Playing around with Picnik

I've used picnik.com several times before to play around with pictures but a friend of mine just upgraded to premium and let me try it out. Oh, it's so much fun!
Look what I've been doing... (click on the individual pictures to make them bigger)

Before: original picture /After: wrinkle remover!!!!! and teeth whitening

Before: original picture /After: blush effect & eye glow

Before: original /After: eye color brown

Before: original /After: black & white & blue eye color

Before: original/After: black & white and airbrush effect

Warning: Another post about a New Kids on the Block concert

 

 

Ok, so I admit at this point that I am a "Blockhead"... and I don't mean the ditsy kind.  (Don't judge me :-) This past weekend I had a fabulous girls weekend in Greensboro with one of my girlfriends from college.  As part of that weekend I attended yet another New Kids on the Block concert... this will be my 4th in the past 3 years.  (Click here and here to see my first 3 trips). 

Except this concert was even better because the Backstreet Boys were touring with them to make a combination of NKOTBSB!  

Here’s a bit of history for you:  **Of course as a teeny bopper in the late 80's & early 90's I loved me some New Kids.  I attended many of their concerts, had my room plastered in posters & magazine covers, purchased many t-shirts and big buttons, recorded every episode of Arsenio Hall, MTV and any other TV show that they appeared on and of course had all the cassette tapes, singles cassettes and VHS tapes that came out.  They were the Justin Bieber of today. 

As they started to phase out & new boy bands tried to replace them... (never will happen,  but that's beside the point)... the Backstreet Boys came on the scene.  They were in a battle as best boy band in the mid-late 90's with NSync.  But the BSB (Backstreet Boys) would be the only group that would even come close to my New Kids.  I'm older, more mature at this point... still liking this group a lot & purchasing all of their cd's... but still just not the same.  

Fast-forward to early 2008.  There is "talk" that a new website is up & running at www.nkotb.com.  What?!  Are they coming back??????  You can imagine my excitement as all the memories came rushing back from the days of neon hammer pants, high top Reeboks and big hair.  In May 2008 the official announcement is released & NKOTB makes their first appearance as a group on the Today Show.  I think I screamed like a little girl!  **

Who knew that this boy band from the 80's could make a come back & be successful and still running strong after 3 years?!  It's funny because all of those teen girls are now 30 & 40 somethings and I think this group is even more popular now than they were 20 years ago!  They announced last year they were joining up with the Backstreet Boys and would start touring again in 2011.  Cha-ching!  Yep, that brings even more of a crowd and of course, I was gonna have to see them again.  

Me & Darlene had a fabulous time and it was a GREAT concert!  Probably one of the best one's yet.  Maybe it's because it's been a couple years since I've seen them... maybe it's because I really needed a girls night out... maybe it's because we had awesome seats... or maybe all of the above.  So, I forever will be a NKOTBSB fan and if they tour again, you can probably guess you'll be reading another post about a concert that I went to.  :-)

Me & DarleneMore fellow Blockheads… Jen & Misty

Beach 2010

We have returned home from our beach vacation. As usual, it was too short. I always look at the cars that are going home on the way to the beach & think "I'm glad that's not me" and then the day we come home I look at the cars going to the beach and think "I wish that was us". I'm thankful for the time that we had there & that it was a great week. This is the 7th year that we have vacationed with the Stamey family. Each year gets better & better as we venture to do new things and the kids get older & more independent on the beach. (Much more time for us to relax :)

The weather was wonderful... hot, but a nice breeze on the beach and it didn't rain except for one night. We had our usual's again this year... a visit to Krispy Kreme, putt-putt, and riding the rides at Broadway. We also did a couple new things.... we visited Alligator Adventure Park and went to the Alabama Theatre. Alligator Adventure was okay, but it was soooo hot & Chandler got sick while we were there. Not too fun. The Alabama Theatre was GREAT! The show was great... singing, dancing and comedy. I say it was well worth the money, plus the kids got in free.

Between me & Mae we took a TON of pictures... can you imagine that??? Trying to condense them to the best ones was rather hard, so rather making my post 10 pages of pictures, I put them all into a slideshow.... enjoy while you listen to some great songs.

Need an Event Planner?

My friend Meagan has officially launched her website... still in the beginning stages. I'm so excited and I want to help her as much as I can to get this rolling. She's great at event planning for weddings and parties of all sorts... and so much more. She's also a great photographer as well. So, if you are in need...or know someone who is...of such a coordinator for an event coming up, please check out her new blog.

http://sophisticateevents.blogspot.com/

Kensley's first sleepover

Well, not technically, because she's stayed with grandparents a lot, but it's her first "friend" sleepover. While Carter's friends came over a few nights ago, Kensley went to stay with my friend Angie & John Michael. Angie's practically her second momma and John Michael is like her brother, so she was really excited! They were so cute talking about it together. Kensley told everybody where she was going that night. She woke up from her nap & was ready to go.

Angie took them to Sonic for supper.


They rode the little merry go round.


And had "th-lushies" as Kensley calls them.


Then home to play and bath time. When Kensley got in the tub she told Angie, "Wow... i want to spend 4 nights at your house!"



Angie said they finally went to bed about 10:30 and cuddled each other the whole night. So sweet! K wasn't ready to go home when I went to pick her up the next day & JM wasn't ready for her to leave. So I would say that this first sleepover was a success!

Carter's Birthday Sleepover

Carter celebrated his 8th birthday last week. He wanted to have a sleepover for his party, so on Tuesday night, that's what we did. One of his friends was sick & couldn't come, but Peyton & Jack were there. We went swimming at the YMCA, came home, ate pizza, they played, had cake at 9:30 pm (what was I thinking?!), they watched a movie & finally I convinced them to turn out the lights about 12:30am. They had a fun time together!



Check back soon for Kensley's sleepover pics... hee, hee!

Holiday Weekend

We had a busy, but fun weekend. The kids were in Y camp all week long. Kensley's little group celebrated on Friday with a patriotic parade around the Y. They were given tutu's, hats and a star wand to march around with.


Kensley's Little Braves camp with Miss Stephanie

Friday night we went to Hickory to celebrate Carter's 8th birthday. We had supper with Mimi & PawPaw & he opened presents. Then MamMaw & PaPaw met us to pick up Chandler so he could go on a trip in PaPaw's big truck on Saturday.




Saturday afternoon some of my girlfriends from college came to the Boiling Springs Y & we spent the afternoon together playing at the pool.

Linda, Cheryl, Stacy, Heather & me

Sunday we spent the afternoon & evening at Moss Lake. Some friends from church have hosted at their house for several years now. It's always a big crowd from church and the kids look forward to playing in the lake, riding jet skis & watching fireworks. Kensley LOVED the jet ski this year. She didn't really want to share her Daddy for anyone else to ride. But she had fun in the lake too. The boys always love playing with all of their friends from church and watching the fireworks at the end of the day. Here's a few pics from our day.

Me & my friends Meagan, Stacie & Angie

Playing in the lake

Riding the jet ski

Fireworks... what a fun day!