Barn fun

For the Ohio Bicentennial anniversary, an artist painted this design on at least 1 barn in each of the 88 counties in Ohio.  It's great to see some of them looking so good a few years later.

I thought it would make a neat postcard (maybe to be printed at a later date).  Using a texture from Shadowhouse Creations and the Vintage layer from Pioneer Woman.

And just to perk up a January day (which was fabulously warm!), a little ZING barn color and light.  This is stylize glowing edges filter from PSE 9.

Linking with Barn Charm.

M.E.

overlapping hobbies

Since I'm not finding quite as many photo opportunities right now, I thought I would use the time to do something with the pictures I already have.  Occasionally Walgreens, CVS, or Snapfish will offer free prints.  I have taken advantage of the free 4x6 prints, which I pick up at the store to avoid shipping costs.  Here is what I have done with them:

 I combined my photo hobby with my stamping hobby and made some cards.  I have a ridiculous amount of stamps, punches and other tools to make all kinds of designs.  After sorting through my craft room - and let me tell you it was a tight battle for me to win - I decided to pull some things together.  One of my new year's thoughts was to say 'thank you" more often.  Here are a couple example cards for just that purpose.

I have made scrapbooks, mostly for others, but it's really not my thing.  Cards however, can be done in a reasonable amount of time and make a nice impact on someone's week.  So, if you're interested in doing something like this yourself, just be on the look out for the freebie giveaway days and maybe grab some craft supplies with the JoAnn or Michael's coupons in the Sunday paper. They even sell mini kits for card making, so you don't have to start large.

M.E.

fabulous fog

In my last post I mentioned our wacky winter weather thus far.  Today wacky winter turned in to fabulous fog in late afternoon.  I was able to get some shots before the fog took over the area.

Usually I only catch this in the morning, so to see the layers in the late day, even if they are gray, was fun.  You have the blank sky, the trees, the fog, the trees/sky reflected in the water and then the edge.

Here the trees reflect in the puddles instead of the river, but I thought they were lovely anyway.

A final shot of the fog, almost out of sight as I was losing the light.  

Not quite that same as the autumn morning shots -

without the fall colors and leaves, but peaceful.

Linking with Weekend Reflections and SkyWatch Friday.

M.E.

winter...hello?

Last year at this time we had been living with snow for 6-7 weeks.  

This year we have had a total of 6" all winter.  I'm not complaining, but I do miss the photo ops. 

Here is a brushing of snow.  We're expecting a bit more Sunday, 

but really it's been 2 days of winter and 5 days of spring around my neck of the woods.  

Very odd, especially the morning thunderstorms.

Sometimes we just get a foggy, fuzzy morning. Which is a lot like me at that time too!

I keep carrying my camera in hopes of catching something interesting to share with you all.  

Off to work training tomorrow, so probably nothing fun there.  

I did have some really good and productive works days over the past week, so at least I'm accomplishing something during this sorry weather!

M.E.

cozy cuteness

I work with a woman who should be referred to as the Crochet Goddess.  She makes all kinds of blankets, hats, scarves and kid toys - in a blink of an eye.

I saw a winter headband in the store a couple weeks ago.  I really liked the design, but they didn't have any colors that matched my ski jacket.  Not that I ski anymore, but it's the warmest coat I own and it fits over everything, so it's my go-to coat this time of year.

I took a couple photos with my phone, brought it in to show Kelly and asked her if she could make me one.  Sure thing!  I brought her yarn and a button and Ta-Da!  It's the perfect size and using the button means I can put it on and take it off without messing up my hair.  Isn't she wonderful?!

M.E.

hearts around the house

This week for Guest Heart Thursday I found a few hearts around the house.  First, my cinnamon apple waffles for dinner.  The leftovers (because of course I made extras) will be lunch with fruit salad and yogurt tomorrow.

The second heart was an illustration of a slip knot, found in the new intro to knitting book my Aunt and Uncle bought for me around new year's.  It may be a while before you see something from those needles!  I crochet fairly well, but knitting is all new and I'll need to practice and try to figure out how to keep the tension even...you know after I figure out which way to throw the yarn.  I'm ambidextrous, so we'll see which "side" I use for this new hobby.

 

Visit Clytie and friends for more fun hearts around the world.

M.E.

friendly fences

For this week's Friday Fences, I came across some non-traditional fences.  

A gate-fence on the driveway, with a little holiday cheer still hanging.

And a rock wall-fence around the yard.  There are tons of these in this area of town, generally made from the rocks dug up in the area when building the homes.  I used to have one in my backyard and loved how it looked with flowers growing along the base.

M.E.

cooking fun

You know how people use January and the new year to kick start a healthy eating habit?

I'm not that girl.

Just before Christmas I came across some of the "church lady" cookbooks I've been given over the years.  I guess technically that name is inaccurate, because some of the contributors are men, but the vast majority are those nice ladies that always provide things for church events.  Every church has them (as is evidenced by the 4 different books I have from different places). 

 

So I decided that I would cook one of those traditional, old school, down home, from your grandmother's memory recipes each month and share it with you.  I may do more than one, but we'll see how time works out.  I'll try to pick some of my favorites as well as some of the most-often-seen at-church events.  The best part is that most of these are made out of things we all have in the cabinet or fridge (sorry Rachel Ray, love your stuff, but jeez you use a lot of ingredients) and they are generally pretty easy to put together.

I'm going to be replacing my previous book challenge tab (under the header photo) with this one and add the posts along the way as we eat!  Feel free to come walk down food memory lane with me.

M.E.

[BTW, I changed the comments section so now you can comment to me or reply to others.  It does require picking the "embedded" option in Blogger settings, so let me know if this causes anyone problems.  I just really like the idea of being able to answer the occasional questions people ask. ]

line of barns

A friend of mine was driving the other day so I was able to snap a few barn shots along the highway.  You can see we still don't have any snow, so the corn stalk leftovers are visible.  It was a sunny clear day on Saturday and I got some lovely shots.  This was a good size farm and I was able to snap a line of barns!

More Barn Charm here.

M.E.

2012 Phrase

The LORD your God is in your midst, a mighty one who will save; 

he will rejoice over you with gladness; 

he will quiet you by his love;

he will exult over you with loud singing.

Zephaniah 3:17

I was trying to think of my 2012 "word".  Something for me to aspire to or remind myself of over the coming months.  But I couldn't really find one word that spoke to me.  However, on new year's day, one of my friends said "this one will be better" and I thought, yes - it will.  How simple is that?  Not "I have to shoot for the moon, be perfect, seek peace in every moment, achieve to be something new," but simply this one will be better.

This year I will be in the moment a little 

more often and this one will be better.

This year I will try not to be frustrated

with people who don't want to learn. 

Acceptance will make this one better.

I will let go of the life I planned and live 

the life I have and this one will be better.

I will remember the happy times for 

the gifts they are and this one will be better.

I will make more of an effort for hobbies 

and fun and less for housework, 

and this one will be better.

I will take more pictures as art to stretch 

my comfort zone, so this one will be better.

 

I will say thank you more often, for all 

kinds of things and this one will be better.

I will write more notes and send photos 

just because, so this one will be better.

I will find some new way to become involved 

in my community and this one will be better.

I will reach out to friends and family and make 

sure in their world, this one will be better.

M.E.

 

 

goodnight sun

I know you're wondering when I'm going to stop showing you sunrises and sunsets every week.  I keep snapping these shots because I know we have a very long gray and white winter ahead.  It hasn't appeared quite yet, so in the meantime I'm going to celebrate these amazingly colorful skies on Friday!

I stopped to take this shot, but sat and watched as the sky changed.

This is why I carry a camera in my bag...

More lovely skies here .

M.E.

tiny heart

My Aunt Rita made these amazing ginger bread people.  Before enjoying every last bite, I took a photo of the craftsmanship too.  Look - a tiny heart on the bow made from itty bitty candy canes. 

How cute!

 

More Hearts:

M.E.

Candy floss fun

 On New Year's Day we all were well fed by my brother and SIL.  While we were there, they showed us a cotton candy machine they were borrowing.  I'm a huge fan of cotton candy, so having a personal little machine seemed liked a really good idea!




Here Mom put candy cane pieces into the center portion where they melt and then spin into sugar floss.  They tried jolly ranchers too, but those didn't work as well.  The cherry flavored candy cane was my favorite.

You can see she's still waiting for the two front teeth - since they didn't arrive for Christmas!

Luckily, no new teeth required for this treat!

Here's big sister trying to eat and not laugh at me sticking the camera in her face, again!








And to top of the night, a little Wii dancing:

M.E.

New year, new lens!

Thanks to Christmas help from family, I finally got my 35mm f/1.8 prime lens for my Nikon!

I haven't had a ton of time to play with this yet, but I will definitely be sharing my fun along the way.  I did take it to my brother's house on New Years, so I have some cute shots of my nieces I need to download.  This is a really fast lens and it works beautifully in lower/indoor light.  Gives you some really nice bokeh. Now that I have a larger f-stop range, I can really practice more with manual settings.  Not that I don' t like the presets available on my camera - they are very handy, but I'd like to be able to adjust more when taking portrait type photos too.  So here is a sample from lunch the other day, at the tea house.

I'm still pondering my 2012 photo goals.  More on that later in the week!

M.E.