Flower Art Friday - June 1, 2012

Hi! - It's time for Flower Art Friday
over on LeAnne's blog, (Photos by LeAnne) so be sure to pop on over and check out all the gorgeous flower art.  You won't be disappointed.

Here is my entry for this week.

I bought a new Oriental Poppy last year towards the end of the summer and we never got the chance to see it bloom because the only bloom it had dried up in the heat.  The plant however weathered the summer and winter and came back strong this year with loads of these gorgeous blooms.  I love the lacy look of the petals and the white/orange color.  I hope you enjoy it too. - Click to Englarge, it looks even prettier when you do.

"Whatever" Wednesday - The Metal Sculpture Edition

Hi! - Well this week I'm sharing some photo's taken back in Feb. of this year.  Coleen and I made a trip around town to take some pictures and we discovered this Metal Sculpture downtown on Main Street.

There is a Nest and birds in the tree...

A Closer View of the Nest...

There is a butterfly or dragonfly (not sure which it's suppose to be)...

A Spider in it's web with it's prey...

Lastly some funky flowers at the base of the tree...

Hope you have enjoyed a little bit of the "art" that is part of our downtown. 

Jumping the Gun or I Can't Wait For Summer!

It hasn't been very warm here so far this spring and with summer just around the corner we're starting to wonder if it will ever warm up.  Coleen on the other hand just couldn't wait for summer weather to arrive so while I was watering the lawn today she donned her swimming suit and headed outside for a dash through the sprinkler.  The temperature today was barely in the low 70's so she had to be cold but she had fun for about 10 minutes before saying she'd had enough and headed back inside to dry off and get warm again.

Memorial Day and Birthday Remembrance

Please click HERE for my Scavenger Hunt Sunday Photos:

I couldn't let this day pass without posting these two photos.

 The flowers my mom and I took out to the Cemetery this morning for my dad's birthday.  We grew all these flowers in our own gardens.  He loved seeing our flowers when he was alive.

Next up:

Nothing more needs to be said.

Scavenger Hunt Sunday - May 27, 2012

First off today would have been my dad's 92nd birthday - So dad,  "Happy Birthday!"  I know you are enjoying your day in Heaven.

Now it's time for this weeks, Scavenger Hunt Sunday photo's.
This weeks prompts were:  Beneath Your Feet, Capturing Movement,
Texture, Face Your Fears and Currently.  -  Okay I will confess that I had decided to SKIP this week because the prompts seemed really hard and I just hadn't found the time to search for things that would fit the prompts.  I had a couple of them and then at the last minute I decided to go ahead and finish out the set and post them.

So here goes:

BENEATH YOUR FEET - I totally "staged" this photo but I like how it turned out.  First off I have "ugly" feet so you aren't seeing a lot of my feet in this photo.  I had my daughter take one of Coleen's rats out of the cage and put him into his play ball and then I put my foot on top the ball and snapped some pictures.  This is one is Cheesie, his brother Wheesie wasn't feeling up to getting out of the cage so we just used the one rat.

CAPTURING MOVEMENT:

I was outside the other night when Piglet (the stray kitty we feed) sauntered over and I started taking some pictures of him.  He wasn't in the "mood" for photo's though and quickly got up and headed across the street.  I caught this shot of him just as he was starting to make his get-away!

TEXTURE: I had some other photo's (archived) that might have worked better for this prompt but I wanted to be totally current this week so I'm going with this shot.

The neighbors who live behind my mom's house have this really strange looking pet chicken.  I went outside the other night to take some photo's of it.  I love all the "texture" in it's feathers.

FACE YOUR FEARS:
Okay the story behind this shot is that one of the visiting raccoons showed up the other night (no we don't live in the country) to eat the cat food on my mom's porch.  We normally chase them off but this night my daughter and I decided to go outside and try to get some pictures.  By the time we got outside the raccoon had vanished off the porch and we'd locked ourselves outside the front door.  This meant going down our dark driveway to the back door.  I made Greta go on ahead in case the raccoon was lurking in the flower beds.  Then I went inside and grabbed another flashlight as Greta said she thought she could hear the raccoon climbing the back fence. Sure enough there he was, snatching the peanuts out of the Squirrel Feeder and we caught him red handed and faced our fears of being attacked by a raccoon!

CURRENTLY:  This one was a bit of a "toughie" but here is what is currently going on in our house at night.

Yep hubby and daughter are "rock star" wanna-be's! They are both learning to play guitar and I decided to capture one of their jam sessions.  Of course they knew I was taking pictures and were trying not to laugh but they just couldn't help themselves.  Hubby was a good sport about letting me post what he said is a not so flattering picture of himself but I like it because it shows they are having a good time and that's what makes for good memories.

Next week the prompts are:  Shine, Fast, Left, Peace, Plain. - These sound a little easier.  Let's just hope I don't wait till the last minute again to find all the prompts.

Don't forget to stop by and check out the other enteries.  It's fun and you get to see some really great photos.

Photo Art Friday & Flower Art Friday - May 25, 2012

Yep it's that time again folks.  Time to join me for Photo Art Friday
and Flower Art Friday.


First up is my entry for Photo Art Friday. - This week Bonnie gave us the option of:
A - Any piece of Photo Art or...
B - a piece of abstract photo art created with a design from nature.  -  I chose (B) for my Photo Art.

Here are the pictures I used for my piece:  The first thing I did was open the phto of the Nasturtium leaves in Gimp.  Then I used the Distort Filter on Whirl and Pinch.  I saved that photo and uploaded it to Pic Monkey where I added Kim Klassen's texture:  Let Go  I played around with the settings on PM such as Urbane and Boost after adding the texture.  Then I uploaded the photo of the purple blossom as a texture as well and did a little more adjusting until I ended up with the piece below. I added the Grunge Frame on Pixlr-O-Matic.



I also did another piece using this picture of one of my Dahlia's.

For this piece I also uploaded in Gimp and used the Distort-Whirl and Pinch filter.  Then I added the Grunge Frame in Pixlr-o-Matic and ended up with this:

Next is my entry for Flower Art Friday on LeAnne's Blog, Photo's by LeAnne.

Texture in this piece is: Notes to Myself from Bonnie @ Pixel Dust Photo Art.

Please stop by both Bonnie and LeAnne's blogs and check out all the great Photo and Flower Art entries.  You won't be disappointed. 

Have a fantastic weekend.

"Whatever" Wednesday - May 23, 2012

Oh my gosh this month has just seemed to "fly by" with super sonic speed.  May has so many things going on here (Mother's Day, Balloon Stampede, Ducky Derby, Hubby's Birthday) just to name a few. Top that off with having friends over for dinner last week and another friend visiting yesterday for a day of stamping and fun well let's just say I've been rather busy, but I've enjoyed every minute of it.

So for today I'm sharing several different photo's taken this month at various times.

Last weekend we drove down to McNary Dam to see if the fish were running upstream.  Sadly we only saw some Chad but no Salmon or Steelhead.  I did take some nice pictures though and am sharing a couple from that trip with you today.

On the way home I had my husband stop so I could snap a shot of a hillside where the Swallows nest.  I think it's fascinating seeing all the holes in the side of the hill where they make their nests.

Last week Coleen's Grandpa (My hubby, Mike) made her a very happy little girl.  He bought her a Motorcycle Helmet and took her for a ride on his Harley.  Then one day after school he picked her up on the Harley so the kids at school could see her riding on it.  She was so excited about getting the helmet and going for a ride with her Grandpa.  She gives the ride a "Two-Thumbs" up endorsement.

This past weekend was the annual Ducky Derby here in Walla Walla.  The proceeds of the event go towards helping to prevent Child Abuse.  I wasn't able to attend the event due to having company over for dinner that evening and having to prepare for the meal.  I did howeve snap a shot of the Giant Mascot on top the Bank to share with you.

Lastly I snapped a photo of our cat, Snickers inside a box the other night and just had to share.  She's a rather, shy and timid cat and doesn't come out into the living room very often if the other cats are out and about.  Doesn't she look sweet?

That's it for this weeks Whatever Wednesday edition.  I hope you've enjoyed your visit.

Scavenger Hunt Sunday - May 20 , 2012

Welcome! - It's been a "busy" week here so I'm going to confess upfront that all but 1 of my photo's this week for Scavenger Hunt Sunday  are archived photo's.  There just wasn't much time for finding new photo's for the prompts and besides these photo's were just dying to have their day in the sun so I went with what I had. 

This weeks prompts were:  Rainbow, Fluffy, Letters, Metal and Tree(s).

Photo's Edited in Pic Monkey and Pixlr-o-Matic. Texture on Fluffy from: RHWest (Plaster Postale)

First up:

RAINBOW:  - I did have a couple of old Rainbow photo's in the archives but none of them were all that spectacular so I decided to go a bit of a different route for this prompt.  The annual Hot Air Balloon Stampede was held this past weekend and on Sunday I caught this shot of one of the balloons and think it qualifes under the Rainbow prompt:

                                                           FLUFFY:  This one was easy because the next door               
                                                           neighbors have this beautiful fluffy cat who's name                     
                                                           just happens to be, wait for it....





Fluffy! - She visits quite often and I snapped this shot of her one day on my mom's front porch.

                                                                      LETTERS: 
                                                                   
                                                                      Again I went with something a bit "out of the box" for this 
                                                                      prompt.  I didn't want to do handwritten letters and I was
                                                                      having trouble thinking of what to do when I remembered
                                                                      that I had a cool photo of a sign that sits on a walking 
                                                                      trail along one of the Creeks and Community College 
                                                                      campus.  It's got lots of "letters" that form words that 
                                                                      become an odd poem of sorts when your read it.  What's 
                                                                      even stranger is that the other side of the sign has more of
                                                                      the poem/story.

                                                                                              METAL:   Awhile back I shared some shots
                                                                                              of a Metal Ball on one of my "Whatever"
                                                                                              Wednesday features so when it came to this
                                                                                              prompt I remembered that the same day I
                                                                                              took those shots I also took some shots of
                                                                                              some rather unusual lawn decorations.

There are actually 3 balls sitting in the yard but the 3rd one wasn't visible in this shot and the ones I got with the 3 balls were blurry so I didn't use them.


                                                                           TREE(S):  I chose a part of the tree you don't often
                                                                           think about for this prompt.  This is one of the old trees
                                                                           in our local city park:

Today is Hubby's Birthday (5-20) so I'll be busy helping him celebrate but I hope to get around to as many blogs as I can and leave comments through out the week if at all possible.

Next weeks prompts are:  Beneath Your Feet, Capturing Movement, Texture, Face Your Fears and Currently. - Oh my those sound like some challenging prompts.

Photo Art and Flower Art Friday

Hi,  Happy Friday!
Today is Photo Art Friday over on Pixel Dust Photo Art where the theme this week is any piece of Photo Art or... a piece of photo art featuring lines, angles and/or graphic elements.

I went with the last one.  I'm not entirely sure I succeeded but I do like the piece that I came up with.

This house is just around the block from where we live.  Every year they plant these bright red geranims down their steps.  I love the colors of Red, Black and White together and combined with the lush green grass it makes for a really striking photo.  There are definite lines/angles in this photo from the fence, steps, slope of the yard and siding on the house so I think I pulled it off.

Now for my Flower Art Friday entry over on LeAnne's blog, Photo's by LeAnne.
I was really excited to learn that my entry from last week (Dogwood Blooms) was among the Top 3 enteries.  What a great honor.

Here is my entry for this week:

These are Dianthus or Pinks.  The texture is Kim Klasses, Charmed.

I hope you all have a wonderful weekend.

Edit Me 2012 - Week 20

Welcome! - I was browsing through my emails when I noticed one from Nancy (A Rural Journal) about the current Edit Me challenge so I took a peek at the photo and knew that I had to give it a try.  I adore cats and Nancy has some darling ones so how could I not take up the challenge.

Here is the Original Photo:

and below is the version that I edited.

For my version I went to PicMonkey and first Soften the photo a little.  Then I added a small amount of the Urbane feature there to darken the edges of the photo.  Next I added a background texture,
Kim Klassen's Music Lovin texture and erased the texture off the cat and the top of the bench.
Lastly I added the Quote and the Drop Shadow Frame. 

Cats and Music are two of my favorite things in life so I thought it was fitting to put them together with the quote I found.  I hope you enjoy my edits.

"Whatever" Wednesday - The Hot Air Balloon Edition

Welcome! - I hope you enjoy your visit. 
This past weekend was the annual Hot Air Balloon Stampede here in Walla Walla.  This has been going on now since 1974.  Some years the weather cooperates and some years it doesn't.  This year it did and all 3 days of the stampede the balloons were able to launch.  We don't go over any more to the actual launch site as you have to be there by 6:00 to watch the balloons inflate and quite frankly I'm just not much of a morning person.  Besides that we can now just watch outside of our house as the flight path generally floats the balloons right over our house.  Here's a few of the balloons we got to see this weekend.

This shot was taken looking down our driveway as the balloons came up over the tops of the trees .

Coleen like the balloon that had the American Flag hanging off the basket.

I love the bright colors of this balloon.  Speaking of bright colors, check out this next one.  It was one of my favorites.

One of the balloons was really low to the top of our house and straight over head, in fact I was able to snap this shot looking up inside the balloon.  Cool how I caught the flame huh?

Lastly this was one of the different shaped balloons, sometimes there are more but I think this year this was the only one that wasn't just a regular shaped hot air balloon.  My mom thought this one was really fun, well so did I.

I hope you've enjoyed seeing some of the balloons.  It's one of my "Bucket List" things to do in life, Ride in a Hot Air Balloon.  Although I'm afraid of heights now so I'm not sure if I could pull it off or not. 

Macro Monday - A Tiny White Spider

Gosh it's been ages since I've participated in Macro Monday over on Lisa's blog so I thought today I would join in.

This morning my daughter spotted a tiny white spider on her rose bush and took me out to show me.  I decided to try snapping some Macro Shots of the little thing and boy was that hard to do.  For some odd reason I was having trouble getting the Macro feature on my PAS camera to work right.  I managed to get off a couple of shots that I liked.  I did a tiny bit of editing on the photo's and here they are:

You could almost see through this spider, it was quite translucent.  Perhaps that is why the Macro Lens was having trouble adjusting.  Anyway I thought it was a very different spider from the ones we normally see around here and it was quite small.  This photo makes it look much bigger that it really was.

Take care & enjoy your day.