Orphans

It’s that time of year again to turn the page. Out with the old, in with the new.

I started my cleaning out early this year. In fact, I started on Christmas morning. I discovered mouse droppings in the corner of the pantry behind a cooler. And I didn’t dare stop until I made sure he had not eaten any of our food!

The beginning of October we heard some scratching in the wall and discovered mice had sneaked into our attic. It was just five days before we were to leave on a three week vacation. We managed to catch five before we left and enlisted our neighbor for mouse patrol while we were gone. And..... by the time he finished the grand total was 18. Creeps me out.

Back to purging. I have a packrat side of me, then I have a ‘throw it out quick before you can think’ side also. I spent nearly 2 full days on the bedroom. I have a desk in there that’s just used as a catchall so it was piled quite high. (and even higher during the holidays.) every time it’s cleaned I’m tempted to move my laptop/external monitor set up in there. Where I have it now, in the dining room is much more cheery and bright and I can look out the windows and watch the world go by. It would be nice however to get my dining room table back. Although we would seldom eat on it. I would really like to paint that table and chairs and recover the chairs. Right now that seems a daunting task.
OK, back to purging again.

I have a lot of nice cleaned off spaces in the house now. I also have several boxes of orphans, those things that don’t seem to have a home.  You’re not sure where to put them, store them or display them. And you’re not ready to throw them away. Perhaps today will be their day to find a home.

A daily site overhead.

Taken in Hipstamatic. I finally updated my app and now I need to sit down and figure out all the changes. While transferring from my phone I discovered an annoying thing. Hipstamatic names images files crazy. This one is JXIM6881 and the numbers are totally random so they are not in numerical order at all on my computer. If I arrange by time created that doesn't totally jive either. I'm determined to find a solution. To be continued.......

Perfect Timing

Hipstamatic, Gregory and Blackkeys44

Where do I even begin?

I can't believe I haven't been here since May 4th, or can I? The last four months have been a blur.
I can truly say from my heart that I wouldn't trade it for anything; however I would not like to repeat it and hope I won't have to.
Dealing with hubby's folk's nursing home adventures.
Time line:
March 15:  Tricked into their hometown facility for 2 1/2 weeks.
April 1:  Moved them to an 'assisted living house' in our city near our home.
May 24: Daddy starts falling/sliding out of his chair.
June 2: He's not able to bear his own weight. The next day we witness him having a mini stroke (we had been suspicious of such) End up calling in Hospice. They give him a week. A week later they give him another week, after that they quit guessing because he seems stable other than having trouble swallowing and not eating much. He's already extra skinny. The first 2 weeks we were there constantly feeding him because they had put an NPO on the wall. They took it down after we proved he could do small sips through a straw.
June 24:  She escapes the house 3 times and the third time she is hooking it down the busy two lane road determined she's going home. Cars having to drive around her.
Calls are made and we spend the next three days getting her new room ready.
June 28:  Her 79th birthday. We move her to a very nice memory care unit very close to our house.
June 30: Their 61st anniversary, the first one that they are apart. (fortunately they don't even realize it.)
July 5:  He starts going down hill fast.
July 9:  He passes.
July 14:  He's buried. We don't even question that we will not take her to the funeral. (alzheimer's)
In all this, God's timing has been so perfect. I sit back in awe at how everything unfolded.

She's doing extremely well in the new place, we are breathing much easier and looking forward to a badly needed vacation in a few weeks.

In the mean time I try to play catch up at work and in the garden.
Life is good.

155 cherry tomatoes, one day, one plant

Snapseed, VSCO, Stackables

Old Folks: Chapter 1

This photo represents a closed chapter with my in-laws. Everyday for lunch he would take her to Dairy Queen because she hasn't been capable of cooking the past three years. His cooking skills consist of instant oatmeal and peanut butter sandwiches.

When we visit on the weekends it's of course always Dairy Queen, always the same food order and usually the same booth. 

One morning he didn't know who the woman was sleeping on the sofa so a tough decision was made to check them into the nursing home. 

They spent the first day trying to escape.

Hipstamatic App with Gregory Lens, BlacKeys44 film.

Hipsta Christmas

As in Hipstamatic Christmas. I thought I'd capture a few memories this year with the Hipstamatic app on my iPhone. The lens I've been using is Florence and the film is Robusta.
Today I've been making Pecan Pies. Years ago my Mom died and Dad remarried an Arkansas lady. It didn't last (No offense) but the best thing that came out of that relationship was her pecan pie recipe.

A little dough making for Kuchen.

Around the house.

Happy Holidays!

Mobile Art Monday No. 49

A Digital Mixed Media Piece

Today's purpose: Mostly to inspire with a tidbit of instruction here and there.

This piece was created using three photos(sunflower, bird and an oil can label for texture) and two vintage papers(the butterflies and text.)

My original photo was shot with the Hipstamatic app using two of my favorites, Tejas lens and Ina's 1982 film. (I cropped off the border.)

In Leonardo I layered the other images on top and began changing blend modes and masking away areas.

I inverted the text paper and set it to screen so the text would be white. I duplicated most of the layers and used two different blending modes to achieve desired results.

When happy, I saved to camera roll and opened it in Picfx.

Under the PFX Film Set I chose PFX10 and reduced the opacity. (Touch on the right side to pull up the opacity slider. You can also rotate the filters on the left.) Be sure to touch the 'layer+' icon to add additional layers.

Under the Scratches Set I added Scratches One at a very low opacity and Olden Texture also at a low opacity. 

At this point I opened it in Procreate to outline the bird slightly and add a few sublte touches to the butterflies.

For an experiment I thought I'd run it through Brushstroke and saved three of the edits. 

Another play with the three in Leonardo using different blend modes for a unique painterly effect.

I hope this inspires you to try some layering in your edits.

Mobile Art Monday No. 33

I'm knee deep in classes right now so I'll just share a few of my favorite new found Hipstamatic combos. I'm doing #hipstaadayseptember on Instagram and I'll bet I do it for October too.

Sergio Lens and Irom 2000 film. Love that blur from the lens.

Gregory lens and Robusta film. I find myself using that film quite a bit.

Sergio Lens and Kodama film. It isn't very often I can capture a bee.

A new one I tried is the Eric lens paired here with Robusta film. It gives a very contrasty look.

Another with the Gregory lens and Robusta film. I really love taking shots of my granddaughter with Hipstamatic.

Gregory and Robusta. She and her PawPaw appear to be doing exercise in the grass. (At her prompting.)

Another new lens, Akira and Robusta film. 

Anyone is welcome to join me, just add the hashtag #hipstaadayseptember to your hipsta shots.

Hope you've had a good Monday.

Mobile Art Monday No. 31

It would be fitting that my Mobile Art Monday post No. 31 would be about my 31 Days of Hipstamatic Sunflowers on Instagram. 

It's been a glorious month! And I took too many to narrow it down to 31 so the past few days on Instagram I've posted extras and some 'four photo' grids. 

This was one of my favorite and I saved it for the last day. It was the closest to any that had a heart at the center.

Robusta lens, Lowy film.

A few random favorites.

Sergio lens, Blanko C16 film.

 Jane lens, Black Keys Extra fine film.

Tejas lens, Ina's 1982 film.

 A few of my combos with the same shot for comparison.

John S lens, Uchitel 20 film   -   Yoona lens, Dixie film.

Jane lens, Blanko C16 film  -  Robusta lens, Lowy film..   

Jane lens, Black Keys Extra fine film   -   Tejas lens, Ina's 1982 film.

Sergio lens, Blanko 일 film   -   Tejas lens, Dream Canvas film.

A mix of Jane lens with Blanko C16 film and Yoona lens with Dixie film.

Tejas lens, Ina's 1982 film.

BlankoBL4 lens, Madalena film.

August has been a sunflower month and it looks like I'll have tons more for editing in September.

These were all taken at the only field a few miles southeast of town.

For more sunflower shots check out my Instagram.

Mobile Art Monday No. 28

Hipstamatic may be the best quick photo effect app there is in app-land. I often forget to use it. Sometimes I'll find a subject and a lens and filter combo that just work and then a take a million photos. That's what happened in the sunflower field last week. As a result I decided to do '31 days of Hipstamatic Sunflowers' on Instagram. I am sharing those on Facebook also.

Ok, I didn't take a million photos but I ended up with 357 shots on my phone, of which 259 were Hipsta shots. And that was just Monday. I went back on Wednesday and took more.

My first favorite combo I'll feature today is with Ina's 1982 film and the Tejas lens. It makes great blue skies and gorgeous sunflowers. Here are just a few.

On Wednesday I went prepared for some selfies but wasn't anticipating such high humidity. Oh well, I've had worse 'bad hair' days. Hipstamatic doesn't have a timer that I know of so when you use a remote you have about a half second to hide it.

 Here are a few bloopers.

This one makes me laugh!

And my gear for the day.

Have a great Monday!