Color Balance and Levels to make your images POP!!

At the salon the other day, one of the stylist did a beautiful balayage and curled the clients hair into jaw dropping ringlets. I was in awe and couldn't stop staring as her hair was transformed from beautiful to breathtaking. When the last curl was set and the last mist of hair spray settled, I asked if I could snap a picture.

Unfortunately the lighting in the salon is lousy and even though I set the white balance on the camera, the picture; taken in front of a cream colored wall, just didn't do justice to what the naked eye could see. I offered to edit it in Photoshop and got permission to use the before and after in this post.

Here is the before and after as well as a quick Photoshop tutorial so you can make your photographs pop too.

Tutorial:
If you think that the colors are off you can start by adding a color balance adjustment layer. Follow the arrows in the image below to help you find and add the color balance adjustment layer.

You will get a pop up window that looks like the following (Depending on what Photoshop version you're running. I'm working with CS6)

You can see that I adjusted the levels to the following +22, -3, +19. Play around with it and find the best setting for the image your working with. If the colors don't look to yellow or green or purple, you can skip this step and move on to the levels adjustment layer. Find it the same way, just click on levels instead of color balance.

You will get a pop up window like the following:

You will have a graph in the center of the pop up with a black arrow, gray arrow and white arrow. (Note that this is not what my red arrows are pointing to, we will get to that.) If the black arrow isn't followed by a spike, drag it to the right until it is just touching the beginning of the first spike. Do the same with the white arrow, except drag it left until it touches the beginning of the first spike. You will be able to see the adjustments in your photo while your making them, so don't worry. Now, if your think your photo needs farther adjustments, you can click on the black dropper, note the top red arrow, and click in your photo on something that is black or should be a true black. You can also adjust for white, note the bottom red arrow. You can see in the before/after below that I used the white dropper and clicked on the cream colored wall to make it white. It's ok to play because there is always the undo button.

Follow these easy steps to make your pictures pop and follow my blog for more mini Photoshop tutorials.

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Making Spinach Bullets for Smoothies

My daughter and I have a smoothie almost every morning for breakfast. I am always looking for ways to make morning easier and spinach bullets are one of those things.

Smoothies are pretty quick to make and are packed with tons of vitamins and essential nutrients. Even though smoothies only take a couple of minutes to make, spinach bullets assure that I always have fresh spinach and make my smoothies cool and delicious.

We use the baby bullet to make our spinach bullets (hence the name), but you could use a ice cube tray to get the same result.

First, you'll need spinach that is washed and ready to eat.

Next, pack each cavity as full as you can with spinach. Each bullet cavity holds approximately 30 spinach leaves.   (Yes, I counted because I was curious.)

We discovered that with each bullet hole crammed with  spinach the over doesn't snap on, so we use several binder clips to hold it on. Next freeze your bullets over night.

The result? Frozen spinach "bullets" that are the perfect size for popping in your morning smoothie. Just toss one or two in with your other smoothie ingredients and blend. (We pop our bullets our and have them in a Ziploc bag in the freezer.) It couldn't be easier.

I would love to know if you try spinach bullets and if they make your smoothie experience a better one.

Upholding Our Families' Tradition

Exercising isn't always fun. It's hard to find time in our busy schedules to work out. Growing up, our family had an exercise tradition we loved. When we watched movies or shows we would pick a word. (Such as a character's name or something relevant to what we were watching. For instance if we were watching Star Wars the word might use Jedi.) Then every time that word is said, we pause and do a set number of an exercise. You can always use two different words and two different exercises.

Recently I have started doing this with my kids and they love it. On one Friday we watched an Episode of Angry Beavers and used the word WOOD. We decided to do 5 sit ups every time we heard it. We ended up doing 15 sit ups during that episode. Right after we watched an Episode of Spider Man and used the word WEB. We ended up doing another 15 sit ups.

The next day we ended up doing even more sit ups then that. Today my abs hurt so we are switching it up a bit and are doing 10 jumping jacks instead.

Here are some good exercise choices to choose from:

1. Sit ups
2. Push ups
3. Jumping Jacks
4. Bicycles
5. Mountain Climbers
6. Burpees
7. Squats

I suggest if you are new to exercise or if you are doing this with young children that you choose a small number to do each time, such as 2 or 5. We do sets of 5.

If you are an over achiever you can always choose to do push ups for one word and sit ups for another word. Have fun and be consistent. You will notice after a few weeks that the exercises are coming easier.

If your watching something you can pause, just count the number of times the word is said and during a commercial brake, get up and see if you can do all of the before the show starts again. Make this your family tradition too. You won't regret it.

Dream Home, First Floor!

I have been working on a blue print for my dream home in my spare time. When I say dream home, I don't mean a nice little 2 bedroom ranch, or 3 bedroom Victorian home with a white picket fence and a well manicured 1/2 acre lot. I would be perfectly happy with either of the above listed homes, but I'm talking DREAM HOUSE. I'm not exactly sure what the qualification are to say something as more than a house, but I'm guessing this is more of a mansion.

I have been playing with if for a few weeks now and am in love with is. Here is the first floor.

The first floor features:

• 3 car attached garage
• 1 car garage attach to breeze way
• Workshop
• Formal dining room
• Laundry room
• Mud room
• Kitchen
• Living room
• Breakfast nook
• Toy room
• Nursery
• Master bedroom
• Master bathroom 
• Master sitting room with private entry
• Walk in closet off master bathroom
• Music room/sitting room
• Library
• Powder room
• Full bath
• Exercise room with direct access to Master Bedroom
• Office
• Walk in Pantry
• 4 Closets (not including the Master bedroom and nursery ones)
• 2 sun rooms
• Attached Greenhouse
• Large back deck with entry into Master bedroom, toy room and living room
• Fish tank built into wall
• Secret door from master sitting room into library
• Large covered porch in front of house

I can't get enough of this plan. As if this weren't already enough house, it also has a full second floor and a walk-out fully finished basement.

Keep checking back because I will post the basement and second floor pictures in the next few weeks. I would love to hear from you if this is your dream plan too. Just leave a comment below.

Hands Off "My Pillow"

Until recently my nights have consisted of fighting with a stack or 2 or 3 cheap pillows. You probably know the drill. Flip them, fluff them, toss one to the end of the bed cuz it's to thick, fold over the one you have left cuz it's not thick enough. Nothin' but pillow drama.

About 3 weeks ago I decided to invest in a quality pillow to see if it help me have a more restful sleep. I did a fair amount of research and finally made up my mind to get My Pillow.

You've probably seen the infomercial. I liked that it's the official pillow of the national sleep foundation. So far I am really happy with My new Pillow. I can simply fluff it a bit and get it the right thickness and than it stays like that until I mess with it again. I've stopped waking up with neck aches too, which is a bonus.

It says it has a built in cooling effect, I haven't really noticed if it does or not, but it's winter time right now. Maybe I'll notice that more in the summer.

"Not a Stick" Book Review

Every trip to the library is an adventure. Kayla plays while I gather books for the next week. There are so many choices and I often flip through book after book before I find one that looks interesting. This wasn't one of them. I don't know what inspired me to get this book because it's mostly pictures and only one sentence per page. Kayla, while only 3, is listening to chapter books like "Mercy Watson" and "The Magic Tree-House". I always try to get a verity, so somehow this one made the cut.

What a gem. This book really spoke to her. It has sparked her imagination in a wonderful way. The little pig with a big imagination uses the "stick" as everything but a stick. I have read it to her 4 or 5 times. She had both of her Grandparents read it to her and has thumbed through it several times herself.

She has also started running around the house with a empty paper towel roll saying "Mom, say: What are your doing with that stick?" When I do, she replies with, "It's not a stick." and acts something out from the book.

I would recommend this book to anybody with a little one who loves to pretend. I can't wait to get back to the library and see if they have the book, "Not A Box" by the same author, Antoinette Portis. I give this book a big thumbs up!