Monday, September 26, 2011

What I've Been Up To

First of all, thanks for all your thoughts and kind words on my last post. It felt good to finally share what was going on with all of you and your support is amazing. Totally made my day and made me feel a lot better about the whole situation.

Now on to what I've been up to lately.

1. I've been craving fried pickles off and on since we moved to Italy. Finally I caved, looked on Pinterest and decided to make them myself. What resulted was a mind-blowing experience of fried (well actually baked) pickles and homemade ranch dressing. Here's the link: Fried Pickles.

A few notes about the pickles: One, I used the stackers pickles instead of the rounds. Two, I halved the recipe. Three, I didn't use the recipe for ranch that they did. Instead I did equal parts of mayo and buttermilk mixed with a package of Hidden Valley ranch.

2. Several weeks ago I bought Adobe Lightroom 3 to compliment my Adobe Photoshop Elements that I already had. I'm still waiting on the manual that I ordered for Lightroom 3 so I can learn how to use it, but I've already used it a few times to reduce the noise in several pictures I took last summer in Greece and it is AMAZING. So, so glad I bought it.

3. It's my Min-Pin, Boomers, birthday today. He is 4! I'm one of those people that celebrate my pets' birthdays. So yeseterday he had part of a Happy Meal as his birthday treat. Here is a picture I took of him this morning.



4. I still haven't gotten all my Denmark pictures edited. Mainly because I just took some portraits of a friend the other day and I've been editing those pictures. I'm very pleased with how her pictures turned out. Here are a few samples. On a related note, if any blog readers in the Vicenza area would like some photos done, just let me know.




5. I bought my ticket home for Christmas this year. I'm super excited about it, especially since I missed Christmas at home last year, but the only downside is that Sean isn't able to come with. With tickets coming in just under $1000 per person, it's not feasible for us both to go home. So, being the great husband that he is, Sean told me to go home. I think he's pretty pumped about being off work at that time and doing whatever he wants, although I don't have any doubts that he's going to miss me.

So...that's what I've been up to lately!

13 comments:

Tori Bella said...

Where are you flying through?

JG said...

Oh my gosh, the noise reduction in LR3 is probably my most favorite technological advancement in the last 5 years. Isn't it glorious?

Skinnie Piggie said...

I wish I could afford nice photo software! I hope you enjoy your vacation even though you'll be apart from your hubby.

Sara said...

Melissa, I demand you make time for us this Christmas! No, really. You need to meet Braden. And we need to sit around drinking DP and eating some recees's cups.

Anonymous said...

Those portraits are beautiful!

Sarah said...

Happy birthday to your sweet pup!

Anonymous said...

Holy cow, your friend is gorgeous! I'm so glad that you're getting to go home for Christmas. I love spending the holidays with my family :)

Anonymous said...

Boomer is adorable! I hope he had a great birthday!*

Dana said...

Happy Birthday to Boomer! The photos are fabulous. Great job :)

Jessica Lynn said...

Gorgeous pictures. Wanna take some of me and my husband? Totally and completely serious! Let's find a time...maybe in a couple/few weeks?!

❈ Annie - Blonde Glambition ❈ said...

Fried pickles are SOOO good, but I've never been good at making them. Btw...I hope that someday I'm lucky enough to have you take a few photos for me...you are insanely talented!! :)

Crazy Shenanigans-JMO said...

Yay! That's great that your going to get to go home for the holiday!

Anonymous said...

Thanks for the link to the fried pickle recipe! They are my favorite and I have really wanted to attempt to do them at home.

Your photos are wonderful!