Yesterday, we got to go to take the kids to the premiere of a cool new show on the Sprout Network called Nina’s World (I’m covering it for Mommy Nearest). The event had a bunch of stuff for kids to do, like glitter tattoos, face painting, hair stations, pictures, cookie decorating, and a music area. The kids had a blast on the carpet and playing at the music station.

on the red carpet

bang the drum

But I was sooooo excited to see Rita Moreno. She has the EGOT! She’s a legend! And she looked amazing.

that is Rita freaking Moreno!

Around The ‘Net

~Why the Best War Reporter in a Generation Had to Suddenly Stop

~The Most Misread Poem in America

~What the World Got Wrong About Kareem Abdul-Jabbar

~A Toxic Work World

~Welcome to hell: Apple vs. Google vs. Facebook and the slow death of the web

~The Forgotten Project That Could Have Saved America From Drought

~Air Canada pilot diverts international flight to save dog

~If Anyone Finds MH370, It Will Be the Men on This Ship

~Russian 5yo boys dig way out of kindergarten, try to buy Jaguar sports car I think these boys are in Annabel’s class.

~Just a fan no more: Although blind, Jake Olson joins USC football team as long snapper

FM In The AM

~Last month, I filmed a bunch of segments for a new web show, FM In The AM. It’s going to have a bunch of quick bits on style, food, wellness, home design, family, and crafts. The host is Susie Meister, who some of you will recognize from MTV’s Road Rules/The Challenge. It was really great to work with her – I was in on the first day of filming, so we had fun figuring everything out as we went along. The first segment I filmed is up, ways to upcycle your sneakers. I hope you like it – there are more segments to come!

Get The Boot-ie

~This week I got an email from Nordstrom about booties, and I clicked through to look at what they have in stock. As I was scrolling, I came across these Pink Shearling Ankle Booties that look like something a FemBot would wear, and holy sheep, they are by Fendi and they are $1600! I don’t understand fashion.

On Our Book Shelf
We recently picked up some books for the kids that I thought I’d share:

~Adventure Annie Goes To Kindergarten this one is obviously huge in our house
~The Rhino Who Swallowed A Storm I am obsessed with this one.
~Sun Kisses, Moon Hugs This one is just so amazing for helping kids with separation – great for death, divorce, moving away, etc. Highly recommend!

RadLab & PicTapGo Giveaway

~I have another fun giveaway today! One of my favorite photo companies, Get Totally Rad, wants to give away some of their cool products (products that I have been using for years and spent my own money on!). The first is an amazing program called RadLab, which works inside of Photoshop or Lightroom. RadLab has about 80 different effects you can apply to your pictures – like Instagram filters, but 1,000 times better because you can control every single element of each filter – and you can use as many effects as you want until you’re satisfied with the results. Since I’m usually taking pictures of my kids, or taking pictures with my kids nearby, I rarely have the time to set up each photo perfectly (I shoot in manual). RadLab lets me fix my photos on my computer until they look amazing. Here are some examples:

statue before radlab
Statue of Liberty, straight out of camera.

statue after radlab
Statue of Liberty after using: Lights On > Oh, Snap! > Sugar Rush > Boutwell Magic Glasses x2

bridge before radlab
Just a throw-away picture before RadLab.

bridge after radlab
After using RadLab effects Lights On > Sugar Rush > Claire-ify > Highlight Separator > Boutwell Magic Glasses

Do you see why I bought RadLab the second they released it?! So awesome. You can see some other stunning examples here.

The second thing we’re giving away is one of my favorite phone apps, PicTapGo! It’s like Radlab, but on your iPhone. I love using it to brighten my pictures, or add other effects.

original James
My pictures of James often look like this, because he never stands still long enough for me to adjust the light balance on my iPhone camera.

color James
To fix that picture, I used: Lights On > Lights On > Auto Color > Warm It Up > Crispity

PicTapGo! has several black and white options I love:

bw James
I used the same recipe in the above photo, but then I added the Old Skool effect.

There are some great examples of PicTapGo! on their page here.

The cool peeps at Get Totally Rad are giving away one copy of RadLab and five copies of PicTapGo! All you have to do to win is leave a comment letting me know which one you’d like to win (or both, if you want!), and what you love to take pictures of. I’ll pick winners via Random.org and announce them next Sunday. Good luck!

UPDATE: WE HAVE WINNERS!

PicTapGo
#74 Sarah
#16 Tammi P
#43 Beth
#92 Julia Kay
#42 Colleen S

Get Totally Rad
#27 Kristin

Look for emails from me!

Congrats to the winners, and thanks to everyone who entered!

Happy Sunday, everyone!