Wordless Wednesday!!!

Our Thanksgiving!

 Pre Thanksgiving entertainment was provided by Uncle John who played cars with Luke!

 Here Luke is helping out by wiping off the kids table

 Here's my mom carving the turkey!

Here everyone is relaxing after the meal. Notice the women looking at ads and the men kicking back lol

 Post Thanksgiving entertainment was provided by Luke who pretended to sing karaoke!

And here is the whole family. From left to right we have uncle and aunt, then my brother in the blue, my dad and mom of course with Luke, then uncle, cousin, aunt and cousin and then down in front is my brother's girlfriend and her daughter...and my niece who isn't due to make her appearance until January 24th!

 And because they made me be in one picture, here is all of us again, only with me being the first on the left.

And here is our Christmas card photo!!!

I always try to do something extra cute for our cards...and this is what I came up with this year!!

My Paper Monkey Review & Personalized Coloring Book Giveaway!!!

Winner: Comment #2 WeeEssentials!!!

Luke loves to color. Actually, he loves all arts and crafts. I'm not sure if he gets that from me or if it is from the endless crafts and coloring that they do with him at day care. Either way, he loves to make his works of art. You can't go wrong with a coloring book and crayons as a gift for him but it's even better when it can be personalized! My Paper Monkey has the cutest personalized products and crafts for kids!

We received the Farm Animals Personalized Coloring Book for review!
The Farm Animals personalized coloring book is a fun tour around the farm with the child's name throughout. The book is is twenty 8.5 x 11 pages, filled with cows, pigs, horses, and all sorts of fun stuff on the farm!

How cute is that! Each page features Luke's name in one way or another

Once you open up the cute cover, there is this cute dedication page! Of course I had to swoon over this page!

Each page features cute farm animals just waiting to be colored!

And, when you get to the last page there is a special word search page which is personalized with Luke's name as well!

Luke really enjoys coloring in this book! He loves for me to point out and name all the animals as well.

My Paper Monkey also carries other personalized items too! They have personalized doodle pads and even personalized notebooks!

Any of the personalized products from My Paper Monkey make great gifts or stocking stuffers for any of the children in your life! If you sign up for their newsletter not only will know about new products when they come out, but you will also receive discount codes too!

My Paper Monkey wants to give one of my readers a personlized coloring book!

Mandatory Entry:

Head over to My Paper Monkey and check out all the personalized products! Come back here and let me know which is your favorite

Extra Entries:

1 Extra Entry: Like My Paper Monkey on Facebook

1 Extra Entry: Follow My Paper Monkey on Twitter

2 Extra Entries: Sign up for the My Paper Monkey newsletter

1 Extra Entry: Enter any of my other giveaways. One extra entry for each of my other giveaways you enter!

1 Extra Entry: Follow my blog

1 Extra Entry: Follow me on twitter and tweet about this! You can tweet daily for an extra entry everyday! You can use this sample tweet:

Enter to #win a Personalized Coloring Book from @MyPaperMonkey & @getinonthewins #giveaway http://bit.ly/dQOnDR

 

2 Extra Entries: Sign up for my emails!

1 Extra Entry: Put my NEW button on your blog! Leave me a link!

5 Extra Entries: Blog about this giveaway and leave me a link to the post!

GOOD LUCK!!!

This giveaway will end on 12/14 at 10pm. The winner will be chosen by ramdom.org and will have 48 hours to respond or I will choose another winner. I received the mentioned photo enlargement for review purposes only. These are my own honest opinions.

Just a Few Things....

I just wanted to take a minute to talk to you guys about a few things going on around here. First, I'm participating in the Holiday Gift Giveaway blog hop. This will start tonight at midnight so keep your eye open for my giveaway....the prize will be worth $85!!! And, it will be something to help you finish up your Christmas shopping!!!

I have no entries on the 100 Krome Photo's credits. These are awesome credits that allow you to have your photo's edited by a professional! It is supposed to end tonight but I'm extending it until 12//7. Please head over and enter this giveaway! Your chances of winning are great!

I am going to start posting the winners of my giveaways on the actual giveaway post. It will be posted at the top in red and it will be big so you won't miss it. That way if we have people that want to see who won a particular giveaway they can just go to that giveaway post and see who won. And, it's quicker for me to do that instead of starting a whole new post.

If you have any feedback, just leave me a comment!

World's Best Origami Review & Giveaway!!!

Winner: Comment # 34 Heavensent1!!!

I have saw some beautiful things made out of folded paper. I'm amazed at the things that you can create with just some beautiful paper! I've never been able to do any of them myself except for your basic paper airplane, but with the World's Best Origami book by Nick Robinson, I can follow the easy instructions and make just about anything!

Remember folding paper into a hand-held fortune teller, paper airplane or secret note square? Whether a fortune teller novice or a seasoned paper-folding expert, the new book World's Best Origami (ISBN: 9781615640539, Alpha Books, November 2010, $19.95) challenges readers with more than 100 of the most unique and best-loved origami patterns ever created.

Professional origami artist, Nick Robinson, guides readers through the process of folding paper. Projects are rated from beginner to advanced and include everything from the traditional swan and poppy box to truly amazing pieces such as a geodetic tower and a jet plane! Each diagram is clearly displayed with easy-to-understand folding instructions for a perfect outcome every time.

The book teaches readers how to:

- Choose the best paper for the project


- Make basic folds and perfect creases


- Follow clear and simple folding instructions for a successful project outcome


- Gain an understanding of origami symbols

I have to say that my favorite projects in this book were the stars. They have instructions to make some beautiful stars and I can really picture them made out of some beautiful Christmas paper and hung for decoration.

Even if you know nothing about Origami (which I didn't) this book starts off by going over the basics with you and giving you the basic understanding of how to read an Origami diagram.  This book offers instuctions on making just about everything from the stars that I mentioned to boxes and containers (which would be great to make for a gift box) to animals and flowers! There is something for everyone and every skill level. The instructions in this book are great. They are easy to understand and they have step by step pictures so that you can see what needs to be done. I also think that the animals and flowers would make great place holders or favors at a birthday party too!

You can purchase this book HERE at Amazon for only $13.57 and it's eligible for free super saver shipping!

One of my readers is going to win their own copy of World's Best Origami by Nick Robinson!!!

Mandatory Entry:

Tell me if you have ever tried Origami before!

Extra Entries:

1 Extra Entry: Follow my blog

2 Extra Entries: Subscribe to my emails

1 Extra Entry: Follow me on twitter and tweet about this giveaway. You can do this once daily for an extra entry every day. You can use this sample tweet:

 Enter to #win a copy of World's Best Origami by Nick Robinson @getinonthewins #giveaways #books http://bit.ly/hJnnYe

1 Extra Entry: Enter any of my other giveaways. Once entry per giveaway entered.

1 Extra Entry: Put my button on your blog and leave me a link

5 Extra Entries: Blog about this giveaway. Leave me a link

GOOD LUCK!!!

 This giveaway will end on 12/14 at 10pm. I will use random.org to choose a winner and they will have 48 hours to respond to my email or I will choose another winner. I received a copy of the mentioned book for review purposes only. No other compensation was received and these are my own honest opinions.

Curious George Prize Pack Giveaway!!!

Winner: Comment # 73 Degood!!!

We have another awesome giveaway for you from Kidtoons! If you missed my other giveaways from them, here is a little recap of what Kidtoons is all about!

Kidtoons brings family friendly animated movies to the big screen every weekend at participating theaters across the country.

Participating Kidtoons theatres showcase a fun, affordable family friendly matinee movie and provide a family experience filled with entertaining, kid-friendly characters, as well as cartoon shorts, music videos and sing-alongs before each movie. They even have fun giveaways for the kids, such as stickers, temporary tattoos, activity books or toys after every film.

And don't forget about the Kidtoons Birthday club where you can sign up your kids and they will receive a free movie pass on their special day! That's a great way to celebrate!

This month's featured movie is Curious George: A Very Monkey Christmas

George and The Man with The Yellow Hat are having a very merry time counting down the days until Christmas. There's only one puzzle: neither of them can figure out what to give the other for a present. The Man is having trouble reading George's wish list and George doesn't have a clue about what to get for The Man who has everything. Will they be able to find the answers before Christmas morning?

Kidtoons wants to give one my readers a Curious George Prize Pack!!

This prize pack comes with:

1 Curious George Book

1 Curious George DVD

1 Curious George Poster

Mandatory Entry:

Tell me your favorite Christmas tradition!

Extra Entries:

5 Extra Entries: Sign up for the Kidtoons Birthday Club, if you already have, you can still take the five extra entries

1 Extra Entry: Like Kidtoons on Facebook

1 Extra Entry: Follow Kidtoons on Twitter

2 Extra Entries: Sign up for the Kidtoons newsletter

1 Extra Entry: Enter any of my other giveaways. One extra entry for each of my other giveaways you enter!

1 Extra Entry: Follow my blog

1 Extra Entry: Follow me on twitter and tweet about this! You can tweet daily for an extra entry everyday! You can use this sample tweet:

Enter to #win an awesome Curious George Prize Pack!! @getinonthewins @KidtoonFilms #giveaway http://bit.ly/guxMRt

2 Extra Entries: Sign up for my emails!

1 Extra Entry: Put my NEW button on your blog! Leave me a link!

5 Extra Entries: Blog about this giveaway and leave me a link to the post!

GOOD LUCK!!!

This giveaway will end on 12/14 at 10pm. The winner will be chosen by ramdom.org and will have 48 hours to respond or I will choose another winner. No compensation was received for this. These are my own honest opinions.

Mommyhood Monday!!!

I hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving! Luke and I had a wonderful Thanksgiving and a great weekend. We had Thanksgiving with family....we ate....we played....we looked at

black friday ads...then we got up and hit the stores at 3am. I've got most of my Christmas shopping done, just a few things to get here and there and then a couple of hand made gifts that I need to get done. While we were shopping we stopped at the mall and let Luke see Santa Clause. I'm taking him back to get his official Santa pictures done but while he was visiting I did snap a cute picture with my cell phone.

He wasn't quite sure what to think of ole Santa but he sure was happy when he gave him a sucker! That's my mom standing along the side (always the proud Mamaw)

We also got all our outdoor Christmas lights out and I spent most of yesterday putting them outside. Now our outside is decorated like our own little winter wonderland. (picutres to come) Luke was out at my mom's while I was putting them up and when I brought him home he just kept saying "wow" and "pretty lights" and he even said "ours" which is the first time I've heard him say that! He spun around in circles looking at all of them! Just his reaction made it all worth while. I have a feeling this is going to be a great Christmas!

Happy Thanksgiving!!!

I wanted to take a minute to let you know that I'm planning on taking the next few days off from blogging for the holiday. Since tomorrow is Thanksgiving I want to spend the whole day with Luke and our family and on Friday I will be getting up at 2am to head out and mingle with the crowds for black friday! I can't wait for that! I love it, it's so exciting!! So I may do a little posting here and there as I have a lot that I want to get up, but my main priority for the next couple days is family :)

I wanted to give you guys a little update on the craft show. I didn't make as much money as I had wanted to. I only sold a handfull of things (and some of them were to my mom, bless her heart) but I've decided to go to another next Friday. Hopefully this one will be a better one, it most definitely is in a better location! And, because I had no display at all at the last one, I've made a display for my hand stamped necklaces which makes them look 100% better. I just need to figure out a way to display my wreaths and hair bows. If you have any ideas (using things I already have around the house) I would certainly appreciate it!

And since it is Thanksgiving I wanted to share some things I'm thankful for:

1. Of course I'm thankful for Luke. I'm thankful that I get to be a mommy to him everyday and watch him grow and learn. If I never do another thing in my life, it doesn't matter because I got to me Luke's mommy

2. I'm thankful for my job. In today's times even if you don't particularly care for your job you have to be thankful for it and thankful for everyday that you get to work. And I'm thankful that I have an awesome supervisor who is good and caring!!

3. I'm thankful for my family. They are awesome and stand behind me no matter what I decide to do. They  love Luke and I and would do anything to help us out. I'm also thankful for my sister in laws that I can call them and talk to them about whatever is on my mind.

4. I'm thankful for my car and my house. My home and my car give me much needed security knowing that we will have a place to lay our head at night and a way to get where we need to go.

I hope everyone has an awesome Thanksgiving!!!! I'm planning on eating and eating and then the next day shopping until I drop!! 

Ebeanstalk Discount Code!!!

While we are all probably starting our holiday shopping this week, keep ebeanstalk.com in mind! They have an excellent site and they it divided up by age group and boys and girls so it's easy to find the perfect gift for the child in your life!

I know Luke would love this Parking Garage!!!

Or this Chubbies Bucket!!

Ebeanstalk.com wants to give my readers a discount code!!! For 20% any order just enter JUSTFORFRIENDS and it's good until after the holidays!!

Wordless Wednesday!!!

Sadly, Tanya at Miller Racing Family has decided to set her blog to private so she will no longer be hosting Wordless Wednesdays. I am searching for another linky to join.

Christmas Card photo outtakes!

Losing It Thursday...errr....Wednesday!!!

We've decided to weigh in today since tomorrow is Thanksgiving!!

Last weeks weigh in

And this weeks weigh in

I seriously thought about not posting this week because I gained 2 pounds. But, it happens to everyone so there it is! I did have some buckeye's and some no bakes and a brownie at the craft show...and a bowl of ice cream at my moms on sunday. So there is no excuse for me this week! I am planning on eating whatever I want on Thanksgiving but I'm going to get right back at it after that!

I do have a question for you guys. Do any of you retain water at night? My rings will be loose before I go to bed but when I wake up they are tight, like leaving red rings around my fingers tight where I have retained that much water over night. I wonder why this is?

I hope everyone has a great Thanksgiving!!!! 

I'm linking this up with Marvelous Mommy and My Little Apricot!

Poster Brain Review and 24x36 Poster Giveaway!!!

Winner: Comment #60 Heavensent1!!
Have you ever fell in love with a picture you have taken and wanted to do something special with it, but had no clue what? Have you ever thought about photo enlargements?

Now, I'm not talking about an enlargement to an 8x10, I'm talking a real enlargement. If you have never considered having one of your treasured photo's enlarged, one look at PosterBrain will change your mind!!



"PosterBrain is the world's first user-friendly and affordable, professional quality poster printing service. With PosterBrain, you can print your pictures as full-size, 200 year archival posters, and for a price that beats the competition by more than half. Please note that I had no idea what 'archival' meant until I started working here. I suppose I could tell you the definition but my dad always made me look up definitions when I was a kid so I think you should do the same.

Other companies charge you extra to process your order on the same day, but at PosterBrain we print your posters immediately. When you order you'll get a confirmation that your poster is printing right now and it'll actually be true.

Your choice in shipping options means you'll have your order when you need it, and we'll ensure you'll be 100% satisfied before, during, and after your order is complete.

Our entire goal at Posterbrain is to Enlarge Happiness. Every single decision we make is dominated by the notion that we have to be the best in the world at enlarging your pictures and making certain the process is super simple and fun. We can't wait to show you how good we are at it."

The process of having your photo enlarged is simple. In 3 minutes or less you can have your photo enlarged or make posters and in 24 hours it will be printed and shipped!

When ordering an enlargement the first thing you need to do is upload your photo. The upload time on PosterBrain was quick and easy. Their site is easy to navigate so you see exactly where to start right on the home page.

After you have uploaded your photo, you will come to the screen where you get to choose the size of enlargement you want. One of the great things about PosterBrain is that they have a meter that tells you the image quality, how well your picture is going to look enlarged to the size you have selected.

I loved this feature as anytime I've uploaded a photo I'm always worried the quality won't be great. And this meter is better than the normal "low resolution" warnings you get because this explained the quality and what it meant.

PosterBrain offers enlargements and poster printing in sizes 16"x24", 24"x36", 36"x54" or custom size! Once you've selected which size of enlargement you want, you simply click continue and crop your photo with their easy image cropper. Once your happy with your crop, you click confirm and your ready to check out. Now, if your like me you will want to go back and try out different photo's and see which one you like best and going back on Poster Brain is simple and because the process is so fast, you will have no problems finding just the right photo to enlarge.

I was able to review the 24"x36" size enlargement. It took no time at all to get my poster in the mail. The packaging was very impressive. It came in a nice sturdy, stiff cardboard tube (which I'm going to try to reuse). When I pulled my poster out of the tube I had to immediately smile. You don't really get an idea of just how big 24"x36" is on the computer, it wasn't until I was holding it up that I realized this poster was huge! All Luke could say was "Luke picture mommy, Luke picture" Even he was excited!

I chose my most recent favorite photo of Luke to have enlarged. Although the meter said that the image quality was medium when I uploaded my photo, the poster was outstanding quality! If you look really, really close you may be able to see some artifacts (which in my best explanation are just like pixalation) but from a normal distance away it looks phenomenal!

This photo isn't printed on just any regular paper either. It's printed out on high quality photo paper! My first idea was to mount this poster on foam board and then hang it on the wall, but since I loved it so much, I wanted to put it in the frame it deserved! It now has it's place up on our wall in our living room! My brother came over the other day and immediately started smiling when he saw it, and he liked it so much he had to tell his girlfriend about it too!

Right now PosterBrain is running an awesome sale! You can get a 24"x36" poster for only $17!! And there is no reason to worry because if you don't love your poster, they will refund or reprint until you do! And if that wasn't enough, they want to offer free shipping to anyone who enters this giveaway, just be sure to leave your email address so they can send you the code!

Poster Brain wants to give one of my readers a 24"x36" photo enlargement poster!

Mandatory Entry:

Head over to PosterBrain and browse around! Come back here and tell me what picture you would like to have enlarged!

Extra Entries:

1 Extra Entry: Like PosterBrain on Facebook

1 Extra Entry: Follow Poster Brain on Twitter

1 Extra Entry: Enter any of my other giveaways. One extra entry for each of my other giveaways you enter!

1 Extra Entry: Follow my blog

1 Extra Entry: Follow me on twitter and tweet about this! You can tweet daily for an extra entry everyday! You can use this sample tweet:

  

Enter to #win a 24"x36" photo enlargement from @posterbrain & @getinonthewins #givewaway http://bit.ly/gPXmeP

2 Extra Entries: Sign up for my emails!

1 Extra Entry: Put my NEW button on your blog! Leave me a link!

5 Extra Entries: Blog about this giveaway and leave me a link to the post!

GOOD LUCK!!!

This giveaway will end on 12/7 at 10pm. The winner will be chosen by ramdom.org and will have 48 hours to respond or I will choose another winner. I received the mentioned photo enlargement for review purposes only. These are my own honest opinions.

My Tips for Creating Beautiful Digital Photo Projects!!!

I'm sure that everyone is taking some great holiday photo's this year. It doesn't matter if they are your favorite snapshots or if they are well planned and thought out portraits, you can do something special with each and every one of them. All it takes is a good photo editing software!

Here are my 5 best tips for creating beautiful digital photo projects!

1. Correct your color and exposure. Adjusting the curves, levels and brightness and contrast can make the world of difference in making a photo pop. This is always the first thing that I do when I start editing a photo. It usually doesn't take much, but makes all the difference. 
2.  Search online for tutorials. When I first started getting interested in photo editing, I spent a lot of time searching for tutorials on photo editing. Once you find a tutorial follow it and this will help you not only learn how to do that particular edit but will also make you more familiar with the tools in your photo editing software and what it has to offer. For example, if your using Adobe Photoshop Elements, just search for Adobe Photoshop Elements tutorials in your favorite search engine and you'll probably be pleasantly surprised at what you find!
3. Play around with your layers and blending modes. Every photo editing software calls this something different, but changing the way your layers blend can turn your photo into a work of art. And while your playing with layers, change the opacity of each layer too. Before you know it, you'll find a blending mode that you love!
4. You can create a work of art by adding text. Adding a beautiful poem or your favorite saying can make a work of art more heartfelt and precious. Choose a pretty font, change the color or add a drop shadow. 
5. Search online for free digital scrapbook kits. Sometimes designers will give them out for free. You can use these to make beautiful digital scrapbook layouts to print out and use in your scrapbooks, display online or even print out and frame! If your not sure how to do this, you can always search online for tutorials on how to use digital scrapbook kits as well!  

Here are some examples of what I've done using my photo editing software!

This is one of my all time favorite photo's of Luke. What you don't know is that I was sitting behind him holding him up in my house. This background was added digitally! 

 This is just something fun I made!

 This is a collage that I made using free elements for my brother. I printed this out and put it in a frame and gave it to him!

 This is Luke and his cousin Kyla on his first trip to the pumpkin patch.

 

I created most of these by online tutorials! These were all created when I was first learning to use my photo editing software as well, so it doesn't matter if you are just starting out, you can make something beautiful!

I wrote this blog post while participating in the TwitterMoms and Adobe blogging program, making me eligible to receive a $50 gift card. For more information on how you can participate, click here.