Thankful Thursdays!

I am starting a little photo challenge called Thankful Thursdays!

My goal is to post 1 picture every Thursday of something in my life that I am thankful for. I feel like this challenge will be a good reminder not to overlook the amazing things that happen all around me everyday!

Lately I have been letting the everyday troubles and hardships of life steel my focus and my joy. Well, no more I tell you! I have decided to redirect my focus to all of the things that are going right in my life! 

I am learning that life, like photography, is all about perspective! I feel like the way I choose to look at a situation in my life is much like the way I view a subject through my camera. The way I am looking at a subject through my camera lens determines the outcome of the photo, as well as, how other people see the subject. I can't help but wonder if changing my perspective about a difficult situation could have the same effect.

      

Please feel free to join in on this little challenge and post a picture of something that you are thankful for. It can be anything big or small! 

Lets all refocus and put our lives back into perspective together!

Today I am thankful for afternoon naps and fuzzy flip flops!!

Refocusing!

                                                                                        Lets refocus!

I have just recently taken a FREE online mini class from Beryl Ayn Young called One Ingredient Fix that completely changed my perspective about photography and motherhood!

My passion has always been, and will always be, photography. I just love how photography allows me to extract beauty from everyday life. However, above all else I am a mom to the most beautiful little girl in the whole world! She is truly a blessing to me! She makes everyday an adventure to say the least. Over the past few years I decided to "attempt" turning my passion for photography into a business. I am still at the beginning stages of this very long and slow process! I got my entry level DSLR camera in June 2010, and I just went crazy taking pictures of everything! I slowly started to learn the functions of my camera one Youtube video and free tutorial at a time. Once I was brave enough to take my camera out of auto mode I decided it was time to show off my "skills"! I started asking anyone and everyone to let me do a photo shoot with them. One friend and family member at a time, I slowly built my business and my skill level up to charging people $35.00 a session!! I was so excited!

As the next 2 years went on I watched my daughter grow and change so much in what seemed like such a short amount of time. She is a very colorful little girl with so much personality she can barely contain it all in her tiny frame. In my attempt to preserve this era of her life I would dress her up in a cute outfit, and head outside for a photo shoot. After all, I am a photographer I should be more than capable of taking an outstanding photo of my daughter! This proved to be quite a bit harder than I thought! After several hours of "Stand there!", "Look this way!", "I said look THIS way!", "Smile!", "Smile the right way!", "Don't mess up your hair!", "Why are you crying?", "If you smile I will buy you ice cream!" I would walk away completely exhausted and with maybe 1 useable photo! Every photo shoot with my daughter seemed to turn out the same! Completely frustrated, I decided that photo shoots with her (aside from the occasional phone snapshots) would be few and far between.

Taking Beryl's mini class helped me realize just where I had gone wrong these last few years! Somewhere along my photography journey my focused had shifted! I was focusing everything on trying to obtain "perfect" photos and expand my business instead of focusing on my daughter! I realized that I had lost sight of the most important part of my life! Making lasting memories with my daughter! And if I was lucky enough to come out with a few blurry, not-so-perfect photos in the process then that would just be icing on the cake. Beryl's mini class is about taking the "cheese" out of your photography and replacing it with play. As a result of swapping out the "Say cheese!" for quality time with your kiddos the results are some really amazing natural photos! 

Thank you, Beryl, for helping me to refocus!

It isn't too late to take Beryl's FREE mini class! Sign up right HERE! It will be available through the month of April! 

These pictures were taken at bedtime as we were reading bedtime stories and just simply talking about her day. They are not perfect, but they are a true depiction of how sweet and innocent she is. She is just as happy as she could be just spending some time with me on my big comfy bed.

Happy Valentine's Day!

Nothing like spending a day with the cutest little Valentine EVER!!

I have just been dying to get a little mustache happy so, needless to say, when I had the opportunity to shoot some surprise V-day pictures for a friend of mine I JUMPED on it! I had so much fun with this shoot! And little Ethan was such a trooper! He didn't even mind all of those kisses!

HAPPY VALENTINE'S DAY EVERYONE! 

I hope your Valentine's Day was as sweet as this little guy!

FREE Coffeeshop Butterscotch Vintage Photoshop and PSE action!

One of my favorite actions from The Coffeeshop Blog is The Butterscotch Vintage action! I just love the subtleness of the “vintage” and the warmth it adds to the photo.

What I love most about all of the Coffeeshop actions (other than the price) is the simplicity of them. She makes all of her actions extremely user friendly, and also provides you with step-by-step tutorials for each one!

You can find the free Butterscotch Vintage action and tutorial HERE!

This is how I used the Butterscotch Vintage Action in Photoshop Elements 9:

Step 1:

Open photo in PSE.

Step 2:

Click on the Butterscotch Vintage action icon and drag it onto your image.

(For a tutorial on installing actions in PSE click HERE)

 Step 3:

When prompted, click continue and run the action.

Step 4:

Adjust the layers to taste.

For this particular photo I felt like the action made the subject’s face too bright so I decided to mask the action off of her face just a bit. To do this, you must first select the layer mask (the white box next to the layer icon) on the "Curves Adjustment Layer”.

Then, you have to set black as your foreground color.

Next you will need to select your paintbrush tool and choose a brush.

I always use a basic brush without a soft feathered edge. This way I only paint exactly where I want to.

You will also need to change the opacity of your brush. I set my brush opacity to 37%.

Now paint over the entire area that you want to mask off in one brushstroke. Do this by clicking and holding down the left mouse button on the area you want to mask the action off and don’t release it until you have passed over the entire area. This will keep the area looking smooth and evenly toned.  

 You can repeatedly paint over the area in the same manner as before until the desired outcome is reached.

Now all that is left is to merge all of the layers together! You can do this by right clicking on one of the layers then select “merge visible”.

That’s it!! You’re done!!! How easy was that??

Beautiful every time!!! Oh, and that nifty little before and after tag was also created from a coffeeshop design! Click HERE for your free tag!

Thank you Coffeeshop Blog for all of your beautiful actions and designs!!

First Friday

Oh how I LOVE First Fridays in Kansas City!! On the first Friday of every month the streets of down town Kansas City's Art District are flooded with people! Once a month the local art galleries open their doors to the public, and invite you in with snacks and sometimes WINE! It is so much fun to browse through the galleries and admire the art I could never afford!

One of my favorite (and most affordable) First Friday stops is a little pottery shop with BEAUTIFUL handmade kitchen wear. My sister and I are both addicted to this little pottery shop because of their beautiful and unique hand thrown coffee cups! Almost every time we go in there we come out with a new coffee cup! I have to refrain from buying them all!! I HEART THEM SO MUCH!

On First Friday, the art galleries aren't the only ones open for business. Local entrepreneurs of every kind line the streets of the art district with tables and booths covered in handmade goodies!
This beautiful clock picture was created by a lady named Bridget Patton. Bridget is an amazing freelance photographer! Not only does she take stunning photographs she then turns her pictures into AMAZING works of art through her secret method of transferring the pictures onto blocks of wood!
I am absolutely in LOVE with the artwork I purchased from Bridget!
You can check out more of Bridget's work here!

Aside from all the SHOPPING, entertainment isn't hard to find either with live music around every corner!

 To sum it up, First Friday is simply a celebration of art and creativity! What more could a girl like me ask for??

However, in spite of all the exciting things that were going on during this particular First Friday, I was there on official Photography By Christy business. I was walking down the streets handing out fliers to promote my fall specials!
"Pick a flier any flier and turn it over to see if you are a WINNER!"  Yea, that was me!
I thought it would be fun to turn advertising into a little game! I mean who doesn't like to win something every now and then? The winners won a free snapshot of themselves at First Friday and a FREE Facebook timeline cover collage!! Awesome right!?!?!!!

Congratulations to ALL the winners and thank you for your participation!!

****BONUS SAVINGS!!****
Mention special code "FirstFriday" when booking and receive an additional 10% off!!

Moving on up!

Well, I've done it! I have officially moved to the big city of Kansas City!! What started off as a summer vacation has turned into a permanent residency. (Well, as permanent as living with your parents can be!)
I am super excited to be back and close to my family again. However, the moving process is NEVER fun! And job hunting is even less fun! {=/

In hopes to build up new clientele I made a couple of fliers to advertise my special fall prices! My sister and I posted them around town in some trendy little coffee shops. (And any other place that would allow advertisements.)

While we were out pedaling pictures, we came across this RIDICULOUSLY  FABULOUS vintage store called Boomerang! The first thing I noticed as we walked in was this amazing wall of fab 70's and 80's wigs!! It was so funny!!

This store had everything from poodle skirts to windbreakers!! (Yes, I said windbreakers!) 

We had so much fun looking through all of the crazy dresses, funky shoes, and HUGE sunglasses!! 

It was total vintage LOVE!!

   

  

  

Oh and did I mention you can rent this stuff?!!?! 

And we can't forget the leg warmers!!! 

 

Urban Explorer - Longboards

My sister told me about this small little wrap shop called Longboards-Wraps-and-Bowls. When she mentioned it I thought "wraps, really?? How is that unique?"  She then described it as "possibly Hawaiian food?" Well, that peeked my interest so we decided to give it a try. The restaurant definitely had a Hawaiian Island feel. It was totally decked out in Hawaiian and beach decor.    

Oh and to top it all off, we had just come from the pool so we totally fit in with the feel of the restaurant. : ) 

Now for the food!!

The menu had everything from salads to Thai noodle bowls. They even had a SUSHI WRAP!! I don't think I will be trying it anytime soon, but they did offer one.  

Since neither one of us really knew what to order we decided to only order one thing and split it and if we liked it then we would consider going back.

We decided on the Teriyaki Grill wrap with a side of hummus and pita.

I thought the hummus at Longboards was WAY better than the hummus at Habashi House. However, it was a little on the bland side. But in my opinion, a little bland is better than a lot of nasty! 

The teriyaki grill wrap was just ok. I thought it tasted EXACTLY like the frozen teriyaki stir fry that you can buy at the grocery store. So, it kinda tasted like something I could throw together on my own with some leftover stir fry. 

If we do decide to give Longboards another try I will NOT be ordering the teriyaki grill wrap, but I think I would probably order the hummus again.  

Urban Explorer - Genghis Khan

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, Amanda!!!

For my sister's 23rd birthday celebration I went with her and a few of her friends to one of my sister's favorite restaurants Genghis Khan! Genghis Khan is an all you can eat Mongolian Grill!! Now the cool thing about this type of restaurant is that you get to completely customize your meal. And by completely customize I mean MAKE IT YOURSELF! Ok, you're not actually "making" it yourself as far as cooking it goes, but you do get to put all of the raw ingredients, seasoning, and sauces together just the way you like it!

And if you are the type of person who is going "OMG I can't just 'MAKE' food without a recipe!!" Don't worry Genghis Khan has that covered! They have several recipes that you can follow so you can put your type A mind to rest. : ) 

First up on Genghis Khan's cold bar are the veggies!! They have a lot of yummy veggies to choose from so you can just go crazy! Oh, and don't forget to add the onions!!

Next you come to noodles and meats. They have 2 types of noodles to choose from. My favorite noodles are the egg noodles. Their meat options are chicken, beef, pork, and seafood.

My favorite is the shrimp! Yum!!

Now I know when you hear raw meat on a buffet bar your natural instinct is to turn and run, but what I LOVE about this place is that all of the meat on the bar is cut up into bite sized pieces and kept frozen. Yes, FROZEN!! 

Now that all of that is settled, you can head on down to the sauces, oils, and seasonings!!!

They have so many flavors to choose from it is ridiculous!! I usually end up using a little bit of all of them!! ; )  

This is where the recipe following would begin for some! ; )
Once you are done with all of the decision making you can now take your overflowing bowl of goodness over to the grill where, thankfully, the professionals take it from here!
When your food has been cooked to perfection they plate it and hand it back to you. Now it is time for appetizers!! Once you have your plate in hand you get to head down to the appetizer bar where you can choose from crab rangoons, spring rolls, and kabobs!!

Now all that's left is to enjoy your creation!
I love to pair shrimp with pineapple and load up on lots of veggies!! It was DELICIOUS!!

So far, Genghis Kan has never let me down! The food is always delicious and the service is always good!
I was VERY happy with Genghis Kan!!  : )

Happy Birthday, Sis!!!!

By the way, this passionfruit sangria was like the best drink EVER!!

Urban Explorer - Yogurtini

Lets talk Fro-Yo!!
One of our favorite frozen yogurt shops in KC is Yogurtini located in Zona Rosa! I love the variety of yogurt and toppings that Yogurtini offers its customers. So far, we haven't found another Fro-Yo shop that has as many flavors of yogurt to choose from as Yogurtini.

Getting yogurt at Yogurtini is a 4 step process.

1. Swirl it.
2. Top it.
3. Weigh it.
4. Pay it.

1. Swirl it: Simply grab a cup and start browsing through over 10 different flavors on, what I like to call, The Wall of Happiness! 

2. Top it: Now load up on as many toppings as you want from their seemingly endless topping bar. They have everything from fresh fruit to dry cereal on this thing!! Oh, and we can't forget about the sauces and syrups waiting for you at the end of the topping bar that include Nutella and a peanut butter sauce!!

3. Weigh it: The part of the process where you realize that you may have gone a little overboard!!!!

4. Pay it: At Yogurtini you are charged by the amount of heaven in your cup instead of the actual size of the cup. Yogurtini is also on FrontFlip which lets you scan their barcode with your phone for discounts up to 20% off of your total or a FREE yogurt with toppings up to $5.00!!

How awesome is FREE yogurt???!!!?!

Overall, we are always very happy with Yogurtini! : )

I Heart Faces Photo Challenge

Here is my entry for the I Heart Faces Photo Challenge - Enjoying life!

Little Giggles  

Check out the rest of their blog Here!