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Showing posts with the label creative adventure

More Color!

Today the color is orange. It's an upclose look of an orange rose. Yes, from one of the Mama's rose bushes. I cropped and enlarged a photo I took of the rose, then enhanced in Photoshop.  Nothing more to say. Until later.  

Trieste

Trieste is the name of the street I live on. The Husband pronounces Trieste as Tree-est . The Mama used to say Trees-tay. I like to say Tree-es-tay . Molly the Cat simply says Mwrr. Today, I found out that I was wrong about what trieste means. I thought it meant sad. In Italian, which is the word's origin, trieste means market place. (Italians pronouce the word as tree-es-tay .) According to Wiktionary.org, trieste is from the Latin word tergeste , which comes from Venetic, a once-upon-a-time language in the long-time-ago region of Veneto. I love the idea that we live on Trieste, a market place. I shall now imagine myself selling, trading, and giving away the creations of my heart. They may be words, images, and things out of stuff. Hmmmm. When I was a young thing living in San Francisco I wanted to be a street artist when I grew up, but I had no idea what I could sell as I had no artistry of any kind. That's what I thought then. Things are different now. I have the t

Feeling Artsy-Fartsy Today

Bones Approaching DOOM The Husband suggested that title for the photo. It has a nice ring, don't you think? Back to the picture. Imagine that the bones are wearing cowboy spurs. Imagine, now, that the bones are walking towards the ribbon of red. Jhing. Jhing. Jhing.  Doesn't it seem that the bones might also be wearing a poncho similar to the one Clint Eastwood's character wore in the Italian western movies once upon a time? That photo above is my edited version of the photo below that I took yesterday at the Day of the Dead procession in our county. I took a lot of photos. As always. My thought was to clean some up in Photoshop and share them at my other blog. Well, I didn't get pass this photo. I blame it on the skeleton (on the left) for holding up its arm in such a way that I thought it would be fun to contrast the bones with the feathers on the headdresses. You know how that goes. The creative brain cell kicked in and dismissed the practical sense of

Various Varieties

This is what I've been doing with some of the Mama's various varieties of cups.  This is what I've been doing with some of the Mama's various varieties of plants that need to be put into pots or repotted. I'm having a lot of fun . It's the letter V at ABC Wednesday . Click here to check out the other participants or to link up with the weekly meme started by Denise Nesbitt and continued to day by the ABCW team headed by Roger Green.   .

Eden Hills Friday's Hunt V 1.12

Ha! I'm actually doing Teresa's meme, Friday's Hunt , on the actual day. This week the photo hunt was 1) The Letter L, 2) Week's Favorite, and 3) Lace. My interpretation of the letter L is also my favorite photo. A lovely landscape of the Southern Diablo Range in my neck of the woods. I clicked the photo (above) as the Husband drove us homeward on Highway 25. A big fat black wire streaked across the scene which I erased in Photoshop. These tree branches reminded me of lace. What do you think? Okay, now it's time for you to check out the other participants in the Eden Hills Friday's Hunt . See you later.

My First California Poppy

This is a close-up of the petals of the first California poppy that I saw this year, back in February. Dear friend Jennifer said the lines of the poppy reminded her of a Georgia O'Keefe painting, and suggested that I zoom in on the petals, crop, and play with what I saw. Most definitely! Georgia O'Keefe is one of my favorite artists. I love all of her phases, from her early years in New York to her later, and more familiar, years in New Mexico. Many years ago, I dropped everything to trek down to Los Angeles to see an exhibit of Ms. O'Keefe's works. Wowza! Here's the photo that I took of the poppy. Isn't the poppy gorgeous? Maybe one day, I'll try painting a close-up of its petals with actual brush and paints. I'm linking up with Seasons , hosted by Jeanette of St Germain's Blog, and the Creative Every Day Challenge , hosted by Leah of Creative Every Day.  I hope you'll go visit both memes.

Creative Play #1

Here's my first experiment of doing something creative that's completely different for me. I learned the technique of layering two or more photos together in Photoshop while doing the Jane Austen Action Doll posts . I took three of my photos to make this collage. The woman is a store dummy and that's a chair in the shape of the hand. Both strange objects in the first place. The final effect kind of gives me the creeps. How about you? I'm linking up with the Friday meme called What Happened in Your Surroundings or in Your Mind This Week? hosted by Pippa Koenig. Click here to join in and/or to check out other participants. Update: I'm also linking up at s~A(R)T~urday , hosted by artist Claudia Willison. Be sure to check her out, too.    

T'was Nearly a Full Moon

I took this photo of a nearly full moon on Christmas Eve, then cropped and added art filters in Photoshop. 

Getting Back the Meaning of Christmas

Back in 1990 (or 1991), when I was in my mid-30s, I decided to reclaim Christmas. To celebrate it. To enjoy it. Without commercialism. But, with meaning. With joy. With fun. For years, until that moment, Christmas was something I went through. Ho, ho, humbug, ho, ho. Not totally. I enjoyed singing Christmas carols and I liked the sparkle-sparkle of the Christmas lights. And, I loved giving presents. So, you see, I wasn't a complete loss into grumpiness or miserableness around Christmas-time. I simply thought the spirit of Christmas was lost beneath all the excessive Buy! Buy! Buy! I don't recall exactly when the light bulb went over my head, but it did, thank goodness. I didn't have to be depressed about Christmas being commercial. Bingo! The first thing I did was make a fireplace to hang up Christmas socks and pin Christmas cards around. See the white sock? A yellow pterodactyl sat on top of the  sock. I put the space heater in front of the fireplace, so the Fir

Day 82 with Tilda-Hilda

"I'd like to be under the sea in an octopus's garden in the shade.  . ." That Beatles' song was looping in my head as Tilda-Hilda and I pedaled up and down hills this morning. Over 8.5 miles in 53 minutes! Perfect song for the ride. Today, I'm hooking up with two cool memes. Click on the links to check out other bloggers. One meme is Our World Tuesday . The other is Creative Every Day . See you tomorrow with Jane Austen, Action Doll.

Cool Stuff!

It's not my birthday. It feels like it though.   Today, the Husband and I drove over to Freedom to buy food for Molly the Cat. Our task was done quicker than we estimated, so we headed down the road to Watsonville to visit the art store and bookshop before lunch. I'd only planned to buy a couple of new colored pencils at Wild Rose's Artists' Supplies and Custom Framing , but you know how it goes. I checked out the shop's art paper. Marbled paper. Oooooh. Wavy, corrugated paper. Gotta have that. Small rectangle-shaped suede paper. 25 cents, sold! My plan is to make masks. Yup. At Crossroads Books , I bought a mystery called Shaking in Her Flip-Flops . Can't go wrong with a title like that.  Another neat thing about the book is that it's written by Joyce Oroz, an author who lives in nearby Aromas . The Husband and I also decided to purchase a copy of The 2016 Farmer's Almanac . That's always fun reading. To top off getting all this coo

Bragging

Three days later, I'm ready to brag about my county fair ribbons. For some of them, I don't know if I would've won if there had been a lot more competition. Don't get me wrong, I'm happy for all of them—four blue and one red ribbon in flower arrangements, one blue and one yellow ribbon in photography, and a white ribbon in wearable art. Whooo-hooo! My most unbelievable win was the blue ribbon for my dry floral arrangement in the Country Road Treasure class. You had to use objects found along the road as containers or accessories. I found a broken piece of PVC pipe with jagged edges along the road while the Husband and I were walking home. It was perfect. When friend Kathy saw my arrangement, she described it as modern minimalism. I was told that the arrangement received a lot of comments. Good or bad, I didn't ask.  You saw my Eiffel Tower martini glass arrangement already. If you haven't, click here .  These were my other flower arrangement entries.

Le Voiçi -- L'Eiffel Tower

On Monday I told you about my dry floral arrangement for the county fair. The photo shows my final result. How did I do? I won a blue ribbon for it.  Yup, yup, yup. You still can't see them, but there are tiny fake pearls, with red and green glass beads,  in the Eiffel Tower martini glass. They cover black stones that keep up the dry flowers. Tomorrow, I'll tell you more about the fair. I'm pooped.

Getting the Best Picture

Yesterday morning, I was being resourceful in front of this building, which once-upon-a-time was the hospital in Hollister. It was in fact the place where I was born, one of many babies that came into the world between 1907 and 1962. Today, the building is home to various offices and shops. Probably a few ghosts, too.  Anyway, back to yesterday. I was lying on the bottom steps trying to take a good picture of the huge trees that line the sidewalk in front of the old hospital. I was doing as someone said to me about getting one or all five trees in a picture, "Be creative." Imagine what the drivers passing by must've thought.  Or, the Mama, if she had seen me.

Summer Domestic Diva Challenge -- Two Down!

Hurrah! I completed item#1 on my list of seven things to do before the summer ends. The Husband has his second tunic. It sports a couple of boo-boos. One pocket is lower than the other. And, there's a triangle of fabric missing in the interfacing. I cut it out as I was sewing because the fabric was overlapping in the oddest way.  I should've had more faith in what I was doing. We'll see how the tunic holds up with each washing. The blue print on the pockets and on the sides looks weird. What can I say other than it brings out the happiness of the shirt. The Husband is so cool.

Working Out the Laziness

I'm feeling lazy. It may be because I haven't pedaled Tilda-Hilda in a week. Soon, though, we'll be out again. Perhaps tomorrow. Definitely tomorrow, even if it's around the block. Since I've been feeling lazy, I decided to start working on one of my seven things to do before the summer ends. The other day, I opened my fabric stash and came up with a color combination for the Husband's second tunic. I'm patchworking a bit of blue with the brown kalidescope print. Although the two prints felt right together, they looked weird at first. Now, that I've finished sewing the patchworks together, I don't think the colors or the prints clash. Hopefully, I'll have time today to sew the tunic. 'This may be a very cool tunic or an ugly one," I said to the Husband. "I don't care," he replied. "I'll wear it anyway." The Husband is a sweetheart. I'm linking up with Our World Tuesday . To join in or check

Imagination

My Alphabe Thursday theme—Places I've Been We've all traveled somewhere via our imagination. Maybe after we read or listened to a grand story, saw a wonderful movie or TV show, or heard an amazing song or sound. Until I was grounded with a serious job (translate: heavy responsibilities) in my 20s, I had a rich, vivid imagination. With each, and even more, serious job or work project, my imagination seemed to get duller and duller. When I feel low on imagination, I visit a particular memory. And, slowly I feel my imagination edging back.  Many years ago while visiting the Only and Older Brother and his family,  Youngest Niece asked me to make stuff out of play dough with her. "Sorry," I said, flopped out on the couch. "My imagination isn't working today. There's nothing inside my head." "You can borrow some of mine," the five-year-old sweetie said. She pressed her fingertips on her forehead, then pressed them on mine. How cou

A Tuesday Ramble

In 1969  I saw a movie called If It's Tuesday, This Must be Belgium starring Suzanne Pleshette, who was a bus tour guide in Europe. I recall only two things about the movie. Pleshette's character fell in love with someone to whom she had an immediate disliking (of course) and one of the older American tourists took toilet fixtures from the hotels where they stayed as his souvenirs. I also remember wanting to become a tour guide after seeing the movie. So, what got me thinking about that movie? Well, it's Tuesday. I'm not in Belgium, but the Husband and I are about to drive over to Freedom (yes, there's such a town in California) to purchase cat food for Molly the Cat. What we will do for that cat. Big, BIG Waves Have you ever dreamed of ocean waves higher than the tallest buildings in your town coming towards you? I had one of those dreams a couple nights ago. The waves came in two or three times. Each time, I was able to find shelter and hang on.  One of t

A Slight Shaft of Light

I'm linking up with the Weekend in Black and White . Come along with me to check out B&W photos by participants from around the world.

The Mama's Roses

My  ABC Wednesday   theme:  The Mama and Her Authentic Green Thumbs. . .and Fingers The Mama loves her roses. They're all over the back yard.  In odd places, such as the middle of her banana grove. Some of the roses started as branches that she pruned from the roses in her front yard. Others are branches that she pruned from those branches that she pruned from the roses in her front yard. I'm sure, there are third and fourth and fifth and so on and so forth generations from either the roses in the front or the back yards. Did I confuse you? Let me just say that it's been years since the Mama has planted a new rose bush. She prunes a branch off one of her rose bushes and sticks it in the ground where ever she pleases. She waters it and that's it. No special food or fertilizer. The Mama's philosophy: A branch takes and roses bloom, or it does not. But, she always hopes it will. From what I've seen, since I often water the flowers now, her