My Home Sweet Home » Blissfully Domestic

Just Show ‘em Your Smile

Dawn — Mon, 17 Jan 2011 16:51:29 +0000

I had braces when my husband and I met. I always say it’s one of the ways I knew it was true love, since he fell for me then.

I remember feeling a little persecuted that I didn’t get braces until my junior year in high school. Couldn’t we have done this earlier? “You didn’t need them then,” was the doctor’s reply.

(Notice the closed-mouth braces smile in my senior yearbook photo?)

Sr. Yearbook Photo

My top teeth weren’t bad, but the bottom ones had begun to sink back. I was already self-conscious about my nose. This made it much worse, especially in profile.

Our orthodontist was quirky; I remember his crazy quilted pants and offbeat office decor. My sister and I had braces at the same time.

Our high school had open campus at lunch, meaning we could go out to eat. After braces adjustments, when my mouth was sore, my girlfriends and I went to TCBY for yogurt. It seemed like a brilliant solution, but I’ll never forget the time when I ordered M&Ms on top. Frozen, hard-as-a-rock M&Ms. Ouch.

My braces were removed on a summer morning after my senior year. Afterward, I drove straight to my future husband’s house to show off my new, improved smile. I’m glad my parents were able to do this for me. It made such a difference in my appearance and confidence. I still wear a permanently attached retainer to keep those bottom teeth in place.

Best High School Friends

Win Invisalign Braces for Your Teen

Did you know that today’s teens have a modern, no wires and brackets choice for straightening their teeth? Invisalign Teen, a series of removable and virtually invisible aligners that gradually move teeth over time to help your teen achieve a great smile and proper bite, is a clear alternative to metal braces.

Invisalign Teen is offering one mom the chance to win a new smile—valued at up to $5500!—for her child. Visit Blissfully Domestic for contest rules and entry requirements. There are five ways to win!

Click the links and go visit me in other places, pretty please!

Dawn — Sat, 02 Oct 2010 14:40:28 +0000

The blog has been a little slow lately. I’m so busy watching Oprah and eating bon bons that there really isn’t time to blog (I haven’t actually seen Oprah in years; however, if you put a plate of bon bons in front of me they would engage my full attention).

I have a couple of big projects in the works, so you will eventually see the fruits of my labor. They’re occupying my time, not to mention the house full of kids and the class I teach.

Enough excuses! I’ve been clicking my shutter and tapping my keyboard at some other sites, so please visit me there:

October desktop wallpaper at (in)courage: Is your computer properly dressed for October?
(in)courage in Hilton Head: images from the (in)courage author beach house trip. (photo frames by onOne Software PhotoFrame and text effects from the Lightroom Mogrify 2 export plugin)
Friday Night Football at The Homeschool Post: Friday night football is for homeschoolers, too!
Editing Skin Blemishes in Photoshop: big results with minimal work

Click the links and go visit me in other places, pretty please! is a post from: My Home Sweet Home
© 2012 My Home Sweet Home | All rights reserved

Oh, so ready for fall!

Dawn — Thu, 30 Sep 2010 07:11:18 +0000

Are you as ready for fall as I am? The chill in the air this week is simply delicious!

FYI: I have an easy peasy tutorial on editing skin blemishes in Photoshop up now at Blissfully Domestic.

Oh, so ready for fall! is a post from: My Home Sweet Home
© 2012 My Home Sweet Home | All rights reserved

Visit me at (in)courage and Blissfully Domestic today! {pretty please}

Dawn — Tue, 13 Jul 2010 15:28:01 +0000

Y’all, I look like the biggest goofball in my first vlog at (in)courage today called Basic Photography Tips for (in)courage Readers.

I also have a post up today at Blissfully Domestic called Taking Outdoor Portraits in Full Sun.

So…, if you want to see me hiding in my bathroom shooting a video on my laptop and sounding dorky, go to the first link. If you want easy tips for shooting in full sun, go to the second (where you’ll only see my kids, not me).

If you really, really like me, well then you can do both. :-)

Happy Tuesday!

Visit me at (in)courage and Blissfully Domestic today! {pretty please} is a post from: My Home Sweet Home
© 2012 My Home Sweet Home | All rights reserved

Easy Duotone Images in Lightroom at Blissfully Domestic; KelbyTraining LIVE; Baseball; a Reminder; and my 4th Bloggiversary. In that order.

Dawn — Fri, 28 May 2010 23:35:01 +0000

Duotones

You may have noticed that I’ve been particularly partial to duotones since Photoshop World in March. Scott Kelby showed an awesomely easy way to create them in his Lightroom Killer Tips class. Check out Easy Duotone Images in Lightroom at Blissfully Domestic to see how it’s done.

KelbyTraining LIVE

Speaking of Scott, I attended his Photoshop for Digital Photographers seminar tour in Atlanta today. It rocked! I can’t recommend these one-day workshops highly enough: great tutorials; booklets with notes on what you saw; connecting with people who share your interests. That’s a whole lot of awesome packed into one day.

I got to meet Robyn and Jaddie, and see Jennifer again!

Click here to see if any KelbyTraining LIVE seminars are coming to your neck of the woods. I attend all of them in Atlanta, and I even drove to Nashville for my first one.

Baseball

Speaking of baseball (were we speaking of baseball?), I just had to share that my 15-year-old son hit his first out-of-the-park home run last night. That was a pretty exciting moment for our family, and the perfect ending for the last game of the season.

Pardon my sudden disregard for the duotone, but surely you wanted to see my budding Babe Ruth, right?

I’m looking forward to the second installment in my rewatch (is that a word?) of the Bourne trilogy tonight and sleeping in on Saturday morning, which is the big perk of finishing baseball season.

Have you signed up for my Straight No Chaser “With a Twist” CD giveaway?

I realize that I didn’t put a cut-off for my SNC CD giveaway, so I’m leaving it open until Sunday. This is an incredibly talented group of guys and a great CD.

My 4th Bloggiversary!

Monday, May 31, is the four year anniversary of the start of this blog. I have a special guest blogger interview coming next week, only I was a loser and forgot to email him the questions. Oops. I’ll post it when it’s ready. :-)

Got any great plans for the weekend?

Easy Duotone Images in Lightroom at Blissfully Domestic; KelbyTraining LIVE; Baseball; a Reminder; and my 4th Bloggiversary. In that order. is a post from: My Home Sweet Home
© 2012 My Home Sweet Home | All rights reserved

Hello, my name is Dawn and I’d like to curate your content

Dawn — Thu, 27 May 2010 04:47:52 +0000

I’ve been working on a new project with Allison Worthington that officially launched this week, called BlissReads. BlissReads is a network of sites where a group of women curators (the BlissChicks!) curate quality content from around the web. I curate for two sites, BlissReads Photography and BlissReads Technology.

What, you may be asking, is content curation?

Content curation is gathering, organizing, making sense of, and sharing content. Think of a museum curator who gathers artifacts from all over the world and carefully puts them on display. A content curator finds the best content and displays it beautifully. Content curation works to promote quality content and the creators of that content.

That’s a partial definition from the BlissReads FAQs. In a nutshell, we find great stuff on the web and feature excerpts, adding our own commentary. Comments are closed on the BlissReads sites and all posts link back to the original source, directing the reader there.

Here’s a video overview put together by Amy, a fellow curator:

What do you think?

Announcements and Links

Dawn — Mon, 12 Apr 2010 04:36:35 +0000

Marsha at Other Such Happenings is the winner of the Orville Redenbacher hot air popcorn popper!
I’ve got a super simple tutorial posted today at Blissfully Domestic on using textures for photo effects
I just saw that Zack Arias posted one of his videos from Photoshop World on his blog (seriously love Zack Arias)
Zack also posted about something new and cool called CreativeLIVE: free online photography and computer classes!

Here’s another gratuitous Easter egg hunt picture. {sigh} I could just eat her up.

Got anything interesting for me?

Please join me today at Photo Bliss!

Dawn — Wed, 20 Jan 2010 14:47:37 +0000

I have my first post today at Photo Bliss on setting the metering mode on your camera. Stop by and visit, won’t you?

Owl Pellet Dissection

Dawn — Sun, 08 Nov 2009 21:40:02 +0000

Please join me today at Blissfully Domestic for Fun with Science: Owl Pellet Dissection!

Please visit me today at Homeschool Bliss!

Dawn — Mon, 10 Nov 2008 23:29:26 +0000

My first post was published today at Homeschool Bliss. Stop by to read about one of our family homeschooling traditions, the Alpha Phonics Party!