Scavenger Hunt Sunday - July 29, 2012

Hello! Well I wasn't sure I was going to be able to participate in the Scavenger Hunt this week since my mom ended up in the hospital on Thursday.  She was able to go home that night and I spent the night at her house "trying" to sleep on the floor so I didn't get much sleep.  Spent most of yesterday in bed and when I was up looking after my mom.  She's doing much better but still not back to 100% normal.  Thankfully it wasn't a Heart Attack but needless to say it shook me up quite a bit and then I ended up with a Migraine on Friday.

Alright let's move on and get started on the hunt.

This weeks prompts are:
Paint, Green, Eyelashes, Shapes and Clouds.


PAINT:

One of Coleen's Paintings, her paints and her desk.  Thank goodness it's water based paint.

                                                                           GREEN:

Green Cherry Tomatoes growing by our back shed.  These came up from seeds of plants we put in 2 years ago.  Pretty amazing huh?

                                                                                                                                  EYE LASHES:

Coleen has the most amazing eyes and eyelashes.  Also love those little freckles on her face.

                                                                                                                                                      
                                                                                                           SHAPES:

This one was my toughest one to find for the prompts.  Then I happened to be walking past the back wall to head out the side door of our house when I spotted Coleen's lunch box hanging on it's hook.  Staring right at me were these cute little owls who just happened to have all kinds of shapes on them. - You can see, Circles, Hearts, Flowers and Stars.











CLOUDS: - I couldn't decide between these two photo's so you get both.

Some pretty white fluffy Thunder Clouds forming in the blue sky one afternoon. 

These were some nasty looking storm clouds that I captured one evening. The clouds were laying in such a weird looking formation.  I thought of this song and decided to add it to the photo.

That's it for this week's hunt.  Be sure to pop in over at Ramblings and Photo's to catch all the other great hunt participants.

(Next weeks prompts:  Going Back in Time, Somthing Just for Me, Best Part of My Day, Night and Day, Look Up.)  Those sound quite fun and interesting don't they?.

Photo Art Friday - July 27, 2012

For my Flower Art Friday entry click on the link.

It's now time to join me for Photo Art Friday over at Pixel Dust Photo Art where today the optional theme is, Improbable Pairings.  I must admit that this one stumped me and I debated about even posting this week.  I did a piece however and will post it but let's just say it's probably not the most exciting piece I've ever post for PAF.

Yesterday I had to take my mom to the ER again in the afternoon and they released her to go home around 8:00 PM.  I spent the night at her house trying to sleep on couch cushions on the floor and have not had a lot of sleep.  So if I don't get around to all your blogs to leave comments, please forgive me.  I will try thought but I still am looking out after my mom so I may not be able to leave comments this week.

I started by finding some of Coleen's many, many stuffed animals and picked out 2 of them that I figured would be an improbable pair (Monkey and Porpoise) I took photos of them and then did some creative (?) editing.

I went to a program called, Foto Flexor and did their Pop Art Technique on this photo.  Then took it back to Pic Monkey to add the frames.  Here is my finished piece.

So there you have it.   Again it's not all the creative but I think it turned out FUN and puts a SMILE on your face.

For more awesome pieces of Photo Art visit Bonnie's Blog HERE:

Flower Art Friday - July 27, 2012

Won't you join me over at LeAnne's blog for Flower Art Friday  This week LeAnne gave us an optional them of using the color Red for our entries. 

Here is my submission:

I took this shot of some Red Geraniums in my flower bed this morning.  I added Bonnie's (Pixel Dust Photo Art) texture: Dusty Rose Bokeh Overlay using Pic Monkey Hardlight 100% and erased all the texture off the Geranium blooms.

I added a quote and Sketchy Frame followed by Simple Frame to complete the piece.
I hope you enjoy it. 

Have a great weekend. 

"Whatever Wednesday" - Mystery Plant Edition

Hello and Welcome!

Do you remember last week when we took a scenic tour and discovered Garbanzo Bean (aka Chickpeas) fields?  Well just this week an article appeared in our local paper about this crop and how it's really taken off in this area. - How funny is that that after we figured out what the crop was on our own there would be an article published about that very same crop.

Perhaps that will happen again with today's Mystery plant.

 I'm sharing some photo's of a "Mystery Plant" that I happened upon yesterday.
I was driving by the school Coleen attends when I noticed a very large Thistlelike plant in the garden at the front of the school.  I knew I just had to walk on down and explore this plant further and that's just what I did.

See if you can figure out (by the end of the post) what type of a plant this is.

This is bascially what I saw as I drove past. (No I didn't take a photo out the window while driving)...I jsut shot this view so you could see what I saw and why I thought that these plants were giant Thistles of some sort.



















On closer inspection of the plant I found these wonderful blooms and also discovered that the Bee's seemed very attracted to this plant.  Here's one coming in now for a landing.

From this next view you can see that there were plenty of pollen happy bee's enjoying these unusual purple blooms.

Is this plant starting to look familiar to any of you?  Keep reading if you still haven't figured out what this plant is.

This next shot shows the plant before it's bloomed.  I think this may just give it away.

Have you ever seen anything like this in your grocery store?  If not you might want to check out this link  to discover that this plant is none other then an...........

ARTICHOKE!

Scavenger Hunt Sunday - July 22, 2012

Welcome! - It's time to join me for Scavenger Hunt Sunday.
Ashley (Ramblings and Photos) is the host for the hunt and she has some darling photos this week so be sure to check them out.

This weeks prompts are:
Wrapped, Time Together, Tell Me a Story, Love/Couple and Duplicated.


WRAPPED:  I had something different planned for this prompt but it didn't work out (at least not for this prompt) so instead I'm sharing this sweet photo of Coleen all wrapped up in blankets and a sheet (that were waiting to be folded) watching TV this morning.

                                                                                                                                TIME TOGETHER:

This is our cat, Miss Dottie who likes to wrap herself around my neck and ride on my shoulders.  I decided to take a photo of us for the prompt but when the camera started making the beeping sound before the shutter goes off she turned and stared right at the camera so you can't really see her wrapped around my shoulders that well.  Instead this became our "time together."  She's a very affectionate cat, sometimes she's a big "Pest" about spending time together but I love her.

                                                                                                                                 TELL ME A STORY: - (This is my only archived photo this week) but it's only about a month old so I really don't consider it to archived.

This was taken on our visit to the Whitman Mission.  You can see the Story Board next to Greta and Coleen and several more below on the trails around the grounds that help tell the story about the Whitman's and the Indians.  Greta is also telling Coleen a story by pointing out to her various things about the area.

                                                                                                                       LOVE/COUPLE: - I wanted something different for this shot so I give you this couple:

These Metal figures are on the corner of a local Muffler Shop and are made out of Mufflers and Car Parts.  The woman use to be naked on the top until people protested and they painted on the clothes.  There are several other figures here (you can see a boy and his dog next to the couple)and you can purchase Metal art from the person who created this fun couple as well.
Don't they look happy and in "love" with each other. Come on they are holding hands after all!





                                                                                                                DUPLICATED: 

Look at all that yummy Salmon duplicated there on those wooden poles.






















Today was the annual Rotary Club Salmon bake and we had tickets to attend.  The company Mike works for always supplies them to employees and their families which is really nice since the tickets run $20 per adult.  - The Salmon is delicious though and cooked much like the Native Indians cooked it many years ago using large fire pits and staking the salmon on wooden poles over the fire pit.  I seriously doubt they had metal poles to put the wooden poles into back then but you get the general idea of how the Salmon was cooked.

So that's it for this weeks hunt.  Join us again next week.  If you'd like to join in on the hunt here are the prompts for next week:  Paint, Green, Eye Lashes, Shapes and Clouds.

Gosh I just had a great post on Friday featuring Clouds...looks like I'll have to break out the old camera again this coming week and look for some new cloud formations.

Thanks for your visit.  Have a wonderful week.

Photo Art Friday - July 20, 2012

To view my Flower Art Friday entry click on the link.

Now it's time to join Bonnie for Photo Art Friday over at Pixel Dust Photo Art.  As always there is an open theme for any piece of photo art or an optional theme.  This week the focus was on "Light" that wows you in a photo.

I've chosen 3 different pieces that all show light in a particular theme.
We've had a lot of Thunderstorms lately in our area and some very spectacular looking skies.  So without further ado here are my 3 pieces. (No before shots as these are pretty much SOOC with a few minor edits.)  I'm going to place them in order of my favorites.
CLICK TO ENLARGE PHOTOS.

#3:  Peachy Clouds:

This shot was taken out our backdoor looking West as the sun was setting.  I just love the light from the sun bathing the sky in that glorious peach color.


                                                                                                                                    #2:  Beams From Heaven

Same view here from the West on a different night.  Aren't the rays of sunlight beaming from these clouds awesome.

#1:  Clouds of Glory:

This shot was taken out our front door looking to the East.  Believe it or not the light on the clouds is SOOC - I just edited to add the antique looking frame.  I love this photo a lot.

So please be sure to tell me in your comments which was your favorite.

Don't forget to pop into the other blogs links and check them out.
Have a wonderful weekend.

Flower Art Friday - A Black Eyed Susan

Hi,  It's time once again to join LeAnne for Flower Art Friday - So please join me as we take a tour through some beautiful floral art.


Here is my piece for this week:  Click to Enlare for the full effect.

This is a Black Eyed Susan from my flower garden.  Texture and Frames added on Pic Monkey.

Have a wonderful day and don't forget to hop on over to LeAnne's blog to check out the other participants floral art pieces.

"Whatever" Wednesday - Scenic Loop Tour

Happy Wednesday (aka "Hump Day")  -  Yesterday we took a little drive in the afternoon.  Originally the plan was to head up to the bank and sign some papers.  My mom decided to go along for the ride just to get out of the house for a few minutes.
After signing the papers at the bank I decided that we would take a little drive up and around Scenic Loop.  Coleen, Greta and my mom were along for the ride. 
The clouds over the Blue Mountains were amazing.  We've had a lot of Thunder Storms here lately especially over the mountains so the cloud formations have been pretty spectacular.

I just love these kind of cloud formations.

Along the way we spotted a couple of...

Cottontail rabbits! - This was as close as I could get to this little guy before he hopped off into the brush on the other side of the road.

We also saw 3 different....

Deer along the way.  The last one we saw (not the one in this picture) had some sort of a device hanging around it's neck.  I tried to back-up to take a picture but by the time I got my camera read to shoot the deer had meandered into the wheat and I missed my chance.  We're guessing it must have been a tracking device of some sort.

Along the way we kept seeing fields planted with something that looked really strange.  We know most of the crops grown around this area (Wheat, Corn, Peas, and most recently Grapes) and this was none of those things.  So we pulled off the road and took a closer look.

Does anyone care to make a guess as to what this "mystery" crop is?....Thankfully Greta had her Cell Phone with her and started looking up Fuzzy Pod Plants on the Internet.
You've got to love "Google" search because after a few minutes she found a picture of the same type of plant and then found out that what we were looking at is none other then........scroll down for the answer.







GARBANZO BEANS!  -  Did any of you guess that?

Well that's it for our little tour.  I didn't get any pictures of the surrounding farm land this time around as I only had Mike's camera with me.  The shots of the bunny and deer are cropped pictures of the originals which is why they look a little blurred since the zoom lens on the camera (Koday Easy Share Point and Shoot) isn't the best.

Enjoy the rest of your week.

Primitive Cave Drawings of Snowmen.

Have you ever wondered about Primitive Cave Drawnings?  You know the ones like these:  Well I think I may have found just such a cave drawing today.  It's out on our back porch etched into the Sheet Rock

Check it out,

I know pretty cool huh! -  I guess Coleen must have been bored and decided to get a little bit creative artistically speaking.

So since it was there I thought I might have a little fun with it myself.

I used Bonnie's (Pixel Dust Photo Art) texture (Winter Wonderland) in Hardlight at 50% Opacity and erased most of the texture off the snowman drawing.  I added the frost effect around the edges and a sketchy frame before framing it again in black to create this little Snowman in July scene for you.

Do think millions of years from now someone will discover Coleen's Snowman drawing and wonder what kind of people lived here?

Scavenger Hunt Sunday - July 15, 2012

It's time for the "Hunt" and guess who's back!  Yep, Ashley (Ramblings and Photos) is once again hosting the hunt.  A big thanks to Sarah Halstead for taking over for a few weeks after Ashly had her baby.
This weeks Prompts were: Water, Petal, Fresh, Eight, and Calm.

So are you ready to get started...


WATER:  - I had planned to use a totally different photo for this prompt but then at the last minute I decide to go with this one.

This little fountain is in the courtyard area of the Clinic where I get my allergy shots.  Coleen always wants to toss pennies in and if you look closely you can see a few pennies in the top level of the fountain.












PETAL:

For this prompt I took bunches of flower photos which all of course had petals in them but I wanted to focus on just a single petal so I went with this shot that I took the other night while sitting out in our driveway. 
Piglet, the cat we take care of was laying in the driveway and this petal off my Clematis  was nearby and he started playing with it.  I snapped a shot and thought it worked pretty well for the prompt.

FRESH:

One of the great things about living where I do is that there is always "Fresh" local fruit to enjoy in the summer.  This is a Blackberry Dessert made with fresh blackberries and fresh out of the oven.
It's delicious and the recipe can be found here:
although it uses raspberries but you can substitute the blackberries and it works just as well.  You might want to add just a little more sugar to the recipe (I mixed some into the blackberries) then it calls for since they are tarter then raspberries.

EIGHT: This one stumped me a little because I didn't want to just take a picture of 8 objects and yet I wanted something that showcased the number.  I happened to be looking through my photos from this week when I noticed this one and knew it would be perfect for the prompt.

Coleen is practicing her dives and just happened to be in Lane 8 in the pool!

























CALM:

This is one of our cats, Harley looking mighty calm there in that window.  He loves sleeping there in the sunshine.





















So that's it for this week.  Don't forget to pop in and check out the other participants entries and see what they came up with for the prompts.  Have a great day. 

Photo Art Friday - July 13, 2012

To view my Flower Art Friday entry click on the link.

It's time now to join Bonnie of Pixel Dust Photo Art for some awesome Photo Art.  This weeks optional theme was, Fencing.
Now I must admit that I thought of the sport of Fencing and how that would certainly be unexpected but alas I have no idea where I would find fencing equipment or people who practice fencing to photograph so I'm going "literal" with actual fence photos.

In fact I went a bit crazy and will be sharing 3 different Fence photos with you today.
I'll be showing my "before" photos first and then the edited versions.

First up:  Fenced by Autumn

I took this last fall on a walk around the neighborhood.  I love the lines of this fence and the strewn path of the leaves with those lovely orange trees in the background.

For my Edit I chose to crop this photo, add some brighter color (used one of the editing filters on Pixlr-o-matic for that and then used frames from Pic Monkey to complete the look I wanted.

Next up is: Spirit of the Pioneer

This is a view taken at Whitman Mission from up top the hill where the Whitman Memorial Shaft is located.  See this post:

For my edited version I did some serious Cropping until I focused on just a portion of the fence line.  Then I did some aging of the photo in Pic Monkey and ended up with this:

The trail you see in front of the fence line is an actual portion of the Oregon Trail.

Finally: Fence in the Shadows:
  I think you'll see why I titled this photo after you see the edited version.
I shot this picture of some fencing on one of the buildings located in downtown
Walla Walla.  I thought it was rather interesting.

For this piece I used one of Bonnie's textures:  Mauve Threads and some edits on Pic Monkey - Oh how I love working on photo's there.  So many different things you can do.  Again the photo was cropped and frames/aging were added along with a quote.

So which is your favorite? - I think mine may be the last one but my husband thinks the Pioneer Fence was the most dramatic change.

Don't forget to pop on over to Bonnie's blog and check out all the other great photo art.
Have a wonderful day.