Happy Thanksgiving!

Just wanted to stop and say Happy Thanksgiving to all my USA buddies!   I'll be doing the stuffing, mashed potatoes and the rest of the odd side dishes...black olives and such....and PIE!  Oh yeah!  Larry will be doing the turkey and a pork loin.  THEN....around 3 or 4pm, the TREE is going up with the help of Sami and William...it's time people!  Will yours be going up?
Hope you all have a wonderful and safe day with lots of PIE!!Hahaaa!  
Stay warm....

Crystal's a Star!Hahaa

Our Crystal is once again, a Star!  She was asked to do a commercial for Jeff Kyle (Chris Kyle's brother...Chris was the Marine who was murdered months ago by a friend.  I posted about it HERE)
Anyway...Jeff was also a Marine and has a CHL licensing business here in town.  We've all been through his course and loved the training.  Anyway, the ad aired last night at 10pm for the first time.  Go check out our little star HERE!  Now if you have a problem with firearms, this post may not be your cup of tea...but this is just the way we roll....We are firm believers in the 2ND Admendment. 
Have a great weekend!

You looking for Me??Hahaa

Our Grandson, Ty, (far left) home from Dover Air Base for a week's rest.  Will be with us in spirit on Thanksgiving though!  He had to get back to base.

Saw this out my front porch glass door...it sits in our neighbor's yard.  Fall is officially here and by Friday, it'll be in the low 30sF.....I can not say it Enough....I do NOT like Winter!  Only Christmas....of which will be here in another month!   Incredible!  Where has time gone....

Well, I just wanted to check in with y'all.  Yes, I'm getting to be a bad blogger!  I always thought I would do better than I have with the blog but life injects itself...constantly!  But I'm NOT quitting!  This is a record of a tiny bit of my life for my kids and grandbabies to read back through...a record of sorts.  I will Always wish my Mom or my Grandparents had done the same for me and mine....
Enjoy your day friends!  I'll be around soon to check up on you!

A Personal Photo Challenge (Textures)

The texture I chose is called Impressionista by MCP I believe....I've had it for a long while now so don't get me 'ta lying!  I throw all of my textures into one fat file.

This is a close-up of my granddaughter, Samantha sooc (straight out of camera).  Faces and macros, I believe, are two of my most fun types of shots to work with these days. Texturing can be fun too but I find I don't remember to use it very often.  Donna's challenge reminded me that I knew how to texture so...why not?!  I'm not proficient at it but I try.  Out came the refresher notes....dusted off and opened.  Slowly, memory started to take over.  Alright...so here is how I managed to accomplish adding my texture.

I used Photoshop Elements 9. 

First of all I cropped the photo to cut out the excess visual distractions then I did a little light tweaking.  Now I am ready to apply the texture...

Click File, click Place and your texture will be placed on top of your photo layer.  I centered it and clicked accept.  I then left the opacity at 100 and changed the layer from Normal to Soft light. 

I also don't like the texturing on a subject's skin so I had to clean it off!  To do that, I selected the texture layer, click it BACK to Normal...I now needed a medium skin tone to paint with, I chose a matching color...set the texture BACK to soft light and started painting the texture off of her skin. 

WhaLaaaaa.....

Thanks Donna for the texture challenge!  It was fun!  A texture adds a huge heaping amount of drama to any photo.  If you haven't tried this medium, you really need to! 

Now go visit some other wonderful photos at Donna's, A Personal Photo Challenge.