Fish fries

Tacos

Cookies

Italian creme cake

Apple pie

I have the best neighbors. Ever.

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By the way, it’s not too late to enter the Crazy Days of Summer Sweet Summer Finale $200 photography giveaway. Stop by and share your favorite summer photos before 11:59pm CST on Wednesday, August 31st for your chance to win!

Thanks so much for stopping by and linking up here at Live and Love Out Loud. I’m heading on over to link up with a few of my friends. I’d love for you to link up with them too.

Believe it or not, I’m a huge fan of my sponsors here at Live and Love Out Loud. Not because they’re paying advertisers, but because they provide goods and services that I love.

My new sponsor, Paint the Moon, is no different.

Annie Manning is a breastfeeding, baby wearing photographer and the creative beauty behind Paint the Moon - your one-stop shop for professional Photoshop and Elements actions.

I am a huge fan. Huge.

{Image Source: Photographer Annie Manning}

Paint the Moon action sets are easy to use, reasonably priced and pack a powerful punch. My must-have action set? Annie’s Miracle Makeover, an essential tool in my photo editing arsenal that allows me to “smooth skin and remove shine, make eyes sparkle, polish teeth, remove wonky color issues” and more. Though I tend to stay as true to my subject’s appearance as possible, the Miracle Makeover retouching and enhancing actions are powerful enough to create a flawless look.

Another must-have is the Fresh Wonderland 2 set – a collection of “32 powerful, beautiful, easy to use and highly tweakable actions.” Combined with the Miracle Makeover, the Fresh Wonderland 2 actions take my images to the next level. Here’s a quick step-by-step video on how Annie uses actions from her Miracle Makeover and Fresh Wonderland 2 action sets to create a beautiful image:

Have I mentioned that I’m a huge fan of Paint the Moon?

*Disclosure: I was not compensated for this feature. While Paint the Moon is a sponsor here at Live and Love Out Loud, the action sets mentioned in my post were purchased with my hard-earned money. Why? Because I love Paint the Moon.

Welcome to the Sweet Summer Finale, the final week in the Crazy Days of Summer Photo Challenge.

I’m overwhelmed with emotion today. When Alicia and I were in the planning stages of our summer photo challenge, we jokingly teased that the entire thing might fail due to lack of interest. Boy were we surprised when our first posts went live. Photos began pouring in from around the world at 12:01am. And they kept on coming.

Alicia and I were floored.

Each and every week, you shared your photos with us; inviting us into the intimate parts of your life – your families, your home and your heart. Alicia and I are so grateful to you for sharing your lives with us each week. We’ve enjoyed going through your photos, every one of them.

But boy did you make judging hard!

The blogosphere is teeming with talented photographers, professional and amateur alike. I’ve learned so much from you and you inspire me to grow. Thank you, from the bottom of my heart. Though I’m sad to say goodbye, it won’t be for long. Alicia and I will be teaming up with Rebecca from Bumbles & Light to bring you a new fall photo challenge, Shades of Autumn. Stay tuned for details.

Now without further ado, here are a few highlights from my sweet summer…

Going to my first Major League Baseball game. Go Cards!

Picking wildflowers. Queen Anne’s Lace is a new favorite of mine.

Basking in the warmth of the bright summer sun.

Watching butterflies fluttering around my garden.

Stalking Hummingbird Hawk Moths drinking nectar from my Zinnias.

Stumbling upon dewy spider webs on a misty morning.

Indulging in delicious summer treats.

And watching my beautiful children grow…

*These beautiful templates were created with the easy-to-use Bloom custom photo album template from Designs by Life-n-Reflection. Check out my recent review for an exclusive discount code! 

Thank you so much for joining us in the Crazy Day of Summer Photo Challenge and for sharing in my sweet summer memories as well.

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A special thanks to the following sponsors for their generous donations, making this amazing prize package possible. Here’s the breakdown of the $200 giveaway…

My Four Hens Photography

Photographer, Sarah Cornish, is offering a $40 gift certificate to her shop, which sells photo editing actions for Photoshop, Elements and Lightroom, in addition to textures and overlays.

Weeds & Wildflowers Design

Gina Huff of Weeds & Wildflowers Design is offering a $40 gift certificate to her shop, which sells wordart, templates, paper, kits, and goodies galore.

Willette Photography & More

Photographer, Kelly Willette, is offering one spot in her Family Joy online photography course, valued at $35. The three-week course begins on September 20, 2011. Head on over to Kelly’s site to learn about what participants can expect to learn and receive during the Family Joy course.

And Then She Snapped

Rachel is offering one of her gorgeous camera straps, valued at $25.

Designs by Life-n-Reflections

Kristy Doubet of Designs of Life-n-Reflections is offering a beautiful, customizable photo album, valued at $20.

Gracely Designs

Grace is offering a full blog makeover, extras included, valued at $20.

Lilly Bimble Digital Papers and Clipart

Lilly Bimble offers high quality digital papers and clipart for all of your scrapbooking needs. Lilly Bimble is offering the Honey Bee, Amara and Chevron Digital Papers, Pastel Bunting Banners, valued at $20.

Rules: The linky will be open from Friday, August 26th – Wednesday, August 31st. Submit  your favorite photos to be entered into the drawing. Link directly to your blog post of Flickr photo, not your blog’s homepage of Flickr photostream. Link back to the Crazy Days of Summer Photo Challenge in your post. One entry per household, please. You don’t have to be experiencing summer at the moment or have participated in previous challenges. The lucky winner will be chosen via random.org and announced on September 1st.

Rules: The linky will be open from Friday, August 26th – Wednesday, August 31st. Submit your favorite summer photos to be entered into the drawing. Link directly to your blog post or Flickr photo, not your blog’s homepage or Flickr photostream. Link back to the Crazy Days of Summer Photo Challenge in your post. One entry per household, please. You don’t have to be experiencing summer at the moment or have participated in previous challenges. The lucky winner will be chosen via random.org and announced on September 1st.

We received a few days of rain here in small town Missouri over the last week. No, not brief passing showers that eventually give way to sunny skies. I’m talking about the thunder-lightning-and-severe-thunderstorm sort. You know, the kind that jolts you out of bed in the middle of the night?

It can be a downer to say the least.

Luckily, a few photography-loving folks stopped by and shared their stunning photos with me during Blue Skies week in the Crazy Days of Summer Photo Challenge. Talk about a great pick-me-up!

My photo challenge co-host (Alicia Project Alicia) and I were thrilled with the photos that came pouring in from around the world: Hawaii, Honduras, United Kingdom, Paris and Germany. Beautiful blue skies delivered right to my laptop during a dark and stormy week. It really doesn’t get any better than that!

Unfortunately, all vacations must come to an end and the top five photos of the week must have their time in the spotlight.

It was another difficult week for Alicia and I to judge, but here they are in no particular order – beautiful blue skies from around the blogosphere delivered right to your computer. Enjoy…

Top Five Pics of the Week

Submitted by: Simply You, Simply Me

Submitted by: Cedar’s Photography

Submitted by: Katie Lloyd Photography

Submitted by: Awesomeville.co.UK

Submitted by: The Good Life

Alicia and I are so grateful to you all for joining us during the Crazy Days of Summer Photo Challenge. Don’t forget…

You’re Invited

We’ve got some exciting things planned for our Sweet Summer Finale on Friday. There’s an amazing prize package giveaway filled with photography and scrapbooking goodies galore! Everyone’s invited regardless of skill level or previous photo challenge participation. Stop by and share your favorite summer photos between Friday, August 26th – Wednesday, August 31st for your chance to win!

If you’re a regular here at Live and Love Out Loud, then my love for photography should come as no surprise. I’m obsessed with capturing the beautiful, magical, memorable moments that make up this crazy thing called life; moments that I’m just blessed to be part of or bare witness to.

Life seems to take on a whole new meaning when I’m looking at the world through the lens of my camera; as if a veil is being lifted. The beauty of these moments are forever frozen with the click of the shutter button and the memories that take up residence in my heart become tangible reminders of the life I’ll someday leave behind.

These snapshots…they’re my legacy – one last gift for the people who’ve made my life the blessing that it is.

I enjoy showcasing my photographs in custom made photo albums. They’re wonderful keepsakes and the perfect gift for loved ones who live too far away to be part of those memorable moments. Like this one…

I recently created a keepsake photo album for my parents who live 4,000+ miles away. Sh, don’t tell them. It’s a surprise and it’s en route to their home in beautiful Hawaii as we speak. They’ll be so excited!

Creating the keepsake album was a cinch thanks to the easy-to-use designer photo album templates at Designs by Life-n-Reflection, an online shop filled to the brim with beautiful announcements, invitations, photo album templates and more.

The Designs by Life-n-Reflection photo album templates are designed for quality printing, compatible with Photoshop, Elements and Gimp and they’re customizable as well. Simply drop your photos in, add some text and call it a day. You’ve just created a lovely keepsake!

Have I mentioned that these albums are just as beautiful as they are easy to use? Take a look at the gorgeous pages included in the Bloom photo album…

Talk about adorable!

The Bloom photo album is perfect for preserving your precious memories, like those I’ll be sharing on Friday during the Crazy Days of Summer Photo Challenge Sweet Summer Finale. I’ll be sharing a few more pages from my keepsake album then so be sure to stop by and check it out. In the meantime, why not create an album of your own? Designs by Life-n-Reflection is offering a 10% discount on anything in the shop to readers of Live and Love Out Loud! Simply head on over and enter CRAZYSUMMER11 during checkout to receive your 10% discount.

Preserving life’s beautiful, magical, memorable moments in a keepsake album is easy to do, thanks to Designs by Life-n-Reflection.

Disclosure: Thank you to Designs by Life-n-Reflection for providing me with a free photo album template in exchange for my honest review. I truly, madly, deeply love Designs by Life-n-Reflection. You will too!