Fix-It Friday #37

It's time for Fix-It Friday again! This is our chance to see and read about how the I ♥ Faces contributors would 'fix' this photo and then we get a chance to do the same!

Here is this week's before:

And my edit:

This little beauty certainly couldn't stay hidden in the shadows for long! The hardest part of this photo was the brightness of the outside leaves and the darkness in the middle of the photo.

First, I cropped it to make her center stage. {I almost went in a little closer, but those leaves are just too much fun to miss out on!} Then I adjusted the layers to fix the overexposed leaves and make them more defined and not as bright. I used the layer mask to delete those edits from the center of the photo. Then I added a second levels layer to work with the shadows in the middle of the picture and again used the layer mask to 'erase' those edits from the outside of the picture. That resulted in how you see the grass and leaves now...as close to the same brightness as possible.

Then I sharpened the whole photo, boosted the saturation, adjusted the curves to bring a little more light and used the dodge tool to remove some of the extra shadows in the face. And that's it! I hope that all made sense.

To seem more wonderful fixes, please visit I ♥ Faces!
**{Giveaway!} If you like my flash header, please check back on Monday morning!!{Giveaway!}**

My Life. In Pictures. - Touch

I was planning to participate in Amber's photo challenge every day this week, but time has really slipped away from me! {where does it go?} Today's theme is 'Touch' and here is my entry for today...

I love to get my hands on a good deal! I get ridiculously excited over a good garage sale. I love decorating our home and decorating it for cheap. Plus, it feels nice to have items with history and character filling our home.

Am I stretching the 'touch' theme a bit? I hope not.

I wrote a previous post about other garage sale finds this season and here are the latest goods...

I love dishware...white dishware. I don't entertain much, but we've got plenty of dishes if needed!


and glasses...I have plenty of wine glasses! For every type of wine.


these belonged to someone's grandma and she got them for her wedding!


vintage linens, how I love you so! These are all pillowcases.


and this is a tablecloth {vintage} draped over a chair I found for 50 cents when the others like it in the room were $15!


I collect a lot of books. Some look like a good read while others {like these} are a nice collectible. Peter Pan, then two math books from the 1800s! I like to think about the kids who used those and the life they led not all that long ago...a lot has changed in 100 years!


an antique bowl that holds fruit and one of the various jewelry holders around the house.


see? they are everywhere! I like to have pretty places to put my jewelry while I wash my hands, cook, sleep, etc.


This is part of a built in hutch in the dining room. I never dreamed of filling it when we moved in, but now it's full of pretty things. Serving, drinking, vases. I'm blessed with an abundance...and all for hardly any money out of pocket!

Garage sale season really packed a punch this year and I couldn't be happier!

**on a side note: I have an unexpected little business going in header and blog button design! I'll be busy through the weekend with current orders, but I have more time in the coming weeks to fill additional orders! Please email me for more info. Also, I'll be taking tomorrow off from all things online due to my husband's birthday celebration and also some unrelated good news from today! See you Friday!**