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

Welcome November

Welcome November!

It's the last day of October and we have a large bowl of candy ready for trick or treaters.  It's hard to believe that tomorrow we'll put away the orange pumpkins - and start thinking about the upcoming holidays.  The next couple of months will certainly fly by quickly.

The November calendars/wallpapers are ready - hope you like them!

November 2014 Calendars!

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!

Inspired by Paintings

This week in BeStill52 our challenge is to create a still-life image that is inspired by a painting.

 It seemed perfectly natural to texture the image - so I'm using it for Texture Tuesday too!

Pomegranates & Merlot1

I used two of Kim's textures - Pumpkin Grunge and Mustard Seed - for deep warm color.  I also added one of my own, a simple scanned copy of a piece of canvas.

Pomegranates & Merlot2

and one that is "water colorized" and textured with a canvas like layer.

Pomegranates & Merlot3

It's been quite a long time since I last purchased a pomegranate - not only did I love taking close-up photos of the beautiful color and shape of this fruit - I am enjoying eating the sweet juicy seeds!

Have a beautiful day!

Be Wonderfully Odd!

Poms - close-up