Learn to Use and Love Your Nikon Digital SLR Camera

How many of you out there have a digital SLR camera? If I were to guess, I would bet quite a few. In fact, on Gracie's field trip this week I elected to take our little Canon PowerShot Elph pocket camera, primarily because it would be easy for Grace to use and it is a whole lot smaller and lighter than our Nikon D40. I was surprised by all of the digital SLRs that made the field trip. First, they are a bit bulky to lug around on your  neck all day long. Second, almost everyone has a smartphone with a camera that can capture those in-the-moment photo opportunities quite nicely for instant sharing. Facebook or Instagram anyone? So, why would you bring a digital SLR camera on a field trip? The reason, I guess, is the desired end product. Digital SLR cameras take fabulous photographs and who doesn't want an awesome photo, or two, or twenty, of your child's 3rd grade field trip?

This reminded me of a Pinterest pin that I have on getting to know your Nikon SLR. I, for one, have pretty limited knowledge on what all of those buttons and dials on the outside of the camera are for, let alone being able to use them with specific intent. Read the owner's manual? Have you seen it! To play it safe, I pretty much stay in Auto mode, point and shoot, and let the camera do the rest. The time has come for that to change. I love taking pictures and I take a lot of them. I figure I might as well step up my game and learn about aperture, shutter speed, ISO, modes, etc. Sounds intimidating already.

These overview images of the Nikon prove to me that I really don't have a clue as to what half of these buttons are for or how to really USE the Nikon D40 (that we have had for well over 6 years). On the other hand, thanks to these images I at least now know what each button and dial is for. I am a very visual learner. Now I just need to learn the "why", "when", and "how-to" behind each one and I will be well on my way to taking pretty pictures beyond Auto mode. Baby steps, of course.

These images can be found on the Photo Tutorials page at itsoverflowing.com. Aimee Lane (and her husband) explain digital photography with an digital SLR camera in easy-to-understand language that the casual photographer like myself can comprehend and put to practice. The three most important things that I need to wrap my head around are aperture, shutter speed and ISO. Once I have a good understanding of those three elements, I will fear not the many buttons and dials.

In addition to her great photography tutorials, she also shares useful photography tips on Indoor Lighting, Action Photography, Choosing Family Portrait Outfits, and even a few Photoshop Tips.

If you want to extend your photography skills beyond point-and-shoot and harness some new creativity, then itsoverflowing.com fits the bill quite nicely--beyond photography I might add. I encourage you to check it out!

Michelle

No Work, Just Play, Going on a Field Trip Today!

And thankfully, the weather is going to cooperate! Today I am tagging along for Grace's last field trip as a 3rd grader. Say what?!? We are headed to Old World Wisconsin. I needed a good reason to take a day off work and this was perfect, no work and a day with Grace. She is pretty pumped. I remember field trips when I was a kid. No school, sitting with my friends on the bus, taking a "cool" sack lunch. Ahhh, those were the days.

I had never even heard of Old World Wisconsin let alone been there. A co-worker informed me yesterday that it is an awesome place. I checked out their Overview page and it appears she is correct. It should be a fun-filled day learning some pretty cool historical facts about Wisconsin. I wonder what the kids are most excited about?

I am ready, packed lunch and all!

Michelle

Never Stop Learning With Alison

I love technology. I love learning both new things and ways to use what I already know even better. MS Office and I are pretty tight. How could we not be? We spend at least 8 hours together each and every day. Even so, I feel there is so much more that I could (and probably should) learn in order to use Word, Excel, Power Point and Outlook more efficiently and creatively. When you spend that much time together, however, who has time to squeeze in "learning even more"? In comes Alison.

Maybe you already know about Alison.com. If not, I definitely encourage you to check it out. It is a free online certified learning site that offers courses in a variety of subject areas like technology (my favorite), business, and personal development, just to name a few. I have taken two courses so far and my experience has been awesome. You watch the course video modules, complete the assessments, and receive your certification. Learning the Alison way has been interesting, engaging and rewarding. I love the feeling that comes from expanding my knowledge--in anything. Knowledge is power my friends.

So, what course did I take at Alison? Many people use Twitter. I hadn't the first clue about what it was, how to use it, why I would want to use it, etc. After taking the free Using Twitter For Social Networking course at Alison, I now know the answers to these questions and my Twitter fear factor has greatly subsided. Because of this course, I am confident that I will be able to create and use a Twitter account intelligently. I have not yet created my account. That is my "#goal" for this weekend.


I am currently enrolled in Alison's Microsoft Office 2010 course. I thought MS Office and I had a beautiful working relationship. After enrolling in this course and delving deeper into Word, the very first module, it appears I was sadly mistaken. There are so many cool features and tools in Word that even every day users like myself do not know about. The image and photograph manipulation module was interesting. Who knew you could do such cool things with pictures right inside of Word? Pretty cool and easy to boot!

I will never stop learning. I even get a little stir crazy when I am not being challenged or learning something new. I now have a running list of courses that I want to take at Alison. Another great thing with Alison is that you can be enrolled in more than one course at a time. Some of the courses are only one module, like the Twitter course, and others have many modules which are broken down into sections. So, you can mix things up a little by completing some of the shorter courses in between your longer courses.

Check out Alison.com. You won't be disappointed and you might even find it fun. I know I did!

Michelle

Return to the Blogging World

Once again, it's been a LOOONG time since I have shared a blog post. A lot has happened in this Beautiful Mess life of mine during that absence. I should have been blogging about all of the crazy, exciting changes taking place in our lives, but somehow life got busy, life got messy, life became a little less ordinary for us for a while. I am happy to say, we made it through...like we always do.

So, let's recap a few of the big things shall we?

Alexa, graduated high school! She went on to try her first semester of college. While she did great socially (never a problem) and academically, she decided not to go back. She is now in the process of trying to figure out what she is going to do with her grown-up life. That's a pretty daunting process for any 19-year old, I think. As a mother, sitting quietly on the sidelines during this "process" is not easy. If you know me at all, then you know why. I see her potential. I see her being good at so many things. But....she has to figure that out for herself, she has to find her passion, on her own terms and in her own time. That is how Alexa has, and probably always will, roll. This much I know, once she finds her passion, she will be going, going, gone. I am looking forward to that BIG day!

We sold our house and built a new house. Summer 2013 was exciting and house-building focused. We moved into our new home in November, just in time for the long, incredibly COLD Wisconsin winter. I have officially decided that Wisconsin is not an option for permanent residency upon retirement!

Goodbye lovely home.

Our new Home Sweet Home!

We celebrated our first Christmas in our new home with many friends and family. It was wonderful! This was Joni's second Christmas. She was our Christmas JOY this year. So much fun, so much love, so many presents!

The joy of Joni.

Our beautiful family will again be growing by another son-in-law. Eve and Shaw got engaged in November and will be getting married in Mexico this October 2014. And yep...we are going! 

Our fabulous family.

Chelsea turned 22 in December. How is that even possible?!? In 8 short months she will be graduating from UW-Platteville. After much hard work and determination, she made the Dean's List last semester. Woo hoo! She, too, is trying to figure out what to do with her grown-up life...after college. She has dreams. She has passions. She is already well on her way to a great life!

Chelsea turns 22!

And then there is Grace. Grace turned 8 last year. She continues to grow by leaps and bounds, blossoming into a young girl who is smart, funny, captivating, creative and just a joy to spend every day with. She is the youngest of our brood and thankfully, she keeps life from being boring and too predictable for Mom and Dad! 

Grace has dinner under control.

Of course, there were many more awesome highlights but these were some of the biggies. Finding delight in the little things, in those every day moments where you realize just how blessed you are, is the glue that makes this life and all of us stick together. I count my blessings each and every day for this extraordinary life I have been given. My happiest place of all...somewhere in the middle of ordinary and extraordinary. 

That is it for the update. It is Mothers' Day today so as I am off to embrace the day and all of awesomeness it is sure to bring! Wishing all of the mom's in this world a beautiful day.

Michelle

Good Summer Reads

In April of this year I finally took the plunge and bought myself a Kindle Touch. To my surprise, I absolutely love it!  Since purchasing the Kindle, my completion rate on reading books has definitely increased.  The Kindle Touch has renewed my love for  reading in a big way. I love having a book or two at my fingertips, ready and waiting at any given moment. I really had forgotten what it feels like to lose yourself in a good story, to feel your heart racing or breaking, to want to jump into the story and laugh or cry with the characters, and to literally not want the story to end...happy ending or not.

I recently finished the two-book New York Times bestselling Slammed Series by Colleen Hoover. The two books in this series, Slammed and Point of Retreat, had me at hello! The storyline, the characters, the heartwrenching twists and turns, from beginning to end, are superb. Both of these books will tug at your heart strings as you follow each of the characters through their struggles and triumphs - all which overlap with one another. I also found the heart of the story, what "slammed" stands for, to be a breath of fresh air as the characters try to problem-solve and communicate their innermost feelings of hurt, anger, admiration and love.

Slammed and Point of Retreat will make you believe in the power of love, laughter, forgiveness, gratitude, and compassion. It may even quite possibly move you to reflect on your own life and realize that this one life that we get is simply too precious to waste and that we should take chances to bare our souls, to be honest, and to look within for answers when life throws you a curveball. Don't dodge the curveball. If you are brave enough to catch the curveball, you will learn a valuable lesson.

I found myself not being able to put the books down! You will laugh. You will cry. They're just that "butterflying" good!! Thankfully, the author is working on a third book to which is due out by the end of the summer. The third book in this series, Will's Story, is already on my list and I can honestly say I have never had a "reading list" before! Be sure to check out Colleen Hoover's website where she shares a sneak peek at the first chapter to Will's Story I cannot wait to see where she takes the story from here!

If you are looking for a good series to absolutely devour this summer, I would HIGHLY, without hesitation, recommend the Slammed Series.

Happy Reading!
Michelle

Chocolate Swirl Delight - A Delightful Dessert

My husband says that we rarely eat the same thing twice. He is right, in part. While I do have my standard go-to dinner and dessert recipes, how can one want to make the same thing over and over again? I cannot and do not. With the internet and new sites such as Pinterest placing beautiful food right in front of my eyes each and every day, I rarely even "search" anymore. It's more like they magically appear! I see new recipe every day that I want/need to try. Hence, since I do most of the cooking, my little family is at the mercy of my recipe curiosity. They graciously go along with it, most of the time. In fact, rarely do I fail when it comes to testing dessert recipes. I even dedicated one of my Pinterest boards to desserts only, Decadent Desserts.

I was on a search, a search for a real crowd-pleasing dessert, when I stumbled upon the Chocolate Swirl Delight recipe. This dessert was replacing a traditional birthday cake, so it had to be special. Well...first, I saw the picture. Then, I read the recipe. Four, yes four, ingredients and no baking! I'd be a fool NOT to make this, right?? And, so I did. It won the crowd over just as I had hoped. It turned out as pretty as a picture and tasted spectacular! The best kept little secret here is that the only "effort" required is slicing the Little Debbie Swiss Cake Rolls and even that was kind of fun.

Chocolate Swirl Delight

This dessert was delightful, melt-in-your-goodness that got rave reviews from family and is bound to be requested and repeated!

Michelle

Excellent Summer Read

I recently finished reading On The Island:A Novel by Tracey Garvis-Graves on my Kindle. I loved this book! It was the perfect summer read to keep me coming back for more. I read this book in under a month and that says a lot, for me. I thought the book was well-written and had a superb mix of suspense, despair and romance, with a few surprises sprinkled along the way. It will tug at your heart strings in no time. I was pleasantly surprised by the ending as well. If you are looking for a good summer read to get lost in, I would highly recommend this book. In my opinion, it was a 5-star read and worth every bit of the Amazon Kindle price of $5.99.



My First Archiver's Scrap Mania

A couple of months ago, my girlfriend and I went to a Scrap Mania night at our local Archiver's store. I wanted to make this night about being productive, not about shopping and adding to my already-overstocked stash of scrapbooking supplies. I decided to "prepare" for the crop. First, I went through some of my older photos (all the way back to 2009!) and selected photos for my page layouts. I then moved onto paper selection. I chose the patterened papers that I wanted to use first and then coordinated with a few sheets of solid cardstock. To keep my "page ideas" together and organized, I placed the photographs and scapbook paper into a page protectors. I transported them to the crop in a plastic tote. I think I took about 20 page packets to the Scrap Mania. I also took some (okay...way more than I needed) basic tools, alphas, rub-ons, and embellishments. With only three bags in tow as I walked into Archiver's, I was excited and ready to scrapbook. The crop time actually went by way too quickly. Going prepared was key! 

I did not get 20 pages done that night, however, I was happy with what I accomplished. For $5, I got myself organized and finally completed some scrapbook layouts. I also left the store spending under $15 after using my $5 registration credit! Pretty much a bargain in my book. I have avoided going to crops in the past because I did not want to, 1) get EVERYTHING ready to scrapbook away from my home, 2) transport ALL of my scrapbooking supplies to/from the crop (because I would have to take nearly everything plus the kitchen sink, just in case) and, 3) I felt that I would visit way too much and get absolutely NOTHING accomplished.

Preparing for the Scrap Mania by creating page packets helped me tremendously! One of the unforeseen bonuses...coming home with uncompleted page packets. Half the work is already done and this has made my scrapbooking at home much more productive and rewarding! I love completed scrapbook layouts!

~Scrapbook layouts completed that night featuring my gorgeous subjects~

My Scrapbook Layouts gallery has been updated so check it out, if you like.

Have a great weekend!

Michelle

Cinnamon Sugar Doughnut Muffins

If you are looking for an easy made-from-scratch muffin recipe for those busy mornings, then these Cinnamon Sugar Doughnut Muffins might just be the ticket. These yummy muffins have been tried, tested, and approved by my family members. If you recall from an earlier post, I/we love muffins, especially for breakfast and warm out of the oven. This is a simple recipe that I can have oven-ready in about ten minutes...from scratch! No box mix here. Trust me, these muffins are really that easy.

Here is the Cinnamon Sugar Doughnut Muffin recipe I used. This recipe yields 12 perfect muffins. If you need a recipe that will yield up to 24 muffins, search Pinterest, there are many. You can find this muffin recipe, and many others, on my Pinterest Board: Eat, Drink and Be Merry.

And, they taste as good as they look...scrumptious! 

Cinnamon Sugar Doughnut Muffins fresh out of the oven.

Grace approves her last-day-of-school special breakfast!

Happy Monday everyone!
Michelle

Back to Crafting - Card Creations

One of my favorite gifts to give to teachers, day care providers, and friends is handmade card sets.  I try to create card sets that feature an assortment of greeting cards that can be used throughout the year.  One, it gives me a reason to get creative and come up with new designs and, two, they always seem to really like them. Grace gave her teacher an end-of-the-year thank you gift consisting of cards I made using the adorable My Mind's Eye Be Loved Paper Kit. I have always loved My Mind's Eye products and I was drawn to this kit immediately. The Be Loved double-sided patterned papers feature fun color combinations and whimsical designs. The Be Loved kit also coordinates beautifully with one of my favorite background papers, Kraft paper. I had no problem creating both scrapbook  layouts and handmade cards with the Be Loved kit and I still have some left over, even after quite a few completed projects. With a little help from my Cricut, circle punches and rub-ons collection, these cards were both fun and easy to make!

Here is the complete MME Be Loved Kit.

I will share some Be Loved scrapbook layouts soon!

Michelle