45/365-2 Amore

"Real Love"

Over the years I've written some rather cynical posts on Valentine's Day.  I still find it kind of an odd "holiday" to celebrate.  We should show our affection for those we love every day.  Though there is a piece of me that is a hopeless romantic, I am not one who wants chocolate and roses on Valentine's Day.  So what did we do?

After school we did the normal Friday evening shopping run to Sams for the girls' Saturday bread supplies.  Not being ones who like big crowds of people, we had our Valentine's dinner at Wendy's figuring that would not be a popular destination for those in search of a romantic dinner; although, the red ketchup did add a nice festive touch.  We also went to Target, more red.  We were behind a cute girl in line who was buying gold sparkly shoes and panty hose to wear on her evening out as she and her sweetheart celebrated their first Valentine's Day together.  The checker was trying to share in the girl's excitement.  What did we buy?  A doormat that says, "Woof" to go under the bowls of our sloppy canine diners.  It doesn't get much more romantic than that:-)  I have to admit that it was kind of funny watching the line of people trying to find an appropriate Valentine's Day card at 5:15 this afternoon.  As any reasonable person would expect, the pickings were mighty slim.  Target did, however, have bouquets of roses in the impulse buy racks at the checkouts for those who were too lazy to walk all the way to the back of the store to search through the picked over candy.

When we got home, we had an evening of chores to finish in preparation for a visit from an out of town guest tomorrow.  The best Valentine's Day gift, in my opinion, is help with those mundane aspects of life that are no fun but have to be done.  Weber did the vacuuming and I followed behind with the mop - and the camera.  We got it all done relatively quickly, in time for Brooke and I to watch the men's figuring skating finals.

This is not a good photograph technically, but it does depict true love.  I love this guy with every ounce of my being!

Happy Valentine's Day to each of you.

44/365 - 2 Conversation

"Nose to Nose"

My favorite conversations are those that require few words.  After a long and somewhat stressful day at school, we enjoyed some quiet time and a little sugar.

43/365-2 Red

"Love Is...On the Ground"

Today has been a long day.  I am exhausted and my brain is not functioning well enough to write coherently so this is it.  At least I've made it past humpday for this week!

42/365-2 Retail Therapy

This is a present for the newest baby boy in our world.  Shhh...don't tell him!  He has to wait until this weekend when we see him next.

Most of my retail therapy these days is done via the web.  I much prefer to shop in the chaos that is my own desk rather than the chaos of the stores.  Thank goodness for amazon!

41/365-2 It's Still Winter

"Gray Icy Day"

I know that much of the country has been blanketed with snow for days, weeks and months and that they are all quite ready for it to melt.  I wish that we would have a little of it here.  Snow is so much more tolerable than the nasty freezing rain and "ice pellets" that are predicted for the Dallas area.  We'll see what happens overnight.  It either needs to be enough to cancel school or not happen at all.  I could do without sliding to school in the morning!

40/365-2 Tiny Heart

"Break Out"

The worst prison would be a closed heart.

39/365-2 Hand Tinted

"A Rose By Any Color..."

I am much more adept with composition in my photographs than I am with the technical aspects related to post-processing.  This goes back to my post a few days ago; I don't like a whole lot of it.   After having that rant on Thursday, God must have been laughing at me, ready to shake me up and get me off of my high horse.  Today's prompt was focused on hand-tinting, a post processing technique that allows for the tweaking of colors in a photo.  

Generally speaking, the above photo has been lightened up, giving a much softer feeling than the original.  Some of the dark tones were removed from the background allowing the bokeh to be more pronounced.  The flowers and their leaves were also desaturated.  I have to admit that I like the outcome although I have to admit that it is probably more alteration than I have ever done on a photo.

I can see where hand tinting can be beneficial in adding "make-up" to a photo.  It's like anything - in moderation it is fine, but there comes a point where too much is too much.

I have so much to learn and right now I am feeling like I don't have time to practice what I already know let alone time to learn anything new.  I hate that feeling.  Oh well...some day.