I'm Beginning to Enjoy It!

I'm losing my reluctance to mess with my images. In fact, I rather like turning them into something a little artsy or using techniques to mute busy and distracting elements. No purist am I.

This is an image of a really tiny wildflower that was growing in my yard. I liked the original image well enough, but it was just a decent shot of a little wildflower growing in my yard. I can see numerous uses for this version.

The Whooping Crane is the tallest North American bird. The species can stand up to 4.9 feet and have a wingspan of 7.5 feet. After being pushed to the brink of extinction by unregulated hunting and loss of habitat to just 21 wild and two captive whooping cranes in 1941, conservation efforts have led to a limited recovery. As of 2011, there were an estimated 437 birds in the wild and more than 165 in captivity. (Wikipedia)

Breeding populations winter along the Gulf coast of Texas, near Rockport, on the Aransas National Wildlife Refuge. You can take a boat tour to their breeding grounds and, if you are lucky, get to see these magnificent birds. We took the tour, the weather was nice and we were thrilled to see quite a few. I took several images, but the surrounding vegetation competed with the birds in the photos. I hope I have managed to subdue the background enough to make the birds the star of these images. The first bird was just coming in for a landing and the second was just taking off.

There's Always an Exception

My creative philosophy generally leans toward..Less is more..

I also believe something is not finished until you think it is finished.
I thought I had finished this wreath, but after looking at it more and more, I decided it needed MORE.

It you've seen the first version, you will see that I added a bow and a lot more "stuff" at the bottom

I do like this one better.

October Should Have Been Cool

At the beginning of October, we went down South around the Texas Hill Country. A lot of German immigrants decided to settle in this area. Anytime of the year you can get great sausages, pastries and beer, but this time of the year they host all sorts of festivals. My husband is German and I knew he would enjoy the festivities. So we went.
Since October is usually beautiful weather wise, we decided to take our camper. I absolutely love camping...in a camper, tent or on the ground. The only thing that matters to me is the weather. Everyone knows this by now but I hate HOT weather. Unfortunately, except for one day, it was hot! It was, however, nice in the mornings and evenings.

This is the Colorado River early in the morning. We camped just above it on a hill. We took our coffee and strolled along the path in the mornings and evenings.

These butterflies were flitting around the flowers next to our camper. I don't know what kind it is. I would attempt to identify it, but every time I do, I always get it wrong. So, to me, it is just a beautiful butterfly.

These evidently lived in the pasture behind our camper. They hopped over the fence and paid us a visit every morning. Just not too close.

On our way back home, we found this ghost town. The buildings are real. They all had just been moved to this one location. This is inside the sheriff's office.

Now That Halloween is Over

It is time for one of my favorite times of the year.

I helped my daughter make this wreath to hang on one of our front doors.

I purchased the scarecrow SVG files from Scrappy Dew.
I created the burlap, denim, straw hat, striped fabric and pumpkin fabric in Photoshop and Xara Designer Pro to use as my patterned cardstock.
I printed squares of each pattern large enough to cut out the appropriate pieces. I don't have the patience to cut multiple tiny pieces of many different colors of cardstock so I cut those pieces from white cardstock and colored them with alcohol ink pens.
The eyes are painted with acrylic paint.

It looks different hanging and in photos than it did laying on my craft table. After looking at it for awhile, I have just about decided to add a bow at the top and maybe some more filler flowers and/or foliage at the bottom.

Between the cooler weather and the rain, it just felt good doing something Fall..ish.