spectrum of color / a wide range

both of us posting phone photos today 

It is so late and I really had no imagery to use today except this that I photographed in my office - it's the reflection of the metallic confetti left over from the party last week at work. I think I'll keep it there on the window sill for the sun to catch and reflect a rainbow of colors on my office wall. It reminds me of the prism my mom kept in the kitchen window when I was growing up - I loved coming down for breakfast and searching for where the rainbow was reflecting - I'd try to catch it in my hands. / today i had so much fun shopping with my friend evan at kudzu antique market in decatur. this place had such a wide range of antiques - from vintage clothing to these great fire king dishes. i would love to have a set of these as my dishes when i get a home of my own. i'm proud of the purchase i did make - i bought a grey wool coat for $4 and it fits perfect.

Winners for the giveaway have been announced here

hanging on / coming soon

click image to see better detail
I thought it was interesting how theses leaves, barely hanging on, looked like cocoons. It's actually this time of year that some insects start forming their cocoons and stay in them all winter long. I guess we all sort of do that - cozying up for the winter. / a friend came over yesterday - he and I made these chocolate peppermint muffins. i'll share them with my best friend who is coming home from college tomorrow. i can't wait to see her. i've got to get some tea from teavana before she gets here.

affects / effects of a sunny day

Can you believe this was taken today - in late November? It looks like springtime to me. The sun was so pretty shining through these leaves with the peek of blue sky above. I like the transparency of the leaves in this light. A warm and sunny day can affect my mood so much - today was perfect / today was the first time mom gave me a theme (i guess because we're together that works) - she said take a photo of a sunny day. strong sun produces nice shadows and i like the simple organic nature that the tree shadows formed on the garage door this morning.

Just a reminder: there are just a few more days to enter the birthday giveaway

"drummer" / "guitarist"

We're still playing rockband - we've won back "fans"

who is it / who's coming

posting solo again tonight

It's funny I can almost see the features. Can you tell who this is? You can certainly tell it's not a young person. I bet by seeing these snacks you can tell who's coming to home. At least when you know a little bit about me you could at least make a pretty good guess. When you know someone, it doesn't take much to identify them.
I've been blessed to have Taylor home 2 weekends in a row and this time she gets to stay for a week. When she came home last weekend I hadn't purchased the essential snacks. This time I made sure the snacks were here when she arrived.

I didn't get this posted last night because we were having too much fun playing rock band. It's been a while since we played and I have missed it. I am no musician but I can sort of do this. She plays on expert and I have remained at the medium level and as a "band" we do pretty well. However I think because of my playing last night we lost a few "fans". Have you ever played?

crayola box of colors

Taylor didn't have a photo so I'm going solo tonight
I had a vacation day today and it was so nice to able to be outdoors during the day light hours. I spent a lot of time trying the self portrait challenge and while I was outdoors I found other things of interest to photograph. For one this poplar leaf - isn't it the cutest little leaf you've ever seen? I also noticed there are still a lot of berries on the hearts a poppin bush and the leaves on it have turned a sort of pale, pale green - what crayola calls Spring Green. I think the hearts a poppin is one of the most interesting plants with their bright red capsule that splits open revealing four shinny red berry- like seeds. What crayon would you use to color hearts a poppin - Crimson, Rouge, Scarlet, Torch Red, Brick Red, Wild Watermelon, or Cerise? I would say the outer part is deep Cerise (a color Crayola added to their crayon box in 1993 - it was one of the colors named by consumers) and the berries a red orange. For the tiny poplar leaf I might use Antique Brass, Goldenrod, Sunglow, Raw Sienna and maybe a little Indian Red*. Don't you just crayola colors - what's your favorite color name?
* Interesting tidbit - Indian Red was renamed Chestnut in 1999 in response to educators who felt some children wrongly perceived the crayon color was intended to represent the skin color of Native Americans. The name originated from a reddish-brown pigment found near India commonly used in fine artist oil paint.

surprise / for you

I had a wonderful day - taken out for a nice lunch at seasons52 then came back to a decorated office with streamers and confetti and cake (with 5 candles), didn't have to work late, came home to lovely surprise - a beautiful arrangement of flowers from my brother in Maryland and now I'm going to relax and watch a movie - nice / haha, i had to go through two drafts of this because i forgot i had to write backwards. happy birthday mom!

eve / til morning

"How clearly the sky reveals God’s glory! How plainly it shows what he has done!" - Psalm 19:1 (GNT) This was on the envelope of the birthday card I got from my older brother that I opened tonight. It was the sweetest card I've ever gotten - the words he wrote to me on this milestone birthday filled me with love. It struck me how perfectly this scripture fit with the photo I took at work as the sun went down. Although this is through the glass with my iphone you can still see how magnificent.
I show this photo of the sun setting on this eve before I turn 50. I choose not to look at tomorrow with a sense of dread but rather as a bright new day tomorrow - I feel this is a good way to think of it: “Count your blessings. Once you realize how valuable you are and how much you have going for you, the smiles will return, the sun will break out, the music will play, and you will finally be able to move forward the life that God intended for you with grace, strength, courage, and confidence.” - Og Mandino I'm not so old yet, right?

To celebrate I'm doing a giveaway - I get to give the gift.

/ honey crisp apple and fruit biscuits (thank you, Elizabeth) just might be my late night snack tonight as i finish the painting that's due tomorrow morning. phone pic

tiny bright faces / big bold face

I've always loved pansies - their little happy faces facing the sun in the cool winter temps. I brought these indoors to add a cheerful bit of color at my kitchen window. These pansies don't have the likeness of a face like some color combinations do, but their color is so vibrant - it's sort of like extending the bright colors of fall as the leaves begin fall from the tree / i had complete control over this canvas- we were given absolute discretion as to the subject and style of our next painting in color and composition. i decided to do a more abstract portrait of myself (in the style of a collage that i did earlier in the year) and re-interpret the self-portrait i did last week. i'm starting to really like it and everyone in my class gave it compliments as well. one girl even said that she wanted to hang it on her wall! haha.

autumn hair

Taylor had some play time with her dog, Evee and my brother's dog, Emerson. Evee loves it when he comes to visit. When they were younger they used to really play hard together but now they just sort of chill out - unless someone will throw sticks for them (they sometimes bring it back). Today was a gorgeous day so Taylor got out there and played with them for a while. I tried to take photos but had a hard time getting both dogs to cooperate and I had in mind that I would convert some of them to black and white, but when I looked at the color how could I take that away. With hair like that who wants to change it to black and white. A photo of me, and my curly brown hair, it wouldn't make a difference, but hers...
It was nice to have her visit and participate in the festival with me and it won't be long til she's back again. Next week in fact. I can hardly believe Thanksgiving is almost here and then Christmas is close behind. How time flies.

long day / end of the day

This photo looks like the start of the day - all ready to "go". In actuality it is the end of a VERY long day - all I had the energy to bring in from my car (packed to the brim with boxes of festival stuff) was my purse and these tasty treats from a special friend. Elizabeth, from my blogging community, visited us today at the festival and it was definitely the highlight of the day. It was so nice to meet and talk with her face-to-face. I appreciate, so much, the fact that she took time out of her day to come by and visit. She brought us a special treat all the way from England - the fruit biscuits filled our empty stomachs after the slim breakfast we had earlier in the morning. What I found nice was that the conversation seemed so natural and easy - like we already knew each other. And I guess we really did in a way. What's neat about the blogging community is that people are pretty open and through the daily sharing online, we learn a lot about each other - sometimes sharing more online that we do with the people we are around daily. But to actually meet the person we have been "talking" to online is very special. Thank you, Elizabeth for coming by - it really was the highlight of my day.
She took some photos of me and I took a couple of her but we promised to get each others approval before posting. / today was an interesting day but a very long and tiring day. there were a lot of eclectic people to talk with, and watch, and i enjoyed that immensely. but i'm not used to 9 hours of standing (mom forgot the chairs) so that made it tiring. i sold a good bit but what was pretty cool was that the lady whose worked i admire when i first got there came by at the end of the day and wanted to trade. i got 2 pieces i wanted. she traded for a framed print and then came back and bought another framed print. nice!
my photo clearly shows the end of the day - here i wait - almost the last one remaining - kind of alone and sad for the day to end - while mom went to get the car so we could pack up and go home.

cleanliness / preparedness

Every time kodi is looking cute - like picture perfect cute - I go to get the camera and by the time I put the camera up to my eye she starts cleaning herself - every time it seems. How dirty can she be? It's hard to get a really good photo of her - her head is always blurry. Taylor hates it when kodi cleans between her toes and bites and pulls at her nails. It's like she's trying to trim them herself. I could help her with this. I really want to get her declawed. Is that bad of me? She's put some pretty bad scratches in my leather chair. / had to take and send this quickly! i have an art history quiz tomorrow.

warm indoors / cool outdoors

I think I'll have to go with a wordless Wednesday tonight. I can't think. / today we were were told to draw a pathway or sidewalk. i remembered when my uncles came to visit we walked to a beautiful garden where they grew a variety of plants and flowers (maybe medicinal herbs) - it was the pharmaceutical building where he took many classes. i looked across the way and saw some great stairs that i thought would be nice to draw. i knocked it out in one day and my teacher was very impressed.

end in sight / just a peek

I am finally feeling like the work is coming together nicely and an end to my madness is in sight. Now I'm just tying up loose ends - literally - putting together the final touches. I hope all goes well. The space we have at the festival is so small - 6' x 5' - and that is one of the challenges. I am anxious for the show and look forward to meeting some of the other artist - many who I have admired their work on etsy. Do any of you buy from etsy? Last year I bought almost all of my gifts handmade off of etsy. / in class when my color and composition teacher assigned us a self-portrait, he asked each one of us what we thought it meant. i said that i thought it was an outward expression of inward feelings or being able to show something on the outside that you feel you can't from the inside. it's hard to be completely objective while you're essentially recreating your face - trying not to conform to traditional beauty and finding that you love how you really look without photoshopping yourself. in the end i feel like the painting i created doesn't truly look like the photo i based it on and i'm afraid it looks amateurish, but i'm generally pleased with it and feel it "represents" me well. it was very frustrated working with the acrylic paint (i like the blending capabilities of oil much better). i think i got the basic essence of myself, but struggled with mixing my colors strictly from the primaries . i hope mine is up to par with the rest of my classmates!

bearer of hope / symbol of love

hope and love - symbols of the ginkgo

She's back. And how uncanny is this? We both took photos of ginkgo trees without talk before hand - we even framed them the same and each with a house (mine's a bird house).
It seems as though the ginkgo in our yard turned yellow over night and it will drop all of it's leaves in one night too. I love the way ginkgo leaves are shaped and the way they are attached to the tree in little groups- springing out like a bundle of yellow paper fans. / ginkgo trees surround my art building - to me they provide inspiration. i have enjoyed watching their colors change and a part of me that will miss the leaves when they fall - until spring.

"Late in November, on a single night
Not even near to freezing, the ginkgo trees
That stand along the walk drop all their leaves
In one consent, and neither to rain nor to wind
But as though to time alone: the golden and green
Leaves litter the lawn today, that yesterday
Had spread aloft their fluttering fans of light. "
- first stanza of poem by Howard Nemerov from "The Western Approaches" , 1975

10am / 5pm

trying to be patient until she joins me again

10am - This morning when I was eating my oatmeal, I noticed the backyard was full of robins. It looked like the leaves were jumping there were so many of them. So I went outside with my camera to see if I could capture them - of course they flew away. But there is always something outside to take a photo of - these 3 little sweet gum balls for one. I found out they make a good fire starter that burns blue, so I'm collecting them for my winter fires.
5pm - still working on my printing dilemma. I took another set of files to have printed at office depot and they are still too dark in areas, whereas on my epson printer they are just how I want them. But I feel like I am going to have to get some of these cards printed outside of printing them at home because the epson ink is expensive. So here I am tweaking yet again - using channels and selective color adjustments. It's fun in a way but its tedious. Does anyone know of a good source for printing bulk quantities of greeting cards?

9am / 4pm

Well until Taylor joins me again I guess I'm on my own.

Today was another day of preparing (tired of hearing that? it will be over soon) and I made some great progress. My dad helped me create a tri-fold display to hang a few framed images on and I'm finally getting the color where I want it on my cards. It drives me crazy the differences I see on screen vs. my printer, one printer vs. another printer; cmyk vs. rgb. It's odd but the rgb is printing better on my printer. Anyway, once I get the color correct all will be well.
Talk about color. This tree I saw on the way home from purchasing more ink was simply amazing. This photo is straight out of the camera - no color adjustment what-so-ever. The color was so pure and clean - without blemishes - and translucent with the afternoon sun shining through.

“Nature is a revelation of God; Art is a revelation of man” - Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

8am/6pm

both post by me

My work day was fine. The day started out sunny and ended with rain. When I got home I decided I would just relax and watch tv for a change instead of coming home and doing the blogging thing or working on my art. I just really felt like doing nothing. So I watched several episodes of "What Not To Wear". I really enjoy watching the transformation of these ladies and try to imagine what they would do with me. (I would love for them to give me $5000 to redo my wardrobe. It needs it.) Then I got wrapped up in looking for some particular photos - I had on my mind the geocaching that Taylor and I used to do - something I miss so much. (Has anyone ever done geocaching? If not you should try it.) Anyway, now it's late and I feel like I've wasted the evening away when I should have been working on my inventory for the show. Hopefully I can start fresh tomorrow morning and get a lot accomplished. / well I hope Taylor is having fun this weekend. I know she has a big art project to work on and I'm looking forward to seeing how it's coming along - she has to do a self portrait in acrylics.

outdoors in / indoors out

The other day when I was working on a set of "love" notecards for the I.C.E. show I was using these tiny little redbud leaves. They were laying there on my desk and I knew then that it would be my "Love Thursday" photo. The redbud tree has always been one of my favorites. To me it is simple and graceful. It's delicate purple clusters signal that winter is coming to a close. In addition to the bloom, I love the rich black color of the bark and the zig zag shape of the limbs and of course, the lovely heart shaped leaf.
/ Because Taylor is still out of commission with her posts, I pulled from something she took at this same time last November (i've done this before in a pinch). There's a story about this shoot, and I had it posted, but I took it off because it's not what this blog is about. Hopefully she will get back in the swing of sending photos for this blog of ours. Until then...

all aglow

"Just before the death of flowers,
And before they are buried in snow,
There comes a festival season
When nature is all aglow."
- Author Unknown

I feel sure these leaves will have all fallen to the ground by this weekend so I had to make sure I got a picture of the beauty before it was gone. The color is amazing - the leaves on the trees, with the sun shinning through, gives a warm red glow to everything around - like a big red canopy. One can't help but be astounded by the beauty of autumn color. / sorry for the lack contribution from my daughter - guess she's got other priorities tonight.

see it

a vision of hope. / when facebook statuses are inundated with political agendas and opinions, you know something has to be a big deal. i have known that the election was going to be very prominent this year, but living in a college town has taken it to an all new level. students have been campaigning ever since i've been here and it has recently gotten very intense! people have been driving around all day asking if people need rides to the polls, election stickers are on every bus stop and lamp post, and of course, it's all people are talking about. i'm glad america's youth is so passionate and involved and realizes the importance of what this election will bring.

treasure hunt / treasure chest

Again it was a busy day of preparing for the show I feel I have let the blog post slide somewhat lately because of it. I guess we all have these days were it's difficult to find the words to post - I've had several. I just feel a need to post every day - like if I miss a day I won't be able to get back on track. So I'm posting a photo of some things I gathered from the yard today (part of my treasure hunt of interesting textures and berries, etc for my art) and that's all I've got. / i wore your old mermaid necklace today - it's the coolest thing. finding treasures in people's so-called trash has always been a love of mine. whenever i wear this necklace that i found when rummaging through mom's old jewelry (along with my famed panda), i never cease to be complimented. i'll always have a love for the lost - finding use for something that has seemingly been forgotten. and speaking of mermaids - i was thinking i might want to read "the mermaid chair" since i enjoyed "the secret life of bees" so much. does anyone know anything about it - is it good?

finding sun / making fun

ShutterSisters posted about the lack of light in the winter months and how we each deal with it. Sarah-Ji challenged us to take photos of hearth and home during these dark and cold months ahead. I personally like the winter months - I love getting warm by the fire or snuggling in a warm blanket and reading a book with a hot cup of earl grey - but I have to admit I like the sunlight. When it's cold outside I search the sunspots in my home. There is nothing better than sitting on the sofa when the sun is beaming in and feeling that warmth all around - I guess I'm sort of like a cat moving about the day in search of a warm spot. Kodi sure has the right idea - but she's lucky because she gets to enjoy a variety of spots- high and low - in the sun all day long. I asked Taylor to respond to ShutterSisters also, so we collaborated on this post. / when the sun goes down and the night is long, just bring out a flashlight and have some fun.

nature's carpet

Hopefully my photograph will redeem me from the lack of words tonight. I really have no energy for words or thoughts tonight. This is not a good way to start off the month of November.