Weekend Inspiration

I'm off on a business trip to Jacksonville, Florida.  I've left my Sunday Scavenger Hunt to post while I'm gone, but in the meantime, I wanted to leave you with links to two posts that I find particularly inspiring.  Please do click on them and read them. It's worth your time. I promise:
Ali Edwards describing a typical day.  I love how she focuses on being engaged with whatever she is doing at the time, rather than worrying about being someplace else.  Also her discussion of fitting exercise into her life and how she throws laundry in almost every morning.  These things all really spoke to me.
Cathy Zielske describing her "Move More, Eat Less" philosophy.  This is what got me to really focus on ways to improve my health this year.  I don't have her journal or take part in her group, but I occasionally reread this post because it spoke to me on such a basic level - especially when she said that her main motivation was "I feel better all the time."  So true.
Enjoy the reading!
P.S. This weekend is also the home opener for the San Francisco Giants.  We're going on Sunday. Today's picture is me on Christmas morning with my present from the kids.  I'm planning to fly it on Sunday.

Occupational Baptism

One of the projects I'm trying to complete this year is the art journal from an unfinished class offered by Shimelle called "When I Grow Up."  My journal is called "My Wildest Dreams," and it's about the things I dreamed about becoming, where I ended up, and where I still hope to go. It's in a hand made journal, which has a flap in the middle of each spread and which allows me to add things. I have posted previous entries here and here (okay, I know there's another entry somewhere, but I can't find it now; I will update the link when I find it - LOL!).  This entry is about one of my father's many quirks.  When each child was born, he declared what they would be when they grew up, and he pushed us hard in that direction.  He wasn't always right, but his drive and encouragement really did help us all to eventually graduate from college and become productive adults.  The image on the flap is a color copy of a collage I made in his honor.  The little icons and embellishments represent the various occupations into which we were all baptized.  Did your parents push you into a particular path?  And did you follow it?

Grungy Monday: Fluid Medium Resist

Linda, over at Studio L3, is running a weekly Tim Holtz challenge called "Grungy Monday. "  This week's technique involved stamping with fluid medium and then inking over the image with distress inks.  The fluid medium acts as as a resist to give you some cool effects.  Tim also cut out foam stamps, but I justed used a couple that I had laying around, including a medallion and an Easter Egg. The medallion card is a bit of a tribute to a fabulous card maker, Karen. She makes clean, classic cards. You can check out her blog here.  For the Easter card above, I use a duplicate ATC from my stash. I channeled another one of my favorite card makers, Jacky, on this card. You can tell by the layers.  Her blog is at this link.   
When I was looking through my Easter stuff, I also found a large paper pieced chick that has been in my stash for years.  I decided that today was the day to use it.  So, I made this very "cute" card:

 It certainly doesn't scream Tim Holtz, does it?  LOL!  Oh well, I actually kindof like it.  Which card is your favorite?  Do you have any favorite card maker blogs to share?

Flower Photography Now and Then

I took this picture this morning.  Believe it or not, there's no texture or any fancy editing done to the photograph.  I did crop it and brighten it a bit, but all the "special effects" come from shooting with a wide open aperture, catching the right light and being aware of my perspective.  Here's another picture I took at the same time - again no fancy editing,  just cropping and brightening (for this picture, I deliberately cropped down to a section of the picture which was not in focus):

Both have a very dreamy quality that I kindof like.  Both are a big departure for me from my traditional photography.  For example, here are two flower photographs I took last April:

I still love the pictures from last year, but I realize that I know a lot more this year about how to get different effects with my camera.  You can read the full posts about my flower photography here and here to see the kinds of questions I had and what I was learning then. This year, I also know that I could add texture and other post-processing effects to any of these to get a different look (something which I didn't know about last year at all!).  In the long run, I'm much more likely to stick with more traditional photography, but it is fun to see how much I've learned about photography.  I'm sure the same can be said about my mixed media collage and art journal work, and I'm looking forward to doing some "Now and Then" posts about those aspects of my art in the future. 
How do you think your art (photography, mixed media, scrapbooking, cardmaking, etc.) has changed or evolved in the last year?

Texture Tuesday Link Up

It's been a while since I've played with PSE - mostly because of my hard drive crash.  PSE reloaded in a slightly different format which has confused me.  I need to go re-do the Kim Klassen videos and also finish  start the Jessica Sprague class I signed up for.  In the meantime, I decided to participate in Kim's Textue Tuesday link-up using her free texture "Warm Sun."  I started with the following picture of Gypsy:

cropped it, added the texture, then played a bit with the color levels. I think that PSE is definitely a "use it or lose it" skill for me.  What about you?  Is it second nature or do you need a refresher each time you open it?

Scavenger Hunt Sunday (on Monday)

There's so many wonderful photography challenges out there that I want to try, but one in particular that caught my eye recently is the Sunday Scavenger Hunt . . . each week Ashley Sisk posts five items to photograph during the week and then you post and link them up on Sunday.  Since I was busy with Story telling Sunday yesterday, I'm running my scavenger hunt photos today instead.  Ashley kindly gives participants until Tuesday to post.  This week's items were:  High Key, Bedroom, Something Tiny, Off in the Distance and Stripes.

Here are my interpretations:

Let's start with a confession - I didn't know what "high key" meant.  After seeing others post, I now realize it's a photography technique. Duh.  Oh well, I took the prompt literally and took this picture of one of the hawks which is nesting nearby.  When they fly, they call to each other in a very high key. It sounds like "skreee".  I love watching them soar; they're so majestic. And here's the picture I took for bedroom:

They're the raised garden beds used by one of my neighbors. 
Something Tiny:

It's got to be Gypsy.  Paul calls her a "doggette" because she's so tiny.
Next up - Off in the Distance:

Lately, when I drive to my studio, I have noticed this Rooster off in the distance.  Today I took a picture and went to go check out the building on which it lives.  It's the recently relocated antique shop called "Half to Have It." Here's what the building looks like up close (By the way, if you click on these photos to see close-ups, you will get a much better view of this cool building and its decorations):

There's also goats on the roof and an iron sun on the front of the building.  I love the industrial harbor neighborhood where my studio is located!
Finally, for stripes:

It's Henry with a fresh haircut.  His "barber" is a 16 year old teammate, and he really likes sporting these stripes.
So, there are my photographs.  I don't think they're going to look like anyone else's in the gallery, but they are very "me." A fun little slice of my life - where I live and those I share it with.  Right now. Thanks for stopping by and taking a look.
Next weeks clues are: Motion, Waiting to Click, In Fashion, Animal's Perspective, and Many.  

Storytelling Sunday: Mothering

I grew up with six brothers and sisters in a close-knit family. We were raised in a sun-drenched neighborhood, built on land which used to sprout orange groves, but, which by the early 1960's, instead nurtured families whose fathers worked in aerospace and other Southern California "baby boom" industries. Unlike most of the other families in the neighborhood, my mother had to work to help support the family.  She worked as a hospital nurse for most of my childhood, working either the 7am-3pm, 3pm-11pm or 11pm-7am shifts.  Later, she would teach women to become licensed vocational nurses and work with children as a school Head Start Nurse, but those are stories from another time. These were the early days.
Nurses in those days had a certain look, very far removed from the  nurses we see today.  I remember watching my mother get dressed for work - putting on her starched white dress, adjusting her white stockings, lacing up her neatly polished white shoes and finally pinning her cap onto her gorgeous raven black hair.  She was busy, and I missed her a a lot. Only now as a working mother struggling to raise two children ("I occasionally think . . .  six!") can I begin to understand her life.  Which makes me appreciate the little moments all that much more.
I remember one very hot day.  I must have been in second grade.  My stomach hurt, and I was miserable.  I went to the office, and they called my mom at work to come get me.  She took me home, laid me in her bed (their room was the only one with air conditioning), gave me Popsicles and sat with me for hours.  I remember the crisp, coolness of the sheets and the way her knees looked, covered in white stockings, peeking out from under her skirt as she sat their next to me.  I remember feeling happy and cared for and loved.
What makes a good mother?  Is it the big things like raising six children to become happy, healthy adults?  Or the hard work of bringing home a pay check to support them? I think it's all of that, but I also think it's in the small moments of bandaging a knee or watching a school play.  It's those small moments of love and care. . . those small moments of mothering.
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This post is offered as part of Storytelling Sunday, hosted by Sian at her blog, From High in the Sky .  For more entries, click on this link.