From me & mine to you & yours!

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I’m gonna rock 2012 like none other, baby.

How about you?

Here’s a year’s worth of Daily Mug Shots for ya. Shots taken 1-1-11 to 12-31-11.

Here’s one you ain’t heard in a while…

Rip it, roll it, and punch it, dude.

Peace.

I still don’t know what to write about. I have to get the crappy stuff out of my head so I can give you the good stuff. Maybe I’ll do a whole stream-of-consciousness thing offline tomorrow and see if I can clear through the overgrown brush enough to see the edge of the meadow. You remember that exercise your creative writing teacher made you do in high school? Write for 20 minutes straight no matter what. Just keep writing.

My extension in Google Chrome that lets me pass on everything I post at G+ over at Facebook and Twitter was wonky today.

plus

I have no words for you.

equals

You get pics I edited today and posted on G+ that didn’t make it to Facebook or Twitter.

Lame.

I know.

Shit happens, people. Life’s not fair. Eat your vegetables. Put a coat on; you’ll catch your death of cold! Wait, what?

Oh, yeah.

Pics.

Here they are.

©2011 jenness asby dot com

©2011 jenness asby dot com

©2011 jenness asby dot com

BTW, that one is a composite of these three…

And they lived happily ever after.

The End.

As if it wasn’t noisy enough around here with Zaya playing drums, now Mika has decided he wants to play the tuba!

Last spring when the 5th graders were offered band instruments, he came home and said the only thing he would be allowed to play was the flute, and wasn’t really enthused about the situation. Sorry to be stereotypical, but a dude playing the flute? I couldn’t blame him. The only dude I know who can pull that off is James Galway. I thought Mika was a trumpet or sax kinda kid. So it looked like Mika wouldn’t be in band. I was seriously bummed out.

And? I feel it extremely necessary to point out that kids in band? Are NOT “band geeks.” A point which Tom will vehemently deny.

So, actually, I was really pleased when the band teacher called me and said that they had went around to all the new 6th graders and had given them a second chance to be in band. Mika said he wanted to play the tuba!

Of course, his favorite part is that he can make a sound like an elephant fart. [insert 12 year old boy giggles here]

Erin was extremely interested in the incredibly interesting noises emanating from this new thing in her house.

Zaya quickly came up with the idea that Erin looking in the tuba should change to Erin being in the tuba. The mom in me was all, “No, we don’t utilize musical instruments in that manner! Cease and desist immediately!” but the Dory in me was all, “Aw, this is gonna be a great picture!”

Which even more quickly devolved into, “Hey, what happens if we put Elmer in there?”

And the answer to that would be, “You have one really freaked out Elmer on your hands.”

And an Elmer NOT shy about voicing his displeasure. He was NOT pleased with the turn of events.

And furthermore, his fluffy butt makes a great mute.

I like the fun house mirror photo op. Big surprise there.

So I’ll have Zaya practicing drums and Mika practicing tuba DAILY. I see a lot of extremely loud noise in my future.

I love it. :)

I was a little worried this year when March came in like a lamb.

You know the old saying, “In like a lion, out like a lamb.” And vice versa.

I was worried that March was going to go out like a lion.

Silly Dory.

We have a high of 74 today and it’s sunny and beautiful outside!

Yesterday after I got off work, I didn’t have to put on my coat for the first time this spring! Hallelujah!

Then on the way home, I saw the first tree buds of the season. That clinched it; I had to go home, get the camera, and get back out there.

I couldn’t leave the house without Elli. She sure likes her a car ride. But she was TICKED when I pulled over, got out of the car, and LEFT HER ALONE.

As I was taking these, she was voicing her displeasure as only a tightly coiled Jack Russell Terrier can. And the barks got increasingly louder as her separation anxiety heightened.

So it went like this.

Click.

Bark!

“Elli, stop!”

Click.

BARK!

“Elli, SHUDDUP. I’ll be there in a minute!”

Et cetera, et cetera. Those couple shots were just the keepers from that bunch, so multiply the Click-Bark-Shuddup bit about tweventy times.

So I finally got all the shots of the buds that I wanted and we were on our way again.

The windows were down, her head and top of her body was hanging dangerously out the window, she was happily enjoying the wind in her face.

Then I passed by a house that had some new flowers right out front, and I just couldn’t resist pulling over and getting shots of them.

Click-Bark-Shuddup.

Click-BARK-Shuddup.

Click. Yip! SHUDDUP.

Click. YIPYIP! SHUDDUP!

So I got all those, but again, only the keepers you see, so Click-Yip-Shut the Hell UP ALREADY times another twenventy.

It takes a very special person to be owned by a Jack Russell Terrier.

We got home and I had to get a shot in my neighbor’s yard, so she got to go with me for this one.

Click.

Silence.

(Except for her snuffling all over the place, smelling everything she possibly could, as fast as she possibly could.)

THANK GOD.

This post was published February 3rd, 2010 by Dory on Blissfully Domestic in Photography.

*in a fierce, booming WWF voice* Howduhya like me now?!?! Huh?!?! HUH?!?!

By the way, you should run over and leave a quick comment on my post. It’ll help me perpetuate the rumor that I’m popular or something.

By the way squared, even if you don’t give a rat’s patootie about Photoshop, you should comment anyway. We don’t discriminate against non-Photoshoppers, so feel free to just say anything, such as what year you discovered Britney Spears was actually pretty lame. Or maybe just apropos of nothing, name any color a la that Facebook craze that reigned for six crazy days where we told the color of our bras and giggled like sixth graders. Don’t be boring and just red. Meh. Say, Burnt Carrot! Or, Used Coffee Grounds Sienna! Or, Open Herpes Wound Crust! Or… uh…

*runs out of the room*

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*applause sign lights up and the crowd goes wild*

By the way, if there’s anyone out there that’s all Photoshoppy, I would love for you to join in the fun and bring Photoshop Phriday to your bloggy casa. Just let me know. Or hold Glenda the Good Witch’s hand, click your heels together three times and chant, “There’s no place like blog, there’s no place like blog, there’s no place like blog…” Ya know, whatever. It doesn’t have to be a fancy shmancy lesson. Maybe you just Photoshop one of your images and throw up your before and after pic. That’s all. C’mon, play wiff me!

Anywho… buckle up… here we go.

An (Almost) Pain-free Introduction to Photoshop Layers

Let’s talk about a layer.

Hey, now, get back here! Let me at least try!

Kthx.

Now, a lot of people think this a big, hard, kind of spooky concept and turn off their brain as soon as someone tries to explain what a layer is. But if I can understand it, anyone can understand it. So stick with me on this.

A layer is like a transparency you put on an overhead projector.

Let’s pretend that you’re holding two sheets of transparencies.

And that I’m rich and famous and wearing a lavender tutu.

Draw a box with a red marker on one and on the other, draw a circle with a green marker.

Now put one on top of the other (your choice; go wild!) and you’ve just created two layers! Yay, you!

Ok, I’m going to open a flat image (that means one layer). See in the Layers palette, there’s just one layer called “Background.”

Oh, look, it’s me! Hi, me!

Let’s also greet my zit which is large enough to be its own entity.

Oh, Dory, you lament, what with all your mad Photoshop skillz, why on God’s polluted earth would you put up this photo without making that monster of a zit disappear?

Because I’m a lazy bum. Moving on.

See the button in the lower right hand corner that looks like a little garbage can? Ok, now see the button to the left of it? Ok, now be the button.

Or just click it and shun my little Zen vibe I had going there. Thanks a lot, there, Killjoy.

With that one little click, you’ve created a new layer! Go, you!

Did you ever draw a mustache and beard on someone’s picture with a Sharpie? You’re about to!

Before we draw, ‘D’ makes sure the default colors are on; black foreground, white background.

Now to illustrate how your layer works, we’re gonna draw on it. Grab the pencil tool. ‘B’ grabs the brush and Shift + B will switch that to the pencil tool.

You now have a virtual black marker in your hand. How’s it feel? Mighty and powerful? Fabulous.

Just how big do you want that marker to be? Right click anywhere in the image to bring up this handy, dandy little box. I chose 20px, and 100% will make it not fuzzy at all. Now let’s have some fun! Go ahead and draw away!

Niiiiiiiiiiiiiice. Very nice. I now feel very manly and rugged. I have an irresistible urge to scratch myself inappropriately and belch loudly.

See the eyeball next to our new layer? Click that.

The layer that we drew the mustache and beard disappeared! I am again my very feminine and facial-hair-free self. Well, mostly. I’d like to take this opportunity to thank my ancestors for my polish heritage that means I have to get the proof of said heritage waxed off every 6-8 weeks.

I could go nuts here with all the mustache and chin hair and hot wax jokes, but you’re very busy and important and have many things yet to get done today. I can respect that. Moving on.

For my next trick, I’m going to show you yet another way to add a layer. There’s only roughly eleventy-jillion.

Ok, here’s my husband. Ain’t he a handsome feller, though?! I sure think so!

I grabbed the Marquee tool (shortcut ‘M’) to select Tom’s mustache and goatee. If you want to switch Marquee Shapes, Sh+M cycles through.

Next I hit Cmd-C to copy the selection and then go back to my original image and Cmd-V to paste it.

Oh, wow. WOW. That’s just nine kinds of WRONGNESS. It’s just sitting there stewing in its own WRONGNESS being WRONG.

But see how it automatically makes a layer for your pasted selection? Pretty groovy, huh?

Now click the eyeball next to Layer 1.

Just like I told you earlier, it’s like a stack of transparencies. The drawn mustache is under the real one, just like it shows in the palette.

In the Layers palette, where it says Layer 2, click and drag that layer so it’s below Layer 1 and drop it.

See, now the drawn mustache is on top of the real one!

Well, now you understand layers! I told you it wasn’t too scary!

THAT, however, is. *shudders*

Oh, see, now that’s just disturbing on so many different levels.

Speaking of levels… That’s what I’m going to talk about next time; Levels!

I just know I’m going to have nightmares about this.