24 on the 24th

Well the dreaded day has come.

I'm officially an old lady.

24 years old. Wow.

And how did I spend my day you ask?

I was at work.

Yep. Sitting at a desk answering the phone all day pretending like I give a rats a** about what anyone has to say.

And I mean, I've got the I'm-totally-concerned-for-you-and-care-about-your-needs tone-age down pat... but I couldn't help but want to spend the day lounging with bug and boyfriend.

Not even doing anything birthday-ish...just being together all day would have been nice.

But instead I was banging my head against a metaphorical wall praying to the birthday gods that the day would fly by.

And I have to admit, it may not have flown, but I managed to get through the day without punching anyone in the face and that alone is a miracle.

And I suppose it wasn't so bad when coworkers brought me a cake...

...and balloons...and my favorite coffee from crackbucks starbucks....but still.

Now I'm in bed with boyfriend and bumpy asleep beside me, and bug snoring away across the room. And even though it's not much, it's not a gift that comes wrapped, or something with a giant price tag attached...it's these moments that make all the sh*tty ones mean absolutely nothing. And for that I couldn't be happier.

Shots From Yesterday

My best friend Lindsay, as I'm sure you've heard me mention her before...she's the one with the killer Bruschetta Pasta Salad Recipe, well she invited us yesterday to go play at her house for a bit. And Aunty Lindsay's house has the BEST in-ground pool. Except yesterday mother nature decided to laugh in our faces and provide us with one hell of a thunderstorm.

After a couple hours of waiting she must have felt our severe depression emanating from the house so she decided to throw us a break and give us a few hours of sun.

The pool was gorgeous and warm and just what we needed.

Aunty Lindsay's house ALSO has some seriously amazing french doors to the outside which shed some ridiculously awesome light...so naturally I had my camera one me to take a couple ton of pictures.

More to come :)

The Power of Editing

It's honestly amazing how much a little editing can change ANY picture.

So just as an example this is a picture I took long ago on a trip to Aruba (my most favoritest place in the whole universe, Disney World aside). Now this picture was not taken with my DSLR, it was taken with a little run of the mill digital camera about 7 years ago.

This was the picture I took:

I used to think this picture was unbelievable ....Now...7 years later take a little editing to it and Voila:

The colors are richer and far more vibrant.

Now this would be a standard edit for me. I like to make things look spectacular, but not so spectacular they look like they aren't believable or realistic.

Say for example this picture that boyfriend took on the way to work:

Now this picture as nice as it is needs some serious editing. First off, I couldn't stand the street lights and I wanted to boost that color, but this time I wanted to do so in an out-of-this-world fantastic way. Well THIS is the product I got from my cropping and editing:

Wham Bam Thank You Ma'am. Now is this picture realistic? Well maybe not...but look at those COLORS.

This is a picture I took last night of the sun setting because it was this gorgeous red color. Thank heavens for boyfriend because I'm not even sure I would have even noticed it. Here is the original:

This is after a little editing because I was 1. pissed off the picture didn't accurately display truly amazing the colors were and 2. because I edit almost every single picture even if it's just the tiniest bit.

Honestly I'm still not happy with the results but there is definitely a significant difference between the first and second picture.

Here is one of the recent pictures I took of bug Before:

And after:

I always love bringing extra attention to her eyes and smoothing out her skin just a bit and the editing program I use has a filter that has changed my life forever it just adds this dreamy, wonderfully tranquil, soft, perfect-for-babies look. Ugh.

SO that's just a little about what I do, share with me your favorite methods of editing :)