Showing posts with label Blogging. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Blogging. Show all posts

Freshly Picked


Will and I have something serious to talk to you guys about (about which to talk to you ladies, really). You're probably going to need to sit down and take off your sunglasses for this.

It's no secret that babies' feet are shaped like blocks, a fact that, as an aunt, often left me frustrated and my nieces and nephews barefoot when in my care, a fact that I was sure was going to torment me as a parent, but then, just when William was starting to pull himself up and cruise all around, necessitating something more than slipper socks on his feet, I discovered Freshly Picked Moccasins. Easy for me to put on (not to brag, but I can do it one handed), hard for him to take off, enough traction without turning his foot into even more of a block, high-quality leather that wipes clean and wears well, and fun colors. Serendipitous, I say!

Now that Will is walking, running, and dancing his way through each day, we have moved on to our second pair. Will also owns Converse, Sperry's, Target, Gap, and Old Navy shoes, but really, our go-to shoe for playing, shopping, picking strawberries, puddle-jumping, strolling through the botanical gardens, or going to church is his Freshly Picked Moccasins.  If you follow me on Facebook or Instagram, you already know this.
Freshly Picked is such an amazing company that when I contacted them to let them know how much I loved their shoes, they sent me another pair to review. I really can't recommend these shoes enough. Unlike other shoes, these were easy for Will to walk in when he was first starting to strut around. They have never caused so much as a red mark let alone a blister or callous. And, Freshly Picked is offering a pair for me to giveaway to one of you! Yeah, now I've got your attention! See below for details.
***GIVEAWAY CLOSED: Because so many of the people who entered were family and friends, I numbered all your entries and used the random number generator at random.org (as opposed to just swirling my finger in the air and pointing... I don't know) and am so happy to announce that Maggie B. is the winner! Congrats! Even if you didn't win this giveaway, you will feel like a winner every time your easily slip the pair of moccs that you order your little one. I just ordered the next size up in Iced Mint, but I also have my eye on Goldenrod and Glacier... and Neon Green is kind of awesome. How will Maggie B. decide? ***AND NOW ENDS THE LONGEST EVER GIVEAWAY WINNER ANNOUNCEMENT

First, a quick disclaimer: Like I said before, Freshly Picked is an awesome company that has lots of giveaways, so the winner of this giveaway can not have won any other giveaway including a pair of Freshly Picked moccasins within the last 60 days. Alrighty?

To enter, please visit Freshly Picked to peruse thier beautiful products (They just added some totes to their line and have some of their moccasins on sale right now!) and leave a comment below. For an extra entry, you can like my page and share this post on Facebook and/or follow me and regram this on Instagram. If you choose to complete either of the extra entries on Facebook or Instagram, please come back and leave another comment here letting me know that you did so that I am sure to count your entry. This giveaway will close on Friday when I will announce the winner. In the meantime, let me know if you have any questions I can answer about the moccs and good luck!

Alright, you can put your sunglasses back on now.

Also, a fun little bonus of the high-quality leather is a sweet footprint, from the heel to each little toe, that gets worn into the sole of the moccasins, a sweet keepsake after your babe outgrows his or her moccs.

Happy Day!


Piper and I are partying in our party hats non-stop for the next few days to celebrate all of our family's birthdays! But I just wanted to stop by really quick today to let you know that I have something for you! More giveaways coming up in the next few months! Giveaways for your pups and giveaways for you! How exciting is that?! I feel like I am living this scene from Love Actually...
Except my message is not about drugs; it's about products. Become a blogger and they give you them for free... and they give them to the people who read your blog a.k.a your friends and family. 

Also, on a somewhat related note. I started getting offers to review products and do giveaways when I joined two sites, Top Baby Blogs and Top Mommy Blogs. If you are ever here and have a free second (and think I'm the tops!), I'd appreciate it if you would click on the Top Baby Blogs and Top Mommy Blogs buttons over on the right under my blog archive. You can click/vote once per day from each device, and it doesn't require you to input any information. It also doesn't actually enter you to win anything, but I'd really appreciate it... and it is my birthday... so you can count your vote today as your present to me if you didn't get me anything. That's my gift to you. 

The Best Photo Editing Apps (for iPhone)



Instead of learning how to use my DSLR like I had planned, I have been relying more and more on apps to edit my iPhone pictures. And here's why: 1) My iPhone is almost always with me. 2) I know how to use it. 3) It requires no wires to download, edit, or upload pictures to various places. And 4) The pics are fine. I know they could be better quality, but that would mean a lot of extra work (which I don't actually mind) and time (which I don't actually have).

So if you are also a primarily an iPhone photographer like me, you will want to check out the following apps (which are all very affordable) to help make your iPhone pictures better with just a few easy taps.

For collages, adding words (like you see above), and simple filtersA Beautiful Mess is still my favorite, and you can read my review and see examples of how I use it most often here.
Runner Up for Adding Words/Doodles: Rhonna Designs is similar to ABM and has many more options if you want to get even fancier.
Runner Up for Collages: Moldiv offers more options for making collages and adjusting the size and shape of your picture. And it's FREE!

For Adjusting Light/Filters: Most of the time, I have found that I just need to lighten my pictures. You can do this with almost any photo editing app (VSCOcam, Afterlight, FX Editor) by adjusting the brightness, but my favorite app for lightening is PicTapGo.
For example, I took the picture below...


And then used the "Lights On" filter in PicTapGo twice...
And got the picture you see below.

PicTapGo also offers cropping and many other great filters. So if you were only going to buy one other picture editing app besides ABM, I would recommend PicTapGo.

For EVERYTHING (exposure, saturation, temperature, sharpening, vignette as well as more filter options, borders, and many other features): Afterlight is the most user-friendly out of all the other apps I have tried and would be the third app I would recommend buying after AMB and PicTapGo.

ALSO, if you want any of your iPhone pictures to look good before or after using these apps, you need to do THREE things before you take your pictures. 

1) If at all possible, take the pictures with as much natural light as possible. Your pic will be even better if the light is not behind your subject.

2) Frame your shot. Look around whatever you are focusing on to see if you have everything in the picture you want in and everything you want out of the picture out. The less you have to crop, the better quality your pictures will be.

3) Take a moment to move the angle of your phone to see how the light changes the image AND give your phone a second or two to focus. You would be surprised how much crisper your photos will turn out if you wait even one second. 

Now, go capture your child/pet/food/self so you can get to editing and posting for the rest of us to enjoy!
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