Summer at Summerfield

Maybe it's because I adore all of those English period films or because summer in Michigan is heaven on earth, but shortly after we moved into our 130-year-old farmhouse, I named it Summerfield.  It is surrounded by beautiful trees and fields and magic- if I do say so myself.  I love it here.

This summer has been such a lovely time for my little family.  My three girlies and I have been dragging our old quilt outside and nestling in among the tall grass beneath a beautiful old oak tree to read The Secret Garden each evening.  I love that time of day when it is still light enough to read to them, but just dark enough for the lightning bugs to come out and transform our little piece of earth into a fairyland.  During the summer, our home also turns into Birthday Central because of my girls' July birthdays.  I have so much fun throwing together their parties!  My little princess wanted a princess party, of course.  She also wanted to include some "spa" activities so we transformed the playhouse my husband and I built for them this spring into The Pampered Princess Salon & Spa.  (Do you remember me mentioning our playhouse project?  We have yet to completely finish the inside, but I'll share pics when we do!)

My youngest turned 3 this week and I threw her an alligator-themed party based on the book, A Girl and Her Gator...and the fact that her nickname is Ally-gator.  :)  We had so much fun!

I've tried to fill each summer day with my girls to the brim with fairy tales and learning and adventures.  I almost burst into tears when I saw all of the back-to-school things at a store the other day.  I am not ready to let go of summer yet!  I'm gradually working on some school-themed designs to add to shabbyblogs.com, but you'll have to be patient with me and my denial.  :)

Below you'll see a lovely little bit of summer sweetness I've made for you to use on your blogs.  You can customize it and use it on your sidebar or in your actual blog posts.  Wouldn't it be a great way to announce a giveaway winner or to share a favorite quote?  Enjoy it...and enjoy the rest of your summer!

{click image to save full-sized version}

P.S.  Still working on answering emails regarding our latest team call.  I'm sorry it is taking me so long, but you guys are sooo dang awesome that it is way harder than I thought it would be!

P.P.S.  Keren will be featuring some of my little parties at FPTFY so be on the lookout!  :)

Vintage Freebie with Keren: Matching Banner(s) for White Wash BG

One of MY FAVORITE Shabby Blogs Freebie, is the background  called,  "White Wash"!  With that being so, I Just knew I had to create a matching banner for it.  I made 3 versions of it for you to choose from!

The first one, is a blank slate for you to embellish it with whatever pretties your little heart desires.
For the second one, you could leave the inside of the frame black  and use white font letters to make it look like a chalkboard OR and this is my favorite one, you could Insert a picture in it by following Meg's awesome tutorial Here!

example - click image to enlarge

click image to enlarge - right click to save

Would you like to see more matching Banners? Tell us the name of your favorite backgrounds! 

We LOVE hearing for you!

Till next time!

xo!

Keren

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www.freeprettythingsforyou.com

Photography with Jessica - Composition Part 4

Here is a great topic to close out our set of posts on composition: perspective! The perspective from which you can take a photo can be infinitely variable, yet we often find ourselves stuck in the rut of taking photos from our normal, everyday perspective (what we see from our eye level). I challenge you to go out and find a subject, then try to photograph it from every different angle you can think of!

Next time we'll delve into the beautiful (but often baffling) subject of lighting.

Photography with Jessica - Composition Part 3

Here are a couple more fun compositional elements to add to your bag of tricks!

Details
It is our nature to photograph smiling faces, but sometimes it can be very powerful to capture other details that tell so much about a person or an event.

Out of Focus

This is a really beautiful, artistic way to capture an image, but it really must be used very sparingly. For this technique, you need to change the setting on your lens to MF (manual focus) and then twist the focusing ring on your lens until the image you see is just slightly out of focus. You want enough blur so that it's obviously intentional, but not so much that you lose all detail of your subject. And don't forget to switch your lens back to AF (auto focus) when you're done!

And for next time, one more post on composition and then we're off on another great topic!

Vintage Freebie with Keren: Altered Art Greeting Cards

Hope you all had a wonderful 4th! It feels like we will be celebrating Christmas tomorrow morning, the way this year is flying by!

A few weeks back, I received a request for some altered art greeting card images, and made my First Set. Today, I am sharing the other ones I made in Pretty Pastel tones. These two first ones are my favorite!

To download click 

Image 1  Image 2

To download click 

Image 3  Image 4

Till next time my lovelies! 

xo, 

Keren

www.freeprettythingsforyou.com