Reminder {4}

Be Inspired. Stay Inspired.


How are you doing this right now? Do tell....

Posted in Wordful Wednesday

Reminder {1}

Be Light.

Posted in Wordful Wednesday

Think less....

Our time consumes like smoke, and posts away;
Nor can we treasure up a month or day:
The sand within the transitory glass
Doth haste, and so our silent minutes pass.
~Rowland Watkyns~






*I'm still practicing with photoshop a little.
Worrying too much.
Working on the next big thing?!
Looking forward to.
Getting further behind on, but
taking steps.....

~Love Notes~

Here is the first photo I told you about in the last post, which talked about me experimenting with photoshop.
The idea spawned from the background I used for the ArtCard shown below in this post.
The paper reads Je t'aime, which as some of you may know, means "I Love You" in French.

I knew I wanted those words merged with a photo.
Although I didn't know which photo they would work with, but after a little searching, I found one.
By itself, the photo was uninteresting.
After the additions, or let me rephrase that in photoshop talk, the layers really added a lot of interest to the TtV photo - in my opinion.
I really am in love with this photo now........hence the title "Love Notes".....

Update: This week has been somewhat of a blur........
I'll go ahead and confess now, instead of waiting until the end of the month......not just one, but two days this week went by without me taking a photo.
My first excuse being, I reminded myself before I started getting ready for bed, but somewhere during the brush my teeth, hair, yada yada drill......I forgot :(

The second excuse........yesterday was very rough and stressful for me......I'll spare you the details, but when I got home, I had a headache and was just exhausted! I passed out on the couch as I was resting my eyes around 6:30........I woke up somewhere around 7:30 and moved to the bed.......Cody woke me up at 9:45 to eat dinner......I stayed up till 11, then went back to bed.........Strangely enough......I woke up tired!?!?! I very rarely come home and go to sleep, my problem is usually going to bed too late. Last night was probably my body's way of saying, "Slow down, take it easy!".......

I'm so happy that tomorrow is Friday!! And am looking forward to some quality R & R this weekend. Sleeping out in the woods would be ideal.......we've been thinking about going camping. Who knows, we'll see, maybe the forecast will cooperate?






There is a pretty clear theme running through this post.
I'll let you decide what it may mean to you.
But I'll tell you how it started for me........
Do you remember me telling you about my new prompt for making ArtCards?
The Fortune Cookie Affirmation?
Maybe?!
Well, on top of amassing the cookie fortunes, I started saving the tabs from my yogi tea bags to put in the pot as well.
So that's why the piece of paper on the back of the card, is not rectangular like a fortune cookie fortune - in case you were wondering.
So this was my interpretation of the affirmation I pulled.
I know it's very Valentine's Day-ish, but that's just how it all came together in the end.





Shall we compare our hearts to a garden -
with beautiful blooms, straggling weeds,
swooping birds and sunshine, rain -
and most importantly, seeds.

~Grey Livingston~

Experimentation.......

It all started when I had an idea?!
I'll let you in on a little secret, I really suck at properly utilizing Photoshop.
That is until I get it in my head that I need to learn how to do ______.

View Large On White
*I thought I had this done so that the white border wouldn't show, I'll fix that as soon as I figure out how!!!

This is a package that is long overdue for some mention.
I received it in April before we left to go on vacation.
Johanna sent some of the most wonderful bits for collage and other 'mixed media fun'.

Last week, I pulled out a piece of paper to make a new Artcard (I'll post it this week).
Although I couldn't bare to cut away at the original piece of paper, so I scanned it in & printed a copy of it. As I made the card, the words on the page cried out to become more.






I thought, wouldn't it be great if I could incorporate these words into a photo?
And I know that layers exist, and I know that there are a lot of talented people who know how to use them. But I simply wasn't one of them.
I guess I just never really had the desire to learn - until now.
It was positively maddening for me to figure out how to do what I envisioned.
I googled, and googled......and after a few hours finally found a tutorial that I could wrap my head around.


I rushed over to photoshop, and proceeded to try out what I learned.
In the end I was satisfied with the finished project. Now, this is not the first picture from that night of discovery. I plan to post that one with the Artcard. However, this is my second experiment with layers, which included another photoshop trick I painstakingly had to figure out. I googled, and googled........but failed to find anything! I was very frustrated.....



(Original Shot)


I finally figured it out for myself.
But that was only after I had a headache and a huge knot in my right shoulder.
Otherwise, I was still beaming at what I accomplished.
What really surprises me is, that I stuck through long enough to learn what I needed.

It also reminds me: I have a lot to learn!

N A T U R A L L Y

To find the universal elements enough; to find the air and the water exhilarating; to be refreshed by a morning walk or an evening saunter... to be thrilled by the stars at night; to be elated over a bird's nest or a wildflower in spring - these are some of the rewards of the simple life.

~John Burroughs~

Quick Review:

• I woke up when I felt like it this morning.
• I did some yoga on my front porch with the singing birds as my soundtrack.
• Cody cooked a nice breakfast, and of course I had my tea.
• I'm now ready to go out and take advantage of this beautiful day!
• The fact that it's a 3 day weekend is the icing on the cake :)

*The above photo was taken using the TtV method. Please refer to this previous post if you are curious to know how this look was achieved. These are some wildflowers growing in our yard, you can see more of what's growing around the house over at the {366} Photographic Journal Blog - link is on the right. I will be back to posting more California trip details with my next post, have a great day!

Profusion of Pink

Everybody needs beauty as well as bread, places to play in and pray in, where nature may heal and give strength to body and soul.

~John Muir~



I don't recall a time that I've ever been so thrilled on a Monday morning, EVER! I look at our little countdown clock, and with a smirk on my face think, "In two days, I will be FREE!". Free for a total of 11 days, free to do what I want, when I want. The anticipation of a vacation is very liberating! I'm pretty excited about flying in a plane again too, for those of you who don't know, it will only be my second time. The first being when we went to Las Vegas in October for my birthday. This will be my first time going to California, and I think that we've picked a fabulous location for our debut. I can't wait to sleep under the stars at night, and awaken in the morning to the fragrance of fog bouncing through the forest. Sleeping in the woods is one of my most favorite things to do......it's been so long it seems.

Sleeping in the woods aside, I have planned some wonderful activities for us to do while in Big Sur. The weather forecast seems pretty agreeable as well, I checked last night and according to the 10 day forecast we're looking at highs of 69 with lows of 47, not too bad. Since being in the mountains, I've become pretty spoiled so those temperatures are right up my alley..........I hate sweating, unless I'm exerting myself. For someone who hates sweating, I lived in Florida waaaaaay too long! Anyways, so yeah a lot of fun, exciting, and picturesque things to do and see.....my laptop is coming with me since I feel like 4 memory cards will not be enough to accommodate the substantial amount of photos I plan to take. And plus, one or two of the campsites have wi-fi!!!!!! How crazy is that?!?!? I'm sure that I'll be dying to blog about our adventures at some point....I can't very well leave you hanging for 11 days, now can I?!?!?



EARTH DAY IS TOMORROW

So far, I've only had 11 requests to plant trees with the Nature Conservancy. My intention is to match the total request, each request being $1.00, right now the total donation would be 22 trees. If you have yet to leave a comment on "Where's Your Green?!", you may do so now. I don't plan to donate until tomorrow evening, so there is still time!!

Behind the Bloom

Everything is blooming most recklessly; if it were voices instead of colors, there would be an unbelievable shrieking into the heart of the night.

~Rainer Maria Rilke



I just can't seem to stop taking photos of these splendid little blooms I'm seeing all over the place. As spring wears on you'll notice how big of a flower freak I really am. Taking photos isn't the only thing I find fun about the becoming blooms. For the ones I can't name, I take great pleasure in finding out what their names are. I'll come home after taking photos to scour the internet until I know for sure what it is I have captured. We moved into the new house during the late summer of last year, so I don't know what other wildflowers will pop up until spring blossoms even further. So far I've spotted crocus', daffodil's, and grape hyacinths. Last year we had all sorts of wildflowers sprout unexpectedly between summer and fall, so I'm hoping that spring will offer a bounty just as delightful.

One person who knows how deep my love of flowers goes is dear ol' Cody. He even brought me a bouquet of Alstros home the other day as a piece offering. He called them, "be nice to me again flowers", as I'm sure some of you will understand; it's that chocolate craving, I hate the way I look, time of the month! At least it won't be going on while I'm on vacation in Big Sur!!

I've been in my own little world somewhere on the west coast today, making plans for all the places I/we intend to go and stay at while in Big Sur. Cody's in charge of camp food, while I take care of the other details! I have read through the entire guidebook, and the locations that I marked in the book with little red sticky arrows have now been added to the google map I created. I sound obsessed, don't I? Well, it's sort of a deal for me, I can't help it. The time off is what I am most looking forward to, especially since this week has been extra difficult for me in the pain management department, but today I get the deep tissue massage, and tomorrow I have my Acupuncture, hopefully relief is in sight. Alright, enough complaining!
Back to my dream world until it's time for my massage!!