Macro Monday with Sarah Carletti

Joining the talented Sarah for Macro Monday

I'll be sharing 2 photos today. - CLICK TO ENLARGE PHOTOS

First up those Tiny Mini Daffodils that were featured HERE on Sunday.

 I just think these are the cutest little daffodils I've ever seen. 

Next up it's a Macro/Close-up of Spooky-boo's claw.  I was trying to get a macro shot of his paw and caught this funny expression on his face as well.  I hope it brightens up your day.

Macro Monday - Locust Borer

Joining Lisa for Macro Monday today.





I was out taking a walk the other day and decided to walk down the alley where I had discovered the Chinese Lantern Plants featured in this post.
I discovered a plant with some unusual bugs on it but had no clue what they were.  Then when I was sitting outside on our porch the other night I spotted the same bug on one of my Marigold plants. 

I decided to upload a photo to Bug Guide to try and identify the bug.  They are very quick to help with information.  I learned that this bug is a, Locust Borer and that the plant in the first photo is a Goldenrod Plant.

They are pretty cool looking bugs and I like the fact that this one decided to land on a yellow marigold plant in my garden.

Have a great day and don't forget to check in on Lisa's blog to see some other great Macro shots.

Macro Monday - Warning Label Needed or Why am I a Klutz?

If you dropped by for my Scavenger Hunt Sunday entry click on the link.

It's been awhile since I've done a Macro Monday so I thought I would participate today.  Granted my subject material is a bit weird, maybe even gross to some so don't look if you may be squeamish.

Yesterday I sat down to drink a cup of coffee with my husband and somehow I managed to dump it in my lap.  Needless to say it was HOT coffee and I jumped up, spilling more onto myself and my chair.  Quickly grabbed the nightgown I was wearing holding it away from my leg and went to assess the damage. 

It was red and I put some ice on it for about 5-10 minutes and called it good.
Later in the day I discovered this:

Ouch!  It was forming a water blister and stung like crazy.  This was on my upper thigh area.

I know it's sort of gross but hey, it happened and any more I try to document even the odd daily things like this.








By the end of the night when I went to bed the blister had expanded tremendously.

You can see a slight indentation on the blister but that later filled with water as well and it was really red around the bottom of the blister.  I spent about 45 minutes while watch Iron Chef holding a cold wash cloth over the blister and eventually the burning sensation went away.  Some time during the night I woke up and touch my leg and discovered that part of the fluid was draining.  I got up and sure enough there was a tiny pinhole in the blister where the water was draining out of.  By this morning most of it was gone so I covered the burn with gauze and some Neosporin to keep it from rubbing the skin off with my jeans and avoiding possible infection.

So why didn't my coffee cup have a "warning label" on it that the coffee was hot!  Better question....Why am I such a klutz at times!!!

Macro Monday & a little 4th of July Magic

Hi! - Well first up I want to share my 4th of July Flag Magic photo with you.  I read about this on Ashley Sisk's blog as she had a Tutorial on how to create this type of photo.  You can find it HERE:  Oh and while you are there be sure to check out her post for today and see the adorable pictures of her new baby, Felicity!

Since I don't have PSE (Photo Shop Elements) I wasn't sure I could pull this off.  I tried following the tutorial in Gimp and almost had it but not quite.  Still need practice.
So then I decided to head over to Pic Monkey and see if I could possibly get the same result there by using my flag image as an overlay and erasing out the areas that I didn't want.  Voila~ it worked!

It may not be quite as good as what you can do in PSE or even Gimp but it's pretty darn close and I love how it turned out.  So did Coleen.

Now let's head on over to Lisa's Chaos for Macro Monday. 
 I haven't been participating as much as I'd like to so I'm happy that I have something to share today. 

I saw a Dragonfly the other day and was hoping it would land so that I could snap a photo of it.  I noticed that while it was flying there appeared to be more then one dragonfly.  They finally landed and I was able to snap a couple of photos.  It's not the best Macro shot but I couldn't get any closer without them flying again.  Besides as I researched this I discovered that I caught a very "intimate" moment as these two were mating!

Okay I have to admit that these photo's "creep me out" a little.  This looks like something from a bad sci-fi movie.  At first I thought maybe the Dragon fly was shedding it's skin until I looked up Dragonfly mating rituals.  This formation is known as,  the "wheel" formation and they can keep this position while in flight.  If you want to know more you can read about this ritual HERE:

Quite frankly,  I'm so glad that I wasn't born a female dragonfly!  Ick.....

Have a great Monday and be sure to check out the entries on Lisa's blog for Macro Monday awesomeness.

Macro Monday - July 2, 2012 The Flower and The Bee

It's been quite some time since I've done a Macro Monday so I thought I'd pop in today and join in on the fun.

I took some pictures of some pretty white flowers on a bush outside the Swimming Pool where Coleen is taking her lessons this morning.  I don't know what kind of bushes they are but I'm guessing they might be a type of Hydrangea because they look a lot like them.

 This next shot is my favorite.  It has an added bonus.  See if you can guess what it is!

Don't forget to visit Lisa's blog and check out some of the other Marco Shots. 
Have a great week.

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.

Macro Monday 2-27-12 - The Plant Edition

Hello and Welcome. - Hope your week is off to a good start.
It snowed here last night (if you could call the light dusting we got snow) but it's cold, and overcast and oh I am so ready for spring.  But enough whining let's move on to something a lot more fun.

It's time to share some Macro goodness over at Lisa's Chaos  She's got some lovely photo's of Snail Shells that you will want to check out along with many other entries by other participants so do take a peek.

For my selection(s) this week I'm sharing some Macro shots of plants that Coleen and I spotted on our walk up to the Park a couple of weeks ago. 

Love the colors on this plant and the fuzzy little spiny things on the leaves.  Have no clue what kind of a plant this is but Coleen thought it was pretty and so did I so I took a picture of it.

This is a type of Succulent. I like the bright cheery colors of this plant.

I believe this is also a Succulent plant of some type.  I love the soft yellow color of the bloom.

This one I think was just a weed of some kind but it had such pretty little flowers and those leaves were pretty cool too.  A very delicate beauty for sure.

Lastly I'm sharing a photo of my Hen and Chick plant with some ice crystals from last nights snowfall that I just took a few minutes ago. 

Macro Monday 2-13-12 The Awakening

Hey it's Monday! It's also time for Macro Monday
over at Lisa's Chaos.  

The other day I went outside to see if I could find something to take a picture of and I spotted something in my flower bed that I thought was interesting and different. 

Spring is slowly showing signs of awekening and here's the proof:

Don't you just love how those Daffodils are pushing the earth up out of the ground and creating that little umbrella clump of earth. Can't wait to see their sunny yellow blooms!

Be sure to pop over to Lisa's blog and check out some of the other entrants Macro's.  You are bound to be delighted.  I know I always am.  Have a wonderful start to your week.

Before I go please take note of this:

Google Friends Connect is Going Away

Well it appears that I've been out of the loop as to this information but I've been seeing it more and more on other blogs so today I did a bit of research and discovered this to be true. Since this feature is going away on March 1st I've decided to add Linky Followers instead. So PLEASE if you are a follower of my blog please change over to the Linky Follower as I will remove that feature on February 29th. You might also consider switching over your blogs so that I can follow you the same way. It's really easy to do. You can find all the information you need here: on how to sign up.



Macro Monday - Dec. 19

Hello! Yes, I'm still alive. - It's been awhile since I've posted so I thought I'd best get something up before people started thinking I'd dropped off the face of the earth.
Just super busy getting ready for Christmas. 
It's time though for Macro Monday on Lisa's blog.  It's always a pleasure to see what people have posted.  Today I chose to share one of my "cheery" Christmas decorations with you. He use to be an ornament but now he sits next to a decorated Christmas cabin.
Just in case I don't get by all your blogs I want to wish you all a very MERRY CHRISTMAS and a HAPPY NEW YEAR as I am not sure I'll be posting until after the New Year - That may change but I like to cover my bases.  Have a great holiday everyone and thank you for all your wonderful support and comments.  Looking forward to sharing more in the coming New Year.

Macro Monday - December 5

Happy Monday! - It's time for Macro Monday at Lisa's Chaos. 

For today's Macro I am sharing a shot of one of the newest neighborhood cats/strays that we've taken to feeding.  This guy showed up about 3 weeks ago and we have no idea if he belongs to anyone in the neighborhood or was dumped or lost.  He hangs around though and enjoys the food and the milk we leave out.  He especially loves milk as you will see in this photo.  We've named him, Piglet as he drinks milk like it's going out of style and does a pretty good job on soft cat food as well.  I truly wish people who have cats would not leave them outside especially at night and during the winter when it's cold outside.  If I had my way every cat in the world would have a nice safe, warm place to stay but alas that just can't be so I do my part to make them as comfortable as possible.

He's a really pretty cat and tame enough that I can pet him and he'll come in the house although he's very skittish about coming inside and I can only let him in after all our cats have gone to bed for the night.  He just comes in for a few minutes and then wants back outside. 

Below are a couple of pictures of him that  I really like too.

Be sure to stop by Lisa's blog and check out the other Macro Monday enteries.  Always inspiring and interesting.  Have a great week.

Macro Monday - November 28

Hello and Welcome! - Wow it's been a few days since I've posted.  I want to apologize to anyone who has visited my blog and left a comment if I have not gotten around to visiting your blog and commenting back.  With the Thanksgiving holiday here in the US and my Granddaughter being home from school and my mom having to go in for doctor's appointments I just have not had the time nor the energy to comment on every one's blogs.  I try my best to leave comments on your blogs but if I don't it's not because I don't like your work but more because I just don't have enough time to get it all done.

Okay with that said it's Macro Monday on Lisa's Chaos and let me just say I popped by there quickly this morning and you are going to be blown away by her photo's.

This week I'm sharing 2 photo's because I couldn't decide which one I like the best.
The first is a bit of an "out of the box" type photo for me.  I took this one out at my Husband's Shop the other day.  It's sort of a fun and whimsical photo (imho).

He's working on a big computer desk project and these wood shavings were on one of his tables.  Don't you just love the way they curl up in little corkscrew shapes.

Next up is a picture of what I believe are Apples or some type of fruit/berry that I saw on a tree one night as I was driving to the store.  I liked the yellow color of the fruit, that's what caught my eye since most berries on trees are either red or orange in the fall it was surprising to see the yellow color.

So that's it for me today.  I am trying hard to work on getting a few Christmas cards made this week and then start getting them ready to be mailed.

Be sure to pop by Lisa's blog and see all the great entries for this fun challenge.

Macro Monday - November 21

Hello & Welcome. - Hope the start of the new week is a good one for everyone.

It's time to join Lisa (Lisa's Chaos) for Macro Monday.
I just love seeing the world up close through the use of a Macro Lens.  The detail is often astounding.

Just the other day I went in to get my Allergy Shot (I'm allergic to cats) - Yes I know we have 6 of them living with us.  Call me "Crazy" but I can't resist them.  - Okay now back on track here ("Focus Girl - Go get another cup of coffee and get on with the task at hand.")

As I was saying when I went to get my Allergy Shot I happened to have my camera along (imagine that) and as Coleen and I were coming out of the Clinic we stopped to look at the little fountain/garden area at the entrance of the building.  There were still some flowers blooming and I decided to take some Macro Shots of them.  Here are my results SOOC except for resizing.

I love the delicate lacy look of these flowers.  They do seem a bit "pale" in color so as a bit of fun I uploaded the first picture to Picnik and gave it a bit of a color boost with the Orton-ish feature:

Ahh...Sunshine on a gloomy November Day!

Have a great week.  Don't forget to stop by and check out the other entries.  It's always amazing to see what everyone has come up with.

Mosaic Monday and Macro Monday - Signs of Autumn

Happy start to a new week! -  Things here are going okay.  Still worried about my mom. She's still having issues with her BP and now I'm trying to learn to cook low sodium menus which is not as easy as it sounds.  Do you know how much Sodium is in foods.  Far to much!  But you didn't come here to read about that so lets move along to something more pleasant.

I thought for a change I join in on Mosaic Monday on Mary's Blog, Little Red House.  This is my 1st time participating but I love the idea of putting together collages/mosaics of different subjects.  For my Mosaic I chosse, Autumn as my theme.  I went out last Friday with my Granddaughter, Coleen on a walk and took a bunch of pictures of different things.  Here is the mosaic I created:

I used Picnik to upload and collage my photo, then did a little editing with the Orton technique and Vigenette. 

It's also Macro Monday over on Lisa's blog, Lisa's Chaos.  Now all of the above photo's were shot using the Macro feature on my little Canon Power Shot camera but I am going to share another photo not in the collage that I took the same day.

These are the seed pods of what I believe to be a Maple tree of some type but I am not positive.  ETA - Thanks to Stewart of Paying Ready Attention I have since learned this tree is a type of Sweet Gum ( Liquid Amber (Liquidambar styraciflua)) - If you do a Google search you can learn more about this tree.
You can see one of the leaves in the mosaic above.  Aren't they cool looking!

Be sure to check out both links for other fabulous mosaic and macro shots.  You won't be disappointed.  Have a great week.

Macro Monday - November 7

Oh my goodness I almost forgot to post my pictures for Macro Monday on Lisa's Blog.

It's always amazing to see the world up close and personal through the camera lense. 

Today I'm sharing a few pictures of a little Spider that I became rather fond of after spotting it on one of my rose bushes.  It camped out on one of the blooms for several days until the wind blew off all the petals one day.

My first shots are the spider and it's "catch of the day"

I love the detail on this as you can see the Spider looking right at me with those little "beedy" eyes!

Now he's mad because I'm intruding on his meal time so he's moving the bee off.

Okay a couple of days later I took a few more shots of my little spider friend.

By this time we were becoming pretty good friends as far as Spiders and Humans can be.  Normally I am scared to death of spiders but again after shooting this little guy so many times it was becoming less frightening to me.  Although I do admit when it started to rear up on it's back legs I backed off rather quickly.

So are you tired of my Spider friend yet...I hope not as I have two more shares.  These were taken a few days later and I actually got the spider out of the rose bloom and onto the stem so I could get some shots of the wonderful color and markings on him.

Sadly after the rose petals fell off he moved on to green pastures (or rose bushes) as I have not seen my little friend since.