I took time during lunch to touch up an old, faded photograph of Mary Grace's immediate family + her aunt and grandmother. It was taken several months before Mary Grace was born:



Here is the original:



You can see that most of the photo has faded except the edges, as they were hidden behind the frame over the years.

I started by making a feathered selection around the faded area. I adjusted the levels, manually corrected the color balance in the shadows/midrange/highlights, adjusted the levels again and then did some minor touch up with the spot healing tool.

The result isn't perfect, but good enough. :)

It's much easier work when the original hasn't been in the sun:

With the voting ritual coming up, here's a very funny, yet sad & true clip. Enjoy!

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(yes, that's Mary Grace at the end of the video!)

Miriam receives more gifts than the rest of us and it comes as no surprise to us when she's given a book or two.

What did surprise us was the last page of this Miffy book:



Some parents complain that it's inappropriate. Our response was along the lines of "can you believe they put that in there?" followed by laughter whenever we saw the book or explained to someone what's in it.

On a side note, we took Miriam & Elias on their first visit to Ringling Brothers and Barnum & Bailey circus a couple of weekends ago. Neither one of them were particularly excited, though Miriam did show some interest in the animals, including the Bengal Tigers who were "displaying their natural behaviors to patrons":



I love the swat at the beginning of the video. I found myself almost wishing to see something tragic happen just to change the pace of things. Maybe next time.

david

We just returned from Florida after spending the past four days with the Walker extended family for the biannual family reunion/Thanksgiving/Christmas trip. We're exhausted and still full. :)

We're going to put some pictures up when we get a free minute this week.

It was great spending time with everyone & we won't wait until the next to see everyone.

When we returned, I had a letter waiting for me from an old friend that I haven't seen in a number of years and that I'd been trying to run down. It was the perfect ending to a great break. :)

david