Look Mom!

My African Violet is blooming!

It lives in my kitchen window, where it thrives in spite of me. It gets watered occasionally, as an afterthought. But it reminds me of Mom, because she always had one in her kitchen window. She really has a green thumb, especially with African Violets.

I played around with different actions in Photoshop to get some totally different effects with the same photo.

The first one is the Raspberry Cream action from CoffeeShop. I love how it gives it a dreamy effect.


I used the CoffeeShop Honey Retro on the second one. It reminds me of an old magazine photo.


And this one is the CoffeeShop Hot Cocoa action.

I did go outside and take some ice photos- for about 15 minutes. That's all the fun I could stand. I admit it. I'm a big pansy when it comes to the cold. I haven't even looked at those pics yet, so if I got any good ones, they will be posted later.

Gus says 'hey.'

How cute is he, huh?? My 65 pound puppy. I was playing around with different settings on my camera, and he was just begging me to take his picture. He keeps pretty close tabs on everything I do. And of course I had to get that big ole tail in the shot too. Yep, he's my baby.

The lost Christmas photos

Who but me could "lose" photos on a digital camera?? I was sure I took a few when we opened gifts on Christmas morning, but later, when I downloaded the others from my camera, these weren't there. It messed with my head a little, ya know? Today when I got ready to format my memory card I went back through all the images again, just in case there was something I needed to save, and there they were. Right with the ones from Christmas Eve. I guess I didn't look closely enough any of the five times I looked back through them. Oh well, I'm just glad I found them, and glad to know I'm not completely losing my mind. So here they are. Better late than never, right? Merry Christmas!

He's really excited, on the inside.

In case you were wondering, Michael is smelling his new cologne.

Kristi was surprised to get photos of Mike - the man who never wants his picture taken. Sometimes I think he wishes he'd never bought me this camera.

Cody giving a little love to his mommy.

26 Things

I am participating in a photography challenge called 26 Things. It is kind of a photography scavenger hunt to encourage you to stretch your creativity muscles. A list of 26 words or phrases is published and the challenge is to photograph your interpretation of the words. Here are a few of mine. You can see more at http://www.twopeasinabucket.com/album_display.asp?album_id=78511.

This is an old storm cellar that is near the little pink church that you saw in a previous post. I didn't get up close and look inside because it was really muddy around it, but I don't think I'd like it in there anyway. Small, dark, damp places really creep me out.


Yep. It's TP. I was inspired while sitting on my throne.

If you've been to my house you'll recognize this as the long and winding road that leads to my door.

What the....

Either Gus has become a piece of art in a museum, or I have tiny little Borrowers living in my walls.

Missing Riley

I'm feeling lonesome for our little Riley tonight, so I'm posting a pic of her that her mommy sent us. She's kickin' back and watching a little TV with her daddy. As you can see in the background, he's kickin' back too.

Our Family Heirloom

This little beauty is loving referred to by our family as "The Bathing Beauty." She belonged to our Grandma Addis, and was passed down to Dad. Throughout my childhood she held a place of honor on the fireplace in Mom and Dad's living room. When he passed away, the legacy continued. Now she belongs to Jana and I. I guess you could say we have joint custody. We take turns keeping her, although she isn't quite so prominently displayed in either of our homes. In fact, I think she spent the last several years in Jana's garage. You never know when or how she will make her next appearance. The first time she came to live with me she was delivered to me at school with a balloon bouquet attached, for my birthday. Later she was shipped to Jana via UPS. She got a few bumps and bruises on that trip. And now she is back in my possession. She was lovingly wrapped and under the Christmas tree. It had been so long that I had almost forgotten about her, so needless to say, I was quite surprised. Maybe one day she'll return to Jana.....or maybe not. I may just keep her. She makes me smile.

The Old Fashioned Way

These are a couple of pics from the Heritage Day back in October. I pulled them up and played around with them a little bit.



If he could, Mike would do this all the time. He loves his horses, and loves working them. His idea of a good time when he retires is to hitch the horses and use them to feed cattle, bale hay, and anything else he can do around the farm while riding along behind his team.




His favorite team, Kate & Allie, along with baby Spud. Little Spud just tags along wherever his mommy goes. By the time he's old enough to be broke to hitch, he'll already have quite an education. He's traveled many miles with these mares. He's even been in a parade.
On both of these I ran the Hazy Days action, and added some textures to give them more of an old-fashioned feel.

Beans and Memories

Yesterday I cooked ham & beans. I haven't made them in years because I am the only one in the family who really likes them. Sorting them and getting them ready to cook brought back memories of my grandpa. When Granny B. cooked beans, it was Grandpa's job to sort out the bad ones before they were cooked. And when I was there I got to help. I remember sitting at their kitchen table with the beans and two containers - one for the good ones, and one for the bad. Gramps and I would discuss at length the merits of each bean, and whether each was good enough to go in the pot. Some were shriveled, some were brown or had bad spots on them. Only the most perfect beans could go in the pot. It was quite a process. Who but a grandpa would spend that much time with a child, talking about beans??

One more moon

This one looks like a harvest moon. No editing except cropping. I went out a little earlier than last night, while it was still glowing orange and low in the sky. It looks spooky, especially with the little bit of tree branches in front of it. All it needs is a witch on her broom sailing in front of it.
{f/7.1 SS 1/1000 ISO 200 focal length 290}

Once in a blue moon.......

Nah, not really. But it looks pretty cool, huh? I used the Coffeeshop Blueberry Glaze on it just for kicks.

This is the actual picture of our full moon tonight. I think it looks kind of neat, even if it isn't blue.

Local Landmarks

I took advantage of one of the warm sunny days of our Christmas break and got out with my camera. I've wanted to photograph these two buildings for a long time and I finally got out and did it. It was late in the afternoon and the sun was low in the sky, giving me great light.




This is the Elm Christian Church, which is not far from here. And yes, it really is pink. It is the cutest little country church, sitting back in the middle of a corn field. The steeple is silver, so it was really shining as the sun reflected off of it.

I love old barns, and this one is 'next door' to the church, just across the corn field.

Playing with textures

I've just been playing around with Photoshop and some textures. I like the way they make the images look like old photos.


This is Gus's new house. It really is nice and new and bright, even though I made it look old. Today we moved his pen to the back of the house so I can let him out the utility room door right into the pen. That should save me about 10 minutes every morning that I've been spending trying to trick him into going to the pen. Mike says he isn't too bright, but he's smart enough to figure out to run when it's time for us to leave. He has to stay in the pen during the day when we're gone to work or he follows us when we leave. So far he isn't too sure what to think about the new house. It has plastic curtains over the door to keep out the cold, but they're keeping out Gus too. He thinks the new pen is a fun place to play - for now, until he figures out that he is locked in and has to stay there ALL day.

This is one that I took at the Heritage Day back in October. I don't know who the little boy was, but he was walking along in the furrows behind his dad's plow. It was such a typically 'little boy' thing to do, I had to take a picture. It reminded me of Jake at that age. He definitely would have been playing in the mud.

Disaster

I looked out the kitchen window last night around 8:00 and saw flames coming from our big old barn up by the gate. After the initial panic and running around like fools, I called 911 while Mike rushed up there to turn out the calves that were shut up in the lot by the barn. Fortunately he got there in time to save the calves, but we weren't able to save the barn. The Edna and Bartlett fire departments both responded and were there really quickly, but it was burning too fast. Our baler, two feed grinder/mixers, about 30 big round bales of good hay, our generator, and a few other small items were inside, but it could have been much worse. No one was hurt, and everything we lost can be replaced. And Mike stayed out of the way and didn't get burned this time. We just have a really big mess to clean up. This was our second barn fire in two years. Maybe we need to start putting smoke alarms in our barns!

A new blog for a new year

I decided to start fresh with a new blog for the new year. The old one will still be there, but I'll be adding new posts to this one.