Playing with Photos

Playing with images isn't just for the pages of my art journals. I've been tinkering with my digital photos, discovering what Photoshop Elements can do. I used these templates from flickr, one and two.

Snow Covered Hydrangea

photo by Studio B (UberArt)

I must confess, I spent about an hour trying to erase part of the image down to a transparent canvas. My hubby, who is a computer whiz, strolled in and said, "You're doing it the hard way." One click and he accomplished what it took me an hour to do. Duh.

Wordless Wednesday

The Beauty of Dragonflies

My preschooler loves to walk in the garden with me to discover the latest blooms and insects. We recently planted a redbud tree and checking on it has become part of our repetoire. This evening there was a green dragonfly sitting on the topmost branch munching on his dinner. We watched him for a while and my son waved at him. To our surprise, the dragonfly lifted his front leg and appeared to wave back! My son was thrilled!

Enjoy these handmade dragonfly items I found on Etsy, as well as the dragonfly poems!

Water lily and dragonfly original oil painting by LeslieMacon

Dragonfly Treasure - Wide Band Dragonfly Ring with Lapis by LavenderCottage

La Libellule limited edition 8x10 print by Peggitha

A Dragonfly
Your delicate wings rapidly beat the air
The sleekness of your weightless body hovers
Curiously observing as though you care
Steadily searching for lifelong endeavors

Do you bring a message of a tranquil destiny?
Does your evolving maturity convey wisdom?
If I follow, will I find harmony or perplexity?
As you disappear… I am serenely lonesome
by Theresa Moore, 2007

Deco Dragonfly Mug in Seafoam by OneClayBead

DRAGONFLY FLY Blue Green Glass bead mix with Antique brass by kelleylovedesigns

The Dragon Fly
A dragon fly upon my knee
Is sitting looking up at me.

He has a scarlet tail and six
Little legs like jointed sticks.

With two of them he rubs his head.
His eyes are brown, his mouth is red,

His wings are colored like the rain:
He lifts them, and flies off again.

by Dorothy Keeley Aldis
1896-1966, written in 1925

A Dreary Winter?

Now that the Christmas holiday is over I have nothing else to look forward to but a dreary winter until spring comes. Winter is not my favorite season. I am not a fan of being cold.

Photo taken by me in 1987

It's about this time of the year I begin dreaming of my wonderful garden I'm going to have in the spring. Usually I run out of steam come April during prime planting season and my dreams never quite materialize the way I envisioned them.

Photo taken by me in 1987

For Christmas this year, I received a negative scanner so I've been hard at work scanning some of my old pictures I took years ago. I've come across some really funny ones -- one where my sister and I were goofing off with a cheap camera in the backyard, taking stupid pictures of each other.

There's one of me hanging upside down from the clothesline, but the best one by far was one of my sister tied to a tree with a garden hose! I laughed out loud at that one and had to email it to her. The quality is pretty bad because it was a cheap camera and I don't think I got the film developed until three years later.Here she is, the poor girl! The dog is diligently keeping vigil by her side, ready to chew through the hose if I don't free her after I take the photo! Like you can really secure a garden hose tightly anyhow! I'm sure she could have busted it loose like the Incredible Hulk if she'd tried.

So that dreary winter might not be so bad after all if I continue my scanning old photos project. Who knows what other treasures I might find?!

A Winter Garden

We rarely see snow in this part of the state, so when it snows it's really exciting! We haven't gotten any snow yet this year, but here's a look back at my winter garden from a couple years ago. In fact, while it was snowing in the deep south it was in the 70's here. I took advantage of the warm days to clean up my garden and prepare it for winter. I put an extra layer of mulch around spots that have washed bare with the rains and cleaned up the garden ornaments. I don't like leaving them out in case it freezes so they won't crack.

For this job, I recruited my toddler. I was trying to make room in the new shed for the ornaments and my son kept knocking things over. Giving him a job to do was a great way to get him out of the shed so I could straighten things up. "See if you can find any turtles," I assigned and he ran off on his mission with great exuberance.

A few moments later I emerged from the shed to check his progress. He was squatting in front of a hollow terra cotta turtle, tugging and grunting as if the thing weighed a ton. I came over to help him, flipping the turtle over to clean him up before putting him away for the season. As I flicked mulch and dirt away I suddenly discovered a black widow spider! Aaaaahhh!

This is only the second black widow I've ever seen. My heart almost stopped to think my son could have gotten bit doing a task I assigned!I used the opportunity to educate him about venomous spiders. This is the female southern black widow spider. Photos courtesy of emedicinehealth.com. From the top, she looks like a big black ant with a huge bulbous abdomen, but when you turn her over you can see the red hourglass. My son kept calling it an "Ant Spider". To their credit, it is reported that black widows are not aggressive and only bite when endangered or protecting their egg sack. However, with a toddler and a nosey dog around I can't take any chances! I hate killing spiders because they're such a benefit to the garden and our environment, but sadly this one is no more.

I guess I'll think twice now before sending my son out to the garden to poke around under rocks and such anymore!

In the garden

I love these little wood sorrel flowers. I used to pick bouquets of them as a child. I need to get some for my garden. These were growing wild in the cemetery. It's funny what one person considers a weed, another treasures!

I spent the day in the garden, planting my berries I ordered. We've been making smoothies almost every day for lunch, so I decided to try my hand at growing my own strawberries, raspberries, and blueberries. My toddler "helped" me by stepping in the holes I dug for them. He is learning about plants and what they produce, so the garden will be a learning experience for him this summer. He asked me if we were going to plant a milk and yogurt plant next! I had to explain about cows, again.

I've been trying to get around to making some journals all day, but just haven't had the energy. I must have worn myself out in the fresh air. I have one almost finished; it's a recycled Scooby Doo Fruit snack box. My son saw it tonight and got all excited thinking it was full of snacks. He got a surprise when he opened it and found nothing but blank pages! What's the good of that, he'd like to know!!