Then again

Did you ever buy anything only to find later you can't imagine what you saw in it? 

And then you shove it under your bed because you don't have much storage space.

Where it proves that unless you yourself pull out the bed and haul the vacuum up from the basement, with attachments, no one else will vacuum up the dust behind and under the bed?

Then when you are faced with shoving all the other container store containers back under the bed you think I really detest those things.

Then again...with new images and hung on the bathroom wall, the simple black frame will be an asset.  Or spray painted another color, like off white, they could frame something on the bedroom wall.

Then again, the black would go well with the silhouettes I've been meaning to make of the dogs.

Hmmm....maybe it's time to try that silhouette thing in Photoshop again.

Here's Gus:

And Cotton:

I just printed them on orange peel Bazzill paper and stuck them over the original images.

And I'll hang them up later today.

Reuse, repurpose, make do. 

I'm getting there. 

Trusty Friends

May love and laughter light your days, and warm your heart and home. May good and faithful friends be yours, wherever you may roam. May peace and plenty bless your world with joy that long endures. May all life's passing seasons bring the best to you and yours.

~ An Old Irish Blessing

The Up Side

A-Ha!

I take a lot of pictures.  Digital pictures.  Not always consistently, although I suspect that as I look through the year, I will find that I got more consistent for the most part.  The puzzle for me has been how to display them, for myself mostly, so I can see my progress.  And what makes up the scenes of my life.

I think I've stumbled upon a way. 

The photo a day craze, and the 365 project and on and on, have created a similar need for others.  Today I read a blog that linked to a photoshop template that I've looked at maybe a dozen times.  But today, something clicked. 

Today, which by the time you read this will really be yesterday, but I digress, I saw something different.  Just what I was looking for - a template that would let me select one photo from each day's worth of photos stored in the 2009 folder on my external hard drive.

I promised myself if there were no photos, I'd leave that day blank.  I wouldn't try to cover that most of my victims, er, models were golden retrievers who were usually dozing. And I wouldn't get all elaborate with embellishments, fonts and other things.  I didn't want this recap to become a drag.

Here's how it turned out:

I took photos 17 days out of 31.  6 of the 17 days the best photos were of the goldens.  Some days feature random shots, like the 28th.  On the 28th we went to 6 Feet Under, a local restaurant, across from a landmark cemetary as part of a fundraiser.

It's early going yet, but I think I like this little project.  There's a place I can order these as 12x12 or 8x8 prints and put in an album.  Which I think I will do as a reference.  No rush, though.  I can wait until I get several done to see how they turn out.  That's part of the fun of creating something isn't it?  Seeing how it turns out.

It's Coming Together

Okay - so here's the project I've been working on. Until I had an illustration, I wasn't sure I could explain it.

First, you write 350 words worth of nouns that explain or illustrate you for each letter. The 350 is a target so that the text will fit in the template provided by the teacher.

Then you come up with two photos per letter that illustrate what you've written - doesn't have to be a literal match, but something that reminds you of what you wrote. In the example above, you can see that I don't have my two 3"x3" photos for A or B. Yet.

Then you print your text in the templates, print your alphabet blocks from the templates you customize by changing their color, cut out those plus the decorative paper, and hey,presto, you've got yourself an abridged encyclopedia of you!

Obviously, I have a bit to go to get completed, including the cover page. And there are some entries I'm replacing because I've thought of something better.

In other news, it's been raining forever in Atlanta. As opposed to last year in the draught, when it never rained in Atlanta. Trees are falling down, creeks are flooding (including one near my home) and roads are flooded. Folks were on the radio talking about their houses being under water. It's scary - a tree fell on my neighbor's house last night, but hopefully there's not much damage.

Take care out there!

What are Little Boys Made Of?

This is E. He's a younger brother and an older brother X 2. He has not come to stay with me yet. But I'm thinking it won't be long before he's ready...we'll have to see.

Personal Trainer

At 5:30 pm this afternoon the only thing between me and home was a visit with my personal trainer. I signed up in a fit of mid-year resolution when the health club in our building opened.

Idly, I wondered who that crazy lady was and if I could smack her.

But I went to the personal trainer. Only 6 more weeks of my package is left. Budgeting and planning season is upon me. I decided to manage expectations.

"We are entering the part of the year that I put in a lot of time at work."

"We're doing overhead flies today. Start with 30 lbs. And 15 repetitions. Super set."


"You know, like Tuesday, things come up late in the day. Last minute."

"Goodgood. Now, we're doing underhand rows. Underhand. Underhand."

"I'll probably miss a lot in the next few weeks."

"Donkey kicks. 15 on each side. Three sets."

"Maybe I should skip a few weeks and then pick back up."

"'Excellent work. See you next Tuesday."

Thought for the Day

It's all in how you look at it, right?

Homework

I've completed more lessons...the first is a combination of texture and text.

This one is subtle...it is called edge burn which means you darken the edges to draw attention to the subject. Film photography does this by overexposing the edges, photoshop does it differently. The first photo is a portrait I took recently straight out of the camera.

The second is with the edges burned. The difference is subtle.

It's time to put in a plug for the site...it's JessicaSprague.com. She teaches digital scrapbooking but in order to do that she teaches photoshop and work flow. I can't recommend it highly enough. The prices are reasonable, you get free product and the lessons are forevermore available to you as references. And, she shows you where to look on the web for additional textures and brushes. It's been a great experience so far.

Old Slides

This is a style of photography called Through The Viewfinder or TtV for short. Photographers take a picture through another camera's view finder. Some have posted viewfinder "textures" that can be used in Photoshop to give a similar look and feel. That's what this is above. One of my photos with a TtV effect layered on (plus a texture). I really like the vintage feel - I think it most reminds me of looking at old slides. What do you think?

Honey House

Well! My favorite peanut butter, Peter Pan Peanut Butter With No Sugar Added, will be leaving the market as soon as the inventory runs out. I emailed my grocery store chain, and the manager of the store I frequent called me at my office yesterday. Can you believe it? Customer service is still alive.

Above is the shed that was in the picture I showed you on Monday or Tuesday, the one with Olivia in it. Yesterday I learned about adding textures...and this is what I came up with. When I looked at it this morning, I could believe it was scanned and only the lacy thingies added (they come with the frame).

When I was young, this was the honey house, where the honey was separated from the comb, and put in jars. It smelled wonderful. It's also where there was a box of books that had the Time Life series on the moon landing, and I would spend hours looking through those books, completely mesmerized. It seemed everything was possible then.

Refrigerator

Look, another class project. This time it was learning how to get the ragged edges on the photo.

But more importantly, this is like putting my art on the fridge when I get home from school! That's why I like it so much!

Speaking of refrigerators, I need a new oven. The burner dial that won't stay on and was lying on the back edge of the stove fell behind the stove tonight. I think it's a sign to get it in gear. This is the oven that was here when I moved in, and it needed to be replaced then, but I've gotten 4 more years out of it! How's that for frugal?

The First Nephew

Meet the First Nephew. He was kind enough to stop playing long enough to pose at the park on Mother's Day weekend - and he smiled for me. He's wearing his cap with the official US Army pins I got him. And in front (the bar one) is from WWII, part of the Japan campaign, I think. {Aunt Molly shamelessly tries to find cool stuff.} And if you ask him what he wants to be, he's said "Army Man" for years now. He has a posse: Eli, Audrey and Metz.

Okay - so the photo is dressed up from the day 2 lesson from the Jessica Sprague class. We received complimentary House of 3 frames, stamps and word art - they are my current favs! The border on the photo, the ornate frame around the word celebrate, the word celebrate - all are House of 3 and came with the class. Great, yes?

And, look at the color of the frame around the word celebrate. Did you notice that it's the same blue as the blue in the T-shirt on the First Nephew? And the word celebrate is the color of the rail he's leaning on? Yep, learned how to do that in lesson # 2 using the color picker.

I love it when I finally start getting it.

New Tricks

I'm taking an online class from the Jessica Sprague website. While you can't sign up for this one, there are some free classes available so that you can find out what she's about. I highly recommend her - I had her teach a class I took last year in Charlotte. [Don't have photoshop? or photoshop elements? Free trial version area available from Adobe that you can use to try a class.]

You may have seen this once or twice before since I took it last year, but isn't it fun with the border and word art? And I finally know how to resize for the web.

This is a shed that, at one time or another, all my siblings and cousins peeked in. It's fun to see it starting over with my niece!