PhotoGrafX

Hangin' with the Hawkins

Yep, that's the name our oldest daughter's friend Diamond came up with. She thinks we should set up video cameras and broadcast our life on the web. She says "OMG, something is always going on over here, you should make a show for real; I'd watch it every day." Thank you Diamond, I think.

In the best of times I like to think of us as a normal family of six with a family pet thrown in for the portrait. In reality, we live in almost constant chaos, all six of us, plus the animals, each with our own particular idiosyncrasies, including the crazy but adorable dogs and the cat that I think is autistic. 

Add in various relatives and the kids friends and a simple trip to pick up lunch from Burger King becomes a logistical nightmare. "Okay, lemme see if I've got this right, you don't want mayo on yours. You're allergic to onions, oh sorry, you're the one that's allergic to onions. You wanted totally plain right, no, you want ketchup on it only? Alright...well we have ketchup here; okaaaayy, you don't like our ketchup.  Cheese makes you itch!? Who said that?"

Apparently, chaos is a good thing, otherwise why would our kids friends prefer to spend all their free time here instead of someone else's house? I'm not complaining, really, just wondering.

I know when the parents drop their kids off, they look like they can't wait to leave. I can tell, while trying to make a little smalltalk with an actual adult, that they are getting a little antsy to leave - they start to get a little twitch under their eye as they edge closer to their car and freedom.

Our house is really pretty big, but in various stages of construction and remodeling. Most of the floors are plywood right now cause I ripped out all the carpets a bit prematurely. Okay, I'll admit it, a lot prematurely. Anyway, we have table saws in the family room, stacks of lumber and trim, too many paint cans to count and not enough room for everything.

It is starting to look better though. At night, with just a table lamp in the distance, if I squint just right...I can almost envision what it will look like one day. 

Kids don't care about things like that. See, it's a great place to cut off all the lights at night and play flashlight tag. That gorgeous leather sectional that wraps around three walls is perfect for sleepovers. Uh yeah, it does look a bit out of place with all that plywood and those boards stacked up on the walls? Rustic ambiance? Can we call it that?

Throw in 2 big screen tvs and 2 of average size, along with subscriptions to Gamefly and NetFlix and we are the happening place baby! Four-wheelers and the trails to ride them, we don't have much luck with grass anyway. A huge, but low-class above ground pool, surrounded by a deck with cheap plastic chairs and no handrails or steps yet, kicks up the fun come summer. 

We'll be adding a screened-in porch on the deck soon. Yeah, probably before we ever get the handrails done. I just can't wait to have an actual screen door, the sound of the spring stretching, the slap of wood on wood reminding me of vacations at the beach. It will probably be opened in a rush, then left to slam shut a hundred times a day, and that's okay, really.

 

Spreading their Wings

Trey and Cara are spending the weekend at Nag's Head. No biggie, right? Then why am I freaking out - I just am, its the way I'm wired. Okay, he's 20 but still at home while he goes to college. She is 14 going on 21. What I really need to do is stop worrying and be happy that they are such good friends in spite of the age difference.

So I've given them hugs and kisses, and a million bits of unwanted advice and now they're on the road. People never realize how carefree their life really is before they have children. When Trey, my oldest, was born, I found out. There is this vague unease, the worry when they run a fever, walk into school for the first time, go out the door with a new drivers' license in hand - and it never ends.

God, I love them sooo much, but of course they'll never understand the depth of that love until they hold their own child for the very first time. I watched them walk toward the car and flashed back to when they were babies; so much time, years and years and years, then I marvel at my son's beautiful smile - now framed by a mustache and goatee, and my daughter's incredible dark eyes, now accentuated by subtle liner and shadow, and realize that I have lost nothing, there is nothing to mourn; everything is as it should be.

The bond, formed many years ago, has only deepened.

"Invasion of the Body Snatchers" - NOT just science fiction!

The plot, according to Netflix:

 

San Francisco biologist Elizabeth Driscoll (Brooke Adams) turns to health inspector Matthew Bennell (Donald Sutherland) for help when her live-in beau begins acting odd -- and distant. Matthew and Elizabeth notice that suddenly almost everyone around them has become impassive. When their friends discover a developing doppelgänger in their commercial mud baths, the foursome realizes an alien invasion is under way. Can they stop it?

 

Well, I don't remember if they were able to stop it or not, but so far I haven't had any luck.  The changes at first were subtle.  I thought it must be the puberty thing; of course that's what any normal mother would think.  Looking back on it now, I'd have to say it started around the same time she got her cell phone. 

 

Has your teenager been acting strangely?  It might be more than just puberty.

 

   WARNING SIGNS:

1. Strange facial contortions may signal an alien lifeform practicing human expressions.

 

2. The "V" hand signal is known to be a way for them to identify with others of their kind.

 

3. Normal teens are happy wearing clothes from Target; the alien will cringe in horror if asked to wear anything besides Abercromby, Aeropostale and Hollister. (For fun, threaten to make them wear a T-shirt from WalMart and watch as they collapse to the floor in tears.)

 

4. Loss of verbal skills.  Does your teen mumble and and say things like IDK and OMG? Does your son or daughter prefer texting to talking on a perfectly good cell phone? Ask your teen a simple question like "How was school today?" 3 times in a row. If you can understand their reply at least once, they're probably not an alien. 

 

5. Does your teen answer your question with another question? Here are some examples: Q "How was school today?"   A "Mnfgh ffahjgjk IDK?"  Q "Is that an "F"?!   A "What do you mean?"   Q "I mean, is that an "F" in Algebra?"   A "Where?"

 

Less is More

Trying to do a few more pages with a minimum of elements. I have always loved anything by Veronica Ponce, and she makes it look deceptively easy. It is sooo not. I keep wanting to add stuff. How does she know exactly when to stop?

Little Freebie

inspired by those awesome Dow commercials, the Human Element. Don't even wanna get started on chemical companies, so...but I love the graphic quality and awesome shots they show. I decided to try for the look on a layout and I kinda like it.

Here's the pic I started with. Cara and 3 friends from school. Straightened it first, then cleaned up with the clone brush. Finally ran it thru Virtual Photographer with a custom b&w filter that makes the water disappear. I used Katie Pertiet's "Science Matters" and a freebie, also from Katie, for the title.

Here's the finished layout:

You can pick up the Human Element here. If you use it, I'd love to see it, so link me up and I'll leave you some love.

It's a Messy World we Live in

A while back I did a layout for a mom who send me a pic of her beautiful little girl with such a look of pure joy on her little face that it was easy to see why her mom had snatched up her camera and captured that moment. You can't say, "Sweetie, hold that expression while I move you over here by this  blank wall." You can post process though, and remove some or even all of the background distractions, whether by cloning or extracting. With a full extraction shown here, I was free to play around with background color, tone and mood.

Another option would to create your image at 12x12, 8 1/2x11 or whatever size you normally scrap at and create it as a full page.

Or, you could do what I did, scrap this using a patterned paper as the background for the layout I made as shown below. Whatever you do, have fun and experiment, you can always hit undo!

    

Ordinary Heroes

They're everywhere, people that are an inspiration, that go the extra mile, or lend a hand or a dollar to someone in need. One of my own heroes is my son Trey. After finishing first in the regional finals of Skills USA for auto body repair, he went on to represent his district in the state finals.

Fourteen boys, the best of the best from across the state of Virginia, met in Richmond for the competition. At stake were scholarships for the 3 that placed in the top, ranging from 10 to 30k. Eight grueling, intense hours on their feet, trying to not only be the best, but the fastest.

Trey had a good shot at winning, he was the odds-on favorite, his teacher felt he would either place 1st or 2nd. I wish he hadn't told Trey that though, that's too much expectation to place on a teenager's shoulders. But he didn't win. He didn't place. He was one of the last to finish. So how does that make him anyone's hero?

A week earlier, an injury to his spine resulted in 2, possibly 3, slipped discs and a compressed nerve. We won't know more until sometime Monday afternoon. the doctor put him on Baclofen, a powerful drug that barely put a dent in the pain. He was ordered to rest - no bending, no lifting over 10 lbs. Absolutely forget about the upcoming competition.

Afraid of being disqualified, he kept quiet. He gave it 100%, lifting auto body panels, bending, hammering. reaching, and coaxing the bruised metal back to pristine shape. I watched his hand glide across the now gleaming steel, searching for the slightest imperfection.

Once, when he lowered his mask, I was shocked at the pain that was clearly etched in his face, he looked at me briefly, then brought the mask back up and went back to work.

Word got around and some of the very boys he had competed with in the regionals arrived to show their support. One young man in particular, who had been fiercely competitive with Trey, became his most vocal supporter. Other boys that were to have spent their day at the Arthur Ashe Center for the rest of the Skills USA conference arrived in a group.

When I asked what they were doing here, one of them told me that they were exactly where they were supposed to be. Every one of those young men became heroes to me in that moment. Beneath their baggy clothes, camoflauged with the struggling beards and piercings of teenage boys, the hearts of men beat sure and steady.

If you like this simple frame I made, download it here and honor your own everyday hero.

Setting the Mood

Just as candlelight suggests warmth and romance, the photos you scrap can convey many moods, depending on the effects you choose to apply. There are so many choices; more colorful or less, black & white, sepia, warmer, cooler, even spot color, are just some of the choices you have.

I knew I wanted to scrap this photo of my son Trey, who always decorates the house outside for Christmas. I also knew that it didn't have the warmth that I wanted, plus theres an ugly orange extension cord in the pic, and finally, the lights weren't even plugged in!

But it had possibilities! First I converted the pic to sepia tones, then applied a soft light in a very pale yellow to the center. I added the elements and title I thought would work well on seperate layers, adjusting the transparency and erasing parts of the words I used as an overlay. Next, on a new layer, I used a very soft brush to paint glow spots where the bulbs were. Finally, on a new layer, I stamped sparkles with starburst brush.

And no, we really don't deck out the house in red lights, LOL, I just though the red worked well!

Had I used the pic as it originally was, the layout wouldn't have satisfied me. Why? Because this is the way I saw it in my mind when I snapped it. My son's love for this family, the continuation of a holiday tradition and the spirit of the heart at Christmas.

The ability to enhance my photos like this is what originally drew me to digi. Before that, I was a mostly frustrated paper scrapper with a $1,000 in supplies and a handful of layouts to show for it.

Purists might call it "cheating". I call it being creative. Whatever you call it, give it a try, experiment, and most of all, have fun!

A Hidden Prejudice

I came across this test by accident this morning while checking the news online.  An NBC Dateline feature here  http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/18122831/ shows how a test developed by Project Implicit is a Virtual Laboratory for the social and behavioral sciences designed to facilitate the research of implicit social cognition: cognitions, feelings, and evaluations that are not necessarily available to conscious awareness, conscious control, conscious intention, or self-reflection. Project Implicit comprises a network of laboratories, technicians, and research scientists at Harvard University, the University of Washington, and the University of Virginia.

• Click here for the demonstration to the Implicit Association Test featured on Sunday's "Dateline." Click on the button "Demonstration." Click through past all the preliminary information. There will be a selection of Implicit Association Tests available. The test featured on the broadcast is the one marked "Race IAT."

I've believed that I have no racial bias towards black people, I always champion the minority and have strong feelings about the rights of women, race inequalities, the rights of the handicapped, etc.

So I've talked the talk, but could I walk the walk? Growing up white in southern Virginia during the Civil Rights Movement, I wondered, could I have a hidden bias?

I certainly heard the "N" word often enough, even in my parents home, and I was secretly ashamed. But did it all have an influence on me unconsciously? I attended a private (read all-white) school through 6th grade, before finally convincing my parents that I really wanted to go to school with the neighborhood kids.

Culture shock? Uh, yeah. So anyway, I approached this test with more than a little trepidation. I didn't want to discover that in spite of who I thought I was, a simple test might reveal something akin to a serious character flaw in myself.

At the end of the test I discovered that I have a slight preference for black people over white people. This reaffirmed for me that we all really are who we decide to be. That I made a conscious effort to not be influenced by what other people think, and I succeeded in spite of the environment and time that I grew up, gives me hope that we can all work toward friendship and equality no matter what side of the fence we started on.

So, I've been

pretty busy around here at home, got a few layouts completed, and I'm working on my first freebie - soon as I figure the best way to offer it, I'll post it here and at www.DigiShopTalk.com

I also made my first set of Quickpages, for Maya at www.ScrapbookGraphics.com  using her "Good Vibes" kit. The layout on the right is made from one of those. I added a title from Maya's kit alpha and used her word art, both from her "Good Vibes" mega kit. You can see the whole set of 14 quickpages there, but you can get an idea from the preview below.

I had a blast making them, but I'll admit it was a challenge as well. I found how hard it can be when you can't use any title or wordart to make the page look "finished".

I really think the layout is only as good as the photos in it, so I've played around with some of my pics to get different moods. There are a couple of before and after pics below that I had fun with. I'll be the first to admit that I am sooo not a very good photographer, I tend to snap now and fix later!