Tourists! (a scavenger hunt find in one photo and twenty words)

Mom taught me that it's not nice to laugh at other people, but, oh how these tourists make me chuckle!

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Linking up this find for item #4 (a group of tourists) on the 2014 Summertime Photography Scavenger Hunt with Abi's monthly meme called One Photo and Twenty Words. Click on the photo above to enlarge it and get the full effect.

ZIZO #28: Sea Anemone?

 

Helena hosts a weekly photography meme where bloggers post a pair of photographs - one zoomed in and one zoomed out. It's a wonderful way to capture the world. I took this close-up recently. And it reminds me of a sea anemone. But it isn't.

It's a fantastic dahlia, from the Dahlia Garden in Golden Gate Park.

And I wasn't the only one who decided to photograph these beautiful blossoms!

Do you ever run into other photographers stalking your ZIZO's? And did I fool you today?

What's your style?

I love swaps. I love sending things out in the mail and receiving things from around the world. I signed up for Sian's "pile of post cards" swap and will be mailing out my selections tomorrow. I've also been working on a progressive swap called "Faces in the World," where I receive a semi-finished face and add what I want to complete it. I recently received this face:

And turned her into this:

But that's not what I wanted to write about today. I wanted to write about another swap I just joined, sponsored by a blog called A Swap for All Seasons. The swap called for me to send a card, a tag and some items from my stash which are "in my style." 
Hmmm . . . what would that be exactly? I think my style is mixed media, which includes a lot of my own photography and ephemera collected in my travels. I use a lot of women and a lot of quotes. I like stamping, inks and paint. So, I went through my stash and came up with two cards and two tags which I think capture my style. They're at the top of today's post.
And here are the items I gathered from my stash that I think capture my style:

It was a fun exercise, and I hope my recipient likes my style! LOL! How would you describe your style? What card and/or tag would you select to represent your style? What would you put in a "destash package" that represented your style?

I love a parade!

Friday was the 4th of July, America's independence day. My small town celebrates every year with a parade down Main Street. I think it says a lot about who we are as a community. The parade starts with a color guard, where veterans and boy scouts present flags:

 Our mayor, Farmer John, drives a tractor pulling a hay wagon (our version of a "float"):

We have representatives of the local Marine Reserve, the local library (the librarians even do a choreographed routine with book return carts) and low-rider cars:

We are an agricultural town, with ranches and cowboys, so we have lots of horses in the parade:

We also have a large Mexican-American community, which was well-represented:

And, I was thrilled to run into Smokey the Bear, the mascot for fire safety in California, as it meant I was able to cross both parade and mascot off the 2014 Summertime Photography Scavenger Hunt list.

After the parade, we watched the World Cup match with friends and then shot off some fireworks to complete our independence day celebrations.

Sorry for the photo heavy post, but I hope that all the photos give you a better insight into the place where I call home. Do you think they do?

Treasure House: Summer of Color Week #4

front of house and left side

right side and back of house

The lighting is a bit murky for the house I created this week in response to Kristin's prompt for Summer of Color Week 3 (apple green, pink and a touch of dark green). And that's a shame because the Treasure House is a happy house. It's a house full of love, play and merriment. I painted it with green-gold and then stenciled pink tiles to the roof top, painted the eaves pink, selected lots of fun pink images and then added a dark green door and edged it all with dark green paint. I really love houses, and it's been fun to see that my blog friend Miriam is also making houses for Summer of Color. You can see hers by clicking this link.  Even with the same color palette and choice of media, the results are delightfully different. Have a wonderful weekend everyone!

Balboa Park, San Francisco (Good Fences Link Up)

I headed out to watch my son Henry play soccer on Sunday at Boxer Stadium, which is located in Balboa Park in San Francisco, California. The gate to the playground caught my eye, as did its ornate fence.

I thought it would be perfect for my contribution to the Run*A*Round Ranch Report's weekly Good Fences Link-Up. I hope you agree!

ZIZO #27: Rubber Chicken!

Aria can be tough on toys, so it's nice when we find one that will last. She loves her rubber chicken! Sharing with Helena's Zoom in Zoom Out meme  and proud of myself for keeping up for the whole year so far! Also happy to rediscover snapseed for editing photos on my iphone. Instagram changed their processing steps and confused me (where did the frames go?), so I decided to retry snapseed, and I sure do love it!
Also, thanks to those of you who linked up to the June linky for the 2014 Summertime Photography Scavenger Hunt or stopped by to see what everyone was up to. The linky is here and will be open for the rest of the summer. There will be another linky at the end of July.