My girls go to the sweetest little preschool called Asbury Community Christian Preschool.  It is about 5 minutes from our house & we have come to love it over the past 3 years.  This is Emma’s last year here *sniff  sniff* and I was honored to be a part of their killer fundraiser this year.  I mean there is so much creativity & talent among these mothers you just wouldn’t believe it.

I was brought in to the annual fundraiser a little later than the rest of the committee, but when they had me to one of their meetings, I was blown away.  They were talking silent auction, live auction, lettuce wraps from P.F. Chang’s, children’s artwork  hung throughout the school, live music, etc.  Well, needless to say, these wonderful plans we had were thwarted by a TON of snow.  We weren’t able to advertise like we wanted, the weekend of the event was when a ton of other events were rescheduled to happen, and ticket sales just weren’t what they needed to be to make a profit.  So, in their amazing flexibility, these mothers decided to change the fundraiser dinner & auction to a week-long presentation of the kids’ artwork hung throughout the school hallways and place every item up for silent auction in the school’s lobby for parents to see & bid on.

Oh, and we had a little surprise for the parents too (and this is where I came in): next to each and every 209 pieces of artwork is a matted 5×7 photograph of the child that created the artwork.  And I got to capture them all!  I was so excited to be able to do this for my girls’ school!  Over the course of 3 days in November, I got to meet each and every child that attended Asbury, get them to pose for me, bribe them with Skittles, and just firm up how much I LOVE what I do!  It was an honor.

So….back to the fundraiser.  When parents walk down the hall to drop their children off, they are greeted by their child’s artwork and a photograph of their child.  I mean, c’mon, who WOULDN’T buy that?  These fundraiser committee moms are geniuses!  I was helping out with sales this morning and they got so many parents coming to the checkout table saying, “I want that artwork!  Where do I pay?”  How awesome is that!  I’m excited to see all the great things that Asbury does with the funds they raise this year.  Great work ladies!  Here’s a few more photos so you get a little idea of what it all looks like….

She’s a little late for the Polar Bear Plunge, and no, we don’t live in any tropical place.  In fact, we live in Maryland where were are being prepared for yet another snow storm sometime today into tomorrow.  “They” are predicting anywhere from 10 – 20 inches…AGAIN!  And here is my little Emma donning her bathing suit!  I guess the girl has some serious cabin fever, or maybe she is trying to will Spring & Summer to get their butts in gear!  Whatever she is thinking, she’s doing it while wearing this swimsuit & flip flops.  She’s also packed her little suitcase with clothes for “hot weather” as she tells me.  Maybe she’s planning on sneaking out to Florida or someplace tonight.  I better keep an eye on that one!

And if this snow is getting you down, I have two fun things for you!  First, go to Accu Weather and watch this crazy meteorologist.  You’ll crack up!  His name is Jim Kosek & he’s CRAZY!  Second, go to Living Locurto & download some FREE printable & super duper cool Valentine’s.  They are for boys or for girls & might help if you are stuck inside for a few days.  And it also might be Valentine’s day before we get back to preschool!

I’m off to clean up the Summer things and make my kid put some clothes on!

Today we trekked through 30 inches of snow for this lil’ guy’s birthday!  Well, not really.  The 30 inches ended on Saturday, so it’s probably close to about 1 to 2 feet packed down.  And Lucas just lives about 10 houses up from us.  So it wasn’t THAT bad, but I like to have one of those, “We used to walk to school with no shoes in the snow….” stories like your grandparents used to tell you.

Today was Lucas’ 3rd birthday party and luckily everyone invited lived in the neighborhood.  Lucas is a major Cars fan (the movie) so his cake was Cars, the decorations were Cars, and most of his presents were Cars.  We felt so lucky to be able to get out & walk to our dear friends’ house to celebrate with them.  Thank you Lucas for inviting us all!  Happy birthday!

]]> http://www.mandysrokaphotography.com/2010/02/2010-image-38-lucas/feed/ 1 http://www.mandysrokaphotography.com/2010/02/2010-image-34-cold-desire/ http://www.mandysrokaphotography.com/2010/02/2010-image-34-cold-desire/#comments Wed, 03 Feb 2010 18:38:07 +0000 mandysroka http://www.mandysrokaphotography.com/?p=11616

When I took our puppy, Ruby, out this morning to potty, I saw that this snow wasn’t going to last long.  It was so soft & fluffy, and stuck beautifully to the trees around our house.  I went back inside & snapped the photo above of a little tree.  There wasn’t anything spectacular about it.  I think shooting in snow is a little difficult.  It’s hard to make white things stand out when there’s nothing but white behind them.  So, I opened this photo in Lightroom & decided to try some of the free presets I downloaded on it.  This preset is called “Cold Desire.”

And that brings me to the Photos I’ve been looking at:  Presets Heaven.  Pierre created the site Presets Heaven and it holds nothing but FREE presets for Adobe Lightroom.  They are awesome!  There are soooooooo many to choose from.  I loved how this one made my one little snow covered tree stand out from everything else behind it.  What a huge difference!  Here’s how the photo looked SOOC (straight out of the camera):

Now I realize I just blogged earlier about NOT fixing things in Photoshop, and I don’t feel this photo needed any “fixing.”  I just wanted to play around with it & see what I could transform it in to.  I had fun!

Happy snow day….again!

Um, who else thought it would STILL be snowing here in Maryland at 5 o’clock?  I didn’t!  The snow is still coming down strong.  And then a quiet knock came on the front door and hello Robin & Chris!  What a welcome surprise!  Robin is my sister-in-law & Chris is her love.  They came by just to check on us & clean off the car.  Aren’t they sweet!  I made them pose for this photo before they cleaned off the car.  We tried to do the pose like the farm, his wife, & the pitchfork, but it was kinda cold.

Happy snow day!

This will be a more technical post, so please bear with me if I bore you.  I’ll try to be humorous to balance out the nerdiness.

The title is “faux sunflare” because the sunflare I was going for just didn’t happen like I envisioned.  It could have  been because I’m not technically skilled enough to do this yet, or because my child won’t stay still long enough for me to practice, or simply just because I can’t stare into the sun for that long.  However, there were a few things in Photoshop that helped me out.

When I shoot towards the sun like this my subject tends to be “soft” or not a crisp as normal.  So, I took this photo (on a gloriously wonderfully sunny warm day, BTW) & did the following (all in Photoshop CS4):

1.  Slice Like a Ninja (Sharpen) from Totally Rad Actions

2.  Warm from Pioneer Woman

3.  Boutwell Magic Glasses from TRA, again

4.  Sunshine from Pioneer Woman again.

Then, I had stumbled upon a filter in Photoshop under Filter > Render > Lensflare.  Ohhh…what’s this little gem?  It seems to add the sunny spot & the flare for you.  For this particular photo I positioned my “faux” sun in the upper left corner (where the real one was) and chose 100% brightness & a 35mm Prime lens.  I don’t really have any idea what all that means, but the above photo is what I came up with.

Now, for the story behind the photo:  Since it was so amazingly gorgeous out today, I made myself take the kiddos out & ride scooters.  They, on their own, decided to get their sand shovels out & shovel the remaining snow & fling it all around the ground.  I got hit a few times.  This photo is of Emma, my oldest, all decked out.  If you check out my scooter video on Facebook you can see the entirety of her ensemble – glasses, 2 bracelets, necklace, fur trimmed gloves, etc.  She loooooooves dressing up.  She once told me that the more jewelry you have on, the more beautiful you are!

Photos I’ve been looking at:  Joey L.  Apparently this talented dude is almost 10 years younger than me, shoots famous people & travels the world.  I really love looking at his photos of foreign lands that are virtually untouched by civilization.  In particular, his time in Ethiopia.  They are amazing.  (*there is some nudity, so viewer be ware)

The End.

Now I don’t hate snow, I just don’t love it.  Today we awoke to our second snow of the season, first of 2010.  And of course, since public school are on a delay, that means preschool is canceled for my girls.  That always seems to happen on the days I have plans….oh well!  And although this snow is less in overall volume than the last one, it’s definitely more slippery!  Please be careful!

This photo is one I quickly snapped this morning (before the sun made the snow a hazard for my eyes) of my Japanese Holly bush.  My grandparents bought me this plant (along with others) for my birthday a few years ago.  And my neighbor Laura will tell you that I’m always butchering the poor thing!  I just don’t want it to get unruly & uneven….which is just how I make it look after it’s “haircut.”  This was the first year I actually saw a berry on it & I was so excited!  I hope this poor little berry can withstand the cold – good luck little guy!

On a strange side note, I was watching my CNN app on my phone, and did you know that these extreme & unusual cold spells that are reaching Florida are causing Iguanas to go in to a comatose state while in trees?  Yes-huh!  Go check it out! They are sleeping in trees, then the temperatures drop & they kinda just freeze & fall out of their trees!  It’s so odd!

Today’s photos I’m looking at:  Cuppa Photography.  I just met Cindy last night at the Spread the Love tour in DC & I’m already blog stalking her!  I love her business name – “Cuppa.”  Apparently she’s a coffee junkie & on her site she asks you to grab a “cuppa” something warm & snuggle in to view her FABULOUS work!  Wow!  She is stunningly good, & such a sweet gal (or so I gathered in the 5 hours I sat next to her).  Thanks for making me feel like I wasn’t a total loner yesterday, Cindy!

Josh has always been a coffee drinker.  When we registered for our wedding, we signed up for a Krupps Espresso/Coffee Maker combination.  We used it about 10 times, then I proceeded to accidentally break most of the moveable parts.  Then we switched to a cheap, regular coffee maker with a timer on it.  The idea was for me to make Josh’s coffee the night before and have it set to brew as he woke up.  You know, like those Folgers commercials…”The best part of waking up, is Folger’s in your cup!!!”  That worked, until I either forgot to make the coffee, or Josh forgot to take it with him.  So we just kept the coffee pot around for gatherings for our guests.  Well, the day before the “big snow,” we went to Target and invested in a Keurig Coffee Maker.  It’s one of those machines where you put the little “K-Cup” in the top, press it down, push a button, and by some miracle, it brews a single cup of coffee!  It’s perfect for my husband, because I don’t drink coffee, he does, and can still quickly make one for himself before he heads out the door to work.  He also discovered there are a variety of teas and hot chocolates available as well.  He accidentally ordered two 50 packs of tea and hot cocoa, so if you’re ever in the neighborhood, stop by for a cup!  I know the Keurig will never replace his love for me, but it comes in a close second, especially on these cold winter mornings!

(sorry for those of you who read our Family Blog…these photos repeat)

While there is about 6 or more inches of snow outside right now, we did have one semi-warm day last week.  The girlies and myself took advantage of it and went outside to play with some bubbles.  The last time Emma, my oldest, blew bubbles, she wasn’t very good.  In fact, she got super frustrated so we purched one of those automatic bubble blowers from Target that looked like a hippo.  It has since died, and Emma wanted to try blowing bubbles the real way this year.  She did a pretty good job.  Brooke, on the other hand, didn’t even try to blow and at times seemed afraid of the bubbles.  However, like in everything else, she began to copy her big sister and laugh & chase the bubbles after a while.  Here they are enjoying their day!  Now you can feel sorry for the three of us stuck inside, especially if you are reading from an area that has more spring-like weather!

See this poor little tulip?  Covered with snow, trying to break free of winter’s grasp?  That’s how I feel right now…like a little flower yearning for Spring, yet covered with Winter’s ice.  I think I go through this every year.  When the hulabaloo of Thanksgiving, Christmas, & New Year’s are over, there’s not much to do, especially for the stay-at-home mom of two young girls.  My days are filled with staying in because it’s too cold to go out, coughs, sniffles, mentoring sisterly arguments, entertaining an almost four-year-old who thinks things are “boring,” and basically just cleaning up the same mess over and over again.  It sounds depressing, I know.  And sometimes it is.  So, I thought to help lift me, and possibly YOU, out of these winter blahs, I’d post some signs of Spring.  Who cares what Punxsutawney Phil says, right?  We can still have a little Spring early.

Here are some photos of flowers I’ve taken over the years.  I don’t always know what to do with them, but nevertheless, I still keep taking them.  They are yours.  Take them.  Drag them and drop them onto your desktop.  Use them to brighten your winter as you wait for spring.  And I will leave you with this quote: “If we had no winter, the spring would not be so pleasant: if we did not sometimes taste of adversity, prosperity would not be so welcome.”  ~Josh Billings