Holy Smoke! What a Great Giveaway

She's Becoming DoughMessTic is having a great giveaway...a PURTY RED KITCHENAID MIXER! and I want to win it. Thus, I am posting to my blog and this gives me an additional chance to win. You can enter too by clicking on the link above, going to the post and entering up to four times by following the directions. WOW! I really want this one. If you win, will you share with me?

We Do It All for Him and for him...

The weeks leading up to a Carolina Mountain Christmas Spectacular are tiring with rehearsals, extra rehearsals and memorization.

We have about nine days straight of rehearsals and then 8 performances.

After being on my feet so much I'm aching all over.

However, it is all worth it.

The first night of CMCS is strictly a community outreach night when prisoners from Buncombe County, shelters, boys and girls homes, Buncombe County foster kids program, senior living complexes, etc. are brought to the church, fed a wonderful Christmas meal and then come to the performance.

It is always the most blessed of the performances with so many in attendance that need a relationship with the Savior.

Last year at the outreach night, a Buncombe County prisoner came. He made a life-changing commitment to Christ. Sometime in the last year, he was released from prison and reunited with his family of 6. Yesterday, he came to our worship leader and told him about his salvation experience and told him that this year he wants to bring his family to see CMCS so they can witness and understand the changes in his life. Carl gave him 7 tickets so he can bring his whole family. This is the whole purpose for doing CMCS, and for being so tired that we can hardly walk today. It is for him and for Him.

Last night, December 2 was this year's outreach night. What a blessing to be a part of 109+ people coming to know Christ as personal Savior. Who knows what the impact will be over the years of last night's outreach night. We will never know but that doesn't matter because we do it all for Him and for them and He blesses them through our efforts. Yes, we are tired but we are a good tired and will go at it again tonight, tomorrow night and through next Monday night because it's all about Him.

Photos by Steve Brady

It's a Wonderful Life and a Great Thanksgiving Day!

Have You Ever Been to Gerton or seen a Black Mountain?

Have you ever been to Gerton or seen a Black Mountain...that is Gerton, NC and Black Mountain, NC. Gerton is a little bitty spot in the road near Chimney Rock, NC. There's not much there except for a few farms, gift shops AND the Manual Woodworkers and Weavers Warehouse that is open to the public. I have gone there for several years and since our little mountain cabin get-away weekend was nearby, we of course, made an excursion to the warehouse again.

According to a website I found, "The Manual Woodworkers and Weavers, Inc. began as a small souvenir business in 1932 by Tom and Queenie Oates. Many of the wood items they sold were made by Tom himself on wood-working equipment powered by a water wheel. Queenie operated the store and bought handicrafts such as hooked and woven rugs from area artisans. In 1974 their son, Lemuel, and his wife, Sandra, started running the business, adding many more outside craftsmen. In the late 80's they changed the name of the business from Manual Woodworkers, Inc. to Manual Woodworkers and Weavers, Inc. so that the company name would better reflect what the company's main product line had become - beautifully woven afghans and accessories. This is also when Manual began to manufacture woven products rather than buying from outside sources. In the early 90's we began to put together our "one-stop-shop" product line. Our goal was to provide a product line so diverse that the independent store owner could shop at one location, for one minimum order and fill their store with great selling merchandise."

Only friendly people may park here.

Upon entering, you are met by some of the friendly people who work in the warehouse and by a huge room filled with everything from dishware to woven throws to jackets and baby blankets.

We left Gerton and made our way on over the mountain to Black Mountain, NC where we ate lunch at My Father's Pizza in Black Mountain and it was yum.

We ate on the patio since we had Abbie with us.

It was cold outside but as long as we were in the sun, it was fine. A gorgeous warm sun shone on our backs.

Tomorrow I'll try to write a post on the wonderful little town of Black Mountain, NC. I love it there.

It's an I Heart Faces Friday (again)

As has been my trend in the last few weeks, again, I've not gotten around to posting anything this week until now. What's up with that? I do love doing I ♥ Faces Friday Fix-it Photos. So here's my fix (in more ways than one) for this week.

The photo that I♥Faces gave us to work on this week is a beauty. What a cutie pie this little girl is. Here's the original.



My first fix was to crop the photo and then I took leaves from other sections in the photo to cover the over-exposed area in front. I also used The Pioneer Woman's "Bring on the Eyes" action to work on cutie pie's eyes a little and used Unsharp Mask to sharpen the photo a bit.

I absolutely love this photo as it is now but decided to do a couple more things to it. I opened an orangey texture and changed it to Soft Light at 100%. I added a layer mask to soften the orange lights on cutie pie. I added a little burn around the edges and here it is.

What a fun project to work on. Thanks I♥Faces for the fun. To see links to more fixes that others did, go to http://www.iheartfaces.com/

I ♥ Faces Fix-it Friday

It seems that I've gotten into the habit of only posting on Fridays when I ♥ Faces hosts it's Fix-it Fridays. I love taking someone else's photo and working Photoshop magic on it if for no other reason than to learn a little more about Photoshop.

This week the fix-it photo is of a sweet little boy with some beautiful bokeh in the background. This is the photo that I worked on before any fixes.



I first adjusted the curves balance and the exposure. Then I worked on his eyes a little and his "crusty" nose using the clone tool. Next, I added a light texture layer to that beautiful bokeh background. That is the extent of my fixes and I love the way this has turned out.

This next one I did a little tweeking of this cutie's complexion using a soft brush and voilà, he's finished. I ♥ photoshop.



Go to I ♥ Faces and take a look at the links to the other websites who participate in this fun Friday frivolity.

I ♥ Faces - Fix-it Friday

What could be more beautiful than this little girl? I am thoroughly enjoying the i♥faces fix-it friday challenges and think I'm learning a lot and getting ever so slightly better at what I'm trying to learn.

The original image today is beautiful but slightly dark. This is what it looked like before I began




The first fix was a really quick fix by adjusting the curves in CS4 and very lightly "painting" over a couple of blemishes using a soft brush in her skin tone.



The next fix tweeked that peaches and cream complexion just a little more.



And a little more.



The next two images I used a texture over the one above. The texture is a soft pink and then used a fabric texture in green floral over that one (#5). Loved working on this gorgeous child. What fun fix-it Fridays are at I♥Faces.