WOYWW

Here's a new one for me WOYWW (what's on your worktable wednesday) - and maybe not the best time to start since everything is SUCH a mess.  But I guess that's the point - what's the reality of your work space?  Right now, all of mine are a disaster.  In my 'office' I do all the computer stuff, digital art, etc. so have my reference books nearby.  I also have a watercolor painting table set up next to a window though I haven't used it in a while and it's gathering stacks of other projects.

Then, upstairs I have a spare bedroom that has become my workroom.  OMG, looking at it through the camera's eye really shows the mess it's in.  I've not been in there creating, just dumping stuff from other parts of the house as I decorate for the holidays.  This will take some serious time to restore to order.....  So without further ado, here's my spaces on this cloudy Seattle morning.

Yikes - how do I find anything in here???

What's your your work table/bench/desk/surface today?  I just finished my Zentangle entry for the week (see it in front of my keyboard) and got it posted. That's the only active project at this moment - tomorrow, who knows?

Linking to WOYWW and you can take a little vicarious trip inside other work rooms - it's a little voyeuristic, but all in good fun!  {ED: to show you how popular this prompt is, I'm in at #100!)

zentangle & AEDM

Today is the final installment of AEDM and it's been quite a trip.  I've made some new blogging friends that I truly appreciate and love visiting their sites.  I've pushed myself to not give up on art but keep trying something new and different - sometimes digital art, sometimes in my journal, sometimes zentangles, and I've loved every bit of it.

Tangles top:  Cubine, Mooka;  bottom:  Tipple, Chambray, Echoism, Zedbra, Coaster

I am the Diva's prompt this week was to take our tangles and super size them.  This was actually a lot of fun and I might use the technique again.  It really gives a new perspective - like one of my standbys, zedbra (in the lower tile) looks really cool all blown up and big!

aedm -day 28 portrait

This digi art effort started out for my 365 day photo (the end is near!), then realized I could use it for the scavenger hunt hosted by Ashley, then if I added a texture I could use it for Texture Tues with Kim.  So, here goes:

The 2 photos I started with are:

I cropped the one of me and cut me away from the background (I didn't get enough tree bokeh). I love the colors in the frosty leaves so placed me over them.  I duplicated the background, changed it to soft light 45% and did a strong blur so it's mostly color, no shapes.

Then the magic of textures takes over.  I used 2 of Kim's:  autumn burst @ soft light 90% and crackerjack @ hard light 50%.  I added a bokeh texture that I think is from Shadowhouse @ soft light 100% to arrive at the final image.
This is linked to AEDM (day 28 already!), Texture Tuesday and on Sunday will be part of my scavenger hunt (portrait) with Ashley.

ED: I just went to link to Texture Tues and realized this week is about gratitude.  While I didn't take or process this photo thinking of gratitude, it could certainly apply - look how happy I look!  That's because I'm grateful for my life - I have the best husband and great kids; we have our health and we all have jobs; I have a circle of supportive and encouraging friends.  So many people don't have home computers (yes, it's true!) and easy access to the internet so I'm grateful I have the tools and time to develop my creativity.  The list goes on and on, but basically I'm grateful I have such a comfortable and loving life.  I wish the same for you.

show & tell: family

Chelsey over at Paper Heart Camera is hosting another Show & Tell - this one about family (appropriate for this time of year).  So just a quick post this morning to share my guys (since they don't ever look at this blog, guess they'll never know, right?)

Youngest on the left, hubby in the middle and oldest son on right; we're at a friend's wedding.  They're standing on a stairway - actually hubby is 6'5 and boys are 6'3 each.

He always laughs with such abandon.  I love that!  And you can't help but laugh with him.  Thanks son for keeping me silly and happy and laughing!

The family earlier this year.

And just a quick one when they were little and cute and cuddly.....

Linking to Paper Heart Camera.

AEDM -day 27 Christmas

My creativity was certainly stretched today!  I'm frantically working to get all the decorating done on this long weekend so the house will be ready for a party we're having next weekend.  I want to be able to focus on the food, etc. later in the week, not decorating the house.

So, we put up the tree Friday, I put out my Santa collection and hung the outside lights and stuff on Saturday and today was tackling the mantel and stairwell.  The mantel was the main "new" decorating and though I thought I had a plan (ha!), it didn't quite work out.  I purchased these fabulous lighted stars from Ikea along with some wonderful silk amaryllis blooms with the idea of a white and silver elegant mantel.  I wanted a contemporary linear look to the flowers but didn't want to spend $$ on the long shallow glass vase cuz I thought I could make something. Uh huh.

I used florist foam to hold the stems then wrapped the "vase" with a sparkly narrow garland and added the bird for some color.  Too plain.

So I jazzed it up with some red and white berries and silver twirly sticks.  While I like the way the arrangement turned out, it didn't look good on the mantel - the white on white elegant effect is totally lost because you can't see the flowers very well.

As you can see, it looked a little schizophrenic - the dark trees on the right, the invisible white flowers on the left - no connection, visually uneven cuz the trees are so dark (they're hiding the cords to the stars).  Suffice it to say I tried several other options - moved trees, added Santas, took away the flowers and tried a giant sleigh.  By this time it's 4pm, the room is a total mess with glitter and greenery and ornaments everywhere, I'm exhausted and my creativity is running a little low.

But - I had one more idea.

I put the flowers in staggered heights in a series of vases so they could layer (front to back) and fill up some of the depth (2') of that mantel.  Breaking up the trees put something dark on the left while the little Santa finishes up the left side.  I'm not sure this will be the final version, but it's final for today!

It's late to post this but I did get it done for my AEDM entry!

scavenger hunt sunday #2

My second week of participating in Ashley's scavenger hunt. I like the challenge because somehow the topics are so open to interpretation.  Here's mine for this week:

WAITING

The table is set and waiting for guests on Thanksgiving.

FOLIAGE

Some branches I gathered for a holiday project - leaf foliage removed, but moss foliage remaining.

CANDID
Thanksgiving day gave lots of opportunities for this category - I settled on this one of my son.

KNIFE / FORK / SPOON

Thanksgiving table setting....

RULE OF THIRDS

Here my focal point is in the left 1/3 side however it's in the halfway point vertically, so technically not in the 'sweet' spot for a focal point.

Hope you all had a great Thanksgiving and are ready to tackle the upcoming season!  Just think of all the photo ops we'll find!  Can't wait to see how you share your holidays.

AEDM -day 26 zentangle

This week over at I am the Diva, the challenge is to create a Zentangle using a red line as the string.  It's in support of a charitable organization called The Red Thread Promise which provides assistance for orphans in China to people in the US needing medical care.

Today's creativity for AEDM is my Zentangle tiles.

Tangles used top:  paradox, spinners, opus, bales variation, flux, tipple, flora - Bottom:  betweed, marbles, hibred, striping, and in the borders sequins, organza again and chainlette

Be sure to visit the Diva to see more great Zentangles or to try your hand at it.  The AEDM site will lead you to a wide range of creative folks - click through a few links and you might find a new blogging friend.

PAF & AEDM-25

Those acronyms in the title look like some high level secret government organizations, but no, they're just challenges I enjoy participating in. Today is PAF (photo art Friday at Pixel Dust) and today's was quite easy - just choose a photo from my archives that I feel never got the 'attention' it deserved.  Well, I don't know about that, but I did pick one that I thought had possibilities that had never been explored.

BEFORE:

AFTER:

This was taken on a beach on Tahiti but the sky was all blown out so it was very underwhelming - though I really like the lines of the trunks.  So, a little texture magic to the rescue.  I used two by Shadowhouse (or Skeletal Mess) - the words using linear light at 15% and then the bokeh for a little sparkle is color burn at 60%.  I tried posterize too because I read last week that it's somebody's favorite go-to adjustment.  I didn't think it helped this particular picture but I'll definitely use it again - it adds some interesting definition.  (I just noticed as I was reviewing the post that the horizon line is crooked. Oops! I'll fix it later.... :))

If you have time between the shopping adventures, take a moment to visit some of the other cool photo art entries this weekend.  I'm also submitting it to AEDM - as the month draws to a close, I'm so appreciative of the new blogging buddies I've discovered and the push/nudge to keep working at my creative endeavors....whatever they might be for that week/day/moment!

Hope you all had a Happy Thanksgiving (or a fabulous weekend if you're not in the US).

inspiration ave: aged beauty

This was an interesting challenge for IA and while I had an idea of what I wanted to accomplish, I don't feel I completed it as successfully as I hoped.  However, it's Thanksgiving eve and I have stuff to do! so it's going to be good enough for now.

I love rusty old textured machinery or peeling paint wood, etc and my mind immediately went to that as my view of aged beauty.  But I wanted to explore layering other elements - I see so many really effective digi collages, but mine always feel to cluttered if I add more than one thing.  So for this, one addition.

The original photos:

Blended, my Aged Beauty became this:

No textures were added this time - I just duplicated the car (it's a crumpled fender) shot a couple times: soft light 45%, hard light 75% and then layered the sunflower in with hard light 52% and duplicated it at soft light 37%.

So many folks have such creative interpretations of this theme, it's worth your time to visit Inspiration Ave.  This project is also AEDM #24 - so visit other committed artists (or artists who should be committed for taking on this challenge in November of all times!) here.

AEDM -day 23

Today for AEDM I finished up a gift for my youngest son who is a lover of micro-brew beer.  With the help of a friend who helped find all these cool coasters, I gathered enough to make this piece of "art". :)

I glued all these paper coasters to black foam core and framed with a black frame. I think he'll like it!  (good thing he doesn't follow my art blog!)

Other AEDM artists can be found here.

texture tuesday

One of my favorite challenges is hosted by Kim Klassen and gives me a chance to play with textures and experiment with PSE.  Today's was super simple, just use one of Kim's textures on any image.  One of my current fave shots is one I took a couple of mornings ago with our first real frost.

I started with the photo above and added 2 of Kim's free textures.

First I added "pink" to make it a little more wintery and soften the background.  I used it at soft light, 100%.  Then I tried a few others and settled on Dream Words at color burn, 64%.

I like this darker, more dramatic version but it still keeps the pink undertones.  Be sure to click through to her link up party and see TONS of more BE-autiful shots!

creative tuesday: three (and AEDM)

Christmas is definitely on my mind and I have the thought to make some of my cards - special friends/family so I played with that a bit today.  Here's my first effort - used scrapbook paper, a tiny tangle and some ribbon.  While it's okay, I think I can do better so will play with it some more (but I better hurry up!).

Hmmm - the white edges don't work so well here, but it's a 5x6.5" card.  Submitted for AEDM and to Creative Tuesday for her theme of "3" (3 ornament shapes).

PS - I did another one and I think I like this card idea better - I used THREE branches and like the color of the berries; I don't like the tangle in the large bird (it's too jumbled, need something different there) and the bird on the lower branch doesn't quite read as a bird but overall, I think it's a nice design.  I wonder if the branches should have a tangle fill or would that be too busy?  I welcome your thoughts.

scavenger hunt sunday

This is a first for me.  Ashley over at Ramblings and Photos hosts a weekly photo sharing following a 5 day theme that is suggested for each week.  So I'm joining this week though a couple of my entries are from archives and not shot new this week......

Mainly One Color

A frosty morning here this morning.

Around the Home

A closeup of a glass tray I have with a Kim Klassen texture added.


Reflection

This is my "cheating" photo - I took it a couple weeks ago at the Seattle Japanese garden.  It was a beautiful day to visit the garden with reflections galore to explore :)

Writing

Most of my writing is done at the computer - and on this blog!  However, as you can see from my desk, I haven't totally given up on the handwritten reminder notes!  All those things to do!

Water

If I'd known I'd have a frosty morning, I could have used that for my 'water' shot, but instead I took this of a glass of ice with tea being poured.  The little bit of bokeh on the left is an added texture since I thought the shot was kind of boring.

Check out other interpretations by visiting a few links at Ashley's site.  Or, join in next week when the 5 themes are:  waiting, foliage, candid, knife/fork/spoon, and rule of thirds.