Almost Two Months

It is when people say to cherish every moment with your child, because they grow up so quickly. My sweet little Mason, is now my sweet big Mason. Watching him grow these past (almost) two months has been nothing but amazing.

Mason's first Thanksgiving



My little dinosaur (November 27th)



Course Reflection

This class has been so much fun; and was by far the most enjoyable class I had this semester. My knowledge about digital media has expanded a lot over this entire course. I learned multiple new online digital media websites to create my own works of art that I am sure to use some of them again. Some of the websites I plan on using after this class is Pixlr Express, Flame, and Tagxedo. Pixlr Express was very easy to use and I loved the fact that it was completely free, yet still had several editing options. Flame was just very neat and I enjoyed playing around with it; would love to take more time on the website and really learn how to use all the features. Finally, Tagxedo was also one of my favorites. I am a huge fan of word art and 'word clouds'. Some day I would like to create one and have it printed and framed for my sons room.
Something I improved on was my knowledge about creating and putting and video together on Windows Movie Maker and adding my own music to it. I found it rather enjoyable and was happy with the outcome of the video mashup I made. It was also really neat to learn because my brother makes and creates a ton of video/movies at BGSU... so it was neat to see part of what he does to create those films.
As far as my future career goals, I have not yet determined what I want to do with my communications degree; but I am sure several of these assignments will be great to know how to do and they all really helped expand my knowledge on how to create pieces of art and how to make them appealing to the eyes.
Overall, I really enjoyed this class and kind of getting to know the students in it. I hope one of my classes next semester is this much fun.

Six Weeks Old

Wow, where does the time go? I feel as it were just yesterday I was in the delivery room at Defiance Regional Hospital having my son... and today he turned SIX WEEKS old. I am thankful to have been able to cherish every single day with him; and although I want him to stay my little boy forever, it's been amazing to watch him grow so much already. He is already such a smart little boy, and I can not wait to watch his personally begin to show these next few months.
I am also very excited for his first real holiday. Thanksgiving is such a great time, and I am so thankful for the family and friends that we will be spending it with. I am excited for family coming home and that they will finally meet him!



Laying down with daddy

One Month Old

Today my son turned 1 month old. I can not put into worlds how fast this past month has flown by. Watching my son grow everyday has been beyond amazing and I am so blessed to have such a special little guy in my life. Because he was a 9lb 6oz baby, everyone tells me how he looks and acts so much longer, but no matter how old he looks and acts, he will always be my little boy.

At one month old Mason loves his swing and also loves to be held. He is very alert and loves to look around a lot. His favorite things to stare at are lights, paintings, and mirrors (or my cellphone camera when taking a selfie, lol). He loves car rides and is a very good baby when we are out in public. He also is a good baby at home. In addition, he is very strong and can hold up and control his own head movements already! He also has a very strong grip, even the doctor agreed. The one thing Mason is not a fan of tummy time, but maybe that will change over time. He only fusses when he is hungry or when he is fighting sleep. God truly did bless us with a very handsome and good baby.

Blog Logos

This week for my digital arts class at The University of Toledo we learned all about vector graphics. Our assignment was to use Method Draw to create two different logos for our blog. I have worked with vector graphics before with different software's and have really enjoyed it, but I did not really like Method Draw. I did not like Method Draw that much because it was missing so many editing features that I am use to using. I am use to there being a lot more editing tools to make the graphics cleaner and better. With that being said, I did my best with what I had to work with. The foot logo is not exactly what I had in mind, but they did not have a "flip" tool, only a rotate tool, so I was unable to create exactly what I wanted too. Overall I am pleased with my work though based on the tools given.

These may seem rather basic, but the block was a lot more difficult to create on Method Draw than I thought it would be, and the shape of the foot was a lot more difficult than I though it would be either. Although, I do like the 'basic' look of the two logos I created because they are just enough to catch your eye. ALSO, I would have liked them to have a transparent background, but for some reason was not able to save them from the website, so I have to screenshot them and crop them. Thanks for viewing my blog! Hope you enjoyed my logos.

Typography Mason

This week for my Digital Media class at The University of Toledo we are learning and creating images based on TYPOGRAPHY. Typography is the art and technique of arranging type in order to make language visible. Overall I found typography to be very interesting. With typography, not all images come out the way you would like them to, so it took me awhile to choose the best photo to use for this project.

This image above is of my son and was created on GlassGiant.com. I used an 80 width and kept the font size small. At first I was not sure if people would be able to see what this image was, but after asking a few friends, they could immediately see it was a face and figured out that it was Mason (because why would I use anyone else's face for my projects when I have this adorable little boy).

The three images above of my son were created using Text-Image.com. Text-Image is an easy to use ASCII generator with a few different editing options. The first image is an ASCII converted photo and I chose to keep the background white, but changed the font color of the text to blue. I really like how the blue turned out with the white background. The second image is a HTML converted photo. It is hard to see (unless you click on the photo an make it bigger), but I chose normal font and used MASON as the text sequentially throughout the entire photo. This was probably my favorite photo from this portion of the assignment. Last, but not least, the third image is a Matrix converted photo. There were not many editing options for this conversion, but I chose to add extra contrast so you could see Mason's face a little better.

This image I created using Tagxedo.com. On this website they had lots of great examples that expanded my mind on all the different ways you could create word clouds. Word clouds are visual representations of text which may include additional imagery. For the image I created, I based it around all the love I have for my little family. This was my overall favorite website to use and I love the outcome of this project! Tagxedo.com was very easy to use and had a lot of great editing options. It was really hard to chose a font and color theme because I loved them all. I would use this website again to create a piece very similar to the image above to print out on a canvas and hang it in my living room.

 

These three images above were (in order) created using online typography generators: Textorizer 1, Textorizer 2, and Excoffizer. The first photo I used Textorizer 1, which was used on a picture of Mason laying down wearing his gray and blue jacket. Textorizer 1 takes words of your choosing and throws them onto the picture like confetti. The words I chose for this image were: Mason, baby, love, pride, & joy. I chose those words because they describe the love I have for my son. The second photo I used Textorizer 2. This online typography is really awesome. You can add random words, or you can use a quote. The quote I used for the picture of my boyfriend and son is from the song "It Won't Be Like This for Long" - by Darius Rucker. The quote is, "It won't be like this for long. One day we'll look back laughing at the week we brought him home. This phase is gonna fly by, so baby just hold on." I chose those lyrics, because our son is growing up way to fast already, and time is really flying by. I decided to keep the words a little smaller and closer together to really bring out the colors of the photo in the background, and had the words big enough to read, but not take over the entire picture. The third and final photo was created using Excoffizer. This was a lot different than all of the other websites. This image is based on using wavy lines, and does not use words or phrases. I kept the lines in this picture close so you could see Mason better. I like how skinny the lines are; you really have to focus on the picture to see how wavy the lines really are. I also like how the pitch black areas are completely filled in with solid black; it gives your eyes a couple places to rest.

My Heart and Soul

Until you are a parent, you do not realize how much you can love someone. Yes, I am beyond in love with my boyfriend, but the love I have my son is unexplainable. He is my pride and joy. He and his daddy hold the key to my heart.
Mason never fails to put a smile on my face. I might be a little bias, but he is definitely thee most handsome, strongest, funniest baby ever. He's got his mommy's lips and chin; and he's got his daddy's eyes and grumpy face. His grumpy face is absolutely adorable. He's also very strong. He has a very strong grip when he holds someone's finger, he has a lot of neck strength already and can hold his head up by himself pretty good, he also can lay on his daddy's tummy and use his legs to inch-worm up his daddy's tummy all the way to his daddy's head, and he can also roll over onto his side very easily. It amazes me, and others, how strong and alert of a baby he is. He also has many funny things he likes to do. Mason loves to pee when his diaper is off... The first time he peed all over his bassinet we just thought our timing was unlucky; but that does not seem to be the case. I am not joking when I say he pees 75% of the times we change his diaper. We can not help but laugh about it though, because it is absolutely hilarious and there's really nothing we can do about it, haha. He also learned how to pull on mommy's hair yesterday. I think that is just so cute and hilarious.
On another note, I am beyond amazed how amazing of a father Corey is to our son. I mean, I knew he was going to be an amazing father, but actually seeing it, melts my heart into a million pieces. When he comes home from work the first thing he does is give Mason a million kisses. He also loves taking him for strolls around the block, and telling him about all the fun things he's going to teach Mason when he gets older. I love these two men with all of my heart and can not wait to see where our life takes us together.

Mason on 10/20/15 with the pumpkins

his grandma bought him.