random reflections

Project 64: Blue Violet and LSNED 9.9-9.12

The color for Project 64 last week was Blue Violet. I thought I had captured a few, but when I uploaded the photos, only the violet from my study window was the right color.

As you can see, the color of the wrapper isn't exactly the color of the crayon. In the sunlight my violet more closely matches the wrapper, but away from the sun it is a good match, I think, for the crayon color. The blues and violets seem the hardest to match up. So here's this week's link-up:

Next, are four more pages in my LSNED album, the above photo being one of the photos.

Off to the dentist and two more appointments!

 

Moxie Fab Tuesday Trigger: Garden Glory

This week's Tuesday Trigger at Moxie Fab World gave me an opportunity to use my new Bloom Builders #3 die. As soon as I saw this delightful image, I knew what I wanted to do.

I used Papertrey's Background Basics: Retro stamped in Brilliance Thyme to mimic the pattern in the chair cover and the color from the gorgeous flower pillow for the flower on the card. The center of the flower is an old button from La-Di-Dah. I often struggle to line up the background images, but this time it lined up perfectly the first time. A sentiment from Teresa Collins Celebrate finished it off.

LSNED: Days 5-8 & Kitchen Construction

Here are the lastest additions to my LSNED Macro Photography project:

I learned I need to keep spare batteries for my remote cable release on hand. I had to run to the camera store to buy new ones. (And a set of spares!) Most of the photos require shutter settings of several seconds, so there's no way to handhold the camera. I added the camera settings to the tag after I took this photo.

I bought some flowers at the Farmers Market so I'd have some good candidates for macros. It's been dark and dreary here all week, so the only light I had came from the overhead light in the dining room. It proved to be quite uneven, so I should have tried to set up some more focused lights. I'm really happy with the sharp focus in this one, though.

No matter what I did, I couldn't get a sharp focus across the whole image in this one. I was at my smallest possible aperture for this lens, so I'm not sure what the problem was. Maybe light . . .

It takes me a LONG time to set up the camera and compose a good photo while using a tripod. I'm not used to manually focusing every image either.

The photo for September 5th is a jar of canned salsa. We had quite the haul from our garden this weekend, so I really needed to make some salsa. Since I don't have a stove, it was a challenge. I thought I'd take this opportunity to share some photos of our kitchen construction.

 

This was the way it looked this weekend. The drywall stacked against the wall kept us from getting into the kitchen from inside the house. We had to go out the front door and around to the side entrance. We must have amused the neighbors since it was raining, and we were going back and forth carrying supplies with an umbrella.

Here I am chopping veggies for the salsa . . .

. . . that we cooked on the camp stove.

The front of our house isn't all that pretty either. There will be a big bay window here when the project is completed. I can't wait to have more light in the kitchen.

Most of the time, we're cooking in the dining room. Our refrigerator is there as well as the microwave.

And the toaster oven, and lots of the stuff we had to move out of the kitchen.

Needless to say, a lot of furniture from the dining room is now in the living room. I really thrive on a neat and clean house, so this is quite the challenge. One month down, at least another to go.

On Monday and Tuesday we were without a sink. After the drywall went up, the sink came back in, and tonight my new stove was hooked up. I'm very excited to have a real stove (I've been cooking on a very small cooktop for 26 years). Tracy didn't get home until really late tonight, so we went out for pizza, but tomorrow I'll be cooking on the new stove!

 

 

Card Making

I'm not getting as much crafting time as I like these days. I seem so busy, but at the end of the day there doesn't seem to be a lot of concrete evidence. I have, however, gotten some cards in the mail.

This was inspired by a much-more detailed card on Debbie Olsen's blog.

I'm really happy with this card. I don't often overstamp images, but I like how this came out. After I stamped the sentiment and the leaves, I overstamped with a background text stamp in Dazzle Versamark.

I love how the sentiments from two different sets seem to complement one another.

I recently got the Teresa Collins' World Traveler 6X6 pad and couldn't wait to use the gorgeous papers.

An accompanying notepad.

I finally inked up my new "Happy Trails" set for this quick and easy birthday card for a friend.

The inside was inspired by this card.

Supplies:
Happy Anniversary:
Cardstock:  Spring Rain (PTI)
Patterned paper: from stash
Stamps: Everyday Sayings (Hero Arts); Iconic Images (PTI)
Dies: Garden Variety (PTI)
Twine and Button: PTI

Harvest Berries:
Cardstock: Vintage Cream & Dark Chocolate (PTI)
Stamps:  Harvest Berries, Birthday Basics, Background: Text Style (PTI)
Cord:  Beaux Arts

Home Is Where the Heart Is-Card and Notepad:
Cardstock: Fine Linen & True Black (PTI)
Patterned paper:  World Traveler (Teresa Collins)
Stamps:  Love Lives Here & Take Note (PTI)
Twill, twine, button, & felt (PTI)
Dies:  Inverted Square (Lifestyle Crafts) & Half and Half -trimmed lengthwise (PTI)

Let Your Dreams:
Cardstock:  Simply Chartreuse (PTI)
Stamps:  Happy Trails (PTI)
Copic markers, Sakura glitter pen, corner rounder

Project 64: Melon

When I first saw this color at Project 64, I thought it would be a difficult one, but I didn't have much trouble finding it at all.

You can see it in the middle of this zinnia. Here's a close-up photo that was taken with my iPhone.

 

Another iPhone photo of a zinnia found on our daily walks around the neighborhood.

I'm not sure what this flower is. If you know, please leave a comment.

A stunning rose; wish it was in my garden.

As I was editing photos from our trip I came upon this sunset taken on the ferry between Victoria and Vancouver. Since I submit so many flower photos, I'm linking this one to Project 64 this week.

LSNED: Day 2, 3, & 4

I'm loving the way this themed project is coming together for this class, especially since it's something I've wanted to focus on for awhile, but has just slipped down on the "to do" list way too often. It's easy to come up with a simple statement of something I learned each day. Not so simple to come up with a satisfactory macro or close-up photograph! Here are the latest three pages:

These flowers are actually very small. I'm guessing the photo is 1:3 or 1:4 which makes it a true macro. I used the tripod and manually focused which took a lot of patience. Of all the ones I took, this was my favorite. IRL you can see the tiniest of "hairs" on the flowers.

This is close-up photography taken with my Tamron 28-300mm lens at the Ithaca Farmers Market on Saturday. I don't even think about manually focusing when I'm out and about. Something I ought to do, I'm sure. I find it difficult to spend the kind of time I should in a setting like this.

This was taken with my new Canon S95 point and shoot. I wanted a point and shoot that would give me more flexibility, and a friend highly recommended this one. I took about half my photos in Alaska with this camera (which fits in my pocket or purse) and you'd be hard pressed to tell the photos from this camera from the ones taken with the my Canon Rebel. The only drawback is the zoom lens. I would never have gotten any decent wildlife photos in Alaska with this camera. The animals were just too far away. But I was pretty happy with this close-up of tomatoes from our garden.

Learn Something New Everyday

Although I've "taken" Shimelle's course for several years, I don't think I've ever come close to completing it. This year a comment Rinda made on her blog gave me an idea. I've had a 60mm macro lens for nearly a year, and although I've used it occasionally, I've never really explored its power. So this year I'm devoting LSNED to macro and close-up photography. In conjunction, I'm planning to read Bryan Peterson's book "Understanding Close-up Photography: Creative Close Encounters With or Without a Macro Lens." I've already learned a lot the first day, and you can see the tips I typed up below on the first page of the little book I've prepared to save my efforts and thoughts on the process.

Here's the cover which I made from cardstock and covered with a Bo-Bunny camera-related patterned paper as well as a sticker border and round sticker from an accompanying set of stickers.

Here's the first page with the photo tips I typed up from the first chapter. I've already broken a couple of "rules" with my first photo. I didn't use my tripod or focus manually. Probably not a good start to the effort, but hopefully, we'll see an improvement tomorrow! I'll probably decorate the back side of the cover later.

Each page is a 4X6 piece of card stock and I snipped the ends off the left-hand side to match the tags that will separate each of the photos and serve as a quick journaling spot. As Shimelle suggested, I'm not binding this until the end, but my intent is to use just one book ring since the tags have one hole already. I think this will work since the pages aren't very big.

I don't have any idea how the prompts will work with this project, but when they are appropriate I'll try to find a photographic subject that goes with the prompt. I'm hoping this will be a fun and productive month!