Recovering from the marathon

I am shocked... I actually care about that "followers" number in the corner of my blog.  I really didn't think I did.  I mean, this blog is about my kids and me -  - a place for me to give my Mom (a committed reader, though not a follower) a good laugh while at work and a spot for me to share (let's face it, gripe) what's been going on in this Forever single life as a parent of two.

But then I saw my number drop down a person.  And I was personally hurt.  I don't even know who the person was, but I wracked my brain to figure out what I'd done to send him/her away. 

Was it the blogapalooza?  I mean 24 posts in 24 hours can kill a person's blog reader, right?  In my defense, I caught up a lot in that day - - finishing up my vacation chronicles, locating and preserving my chi-isms that were previously scattered around in the most obscure locations, and just releasing myself of a lot of writing I'd not had a chance to do in a long time.  Oh, and I cannot forget that I earned a $24.95 voucher to print a hardbound copy of my blog for my troubles - - it was supposed to be a whole blog book, but mine was 45 pages, and they only covered 20.

I think I might be paranoid.  Just as quick as I considered blogapalooza as a reason for the lost reader, I decided it must be something more personal. 

I've lost my voice!  Could it be that I'm not funny anymore?  Really, I never thought I was - - and I never consciously set out to be.  Could it be that I somehow offended this anonymous reader?  If I did, I'd love to know what it was, because though I ramble on and on about my encounters, observations, and reflections, I don't think I'm that much of a threat against the opinionated.  Hmmm.... what power I could wield if someone actually were listening.  Can I confine that power in a spray bottle, spritz a teacher cape with it, and wear it (discretely under my clothes) to work in my classroom?  I'd be super teacher for sure!

Whatever the reason for the exodus (is one person an exodus, perhaps I should look it up), I'm grateful I have this meager spot in cyberspace to record my history.

An unrelated topic entirely...

I've been playing around in PhotoShop quite a bit lately.  I'm trying to determine my editing style.  So I thought I'd share a portrait in progress I took the other day.  The picture was taken with my "no flash" auto setting on the Canon, and I had little man distracted with a banana and the television as I composed a quick picture, adjusted my bedroom light (it has an "N:vision" daylight bulb in it), and snapped away.

This is SOOC (straight out of camera):

Here, I just adjusted the "levels" - - my instructor at j-school mentioned this was an acceptible tweak to a photo:

This uses Pioneer Woman's free Action Set II "Bring on the Eyes" at 40% and "Define and Sharpen":

On top of the previous, I used CoffeeShop Powder Room (step 1: Smooth Skin only) for this shot:

Going back a step and using the D&S version, I added Pioneer Woman's "Lovely and Ethereal" action:

I went all the way back to the SOOC image, added CoffeeShop "Creamy Chocolate Black and White" and Pioneer Woman's "Bring on the Eyes" (100% this time):

Then I used the above save and adjusted the "levels" which brightened the background (this is my favorite version):

And here's a quick side by side to compare...