to get this child to look at the camera these days. I think Tanya and I jinxed it when we used to say she was the perfect model baby.

Now when the camera comes out, she looks away....



...or plays with toys....




...or looks up.....



....or down....





So I don't bother trying anymore.....I just dump water on her....



she's not a fan..


silly child...

I took Nevaeh to the park.



it was cold. We went home.

The end.

Sometimes, when you take a picture, you just know that 'this one is going to be in Black & White'. That's exactly what I thought in my head as I composed this shot. I think the couple thought I was insane but I had a vision, and it worked out....



Black & White photos are my fave. If you're like me, go check them out all the other entries, at i heart faces

Yesterday Nick, Nevaeh and I went to dinner at my parents, to celebrate my baby sisters engagement. Not the "official" engagement dinner or anything, just the family. And Kyle (Carol-Anne and Matt's roommate and Nevaeh's new boyfriend)

I tried to get some pictures of the ring, but I had the wrong lens with me, so they didn't turn out.

I'll be doing the engagement shots soon, so stay tuned for those.

But I did take a pic of mom pouring the champagne....



and 'cheers'...



and Nev didn't want to be left out....




Congrats guys. Welcome to the family Matt. God help you:)

I haven't done a Fix it Friday since I've been back to work, but I was up extra early this morning (5:30 to be exact) and thought, what the heck.

Here's the before (what a cutie!!!)



and here is my after ...



I first opened the photo in Camera Raw, fiddled with the the temp a bit, and upped the exposure.

In photoshop I erased blemishes, spots, under eye circles with the eraser tool

dodged eyes

cloned the snow on the hat (it was bugging me)

Ran Coffee Shop's Perfect Portrait action. Turned off the vignette, and the colour pop layers. Brighten the eyes (opacity to about 30%) , defined the eyes.

Flatten, Crop, and Sharpen for web, and here you go:)

Check out all the other fixes at i heart faces .

It's been quite the day. Yes it has. Started with my alarm clock going off at an un-godly hour, so ensure Ms. Madison was up and at em for her big field trip today.

After which I had a nice quiet house, and lots of extra time to get ready. Kids were sleeping. Nick was snoring. Loudly.

I thought to myself,"Hey - good day to hot roller your hair and actually make your self presentable." I started putting the hot rollers in. I can hear Nevaeh wake up but she's singing to herself in her crib.

I think to myself "awwww, she's singing. She's happy. What a happy sweet baby I have. I'll let her play, and when I'm done my hair I'll grab her".

But then she starts screaming. I so I go to grab her, and soon as I open the door to her bedroom I can smell it. It's fowl. Its sour. Its nasty.

I think to myself "oh gross, no wonder she's no longer happy, she's s&*t herself".

Which was partly true. She did s*$t herself, but then she proceeded to take off her diaper, and then PAINT HER CRIB WITH IT. Oh, and body paint herself as well. I gagged. A lot.

And tried to figure out how to get her out of her crib.

Needless to say, my hair did not get done this morning. Ugh. Just the memory makes me gag.

Anyways, this all happened before 7am.

The rest of my day goes by fairly smoothly. Until I get a call at lunch from Tanya informing me that Mimi decided to give herself a hair cut.

So, after work I have to take her to get it fixed. She attempted to give herself bangs...



But the nice ladies at Style FX in the south end of Barrie fixed it for us...



at first she wasn't sure of them...



but then I told her she was beautiful and she was happy again...

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A prize goes out to anyone who gets my blog title reference...without Google-ing :)

I wanted to try out some new edits, and Madison wanted to try on my new glasses, so I took a quick couple shots to fiddle with in Photoshop.

Here is my basic run of the mill edit....




A black and white that I'm not particularly fond of because it made things to dark. Need to try this one again....



a funky retro edit....is it too washed or is it just me?



this was an urban edit....I like it


A colour pop....


and just my basic edit, for my beautiful girl, with the green eyes that came from the mailman:)

daughter number 2.....she's quite the character....




she's always made the most interesting faces.....



she always wanted to be a 'fashion model'......



...she's on her way don't you think?

So I thought I'd post a pic from last spring....

This camera is tricky. It has like 10,000,000 times more functions than my last one. I'm having troubles trying to figure out which function will suit what best.

Jaclyn I think I need to chat with you:)

Poor Nevaeh no longer wants to be my model. I have to bribe her to stay still. Today Tanya had to give her an Oreo so I could keep her in one spot.



But she barely looked directly at the camera.



and when she did, it was because Tanya or I were teasing her with her bottle....



Don't mess with her bottle.

I was bored.

And this dead flower looked pretty

And it was still sunny out when Nevaeh and I picked up Nick from work...

And because I freaking love my new camera. It's too bad about the crappy shots, but Nevaeh was on the move, and Nick had put the kit lens on the new camera to take shots of a transport truck he just wrapped. So I had to make do with a lens I hate with all of my being. Well not that much, but almost.

Last night Nick and I went to visit our friends Jen and Tim, and their daughter Rachel. She's about 3.5 months younger than Nevaeh. So the girls could play and we could have grown up talk:)



Its always fun for me to watch Nevaeh with other kids her own age. Poor kid gets bullied by her older siblings all the time, so I never know how she'll be with other 'babies'.

Last year around this time when we visited, Rachel was only 2 weeks old..


(and apparently I didn't have my killer flash back then...)

and now....



I couldn't get the girls to pose with out their bottles :S

All in all they played pretty well together. Was tough to get good pics, because they were constantly moving, and I wasn't really up to following. I'm lazy, what can I say.



Rachel was pretty good at look at me when I went to take a pic, but Nevaeh knows better and avoids the camera at all costs...


Besides, Nevaeh was more interested in stealing another kids bottle...



We had a yummy lasagna (thanks guys!) for dinner. Rachel ate like a lady, barley got anything on her, and well, my daughter....


....is a beast.

After dinner, the kids played, and Nevaeh showed Rachel how cool daddy's iPhone is, it plays Backyardigans. She was instantly in love with the phone.



Nevaeh had to settle for my Blackberry. Which does nothing fun (for her)...


After hours of playing, the girls got a wee bit tired....



So we packed up and went home. Nevaeh was sooo tired, she was giddy. She was hyper, and talkative, almost delirious with tiredness. It was funny. She looked drunk almost.

Anywho - that was our night. We had fun. We rarely get nights out, so it was fun:)

Today involves spring cleaning and editing photos from my Easter Shoots yesterday....So I may blog tomorrow. Or not.