Beauty Divine

I think I have ADD. Or is it ADHD? Whichever disorder that makes you able to pay attention to something for five minutes tops before you're off dreaming about Caramel Latte's and reading a book by the beach. Yep that's definitely me.

Especially today. I've been working on designing a business card for our office staff for about five months now. Seriously. I keep starting the design process only to delete what I've done fifteen minutes later because it needs to be perfect. And then I get these random comments from co-workers like, "So how's the business card going?" In which case, I immediately have make an urgent phone call, or go somewhere, anywhere, out of the room. They probably all know I'm stalling. I just have to get it right!

Anyway, so this morning I decided, "Today's the day." I'm going to focus. I'm going to block Starbucks out of my mind and make the best flippin business card there ever was....but first I need some inspiration. That's where I fell. I should've known better than to go to the one place I get most distracted. Flickr.

I ran across this amazing designer (bemky) for Longview Christian Church who had his own organized photostream, with categorized sets and labeled tags. Go ahead. Marvel at it: http://www.flickr.com/photos/bemky/ I'm pretty sure he never gets distracted. And right then and there of course I decided I HAVE to have a photostream. So instead of spending two hours on the business cards, I put together a flickr account. With organized sets and labeled tags. And I even put a widget on the side of my blog (take that, bemky) just for you.

And now I'm going to lunch. I'm totally going to focus this afternoon. I really am.

On Tuesdays I'm usually involved in a women's bible study on the Attributes of God. This is usually where the older ones share their wisdom and I just sit there and wish I was as smart as them!

Today though, I chose to stay home because of one very sick doggy. I've been dogsitting this week for Molly and she is not doing so good. After a very traumatic experience at the vet yesterday and a surgery on her foot, Molly is now wearing one of those cones around her neck so she can't rip open her stitches. This leaves her constantly bumping into things and getting stuck because she is unable to see and hear all around her. This morning she was very depressed and defeated. So I opted to stay home with her and make sure she gets adjusted to the cone.

But as I've been sitting with Molly I started to see a few things clearly from my Bible Study. This week we are studying God's goodness. I was tempted to do the usual quick study: "God is good, okay I'm done!" But I knew that deep inside I question His goodness. There is so much hardship in this world that it's sometimes hard to accept that He is good even though he doesn't always intervene. As I was reading through it, I kept hearing poor Molly crash into things and thought "Life just isn't fair. Why does she have to go through this? Why do we have to go through tough times?"

I always have this nagging fear that God is waiting until everything is good in my life so He can take it all away and teach me something. Or it's hard for me to say, "You are all I need, Lord" because I'm scared He'll test me in it and take things away. I question God's goodness. Does He really have my best interests in mind?

But today in our study, I read Psalm 84:11: "For the Lord God is a sun and a shield; the Lord gives grace and glory; no good thing does He withhold from those who walk uprightly." I started to think about that verse and look at Molly's situation with a bigger perspective. The cone may make her miserable right now. It's uncomfortable and isolating. But it's for her good. She can't tear at her stitches. She won't get an infection. She will get to keep her foot if it stays clean. Right now there is no better way for Molly's wound to be kept safe.

It works the same way with us. God is good. We can know that He wants what is best for us because He didn't even hold back from giving us His most valuable gift: His Son. We may hurt and not understand why we have to go through things, but it is not because God wants to punish us or test how much we can take. He gives us grace when the hardship is a consequence from what we've done, and makes all things work for His glory. He is a sun - a resource, strength, power - and a protective shield around us. God is good.

Okay don’t laugh at how much time I have on my hands but last week I did something really fun! I had been watching TV (being a slacker) and kept coveting all the super cute outfits I was seeing. And obviously working part time, I don’t have the funds to be buying a new fall wardrobe so here’s what I did: I took inventory.

I went through my closet and attempted to put together outfits. To my surprise after pulling everything out and layering a bunch of things I was able to come up with almost 40 outfits!

When I worked at a department store we had to put together outfits for the mannequins (forms) and had certain rule to make them look “fashion worthy.” At times it was really difficult to take boring and sometimes ugly clothes and try to make them into a cute outfit, but anyway this is what I did with my closet. My theory is that we have a lot more than we think but get bored after wearing a shirt the same way every time. I tested the theory on my sister’s closet and she was freaking out. Now before you give up and decide there’s no way you’ll find much in your closet, you have to try it!

Here’s the rules…
1. Get out a piece of paper and write as you go. Trust me, you’ll forget what goes with what after going through twenty things. Then you can write down when you notice something missing from what otherwise could be a really cute outfit. You’ll quickly find out what you need to pick up when you go shopping.

2. Start with laying out all of your pants on bed or floor side by side. It’s easy to put on whichever jeans that are clean with the shirt you want to wear, but don’t do it! You have to pair the shirts with the best pair of jeans for that shirt. As you put shirts together, hold them up to all of your jeans and see which looks best. Write it down and whenever that pair of jeans is clean, you can look at all the shirts that go well with them and choose from those. (By the way, ‘mom jeans’ don’t go with anything. Neither do pants that are too short. This is a perfect time to throw them away!)

3. Next make a goal to never wear any one shirt by itself. At the mall, we had to layer at least three tops on a form. Usually I just grab a couple longer tank tops that complement the top/main shirt and let them peek out the bottom of my shirt. For fall especially you can make your wardrobe stretch by pulling out jackets, cardigans, or any other cover ups for your arms. Then you can keep wearing the majority of your summer clothes.

4. Add accessories. Sometimes a long necklace really helps a flowy shirt from looking like a balloon. Add some fun tights under a dress to keep warm. For shoes, look at the style of your pants. Jeans with more of a leg opening/flare are better for flat shoes. Bootcut jeans are best with heels. (Skinny jeans are the exception)

5. Now that you have an idea of the great outfits in your closet, but hopefully along the way you’ve been writing down what is missing. For example: “This outfit would be great with a silver ballet flats or a black cardigan.” Now tally up how many times you needed that item for your outfits. The item you needed most will be at the front of your mind the next time you go shopping and you won’t waste money on another thing you won’t wear.

Time consuming - but so worth it!

Ever wonder how photos in magazines always look sharp with amazingly bright colors? I recently learned a few simple tricks in Photoshop to get photos looking vivid and bright. Here's what to do...

1. Open your photo of choice in Photoshop. I chose this photo of Britt Nicole which I did not take myself, obviously but had fun editing. Go ahead and copy the layer so that you can see the difference in your photo you go. I did this by going to Layer>Duplicate layer.

2. First tip: Brighten the image with exposure. Image>Adjustments>Exposure… When the box pops up, very little goes a long way. Slide the top exposure bar to +.10. Click OK.

3. Second tip: Bring out the colors in your image. I did this by going to Image>Adjustments>Vibrance… When the box pops up, slide your vibrance up until your colors pop, but don’t look harsh or fake. I went up to about +55. Click OK.


4. Third tip: Bring out the contrast in the image. I did this by going to Filter>Sharpen>Unsharp Mask. Take the radius all the way up to 250pixels. I usually adjust the amount anywhere from 7-15. For this image I set the amount at 10. Click OK.

5. Check your Layers palette to see how much better your image looks! You can do this by going to Window>Layers and making sure there is a checkmark by it. Once the palette is opened, click the eyeball next to the top layer. This will hide your changes. Click it again to show the changes. Then save it!

Here is my finished product with some text and a lens flare added. Hope you like it!