Earth Wonders - BLUE

Our photo challenge this week at Ana's Earth Wonders is BLUE.  This is a photo of the Seattle skyline, which shows an oddity - a blue sky!  It's usually overcast, raining, misting, etc., etc., etc.!

I used one layer of Kim Klassen's textures - wonderful magic scripted.


Don't forget to add your photos to flickr! 

Link up here or over at Ana's!!!  





The linky party will be moving from Wednesdays to Fridays.







Take care and God Bless!


XoXoXo

Harvest Moon and Jupiter Oct 14, 2011

Last Friday we had a Harvest Moon. Nothing really odd about that, right?  Well, this Harvest Moon also had a little friend in the sky - the planet Jupiter!

I took this picture a little before 5 AM.  This straight out of the camera (except for a little cropping, but that was just black sky).

See the little bitty dot below the moon, near the bottom of the photo, just left of center?  THAT'S Jupiter!

In this version, I added one of Kim Klassen's textures, "autumn burst" over the moon, just for giggles and grins.  Well, isn't a harvest moon supposed to be orange??? :)

Sharing this with Bunny Jean's Bunny Hop Party.  Why not "jump to it" and join in?!


Click HERE to visit Bunny Jean!


Also sharing with Traci's Sepia Saturday at Poetry Without Words.
 



Take care and God Bless!

XoXoXo

Earth Wonders - Trees

This week's subject matter at Ana's Earth Wonders Photo Challenge is "Trees." 

The other morning, just after dawn, I went outside to capture the leaves changing to their Autumn dress on our 10 1/2 year old Maple tree. 

We had planted it right after we moved into our new home.  It was just a little bitty shoot, maybe 12-18 inches tall, and the previous owner had tried unsuccessfully to eradicate it.  I dug up the poor little maple-ette from the front flower bed and transplanted it lovingly into the backyard.  Like all of God's living things, it just needed a little love, a little tender loving care!  That little shoot is now taller than our house!  It gives us shade from the southern sun in the summer, helping to keep the back bedroom cooler.  That must have been the reason for it to pop its little head up every year, refusing to die.

The morning sun was so very bright that morning!  You can see the top of the tree is so washed out from the light. 

I adjusted the contrast/brightness/vibrancy and used two of Kim Klassen's wonderful textures for the final result. The first texture is one of my favorites: Pumpkin Grunge. I used blend mode Soft Light @ 100% opacity.  The second texture is Autumn Burst, blend mode Multiply @ 50%.  I wish I had thought to remove the trash can before I took the picture, but to be honest, I really didn't see it! Only when I started playing around with the photo did it become visible to me! ;)  Guess I must have been sleepy?



Take care and God Bless!

XoXoXo

Earth Wonders and Texture Tuesday Photo Challenges

I ran across a few of our old photos of when my hubby and I were dating!  These photos are 18 years old this month.  We were both a lot thinner then and Doug still had his red hair! LOL!

The pictures were taken in Brown County State Park, Brown County, Indiana.  It's just a county away, but there's really no direct route to get there from here.  We have to go up I-65 to Columbus, then take SR-46 toward Bloomington, passing through Nashville. 

Nashville is the county seat of Brown County and  the fall leaves are one of the major draws.  It's a quaint little town with lots of artists and crafters selling their wares, antiques, little specialty shops & neat local restaurants.  Brown County State Park is just west of Nashville and has lots of lookout areas to view the beautiful fall scenery!  We spent our honeymoon here, but that's another story!  G-rated, REALLY! :)

This photo isn't as vibrant as I remember the leaves being, as they are almost every year.  But with a little bit of manipulation and Kim Klassen's textures, it is.  Ana's Earth Wonders Photo Challenge was Autumn, and Kim's Texture Tuesday Challenge was to use at least  one of her textures. 



Scan of the original photo.



This is how I always remember Brown Co., Indiana



I adjusted the brightness/contrast and vibrancy to being with.  

1st texture:  Kim's Pumpkin Grunge - soft light @100% opacity

2nd texture: Kim's 1 2 3 - Multiply @ 75% opacity



Scan of the original photo.





Much prettier!

I did the same here, adjusted the brightness/contrast and vibrancy.

1st texture - Kim's Yesteryear - Multiply @ 40% opacity

2nd texture - Kim's Pumpkin Grunge @ 50% opacity

If you ever get our way, you really should try visiting Brown County State Park and Nashville.  I don't believe you'll regret it!

Linking with:

Kim Klassen's Texture Tuesday

Ana's Earth Wonders Photo Challenge

Take care and God Bless!

XoXoXo

Earth Wonders Challenge "LIGHT"

This week's photo challenge at Ana's Earth Wonders is "light."



Click HERE!

A few years ago, my hubby's uncle died and his wife had a dove released at the end of the service to the hymn "Fly Away Home."  I tried to capture a shot of the dove as it flew away into the sunlight.  I don't think I was successful in getting the dove, but I did get the bright sunlight!

I used two of Kim Klassen's textures here. One is "start" - soft light @ 50%, and the other is "warm sun" - multiply @ 40%.

I know Uncle Ray was already with our Lord, but the beautiful sunshine that day seemed to be welcoming him home!

Take care and God Bless!

XoXoXo

{Texture Tuesday} The DO eDition

Texture Tuesday at Kim Klassen's today has to include either one layer of her Autumn Burst and/or revolve around the verb "DO."


Click HERE

I took a photo of my red-hot poker flower this summer.  It was so pretty, and I finally got two more.  It should multiply again next year. 

I added a layer of Kim's Autumn Burst - Soft Light @ 100, and one layer of her Golden - Multiply @ 81.  I've also added the Golden Rule for the verb "DO" requirement.

Take care and God Bless!

XoXoXo

{Texture Tuesday}The Orange eDition

This week's Texture Tuesday with Kim Klassen assignment or challenge was "orange."  She has a beautiful texture called "pumpkin grunge" which I fell in love with.  This is strange, because orange is usually my least used and most disliked color in the rainbow! 

Click HERE

I'd already entered this photo my sister Kathy Creamer took of a covered bridge near where she lives in northen Indiana, so couldn't use it. 

Here's another photo she took, to which I added the pumpkin grunge texture.  It brought out all the beauiful fall colors around the pond.

Kathy's more mobile than I am.  She loves to get out and take pictures of the landscapes around her.  I would, too, but I don't drive anymore...only in emergencies.

This past weekend, my DH took me to Hobby Lobby!!!  Haven't been there in awhile, so bought for several projects I have in mind.  He just about fainted at the check out! LOL! Sorry, Hon!



 I want to make a fabric cake that I found at Connecting Threads online and in their catalog.  The pattern was free, so that was GOOD after HL!  I'm going to make it for our granddaughter Kaylee - think she'll like it a lot. 

In my opinion, Connecting Threads has great products.  I've gotten several of their thread sets, for both my sister and myself.  Would love to get the new fabric they've introduced - Spice Blossoms.  This is so odd for me, because it's got a lot of orange in the collection!  Maybe it's because the orange is more muted, not so much "in your face" orange.  I do love Autumn, though.

Back to Hobby Lobby, I got a couple packs of fat-quarters in a range of oranges and yellows.  I thought I might as well use these in my photo for this week's TT challenge.  I grabbed my little jester from Las Vegas, and a stem of berries and flowers from one of my fall arrangements, & the fabric from HL.  This is what I came up with. Hope you like it - I love my litte jester!

I adjusted the photo a bit, and added Kim's textures as follows:

                       pumpkin grunge - soft light @75%
                       granny's cupboard - multiply @ 100%
                       cracker jack - color @31%

Not much difference, just enough to tone down the brightness.

Take care and God Bless!

XoXoXo

**disclaimer: Neither Hobby Lobby, nor Connecting Threads know I exist! All opinions are my own.

EarthWondersChallenge #5 Water

The Earth Wonders Challenge this week is "water." 

This photo was taken last September on the shores of Puget Sound north of Seattle.  We'd gone there to watch the Whidbey Island Ferry leave.  The photo isn't blurred by shaking hands, but by the strong engines shaking everything!

Before...

and after.

I've used Kim Klassen's "scratchedmagic" texture, soft light @ 56%.  I really liked the original photo the way it was.  It shows the fog swirling around the dock, and the vibration of the ferry's engines in the lights and the reflection in the water.  The texture hasn't changed it much, just made it a little bit darker.

Take care and God Bless!

XoXoXo

Earth Wonders #4 Yellow - Black-eyed Susan

I'm going to add this photo of my Black-eyed Susan, linking it with Wonderland's Earth Wonders photo challenge. 



Click HERE

 I just wasn't happy with the way the corn photo turned out.  It was ok, but I really like this one much better!

I adjusted the vibrancy to 62% and added two layers of Kim Klassen's Just Stitched texture, soft light @ 100%.  What's your opinion - leave me a comment!

Ana's having a GIVEAWAY, too.  Go on over and join in!  Her photos are amazing.

Later...take care and God Bless!

XoXoXo

TEXTURE TUESDAY - MOVIE LOVIN' eDITION

Okay, it's Tuesday again, and our texture challenge this week is "movie titles."  We were to take a photo and use at least one of Kim Klassen's textures to convey the movie title.


Click HERE

 I hope you can figure out what movie this photo depicts.  If you've read my Pinning and Singing post from the weekend, you see the male star of this particular flick.

photo by my sister, Kathy Creamer

 This is the photo before adding Kim's textures.

Here I added 2 layers of her newest texture "1,2,3", and 1 layer of her "history" texture.  If I remember correctly, all three layers were at 100% opacity, soft light, multiply, and multiply respectively.  I also adjusted the levels to darken the original a bit.

Well, have you guess which movie I chose?  Bridges of Madison County, of course!

Take care and God Bless!

XoXoXo

Wishful Thinking

Good Morning All!

It has finally cooled down here in Hoosier Land!  In fact, when hubby left this morning for work, it was downright chilly!  I may get to open the windows today - YAY!

I want to share with you some photos of a couple of our kitties.  I've added a couple of Kim Klassen's textures, just to play around with them a little.

This is James T. Kirk, alias KIRK, NO! NO!  He had two brothers, also black, who were named Scotty and McCoy (Coy-Coy).  Do you see a Star Trek theme going on here?  Actually, when the sun hits their coats, their coloring is more of a sable than pure black.  Both Scotty and Coy-Coy #1 have gone on to kitty heaven, so Kirk has been trying to get into enough trouble for all three of them!  Thus far, he has exceeded anyone's expectations! LOL!

The little chair was made by my hubby for our great-niece, Avigale when she was about a year old.  She was so advanced for her years, and was walking and talking before she was that age.  She spoke full sentences in adult language - no baby talk for her!  These photos were taken Christmas 2003 when she was 13 months.  You can see the soles of her shoes are worn from walking! 

 She loved her little Princess Book!  She knew how to turn it on, and when she was done playing with it, she would switch it off.  You only had to show her once!  Smart girl!

Isn't she a doll baby?!  I understand the sentiment Mom used to have a long time ago, "I wish you kids could stay little forever!" Avi was such a sweetie!  She's still a sweetie, but it's just not the same!  She's almost 9 and knows it all now.  Who knows, maybe she does! LOL!

Back to Kirk...he longs to be outside again.  There are times when he will bounce from window to window, just to get a better look at a bird, a squirrel, or another cat that has invaded his territory!  He'll bound up the basement stairs, hitting their little door with such force you'd think the house was coming down around you!  He then makes a bee-line for whichever window he thinks will give him the best view. 

Then we have Boots, our gentle giant.  He weighs about 25 pounds now.  He was such a little bitty thing when he showed up here!  He was instantly Daddy's boy.  He was about a year old here, maybe a little less. He's spotted a squirrel in this photo.

A little more attentive, also wishing for the outdoors again.

And here's a portrait of his sweet little face.  Looks satisfied with himself, doesn't he?

Till next time, take care and God Bless!

XoXoXo