Masked

The other day Sandra (Mad Snapper) sent me a link to a you tube video that showed how to make masks in photoshop elements. Of course I had to play around. I would share the link to the video but I apparently deleted the email and don't have the ambition to go hunt down the video.

I started out by making the mask and it looked like this

I dug in the archives for a suitable picture and after applying the mask and some textures I got this.

Then I had to do some more playing. Here I have the before and after. First is the picture straight off the camera with no adjustments at all followed by my altered version.

I just love playing around with pictures. Amazing how many different looks you can get from one shot.

Folk Art Festival

Last Saturday I mentioned that I was playing with my new Cricut cartridge and Jean asked which one it was.

I happened to be browsing on Amazon one day and came across Folk Art Festival.

 This cartridge is awesome. Not only does it have a ton of images but it has borders and a font. I ended up purchasing it through Cartridges and more.
I made one card using the pear image

and this one. The shaped card is on the cartridge.

Then I discovered Cricut's Craft Room. They have free design software that enables you to edit the size, shape and position of what you're going to cut. I see lots of possibilities with this cartridge.

Daytona

Are you a Nascar fan? If so, did you watch the Daytona 500?
It was on here and I may not have sat through the entire race I did catch some of it.
Duke was right there to catch the action

Commercial is on and Duke's off to grab a cold drink.

So any thoughts on women drivers? Danica Patrick is the first one ever to lead a lap in the Daytona 500 and she finished 8th. Nothing against her but she's not my favorite driver. I don't even know if I really have one. I've always gone with Kasey Kahne since that's Wade's

Meet my other friends Monday

Welcome to this weeks addition of Meet my other friends Monday. The friends that are featured in this post appear in no particular order. I've started with bloggers who have visible email addresses. Once I work through those I will begin contacting others through the comment section on your blog. You could be next

Today we'll be visiting with Catherine of Corner of Cat's Mind. Remember the song Oh Susannah? There was the line I come from Alabama with a banjo on my knee. Well when we visit with Catherine we'll be going to Saskatchewan and you just might get to have Banjo on your knee. Banjo is her lovely fur baby that she takes marvelous pictures of. Come to think of it she takes marvelous pictures of everything. She's also got a sense of humor and I find myself grinning from ear to ear when I read her posts.

So let's see what Catherine has for us

1. How long have you been blogging and what made you start?

  I started blogging in June of 2008. Mostly because I needed a venue to show my photos and let my creative juices flow. Especially since my family and friends seemed to be running away when I brought my photos out. "What do you mean you don't want to see more pictures of my cat???"

2.What is the one piece of advice you would give a new blogger?

  New bloggers...hmmm...yea...please don't use 'word verification'. It's almost impossible to read and is very frustrating to type in when you are using an ipad.

3.Do you have any hobbies or special talents?
 My current special talent is being able to do continuous rotations with a weighted Hula Hoop. :) I can spin it for over 30 minutes without dropping it. I can even do tricks with it! It's fantastic exercise and lots of fun!

4. Of course you love all the blogs you visit but share a link to one of those and tell us why we should check it out.

 One of my "MUST READS" is Goro & Niko. Reading the antics of these two kitties brings me such joy. How their human mom tells their stories just makes me laugh and laugh and laugh. Love them! http://gorogoronikoniko.blogspot.ca/

5. What is one thing that totally makes you crazy?

People who use their cell phone to text or talk while driving! GAAAAAK! Drives me insane!

6. Give one random thought

I wonder what Matt Damon is doing right now at this very moment....

Lost it

I had a list of things I wanted to do this weekend. Some of the things on it I know I finished and some I at least started. Others I didn't get to.
There was:
laundry
shopping
working on craft projects
     1 crochet project
     1 stitching project
     paper projects using my new cricut cartridge
and the things I didn't get to at all were.....
darned if I can remember but I think they had something to do with cleaning.

The picture doesn't really have anything to do with my list other than maybe I should have used one of those pins to hold it down so I didn't lose it.

Remote possibility

Wouldn't it be nice if you had a remote control for life? You could fast forward through the week and pause on the weekend. You could turn down the volume on all those annoying people you really don't want to listen to. On those days when things aren't going so well you could hit the back button and start it over again. Better yet you could skip forward.
Well since that's never going to happen I guess we'll just have to make the most of where we are when we're there. I've got lots of things I want to try and get done before this weekend is over with so I better get to it.

When you are dreaming of spring

What is a girl to do when she's dreaming of spring but stuck in winter? Well the resourceful ones make their own flowers.

I present to you the Pennsylvania snow flower

If you are having trouble seeing the flower here's a colored version thanks to the help of photoshop

I probably looked a little silly outside making all those foot prints but I don't care. I wanted flowers.

Games

We got a bum deal with the weather report. More snow.

Aside from the stinky weather our internet has been acting up. It's been in and out a lot for some reason. We just have to take our chance that it's up when we want it.

I read what Duke wrote in his post yesterday. Sure sounds like someone is on a bit of a power trip. He's lucky that I'm trying to keep this short in case my connection goes out again otherwise I would have to do a little ranting here.

Westie Wednesday

Today is Duke day which I know you all love.
We had more snow last night and the internet connection kept coming and going. Mom was able to read posts in her reader but finally gave up on trying to leave any comments.


I sent her off to do some of her photoshop magic on a picture she took of me the other day.

I sure wish she would learn how to use that camera of her instead of just sitting there snapping away at anything and everything.

But even though I think she takes some pretty crappy pictures I will admit that she does some interesting things to them when she plays in photoshop. Dad never likes them because he's an original picture kind of guy. I feel a bit sorry for the old gal though so I tell her how good they are. She may be old but that doesn't mean I can't encourage her to do what she enjoys, right?

Any way here are the pictures she did.

Now you have to admit that as long as my adorable face is in the picture you really can't go wrong.

I hope you all have a great day and remember we're half way to the weekend.

It's become a ritual

I don't know why I keep making the same silly mistake over and over but it's become a bit of ritual with me.

I go in to take a shower and I wash my hair with this

Rinse my hair and condition it with this

Rinse my hair again and then grab my handy dandy shower poof and squeeze on some of this

Hey, where's the suds? What? Did it again I grabbed the conditioner instead of this

Why do I keep doing that?

Meet my other friends Monday

Welcome to this weeks addition of Meet my other friends Monday. The friends that are featured in this post appear in no particular order. I've started with bloggers who have visible email addresses. Once I work through those I will begin contacting others through the comment section on your blog. You could be next

Today we'll be visiting with Marg from Marg's Animals. I can't recall how I found her blog or if she found me but I do know that it's always a pleasure to stop by there and visit with the wonderful fur babies that call her mom (or the person in some cases).

So lets just turn it over to Marg.

1. How long have you been blogging and what made you start?

I have been blogging for four years now and originally started because I had made a website made to help sell some products and the people that helped me design the website, told me to start a blog. So I did and have loved every minute of it. It is now my entertainment and I have made so many wonderful friends all over the world.

2. What is one piece of advice that you would give to new bloggers.

The main thing is to write as often as you have time to and also do lots of visiting other blogs. It takes time but it is a ton of fun learning all about other people and their lives.

3. Do you have any hobbies or special talents?

My favorite thing is helping animals and so I have way too many but I just can't turn them away. My specialty at the moment is cats and in my younger days it was horses. I have always been interested in animals. I love to help animals find homes as much as I can.

4. Of course you love all the blogs you visit but share a link to one of those and tell us why we should check it out.

I have so many favorite blogs, I sure can't pick one out. Everybody else's feelings would be hurt. They all have something special, like some are funny, some are very educational, and some are just plain fun.

5. What is the one things that totally makes you crazy?

People that move away and just leave their animals. My neighbor moved away and left their two old cats. It was so sad. One of the cats wouldn't move off the porch and just sat there waiting for his people to come home.

6. Give one random thought.

Please please spay and neuter your pets. Guess that isn't random, but it is the best I can come up with at the moment. Another random thought, is Have a fun day.

disgruntled

I am a very unhappy consumer right now. In the past two years I've bought not one but two kodak all in one printers (same model). In less than a year the first one stopped working and I went out and bought another one. Now the second one is giving me problems. I was trying to print out a black and white document and the print was barely visible. I went through the whole maintenance thing, did the troubleshooting online and according to their web site, they determined that I needed a new print head. Put in my information and lo and behold the printer is not under warranty but they will gladly sell me a replacement print head.

Well do you know what I say?
Kodak, your printer is not worth.....

...a hill of beans and I refuse to spend another dime on it.

So tell me, what kind of printer do you use and are you happy with it?

Not much

I don't have much to talk about today but couldn't let the day go by without at least saying...

Something new

Do you know what a penny rug is? A penny rug is a decoration made of stitched together coin shaped fabric scraps. If you would like more information about them you can check out the Wikipedia listing. 

Any way the reason I ask is because I've been seeing a lot of them lately. While browsing around I happened to come across something that was for a crocheted penny rug. Interesting, or at least to me it was. 

I didn't want to crochet the whole thing but thought just crocheting the pennies would do. I didn't have anything other than some cheap felt to stitch them to but I went ahead any way. So here is my make do semi crocheted penny rug. Or I guess it's more of a table mat or whatever you want to call it.

The colors seem to be different in all the pictures. The light wasn't the greatest but the closest to the real color would be in the last one except for the back looks blueish in that one and it's really black

The back side I used black felt (again the cheap kind since it was all I had)

After I had this almost finished I had the idea of embroidering a saying on the front. I wish these bright ideas would hit me a little sooner. Maybe I'll make another one and add something to that.

Who's your Valentine

Duke was lounging on the couch with a box of snacks watching tv while I was reading blogs. I told him that Mollipop wanted him to be her Valentine.

Let me tell you he was very surprised and extremely honored. As soon as he regained his composure he eagerly agreed to be her Valentine and started working on a special card just for her.

Duke feels like the luckiest dog in the world to have such a beautiful Valentine

Who's YOUR Valentine?

Can you guess?

Any ideas what this might have started out as?

Well, it all started with a little sunshine coming through the blinds on my sliding glass door

I cropped the picture, duplicated, rotated, changed blending modes and came up with the first picture.

Why yes, I did have some time to kill over the weekend. How did you know?

Tweet

When should you buy a bird?
When it's cheep of course.

 (original picture)

Did you hear about the crow and the telephone pole?

He wanted to make a long distance caw.

(edited version)

How does a bird with a broken wing manage to land safely?

With it's sparrowchute.

Meet my other friends Monday

Welcome to this weeks addition of Meet my other friends Monday. The friends that are featured in this post appear in no particular order. I've started with bloggers who have visible email addresses. Once I work through those I will begin contacting others through the comment section of your blog. You could be next.

Today I want to introduce you to Lin from Duck and wheel with string. I know that a lot of you already know Lin because I see her comments on several of the blogs I follow but for those of you who haven't had the pleasure, Lin is someone you really want to know. I met Lin in my Entrecard dropping days. She never fails to make me laugh. She has a style and wit all her own and you just know that she would be someone really fun to hang out with. Aside from the humor, there is always tales of frogs, orange stripey goodness and a fun loving family that for the most part really plays well together. Now lets just turn it over to Lin.

(I tried to spread these pictures out but blogger says they all have to go right here)

1. How long have you been blogging and what made you start?

In February of 2008, I took a creative writing class. I always liked to write and that class rekindled that love. One of the projects we did was to start a class blog to get used to putting out work "out there" to get support....and criticism. I was addicted and decided to start my own blog in April 2008 for my own voice and stories.

2. What is one piece of advice that you would give to new bloggers?

Pick a name for your blog that you are willing to type 5000 times. "Duck and Wheel with String" is not easily typed, and while I love that wacky name, it's a bugger to keep typing out. And I think it's hard for people to remember the name of your blog when it's too long.

3. Do you have any hobbies or special talents?

Uh...true talents? I can say that I hand-quilt pretty well. I don't do that as much now that I'm on the computer more, but it's something I want to keep up. I have that fabric stash, you know.

Add to that, I love to swim laps at the health club and I have really, really nice penmanship. People ask me to print things for them all the time--which is weird.

Other "talents" include singing show tunes at the top of my lungs, tap dancing, and I'm incredibly talented at creating dioramas for homework projects. I am pretty good with raising the fish and frogs that inhabit the pond, plus I can create impressive mini drive-thru restaurants with Legos and can do doll hair like a dream. Yeah, my talents are never-ending I'd say.

4. Of course you love all the blogs you visit but share a link to one of those and tell us why we should check it out.

For pure insanity, I love The Bloggess, but for everyday simple joys, I'm going with Diane at
http://www.theblueridgegal.com. She's like me in that she finds humor and joy in everyday happenings and I think we both hate her neighbor's log man at the end of her driveway. I love her dogs too--they are always doing something silly and they make me laugh.
5. What is the one things that totally makes you crazy?

Holes in my sock. Or people who lie. Both just wear on me and I have no time for either.

6. Give one random thought.

When in doubt, sing loud.  

Believe it or not

Would you believe that this mess...

Plus this mess...

Was all the result of making just one little card?

Who knew paper crafting was so messy?

Since I already had that big huge mess going I figured I may as well make another one too.

Did you notice a few of Duke's toys in with that mess on the floor? Yeah, we work as a team.

White weekend

Looks like it's going to be another white weekend here. We finally start to get rid of the snow and we get hit with another round. Will it never end?

Duke says he's going to curl up on the couch and watch tv all weekend.

Hey mom, while you're up could you get me a snack and straighten out that runner on the coffee table would ya.

Cave decor

It occurred to me that I never showed you some of the things I bought Wade for Christmas. Slowly but surely I'm finding neat things for him to decorate his cave with. A few weeks before Christmas I had noticed a sign in the drug store next to where I work that said all wildlife figures 30% off so I went in to have a look.
These are what I found

They had so many to chose from I had a really hard time deciding what to get.

This is another one that I had bought him at the same place last year for his birthday

Eye strain

My eyes were giving me the order to power down the computer. Between the computer, my phone and my kindle I think it's just been a bit too much for them.
Hopefully in a day or two they will decide to be a little nicer to me.
For now you can hang out on the back of the couch with Duke and watch over his world with him