Olympics. My motivation for watching is completely pure. I promise.

 

My greatest contribution to team USA thus far. I should earn a gold for this amazing photo collage. 

That is all.

Photo Collage Friday {Saturday Christmas Eve Edition}

Some of my favorite photos from around the house. 

I love this time of year. 

Happy Christmas Eve everyone!!

Photo Collage Friday {Number Sixteen}

This makes me happy!! What a great idea, tie-dye your 'I Heart Joplin' Shirt. I saw this at art walk in Joplin last night. I wore the cutest vintage dress. I will be spending tonight writing up blog posts to auto-post thru next week. I took these photos at art walk with my lens baby, and I took a bunch more...look for the posts with those next week!!

Photo Collage Friday {Number Fourteen}

These are all sky photos taken on my iPhone. I created this collage on my iPhone as well. It has been so sunny and hot here in Joplin, I really wanted to combine all of the beautiful sky images I have captured lately...especially when they reflect a bit of rain (which everyone is praying for daily).

Only one more week until I am back to school. I wish summer could last a little bit longer!!

Photo Collage Friday {Number Ten}

Hey hey hey!! I'm away on vacation this week!! I thought it would be fun to share some of my favorite photos of my nephew. These were taken while I was in Arizona last month. UGH! I can hardly believe it is July!!

To see how much he's grown, look here, here and here.

Picnik Block Party

A few weeks ago, I wrote this post.

The very same day, I got an email of praise from a guy at Picnik (which is owned by Google). Micheal was very impressed with my blog post and asked if I would be willing to host a block party to show my friends all about Picnik. Um, yes, please!

I was super excited for the opportunity so I decided to have the party on Cinco de Mayo so that I could have Mexican food--free food on a night people will already be out and about, my friends HAD to show up!

On the night of the party, I had the food ready--enchiladas, homemade beans, spanish rice, sliced avocado, chips, salsa, margaritas--and I had my computer all hooked up to the big screen t.v. My friends loved the ease at which pictures can be edited with this program. I showed them how to add fun coloring, text, and stickers (like mustaches) to their photos.

Here is a collage we made during the block party using photos from a recent slumber party I had at my house with all the kids in my family!

I had such a fun time explaining all the different features on Picnik. I am a huge fan of the collages...I made a bunch of them for this post....

I used clear display frames around my living room to showcase various collages--my friends thought these were awesome! I also had my scrapbooks/photo albums out for people to see collages and picnik pictures that I have printed at home and had printed through the site (so they could see the difference).

I think everyone had fun. Picnik even sent postcards with a free premium membership for a month to all of my guests!

Thanks Picnik! Super fun block party--thanks to you!!

Random Wednesday.

A few things I have noticed lately. Since I invested in my amazing Nikon D5000, I don't always have a camera with me when I have really important, sudden photo ops. My little fuji used to fit in my purse so I always had it in tow....but I have a separate bag for the D5000 and sometimes I just don't want to lug around more luggage.

Without a camera--I have to rely increasingly on the little iPhone's pathetic photographic abilities. I love having all the apps, don't get me wrong....but the digital camera leaves much to be desired.

Today I had an especially photographic day. I got so desperate by lunch that I went to borrow the school's digital camera so that I could create some faux polaroids with some student photos at an art exhibit for this weekend.

Anyway, I wanted to share some of the magic with you. I tried to capture as much as I could....and I probably would've had more photos, but we were working with clay and my hands were just too messy to operate the camera.


My classroom was glowing when I walked in this morning--YAY sun!! It was so lovely and it put a smile on my face immediately.



Here's me! A shadow self portrait.


I mixed some beautiful spring colors!!






Elephant road kill. It was more of a comedy than a tragedy. So lovely.


Look what I noticed:
(random)


And this definitely made me smile!!


I heard a story about jet packs on the radio this morning and I have been thinking about them all day.

Yesterday I woke up from a dream about chewing strawberry bubbalicious, and accidentally cutting off part of one of my fingers while I was on a church camp canoe trip, oh and there was also a group of performing dancers --creepy!!

Anyway, I hope you are having a great day!! I am ready for the week to be over and for my vacation to start!! Check back tomorrow for a wonderful fawn parade!!

Photos for a Friend {Ashley and Matt}

I love taking photos outside!! I did a fun little mini shoot this weekend for my friend Ashley. She just got engaged and needed a few pictures for her save the date card. I was happy to take them for her. I made the edits using Picnik. I made a few collages for her to choose from. I wonder which one she will select??

Flickr Favorites Friday {2}!!

I have been looking at pretty Holga pictures on Flickr...dreaming of sunshine and fancy locations. See more of my favorites here. Soooo glad its Friday!! I need a restful weekend!





Sources:
1. Japanese allspice（Roubai）, 2. img580, 3. dtown11, 4. Untitled, 5. Untitled, 6. Mountains, 7. On and on, 8. Phantom of San Marco, 9. Cold wind blows, 10. Ascension, 11. small-42, 12. New York, 13. Untitled, 14. Five Megans, 15. one fish two fish, 16. Water Town, 17. Untitled, 18. The 3 pyramids at Giza, 19. Big Man at the Orange Door, 20. Untitled, 21. soaring heart, 22. Brighton Beach Bathing Boxes, 23. Mr. Mustache, 24. The view, 25. Relaxing in Hell

My Week

So glad it is Friday.
It has been a colorful week, to say the least. Hope you have a special Valentine's Day planned!!

Sunday SNOW DAY bonus POST!!!

Sort of random, so get ready.

Found this really cool winter photo collage at Shimelle.com. It has some really inspiring winter pictures.

Here are some crafty/wintery pictures that are inspiring me right now:

(sorry that I don't have sources for all....some were in my style school folder)
(birds) (deer and pompom wreath) (vintage doilies as art)

I am loving the snow right now.

I went out today with Holga and shot some awesome pictures, I can't wait to get them developed. Hope I get some good ones.

In the mean time, here are some shots from my D500. Enjoy!

p.s. NO SCHOOL TOMORROW because of snow! I am so happy right now!

Also, I read a challenge over on A Beautiful Mess....Elsie is challenging herself to make 10 paintings this week and share them on her blog. If she can complete the challenge she is going to reward herself with a new camera. Hmmmm....I REALLY want a Fujifilm Mini 7s....BAD....

(source)

So I can make something cool like this:

so I am going to try to figure out a challenge for myself too....I need to design a workshop for birthday cards...and I also want to make some Valentines....good thing I have tomorrow off.....
Wish me luck!

Hope your January is full of inspiration and beauty!!

xoxo Nellie Mae

Happy New Year!!

I think I will start the new year out with a new apron!! I made this Monday, all by myself. I took home economics in 7th grade...maybe 8th grade too...but that was the last time I have done an extensive amount of stitchery...I am just amazed at all the stuff that I have retained. Just like riding a bike I guess. I am having a blast with all this sewing stuff. I can't wait to make more!! This will be a colorful apron to wear to school, I am super excited!
Oh, and Marley wanted you to know that he helped too....

Gingerbread Collage

Spending the day working on my December Daily!!! I got a sewing machine for Christmas so I am adding lots of fun stitching elements. I am also including all of my fantastic photo collages like this one. Spent an evening last week making gingerbread houses and gingerbread men with some friends. It was sooooo fun. My first time to decorate cookies!

Anyway, my December Daily is coming along very nicely. I can't wait for you to see more!!

I hope to have several crafty posts this week, please check back!

Christmas Lights Photo Collage

Two photo collages in one week!! :-) I am addicted to them....I took all of these pictures at one house! Enjoy!

Million Dollar Fudge Photo Collage

Photo Collage for December Daily...from December 13th...In case I haven't mentioned it...the way I try to do my December Daily is to keep track of the journaling and photography throughout the month, but once I get my photos developed and have a chance to sit down for a long period of time {hopefully over Christmas break} I try to put most of the pages together at the same time. So this photo collage was from my day of making Christmas candy with family. One of our traditions is to make fudge....the recipe is 'Million Dollar Fudge"....SOOO delicious.

Anyway, it is quite a long process with lots of stirring. I tried to photograph every step....but as you can see from the collage, some of the photos are out of focus (did I mention that I was also trying to spread peanut butter on crackers and take pictures without getting peanut butter on my camera! ;-) I don't really care that some of them are out of focus, I love this composition! Hope you enjoy it too!!

By the way, I have had some people ask me about how I do my editing. I am totally a photoshop wimp. I can do a few basic things but it is super complicated to me. So....I have a couple of basic editing things that I do in iPhoto (adjust the white balance and the contrast) and the rest is done with a program I downloaded called CameraBag....OR....for this photo collage, I use an online software called Picnik....I upgraded to the premium subscription, it is totally worth it. Many of the filters are similar something you could do in photoshop, but it is SUPER user friendly. Hope this helps!! Good luck with your editing fun!