Photo Challenges #26 - #30 Close-up, Something Blue, Eyes, Bad Habit, Self-Portrat & and Edit Me Challenge

Hello friends!  I hope you're all having a wonderful Wednesday.  Mine's going well so far--the weatherman says it will get up in the mid-60s today which is awesome!

Well, as promised last week, I'm ending my photo challenge with a *bang* today!  Today, I present to you photos from my last 5 challenges.

 Here is my close-up photo.  It's from one of the plants in our home. 

Photo Challenge #26: Close-Up

 I really wanted to take a picture of my husbands eyes because I think they're amazing!  Unfortunately, he was away for training when I was going through this round of challenges so I just snapped a shot of my own.

Photo Challenge #27: Eyes

'Tis the season for Girl Scout cookies.  I was a Girl Scout for a few years when I was younger and, to this day, I still wonder if the reason I signed up for the program was because of the delicious cookies they sell.  Kidding, of course, but Girl Scout cookies are some of my favorite cookies--especially samoas!  Anyway, since both of our men were away for Valentine's Day celebrations yesterday, I had a friend over for dinner.  She brought a bottle of wine and a box of samoas.  And the worst part is, she left the whole box with me!  I avoid Girl Scout cookies like they're the plague because it's so hard for me to stop eating them.  I seriously feel like I turned into a cookie monster last night.  I didn't finish them in one night, but I feel like could've.  All of that to say, eating Girl Scout cookies is a bad habit.  Does anyone else have this problem?  Please, nobody buy me those cookies--for my own health!

Photo Challenge #28: A Bad Habit

 My Something Blue photo is what I pull out to combat the bad habit I shared above.  My kettlebell!  Well, one of the kettlebells is mine and one is my husband's--can you guess which is which?  Mine is just quite a few pounds lighter than Scott's.  What can I say?  I married a stud!

Photo Challenge #29:  Something Blue

 And my last photo for the challenge is me, Kirsten, AKA The Foreign Domestic.   It's been fun to look back at the different pictures.  It's almost like a photo diary of sorts.  Thanks for joining me on this challenge!

Photo Challenge #30: Self-Portrait

 Edit Me Challenge: 

This week's Edit Me Challenge came from judge, and supplier of this really cool castle picture, Rosie from Leavesnbloom Studio.

Here's the picture Before:

After:

Here's what I did: 

• I cropped the picture so the focus wouldn't be on the grass, but the focus would be on the castle--and the sheep!
• I increased the temperature a bit but decreased the tint a little more.
• I maintained the same exposure but as I increased the recovery and blacks, I decreased the fill light. 
• In brightened the picture up a bit and added a little more definition with the contrast. 
• I increased the clarity and vibrance but decreased the saturation quite a bit.
• I set my hue at 56 and  split toning saturation at 35

What do you think?  What would you have done differently?

Special News:  I'll be joining forces with my friend Marilyn at The Artsy Girl Connection to host a photo challenge of our own!  We'll be sharing more information about the challenge on Sunday--so stay tuned!

Linking Up Here: 

And Then She {Snapped}

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