Years End

I'm sitting here savoring my last piece of kuchen from Christmas and reflecting on the past year. It's Dec 28th. Half of my Christmas cards still lie on the table waiting for a photo and quick, or not so quick, note before they'll be taken to the mail drop. I've been thinking about my mom and her mom and her sisters, wondering how life would be different if I could pick up the phone and chat with her about my feelings. Food can have an emotional attachment and I'm sure that's why I treasure making and eating all the kuchen at Christmas.

This holiday season has been the least stressful and so enjoyable. I have felt 'centered', 'grounded' and 'calm'. I plan on taking that right into next year.

As I'm looking back through my Lightroom library (dslr photos) I'm getting terribly distracted. (in a good way) Most of my photos are of flowers in my garden and some actually got processed this year and posted on social media.

The year started out with cleaning out and renovating hubby's parent old house. What a job! 3 months later, finished and sold within 3 weeks. I've been in 'clean out and throw away' mode ever since.

In August we made the long trip home to the Dakotas and I end up shooting out the window even more because of traveling in an RV. I was stunned at the amount of wild sunflowers this year. And to pair them with the beloved hay bales was perfect.

Even at the farm they were in abundance near the river.

Two new babies greeted us in ND.

Then in October we took an amazing 30 day vacation. Branson, Asheville, Charleston, Savannah, Jacksonville and Navarre Beach Florida which topped them all for relaxation. There is just nothing like the beach and believe it or not the hubby agrees. I've about decided I couldn't be a full timer. Not unless I could pull a craft room with supplies behind the RV.

This year I also returned to my sketching. I had never been into faces but now they fascinate and challenge me. Oh, so many things I want to do!

I finally signed up for a class using oil paint and cold wax medium. Loving it! Wish it dried faster.

Here's wishing everyone a peaceful close to 2018 and a sense of wonder and expectation for 2019.

Our RV Movie Experience

You don't even want to know how the wind caught our 20' awning on the first day of our 2 week vacation going 65 mph down the highway right outside of Dodge City through the central plains. To make a long story short… 
Standing at each end of the awning with our arms in the air, we both try to hold the support poles stead in 30 MPH wind staring at each other dumbfounded. It had uncoiled about three feet and appeared locked in that position. Tension builds (in each of us). Duct tape for a few miles. Well maybe 2 miles. Then more duct tape. We find a building in town to block the wind. Climbing the short ladder an attempt is made to get it to recoil. Not budging. The tall ladder is drug out and he climbs up to the top. I follow intrepidly. It's now obvious the whole thing is bent out on one end by 2'. I say let's just cut it off. We do it without a second thought. We disassemble as much as possible. Lucky for us it's Labor Day and no one is around to see us leave that 20' monster beside a nearby dumpster.
Thus, our first 'RV movie' experience.

If my phone had been in my pocket, I would have sneakily set it on mute, grabbed a few shots of the 'trash' so as not to aggravate an already agitated man. But all that remains are a few bolts that were in my pocket from an attempt to dismantle it from the top.

This was our first 'real' trip in this 'bus'. We previously had a few overnighters in the church parking lot where hubby's folks live and a 2 nighter in Amarillo. This wasn't a great way to start a 2 week trip across the country. We really didn't need that awning anyway and we were fortunate it did no damage.

Two Weeks

Yes, it's two weeks until Christmas and I was just pondering how frazzled I was last year. This past Monday we returned from a 12 day 3000 mile road trip to the cold north visiting relatives, attending a conference (not me) and general relaxing taking extra days to get to our destinations. 

As a result, I have no Christmas decorations up because I've been swamped at work. Do I care? Not particularly, but I hope no one at work cares because there are none up there either!

The first thing I did when returning was check my multitude of pumpkins scattered around the house for rotting bottoms.

I'm not ready for fall to be over. We left at it's peak and I was sure it would be gone when I got back but NO! It was still here just barely past it's glory. I drove around Monday and listened to the leaves blow across the sidewalks and watch some fall from the bradford pears. Glorious! I was in heaven for a day and I sure need that.

This was just confirmation that I need my quiet photo shooting trips for meditation. It amazes me how God can speak when you get away from everything, or should I say how much better we can 'hear'?

There were a lot of things that went wrong on this trip. 

• We encountered a rock chip in the windshield on the way out of town that actually cracked about a foot right through 'my' line of vision in the drivers seat. 
• We both ended up with physical ailments. (I nearly went to the hospital and I never do that.) 
• My credit card was compromised. 
• We got snowed in at Dad's two extra days preventing us from seeing my brother and sis-in-law. 
• We saw two really bad car wrecks, one of which we witnessed.

I counted up eight, but I'll spare you the rest.

• There were definitely some good too.
• Getting a lot of Christmas shopping done at the Mall of America and some shopping for myself. 
• Seeing that glorious snow and getting some shots of it. 
• Drive by shooting of tons of barns. I swear there was a barn every mile as we drove through Minnesota.
• Seeing a niece I hadn't seen in 6 years. 
• Watching my nephew's daughter play basketball.
• Finding the folks still in good health.

Well Christmas will just have to wait until I'm ready for it this year. Hallie did pile the ornaments on the tree before Thanksgiving because I promised her she could. (As in several on one branch.) Will I rearrange them? Probably not and that's a big step for the decorator in me.


At Dad's house.
I think they should have used this for their Christmas card by they always do a photo of themselves. Speaking of cards, mine are not done. I started looking through my Lightroom Library last night for photos to use and ended up quite side tracked as you can imagine.

This may just Merry Christmas from me. Have a very blessed holiday season!

A Prayer for 2015

As I photographed from the car window on the long drive from North Dakota to Texas I began to hear these words…
For you my friends…

May your faith be strong.

May your shelter be adequate.

May you find provision on every path.

May the majority of your battles be downhill.

When you find yourself in the lowest of valleys, may you see the beauty hidden there.

May you keep the company of like-minded souls and have much support on your journey.

May confusion and the opinions of others not distract you from your intentions.

May you never lose sight of your goals.

May you not be afraid to stand out in the crowd.

May the mountains before you part as you move forward.

May closed doors open in due season.

May you find strength and power.

May no boundaries keep you from achieving your dreams.

And remember, however you get there,

...enjoy the journey.

Linking up with Kim for Friday Finds.

Friday Finds in the Dakotas

It's Friday Finds time again and I have a ton. But will limit it to six. During my trip up north I had a ton of finds, most important was that the (1) peonies were still in bloom Yea!!!!

 They planted peonies and lilacs at the cemetery. An important family grave is in the background of this one.

The (2) deer were more than plentiful. Because mamas were feeding, they moved around a lot during the day.

I discovered my (3) favorite place on the farm to photograph was only reachable by water shoes. Good thing I had some in the pickup.

My aunt had redone her (4) porch a bit.

There were a ton of old (5) barns to take photos of. I'll be taking this into DistressedFX or something to texture up the sky.

My sister-in-law was a (6) dragonfly magnet at the lake. There were a million there.

I attracted one myself.

Come on over to Kim's blog today and see what kind of great goodies everyone has found/discovered this week.

App Happy Wednesday 4-23

I have a long to do list with my name on it today, but first I 'must' participate in the first App Happy Wednesday over at Barb's blog, Keeping With the Times. One of my recent favorite photos processed with Waterlogue was this group of antique bicycles at a shop in Fredricksburg. It was conveniently closed when I arrived to the delight of the hubby.

Original

Edited with Snapseed to lighten the shadows and a slight increase of saturation. I was curious to see what a 'flat-looking' image would do. I knew I didn't want the darkness of it in the watercolor.

Waterlogue, Bold setting. Yes, I thought that worked pretty well.

Waterlogue Illustration setting. I definitely like the more colorful one.

Another favorite, the largest most beautiful clematis I've ever seen at the nursery. The setting was Fashionable and Giant. The default is set to medium, but you can get more detail when changing the size settings to giant. Some photos benefit when changing the lightness - darkness setting also. I have a tendency to not play with those so much because my patience runs thin while waiting for the changes to processes. Maybe if I got a newer iPad it would be faster? I need an excuse.

A few more faves all taken on our trip to the hill country of Texas. This sweet kitty hung out at the Herb Farm.

Added a bit of word art and text from Rhonna Designs.

If you haven't been bitten by this bug yet, watch out. It'll get you!

Linking up with Barb!