valentine freebie

Need a quick Valentine idea?  Here's a quick one (and for free, of course).  I made these today for my kids to give to some family and friends.  Then I realized I should probably share them with you all in case you need some Valentine help.  Of course I got the idea off of Pinterest!

Here's what you can make...

You just need to take a photo of your child (or you!) as though they are handing someone candy.  Then print it off and add a sucker or something.  Even my 19 month old did it, which surprised me.  I tried to get the 4 month old, but she wasn't interested (hehe).

There are four of them.  All of them you can do some altering to if you know how to use psd files.  I've included psd and png.   They look cuter in real life than they look in the photographs!  It's night, so the lighting isn't the best in the house at the moment...

 

You can download it here.  

http://www.mediafire.com/?z161i80m176owat

If you have any troubles or find errors, let me know.  I hope I put it all together correctly.  I realized last minute that I could share this with other people and put it together a little faster than usual since Valentine's Day is approaching.

Oh, and I was just noticing several new subscribers (welcome!) and it reminds me to mention again that if you subscribe via email (all my stuff is always free), make sure you keep an eye out for an email from Feeburner and click on the link in that email to confirm your subscription.  Otherwise it doesn't work. 

Hope you all have a fabulous weekend and holiday!

(ignore this, it's just for the search engines sake since I can't add it to a link like I usually do!) ?digifree?cbh

the season of giving

Hello Everyone,

I hope the season is treating you well!

Often this time of year, we ask family and friends, friends we may or may not know who read our blogs, as well as random passerbys who happen to walk within a certain radius of us, to please consider donating to the Fanconi Anemia Research Fund (www.fanconi.org).

As many of you know, our daughter, Emma, was born with Fanconi Anemia (FA). It's super rare, so almost the only way they get any money for research is from parents begging people to donate. There is no ongoing public support, since the public is unaware. There are FA researchers who think if they can unlock the mysteries of FA cancer, then it could potentially cure anyone with cancer. So, while FA is rare, it could potentially have a big impact on everyone.

I made a little video about my girl to explain FA, as well as to show some of what her life is like. Everything shared in this movie was done so with Emma's approval and help. She's old enough now that we feel like we need to respect her privacy.

Please consider donating, even if all you can manage right now is $1 or $5. If everyone donated, even just a tiny bit, it would end up being a lot!

If you need the direct link, here it is: http://youtu.be/FX4Y73V0NmQ



Thanks so much!
Teresa

christmas lights tutorial

I posted a few photos on our family blog of our children decorating our Christmas tree.  Some people emailed/left a comment asking how I did it, so I thought I would share here in case anyone else wanted to know.  If you have a point and shoot camera, this probably won’t be helpful for you.  But if you have a dSLR, keep on reading on…

I used Manual Mode.
Shutter Speed: 1/100
Aperture: F1.8 (used my 50mm lens)
ISO: 1000
No flash

I used a tripod to keep it steady and used a 2-second timer so that there would be no movement in hopes of making the photo be as clear as it could be.  All the lights were out, except for the Christmas tree lights. You might need to adjust your settings depending on the lighting you are dealing with. 

If it’s still too dark for you, try changing your ISO to a higher number and/or your shutter speed to a higher number too (higher would be something like 1/50, 1/20, etc). 

If my settings make it too bright, try changing your ISO to something lower and/or your shutter speed to a smaller number (going in the direction of 1/150 or smaller).

It can take several tries before getting it right.  So, keep on trying!

For the settings I mentioned, here are the results:

If you don’t have a tripod, it doesn’t seem to matter very much.  The photo below was taken with me holding it, not on a tripod.  Still looks pretty good.  This is almost exactly the lighting and the way it looks in our house.  Love our camera!  It’s a Canon EOS 60D for those who are wondering, but a Canon Rebel is a great option too…as are many others.

Hope that helps!  Let me know if you have any questions (disclaimer: I’m totally new at this. I have only had my camera for a month, and I never took photography classes, so my knowledge is quite limited.  But, I might be able to help if you are even newer than me!).

Teresa