Little Scraps of Magic

What's New?

Going to try to play along over here on a regular basis this year, so here goes!

1. Yes, yes, yes, I know I'm doing this on a Saturday. So, I'm late....nothing new there!
2. Got in some photoshop play this week, pushing different buttons just to see what happened. Results varied.
3. Convinced my sixth graders that they could learn how to factor LCMs and GCFs and keep them straight. They proved I was right!
4. Three new pairs of shoes followed me home from DSW. They needed a good home. What could I say?
5. Finally got the gray out of my hair...yay!
6. Ate tuna fish salad in an avocado twice this week. Our cafeteria ladies absolutely rock.

Life's pretty normal at the moment and I'm loving that!

Here

here

drinking in Liz's words

wanting to create magic of my own

here

listening to sounds of traffic outside my window

loath to put Christmas away

and thinking of my childhood when we celebrated

two Christmases

our own and the Russian Orthodox Christmas

in honor of my gigi

here

we leave our tree up until at least the Epihany

here

tired from my first day back to school

although it was a good day...no, an awesome day

full of Eristhanes Seive, primes, composites, and divisilbiltiy rules

it seriously did me in

here

enjoying the last few sips of a cinnamon dolce

and nibbling on an almond Christmas cookie or two

here

thinking about what I need to wear tomorrow

to stay warm

as I help to move 700 plus kids

7 blocks

to and from First Friday Mass

here

enjoying flickering candle light

dancing inside the mercury glass

 

Searching Out Details

When I visited the Basillica last week, I took great delight in capturing tiny details amid all the grandeur. So much to drink in, even the columns held various tiny designs etched into them...tons and tons of textures to marvel at, and boy, did I marvel!

This happens to be a tiny detail of a bishop's crook from an effigy.  Now, I was not so thrilled with the effigy, so I focused on the bishop's crook.  Gorgeous, no?

I'm linking up with Macro Monday...go see all the neat pics!

Silence is Golden

Noise fills my life - the laughter of grandchildren, middle schoolers during the day, and critters wanting to be fed. Good noise, no doubt...but at times, I crave quiet.

Each November, we take our sixth graders here, and it never fails to delight. Eyes follow the arches and spires up, up, up to the heavens. A hush settles over everyone as they slowly spin in circles trying to draw it all in. We're lost in time and space, not knowing where to look first.

The curves of the arches delight me, and I never grow weary of trying to capture the magic. I took well over 200 photos, experimenting with f stops and aperatures, trying to wean myself off auto focus, sometimes with more success than others.

The quiet fills you and settles you somehow, and for that I am grateful.

 

 

A Different Sort of Beauty

The glorious reds, yellows, and oranges are gone.

There's a softer beauty now, found in the curves and lines.

The empty negative spaces create their own designs.

Light and shadow.

Beauty literally underfoot; we just have to notice.

Linking to Macro Monday and

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A November Afternoon

Assignment: Photograph November

Thoughts: I am sick of leaves.

So, on went the gypsy shoes and we headed out to Great Falls Park and found it in a little boy skipping rocks.

Disclaimer: I have no idea who these folks might be, but when I saw boy + rocks + water, I knew I only had to wait for the shot.

I added a bit of sepia and then blended the opacity back to just get a hint of soft color. I'm loving it!

We had a glorious day with sunshine and temps in the 60s, ending with a late lunch at "The New Angler's Inn." Crabcakes and a glass of chardonnay...yum!

P.S. Ended up photographing some leaves anyway!

 

Enter the Cranky Birds

In early October, I quite admired these fine fellows but pretty much figured that they weren't going to happen, at least not in my journals. You see, I knew that if I tried to purposely create a blob which then would magically morph into a cranky bird, I'd tie myself up into knots of pure frustration. Why? Because I'd be thinking way to much about how to control that blog and to make sure it could become a bird, cranky or not.

So, I put those cranky birds out of mind, or so thought. Turns out, they thought otherwise.

Hurricane Sandy, for all the destruction up and down the East Coast that she caused, gave me the gift of time. I happily puttered away in the studio, playing with watercolors and building backgrounds in a journal. Just play, looking to see what might happen, and heat gun blasting away to dry the page, I spotted him, my cranky bird.

Back to Carla's blog I went, and followed the instructions of Carla's guest blogger, Dar Hosta, and began to work on my bird. One wing is definitely wonky, but I love him, none the less.

In her post, Dar explained that cranky birds always have something to say, and mine was definitely telling me that if I wanted this art career to happen, I needed to get cracking and put in the time. I haven't been, and it's my fault, plain and simple.

I could explain to you all that I have had to do, and it's a lot...just a lot of administrative work, meetings, conferences, lesson plans and so on.

Yeah, I need to unwind, but I don't need to fall into hours of random wandering through blogs...and I do mean very random, just following link after link after link...and end up doing nothing of my own. Too many ideas bouncing in my head and never making their appearance via camera or journal page. Pretty stupid, 'cause I know better.

So, this post is a promise to myself to get moving, to make it happen, I know it's possible because this happened. Time to stop dreaming and make it start happening!

Portrait of the Mad Hatter

For Focus 52's week 48, we were encouraged to create something "spooky." Jan provided some wonderful links for nighttime photography and such, but Hurricane Sandy got in the way of any attempts to try this out.

By this past Saturday, officials highly encouraged all Halloween decorations to be brought inside. Even the tiniest pumpkin transforms into a flying projectile with the aid of hurricane force winds. By the same evening, the rain poured down, and continued through Tuesday.

Nope, driving rain and hurricane force winds equals finding a Plan B.

So, instead I fiddled with a photo taken Halloween night, attempting a "spooky" feeling. Not awesome, but not so bad either!

 

 

Hello, Sandy...

                                                            No longer turning...      

 

I'm sipping my coffee, meandering through blogs, enjoying the gift of time.

Sandy's here, not yet in "her full glory," but enough to make her presence known.

One very wet Australian shepherd sleeps in the "drying room," hoping not to forever resemble a sopping canine sponge.

I'm beginning to process my style - clean graphic shapes, repetition, circles.

Rust appeals, as does things that carry a history. Not so much vintage; you know the type...pointy hats, soft dreamy images, and the like.

Not that there's anything wrong with any of that; it just doesn't grab me. Not enough texture? Not sure, as this is all just beginning to gel in my mind.

I'll be working more on this today; it's something I can do whether the power remains on or not. Well, as long as it's daylight, at any rate! It's rather ironic that I chose this image, of a wheel and gears that no longer turn, when the ones in my mind seem to be going full blast. I do think that the universe enjoys a good joke now and then.

I'm planning on meandering through most of my day, working on assignments for Lesley Riley's "Compose Yourself" class, editing some photos, and reading.

So many cars outside, making me grateful that I don't need to be out and about in this mess.

So, Sandy, here's what I want to say: I know you're going to create an unfathomable mess. I know you're going to flood the East Coast and do incrediable damage. I know all this, but right now, you've given me the gift of some time, and for this gift, thank you.

Linking up with Macro Monday and I Heart Macro.

 

Monkey Mind

My monkey mind has kept me awake since 2 am.

Did a bit more meandering through blog land, falling in love with these, and wishing I knew how to create this magic.

Instead, I played in the land of "photoshop elements" with my own leaves, making a bit of my own magic.

Falling in love with these colors, and now, an idea percolating for later.