Free Photo Editing

I love photos, and I love all the different editing that you can do with them, unfortunately once again my limited computer ability limits what I can do. I found this wonderful FREE site call picmonkey, that allows you to edit photos with all kinds of tools, with ease!  Come on if I can figure it out anyone can!

http://www.picmonkey.com/

I did this one of Boogie, the head is a little messed up but you get the idea!

Then I messed with one of my pics of Monkey

and finally an engagement photo!

Looks like I have a lot of playing to do!!!

Well I am going to try a button

Save the Dates.....save some money :)

I love the idea of a Save the Date ( I refuse to use the initials it says STD...really for a wedding ha ha) Jerm and I are having a Summer wedding and I was afraid that many people would be going on family vacations and such.  I sent these out MONTHS ago but I wanted to post my DIY Save the Dates, I have NO experience with making cards, unless you count the countless ones I made with my preschool students?  I wanted them to look pretty and well thought out, but not professional, I want everyone to know this is a DIY wedding, so things wont be perfect, but they will be original and ours!

Supplies:

• Blank Cards with Envelopes, bought mine on sale at Michael's....closest Hobby Lobby is in Louisville :(
• Photo corners (clear)
• pack of magnetic sheets, got mine at Wal Mart for under a dollar a pack, I bought two but only needed one.
• rubber stamps of your choice ( I got these at Michael's also....on sale!) Clear stamps would have worked better, but they weren't on sale and I couldn't find any that I really liked!

• Stamp ink in your choice of colors, Our wedding colors are black, white and Tiffany blue, but Tiffany blue is a trademarked color so I just buy the color that is closest to it, unfortunately it is different names for different companies, but I have my trusty swatch of fabric that I carry with me!)

Optional:

I have this X-acto paper cutter, but you can just use scissors if you don't have one, or I bought mine for like $10 a long time ago from Wal Mart, it works well and I use it for a lot of things!

Save the Date:

 My friend Emily took some really beautiful engagement photos for us, then she used photo shop and created this save the date card for us, ( I wrote down what I wanted it to say) put it on a jump drive, and I took it down to Wal Mart and made as many copies as I needed! Thank you Emily!!

Making the Save the Dates:

I used my Xacto to cut the magnetic sheets into the size that I wanted, I realized that a medium sized magnet in the middle of the card would hold it just fine.

The magnetic sheets have an adhesive side to them so you just simply peel back the paper and stick it to them :)

I then stamped the card on the front side, at first I was really picky about how much ink was on it, and that it matched up perfectly, but I kinda like how the ink was lighter in some areas, still obsessed with how they lined up though!
*When stamping I used a blank piece of paper under my cards so no excess ink would get on my work table!

I then slipped the clear photo corners on each corner of the Save the Date, and just simply placed it where I wanted it to go.  I guess you could put the clear photo corners down then slip the Save the Date in them, but I thought that way gave too much room for error!

Using only a part of one of the rubber stamps I stamped the corners of the front of each envelope, this was actually very easy to get just right and soon I was flying though them.

After stamping all of the envelope's front sides, I then repeated the process on the back of each envelope ( I wanted to allow them time to dry so no ink smeared, I moved from oldest stamped to newest) I also added that beautiful detailed key stamp to the center of each envelope, the keys play another part in our wedding (tale to come later) This one is crooked, I had extras, so I didn't send this one, its a good idea to allow for some mistakes and make a few extras!

There you go the finished product! They may not be perfect or identical but it's not like people will be showing them to each other to compare them.......right?  Plus they are homemade and are perfect for me in design sweet, simple and classy.  Well at least I think so :)

A big thanks goes out to Emily for creating the beautiful Save the Date, Cheryl for all your design input and help, and Shawnna for helping me stamp and put all these Save the Dates together!!!!

Oh and by the way, after total costs, each Save the Date cost me about $0.38....I love saving money!! I might have been able to get them made cheaper somewhere else, but I am in love with these things and so proud of them!!

Sanders Springs

Our family is big on nature, we love to be outdoors and like taking walks, hiking, swimming, playing in the yard ect..  A friend of mine ( Ms Emily) loves to take photos, she had recently bought a new camera and needed test subjects.....she gets to practice with her camera, we get to be outside on a beautiful day, and I ended up with some fantastic shots of my family. (Babydoll was at her mom's house that day so there are none of her...darn it)

How many people does it take to put a baby carrier on Jerm?

I refuse to wear these things, and since Jerm said he would Cheryl thought it would be funny to buy us an extremely girly and PINK one!

The boys playing in the water:

Love how Bubby's feet are not touching the ground in this picture!!

 Such cute little baby piggy's (toes)

Jerm almost hit Boogie with a tree when he turned too quickly and too close to the tree!

love this silly picture

My baby boy, looks so sweet.

My favorite picture of Boogie and I.

Pretty Baby!

Jerm hates to take pictures, but I think he looks great in this one!

Vacation Time!!

July 2011 Jerm and I went to Cumberland Falls KY, oh my it was one of the best vacations I have been on!  We went hiking, swimming, site seeing, and just spent three days and two nights together alone....no children!!!! Of course we had to find baby sitters for all those lil ones, four baby sitters for four kiddos! LOL

We stayed at the Cumberland Inn, it is ran by the local college and many of the students work there, great prices, super comfy rooms, indoor pool, and hot tub!

Oh did I mention that the hotel had a free taxidermy museum?  I know it sounds weird but it was actually pretty interesting!

It also had a cross museum, with a very large collection of crosses and other religious items, this was free also, the local college that runs the hotel is a Christian College.

The hotel lobby was beautiful and they offered free breakfast, real breakfast not that cold cereal and bagels stuff.

We need to go back sometime during the Fall or Winter I mean check out that Fireplace, so cozy!

We traveled to a couple places during the three days we were there.  Luckily a friend of mine is a teacher and has taken kids on a field trip to this area.  She had a whole list of places to go, some we did, and some we will have to go back and see.

Cumberland Falls National Park:

We actually got lost hiking...on a TRAIL! ha ha

We visited Levi Jackson State Park, there were a couple things to see there, and it was a very interesting step back into time.  Jerm and I both love history and we received a couple history lessons here, and we were out in nature at the same time, perfect!

McHargue's Mill:

(building is a reproduction, but all the working mill pieces are original and date back to 1773, they grind corn mill there still today)

Defeated Camp Burial Ground:

Original Pioneer Homes and other buildings were turned into a self guided museum tour, that took you back in time.

We are living in Kentucky, so there was no way that we could pass up visiting the very first KFC ever!

Hey look it's a sign!

Some KFC memorabilia:

Wish these prices were for today:

On the day that we were going home we planned on visiting Cumberland Gap State Park in the morning then making the drive home that afternoon. (Only a 3 hour drive)  Unfortunately, that was the day that it decided to rain, so Cumberland Gap was cut a little short.

Cumberland Gap, you drive through the mountain in an underground tunnel:

We enjoyed our vacation so much I think that we might go back there for the Honeymoon this year, it was very relaxing and the one on one time we were able to have was amazing!  Oh by the way the day that we got to Cumberland Ky Jeremy asked and I said......

YES!!!!!