I only know one pregnant person and she just sent me this online game and it’s really cute! I must be getting old because I only know one pregnant person right now but if you know of any, be sure to point them to this site because it’s cheap ($4.95), easy and fun! What a great idea!
More. Camping. Soon. It is so fun to be outdoors. There’s something magical about camping that transforms the all-too-common question of “So, what do you do for a living?” into a much more interesting and valid one: “So, how far have you come?” Always nice people and dogs to meet. We camped at Grove Lake and took a couple of side trips to the Ashfall Fossil Beds (extremely great place) and also to the Niobrara State Park for a quick hike (another great place – who knew we were so close to Yankton, South Dakota – with even more interesting things about Standing Bear and the Ponca Indians) and found a very small, old cemetery to document for genealogy as well as an historical monument built for Newell Knight, an old friend of Joseph Smith’s. It put many of his family’s stories (including the famous Provo resident Jesse Knight) in a new light! I’ll post pictures of the monument soon. Our newest 4G SDHC card isn’t being read by my old computer so this post will only have pics from the small 1G card.
A few of you asked how to create family silhouettes in Photoshop. I’m sure there’s a zillion ways but here’s how I did it.
Step 1: Take the digital photo.
Stand each family member, sideways, against a blank wall. It would make it so much easier if you had a really white, plain wall with no shadows (i.e. no flash if you can manage it).
Step 2: Get it on your computer.
Transfer the photo to your hard drive (remember where). If you don’t know how to get a file onto your computer, please, just stop now. Just teasing – just email me and I’ll try to help! Open the file using Photoshop or another photo editing tool. This how-to will be using Photoshop CS2. Be sure to save your work as you’re going along!
Step 3: Make your selection.
Using the magnetic lasso tool, make a single click at the bottom left edge of the person. This is your starting point. Continue to make single clicks to help guide the magnetic lasso where you’d like it (if it places a node where you don’t want it, just hit the delete key and it removes the last node). Continue single clicking and following the outline as close as you can around the top and back down the right hand side. Once you get to the bottom on the right hand side of the silhouette, double click and the loop will automatically close. Alternatively, you can manually hover over the original click on the LH side and you’ll see a small circle appear indicating you are closing the loop. If you accidentally clicked elsewhere or “lost” the marching ants, no fear – just hit CTRL+D to deselect everything and start over with the magnetic lasso.
Step 4: Edit your selection.
There are a few options for editing your selection. While the marching ants (dotted lines) are activated, you can choose modify and smooth on your drop down menus. Or, you can use the circle or marquee square tool (while holding down shift) to enclose additional portions that you wanted to select. If you want to SUBTRACT portions, hold down the ALT key while you make the marquee and it will subtract those portions. My favorite way is to use the polygonal lasso tool while pressing CTRL and click to curve out a pony tail or any other feature I want – just click away in the approximate shape you want and be sure to double click to close the shape.
Step 5: Once you have the outline or silhouette selected how you’d like, fill in that area with black from the drop down menus (Edit / Fill / Black), or Shift F5 brings up the same menu.
Before clicking anywhere else and while the marching ants are still there, choose Select / Inverse from the drop down menus. Now click Edit / Fill / White (you can also just Edit / Clear if you are on a white background but Edit / Fill / White works every time).
Step 6: Touch up with the air brush or eraser or however you’d like. This is where I remove double chins and stray hairs (and stray hairs on double chins, just kidding)! It’s easy to add hair flips and pony tails, also, with the shape/pen tool (the one that looks like a fountain pen tip).
Print on a laser printer or alter proportionately to fit the final size dimensions you are looking to create by using the Image Size and Canvas Size options. Be sure to do this proportionally. Save your file as a grayscale tif or, if you prefer, convert to a bitmap (very small file size).
Email me at liz@sparkbark.com if you have any questions or need any help with this – it’s really fun to do on an annual basis to see how everyone changes over the years. Be sure to email me your best silhouettes – I’d love to see it if someone took the time to do their pet!
Yesterday, I drove to the Branched Oak Farm to get grass fed beef, eggs and raw milk and the farm is next to Branched Oak Lake so I drove out there with the new Nikon D90 camera, dog and Ben to see what it was like…beautiful! We were the only people there on a Tuesday morning at noon so everybody ran free and Ben liked playing in the gravel. There were some empty Budweiser glass bottles on the ground and Ben kept saying, “There’s a juice drink.” when he saw them (yes, he speaks in very advanced complete sentences). I took pictures of many things, lots of textures for Photoshop of bark, trees and gravel, but my favorite picture is this one of Ben after I told him to stand VERY STILL and NOT to jump. Man, he can get some air for a 2 year old! The flying hair is just a bonus.
Picking up the parents!
The boys taking a ride.
Adorable – I love this witch!
Yummy steak dinner afterwards – Jack looks afraid, no?!
This was one of the best years yet! Everyone was in a good mood and feeling good. We bought a bushel of apples and had the best time (hooray for homemade caramel dip). Homemade Caramel Dip recipe: 1 brick softened cream cheese (best at room temp), 1/2 c. or more to taste of brown sugar, squirt vanilla and OPTIONAL item a) half bag of toffee chips or b) broken up skor bars. Even my kids will down a bunch of apples with this dip – but it’s great for all types of fruit. Enjoy! It really does taste like caramel, I promise. It’s amazing!
I have a great “funny” to share from our trip to Branson, Missouri. As we entered the wonderful Marvel Cave (true to its name), my very perceptive 7 year old son, Gabe, said “We’re in Mother Nature’s nostril!”
Also, when we arrived at the gates and I made everyone use the restroom, Jack came running out after he was finished declaring, “Wahoo! I partied in the man cave!” I never knew using the restroom could be so fun. I must be missing something (and we all know exactly what THAT is — the same missing item that puts me at a grave disadvantage while camping). Gotta love boys!
Don took the kids to see Star Wars: Clone Wars and when they got home, I told them they could have sandwich cookies and milk for a snack. They weren’t “real” Oreos but the store brand duplex kind with vanilla on one side and chocolate on the other. Jack started digging in and while only eating the chocolate sides, he excitedly proclaimed, “I only like the Dark Side!” Don and I could not stop laughing. He is a huge Darth Vader fan. Yikes!
Guess we were keeping Ben from his nap! My sister, LeAnne, has started calling him the Benjinator and we think it fits…except when he’s sleeping, of course (then they’re perfect little angels, huh!!). I was just lucky to have the camera with me!
Lovely little farm. I drove quite a ways on dirt roads this morning to outside of Lincoln to find it. Legally they cannot advertise their sale of raw milk in traditional ways but I’m assuming it’s okay to critique the milk we just bought from them on our blog — it’s like drinking the best ice cream you’ve ever had. I have been reading up on milk issues (pro and con) for awhile now and have always wanted to try raw milk. We are loving it. This particular little farm has grass fed jersey cows and the milk is organic and not destined for big milk producers. Very clean, very good milk. If you want more information on raw milk, please visit realmilk.org. Yes, yes, we have read the warnings and studied up on the subject. I certainly wouldn’t get raw milk from a farm producing for a big dairy but I have to say, we absolutely love this milk! I picked up some kefir starter (my kids love this!) and grass fed beef there, too, this morning so I’ll have to let you know how it is later but I’m hoping spectacular.
First day of school. First day of all day Kindergarten for Jack [sniff, sniff]. He did not seem concerned at all and was chomping at the bit to get there (thank you, preschool!). The house is much too quiet. Even with Don home from work on vacation! Having said that, I think I could get used to this…
We skipped out of town on a last minute vacation to Branson, Missouri. What a fun filled place for families! We spent two entire days at Silver Dollar City and my kids now claim it’s their favorite amusement park. Granted their only other theme park experiences include Adventureland in Des Moines, Noah’s Ark Waterpark in the Wisconsin Dells and Worlds of Fun in Kansas City. Two fun-filled days and the driving wasn’t bad, either. Don and I ate at a restaurant that we would drive out of the way for again called Lambert’s. There are only three in the U.S. You must find them. Soon. Worth every mile. They throw the rolls at you and walk around with huge vats of fried okra (surprisingly fabulous) and potatoes and onions and the like and heap things on your plate while you’re eating. If I ranked my vacations by eating establishments, this would rank tops! Perhaps a tie with the German restaurant we ate at in Hill City, South Dakota. Food is such an important part of my life. I must exercise a whole lot this week!
I don’t have any girls but I would remiss if I didn’t pass along the latest find I have seen recently: a blog where the creator gives away the things she makes. And it’s all good. Check it out here and have fun! Hope one of my friends wins something…and if I ever do have a girl (not that one is in the works), I will expect hand-me-downs from these same friends that are going to click there. Yes, that means you.
I couldn’t get rid of these black frames (new in package) at my garage sale. I had to do something with them and we got a new black bed for our bedroom to help “stage” the home so I pulled them out and in an hour I forced each kid to stand sideways against the wall and take a digital picture, blacked it in and printed them with a great quote. Cheap, easy (two of my favorite words)…and I love it!
Our address is 21201 Schofield Drive in Gretna, NE! It’s taken us over 2 months to just clear out the kids’ toys and make very minor cosmetic changes to get the house ready to sell. It’s fairly new and in great shape and should look like new again when we list it this week. Wish us luck. Pray for us. It’s a tough market but we’re confident and trying to be faithful. If we’re meant to move, it will sell. If not, we’ll hang around and roll with the punches. My only question is: how come before you move you get everything just the way you want it? New kitchen sink and pull-out spray faucet, new wood laminate floors in the upstairs bathrooms, garage and basement cleaned out and organized, stained the deck, new paint upstairs throughout, new carpet. Sounds great, huh!
I’ve been asked to be a representative for Deseret Book for the Papillion area to get the word out about Time Out for Women coming to Omaha on Friday, Oct. 24th & Saturday, Oct. 25th at the Qwest Center. If you have not been to a TOFW, it will quite possibly be the best weekend you’ll have in a very long while. I attended once in Kansas City with some girlfriends and we had a blast.
Let me know via email or comment if you are considering signing up and I’ll get you the details. You can register online but if you sign up through me I think there’s some sort of advantage…I’ll have to get you the details once I’ve got my house up for sale! But I’ll make sure you get taken care of for sure. I know that I’m supposed to be looking for people who want to help spread the word or form “groups” of friends who are going. Some can even take a training call from Deseret Book and be a “team member” to help with some event “chores” and get further discounts. Email me (or comment) and let me know what you’d like to do — individually register, form a group, or be a team “member” — and I’ll set you up!
I’ll see you all in October if I’m not in Texas by then!!! (…and in that case I need someone to take over my duties as the rep so let me know if you’re up for that, too — should I move before October — which involves a FREE TICKET and coordinating even more help at the event). I actually hope we don’t move before then, at least a little, because I looked at the speakers list here and it sound just wonderful. I heart Merrilee Boyack. She’s my Mormon Idol.
Disclaimer: This is a wonderful event sponsored by Deseret Book and not the Papillion Stake or LDS church. I have to say that.