Playing in Photoshop

My Photoshop class has started, but we have not actually done anything in Photoshop yet... hopefully next week! In the mean time, I figured I would just mess around with Photoshop a bit, and see what I could teach myself. Here are a few pictures that I have been playing with this evening.

A beautiful flower

The same flower, with a vintage effect added.

Sunset at the lookout near Medicine Lake.

Another evenings sunset at the same spot.

Hopefully we will be starting some lessons in our class next week and then perhaps I will actually know what I am doing! Not too bad for starting out though!

This week has been crazy... My Mom and family left on Monday, and Tuesday was spent recovering from the weekend. Catie and I attempted to go to our ceramics class Tuesday evening, but we were caught in a crazy storm. So, instead of playing with clay, we were playing in the snow and putting chains on the car. The storm has still not stopped, and it is supposed to keep snowing through the weekend! Crazy! Today was spent shopping, cleaning, and baking. I am making a cake & cupcakes for my friend Christine's baby shower on Saturday. Pink is the color for little baby Lucy! Christine has requested marble cake with raspberry filling. Sounds good to me! I got started today, and am excited to continue tomorrow morning. Tomorrow will have lots of baking, along with some organizing. Now I just have to pray that the weather clears up enough for us to get on the road Friday morning!!

**yawn** Ohhh, I am sleepy.

Okay, I think it is time for bed now. If I plan on getting anything done tomorrow I must sleep!

~Amber

A Preview of Blogs to Come....

I don't know about you, but I have had a busy, busy week and weekend! Luckily, a lot was accomplished, and Mom's birthday was a great success… Great food, great music, fun games, and of course, tons of love and laughter! Below are some highlights of the weekend so far. I will post more details and pictures this week. Enjoy!!

This is my little brother. He decided to hang out with our dogs in their crate. He is a big dork.

This is my Momma. Isn’t she beautiful! Ooohhh, and don’t those cupcakes look yummy?? Yes, I made them. More on those later…

Speaking of cupcakes… this is my brig brother Dustin and I, after the great cupcake fight of 2010. mmmmm frosting…..

Here is Mom, by her huge stack of presents. A gift for every year of her life, plus a couple extras!

And of course, no party is complete without music! We have my hubby on the left playing guitar, my brother on the drums, and his friend Bubba on the right also on guitar. Mom’s fiancé Mark also plays the drums, so he and Dustin switched off throughout the night.

That’s all for now. I will have much more later. Have a great weekend everyone!

~Amber

Classes, Cleaning, & Birthday Parties.

Classes started this week at College of the Siskiyous. I finished up my AA last semester, so now I am just taking some classes for fun. I am taking an online Photoshop class and a ceramics class and I am super excited about both. My first ceramics class was tonight, and I am so glad I signed up for it! Tonight, we made our stamps that we will use to stamp the bottom of our pieces so our stuff doesn't get mixed up. It was just a little project, but it was so much fun and so relaxing and therapeutic! I can't wait to really get into both classes and learn more about both of these art forms. I will definitely have some posts in the future revolving around these classes, and what I am learning in them. Yay for learning new things!

Ah, so I have not been posting nearly as much as I would like on this little blog of mine. Soon... soon... At this point, I am simply not posting because I have not yet made good use of my new camera, so I don't have any pictures to post. I don't take pictures a lot of the time because I feel like everything around me is so unorganized and chaotic that I can't even imagine taking pictures. But not for long...

I am on a mission of home organization. This is a little hard for me, as I am naturally kind of a messy person... But, it is coming along. Our living room is now just how I like it, and we have managed to keep it that way for a few weeks now. Yay! Our office/guest room/craft room is getting there, but there are a lot of things to fit in a small place, so it is a bit overwhelming at time. This week, that will change.

You see, my Momma, soon to be Step-Dad (Mark), and adorable little brother (Zachary), will be coming to visit this weekend to celebrate my Momma's 50th Birthday. Happy Birthday Momma!

Momma, Zachary, & Mark. I know, I know. I have the most adorable little brother on earth. Trust me, he knows it too. :-)

That means the office/guest room/craft room needs to be cleaned, organized, and ready for company by Friday afternoon. Part of that process is painting my new desk... but that might have to wait another week or so due to less than perfect weather. :-( Oh well. The room will still look fabulous without a perfectly re-painted desk! Ohhh yes, and I also need to prepare things for Mom's party, and make her an a.m.a.z.i.n.g. cake. Oh, I will be busy, busy, busy.

On that note, these are my goals for the rest of the week:

1. Purge many items that are still boxed, and will most likely never be used anyways.

2. Find homes for all the items that are not being donated/sold/thrown away. ORGANIZE!

3. Wash/fold/put away much laundry.

4. Wrap mucho presents

5. Make a birthday cake

6. Make some jewelry for my Momma

7. Clean, clean, clean. Oh, and clean.

I think all that is pretty doable. I work best under pressure anyways! Plus, I am really excited about how nice it will be to really be fully 'moved in' (i.e. no boxes!) and also to actually know where all of our stuff is for once! I am also excited about making Mom's cake, and hopefully recording the process here. That may take up a few posts, so be sure to come back by and check in this week and next! For now, I am going to go get some rest so that I can wake up early tomorrow and get to work!

Good night all!

~Amber

A post while I wait for my new camera!

My new camera arrives Friday... YAY! I am so very excited!! I can't wait to get started taking pictures of the things I have made and start selling on Etsy and posting more often on here as well. This week, I made a light box to use once my camera arrives. A light box is used to take great pictures of items indoors without using a flash. This especially works great with Macro photography, which I will be doing a lot of when taking pictures of jewelry for my Etsy store. There are a few different ways to make a light box, so check out the links HERE, HERE, and HERE for some ideas. The one HERE is the one I used.

My light box

Today, I am staying busy getting my house clean and organized for a small dinner we are having tomorrow with some friends. I am really looking forward to it! I have always thought that the best way to get your house clean is to invite people over! I don't know about you, but people coming over for dinner is always a great motivation for me to get off my behind, and get to cleaning! In this case, that also means unpacking the last few boxes, and organizing my new craft area. Fun, fun, fun!

Since I don't have my new camera, I figured I would just post some older pictures. So, allow me to introduce you to my Husband, Erik, and my children... that is, my furry, four legged children!

My Hubby, and his guitar at Medicine Lake. He is such a talented musician, and I just love it when he plays for me. Oh, how I love that man!!

Here we are, in December 2009. 5 1/2 years married, and going strong!

Our younger pup, Shelby, is part Black Lab, and part Great Dane we believe. She is about a year old, and she loves to sleep in the back window of our car.... even now, when she is WAY to big to be up there! Shelby is just about 1 year old and is still very much a puppy! She can be crazy at times, but she can also be quite a sweet girl. :-)

This is Cammie, our older pup. She is a Black Lab mix of some kind. She is about 2 1/2 years old. This dog has completely stolen my heart. She is so sweet and just loves to snuggle. She has very tender, loving eyes.

When we first brought Shelby home, Cammie wasn't quite sure what to think! But now, they are best buds.... most of the time at least!! Shelby is a little hyper for Cammie's taste sometimes. It cracks me up when they get jealous of the one another when one is getting attention for Erik or I!

So, that is our little family. No human kids for us yet, but I am sure those will come in the next few years. For now, I love our little house with my wonderful husband, and my two sweet doggies.

~Amber

Reorganizing, crafting, cooking, & lots of cleaning

My Hubby and I moved into our new rental house about 1 month ago. Since then, we have been very busy trying to get it all organized. I have also been busy enjoying my new kitchen, creating new crafts & goodies for Christmas presents, and then of course, cleaning up all the messes I make in the process! Now that Christmas is over, I can get back to focusing on making our new home warm and inviting. We had a little kick start session last night when our friends from Sacramento, Stacey & Darin Nixon, were stranded in Yreka due to the snow and came to stay with us. There is nothing like surprise visitors to get me cleaning very fast!

Throughout this week, Erik and I will be focusing on getting our spare room organized. This room will be our guest room, my craft room, and Erik's computer & music room. Since it is truly a multiple use room, in needs to be very organized or it will not be functional at all!! On Sunday, we will be moving in a new desk for my craft area. I am so excited about that! I have never really had a designated craft area, and it will be great to have a place to put all my supplies. I also just ordered a new camera, and I am going to build a little light box later today. Once I have those supplies, I can start taking pictures of my crafts and start selling on Etsy. I am so excited about getting started!

Here are some pictures of our new place yesterday, after it snowed all day. :-) We are looking forward to sharing our home with friends and family, so feel free to come visit anytime. We would love to have you!

~ Amber

Starting off my blog :-)

Hi Friends :-)

Those of you who know me well know that I love to cook and also enjoy crafts and art. After many suggestions and a little nudging from friends and family alike, I have decided to start a blog to share the things I enjoy with the people I love. I am also going to start selling some of my crafts (jewelry, photography, art, etc) on Etsy. I have my own store set up on Etsy, and the link is below. Right now, there is nothing posted though! I am in the process of purchasing a new camera, which I need to take pictures of my products in order to sell them. So, give me about a week, and I will start posting some items to sell. I am hoping to also post some "How-to" blogs on the different crafts I create, and some of the food I make also.

I hope you will join me on this little adventure. I have a number of blogs that I read on a daily basis and really enjoy, and I hope my little blog may be the same thing for you.... eventually... :-)

God Bless,

Amber

Check out my Etsy shop here: http://www.etsy.com/shop/HandmadeByAmber