Good Reads

Like many other people I'm addicted to Pinterest, Facebook, and blogging.... and sometimes I spent WAY too much time on the internet. When I thought I couldn't get addicted to any more sites, a friend introduced me to goodreads.com, at first I didn't get into it, but the more friends you have and the more books you read and rate and write reviews, it's starts to get addicting (not as much as pinterest, but still...).
So what is good reads? For those who don't know,  it's a site where you create a profile and you can add friends, join book clubs, etc.... And you can create lists like: Books I want to read, Books I have read, and Books I'm currently reading, and if you have read a book you can rate 1-5 and write a review. The more books you rate the website starts giving you recommendations of other books, which is very dangerous for me, but it introduces all sorts of books that I would never have known. It's also nice too when you are thinking about a reading a book you can research it and see what ratings it has received and other people's reviews to see if it would be worth your time. And it's fun to see what your friends are reading and you can recommend books to each other.

This was kind of a random post, but I just been having a blogger's blog for this past month and since I received a lot of comments on my post about books that I thought some might be interested about this website, and plus I want more friends on the site :).

This year my goal was to read more books than last year which was 16, and so far I'm doing pretty good.
For this month I have read 4 books, which means our apartment has been messier, less good home-cooked meals, and blogging....

I read The Thief by Megan Whalen Turner,  I thought this was a good book, I just think I had really high expectations and I wasn't in the mood for this type of book. It does have a great story and a fun twist in the end, it's a series so I want to read the whole series some time. I would recommend this book.

For my book club for the month of January I read The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society by Mary Ann Shaffer. I thought it was a fun read, a historical fiction that is told only in letters during WW2, I don't think I would have ever picked to read this book, but I did like it.

Peter Pan by J.M. Barrie, I've been wanting to read this one for  a long time. I really liked this one, Peter was not my favorite character but I felt sorry for him. I thought this story was really cute and magical, I can see why it was a hit when it was first scene in a play. If you seen all the movies, than you know the whole story there isn't anything new but I always think the book is better, and it's a quick read, you could finish it in day easily.

Alice in Wonderland by Lewis Carrol: Again I have been wanting to read this one for a while. Like Peter Pan, if you seen all the movies, you pretty much read the book, but again book is better. This one is really short, I finished it in a few hours. I liked it, not as much as Peter Pan, but I can see people thinking it's weird, but that's how the movies are.

Dustin's Family Visits!

Right now Dustin's parents and grandparents are here in Orlando for a visit!!! We've been having a great time. Dustin's mom came this past Wednesday so we have been going to SeaWorld and hitting all the outlet malls. Than this weekend Dustin's dad and grandparents came up and we have been having fun hanging out at their resort, going to SeaWorld and Universal. Tomorrow I'm really excited about because we are going to swim at the resort and just relax and hang out all day, than later  to 4 Rivers Smokehouse for lunch, which is soooo yummy! 

Living in Florida we have been missing our family so it's been great that we have had many visitors since we have moved here,  so keep coming family and friends!

Thomas playing with grandma Lisa's I-pad

Hogwarts in Universal.

Love this first picture, too funny. 

Thomas having a great time walking on the moving walkway with grandpa.

What happened to my good model?

Thomas used to be such a good little model for me, he would sit and pose and put a cute little smile, well those days are over.  I'm lucky if I get a picture that isn't blurred or him looking away. Well today I did get some pictures of him looking at me and holding still, but with some attitude, almost every picture he  was looking angry like, "Mommy, why are you stopping me from playing?" 

So here is a picture, I still like it even though he's not smiling.

So after while I gave up & I just followed my little man while he was doing his thing, and this was one of my favorite pictures of the day. So maybe for now on I should try and just take pictures of his daily adventures and not the perfect picture I have in my head. 

Actions

I finally broke down and purchased some photoshop photo editing actions. Before I have been just editing my pictures on my own and it was pretty much self taught. I felt that my editing skills were good for being an amateur, but I always wanted to get the florabella actions because I love them, but they aren't the cheapest either, and soooo many times there have been times when Dustin has told me to get them, and I was so close in getting them, so close that I  had all my credit card info and all I need to click  "purchase" but I never could because I kept thinking "I can can just edit pictures on my own and just keep self teaching". But than I would keep eyeing at Florabella's actions all the time, I would try to mimic the look I wanted and I would get close but I was never satisfied. 

Another reason I didn't get the actions before was because I felt in a way it was limited, because the bundle of actions would have only so many looks, while I wanted more than they offered. Than Florabella came with a bundle that had actions that you could mix and match, and switch up and stuff, than it made it have unlimited options, that I couldn't help myself, and since I have recently earned some money through art commissions and babysitting, I finally broke down and got them!!!

I really like this bundle because you can do the faded look, that is popular right now, or bright, bold colors. So here are some pictures that I had fun editing the other night, some I have already posted on the blog, but I wanted to redo some for fun, since I haven't had a chance to take pictures since I've purchased the actions. Each one I did something different, some are more different than others, but I'm still trying to figure out what looks good, also what I like too now that I got these actions I can see how the lady did them so I'm also learning more editing tricks, which is a bonus. 

                       

                     Of course I didn't take this picture but I wanted to have some fun with some wedding pictures.  

Blogger's Block

So I have been having a blogger's block the last week, hence the lack of blogging, I just haven't really had anything to say, life seems to calm down a little since the holidays so I really couldn't think anything to write about.

But this week was a lot of fun, this last weekend Dustin & I were spoiled with great friends and great dinners. On Friday we had dinner with the Williams, which is always a delight and sooo much laughter, and of course great food (we do a lot of the William's I need to start taking pictures of all the fun times with them). Than Saturday we went to Churrascaria at Universal with the WIlliam's and the St. Clair's to celebrate us winning the best decorated garage from Halloween. It was sooo fun, since Adam works at Universal we had valet parking (yes, I felt like an important person or something), but that wasn't the best part, the food was aMAzEIng! It was a all you can eat Brazilian Grill, and they brought the food to you , all you had to do is flip this coaster-like thing on the green side and they just keep bringing you all the meats to try out. Oh my goodness it was so good, and I felt like royalty there, I ask for food and they brought it too me, I could live like that everyday. Not only was the food good, but just hanging out was a lot of fun, there is always laughter when we hang out with our friends. Afterwards it was so hard to move (I wore maternity pants because I knew I would want the extra room). Than today, or yesterday since it's after 12, we had dinner with the Denham's and it too was so good, I'm pretty sure I put on three pounds this weekend, my sunday dress was a little tighter this week, oops.... it was a tasty weekend for the Clark's.

Since I didn't have pictures of the weekend I decided to post pictures of Thomas, my favorite subject to photograph, but it's hard to get a good picture of this kid, he's always on the move. 

A little update about Thomas....

he loves drinking juice or milk and cuddling with me while watching a movie ( I love it)

He's favorite movie is Despicable Me, he will watch the one thing, it's really funny because he will dance to the music and laugh at the minions. 

He has no interested in walking, but I'm not worried because when he wants to, one day he will just do it, he's been like that with all the stages, when he decides he wants to learn something he will figure it out in one day and be off. 

Some exciting things we are looking forward to this month is Dustin's parents and grandparents are coming to visit us! I can't wait!

Scrapbooking paper is of course designed by my AMAZING sis-in law Crystal Wilkerson.