Kitchen Changes {coming soon}

New kitchen coming soon to the Gottwals house...

Here's one of the millions of pictures I've gotten inspiration from...

Picture Credit

 

Am I forgiven for forgetting to post my sweater pictures I promised at the end of yesterday's post?

Modern Bird Studios Copy Cat in Picasa

I really love the images that Modern Bird Studios does.  They take regular pictures and make them into amazing art.  Here's the example they show on their website.

I love the look but can't spend $165+ to order one from them (although for the quality and the wood mounting they do I think it's a great deal).

So I started playing around in Picasa.  I've tried several free photo editing programs and Picasa's my favorite.  I'm sure anyone could figure out how to do this by playing around, but I thought I'd do a quick step-by-step of it to make it easier....and so that later when I forgot how I did it I can look it up!  I did the process with a few different pictures and it worked best with pictures taken without flash, although any picture will work to some degree.  Here's my before and after.

 Here's my original, a picture we took at St. Simon's Island last month.  First, I like to save a copy of my picture, that way I have the original handy.  You can always undo, undo, undo, until you have the original back after the editing, but this saves time and you won't have to redo, redo, redo to get your modified picture back.  Just go up to File and Save a Copy.  It'll put the copy at the end of the album.

Go to the Effects tab and make the picture Black & White.

Next, go to the Tuning tab and play with Highlights and Shadows.  On this picture I slid the Highlights bar all the way to the right and Shadows about halfway.

I want to use the Highlights and Shadows effects again so I click over to another tab and then come back to Tuning.  This resets the effects so I can slide the bar again.  This time I slid the highlights about halfway and the shadows a little more than halfway.

Next, I went to the Effects tab toTint.  Click on Pick a Color.

Then to the Basic Fixes tab to Crop...

...and we're done!  

(Too bad I look partly bald, but isn't Shane's messy beach hair the cutest thing ever?)

If you have any questions let me know and I'll see what I can answer, but I'm no computer wizard (I can hear Shane laughing at the thought!) and I figured it out so I don't expect you to have any problems if you try it.

Linked: Between Naps on the Porch, The Persimmon Perch, Today's Creative Blog, Thrifty Decor Chick, A Soft Place to Land , Transformation Thursday
Tomorrow I'm going to show you a sweater I made cuter with a little ribbon...can't wait!

Inspired by...Modern Bird Studios

Inspired by the art at Modern Bird Studios, I worked on a picture of me and Shane to get a similar effect.  I'll be posting a tutorial Monday of how to do it!

Happy weekend!

In the works...

I have a couple projects in the works to show, just can't show them yet.  One I made as a birthday present and don't want to spoil the surprise and I'm waiting for some time to finish up the other one.

I'm nervous about both. 

In other news, we've been working at home getting some books out of our house and into our stores.  We sort and price while we watch this:

We just started Season 5.  See why I haven't been blogging much this week?

New Signs at Gottwals Books in Warner Robins

 BUY and TRADE with us!

(you can see the old and boring storefront if you scroll WAY down to the very bottom of this page)

It Ain't No Joke

 "Housekeeping ain't no joke." - Louisa May Alcott

I don't like housework--I guess that's pretty universal, huh?  Listening to a book on my MP3 player while I work makes it better--especially An Old Fashioned Girl by Louisa May Alcott (she wrote Little Women, too).  I just discovered LibriVox, a website with public domain audiobooks.  You just download them and hope for the best.  The reader of AOFG is really good...sounds as good as an audiobook you would buy!

I'm also listening to The Art of Racing in the Rain by Garth Stein in my car, so far so good.  And I'm reading Anita Diamant's Day After Night--I don't feel like I've quite made it to the "I really love this book now" point in it, but I've just read the first few chapters so far (see her book The Red Tent peaking out above the Alcott quote in the picture?).

Shop Online @ Hobby Lobby

Today when I went to print my 40% off Hobby Lobby coupon I realized they'd added online shopping!  Nice!  Some of you who don't have a Hob Lob close by will love this!

P.S. I print Hobby Lobby coupons almost every week just in case I'm in the store and find something I like need.  I don't usually use them because I like shopping the clearance 80% off section.  But I feel so good knowing that I can get 40% off something if I want.  It makes me feel special.  It gives me security.

Pairing Socks Makes Me Thankful...

...that we have two pairs of feet in this house--I am not alone.

...that I can throw away the socks with holes in them because we have other pairs.

...that we have a washing machine and dyer that work!

...that wearing striped socks can make me smile all day.

Linked to Chatting at The Sky

Enjoying the good of our labors

I love how sometimes when I read a familiar passage seemingly new parts "speak" to me.

¹ To everything there is a season,

      A time for every purpose under heaven:
       ² A time to be born,
And a time to die;
      A time to plant,
And a time to pluck what is planted;
       ³ A time to kill,
And a time to heal;
      A time to break down,
And a time to build up;
       ⁴ A time to weep,
And a time to laugh;
      A time to mourn,
And a time to dance;
       ⁵ A time to cast away stones,
And a time to gather stones;
      A time to embrace,
And a time to refrain from embracing;
       ⁶ A time to gain,
And a time to lose;
      A time to keep,
And a time to throw away;
       ⁷ A time to tear,
And a time to sew;
      A time to keep silence,
And a time to speak;
       ⁸ A time to love,
And a time to hate;
      A time of war,
And a time of peace.

The God-Given Task

 ⁹ What profit has the worker from that in which he labors? ¹⁰ I have seen the God-given task with which the sons of men are to be occupied. ¹¹ He has made everything beautiful in its time. Also He has put eternity in their hearts, except that no one can find out the work that God does from beginning to end. ¹² I know that nothing is better for them than to rejoice, and to do good in their lives, ¹³ and also that every man should eat and drink and enjoy the good of all his labor—it is the gift of God.
     

Skipping Church?

If you ever wonder whether you should skip church or not, read this for clarification.