Morning Glory Memories

this morning i went for a visit to see what Bonnie at Pixel Dust Photo Art was up to. i like her artistic style and today she was offering two of her beautiful textures as a freebie to play/test out. they were irresistible and this evening i've given them a little workout.

this first photo is one that was taken while i was in Honduras this past Christmas. i didn't think it was a great shot for a variety of reasons but i wasn't ready to totally give up on it either. so i tucked it away for possible future photoshop play and today while i was looking through my photos it popped out at me as a possibility for using with Bonnie's textures.

so this is what i did:

• cropped it square
• duplicated it
• added the Silent Memory texture at 40% opacity - hard light
• added the Fleeting Memory texture at 30% opacity - overlay
• flattened it

i'm very happy with the results. thank you Bonnie. i hope to play with these textures again very soon.

Morning Glory Memories

it's interesting how seeing and experimenting with this shot brought back so many different memories from this special trip. it was the first time i had seen my daughter in over a year and a half. not only was i happy to see her again (all whole and happy and oh so freckled) i was also pleased to be able to experience the country and people that she had been involved with during that time. while there with her i realized that she was a young lady with extraordinary discipline. she's tough as nails on the outside and amazingly resilient but inside she has a heart/spirit that aches to make the world a better place. what a winning combination (!!) and such a blessing in my life.

today's gifts included:

• a visit from a close friend
• trying out the newest kitchen gadget: a handy dandy cherry pitter.
• smelling the fresh lemon that i sliced for iced tea ~ lemons smell really good~!!~

Texture Tuesday/ 8-9-2011

it's all about the small stuff over at Kim Klassen's Cafe today. i used her  free 'Not too Shabby' texture with one of my photos (square crop). Thank you Kim~!~

today's gifts included:

• playing tug and fetch with River (she's not 'lost' anymore)
• watching the hummingbirds chase each other around the feeder
• participating in the texture tuesday challenge this week

i am having a beautiful weekend
and wishing you the same.

today's gifts include:

• the fragrance of blossoming fruit trees
• a walk with Suki (the granddog)
• solitude

this morning i spent some time learning about and experimenting with aperture. taking the camera off of the "granny green" button is challenging me but i do like the range of creative possibilities that are opening up to me when not shooting in the manual mode . . .
this first shot is straight out of camera except for the square crop.


once again i'm behind schedule with the TAST (www.pintangle.com) project/challenge. the stitch was an Up and Down Feather Stitch and not one that i was familiar with. the first attempt was while i was away from the computer and i tried to do it from memory . . . it turned out fine but i did it wrong. i used a heavy cotton thread in green. if looked at upside down i thought it could be peas growing on a vine . . .


the second attempt was done correctly (i think) and does appear slightly different when looked at closely. i worked this one in a heavy variegated green thread.
i may go back in and add some bullion "flower buds" between the two prongy bits . . . maybe in red . . .

the third attempt was worked with a red hand dyed silk ribbon and i liked the way that turned out too.

i found this stitch charming and packed FULL of possibilities.

all of these stitches were worked into fabric postcard blanks; each attempt on a different card.

"Do not think that love in order to be genuine has to be extraordinary. What we need is to love without getting tired. Be faithful in small things because it is in them that your strength lies."

Mother Teresa

happy valentines day

today the sun is shining and i'm grateful~!!!~
i've enjoyed taking some time to familiarize myself with my new camera a little more. i'm excited by what it can do and overwhelmed by how much i need to learn about it~!~
i decided to take advantage of the warm afternoon sunshine coming in through the window this afternoon and created a couple of still life images. i love the beat up random nails chipped paint splintery look of the bench that i used as a background for a couple of small bits that i had close by . . . i also use this bench as a coffee table. it's care free and has tons of character~!!~

if you didn't happen to have any sunshine in your day, feel free to enjoy mine.

the magic of macro makes this tiny mushroom appear ginormous but in fact it was only about a quarter of an inch tall. it was accidentally uprooted when weeding the pea patch.
lift it up and put some blue sky behind it and voila~!!~it's the stuff of faiery tales~!~

i have some of the rudebeckia flowers picked and in a small vase on the dining room table. i spent a few minutes framining them up in different ways and did a few in black and white. they are such a pretty flower that it's hard to stay away from them with the camera.

while out in the pea patch, i snapped a couple of shots; one of a new little pod growing and one of a larger pod that i opened up so the peas could be seen. btw: these are quite tasty~!~

i put the finishing touches on my Sunday Postcard Art challenge card today but won't show the card in it's entirety until tomorrow.

one tall stalk of thistle is slyly growing in between some other bushes where it thinks it can't be seen . . . but, it was spotted and because i thought it photogenic with a strong future in more photographs, i've left it to grow (for now). the wickedly spiny fat stem offers many of these large globes with only one of them beginning to show some purple flower . . . so pretty and such a pesty prickly weed~!!~thistle was my dad's favorite flower, so i have a soft spot for it . . .

the daily collage work continues with an additional layer of glaze applied over all. i was surprised to find that the paper i added yesterday dried almost completely flat . . . it sure didn't look like it was going to and i had decided to be happy with it and play with a peeling paper technique that i found in a book called "Collage discovery workshop" by Claudine Hellmuth using masking tape. i figured that the extra bumps would just pull up with the tape and ta-da~!~i'd be back to a smooth surface. this was last night when i was still thinking i would have a lot of bumps and lumps in my paper.

even though it was fairly flat this morning i decided to give this technique a try anyway . . . this is a detailed shot of the only bit that i could even get to tear up. i think that this was due to my having applied glue to the top of the paper as well as the watercolor base paper yesterday. (Ms. Hellmuth does say not to apply glue to the top of the paper for this technique; but what was done was done.) the top layer of glue wouldn't let the masking tape "grab" the paper, thus no great effect. this one little spot was it. since that was pretty unexciting, i also did the wash of sunflower colored glaze for today's experiments. after all it was "The Golden Gazette"~!!~

this is a bit of pre-washed muslin i have set aside to wipe any excess paint off of my brushes. who knows what sort of wonderful painted cloth i'll eventually end up with for future use in other projects. and, best of all, no wasted paint~!!~and now, i'm off to "the big city" to do some shopping and see the new Harry Potter movie.

inside of my great grandmothers' beautiful antique sewing cabinet there are a few remnants of her past life. bits that were in it when it was given to me . . . and that i felt, should be left as found.

the old red cardboard box is actually labeled as a bible box. my grandmother used it for a few loose buttons and needles and the odd bit of thread wound onto a cardboard holder. i wonder where the bible has gone to . . . ? . . .inside the door is a cubby that holds the box of CLINTON No. 5 - DRESSMAKER PINS and the bible box and several very dusty spools of thread. i think that there is something about going through these things of my grandmothers and feeling suddenly closer to her . . . a bittersweet comfort and reminder of who she was and what she valued . . . she was a strong, hardworking and gracious business woman whom i didn't know nearly well enough.

my grandmother also loved to garden and lived in California where she could and did grow quite a beautiful garden very successfully. i remember wandering through the front part of it as a six or seven year old child and having the feeling that it was pure magic . . . very thickly planted with an amazing variety of plants and very well tended with a "secret garden" sort of feel to it. she lived in the city but once in the garden, this fact was easily forgotten. in the back yard there was a lemon tree that was prolific and grandma would always send us home with a box of lemons if they happened to be ripe when we visited. my father loved lemons and was thrilled with this gift~!~ occasionally, on the years we couldn't visit, grandma would mail us a box of them, knowing that lemon trees didn't thrive in our part of the U.S. and that my dad had a special fondness for them.

i wonder sometimes it this isn't part of the reason that i love to garden . . . do you suppose gardening can be a geneticly inherited tendency?

this post surprises me . . . i really don't know why i'm thinking of my grandmother today. i usually think of her a lot in May, as that is the month in which she died. i do not know when her birthday was . . . or what prompts this bit of nostalgia . . . maybe the wonders of my own garden combined with the opening of the sewing cabinet created a magical combination that just couldn't be denied . . .

my apologies for not keeping up with comments, etc . . . the last few days have been mostly used up in traveling and medical tests. i have just enough energy to post my daily discipline photo and will have to attempt to catch up with the rest of the business as i can.

Random Moments From The Garden

columbine enjoying the sun
square crop

an abstract of a vehicle license plate dated 1923~!~

i think these may be called pinks but i'm not sure. if anyone knows feel free to share.

a very tiny flower (probably a weed)

square crop

definately a weed~!!~and wicked looking in macro

found a mushroom this a.m. and can't decide whether i prefer the square crop/composition

or this one with lots of negative space . . .

i have an old cow skull that has accumulated some lichen over the years . . . it made for another interesting abstract as well as a great study in texture. i was also playing around with my dof on this shot.

fairies' wings . . . i just love this shot~!!~

i think this is the mughos forming some brand new cones. i've never really noticed them quite like this in the past . . . not sure if it's because they haven't ever done it before (which i doubt) or just that i notice so much more since i started with the photograpy and this is especially true when i have the camera in my hand.

the grass that grows near the pond is starting to flower. these are especially difficult to shoot because the actual bloom is not bigger than a strand of hair. if you enlarge this photo, you will see reddish coily parts of the blossom . . . really amazing in macro~!!~

i have two jacobs ladder plants, also growing by the pond, one is white and the other is purple. they are both blooming nicely right now but what i really like about these plants is that their foliage resembles ferns. in our growing climate it can be really really REALLY hard to get ferns to take hold, so i rely on my jacobs ladder to give me fern-like texture around the pond area. i know, that isn't what i shot today, but the flowers have sorta stolen the show~!~

this is just a photogenic weed. again, a very tiny cluster of blossoms . . .

remember back to when i was doing my scrap management project~!?!~ well, i had sewn up a coin quilt top and sent it off to be quilted . . . this is the back of the quilt.

this is a detail of the front.

and this is the little quilt (child size) all finished. i have the binding done and the label sewn on and it will be leaving the house this afternoon on it's way to being donated to a local/community charity/auction/benefit that is being held later on this month. and that is my wonderful daughter holding it for me . . . i would like to post photos of her but to tell the truth, it scares me. maybe one of my readers has advice on that . . .

there are so many horror stories about various and potental mis-use of them . . . am i being paranoid or should i really not be posting photos of my daughter!?! after all, she is an adult now . . .~!!!~

once she goes to Honduras i will be able to get back in the habit of "scrap management" and then, hopefully, will have more of these quilts stacking up for future use as gifts and charity donations. it sure feels good to have this one completed and going out to be useful~!!~

i also have a happy update on the lost and found dog: he was adopted out last friday to a family happy to have him~!!~ i was so glad to hear that he didn't have to spend too very long at the shelter before someone realized that he was a "keeper".

After The Rain

This early evening we got a quick littl rain shower. then the sun came out and the wind stopped blowing for the first time in days. i ran out into the garden to see what i could find to shoot. it was delightful out there and i feel much better after having walked around barefoot in the rain soaked grass, finding signs of early summer and listening to the birds sing their evening songs.

a flowering wild onion that was accidentally transplanted with some native cactus plants years ago. the onion grows strategically enough within the cactus plant that it has earned a permanent place in the garden. it's actually quite pretty. the blossoms aren't completely opened up yet but their getting there . . .

i have some wooly thyme growing in a rock garden area and it is also blossoming. this is a very close macro and these flowers are uber tiny . . . roughly the size of a ball headed pin.

i discovered a tiny green grasshopper sitting on top of one of the snow on the mountain blossoms. it seemed to be enjoying the sudden change in the weather also. i love the color green that it is~!~

the iris are just beginning to unfurl their buds . . . another day or two and i will have a few flowers~!!~

the peonies are also just starting to open up. i seem to only have a few of these flowers this year which is too bad because they are beautiful, quite fragrant and make very nice cutting flowers for the house.

i hope that you enjoyed my evening post rain trip through the garden as much as i did~!~