Flowers For Leontien

A very special blog hop is taking place right now.  It's for a fellow blogger, Leontien Vandelaar  who is battling cancer right now. 



Leontien this flower is for you.  May it bring you joy and comfort.

Photo Art Friday - April 27, 2012

Hello & Welcome to this weeks edition of PAF.  You can check out all the great enteries by popping on over to Bonnie's Blog,  Pixel Dust Photo Art where you'll find links to all the other participants blogs.

This week the theme was "ANY" piece of Photo Art or a piece of Photo Art showcasing one of Bonnie's textures.  She has some really great one's and generously offers a number of them for FREE. 

I have several versions of my piece to show you this week because I just couldn't stop playing around with it!  This is my mom's Lilac Tree.  It's a French Lilac and has the hugest blooms I've ever seen.  Too bad that the smell makes me sneeze if I'm around it too long.

First the Before Photo:

Version 1 - This uses Bonnie's texture, Painterly  (I Inverted the Color though before adding the texture to the photo) 

After adding the texture in PicMonkey I used some of their features to edit the photo further. 

The Next Version uses, Abstract Scratches:

Up next is a version that uses Dappled Dawn - I used the Gimp program with this version and added the Canvas Filter Effect.

Lastly I used the same texture but then added a really cool looking frame I found on Pixlr-o-matic
I also edited the photo there as well.

I had a few other versions but decided not to use them.  It would have been a huge overload I think, but I sure had fun messing around with this photo and various textures and effects.

Let me know what you think and which version is your favorite.  #1 is My favorite and hubby liked it the best as well.  We thought it had a wonderful vintage feel.
I do like that awesome frame though on the last version.

ETA:  LeAnne invited me over to post on her blog for a new feature called,  Flower Art Friday so this last shot is going to be featured over there as well.  Thanks LeAnne, sounds like fun and I love flowers.

Have a great weekend.

"Whatever" Wednesday - Some Nature Shots

Hi! - Well it's Wednesday and we're half-way through the week.  The weather this week has been great for the most part.  We had beautiful weather on Monday with temps up in the 80's.  Of course Monday evening we had a spectacular Thunder/Lightning Storm.  I tried to take photo's but with a Point-n-Shoot camera it just wasn't feasible.  Anyway I am sharing some photo's I took last week at various times.

First up:  Ants,  I took this on the way home from picking Coleen up from school one afternoon last week.  There was a huge pile of Ants on the sidewalk so I thought it would be fun to take a Macro shot of them.  After I viewed the picture on the screen I was surprised to see that the ants had captured a grasshopper and we're all in a frenzy over their kill.

 

  

      From my flower garden,  This little Ladybug was just waiting for it's moment in the spotlight!

                                                                                                                                                                                                    One of the flowers in my front flower bed.  I love how this plant has blossoms that are pink and also blue at the same time.

Finally from the Park:  These are 2 shots that I debated about using for the Scavenger Hunt prompts of: Splash and In The Sun.  In the end I went with different photo's but I still think these are worthy of being showcased.  I love the beads of water on the Goose and that Squirrel was just posing so perfectly I couldn't resist snapping a photo.

Enjoy the rest of the week and thanks for stopping by.



Scavenger Hunt Sunday - April 22, 2012

Welcome! - Well this is my first post using the "New" blogger - (Why oh Why can't people just leave things alone) so hopefully everything goes up okay and looks decent. 

Today is Sunday and that means it's time for the Scavenger Hunt over on Ashley's blog, Ramblings and Photos. - Sadly Ashley's Grandma passed away this week so the hunt has been somewhat postponed until next week.  The link is open and photo's can be posted but Ashley does not have hers up nor are the prompts for the following hunt available.  Those will go up next Sunday.  Please stop by and leave Ashley some comment love during this difficult time for her and her family. 

So this weeks prompts were:  Yellow, Something that made or makes you smile, Ancient/Antique, Splash and In the Sun.

First up:  YELLOW:  I couldn't make up my mind on which photo I liked best for this prompt so you will be seeing 2 photos.  This is a shot of some Oregon Grape Blossoms.

This is one of the exotic birds in our local park Aviary.  Don't you just love his yellow headdress. Stunning bird.

SOMETHING THAT MAKES/MADE ME SMILE:  This one is easy, Coleen always makes me smile. She's enjoying a moment of rest after some hard swinging at the park yesterday. 

ANCIENT/ANTIQUE:

This is a Pin/Pendant Cameo that belonged to my dad's sister.  It was given to her as a young girl and she lived to be
101.  This pendant is probably about 120 years old now.  It's really gorgeous.  It was given to me when I got married.





























SPLASH:  This one was "hard" - How can you capture a splash decently with a Point-n-Shoot camera?
While at the park I had hoped to get a shot of the ducks making a splash in the water but they weren't very cooperative.  I managed to get a shot but it's bit out of focus.  My husband and daughter thought is was neat though so here it is:

IN THE SUN:  I rather like how this one turned out.  I spotted some type of decorative grass (could be a weed too) surrounding one of the ponds at the park and took a macro shot of it.  The sunlight on the grass really looked pretty so I went with this shot for the prompt.

That's it's for this "hunt" - See you in 2 weeks with new prompts.

Photo Art Friday - April 20, 2012

Howdy everyone and welcome to this weeks edition of Photo Art Friday   For this week we could post "Any" piece of Photo Art or
One that conveys our interpretation of, New Life.  I chose the later.  Several weeks ago (in fact way back in February) when I took Coleen to the park I took a picture of a tree budding into new life that I really liked.  So for today's piece I used that photo but did some editing.

Here is the Original Photo:

This shot is SOOC with no editing.





































Next I uploaded the photo to PicMonkey and did some edits.  One great thing is that you can add your own textures there so I uploaded Bonnie's texture: Dreams of Spring and then used some the editing features there and added the text.  Here is the completed photo:

That's it for this week.  Don't forget to stop by Bonnie's blog and check out the other enteries.  In a couple of week PAF will be going on "hiatus" until the fall so that Bonnie can recoup and regroup.  So be sure to show her some support and love for hosting this wonderful feature every week.

"Whatever Wednesday" a little delayed.

Hello.  Yesterday was my Anniversary - Well my hubby's and my Anniversary.  #20!  We are waiting until the weekend though to celebrate.  To much going on during the week, plus this has been a very stressful week.  The daughter had company over the weekend come to visit and then Monday my mom had a flare up with her Blood Pressure and ended up in the hospital again.  She was home though on Tuesday and is doing okay.  With all that going on though I just didn't feel up to posting anything yesterday.  Haven't really been taking many pictures either.

So let's see what I can share today.
How about Easter Eggs from Easter Sunday that Greta and Coleen colored. 

Coleen blowing bubbles that she got in her Easter Basket,

My new Frog lawn decoration that my Sister-in-law surprised me with.

Piglet the cat enjoying a sunny moment in the grass.  I love how contented he looks.

Finally a Rainbow taken after yesterday's rainstorn. Lots of rain again this past week mixed with a few sunny days so we've been trying to work in the flower beds a little at a time.

Thanks for visiting.  Hopefully next week will be calmer and I will have my post up on time.



Scavenger Hunt Sunday - April 15, 2012

Hello and Welcome! - Are you up for the "hunt" - You know the one,  Scavenger Hunt Sunday over on Ashley's blog (Ramblings and Photos)

This weeks prompts were:  Simple, Grain, Transportation, Stitch and Bubble(s).

It was a rather busy week and I didn't think I would make the hunt this week but at the last minute I decided to see what I could come up with.



Ashley is going to think I'm "copying" her since last week we both used the exact same Scripture verse for one of the prompts and this week I've used the same type of image for Transportation that she used but I swear I'm not reading your mind Ashley!

Just a note that for this weeks prompts all my photos were uploaded and edited on PicMonkey using the Urban effect.

So let's get started:
SIMPLE:  - Oh I struggled with this one trying to come up with an idea as to what qualified as simple.
In the end I went with this photo:

It expresses the "simple" joy of childhood and also how simply easy it was to find some of those eggs we thought we'd hidden so well!

GRAIN:

Technically speaking Popcorn is a "Grain" by product but I thought this made for a rather cool looking photo, especially as I caught the stream of butter cascading down onto the popcorn that my daughter was popping.

TRANSPORTATION: Okay Ashley, seriously I wasn't copying your idea! One of Coleen's Hot Wheel Cars.

STITCH: This one stumped me, I don't sew worth diddly squat so stitching on a machine or by hand was out of the question for me.  I resorted to an "archived" photo on this prompt.  Way back from 2008 when our cat Harley had to have his stomach opened to remove a large rubber band, a twig and string to the tune of $800!!!

I wonder if they used, "cat gut" to stitch him up! (Just kidding, Harley).

BUBBLE(s):  Taken on Easter Sunday of some Crayola Colored Bubbles that Coleen got in her Easter basket.

So that's it for this week but be sure to stop in over on Ashley's blog and check out the other great entries.

Up next week:  Yellow, Something that made or makes you Smile, Ancient/Antique, Splash and In the Sun.

Photo Art Friday - April 13, 2012

Happy Friday the 13th! - And a Happy Birthday to my niece, Shelby (although she doesn't read my blog)...but she'll be over today for her Macaroni and Cheese lunch so maybe I'll remind her to pop by my blog from time to time.  ETA: Photo's of the Birthday Girl Below.

This week Bonnie (Pixel Dust Photo Art) gave us the option of "any" piece of photo art or using a Quote, Poem, Saying etc...that has significance to us.  I love using quotes but this time I decided to go with a Scripture instead.  I think this particular one is significant to me in that it's something I need to put into action a little more often then I do.

I love how this turned out and am thinking about having a Canvas done and hanging this in my living room.
Here is the photo I started with:

I uploaded my photo to PicMonkey and did some adjustments and then added a texture from their site called, Paint and added the Scripture verse.  I can't believe how different it looks from my original photo.

Please stop in on Bonnie's blog and check out the links to the other participants.  It's always a pleasure to see such awesome Photo Art.

ETA: Here are photos of the Birthday Girl:

Here she is enjoying her Macaroni and Cheese (with bacon) that I fixed her for her Birthday Lunch.

Something to remember her special day.

"Whatever" Wednesday - The Park Adventure continued...

Happy Wednesday everyone.  It's a lovely day here (it's not raining!).  I'm going to revisit the Park again in today's "whatever" Wednesday feature.  If you recall I did an edition of WW with Peacock's HERE but I took a lot of pictures that day that I haven't shared so I thought I'd share some of those today.

First up a couple of pictures of a rather unusual visitor at the park.  Normally you see people walking their dogs through the park but how about....a Cat!

A gal had her cat with her on a lease.  His name was I believe, Koda and she said he just loved visiting the park. 
Of course with all those birds enclosed in the Aviary he was very interested in watching them.




























 I snapped this next picture a little later as we caught up with them again looking at some of the other birds.

Do you think this Duck was one of the birds he was watching so intently? - Coleen like the colors of this one.

Later on in the visit Coleen was excited to spot some Bunnies in the bird enclosure where the Peacocks were so snapped a couple of shots of them as well.  These bunnies look (well fed) from the size of them.

Lastly here's a picture of my little granddaughter, Coleen and our dog Cricket, enjoying their trip to the park.

Hope you have enjoyed our little visit to the park.  - Enjoy the rest of your week.

Scavenger Hunt Sunday - April 8, 2012

HAPPY EASTER!

It's time to join Ashley over on Ramblings and Photo's for Scavenger Hunt Sunday. - This weeks prompts were:
New, Life, Fragrant, Pink and Obvious

So let's get started...


NEW:

Coleen's "Granny" bought her this cute little ladybug lawn ornament for her garden so it's a "New" addition to her flower bed this spring.

FRAGRANT:

These Hyacinths are a very "Fragrant" flower and apparently the bees agree!

PINK:

One of the new flowers Coleen planted in her flower bed.  I love that this plant has several shades of "Pink" on it.

OBVIOUS:

Well it's pretty, "Obvious" that this is peeling paint!

LIFE: - I saved this prompt for the last since it's Easter Sunday and I wanted to express to me what "Life" is all about.

As a Christian I believe that Jesus made the ultimate sacrifice by giving up His own life to save mine.

To those who celebrate Easter may it be a glorious day.

Join us next week when the prompts will be:

Simple, Grain, Transportation, Stitch, Bubble(s)