Vacation

We're leaving for Colorado in the morning, and we'll have no internet access for most of the next week. I'm taking my sewing machine, two new projects, my camera, and my laptop computer (to do scrapbooking, not internet surfing). I'm really looking forward to the time away.

Photograph

I took this picture today for my Composition and Design in Photography class. This week we're analyzing our pictures, which I'm not very good at. But here goes: The wheel in the center of the gate is the focal point, and the rest of the gate is supporting cast. Because the wheel is a circle, it holds your eye there. Then you can follow the leaves out, and the gate brings you back in. The leaves above the gate also lead your eye back to the wheel. But in spite of all that, it's not the most interesting picture in the world. LOL!!!

Postcard Swaps

I finished my postcards a couple of days ago for the lighthouse swap I'm in at FiberArtPostcards (a Yahoo group). I mailed them yesterday - here's one of them:




I did machine embroidery for this set.



I finished up my H is for . . . swap yesterday. This one is for ArtNTheMail (another Yahoo group). It took me the longest time to decide what H was for! LOL!!! I really wanted to do hibiscus, but I never could find the right image. So yesterday when I was looking through my fabric stash (uh, I mean inventory) I found some fabric with horses on it - so that's what I used. I haven't mailed them yet, but hopefully in the next day or two. Here is one of them:






What you can't see in the picture is that I used a glitter pen over the word horse. I don't know why glitter and sparkly stuff never shows up in a scan, but it doesn't.

Quilting and Embroidery

My sewing room is always a mess. Yesterday I couldn't stand it anymore, and I actually cleaned it up somewhat. The problem is, no matter how big of a room I have, it isn't big enough. When I bought my first sewing machine, I had a little bitty table in the corner of the living room. Then I moved into the guest room, which is 10' X 12'. Halfway through my son's junior year in college (4 1/2 years ago now) I took over his room, which is 12' X 15', and that's where I still am.


I had bags of projects scattered all over the floor, so I organized most of them yesterday. The projects I haven't started yet went into a couple of boxes that I stacked onto a cart. And after looking at all the projects that I have started but haven't finished, I decided I really need to finish some of them. So today, that's what I worked on. One small quilt top just needed a few borders added, and I got that done. Then I worked on another simple top that needed several blocks made, and I made a lot of progress on that one. My goal is to finish several of these before November, when my quilt guild is having a quilt show and boutique. I will donate and/or sell some of the projects in the boutique. It feels really good to make that decision and to make some progress.


I also finished up my third seasonal wall hanging a few days ago - it's about time, since this one is summer!

Sunflower

We have this volunteer sunflower growing right outside my sewing room window. It's been blooming for several days - you can see all the pollen that's fallen on the leaf in the second shot. So I braved the chiggers this morning to take these shots before the flower deteriorates any more. :)

Another Fishing Pic

Here is another photo I took while fishing on the 4th. This one is probably better than the one of the boy fishing, because the background isn't so distracting (I guess I should have asked the dad to move - but I didn't).



I think I've gotten over my blahs for the most part. Yesterday and today I managed to finish 5 scrapbook pages. I'm going to wait until next month to post them though - Eve is taking a break this month, so I can too. And by next month, I hope to be working on the wedding album, where I may not be using her stuff. So I want to have something to post with her stuff next month! Eve is my favorite designer, but she doesn't have any beach themed kits. And I found some really cool kits by Jeri Ingalls at Scrapbook Elements, so those are what I'm planning on using. Sorry Eve!

Actually, I think I will post one of the pages here (I just won't upload it to my galleries).



Credits: Shabby Sundress Collection - The Elements and Aqua Vita papers - Eve Recinella of Sweet Shoppe Designs
Date Stamp - Meryl Bartho of Digital Scrapbook Place
Sketch Collection 14 - Jen Caputo of Scrapbook Graphics

Tagged

I was tagged by Linda Hosey (thanks Linda). Seven unknown facts about me:

1. My wonderful marriage of almost 30 years is my second marriage.
2. I was the first girl in my high school to take wood shop.
3. My ethnic heritage is Jewish, but I don't practice (that or any other religion).
4. My aunt taught me to knit at the age of 7 or so.
5. I was a CPA when I worked - but I only worked for 12 years.
6. I had a picture framing business in my home for 7 years.
7. I have one son, who is the only grandchild on my side of the family. And on my DH's side, there are only grandsons, no granddaughters.

I am supposed to tag 7 other people. I'll do this - if you're reading this, consider yourself tagged.

Stuff

I have had the blahs for several days now. I don't know what's wrong, but I can't seem to get excited about doing anything. I know it'll pass - I just hope it passes soon.

Yesterday we had our DS's inlaws over to fish our pond in the morning, and then we went to their house for dinner last night. No fireworks this year - it's been so wet that the city cancelled the show! But we did watch some on tv - there was a show on Discovery HD (we don't have HD, but our DS's inlaws do) called The Greatest Fireworks On Earth. It showed 5 locations - Mount Rushmore on July 4th, Thunder over Louisville (during the Kentucky Derby), somewhere in Spain, Las Vegas on New Year's eve, and somewhere in China (where fireworks were invented).

I took pictures of fishing, and was disappointed again in the results. Mainly I was disappointed that I didn't get a shot for this week's assignment in my Composition and Design class. We're supposed to post two photos this week - one with a single focal point and a second with a focal point and supporting objects. I finally decided on my shadow shot for the single focal point, and this shot for the second one:

Another Wedding Pic

I've had a request from one of my friends that I post a picture of my DH and me from the wedding party at South Padre Island - so here it is.

The Shadow Knows

Here's something I haven't seen in awhile:

my shadow! The sun has actually been out some today. A nice change from all our rain. I went out on a photo shoot this morning, and this was the only one I got that I like. All the others didn't have a clear focal point, which is the point of my lesson in composition and design this week. So it looks like I'll be going out to get some more photos soon.

Flooding

I live in Oklahoma, where there has been a lot of flooding. I think we've had something like 20 consecutive days of rain. And we'd already had a lot of rain before the past 20 days, so the ground is pretty soaked. Thankfully, we haven't had any problems where we live, but today we drove around and took some pictures. The first 2 pictures are of the Cimarron River, which is above flood stage - I don't know by how much, but it's really rolling.








And this next picture is of a gas station on the corner of Highway 177 and Highway 33, on the way into Perkins (a small town south of us about 12 miles or so).





And of course, I can't go out on a photo shoot and pass up a beautiful flower!