It's Friday!

It's Friday Finds and Random 5 time again! Gosh the weeks go fast!

1. A new class I'm taking is Title Express by Tiffany Tillman over a Scrapaneers. This girl knows her fonts and everything about fonts! I've learned some pretty cool things and have been quite inspired. Here is the first page I did for week 2 homework. Originally I didn't have any embellishing on it but I've recent purchased Simply: Embellish by Captivated Visions. (I love her stuff.) So I added the edge and elements. All the brush work with the fonts are mine. Dirty Lines, Dirty Circles, Fragments Too, and Watercolor Brushes available HERE.

2. Have I mentioned we have a plane? Well it's been in the shop since mid January for some avionics work that didn't get finished right last fall. Just got it back yesterday. The good part about that is no one spent money on gas while it was there. And of course this meant a trip to Amarillo to pick it up and see my girlfriend and hang out in the antique shops on 6th St. I don't know why they call it 6th St. because the map says 6th Ave. I'm sure that must be confusing to tourists. One cool find was this fluted white plate from England. It wasn't cheap but I didn't dare pass it up. I'll have to ask Viv about it.

3. If you've been reading my blog for awhile you know I like to do drive by shootings. With the camera that is. I was part way back from Amarillo as the sun was setting so I reached into the back seat and grabbed my Canon, (Nifty 50 was still on it, oh well. I'm driving. Blake's flying.) Try to crank the aperture up and it looks like I've got it on 18 so I'll go with that. Stick my arm toward the passenger seat window and start snapping away. There are few trees and buildings between here and there, so there really wasn't much to pull over and stop for. But I got a few cool shots and heres' one. (It was actually set on 1.8, 'roll eyes')

4. Baby took her dog for a walk on Monday. I got some video too I'll be needing to make a little movie. Her words that day were 'walk' and 'windy'. Yes, we had another dirt storm. It's crazy this year. I heard we made the national news again.

iphone, Snapseed, Mextures.

5. The first day of spring I trotted down the alley to photograph the blooming apples. A new neighbor lives there and he isn't very friendly. So I felt like I needed to hurry up and get out of there.

iphone, Waterlogue, iColorama.

Have a fabulous weekend everyone! we are hoping to fly somewhere for a $100 hamburger. Bunless no less…..

Mom

January 27th. . .

I moved a thousand miles south a couple decades ago. 

I was in my early 20s. Because of the distance I was lucky to get home once a year. 

Five years later my mom  died from injuries as the result of a very tragic car accident. 

I'm thinking about her friends. 

I see their smiling faces. A deep love in their eyes. Connections that cannot be broken. 

Of shared experiences with their children. Their husbands. Their community. And especially fishing.

I don't always get to see these women when I come home. But when I do it brings a clenching to my heart. Overwhelming emotions that are hard to control. It's like the funeral was just last week instead of 30 years ago. Even now as I picture their faces, my throat closes up and my eyes fill with tears. I picture myself as a little girl and them having their arms wrapped around me as I cry. They cry too. 

In honor of my mom whose birthday is today. She would have been 77. I look at her sisters and try to picture what she would look like now. I imagine what our conversation topics might be. What type of art she might be doing or if she would have established an art related business. . . thoughts. . . imaginings. . .

Beyond Beyond Day 40 and Friday Finds

I'm linking up with Friday Finds today at Kim's. This week I'm finding all kinds of good organic gluten free type foods in our town and learning to cook differently. It is a challenge I am up for since reading so much about how gluten and Omega 6 fats are killing Americans. I'll probably be posting more food pictures and a few recipes as time goes on. If anyone is interested one book to read is called Grain Brain.
Another challenge:
 This week Kim challenged us to edit some of our iPhone photos in Lightroom rather than on our phones and she gave us one to play with also. Here are a few from last fall.

Plus this cow photo from the Hillcountry. I should have cropped more from the right and cloned out the fence post but I kind of liked it like this.

Here is Kim's photo. before and after.

I must admit I'm usually up for a challenge!

Have a great weekend. Mine will spent cooking and cleaning out more closets. Maybe my word for the year should have been 'purge'.

Lens Baby Magic

I've completed homework for the first week of Lensbaby Magic given at PPSOP by Kathleen Clemmons. Her stuff is sooooooo dreamy. Someday I'll be that good or at least I aspire to that. The first three I uploaded for critique. The rest are some I liked but knew were probably not as good. Perhaps you'll disagree. I'm always curious to know what every's opinion is.

Taking into consideration the fact that we could not crop our photos…. was the reason a few of these didn't make the cut. 

Sky Drama

We are heading to Fort Worth. Hubby is going to an AOPA thingy and I'm hoping to do some street photography. Or maybe rest. And think. And write. And draw. And shop of course. Pottery Barn and Anthropology are on my list. So are antiques and the Farmer's Market. And maybe an art supply store. I'll have 3 days to explore. My sweet friend is letting me borrow her 24-70 lens. I'm excited.

Paths of Life

“Two roads diverged in a wood, and I -

I took the one less traveled by,

And that has made all the difference.” 

-Robert Frost

Where do I go from here? I wish it were very clear.
Direction is continually on my mind lately.

"Pursue some path, however narrow and crooked, in which you can walk with love and reverence."
-Henry David Thoreau

Our paths are rarely smooth and free of obstacles.

Some paths have the dreaded pink ribbon on them. We don't travel it by choice.

It's good to see the beauty in what seems for harm.

"Face your life, its pain, its pleasure, leave no path untaken.”
- Neil Gaiman

“When you find your path, you must ignore fear. You need to have the courage to risk mistakes. But once you are on that road... run, run, run, and don't stop until you've reached its end.”
- José N. Harris



You make known to me the path of life; you will fill me with joy in your presence, with eternal pleasures at your right hand.  Psalms 16:11

How are your paths looking these days?

Homework from Photo Art Blends by Cottage Arts

Photoshop Grunge

I've recently started taking the Photoshop Artistry Class. Talk about being stretched even further in the texture department! I love the graphics aspect of it and look forward to doing some 'light' art, not just the dark stuff which most of us seem to be doing right now as we get started. There are some talented people in that class. This is my first attempt. I may go back and add some text.
This may be my way to do a little art journalling.
I'm roo late to linkup to Kat's Photo-heart connection this month but this would be it. In August I took more photos of sunflowers in the fields and in my back yard than anything (except my grand-daughter). I feel like I'm in a dream world when I'm out among them. La-la Land. That's where I live most of the time. I loved staring into their faces. So individual, like little children. Like they each had a separate personality. I didn't want to leave them.

If you are interested in the class, you can get 50% off right now, click here.

Sunflower Story Board

Just a little Start to Finish homework that I'm catching up on. Day 7 It was good to review some of the details of the Print Module. I may actually have it down now.

I suppose I could have added a quote but then I wouldn't have gotten around to getting my chair upholstered today. It was nice to have a day off and not spend it on the computer. Now I know how I used to get so much done all the time. Photos tomorrow.

Tools

One thing I believe.
You get what you pay for.
Having good tools is important to me. Whether it's gardening tools, sewing machine, scissors, drills, or graphics programs. The quality of work (or should I say 'ease' of work) is generally far improved when good quality tools are used. The experience is more pleasurable also.
In my early years I picked up gardening tools at Walmart and such places, but then I wasn't a serious gardener either. Now they are purchased at nurseries and last many years as opposed to one or two. Here are a few shots from the yard this spring that I just happened to have a couple of my favorite tools in. The little long handled hand hoe is not being made any more, sigh. I've had it more than 10 years.

A lot of texturing going on this week.

Linking up with Tuesday Muse.

NancyCleas_elizabeth Colorburn 29%

RoxiH_Warmth Softlight 100%

Slight Saturation adjtments

RoxiH_Photo Textures_Fawn Softlight 65%

More curves and dodge and burning.

ps1-78-UnderThePier-KellieMize Multiply 83%

JoanneBrisebois_Harvest1912_Paper5 Overlay 95%

All layers merged set at multiply 27%.

Text: Dutch and Harley, Myanmar MN.

Added cooling action with just dark and light blue layers and darkening edge.

InPursuitofLiberty06__MichelleColeman Multiply 100%

Some levels and curves and masking.

Crackle-X-JosephFrancis ColorBurn 55%

Crackle-DD-JosephFrancis Color burn 69% 

Hue Sat Adj Layer -20

Most of this is homework for a class I'm taking at Digital Scrapper.

What's blooming? Well, this one sunflower plant has made quite the display against the corn. And the pumpkins are coming along nicely. They always seem to have trouble for some reason.

Hope your garden is well this year. We got a little bit of rain last night, a welcome relief. So my hair is curly today. ha!

By the way, this is my 200th post on this blog that was begun early last year as a result of signing up for Kim Klassen's Beyond class. The journey has been very cool indeed.

Aspects of Learning

It's interesting to discover things about yourself. This can be good and bad....
I do much better at taking classes where I can just watch a video and do it. This year I've signed up for classes that require me to stop and think, much to my dismay.... It causes me to procrastinate about even READING the lessons. (what is the stumbling block that mind (or heart) seems to throw up when it comes time for such things.)
My most recent class was an expensive one (compared to all others I've taken) and I really felt that it would be a turning point in my photography. (And I'm over a week behind)
Well, this morning I had 2 hours free and just had to MAKE myself go somewhere, get coffee, sit down and read and contemplate and write, as I went through it.
Hallelujah! Break through! I actually made great notes as thoughts came to mind while reading. By the time I finished, the questions listed at the end had pretty much been answered.
Another thing I've found hard in this class is that discussion is held in a Flickr group. This is a new habit I'll have to get into. I post photos occasionally, (I'm much more regular on Instagram, as in daily.) But now that 2 weeks plus have passed, I have tons of 'reading' of discussions to catch up on. And as I finally begin to read I get to know everyone, but unless I join in and post or comment, no one gets to know me. The good thing is I already 'know' a few of the gals and am at least familiar with many others. Mostly from IG or Kim Klassen's texture groupies.
So... my main goal for this class is to LEARN, learn more about what I want to shoot, the second is to get to know the others better.
And yes, I believe this will be a turning point in my photography. Thanks to Kat Sloma.

Snapseed edit on iPhone

PicTapGo, Snapseed,  Glaze, Over

iPad edit Nothing better than a great chocolate cookie, some hydrangeas, coffee and a little morning light.