Little Scraps of Magic

January Light

Outside our front door just a week ago....

January light, cold and blue,

Warmed with a bit of photoshop texture play.

Lucious, don't you think?

Linking up here:

Texture Tuesday

Nuts & Bolts

Walking along a jetty by Lake Erie, remembering to look down. Spotted some wild blueberries and this:

Thinking about the nuts & bolts of my life...what holds me up and keeps me in gear. Thinking that there's beauty in everything.

Linking up with Texture Tuesday.

August Break: Day 14

Creativity

Taken at Morris' Farm Market in NC's Outer Banks...one very cool place indeed!

Kim Klassen's "Grunge" using multiply at 83%.

 

Macro Lens Magic

So many pieces to the puzzle of this thing called "photoshop elements," and putting those pieces together makes me a very happy camper!

Linking up with Texture Tuesday, "The Outside Edition." Here's what I did:

Kim's "Magic Framed" at soft light, 38%

Kim's "Light Paper Stained" at soft light, 60%

Photographed at DC's Kenilworth Gardens on Sunday...what a wealth of photo ops!

Mosey on over and see all the pretties, okay?

 

Focused on the Destination

I'll 'fess up...I can be a bit of a magpie, distracted by anything that's shiny and glittery, at least in the mixed media world. So many courses, so many things to try, and I want it all.

And, in the past, I tried it all....metal, jewelry, collage, sewing, journals, photography, etc. Some I thrived on, and some...well, those results hit the trash can for the most part!

And, so many workshops, both in person and on line. And, again, I want to take them all. Never mind that I have to earn a living, I still want to sign on the dotted line. If I signed up for every workshop that caught my eye, I'd never complete them, even if I quit work.

And, so with some coaching from the marvelous Lesley Riley and her Artist Success program, I'm beginning to figure out what it is I really want to do (photography and journaling), figuring out how to combine them, and learning how to ignore all that glitters.

I'm figuring out how to make things fit into what I want to accomplish, and to quote Patti Digh, I'm learning to let go of the monkey bars, get off the ship, and follow my desire lines.

It doesn't mean that I don't get tempted now and then and do something for the heck of it. I do.

But, thanks to Lesley, I'm not only having fun, but I've:

 - redesigned my blog and am continuing to do so

 - destashed my  art room, big time

 - taken a few chances and plan to take even more

 - learning to do more with photoshop

 - sent away to create postcards using my photos (Look for a give away soon!)

 - beginning to get off of the automatic settings on my camera

 - and so much more!

Now, the technical part of all of this makes me want to cry at times. Just cry. The stubborn Russian in me declares that it is not going to get the best of me, and I am figuring it out. Sometimes, it takes longer than I'd like, but I get there. Not always on the path someone else may have designed as the express route...I tend to take the scenic path...but I get there.

What's even cooler, I'm learning to apply some of the same lessons to what occupies me in the workplace.

In less than a half a year, I turn 60, and honestly? Well, to use a cliche, I figure "the best is yet to come!"

I'm linking up with Kim Klassen's "Texture Tuesday," and for a bit of technical jargon, I used:

 - Kim's "I Am" texture, applying color burn at 69%

 - Kim's "Dream" texture applying color burn at 57%

 

 

I Said I Wasn't Going to Do It

I said I wasn't going to do it.

Afterall, I had so many reasons not to do it.

I couldn't wrap my head around the theme. I didn't have a clue as to what picture I'd use.

I was beyond tired. I would just do my puzzles and go to bed. Wake up bright eyed and bushy tailed.

Well, I stretched the truth there. No bright eyed bushy taled artist here.

But, Kim's sirens whispered sweet nothings into my ears. They lured me into the studio, and there was no going back.

I wandered through the maze that contained my photos. Tried some flowers. Nope.

Tried some macro shots of flowers, and I created some of the most miserable examples of how you can misuse textures that ever existed.

And, then I found the picture above and a little light bulb flickered briefly. Reds, oranges, and yellows are warm colors, right?

So, I cropped. And, I cropped some more. I layered on "Spill It," using color burn at 69%.

I added a new layer, and then on top of it, added "Revolution," again on color burn at 62%.

As Elmo would say, "Ta Da!!!"

I'm loving it.

Loving the warm colors, the bold clean lines and shapes.

Sometimes, I'm really glad that I don't listen to myself.

Tiny Things

A field of wildflowers edging the vineyards...

Lake Erie glistening in the distance...

And, if you had a really good pair of binoculars, Canada to be seen.

Laughing at Ginger's antics...

Taking shot after shot of red barns and glistening grapes.

Wine to be tasted and cheese to be nibbled...

Trying to take it all in, and if I hadn't been trying to grab some macro shots, I'd have missed this little guy in all his glorious orange.

I miss so many tiny things, but I'm learning to see.

Pure magic to be found!

Kim Klassen's Texture Tuesday:

 - Warm grunge, soft light, 58%

 - Soft Palette, color burn, 21%

My challenge to myself? To use two new textures never before tried, and to use a different blending mode or two as well.

Find more photos here.

 

If It's Tuesday,....

...it must be textures!

Kim challenged us this week to use 2 or more textures on our photo along with trying something "new."

Like many folks just beginning to play with textures, I tend to stay with a few tried and true ones. Ditto for the blending modes; I have a few that I consider "fail safe." This time, though, I pushed a bit in both areas.

My recipe:

Corrugated Cardboard, color burn at 80%

Magic Framed, soft light at 68%

Be Still, Color Burn at 62%

I removed a bit of texture from the lighthouse and bushes each time.

Corrugated Cardboard, Magic Framed, and color burn are all new territory, and I really do like what happened here. It seems to have a very "old" feel to it - and something well loved and well worn. (I think I've just described myself!)

Texture Tuesdays, past and present, can be found here.

 

Storycatchers

This past Sunday, a day filled with light and laughter, with wishes and hopes, I wandered among tombstones, seeking out names, touching weathered statues, and peering through ornate doors to catch glimpses of light streaming through stained glass. Birdsong and dogwood blossoms filled the air, and I inhaled the peace.

As always, I wondered what stories had been lost to time. Why did this baby die just short of his first birthday, and how did his mama cope? Was this Confederate soldier glad he had gone to war? And, why did this young woman, back in the early 1800s have her maiden name, rather than her married name, on her tombstone? I knew she had married; her tombstone clearly stated "wife of..." I found others like it, and I had to wonder why  - was it a way to be able to trace the family's lineage? So many stories lost.

I wander through dusty antique malls for the same reason, delighting in a ten year old's faded red autograph book, a 100 year old lesson planning book, or cabinet photos with just a hint of a smile. And, as I sorted out my dad's numerous photo albums, I wondered again...Who were these people? Why were they important to dad? What were their stories?

For as long as I can remember, I need to write...stories, poems, memories. The pen flew across the page then, and now my fingers fly across the keyboard, or fill up my journal pages. I record the everyday bits and pieces that make up our lives. I blog for the same reason.

You see, I don't want my story to be lost. I want my children to know the stories connected to the photos, or to the blue bowl, forever known in my mind as the "cookie bowl." I want them to know me, not just as mom, but as a woman in her own right.

And, intertwined with the words comes the art...whether it's messy paint on a journal page, or my photographs. I can't separate the two. But, my art journey is my story...me, the eldest of 4 children. Me, the daughter of a milkman, who loved a good story himself, and a seamstress, who wanted only to raise her babies.

Me, a wife now, for almost 40 years, and the mother of 3 adults, and grandmother to two darling boys.

Me, the math teacher, caught up in the world of fractions, polygons, and graphs. Me, the teacher, who spends her days in the world of middle schoolers.

Me, the woman with the camera in her hand, who causes the workers at the farmers market to giggle as I photograph a head of lettuce or a pile or radishes, and maybe even the weeds growing in the parking lot.

Me, the artist. (I still hesitate to call myself that!) Me, who has been published in books and magazines, but who still wonders, "Am I really any good?" or "Am I just faking this really well?"

Me, the lover of used bookstores, where I found this for a whopping $3!

This passage caught my heart:

"My story is myself; and I am my story. This is all you will know of me; it is all I will know of you.  This is all that will survive of us: the stories of who we are, the ways that people speak our names and remember something we did....what is left of their lives, and what will be left of us, is story."

So, I photograph, and I fill up my journals.

"I am the only one who can tell the story of my life and say what it means."  - Dorothy Allison

Posting to Texture Tuesday:

 - "Edges", multiply at 73%

 - "Extreme Grunge" soft light, 25%

 

Smiling Here

He causes me to grin each time I wander through our dining room. Perched atop a funky birdhouse, his silliness shines.

Just a friendly little fella, plucked from one of Ikea's gigantic bins, he certainly didn't cost much. He's earned his keep and then some.

I think we all need some silliness in our lives, some things that make us smile gigantic huge cheek splitting smiles.

I think I'll call him "Fred." Not sure why, but he just appears to be a "Fred."

You can't see them here, but Fred sports a pair of wings, an extra bit of silliness. Of course, the realist in us "knows" frogs don't own wings. No one's told Fred, and I hope that no one does.

Everyone needs dreams, and if Fred's is to fly....after all, that princess kissing a frog bit is highly over rated,...well, then, I'm toasting Fred!

I'm linking up to Kim Klassen's Texture Tuesday. Textures used: "Little Things" at 77%, Hard Light, and Peeling Paint, at 75%, Multiply.