All good things must come to an end

How sad it is that the weekend is almost over and it's back to work tomorrow.  We had such beautiful weather and I spent a lot of time playing with the camera. I have so many things I want to show you I hardly know where to begin.
I guess I'll start with this guy who was busy working over the weekend. I found this on the back side of one of my chairs out on my deck.

 I can't believe I actually got that close to it without freaking out. What's more unbelievable is the fact that it didn't mind me being there and almost seemed to be posing for me.

Thank you Fullet

I want to send out a big thank you today to Fullet at Secret Forest.

He had a contest/giveaway on his blog and i won. Not only did I win an Amazon gift card but he gave me two topics for blog posts. This one to thank him again and another one when I decide what to get with the gift card.

If you aren't familiar with his blog why not stop by and visit him at either Secret Forest or Collage Drawer

From me to you

I want to give you my two cents.

 So that you can make a wish.

 I made mine and here you are.

Hope you are all enjoying your Memorial Day weekend.

We took the long way home.

Today we are showing you a few things we spotted on the way back home from our walk. First we spotted a fox.

 I think it may have some kind of disease or something though because part of it's face was missing.

Next we headed east on North Street.

 And we spotted a cow.

She wasn't very friendly though. She kept staring at us and wouldn't even say hello.

Duke's favorite was a statue he saw sitting next to the road. He asked if we could get one for our yard.

I told him I didn't think so.

A walk to remember

Maybe we'll remember it and maybe we won't but we got pictures of it.

 Duke took me for a walk since it was so nice out.

We headed down to the park to check things out. Duke had to stop and smell the plants. 

 Tomorrow we'll show you a few things we found on the way back home.

I'm such a home wrecker

I think I've mentioned before, if not here, through comments on some of your blogs, how bad my flower beds look. Just in case you thought I was over exaggerating I've got proof.

So maybe this doesn't look so bad from the picture but most of that is weeds. Sunday was a beautiful day to get outside though. I finally dug in and started yanking.

I'm still not done but it's looking much better than it did before. I should tell my next door neighbor to start complaining about the view out her kitchen window. It might get me motivated to take better care of this. The only thing is that when I pulled out all those weeds I also destroyed a home.

I don't think this little guy was real happy that I interrupted his Sunday afternoon nap. Sorry little fella.

Blogging in the great outdoors

I just love it when the sun shines. Sunshine, warm air, what's not to like. I can open the windows, I can sit on the deck. Hey, I can take my laptop out on the deck and catch up on all my favorite blogs.

 Or not. All I could see was my reflection in the screen, couldn't read a thing. But it gave me the idea of grabbing the camera and using it for a post.

Enough said

No day is so bad it can't be fixed with a nap.  ~Carrie Snow

Can't leave well enough alone

No matter how hard I try not to, I just have to alter pictures. Good or bad, no picture on my computer is safe from my experimentation. Why do I feel the need to do this all the time? Why can't I just leave well enough alone? Why can't I write down the process so I can duplicate it? Why? Why?
This is why.

Now all I want to know if why I didn't notice that stupid black line across the top before I uploaded the picture.

What I've been doing

I think I mentioned a couple posts back that I bought myself a mothers day present.  Ever since I started following Anne Martin's blog, All things paper, I've been wanting to give quilling a try. My gift to myself was a beginners quilling kit.
This one to be exact.

Now I have to say, had I not been doing some research and finding out all about this, I more than likely would have been lost when this kit came in the mail. All the supplies you need to get started are in the box, including directions, but like I said had I not already looked into it, I don't think I would have really understood them.

Well of course I pulled everything out and started playing around. This was the first flower I made.

 Then I got this great, in my opinion, idea. Since I've been on that cardboard kick, I thought making flowers with brown paper grocery bags would look cool. I brought home a bag from work yesterday and started cutting it in to strips. I was originally going to glue this on to plain cardboard but I already had a small piece that I had painted so I used that instead.

 I call this my perfectly imperfect first project. I think I'm going to put a quote on the right hand side then finish it off with a magnet on the back.

I may not have the technique perfected yet but I'm really enjoying doing this. 

The Brenda Photo Challenge (5-22) Flowers

It's time once again for another Brenda Photo Challenge. This time the theme is flowers. I've been using up quite a few flower photos lately but I still managed to come up with some for this post.
It won't be long before the peony's are in bloom. I'll never forget the first year I had these. I went out to check out the buds and found them covered in ants. I quickly grabbed some ant spray and proceeded to get rid of them. I had no idea that they needed the ants to bloom. Needless to say, they didn't that year. 

 
This next one I've had for quite some time. It started out as what looked like a small clump of grass. It gets these little pink flowers shooting out of it. When I first got it, I would say it was maybe 3" in diameter. It's now closer to 2'. I have no idea what it is so if anyone recognizes it I would love to know.

Last but not least is my white Iris

 And here it is in black and white.

 Just for fun lets add a gradient to that.

This doesn't officially start until tomorrow but I always schedule my posts for 7:00 p.m. and I didn't want this to go up that late. I've been changing my time when I do the photo challenge but I think from now on I'll just do it the night before. At least this way I won't be late.

Now that you've seen all my flowers go check out all the other entries, although keep in mind that they may not be up until tomorrow.

What to do with a daisy

When I was trying to come up with a post for today I had the picture ready but needed something to go along with it. I don't really know why but I suppose it's because I just can't stay wordless and just post a picture.

So I went in search of "what to do with a daisy"

The first thing I thought of was of course the old game we used to play. Pluck a petal off and say "he loves me" pluck another and say "he loves me not". When you got to the end of the petals you had your answer. Mine was usually a not. Just my luck.

I also came across a song that I hadn't thought of. If you are old enough the following chorus may sound familiar to you.

Daisy Daisy,
Give me your answer do!
I'm half crazy,
All for the love of you!
It won't be a stylish marriage,
I can't afford a carriage,
But you'll look sweet on the seat
Of a bicycle built for two !

Do you know who wrote the song and when? It was Harry Dacre way back in 1892

I also found another interesting tidbit of information about riding a virtual bicycle. Read about it HERE

Get your game on

Well today I'm up to bat. I've been called upon to participate in a little game by flyingbeagle over at Vanilla Seven. Now I know that I can't come anywhere near to having a picture as good so I'm not even going to pretend :).

Here are the rules:
1. Go to your photo files, select the 8th photo folder
2. Select the 8th photo in that folder
3. Post that photo along with the story behind it
4. Then challenge 8 blogging friends to do the same!

There isn't much of a story to tell here. This was taken on January 3rd of this year. This was right after I got my new camera so I was snapping away and just having fun getting acquainted. I didn't even attempt to do any editing to this shot. Duke was sitting on the couch looking ever so cute in his red sweater and so I took the picture. The lighting is bad, the background is distracting but it's Duke so it's all good.
Since I don't follow rules very well I'm just going to challenge anyone who stops by and reads this to play along.

A real dandy

“It gives one a sudden start in going down a barren, stony street, to see upon a narrow strip of grass, just within the iron fence, the radiant dandelion, shining in the grass, like a spark dropped from the sun”

 Henry Ward Beecher quotes (Liberal US Congregational minister, 1813-1887)

 This is a combination of three pictures. I gave the top layer more of a drawing type look and then blended in the other two pictures.

Now a couple more quotes I found.

“You cannot forget if you would those golden kisses all over the cheeks of the meadow, queerly called dandelions.”

 Henry Ward Beecher quotes (Liberal US Congregational minister, 1813-1887)

“If dandelions were hard to grow, they would be most welcome on any lawn.”

 Andrew V. Mason quotes

Bird Watching

Wade tells me all the time about the birds that he feeds on his breaks and lunch at work. They've gotten so used to him that he says they will come right up on the steps and he could just about reach out and touch them. Saturday we were in the area where he works and since he needed to buy a bag of bird seed for his lunch companions we stopped so I could get some pictures. There were plenty of birds around but they seemed to be a little shy with a stranger sitting there. I did get a few but nothing real great.
This guy wouldn't even come off the roof

I need another lens for my camera so I can zoom in and get better pics.

Well if this is the best I can get I'll just have to do something like this.

Nothing great but I had fun doing it.
We had a really great weekend with the weather. I got outside and played with the camera. I got some cleaning done inside. I did some shopping, a little crafting and just had a relaxing and enjoyable two days off. Too bad I had to wake up this morning and go back to work. Hope you're all off to a great start of the week.

Going Back

Way back that is. I have this picture sitting on the hutch in my dining room. It's old, it's stained but I love it

I had to take a picture of the picture so it's a little on the crooked side. It has no markings on it other than the name of the photographer on the bottom. It's very hard to read but it appears to say L. E. Hall and I can make out the location which is Conneautville, Pa. It looks black and white here but the original picture has more of a sepia tone to it.
Don't ya just love the hat. My grandmother sure was looking classy in that.

Sit a spell

Hello. Mom is doing weekend things today so I'm sitting in for her. Did you like sitting with me?

TGIF

At last the weekend is here. Keeping my fingers crossed that maybe we can have some good weather for a change. But even if we don't it's good to have two days away from work.
No plans for the weekend just chilling out and relaxing.

Grab a cup and I'll pour you some coffee while you tell me what your plans are for the weekend.

You be the judge

Duke claims he is innocent. I say that the evidence proves that he is the perpetrator of the crime. Why just look at the height of the nose prints on the glass. I say that he is guilty of  smudging up the window. I leave it up to you to decide. Can I count on you though to make an impartial decision? Or should I just go grab the window cleaner now and destroy the evidence?

Home Grown

There is a little pharmacy next to where I work. Sometimes I take a walk over on my break or lunch to look around. You can find some really cute things in there. Last week I needed a card and didn't feel like making one so I popped over to the drug store. I found something else I just had to buy.

This is the box that it came in.

 

And here is what was inside

The one that actually caught my eye first was a cauliflower lamb but I had to take the dog because I'm rather partial to them. Now if that isn't cute enough you've got to see the other side of the box.

 I cracked up when I saw that it had nutrition facts on it. Now I'm not saying that Duke is a cabbage head but this thing reminded me of him.

The list

Lists are a big part of my life. I'm forever writing them. Shopping lists, craft projects, websites, cleaning that needs done, home improvement projects and the list goes on and on. I'm a great planner and organizer. However I'm not good at following through. This leads to frustration and disappointment in myself because I come up with great ideas and then never accomplish them.
Here's my current to do list.

That's right. It's empty. I'm not going to make any more lists of things I want to get done. I'll adjust, adapt and take what comes my way.

What's on your fridge

For as long as I can remember the front of my refrigerator has been covered with magnets. Sometimes they held art work or pictures or even important reminders about something that was going on in school. Other times they were just there to remind me of a special moment. I've thought about taking them all off and going for that clean uncluttered look but they always end up right back up there.

I don't know if you can make out all the numbers or not in the picture but 

1. That's a small wooden magnet that my husbands kids made for him one year for father's day

2. One of those advertisement magnets from the shop Wade works at

3. From one of my neices

4. One my son gave me from the Harley factory. (He said he paid big bucks for this and I later found out they gave them away free...lol I didn't tell him I knew about that)

5. The middle piece from one of those ribbon car magnets that I got at Fort Knox when we went to my sons graduation from boot camp

6. One I picked up at a truck stop in Kentucky

7. Another from my son that he got at the airport in Ireland on his way home 

8. Got that one when we went to visit Wade's son in Portsmouth VA

9. A gift from my sister in law

10. Picked that one up at the shop that repaired my car when I hit a deer.

The rest either came from the dollar store or I can't remember where. I'm sure if any of these were from Amanda I'll be getting a comment from Anonymous to let me know.

So what's on the front of your refrigerator?

Flowers for the moms

Making the decision to have a child is momentous.  It is to decide forever to have your heart go walking around outside your body.  ~Elizabeth Stone

Happy Mother's Day to all the moms who stop by here today

 And a reminder to all the guys. Don't forget the special mom's in your life.

It's gonna be a bright sunshiney day

No matter what the weather man predicts or how the day unfolds it can be a bright sunshiney day if you want it bad enough. Today, tomorrow and the next day and the next, I want it.

 I hope that all of you have a bright and sunny day even if it's raining.

Another world inside my camera

Sometimes it feels like I can find a whole new world through the lens of my camera. I take pictures of anything and everything. Once I download them on to my computer I sift through and weed out the ones that are totally worthless. I get quite a few of those. Some are borderline. They aren't great on their own but combined with something else they could make for a great image. Or at the very least something that is good enough for a post.

I took a picture of my camera lens. This can be a very tricky shot to get but it's easier if you have two cameras. I added a picture that I took of the aquarium. Sort of looks like a brain sitting in there next to that lighthouse.

I tried it and I liked it.

I recently found a tutorial for making a photo look like Lomo photography. I really liked the effect so I had to give it a try.
I'm not sure if I got it exactly right but it makes no difference because I sure did like the way it looked when I was done.

 Aside from following the tutorial as close as I could I also added a texture to it. I wonder what Wade was saying to Duke that he found so interesting. Whatever it is, it looks like Duke is really into it.