Photo Art Friday - February 1, 2013

Wow, February already!  - Spring isn't far off now...I can almost feel that gentle spring breeze and see those lovely daffodils and tulips springing up.  Best not get to excited though as weather can be so unpredictable.

Meanwhile it's time to link up for Photo Art Friday.  This weeks optional theme was:
Minimalist. - Yikes!  I had no clue about how to go about this weeks theme.  I look up minimalist art and photography and saw some interesting things but still didn't know what I was going to create.

I came up with something before I looked the theme up so I'm showing it first.

Original Photo:  Click to enlarge all photos.

 

Edit #1   -  I used a couple of Bonnie's textures on this piece but forgot to write them down. 

Edit #2 -

I kept the same textures in the photo but used something on BeFunky.com (Stenciler) feature and this is what I got.  I love this for some reason.

Okay next up is my other piece:

Original Photo:

Edit:

Finally:

Original:

Edit:

Cropped, Edited to Black and White and made to look like a vintage photo.

So which do you think is the most Minimalist?

Be sure to stop by Bonnie's blog, Pixel Dust Photo art and check out all the great art work there.  Have a great weekend. 

Whatever Wednesday - January 30, 2013 Frosty Beauty

                                    “The seasons alter: hoary-headed frosts

Fall in the fresh lap of the crimson rose.”

William Shakespeare



Click to enlarge photos.
Such delicate beauty.  I've learned that this type of Frost is called, Hoar Frost or Rime Frost.

Scavenger Hunt Sunday - January 27, 2013

Welcome! - It's been a quieter week and I'm happy to report that this week all of my hunt photo's are current!

So won't you join me on the hunt at Ashley's blog for Scavenger Hunt Sunday.

This weeks prompts are:  Lace, Bling, Wood, Fuzzy and Fabric.
Click to enlarge photo's.

LACE:

The back to one of the new tops that we got Coleen for her birthday this past week.  I love the lace detail.  Pretty snazzy for an 8 year old.

BLING:

We went to a furniture store today so my mom could buy a new chair.  I took my camera along and spotted this wall hanging with some serious bling in the center.

WOOD:

Coleen and I went to the park this afternoon and snapped some photo's.  There was a tree there that had parts of the bark worn off showing this really fuzzy (could have qualified for that prompt too) looking wood underneath.











FUZZY:

A fuzzy cat asleep on a fuzzy blanket.  (Captain Cuddles)

FABRIC:

A fabric pillow pattern I spotted at the furniture store.

Piglet got a good report at the Vet's on Friday but is still on medication for another week.  He's starting to adjust to being in the house and is being allowed out of his little room to explore a little more of my mom's house so that's an added blessing.

Have a wonderful week.

Photo Art Friday - January 25, 2013

Hello & thanks for stopping by.  It's Friday and that means it's time for Photo Art Friday over at Bonnie's blog, Pixel Dust Photo Art.

This week the optional theme is:  Hardware.
What an interesting theme and one that could be interpreted in many different ways.

When I first read the theme the first thought that popped into my head was something that the doctor said to me right after I had surgery on my right foot 15 years ago.  He asked me if I would like to have the "hardware" that was in my foot from a prior surgery.

Believe it or not I kept the pieces of what is referred to as,  "Hardware" and that is how this piece came about.  Please click to enlarge the picture.

I used the following photo's to create this piece.

This is a side view of my right foot and ankle.  You can see the scar where the surgery was done.  I had an extra bone taken out of my foot and the screw was inserted to fuse the remaining bone together.  The problem was that after my foot had healed my body decided that it did not like the "hardware" that had been place in my ankle and the screw was slowly working it's way to the surface so I had the 2nd surgery to remove the screw.

After adding Bonnie's texture:
Creative Canvas blending in hard light at 80% I then overlayed the photo of the screw and erased the counter out of the photo.  I added some aging on Pixlr and then went back and added the Kid's definition from the dictionary on hardware.

I know it's a little weird but I think it turned out great.  

For those that want to know,  Piglet the cat that was so ill is doing much better now.  He is living at my mom's right now and has been home since Monday.  He's taking medication for the Respiratory Infection and his eye infection and is slowly but surely sounding much better.  It will be sometime though before he can be allowed outside as his immune system needs to be built back up.  I'm just happy that I took him to the Vet when I did.  Had he been out in the horribly cold weather we've been having another 2-3 days he would most likely have died.  Even though we now have a good sized Vet bill for a cat that really wasn't ours to start out with I feel good knowing that he is being taken care of and will live a happy life now and in fact has become one of our own now.

Have A "Ice" Day

Woke up to find this outside this morning:

Pictures from our driveway and the van windshield.


Not so much fun to drive on or even walk on.  The kids had a two hour "delay" for the start of school.  Thank goodness.  It had started to warm up by then and was beginning to melt a little.  I'm thankful we only live about 2 blocks from the school.  I walked Coleen to school (very slowly) so as not to fall.

Hubby had called earlier and he wasn't so lucky.  He fell and plopped on his rear end.  He wasn't hurt seriously but said it did hurt because he had his wallet in his back pocket.

So looking forward to spring!

Scavenger Hunt Sunday - January 20, 2013

What a week it's been.  It started out early Monday morning with our phoning ringing at 3:30 am and all I could get was static on the phone.  Turns out our phone line was having issues and in fact was randomly dialing 911 as we ended up with 3 different visits from the Police to find out if everything was okay.  After NINE phone calls to the phone company we finally had service restored late Tuesday afternoon.

There were back to back birthday celebrations on Friday and Saturday for my mom and my granddaughter, a very sick kitty that had to be taken to the vet, and of course daily living.  So what's the point you might ask?  Well with all that going on I didn't have time to take many pictures so I was going to skip the Scavenger Hunt this week.  Then I decided to just "hunt" for photos from the archives that fit the prompts.  So that is what you get this week.

Come join me over on Ashley's blog for Scavenger Hunt Sunday

The prompts this week were:  Basket, Park, Auto, Recycle and People Watching.

BASKET:  The basket my mom keeps her dog Rusty's biscuits in.  He gets one every night when she brings him inside.

PARK:  This one isn't all that old as I at least took it this month.  I happened to have my new camera with me and snapped this picture out the window as my husband was driving past our local park.

I find it amusing that they were trying to sled down the hill.  We had maybe about 1/2" of snow at the most (our first of the winter) and they had sleds with them.  Silly people.

AUTO:  Again a not so old photo and also snapped out the window of the van.

RECYCLE:  This one had me stumped until I remembered these fun metal sculptures made out of recycle tools (rake, hoe, etc...) that we saw on a drive late last fall.

PEOPLE WATCHING:  I intended to post this photo last year because I really liked it but somehow never got around to doing it.  Coleen and I had visited one of the parks and I came upon this scene of people doing various activities.  I really liked the guy serenading his lady on the guitar so I snapped a shot.

That's it for this week.  Please take some time to visit Ashley's blog and check out the other participants and thanks for stopping by.  Also please say a prayer for my kitty, Piglet (he's the stray we've been taking care of.) He got hurt and is now sick with a bad respiratory infection and is  being taken care of at our Vet's now. Hopefully he will recover but I'd still like prayers for him.  He's a sweet cat that really deserves a 2nd chance at a happy, healthy life.

It angers me that people just dumped him in our neighborhood and he's been left to fend for himself. 

Photo Art Friday - January 18, 2013

Hello and Welcome!  Please join me for Photo Art Friday over on Bonnie's blog,
Pixel Dust Photo Art.  This week the optional theme was Entrances or Exits.

It's been super cold here the last couple of weeks so I have not been outside any more then absolutely necessary.   Which means I haven't spent much time taking pictures or going anywhere to take an specific pictures that would fit this theme.  However I did have my camera with me the other night and snapped some photo's of a gorgeous sunset.

I decided to use one of them for this assigment because a Sunset is an "exit" of sorts.
I then sought out (in keeping with my word of the year, Seek) a quote that I felt fit the theme and put them together along with one of Bonnie's textures called, Perfect for this piece.  I left it pretty simple as far as edits because I wanted the sunset to be the star of the piece:

 Don't forget to pop by and check out all the other great pieces of photo art.

On a side note today is my mom's 84th birthday,  Happy Birthday Mom!

Scavenger Hunt Sunday - January 13, 2013

Click HERE for my Photo Art Friday entry.


A hunting we will go, a hunting we will go...Off now to join Ashley for
Scavenger Hunt Sunday

The prompts for this weeks hunt are:  Outside, Backside, Little Things, A Cup of... and
Reflect.

OUTSIDE:

 Captured this little guy outside enjoying some of the bird/squirrel food I leave out.

BACKSIDE:

Our cat, Harley's backside.  He has a very long tail.

LITTLE THINGS:

 Little things like chocolate covered cherries make me happy!

A Cup of....

Cocoa for Coleen.  She just love hot chocolate with mini marshmallows (come to think of it, so do I!)

REFLECT:

Our dog, Cricket (actually sitting still long enough for a picture) seems to have a reflective look in her face and her eyes also reflect her surroundings.

So does anyone notice anything different about my photo's this week?  Tell me what you think is different.

Photo Art Friday - January 11, 2013

Welcome back.  It's Friday and time to share in some great Photo Art over at Pixel Dust Photo Art where Bonnie gave us the optional theme of using one of her awesome textures in our art pieces.

The texture is called, Brown Rice Paper.  I love the canvas like feel it gives my piece.

I started out with a photo of some dried Hydrangea blooms that I found in our yard the other day.  I snapped a photo of them and then played around with that photo.

Up first is this version: - Please click to Enlarge for details.

On this piece I also added the Daguerreotype Frame from Pic Monkey.

Next version:

 For this version I also added Bonnie's Golden Bokeh texture and a Grunge Frame from BeFunky and played around with the tones a little to give it a brighter look.

Finally in an effort to try something totally out of my normal comfort zone and in keeping with my word for this year (which is Seek) I sought out some fairy images and tried to incorporate one into the image.  I'm not entirely satisfied with how it turned out but I think for a first attempt it's not half bad.

 So which is your favorite and why?

Please drop by Bonnie's blog and check out the other entries.  It's always amazing to see what everyone does with the theme.

Frost and Snow

I love "frost" patterns and captured these on the windows of our van a few days ago.

This was taken through the tinted windshield and facing the sky so you get that frosty blue color as well.

Well "Winter" arrived today - We finally got some snow (not that I'm a huge fan) but it sure was fun watching those huge, fluffy flakes coming down.  So I snapped a few shots.  Here it's just started to snow.

Coming down harder now.  View of our back driveway and my mom's yard.

It's already stopped and most likely won't stay around long as the weather predictions for next week call for warmer temps and rain. Have a great day.

Whatever Wednesday - Christmas Edition

Well it's been some time since I've done a "Whatever Wednesday" post so I thought I would try to get back in the swing of things this week with some photo's from Christmas.

Coleen in front of the tree on Christmas morning.

My mom with her new Bible Cover. She really liked the new Bible and the cover because now she can carry it to church.

Greta opening one of her gifts from her dad & I. It was a T-Shirt with a Black Pugs face on it. She loved it.

Mike, Erick and Lukas (Erick is Mike's son) His family came down on the 27th and spent a couple of days with us. Their family photo follows.

Erick, Elaine, Lukas and Sahvana We had a great Christmas. Christmas morning we always get up early (around 5:30 am) to open our gifts at our house. Then later in the morning around 8:30 the family all gathers next door at our mom's for breakfast. We had 22 present this year all crowded into her little house. Makes for a noisy but fun time. - Sadly most of my pictures of the morning were rather blurred so I'm not showing any of them. Since Blogger is still acting up I am not able to change the size of the photos. If you click on them you'll get full sized photo's but until they get this problem fixed I'm uploading using the HTML feature and it doesn't size the photo's as large as I would like them to be.

Scavenger Hunt Sunday - Jan. 6, 2013

Welcome! - It's time to join Ashley (Ramblings and Photos) for the very 1st Scavenger Hunt Sunday of 2013. 

It's good to be back and now that things have settled in to a somewhat quieter and normal routine I was ready to have some fun with the prompts.  The funny thing was that I couldn't seem to locate them anywhere until early today.  Needless to say I had to hurry to find photo's for the prompts.  They aren't my best work but they do fit the prompts.  So let's get started.

The prompts this week are:  Breakfast, Multi-Colored, Starts with the letter C, Roll and Future.

BREAKFAST:  Considering I had already eaten breakfast today before I discovered what the prompts were I had to think fast about what to use.  Coleen had eaten a Peanut Butter and Jelly sandwich for her breakfast and the containers were still on the counter so I snapped a quick photo before putting them away.

MULTI-COLORED:  After searching around my craft room for something multi-colored besides my Copic markers I discovered this rainbow colored notepad.  

 STARTS WITH THE LETTER C:

for:  Contentment...and you thought it was for Cat.  Gottcha!

ROLL:  This one was the toughest one for me.  I finally came up with this:

A roll of white paper I keep in my craft room.

FUTURE:

Coleen ringing in the New Year with hopes for the Future.  By the way that's Ginger Ale she's drinking.

That's it for this week.  Don't forget to check out the other entries on Ashley's blog.
Have a fabulous week.