"Whatever Wednesday" - Happy Halloween

When Witches Go Riding, and Black Cats are Seen,

                        The Moon laughs and whispers,
                                  'Tis near Halloween.

                         Nothing more frightening then a, Vampire Witch Pug!



         One of the neighbors yard decorations.  I had a bit of fun with the photo's.

                                           Something a little less scary.

Finally something that is truly Frightening.....

Pumpkin Carvings and Coleen in her Costume will follow in tomorrow's Edition.

Scavenger Hunt Sunday - October 28, 2012

Hello and Welcome! - It's time to go on a Hunt,  A Scavenger Hunt that is.  Please join me over at Ashley's blog:
(Ramblings and Photos) for this weeks Scavenger Hunt Sunday.

The prompts this week are:  Pattern(s), Machine, Signs or Logos, Rocks/Stones and Sparkle.  - I was excited when Ashley picked the entire set of prompts that I sent her.  Thanks, Ashley!

Now the trick was to find things that met with the prompts.  This week that was not an easy feat as it has rained here off and on for most of the week.  Lots of wet, dreary, cloudy skies do not make for great photo opts but the hunt must go on and so I persevered and came up with the following:

PATTERN(S):

I went to our local JoAnn Fabric store in search of some of the prompts because it was nice and "dry" inside the store! - When I first walked in the store I spotted these fun Halloween patterned fabrics and just knew they would be perfect for the prompt.


MACHINE: - I am sharing 2 photo's for this prompt.  One because I wanted to have a current photo taken this week and the other being that I had a photo that I really liked that I wanted to share.

Here is the current machine shot:

I have no clue what this machine is, I just spotted it in the parking lot of the Gas Station and thought it looked really cool.

This is my other photo.  It was taken a couple of weeks ago when we were out on our drive over the Scenic Loop that was mentioned in last weeks SHS set.  I just love the way this pictured turned out and had to share it.

SIGNS or LOGOS: - Once again you get 2 photo's for this prompt because I couldn't make up my mind which I liked the best, so you get both!

My daughter works at Taco Bell and I thought it would be fun to take a picture of the TB Logo on the front entrance to the building.

       

  I spotted this fun sign as I was heading home.  There wasn't any writing or advertising on the sign but there is a little Espresso/Coffee hut just down the road from the sign so I'm guessing that is what it is for.

ROCKS or STONES: - I have a confession to make...When I sent in the list to Ashley of the prompts I knew exactly what I was going to use for this prompt if she picked my list.  You see we have all kinds of unusual and different "Art" pieces here in Walla Walla and this is one of them.

This piece is done by Artist John T. Young of Seattle and is titled: Soaring Stones#4.

I took 2 different angles of the scultpture.  I think it's pretty weird.  A bunch of Granite stones on top of stainless steel beams and this qualifies as Art?

SPARKLE:  Another of my fabric store finds:

This fun little Halloween House had the perfect amount of Sparkle.  I loved the green background behind it with the stars.  Made for a fun backdrop.

That's it for the hunt this week.  I hope you have enjoyed my interpretations of the prompts.  Don't forget to pop over to Ashley's blog and check out the other participants.  I can't wait to see what everyone came up with for the prompts.

Photo Art Friday - October 26, 2012

If you've stopped in for Rural Thursday click on the link. I've featured some gorgeous Autumn foliage there.

It's now time however to pop on over with me to Pixel Dust Photo Art for Photo Art Friday.









This week's optional theme was (Derelict) When I saw the theme I immediately thought of this photo that I took of a barn (or what use to be a barn) while out on a little drive a week or so ago.

I used one of Bonnie's textures: Vintage Vellum
 to add the aged look I was going for in my piece. I erased some of the texture from the sky before I uploaded it from Pic Monkey to Pixlr-O-Matic.





Then I added one of the effects there which added a different tone to the sky that I liked and I added the Grunge Frame there as well. Then back to Pic Monkey for the simple frame and voila~ I was done.

Here is the Original Photo:

Here is my finished piece:

Be sure to stop by Bonnie's blog and check out the other participants entries.  You won't be disappointed.

Rural Thursday - Glorious Autumn Edition

Delicious autumn! My very soul is wedded to it, and if I were a bird I would fly about the earth seeking the successive autumns.

George Eliot

Please click to enlarge photos.

I'm joining Nancy (Rural Journal) for Rural Thursday this week.  Here's what's happening in my town.

                  
                                            
                      Here are those
                     gorgeous Flame
         Maple trees that I posted
         about in yesterday's post.

          Today these same trees are completely bare of all that stunning color.




I drove around yesterday afternoon and took a few shots of some of the Fall color here  in town.  Here are some of my photo's.

I loved this tree. - So much that I took a couple of close-ups as well.

Just look at the "Rainbow" of colors on this tree.  - These trees are located in the parking lot of the Grocery store that I shop at.

Same type of tree but this one had more orange and yellow colors of leaves.

Love the dramatic looks of this bush against the white house.

It had been raining yesterday off and on and I just though the drops of rain on this little bush were so lovely.

Discovered these "Christmas Colors" on an Oregon Grape bush.  - Next shot, Same bush but look at the difference in the color of the leaves.

No wonder Fall is one of my favorite seasons when I get to enjoy God's marvelous handiwork in the stunning fall foliage.

"Whatever Wednesday" - Pumpkin Patch and Autumn Edition

Oh goodness last week completely zipped by and I just didn't get around to uploading my Whatever Wednesday photos.  I apologize and hope that you will enjoy today's edition.

About a week ago I took Coleen out one afternoon and took some pictures of her in some trees (Flame Maples) just around the block from where we live.  I'm sharing a couple of those shots here today.

The wonderful thing about these trees is that the leaves can be, Orange, Yellow and Brilliant Red all on the same tree at the same time.  They are so beautiful.  Sadly the colors only last about a week and then the leaves fall off the tree almost over night.  About 2 days after these pictures were taken the trees were almost totally bare of leaves.

We made our annual trip to the Pumpkin Patch so here are a few of the photo that I took there.

Coleen relaxing in the pumpkins.

That's one heavy pumpkin!

 Greta and Coleen share a fun moment together.

This old truck is one of 2 that they have in the pumpkin field for photo opts.

They have this great slide there for the kids and Coleen enjoys sliding down it.

A view out the windshield of Greta's car showing some of the beautiful trees on the Community College Campus.

Finally a Bowling League update.  Last week Mike & I joined a Sunday night league which meets every other Sunday.  I probably won't be updating scores from that league unless I feel the need to do so.

However this week on the Tuesday morning league I bowl on with my mom I had this:

My name is the top bowler:  IPK - and my last game was a 202!!!  - My first 200+ of the season.  The other scores:  163-143 and my 202 for a 508 series for the day. 

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

Scavenger Hunt Sunday - October 21, 2012

Hello and Welcome.  It's time to join me for Scavenger Hunt Sunday over on Ashley's blog, Ramblings and Photo's. 

This week the prompts were:  Orange or Pink, Faceless (think Selfie) portrait, View from the Top, Cozy and Stacked.

I did use a couple of archived shots this week due to just not having enough time to look for the prompts.  Plus this evening I quickly helped Coleen get her photo's ready for the hunt as well.  She took all the pictures and I help her get them ready to go on her blog and type up what she wants me to say about them.

So let's get started:

Orange:

The trees have rapidly been changing colors the past couple of weeks and I've been in heaven driving around town to look at them and of course photograph a few of them.  These were trees on the Whitman College Campus.  I shot this out the window of the car as my daughter was driving by but I think it turned out pretty good and the colors are just fabulous.











                                                                                                             Faceless Portrait 
                                                                                                            
(Selfie) - I hate  doing this kind  of shot.  First I don't have a Tripod so it makes it kind of difficult to find the right angle etc..and get the timer set.  Anyway enough griping.  I like how this turned out. It's me (The Crazy Cat Lady) holding one of her cats.

                                                                                                      View from the Top:  This is one of the Archived photo's but I like it and it's never been posted so this is what you get.

We took a drive to the top of Scenic Loop a couple of weeks ago and spotted this doe and her fawn (which had already jumped across the road) and I manged to get this picture of her.  You can see the road below which was where we started out before heading up the Scenic Loop road. - Coleen also has a picture from up on top featured on her blog.


                                                                                                Cozy:  I caught all the cats sleeping the other morning in various places in the living room and kitchen so I took pictures of all of them and created this Cozy little collage of them because they just looked so....Cozy!

Stacked:  The last of my archived shots:

One of the statues in town.  Look at those silly chickens and eggs that are "stacked" on top of each other.  Makes me laugh.



Well that's it for this weeks hunt.  Next week the prompts are one's that I sent to Ashley so now I've really got to get with the program and find some great pictures for the prompts which will be:

Pattern(s), Machine,
Signs or Logos, Rocks/Stones and Sparkle.

Have fun hunting!

Leaves for Leontien

I participated in the Flowers for Leontien event and wanted to show her that I still am thinking of her and her husband during this difficult period in her life.  Nancy (A Rural Journal) is hosting Leaves for Leontien to help cheer her and show her and her husband, Bastiaan that we are thinking of them during this period in their lives.

For an update on her story click HERE:

Here is my love offering:

 God's blessing to both of you.

Photo Art Friday - October 19, 2012

Welcome and Happy Friday! - It's time to join me over on Pixel Dust Photo Art for,
PHOTO ART FRIDAY  where Bonnie offered us a Free texture (Leafy Landscape) to use for the optional theme today.

This is a fantastic texture.  I loved it but had a hard time finding photo's that I thought would work with the texture.  I started with this photo:

Here is my piece with the texture added. I also did a Tranquil adjustment on Pic Monkey to give it a more vintage feel.

I also did another piece that's a bit on the abstract side using this photo:

First I uploaded the texture and then I used the photo as an Overlay texture in Subtract Mode on PicMonkey.  I did some other adjustments, Boost and such (can't quite recall all the things I did) and ended up with this:

Which is your favorite and why?