I Heart Faces

Week 30, The Color Purple.  This is the first time I have entered a contest on I Heart Faces: iheartfaces.com
But, I am willing to give it a try.  This week's challenge is to post a picture that contains the color purple.  I chose a picture of my daughter during her one year shoot.  She has on purple fairy wings and tutu!

The Pioneer Woman

Those of you who have not heard yet of, The Pioneer Woman-Ree Drummond, need to check her site out at http://thepioneerwoman.com/ .  This is Ree's Blog on her entire life's thoughts, activities and everything in between.  The site will make you laugh and I am talking roll on the floor laughing as she explains the pranks she can play on her Pesky brother-in-law Tim and Cow nuts!  She also hosts different Photography Contests and that is what drew me in to her site and now I am addicted to the entire site.  She also posts different giveaways and all you have to do is post a comment as well as many delicious recipes that are worth trying-speaking of recipes-Ree is also the creator of The Tasty Kitchen site found here: http://thepioneerwoman.com/tasty-kitchen/

Mandarin Chicken♦

Today after cleaning the house up, I thought I would try a new recipe and get something cooked and put together that my husband could take for dinner. I do not usually cook as he does the cooking for our family but I found a recipe that I wanted to try and I thought he might also enjoy it. Occasionally, I enjoy cooking or trying too. I found the recipe on the Tasty Kitchen Website. It was an easy recipe to put together and was WONDERFUL!!! We will definitely be having this again!

Tasty Kitchen can be found here: http://thepioneerwoman.com/tasty-kitchen/recipes/main-courses/mandarin-chicken/

I did add some changes-a little cayenne pepper and some diced red pepper chunks to add some color. You can serve it over rice or eat it by itself.

For those of you on the Weight Watchers Diet this recipe cooks 8 equal servings for a total of 6 points per serving. If you add white rice it is an additional 4 points per 1 cup of rice.

MCP Actions

If I have learned anything over the last year, it is that other Photographer's Blogs are awesome to find on the Internet. They often share fun details of how they learned certain techniques or things to try when taking pictures but even better is when they offer you Photoshop actions or Photoshop Elements actions. These actions are editing techniques that they have discovered or created that help edit your pictures in the single click of the mouse! You just can't beat that!!!! It makes editing pictures so much easier and fun! One place that I have found for such items is MCP Actions. If you have not heard of them, you definitely need to check them out at: http://www.mcpactions.com/ MCP Actions: Photoshop Actions & Training

From MCP Actions: MCP Actions provides Photoshop actions to make photo editing and retouching photography quick and easy. MCP Actions also provides online training, workshops, and free Photoshop video tutorials. See how we can help your photography stand out and save you time.

One action that I have found to be VERY helpful from MCP Actions is their texture applicator. I have attached a before and after shot of this action. It works slick and I encourage you to check out MCP Actions!