Happy New Year...and warmest wishes!

May your year ahead hold promises bright and may your heart be filled with hope...

Snowflakes...breathtaking designs...miracles of beauty

"Under the microscope, I found that snowflakes were miracles of beauty ; and it seemed a shame that this beauty should not be seen and appreciated by others. Every crystal was a masterpiece of design and no one design was ever repeated., When a snowflake melted, that design was forever lost. Just that much beauty was gone, without leaving any record behind" Wilson "Snowflake" Bentley 1925

Snowflakes in their unaltered style and form are little design miracles...they take my breath away. I have a feeling that they fascinated Mr. Wilson Bentley as well. Click on his name above to read more on this man who studied these amazing crystal sculptures.

Click here to visit a site where you can make your own digi-snowflakes. You can add a message and send them to someone if you wish. They get kind of addictive if you are going for perfection though! Fun for kids too...

I meant to add that the photo below is of the last few crab apples on our tree. I digitally enhanced the tint/saturation to make it more bold. Then adjusted the contrast and finally added two masks over the top. I rather like how it turned out...reminds me of the olden days somehow.

Hugs to all!!!

To live life...

"To live is so startling it leaves little time for anything else"~ Emily Dickinson

last nights storm...reminding me of a child's temper tantrum

When I went to bed last night, there were only a few of the most delicate, feathery snowflakes sprinkled overhead.

During the night a storm blew in awakening me from my slumber.

It tapped and rattled at the windows, whining loudly through the trees. It howled most of the night, reminding me of a child's' temper tantrum, demanding my attention.

I pulled my blankets up around my ears trying to stifle the petition of the storm. Knowing the storm was not getting any sympathy from me, it eventually quieted down and subsided its lobbying for attention and finished the night in silence.
As I awoke this morning, I peeked from behind the blinds not knowing what to expect from all the commotion of last nights child-like temper display.

The storm lay in sweet repose at my feet, and I, as if the proud Mom, just stood and grinned astonished at the beauty.

Falling temp.'s = beautiful Autumn colors...

My son and I were in Portland this past weekend on the campus of OHSU/Doernbecker Children's Hospital getting some further testing done on his kidneys. We had quite a bit of time between procedures, so I snapped a few shots of some gorgeous Autumn colors.

Of course, I can not leave well enough alone and had to "tweak" some of my photos...I added in a little blue hue for a touch of whimsy.

Meet Willow...our new rescue puppy

We have a new addition to our household and her name is Willow...She is part Golden and part Brittany.

We found her while searching for a rescue pup through Petfinder.

We flew her all the way from a Texas Foster home with the American Brittany rescue society. The kids and I had to travel to Portland PDX to pick her up in 110* weather... but she is definately worth it! Such a darling girl! She is about 9 1/2 weeks old and learning some basic commands already...like you get too close to the cat and your nose will sting for a while!LOL...too cute!

You might have noticed that I also used the Orchid photo one more time...having such a good time with it. Hope everyone has a great weekend!

Orchids in July...

Thank you dear friends for inquiring on where I have been lately and if I have been creating...the truth of the matter is that most of my time has been spent at the flower shop creating bouquets and moving into our new home in June. I have tried to capture a few flowers to tweak on the computer just to keep the 'ole creative juices flowing...and this image of an orchid gave my muse just the right inspiration to be bold and playful!!!

Hope you enjoy!

Mind Wide Open... April entry...moments of hope

Gail Schmidt from Shabby Cottage Studio has a new blog http://www.mind-wideopen.blogspot.com/which features delightful monthly challenges...
This is my April entry using her image and my digital photos... roses altered to sepia...a butterfly and digital embellishments with the text "moments".

I haven't been able to create much lately but this challenge came at the right time and gave me just the right inspirational kick in the muse to get my creative juices a jump start.

I saw my first butterfly of the year yesterday, that resembled the one in the photo...it gave me hope of the Spring to come...

Hoping everyone is blessed!

Bird digi-collage...hoping for spring

...this is an altered digital photo of some apples that I snapped..I added many layers of textures, designs & frames over the black and white vintage image of the birds. Hope you like.

I heard the first bird songs of spring, even though we have been having a few snow flurries still...I know Spring will not be too far away for us now!

Some sad, sad news and a tribute to my mother

My wonderful mother passed away on Friday March 9. Her funeral was on Tuesday, March 17. We didn't realize it but the date that we picked was St. Patrick's Day. She was only 76 yrs.

She kept an Irish Blessing on her refrigerator for many years and it really brought her joy.

...this photo is of some "secret" stairs in my home town that I used to take to elementary school once in a while. While I was back taking care of the funeral arrangements for my mother, I had to stop and snap a shot, revisiting some of my childhood memories.

I offered to make the memorial folders for the funeral and on the back side of the folders, I added the Irish Blessing saying in her honor, over the photo of the stairs.

My mom...she had a great sense of humor, loved children, and always found the simple things in life to be the most rewarding... I will always miss her, but am so glad that I shared so many years by her side!

This photo started out as pink gerber daisies from the flower shop...I had fun layering and altering it to get to the point that you find here...I think eventually I would even take it further, with some 3D embellishments, maybe on a journal cover or something??!

The workshop is winding down now and the last step is the "in the studio" approach to making a fabulous finished mat for our photos. I am not able to access my art supplies right now so I will have to put this last step on hold until a little later and come back to it.
In the mean time I will be continuing on my own to explore this fun new adventure of digital tweaking...I feel that I am just really scratching the surface of what there is to explore and so for now, I must be content to keep my hands clean and out of my art supplies and on the computer keyboard keys!!!

spruced up with digi-bling...

...the last photo looked a bit haunting for me, so I added some bling to make it look more vintage & pulled together...
and it was cool including my own photo into the mix...
I think the wall clock gave the girl a frame and a theme to work with so that was fun...


...the digi-bling was from Roben-Marie from Paper Bag Studios ...http://paperbagstudios.com/shoppe/

Live your questions now, and perhaps even without knowing it, you will live along some distant day into your answers.
Rainer Maria Rilke

This photo is a vintage photo of a sweet little girl ...I digitally layed it over a photo of a wall clock that I took at the flower shop...

The quote is one that really struck a note with me...I have been really pondering the meaning of life and death lately... my Mother was given just 6 months to live or less and will be going back home with hospice care to spend her last days...time is such a funny thing...sometimes it seems like you have so much you don't know what to do with it and other times you wish it would stand still for just a little while longer...

Remember to not take the small things for granted...a hug, a passing smile, a kind word...count your blessings no matter how small!

more fun altering my digital photos...never know what to expect next...

... love how converting these photos gave them a completely different feel...

altered digital photos....for workshop and for fun...

... how fun is this? I never knew exploring my photo editing software could be so much fun!

...more tweaking to come...

a final handfull of photos...the workshop begins...

1.mossy tree branch 2.Upper falls at Silver Falls State Park

3.blue cache pot urn and plant

4.Vintage sign from Tower

Theater

Downtown...sighs and sounds

These were snapped Downtown Bend when my daughter and I were out a few days ago... Is is just me or do you find one of the worst things about getting a funky or unusual thought- provoking shot is when people walk by you they either frown and stare at what you are shooting at or just shake their head, like "what the????" That is exactly what happened...more than once. Makes a person feel kind of a little self-concious. LoL

More photos...

The first photo is of an octopus tree trunk taken at Beverly Beach State Park along the Oregon Coast in November...

The second is of a rusty iron gate and

the third is from work...and is of a vintage Edwardian repro-greenhouse...love all the arches,lines and textures!

elevating the details...

"The secret of happiness lies in taking a genuine interest in all the details of daily life, and in elevating them to art."- William Morris
...as I was cleaning out the last of the Christmas and bringing back in the living room decorations, the black iron chandelier and the silver mercury glass ornament crossed paths. I had already been pondering what I wanted to put on the candle cup area (had already decided I didn't want to use candles) and as chance would have it...whoolaa--- just the look I wanted!

...here's what I did...realizing that the candle cup had a nail-type holder sticking up from the center (to hold the candle) I thought that if I took off the cap on the ornament and turned the ornament upside down over the nail to hold it...oh yeah! How fun was that!!!

Don't you just LOVe-LOVe it when you come up with a creative way to use something ???!!!
OK, so I wasn't quite finished, and taking these super cool silver leaf ornaments that my SIL sent ... draped them from the bottom of the chandelier... way fun!!! Now to finish decorating......off I go!

let the sun shine in...

these photos were snapped at work while the south facing windows were glimmering with the afternoon sun...I just adore this time of day!...
Most of the hectic work is out of the way by then and it is just usually me, the music and the flowers...even the walk-in customers are at a lull and even on the coldest of days I feel nestled and snug inside with all the sights and scents of the beauty of flowers...and all that surrounds me... ...this is a close up of the sun highlighting an antique table...

Yellow roses, orange roses and Mixed media photography workshop...

LatelyI've been thinking of improving my photography skills for a number of reasons and decided to take a workshop with Cynthia Powell called an Artists Workshop Retreat...it sounds like so much fun I can hardly wait to get started!
The workshop is broken down into 3 assignments, “Out in the Field” taking photos, “Manipulation” using the software and “In the Studio” for a technique that will bring it all together in an altered art project worthy of framing. The “In the Studio” is a plaster of Paris technique done on the matte frame that your manipulated photo will go into.

This photo is one that I took at the flower shop I work in of some roses...I had just de-thorned and put them in a floral bucket...The lighter colored ones are called "Kerio" and the darker orange ones "Milva"...

Here I am...why i am here...

I have been feeling the need to stretch my artistic wings this past year ...and I wanted the new space to begin anew...
So here I am, and am excited to see where I fly to!