing that.  Do ya'll have any pointers? 

I usually put up a picture in every post, and it usuallly aids the blog, but this one is just one I like :)

1st White Christmas EVER!

The picture says it all.  First Christmas to have snow.  The plus is that it sticked :)  I had so much fun this Christmas (besides the fact of being sick).  Mama made an awesome feast.  She made the usual dessert in memory of Grandma.  Then she made potato salad, because Daddy always made it.  She just made it her way, hehe ;) Then of course we had mac & cheese, baked beans, and ham!  YUM YUM!  It was so good! 

I took a lot of pictures today.  When I'm off from work I usually take pictures and do some special effects on them.  I liked doing it before I started working at Picture Me!  So I still do it, even though at work there is a better camera and better programs to do the effects on, but I can't do amateur photography ther ;)  One of the things I do is try different stuff.  Some of it I'm the only one that likes it, and then the others are what people is used to seeing. 

Mama always said that I'm creative, and good at the art stuff.  I consider photography as an art, and she always said that I took really good pictures.  But she is my mother, and mothers tend to say nice things to their children. :)  Anyway, I'm getting to the point soon.  Basically, I'm trying to improve taking pictures, and then creating something with the pictures.  I like special effects, because you can decorate the picture to show the story behind it.  Just adding a certain effect to it can change the mood of the picture. 

I took a picture of the Christmas tree.  You might wonder....where is the tree?  This is one of the pictures that I was trying something different.  If you set the camera on night mode, it flashes twice or three times.  When the second flash goes off, you move the camera in differnt ways (circles, squares, up, down, etc.). This is the product of that happening.  I had so much fun taking pictures of the different ways of moving the camera.  One of the pictures, it looked like the lights were telephones.  It was so neat looking.  Mama actually liked that one.  She didn't like this one on the left.  It's my favorite out of the bunch. 

I did some special effects of this pic.  I did a boost of the colors, white vignette, and text.  I also did other special effects on the same picture, and it turned out really cool!  I usually don't use the heat map effect on pictures, but it turned out great on this one.  Here, have a look:

I really like how this picture turned out.  Kinda looks like a tornado, hehe.  

Anyway, I did some scrapbooking today, but I won't show pictures until I'm finished with it.  I do know one thing, I need to get my facts straight until I actually start doing the pages.  I wrote down that the summer camps started in 2007, when I stopped going to camps long before that.  So one of my pages has it scratched out, and it looks kinda sloppy :(

I had a awesome Christmas!  I hope that everyone else did too!! 

Task #21

Task #21 was to get professional family portraits done.  We had them taken on 12.3.10.  I know I'm a little late posting this up, but I've been pretty busy here lately.  Anyway, this one of the family photos taken.  I will add more, and some that has the special effets to them (which I did with picnik.com).  Which I did end up purchasing the premium membership for the website.  Since I'm always on it now. 

The reason why I wanted these done was because we have never gotten family portraits done.  I wish that daddy could have been in them, but he wouldn't have agreed do them anyway.  I know since I asked him a while back, and he said NO!  lol.  That's my daddy.  He didn't like having his pictures taken. 

Original Photos:



Special Effects:

PS - I didn't add all the images, because my computer is starting to act stupid.  But you get the idea.  We had pictures taken, and I did my own special effects.

Task #56

I have finally sent out the Christmas cards this year.  It was a task on my list that I have made last month. 

I enjoyed filling out the cards, and writing the addresses on the enevolpes.  Even though it was just a task on my list, I believe I will continue to do this for the years to come.  I was filled with the holiday spirit.  In the past years, I haven't been in the Christmas mood.  But I think doing these cards did the trick for me.

I know the picture just has a bunch of enevolpes in it.  I wanted to protect the privacy of the people that I'm sending them to.  Also, I don't want to spoil the surprise before people actually had a chance to see the cards.   :)  I just wanted to show the stack of cards that I will be sending out this year.  Maybe next year, it will be a bigger stack.  Plus, I know now to get more prepared for it.  This year it was more a last minute thing.  But now I know that I enjoy doing it, and I will do a better job next year.  :)

I still have to do some Christmas shopping for this year.  I have gotten some people's gifts already.  Now I just need to get my family's gifts.  I wish I had a little bit more money so I can get them nice gifts.  Since they have been there for me.  Especially this year, I have been through enough for this year to last me for awhile. 

I have been looking through some old photos from my childhood.  I think I'm going to do some scrapbooking.  I don't really know where to start though.  The great thing is it is on my task list, yay!  :)  I have some ideas on what to do, but don't know if it would fit the occasion.   I will figure out something.