Celebrating Flowers and Rebirth

Springtime brings a renewal and rebirth to all that had faded or died during the long, cold winter months.  We have some gorgeous creeping purple phlox that reappears each Spring, even though the plants look like they have withered up and died.

This photo was taken last April. 

I added Kim Klassen's look up and warm sun textures, increased the vibrancy, and softened the overall effect.

Sharing with:
Earth Wonders Photo Challenge - FLOWERS


Kim Klassen's Texture Tuesday - LET'S CELEBRATE


Take care and God Bless!

XoXoXo

{Texture Tuesday} RED eDition - Kaylee - May 11, 2011

OK, I had our grandson Garrett in yesterday's post, so I have to have our grand-daughter Kaylee in today's!  Equal time for both!

Here's a photo of Kaylee back in May this year playing baseball. This was taken at one of the many ball fields her Grandpa Doug is in charge of taking care of and getting ready for the kids to play on (among other things to keep all the parks and the Olympic-sized City Pool in tip-top shape - very much unappreciated most of the time).

It was so hot that week!  The poor kids were all sunburnt, as well as the parents.  Kaylee looks like she has a little dirt moustache, too.  Wearing her RED team shirt and RED-skinned, she's ready to catch that grounder!

Here's the photo, after adjusting the contrast/brightness/vibrancy and adding 2 layers of Kim Klassen's portrait texture.  One layer is blend mode soft light @ 100% opacity, and the other is multiply @ 75% opacity.

I'm sharing this with Kim Klassen's Texture Tuesday.  Head on over and check out all the wonderful entries!



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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

{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."


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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! 

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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.

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.


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 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

Sunflowers

Hi there - is it hot enough for you?  We've had 21+ days of over 90 degree temperatures here!  The heat index had gotten to 120 at one point.  Don't know how hubby does it!  I remember my parents talking about the high temps in Arizona when we lived there in the late '50s.  They said it was 120 in the shade...and there was no shade!  But, then I guess that's what you call "dry heat" out there??? 

source: in.gov

Can't wait for Autumn!  Cooler days and evenings, the windows open to air out the house and good snuggling nights, sweaters and sweatshirts, college football, I could go on and on!


GO IRISH1





Official Notre Dame online store



I'd taken a few photos of a sunflower that was deposited by a very thoughtful bird several years ago.  It grows every summer out near the street, next to the light pole.  The first year, we all thought it was a weed, so it didn't make it to maturity.  The following year, for some reason, it did bloom, but some bratty kids destroyed it.  The poor thing was persistant and bloomed last year, in spite of those kids.  It has gotten pretty tall this year, and has multiplied many times over!  It's so pretty and just proclaims "summer is here," for awhile!

Click HERE

For Kim Klassen's Texture Tuesday, I used this photo of one of those beautiful blooms.  I used Kim's scripted edges texture, multiply at 53.  I also adjusted the brightness/darkness of the photo a bit.  Looks pretty good to me - at least you can see the tiny seeds this way.  Oh, that was the challenge this week "the small things."  Well, those seeds are pretty small, soo I thing it qualifies!

Before...

and after.

Here're some of the runners-up.

This one seems a little bit shy!

I'm adding this one to The August Break 2011 with Susannah Conway.  Please check out both blogs - each is great!


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See ya next time.  Take care and God Bless!


XoXoXo

{Texture Tuesday} Latest Favorite Textured Photo eDition

Howdy everyone!  Hope your day is going well!

Our Texture Tuesday challenge this week is to use our "latest favorite" photo with at least one of Kim's textures.

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I looked out our kitchen window Sunday morning and, lo and behold, our Chinese Magnolia was blooming again!  There were only a few here and there, but it's been known to happen before.  A few years ago the poor tree was so totally confused with our weather that it bloomed in full twice!

Here's the before photo (right outside the back door)...

 And the after.

I used two of Kim's beautiful textures this time.  Sweettart - soft light 100, and Warm Sun - multiply 63.  The text is JanaGrace - normal 75.

This tree is so beautiful in the Spring, loaded with blooms.  When the petals start to fall, the ground looks like a pinkish-white carpet.  It a shame we can't have these wonderful flowers around all year!

Take care and God Bless!

XoXoXo