Welcome December!

Welcome December!

December 2014 Calendar Freebees!

Grab them here:
Desktop wallpaper - click here - (right click on image and save as desktop image)
Phone wallpaper - click here - (click on image and save as wallpaper image)
iPad wallpaper - click here - (click on image and save as wallpaper image)
iPad mini wallpaper - click here - (click on image and save as wallpaper image)

Have an awesome day!

Be Wonderfully Odd!

Give Thanks

Happy Thanksgiving to those of you celebrating this week!

I hope you enjoy your time with family and friends!

I've already cooked, cleaned, and celebrated - it simply worked better for my family to celebrate a bit early.

So this Thursday you'll find be wearing comfy clothes and tucked into cozy blankets.  We'll be spending this holiday with cups of hot chocolate and kicking back to watch the Macy's Thanksgiving day parade and a stack old movies.

Ohhh - the bliss of a lazy day!

Give Thanks

I used two layers of Kim Klassen's Marabella texture and one layer of her Canvas Magic textures on this image.

As always - I am grateful to be able to share my photography with the wonderful Texture Tuesday group!
Be Wonderfully Odd!

Give Thanks2

Making Memories

Not long ago I read a brilliant tip on making memories – when something wonderful is happening make a mental snapshot – remember the feelings along with the images that you see.

Last week I had the opportunity to spend the day with four wonderful women – breakfast, shopping, talking, and dinner – the entire day!

It was a day of laughter, joy, and beautiful positive energy . . . so uplifting and so powerful.

I made so many mental “snapshots” – so many memories.

Memories

I used two layers of Kim Klassen's Tuesday texture on this image.

Sure, there were moments of guilt (leaving the care of children in other capable hands, a house that should be dusted, piles of laundry to be sorted – our lists, they are never ending).

It is so important to care for ourselves and to make connections; even if that means that our to-do list is put on hold.

By the end of the day my body was bone tired – but I felt so alive.  I am so grateful to be able to spend time with these beautiful, loving, and joy-filled women.  Truly blessed.

I hope that your day is beautiful!

Be Wonderfully Odd!

Sweetie

A little sweetie <3

A sweet face, with pink cheeks, is carved from clay and set into a round silver colored base and strung with 24 inches of silver colored chain.

Have an awesome day!

Be Wonderfully Odd!

Butter & Eggs

I'm combining Texture Tuesday with this weeks BeStill52 challenge (again!).

The challenge for this week was to shoot an image that contained butter and an egg.  Seems easy enough - but really the possibilities are endless.

I could have shot images of eggs in a carton, arranged in a bowl, raw with cracked open shells.  Or I could set-up a cooking scene with bowls and whisks and spices scattered about.  I could spend weeks taking pictures with this simple challenge.

Instead of using Pinterest to find inspiration, I picked up a few of my favorite cookbooks.

Butter&Egg 1

I used two layers of Kim's "Thursday" texture on this image.

To be honesty my favorite cookbooks are not those that I cook from often - my favorites are those with beautiful images (and lots of them!).

I love cookbooks that have beautifully styled photographs, it is a wonderful place to find inspiration.

Butter&Egg 2

A baked egg with tomato and fresh thyme - after it comes out of the oven add a dab of butter (I love the richness it adds - sweet, creamy, and salty).

I hope that you have an awesome day!

Be Wonderfully Odd!

Pomegranate

I completely forgot about "App Happy Wednesday" - and here it is Friday already!

Pomegranate

I took this picture with my DSLR camera (hope that's not cheating!) moved it to my phone and used phone apps to make the image.  I love the tiny seeds at the stem end of the pomegranate - and that pinky/red skin.

Taking Barb's lead, I used the Afterlight app to process the image - so many filters and possibilities.  I used both the Idaho and Howl filters on this image above.

I hope that you have an awesome weekend!

Be Wonderfully Odd!

Pears

Hello!  I've been shooting still-life images of pears lately.

I love the shape and color of Bosc pears.  They have that graceful curve shape and long neck.  A beautifully textured rough dark stem.  And the color of the skin varies from a soft light yellow to a dark cinnamon brown color.

And, of course, the pears are delicious (sliced and baked with a bit of butter and brown sugar - yum!).

Pear 1

Today I am joining Texture Tuesday and Bestill52.  The image above is textured with two of Kim Klassen's textures - Mayzee and Golden Hour.

Pear 2

One of this weeks challenge in Bestill52 was to shoot a still-life of pear(s) and a bowl.

I love how the three pears happened to fit perfectly in this bowl.  This bowl is one of my favorites - because of the nubby dots on the outside.  I also like that the light from behind highlights the watery droplets on the skin of the pear.

And I love those beautiful curvy stems!

The second part of this week's challenge was to take one of Kim's images and edit it in anyway that you would like.  I always freeze on challenges like this - because, well, it's one of Kim's images!
The first photo is Kim's gorgeous pear image straight from her camera.

Kim Klassen's challenge image

And here the image with my edits - increased contrast, increased brightness from the left, desaturated the reds, blurred things a bit, and added a layer of blue to cool the image.

Kim Klassen's image - edited as part of Bestill52 class

I hope that you have an awesome day!

Be Wonderfully Odd!






Okay - just one more pear image!

Pear 3