Day 20 and 21 was a bust !

Well, I spent most of my weekend packing...I did take some pictures but never got a round to posting them. And, of course I forgot to bring my card with me today to post a couple of pictures. Hopefully, I'll be more on the ball tonight and or tomorrow morning get some photos posted.

Day 19 !

Last Sunday my family and I celebrated one of my brother's 60th birthday, Since he loves oysters...we decided to indulge in some. We enjoyed them 3 ways....raw, steamed and oysters casino......YUM !

I took this picture of the oysters while they were being washed off....thought it would be a great before and after.

Before

After

 

Day 18 !

Here is "Bear". He is one of my mom's dogs.....which are now her children.

Day 17 .... Here Kitty Kitty !

Today's picture of the day is of my old man cat "Binx". He's 17 years old. He's a lovable old cat, but not as agile as he used to be. Of course that comes with age....doesn't it?

Day 16 ! Shimmering Silver Sequins

I took this picture on Sunday. It was such a beautiful day. And I happen to notice that the river had all these Shimmering Silver Sequins on it.

Wow Half way there ! Photo of the day #15

I'm half way through my personal challenge. I took this photo last night of the sun setting. With the clouds and the colors in the sky...it was quite awesome to me.

Picture of the day #13 and #14

Well, I went out and took pictures yesterday morning. Then promptly came in and started to work on boxing up stuff in my room to get ready for my move. So needless to say, I totally forgot to post a picture. I'm making up for it today...and posting a picture that I took yesterday and one that I took this morning.

The Dock

Day break on the creek

Day #12

Wow...I've actually posted 12 days in a row ! Hmmmm....maybe I'll keep this up until the end of the year.
Another before and after...using the Content Aware feature in Photoshop and turning it into a sketch. The picture is of my daughter and her husband.

Before

After

Day #11

Another before and after ...... I cropped the photo....got  rid of the foot in the background, blurred the background and give it a bit of a painting feel using the Gaussian blur and darken feature.

Picture of the day #10

I decided I would try the Content Aware feature in Photoshop today. I took a picture of a morning glory a couple of months ago. I liked the photo...other than the blade of grass that was across the bloom. Instead of removing it the normal way (using the clone tool). I tried out the Content Aware feature....which I found is so much easier and a tad less tedious. I did do some color enhancements to the photo as well.

Before

After

Picture of Day #9

Yesterday afternoon I received an email from my neighbor. Attached was this wonderful picture of my Dad on his beloved tractor. It was such a wonderful surprise !

Day #8 Picture of the day !

So far so good....I'm a quarter of the way through the month and have made a post a day. I know at the beginning of the month I did say I would give it a shot to take a picture a day. At least I've kept up with the posting part of my challenge. Now, I just need to get my act together, get my camera out and take pictures everyday.

With that said....this picture was taken October 28, 2010.

Make up for Day # 7 - Lone Goose

Here is a lone goose. Seems that everybody in the community has seen him (or her...not sure) their yards, laying around. He can fly....cause after I snapped a few shots he flew off.

Well.....day 7 is a bust

I'm not at home today. Though, I did bring my camera with me. But the computer that I'm using won't read the card. So....no pictures today. I'll post 2 tomorrow to make up for today.

Day #6 - Picture of the day

Ahhh....so far my challenge is going well....6 days in and haven't missed a single day of posting.

This morning I decided to try taking pictures of water drops. I set up a red bowl in the sink, filled it with water, then had the faucet dripping and started snapping pictures. I found that I got a couple of decent shots. Here is one of them.

Picture of the day #5

Today my picture is a before and after of a bloom from my Peace Lilly. I did a little photoshoping to it.

Before

After

                                                                    

I made a duplicate layer. Then used the gaussian blur filter (8). Then applied the screen under the layer menu.

Picture of the day #4

Well....here I am at day number 4 of posting pictures. I got out and took some pictures yesterday.....but forgot to bring my card with me (I'm at work right now). Luckily...I do have some photographs on my work computer. Below is one that I took back in October of the sun setting. I love the star effect.....it's all real...no photoshoping done, other than to straighten the photo and to make it smaller.

Before and After Picture of the day #3

Today will be a " before and after". I've been trying to learn some different Photoshop Techniques. I'm sharing a photograph that I took a few weeks ago.  My model is, Oz (my daughter's dog). He's a happy and wonderful dog, but as you see in the picture he looks a bit sad.....I don't think he likes having a camera pointed at him.

Picture of the day...No. 2

I'm off to a good start......day number 2 and I'm posting again. LOL !

One of my neighbors is putting in a dock. The pile driver came back to finish up. I hope their dock lasts for many, many years.In the past I've seen ice destroy a few docks in the river.

Finally Posting again.......

Wow, it's been 4 months since I've posted anything. It's been a crazy past few months in my house (which I'll get into some other time). 

Today.....I decided I would give myself a challenge......which will be to post one picture a day. I will give it my best effort to take a picture a day and post it the following day. Since, I didn't even get the camera out yesterday...I'm going to post a picture that I took a couple of weeks ago.

Wish me luck on my challenge !

In Memory of my Dad

My dad passed away on January 2 after a 4 month battle with many health issues. My father expressed that he didn't want the traditional memorial service/burial. My family decided that we would have a cookout in memory of him at the end of this month. We will have plenty of food, many friends and share lots of Bob isms. In honor of my dad, I've created a collage (I'm in the process of doing another one, as well). Though it was a little sad to put this together, it was also fun to look back at all the photos and remember all the wonderful times we had together. I sure do miss him. Love Ya Dad !

And the winner is .....................

I recently entered a blog giveaway at http://tskdesign.blogspot.com for beautiful copper earrings handcrafted by Tim Kline of Coast Chimes . Much to my surprise I actually won! It's been over 25 years since I've won anything. I received the earrings on Monday....and was again surprised...they are absolutely beautiful. Not only does he create beautiful jewelry, Tim's windchimes are amazing.

I love all of the earrings !

Sandscaping !

I've neglected this blog recently....as always there's something else to do. This is going to be a quick post today.

At any rate, for those of you that I've told about my my little beach project. Here it is in full color.

The Story Behind Bill the Watch Goose.

Ok.....so I either don't listen very well or I'm suffering from CRS (possibly a bit of both). At any rate I need to correct that it was Bill's upper bill that was broken off. After sending the link to this blog....my neighbors that Bill guards.....sent me the whole story.

"

Bill lost half of his upper bill in a battle with another goose over a woman.  So involved in combat, they paid no attention to where they were and both plunged over the cliff, wings and legs going in every direction.  Bill dragged himself back up the cliff and plopped down, upper half of bill broken and red tongue hanging out uncovered.  He decided to recuperate in our yard...or maybe he just couldn't move any farther for awhile.  We started calling him Half A Bill, then Fifty Cents and finally he became just plain Bill.  The other geese shunned him.  He had a hard time eating and lost a lot of weight.  John gave him some corn.  But he couldn't eat it.  It was very difficult for him to preen his feathers so he looked terrible for a long time. The neighbors noticed that he sat right next to us by the river and started calling him our pet goose.  He hasn't spent the winter here but he returns each spring.  This year we've seen him fly down to the river to swim with another goose at the end of the day.  "She" has never come into our yard but we're hoping she might be his new girlfriend. " Carrie S

Bill the Watch Goose

As I sit in my office getting into creativity mode....something out the window caught my eye. I saw that the neighbor's Watch Goose, Bill was standing guard. For the past 3 or 4 years, Bill comes back to Maryland to make his home on their property. He walks the 400 or so feet of riverbank daily (he knows where the property line is...and never crosses it...which is amazing since there are no fences). Bill alerts them when someone is on the beach or getting close to their yard. He started guarding the property after getting into a fight with another goose....and the bottom part of  his bill was broken off(hence the name Bill ). Even though his bill has grown back...he is a loner goose. But that's ok.... I'm glad he feels at home here....and is the resident Watch Goose.

A new project......

A month or so ago I ran across a website (http://www.scannography.org/) about a technique called "scanography". It's where you actually scan objects. It's macro photography, without the camera, pretty cool...huh? Since then I've been reading as much as I can about it. I fixed a computer that I had collecting dust...hooked up a flatbed scanner and have finally started scanning things. I've started with flowers, shells and even some fishing lures. I know I still have a lot of trial and error to go...but it's been fun and challenging. It's funny, now I'm constantly looking at things.....thinking...hmmmmm.....I wonder how that would look scanned.

The Sun Setting

Finally a sunny day...instead of gray skies. I was able to make it home in time to actually catch the sun setting.
What a beautiful sight. It sure did my heart good to see this.

Ahhhhh.....I sure do love this place !

I've been slacking

I've been a little busy this past week...and put off posting anything. Ahhhhh....ok, I'll admit I got a bit lazy too.

Anyway, I just found out that I got another photograph accepted by Craftgawker. This one is "Sky Writing", it's a digitally enhanced picture of a sunset taken this past fall.

I also listed a couple of card sets on etsy this past week. One is "The Nest"

And "Cloud Cover". Both sets come with 3 cards and envelopes.

It's been a great week !

Not only did I get a photograph featured on the Hearts and Hands United Blog. Teeheeproductions included me in an Etsy treasury. Tonight I found out that my photograph "Silhouette" was accepted to Craftgawker and is now on the front page.

Life is wonderful !

Hearts and Hands United

One of my photographs is featured in the blog for Hearts and Hands United ! They're an Esty Team...and a GREAT group of artisans. About a month ago, I happen to run across a weekly thread they have in the etsy forums ...they greeted me with open arms. Since I am so new to etsy and was a tad apprehensive about the whole etsy thing....it is nice to have made been  made to feel at home and very comfortable. For that I thank them all !

Just listed on Etsy .....

I got note cards printed of my photograph of The Nest I. I have finally listed them in my shop, http://www.etsy.com/view_listing.php?listing_id=41236340 . In this listing you get a set of 3 note cards with envelopes. These are perfect to brighten anyone's day.

I made on the Front Page of Craftgawker !

A couple of days ago I submitted my photograph of "The Nest II" to Craftgawker". This morning I woke up, grabbed a cup of coffee and turned on my computer....to find an email from Craftgawker saying they accepted my photograph.

Oh....I recently found out that this is a Mocking Bird's nest and eggs.

I know I know.......

I seem like I'm a bit obsessed with the snow. I'm finally starting to see some of my poor bushes that have been doing some yoga positions with all the snow on them. I'm glad to see the melting. But now it's making a muddy mess. My poor critters are bringing in so much mud in the house it's not even funny. What's the since in even cleaning the floors. I'm tempted to redo the foyer and the kitchen floor in a mud color......just so no one will know exactly how dirty they are.....LOL....just kidding.

Since I was on the subject of snow.....I thought I would share a picture of just one massive pile of snow in the Mall parking lot....this pile won't be gone until May or June.

 

Ok...now that I've shared that....I promise that I will no longer speak of the "S" word in this blog anymore this winter season....unless we get more of it....than I will rant again.

I am so sore.........

Yesterday.....it finally came time to clean off my car and get all the snow and ice off the driveway. I sure am feeling it today.  Every muscle in body aches.....I feel like I've been working in the garden...but we all know that isn't the case. At this point I don't care if I ever see snow again...ok well at least not this much snow. Luckily it was a good melting day. And I did have help....a friend came over with a snowblower and an old friend of mine that was in town from Florida gave me lots of assistance. At any rate....I still don't want to see this much snow for many years to come.

Kevin made a path with the snowblower to the bank......this snow looking across my yard into my neighbor's was so beautiful and untouched.

Slush and ice had formed in the river close to the shore....if you look really close you can see almost perfectly round pools in the slush. It was really pretty cool.

This is me (I'm in the yellow) and my friend, Laurie. We haven't seen each other in at least 7 years. I enjoyed her visit so much...sorry it couldn't have been longer

So Much for...........

So much for any of this snow melting today. It's cold and cloudy....with some flurries to be expected. Ohhh Well....what is a person to do? I did go out this morning and take a few pictures of the snow.....LOL...I'm sure I'll be doing that for months to come.

After many days and many snow plows....one snow plow driver decided that he would move Lumpy instead of plowing him down. Here he is in his new space.

With all this snow, I've been day dreaming about getting ready to garden. I think it's gonna be awhile before that happens.

"Car 54....Where are YOUUUU ? This is my car today......I might dig it out tomorrow when there should be more melting going on.

What a nice surprise....

I was a bit of a Negative Nelly today.....but when I came home I found a wonderful surprise from  my Mom...that brought a big smile to my face and gives me hope that spring might just be right around the corner(and maybe the snow will melt...sooner than later....LOL). It was such a nice surprise !

 I sure do love my Mom !

Electricity

I thought I was prepared if the electricity went out.....well I found that I wasn't....never even thought about water for flushing the toilet (I no longer take that for granted...LOL). After being without electricity for more than 50 hours we finally got it back on. It was so nice to have a hot shower, to be able to flush the toilet and not to have to huddle in front of the kerosene heater.

Since we're getting a second round of snow...I will fill the bath tub with water. Make sure I take the stuff out of the fridge sooner (not that there is much in there now...had to throw most of it out). And get a battery operated radio.

Since there wasn't much to do after the snow stopped and after we dug out...I took lots of pictures.

My daughter and her friend built this snowman in the middle of the turn around.....they call him "Lumpy".