EAB Designs

Photo Feature Friday

A favorite blog I follow is Tricia's "A Rosy Note".  Tricia recently started a regular feature on her blog entitled, "Photo Feature Friday", a day to post photos relating to the week's theme and link up with others participating.  It's a great way to discover helpful photography and editing tips from others as well as to gain inspiration for future photo shoots.  

This week's theme, or challenge, was "pink" - my absolute favorite color!  I'm sharing today two of my favorite images, pink peonies and pink and rose vintage dishes.  I shot these photos previously, but just edited them today with two of my "go to" editing tools - auto contrast and definition.  

It's amazing the difference you will see in your photos when utilizing these two editing options. The auto contrast feature is available in Photoshop Elements and I use the definition feature in iphoto.  Since I always shoot in natural daylight, I find these two tools invaluable.

If you find the auto contrast feature lightens your photos too much,  you can quickly undo your edit and instead manually adjust the contrast until you achieve the desired effect.

I shoot with a Canon Rebel xti and have a macro lens as well.  I love the ability of softening, or blurring, parts of my image with the macro lens.  However, sometimes I get a great shot but need a bit more definition.  This is where the definition editing tool comes in handy and can really make your images pop.   What are some of your favorite editing tools?

For more information about participating, or to view this week's photos, just click on the button below to be taken to Tricia's site.  

Cake Bunting

Buntings are such a festive way to personalize and dress up just about any dessert - and they are super easy and quick to make.  For my daughter's birthday, I cut out flags from some of her favorite fabrics to make her cake bunting.  She always asks for a Baskin Robbins' ice cream cake with cotton candy ice cream. 

 

To celebrate our wedding anniversary, I baked my husband's favorite dessert and decorated it with a cake bunting too.  We traveled to Europe on our honeymoon and Paris was one of our favorite destinations. So for this bunting, I stamped "je t'aime" on linen flags.

Each flag is attached with a simple basting stitch and tied onto a dowel.  I purchase full length dowels and use a pair of my garden shears to cut it to the desired length. If you wish, additional embellishments can be hot glued to the dowels.  I added a vintage rhinestone to this one.

Virginia Dogwoods

Our dogwoods are in full bloom right now, and they seem to be in beautiful abundance this year. I took these pictures early this morning after a light rain.  The trees always reach their peak each year on Sweet Pea's birthday.

It will be a busy week here with lots to celebrate.  Easter Sunday, Sweet Pea's 18th birthday on Monday, and our 25th wedding anniversary on Tuesday!  I wish you all a joyous Easter!

Williamsburg in Spring Time

Last Saturday was admittance day at The College of William and Mary, so we decided to leave a day early to enjoy the weekend in Williamsburg.  Sweet pea made earlier arrangements to meet with a few upperclassmen on Friday, so my husband and I walked around Colonial Williamsburg which is adjacent to the campus.

 

The weather was beautiful, crowds were at a minimum and many of the flowers and trees were already blooming.

Rhinestone Hair Combs

Bridal and prom season is upon us and I'm delighted to announce that several new rhinestone hair comb designs have been added to my shop.  

Lovely Linen

The first few weeks of spring can be quite chilly here, which is why I love to wear layers under my favorite linen jacket.  When the weather warms up, I also want to shed my winter handbag so today I made a new linen clutch.

It's the first time I've used an "open channel" metal frame to make a clutch and I like it much better than the frames I've used in the past.

Next up, a black linen clutch which I think would go great with a pair of jeans and my white ruffled shirts.  Anyone else adding any linen to their wardrobe this spring?

Bread and Blossoms

Good morning and happy Monday!  It was incredibly wonderful to take time away from the studio for a few days and enjoy our first, but very cold, spring weekend in April.  First up, was some time spent in the kitchen baking bread.  I haven't been making bread as much as I used to and after looking over my favorite bread cookbooks, I couldn't wait to start again.  I love the whole process of bread making - from the smell of the yeast and the rising of the dough, to how incredible it is that a few simple ingredients results in something so absolutely delicious you want to eat the entire loaf.

Fresh out of the oven!  The hardest part is waiting for the loaves to cool a bit before you can slice into one. After a wonderful day spent in our warm kitchen, the next morning we headed outdoors. Don't let the cherry blossoms fool you, it was cold!

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Sunday morning we were up bright and early to take the metro downtown.  We are in the midst of the National Cherry Blossom Festival in DC and our "Sweet Pea", along with four of her friends, were participating in the annual Cherry Blossom run.  (She had to leave the house at 5:45 a.m.)

My husband and I waited at the finish line to cheer her on.  She did such a great job and it was so exciting when we spotted her coming up the hill approaching the finish line.

Here they are after the run and ready to head off to a favorite restaurant.  My husband and I made our way back to the metro as well and we stopped off in Clarendon to eat breakfast at one of our favorite cafes, Le Pain Quotidien (the daily bread).

It was nice to come in from the cold and enjoy a cozy breakfast accompanied with a pot of hot tea. Enjoying their delicious artisan breads inspired me to try baking those as well.  So I came home and ordered some new bread baking supplies which I'll share with you once they arrive.

My Favorite Bread Cookbooks:

The Book of Bread, by Judith & Evan Jones

Baking with Julia, by Julia Childs