I Heart Faces Photo Challenge (week 35)

The Challenge:
For this week’s challenge we’d like you to choose a photo that is photojournalistic in style. Or (for this week only) you can enter a collage of photos instead. Please make sure that a human face is showing up somewhere in your photo entry and that you use only a maximum of 5 photos in your collage.

Our definition of Photojournalism for the sake of this challenge: Using an image (or images) to tell a story.

This is my first challenge ever for I heart faces. :) Its a pretty great challenge to start off with. I just recently Volunteered to take photos for an Amazing program, Called the Back to School Project. They help family's provide new school clothes, shoes, backpacks and some school supplies for their children. It was such a wonderful event, and I was so happy to be there and be apart of it. It started at 5:30 in the morning to about 10:00 AM. For the first few hours I just went around taking photos, and the last hour I actually got to walk around and help one family shop. I helped 2 young boys with their dad, and they were just adorable and very funny.

The very top picture here is the line of volunteers, waiting to be partnered up with a family.

Underneath that to the left, that little girl's smile just caught my eye, she just looked so excited to meet her volunteer, and be there to do some school shopping! Each Volunteer was given a $100 gift card for each kid, and was to help them shop and keep track of the cost.

Below that picture, you see twin boys shopping with their volunteer, and next to that you see two precious sisters hugging their volunteer after all the shopping is done, and they received their free school supplies.

And lastly at the bottom, the kids had a chance to sit, have some candy and make a thank you card.




Make sure to check out the other entries! :)

Fix it Friday #68

I just recently came across a neat web site.. Im sure everyone (but me) has already heard of it.. i heart faces. They have challenges and tutorials and all kinds of fun stuff for photographers! :) So Im participating in one of their "fix it friday" challenges. Its not a contest.. but you have a single photo and everyone tries to edit it in their own ways to make it "better". A way to have fun and improve your editing skills. :)

Oh and yes I do realize im a little late.. it being Saturday night and all. hehe ;)

Here is my try:



And this is the original:

Luau Themed Pool Party!

Been talking about this for a while.. and finally here are some pictures from my Luau themed pool party celebrating my 26th birthday! :) Oh boy! The hubs keeps telling me Im closer to 30 than I am 20, then asking me how I feel about that? LOL That man....

Well anyways... I still feel pretty young...because I AM! :) And I had a blast on my birthday. Here is the back yard all set up. The Hubs did such a great job making it look great and doing it how I wanted.

So here I am standing right out side out laundry room door, looking towards the BBQ area.. I love my Luau Photo Cut out!! :)




to the left we set up some comfy lawn furnature... usually we have it farther back by the koi pond.. but we wanted to keep it close to the pool so the party could stay close. :)




From the pool looking over to the BBQ area


The Pool






In the BBQ/eating area... I found these ADORABLE paper lanterns at the DOLLAR TREE!!


The hubs put down a wood piece to cover the open BBQ pit, and we made it the drink station.


My Favorite drink recipe printed out on the mini fridge. :) It matched my invites.


Fun Straws for everyone to use. found at $ tree


These were used for drink measurements.$ tree and walmart


Cups from $ tree


Stirring sticks  from $ tree


I love this fanatstic idea if I do say so myself! ;) I decided it would be fun to use sand buckets to hold the ice! :) I Love how it looked. Buckets also from $ tree. Gotta love that store!!




I found this palm tree drink holder online for only $10, set it up right next to the drink station.




It was a pretty hot day! So the ice melted quickly, my brother in law had the great idea of buy dry ice!! And it was amazing, the effect looked really neat, and it kept the drinks ICE COLD the whole time! Perfection!


Here is my cake, 3 layer marble cake, with raspberry filling, and better cream frosting. So Delish! My sister ordered it for me from Holiday, I love their cakes. She used to work in that bakery.. so I trusted her with my ideas.


And for food, my wonderful friend (and hair stylist) Cassandra helped me... well she pretty much did it all and I helped her! I was a little overwhelmed thinking about food. But She enjoys cooking and all that stuff. SO she came up with some great ideas. She carved this watermelon to look a basket and we filled it with all kinds of tropical fruit!


And we made this gorgeous fruit art... it was very time consuming though. But I love how it looked and tasted! :)




She made a delicious punch with sherbet ice cream and sprite.  And Im a total failure when it comes to pics of dinner.. cause I was just hungry and didnt think to get some pictures! hehe
But the menu consisted of Spiral Ham, Chicken teriyaki meat balls, a tropical rice with pineapple in it, Hawaiian sweet rolls, and salad.


Some fun pictures with the photo cutout!! :) So LOVE it!!







The last 3 are of myself and the hubs! hehe


This one he said he was trying to look at my "boobs" haha he is such a goof!! :)


I printed them off 5x7 size and sent them out with thank you notes. :)


And for fun... a picture of my brother in law dressed up for the occasion. tehe
(and please refrain from looking at our hideoso crab grass!! bahaha)

Colorful Palm Tree & Hibiscus Flower Nails

As you may know.. for my birthday I had a big Luau themed pool party! Ill be posting pictures sometime soon! Well I just HAD to do my nails to match the theme too. :) Here is a quick tutorial...

For fun I wanted each of my toe nails a different color. The colors matched the theme colors for my party.
I always start off with a clear base coat before applying color to protect my nails from dicolor after I remove it!


The nail polish's I used


To do the Palm tree I used this gorgeous bronze color and a fine tip brush


Used both of these for the palm branches


The Bronze and the light green to start


The darker green to draw the branch "leaves"


I got these nail art paint polishes from walmart, a set of three to a package for $10.. they have the fine tip brush to make easy designs! If I needed to use a different color I just "washed" the brush with nail polish remover and dipped it into another nail polish color. :)


And white to add some depth


Here they are finished


Also had to add a palm tree to my finger nails too! :) I kinda like it better with the orange back ground.

I know that the nail polish looks pretty sloppy, but I normally dont worry about that, as soon as I shower or wash my hands the paint on my skin goes away, and my nails look perfect! :)


And the hibiscus flower on my thumb.


Of course I just had to show this off. I made a special ribbon  hibiscus flower hair clip, to wear for my party. It also matched my swimsuit! :)
(sorry for the bad photo quality, I took this one with my cell phone.)
See how to make ribbon roses here.


Dont forget to check out these fabulous linky parties I'll be linking up to! :)

~Maria-Isabel