A QuickTutorial

First of all, I'd like to speak to the horror of what happened yesterday in the Boston Marathon. My heart really and truly goes out to those people who thought they were safe that day. How despicable can anyone be to target innocent people who just wanted to watch a marathon on a nice sunny April day? Hubby came home from an appointment and hadn't heard yet so he and I watched it on the computer and both of us couldn't even speak with the lumps in our throats and the weeping in our eyes. I hope everyone says a prayer for the ones left behind that had to witness the horror.
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Recently I was perusing a website for some things I've been looking for and came across a site that had them but her photos were not the best for her lovely and unique items. After all, presentation, and on the internet, photos, are the most important thing when showcasing your items. I emailed her and gave her a quick tutorial on creating more beautiful images. Now, don't think I'm sounding "better than thou" about this; I just simply love helping people on the internet. Yes, it was a great risk that I might embarrass her or turn her off, but fortunately she took it in the fashion it was meant. I've done this with two of the most recognized artists we all love and they were grateful also. Just goes to show you they're all grateful for any help they can get. One might be a great artist but a total ditz when it comes to blogging, photography, or other things about the internet.

 I have to keep up since my granddaughter is so computer savvy. Also, my 3 year-old great granddaughter already has her own computer. It's called Surface. Its passwords for her are to touch her fingers to 3 images on the tablet—an ear, a nose, or an eye in special sequence. Her mummy and daddy are teaching her very young since they are computer programmers. Amazing!


Since Photobucket has a new look and not been too popular with those of us who have been with it from the beginning, I thought I'd give a small tutorial about how photos work on the internet. I think most people have a general idea and some have a better idea, but for the most part the largest majority of casual users have no idea about how they take up space on, not only their computers, but image hosts, such as Photobucket, Flickr, Image Shack, Tinypic, Shutterfly, Imgur, Smug Mug, Postimage, etc.


When I photograph an image for my blog, it will usually be about 3.6 MB—megabytes—and 3888 x 2592 pixels—px—in height and width.  That's huge in terms of pixels. I'll always re-size it to probably about 700 px wide and the height I set to be in proportion to the width. This is done so it won't be out of proportion.


Let me say one other very important thing here: I always edit and try to improve every single photo I post on my blog or my Pinterest, even the ones I get from the internet. There are a rare few that don't need any adjustment as to brightness or removing shadows. I can improve just about all of them, but there are some people who are just so good at photographing their subjects that I don't need to do anything but make them a bit smaller and adjust the pixels. If I get them from the internet, I can not make them bigger, only smaller. They may be a lot smaller than I'd prefer, but they are what they are. However, if they're too tiny, I'll pass them up. I want to see the images in all their glory, not a tiny image barely visible.


I know these are huge but I wanted you to see them well so I'm putting about 6 on here for you to see the difference in the amount of memory your photos are taking up.



Looking at this screenshot you'll notice the small red arrow down at the bottom. You'll also see the little area in the middle right side where it says Image Size and New Size. Notice that I have Constrain Proportions checked (on the 3rd photo down you'll see it) so that it will re-size and not look strange like the photo just after this one.


See how out of proportion this one is. That's what I mean by out of proportion or Constraining Proportions.


Now let's talk storage of these photos. If you store on your computer or on an image host, and your photos are the original size without any editing, you're going to eat up your storage capacity really fast. And that's money. I have almost 18,000 photos on Photobucket but I have yet to go over my limit. At this moment I'm at 4.71% of my limit or 1.1 GB of 23 GB. See what I'm getting at. That's because I edit them to the size I want them to be here on this blog. The size will vary a little bit from time to time. I rarely ever go over 600-700 pixels wide. But, like now in this post, I wanted them bigger for you to see them.


So take a look at the original "size" of the photos I got off the internet. Look at this one below. See on the left where it says 1.7 MB (that's huge) and on the right after I edited and re-sized it a bit, it is 37 KB. That's a huge fraction—about .00002%— but the photo remained the exact same in terms of you looking at it. So, I've saved a lot of space on my computer and my iMac has 12 GB extra storage. Even that's huge! But I don't want it running slow. I want the fastest speed I can get from my Mac. And I get it, too.


And let me say another thing: None of these photos were reduced in actual size or inches, in other words.


Just keep checking these few photos and see the difference below.


These were all done on PhotoShop Elements, a cheaper version of PhotoShop but everything I need. If you're a professional, you'd want the full version for $700 but a PS Elements is under a hundred dollars and even cheaper on eBay probably. BUT, let me say here that you can edit on Photobucket or probably even on your Photo Editor on your computer. I know everyone has one on their computer so you don't even need to spend money doing this. Are you understanding what I'm saying? Save money and room on your computer. If anyone has a question, just email me and I'd be happy to answer them. I make no money doing this, just satisfaction in knowing I've helped someone a little bit.


Now for the beautiful photos.

These pillows must have taken a lot to make, but those little paper or fabric flowers are exquisite also.


Just another beautiful white room with lots of sunlight and a balcony with a view. It looks like an attic room but could possibly be just a second floor room.


And are we loving this darling little quaint cottage? It's much bigger than it looks from the front but how about that circular top. Absolutely cute!


And while I'm on a roll today, look at this other sweet cottage.


I'm trying to decide whether to do two or three ruffles on my French cane chairs. I want the drop cloth for one or two ruffles and a pink and white polka dot  fabric for one of the ruffles. I think I'll experiment tomorrow.


Another sweet kitchen. Love the red Aga with the blue cabinets. And that stone floor? To die for!


Love the little chairs covered with bouquets of flowers.


And now that I've done the silk pink hydrangeas in an old drawer and put it on my coffee table in the family room, I'm seeing them all over the place. I'm tickled pink with the way mine look though.
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Tidbit:

Airbags inflate at a rate of 200 miles per hour.
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A Little Change, a Tote and Cupcakes



I saw these on a blog of the winner of one of my aprons and just loved the fanciness of these. Are they not among the prettiest, fanciest and yummiest cupcakes you've ever seen? They're from Henri Bendel in NYC. Just thought you'd love to see them.
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I cut some hydrangeas from one of our plants in the front porch garden area and brought them in. They were pretty dry but still had color so I had hubs pull down from the plant shelf in the living room the urn with the arrangement I made last year with all the things bloggers and my eBay group had given me so I could put the 4 branches of the hydrangeas into it. Snapped some photos to show you. I like how it turned out. A bit of green in there. Maybe I'll get some artificial ones for it.



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Blogging gives me 2 pleasures: writing and photography. I'm not very good at either one, but it allows me to keep my grammar skills up and to practice photographing things. Some are bad shots and some are better than I anticipate, but it's all practice. So hang in there all you bloggers who are like me and trying to perfect those skills. These photos will attest to that!


So with that being said, I'm giving away this tote. After all I did to make it, it just didn't work for me. I'll make another one with a zipper since I'm very concerned—okay, so I'm OCD—about safety and not losing my phone or iPod. So simply leave a comment here and you are entered for the giveaway. I don't make it hard for you at all.







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Now, I've told you hubs and I are silly sometimes. So we're sitting around talking and I wondered out loud if they stitch your mouth together when you die and are put in a casket. He looks at me and said, "With $8,000 worth of dental work for the past few months I'd better see a smile on your face showing those gorgeous teeth." He's such a card. ;-)
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Spring Has Finally Arrived

Yesterday I was able to get out into the yard to photograph the spring growth in the yard. It felt wonderful! Anyway, I'm sharing a few things today. Also, a friend, Stacy, who is a professional photographer, came over the other day and showed me some editing features on my iPhoto that even I didn't know. She's so very good on her computer and really put me to shame showing me things that I sat in stunned silence for several seconds since she isn't even on a Mac. I'll be doing more practice with my camera around the house today. I'm very blessed to count this young chick as my friend.

This is our apple tree blossoming out.

Using my close-up setting on my Canon proves you can get good up-close photos.



This wasn't the best up-close photo but I'll share my failures as well as my successes.

Our new cherry tree.


My favorite tree is Quaking Aspen. I just love how the leaves flutter in the slightest breeze.


Hubby's Concord grapes are budding out also. Did you know you can actually watch grapes grow as they grow so fast, probably an inch every few days and can easily grow 15 ft. in one season? (Nope, I didn't focus correctly on this one either.)
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Pink Saturday 1/5/2011

This is one of the very, very few and rare times I compose a blog post and post it the same day. But as I've said before I'm being a slug lately and today is no different.

It's raining and foggy here in the desert. I tried to get something new to post but I just can't get into getting out and finding something. I'm still in the thinking process of how we can get the maximum amount of space out of our 1800 s.f. house. It's a challenge and I'm so hesitant to give/throwaway/sell a lot of stuff, but when it comes right down to it, that's exactly what will be happening.

We had a gathering at our house monday night and a man who has never been here before walked in and his first words after looking around were "busy house." Even though it's true, it took me aback and I'm still deciding if I was offended. Men rarely, if ever, comment on these kind of things. Oh, they've said things like "A pink house?" but nothing as jarring as that. Knowing neither he nor his wife will ever read this I feel safe in posting it here. More random thoughts later.

I do give you "eye candy" though. I went outside and photographed this little vignette with my flash on and way back in some and very up close in others. I ordered and received these lovely pink candles a couple of weeks ago and just love the pinkness of them.



In this one my nose was practically touching the rose! I was extremely close, set it for closeups and shot away. Just starting to distort the rose, but still lovely enough to share with you. I love photography!!! Oh, and I cropped it up close as you can see. It all works together to get perfection.


Random Thoughts:

I usually speak "meaningful eye contact" with Love Bunny. Sometimes it's the only way to let him know how serious I am about things. I'm sure you know exactly what I mean.
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So many people have difficulty acknowledging the existence of evil; they hoped to wish it away through positive thinking, to counsel it into remorse through psychotherapy or to domesticate it with compassion. This is entirely fraudulent thinking and not possible. Trust me, I've been in the presence of evil and it has a different look. I knew that there was no way possible to save that person. It was truly frightening. I've also known a few people who have witnesses it and their thoughts are exactly the same as mine were.
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I wasn't particularly fond of high school. No, contrary to popular belief, those are NOT the best memories of your life. Those will all come later when you have more wisdom than you do from 14 to 18 years of age. I wasn't among the most popular girls in high school and I've truly glad because it's given me a different perspective than the so called "popular" ones. They were completely absorbed in themselves and some have lived tragic lives because of them. I lived a normal life and am happily married to my original husband after 50 years. Most of them are divorced. One girl I knew couldn't give up this guy who was several years older, a complete loser but she got pregnant and eventually divorced. She was gorgeous and could have had just about any guy, but....well, you know what I mean. It's such a waste. A few have ended their lives. But I have to think what my first heartthrob is doing now and what he missed out on. Nope, they didn't flock to me and I feel sorry for what they missed out on. My hubby thinks he's just about the luckiest guy in the world. But he's wrong; I am!
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Have you ever noticed how some lies wrap around us smugly? Uh oh.
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So with that and trying not to bore you too much, I'll end here for today, go walk the treadmill (ugh!) and then eat lunch and read a book. Happy day to you all!
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NEXT to Last of Practice Photos!

Let's talk about lighting now. I've said I'm not an authority on photography but I have learned how important lighting is. I'm not completely lame, ya know, chicks!

On your camera there are different settings for different lighting. (I was looking for some fabric lately for the trailer and came across some that showed blue in one photo and green in another photo on the same site. This was clearly a light issue. I've experienced similar issues myself.) On any camera there will be a sun setting, a cloudy setting, an incandescent/tungsten setting, a fluorescent setting - mine has 2 fluorescent settings, one for halogen and one for regular fluorescent - and a custom selection setting. I generally use the auto light except when I'm outside in the sun or on a cloudy day. But if I'm indoors and it's on auto then I turn out ALL the lights to shoot the pix. Otherwise I'll get an orange cast. Let the camera flash do the light unless Romantic Country is coming to photograph in which case let them handle it! :-) I should be so fortunate! LOL

Here are the last pictures of my experimenting with the camera taking up close photos. Just take a look at how enchanting they can be. Well, I think so!
A very very close photo of a little stick with chicks on it that Rhea gave me because I call all my gals "chicks"! I just love that chick - uuhhhh Rhea I mean......

Another artist I bought this little vintage drawer from on ebay. You'll have to enlarge to see the vintage wood grain of this beautiful drawer.

A sweet birthday gift from Karen who has more talent in her little fingertip than all of my fingers and toes combined! We have to keep telling her this. Now, would this face lie to you!?!?! Nuuuuuuuuuuu

Another little cottage picture on the "slant." See how ethereal it makes it look.

Even these little cherubs I stole.........uhhhh, I mean got from my daughter have more of that dream-like quality with the "feathering" around the print.

I tied some vintage seam binding on the glass jars but no matter how hard I've tried I cannot get the reflection from my windows to stop glinting off that glass. I'll work on that, chickees.


Eye candy that smells absolutely yummy! You chicks don't know what you're missing by not buying my fabric faux cupcakes scented with plumeria and rose oil. (Shameless plug for my selling blog site. Ha!!)They fragrance up my home like you wouldn't believe. In fact, a woman came over to visit with me last week and walked into my home from the garage through my laundry and just stood there and said, "Your house smells like roses." Yep, it does. My whole house smells yummy from the things I make and stuff with oil scented "stuffing" and the stuffing is a big secret that you'd probably not guess. ;-) But this little photo was also too close up and looks out of focus plus I "feathered" the edges giving it even more ethereal look. (Uuuuuuhhhh, see what wonders some mistakes can bring about??!!!) :-)

I've forgotten who this artist is but I saw her art somewhere on the internet one day and just fell in love with the "ethereal" aspect of her roses. Yep, almost "too perfect for this world" lovely.

As you have got to know by now if you've been with me blogging for any amount of time, I'm so into mixing the old with the new, the elegant with the shabby, the rough with the shine and the sublime with the humbleness.

One of the most favorite things in my home. I mean it's up on my top 10 list!

The very old with the kitschy of new. Also barely peeking through on the extreme bottom right is a little photo of me as a very young child. ;-)
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