MERRY CHRISTMAS :)

Hi All :)

I just wanted to stop by and wish everyone a Very, Merry Christmas and a Wonderfully Happy New Year! 

I truly appreciate you all for your kind words and thoughtfulness, for staying connected and bringing joy with your amazing comments and emails. :)

You are my Wonderful Blogging Family and I am truly grateful for each and every one of you. :)

Cheers, T. :)

Happy Painting/Creating! :) T.

A Quick Break Before the Holidays :)

Hi All :)

I hope everyone is well and getting into the Holiday Spirit (not the Whiskey, just yet, LOL!!!!)

Last weekend, my Hubby and I took a little trip to Skamania Lodge in the Columbia River Gorge. This beautiful river is part of the border between the States of Oregon and Washington. It has a majestic beauty that, to me, typifies the North West. :)


click on photos to see larger images :)

Shot taken on a cloudy day in late Sept. 2012 (Columbia River Gorge, with Vista House on the right)

Columbia River east of Hood River (shot taken thru window of car, Sept. 2012)

Columbia River east of Hood River (shots taken thru window of car, Sept. 2012) A hazy later summer afternoon :)

Anyway, we thought we would have a few days away from home before everyone comes home to celebrate the Holidays :)

It was a lovely Christmas-y time :)

We had a little Christmas sing along, we eat, we swam, even did crossword puzzles, but mostly we sat and relaxed in the great room watching the fire, the Christmas tree and the bustle of Holiday people. :)

the lovely fire place 

The beautifully decorated stone chimney and mantle in the great room :)

Xmas Tree and Carolers who came to entertain and encouraged a Christmas sing along :)

close up shot of ornaments on the Xmas tree with the room reflected in them :)

The twinkling lights of the Xmas tree shot thru the fireplace :)

Gingerbread houses abound :)

Here is the view from our window of the Columbia River and the snow on the Mtns. to the south in Oregon :)

of course, life wouldn't be complete if I didn't take some arty shots, LOL!!!! :)

I couldn't resist some Xmas Tree Bokeh :)

Hope you enjoyed these photos :)

Have a lovely Weekend :)

Happy Painting/Creating! :) T.

Getting Cozy for the Night :)

Hi All :)

I hope you are staying warm and dry :)

They said on the news last night that if we (N.W.Oregon) didn't get anymore rain until the middle of next Spring we still will have reached our yearly rainfall total :(

So, as the nights have drawn in, I find myself wanting to cozy up in a soft nightie and cozy dressing gown and my homemade quilt :)

Recently, I took a little trip to Nordies (Nordstroms, that is, LOL!!!) one of my fav. stores, that I do not get to go to very often anymore ;( 

I was looking for some soft, cotton nighties and this is what I found. Carole Hochman's sleepwear. They are amazing :)

Check out her website CAROLE HOCHMAN

This is what I bought :)

An Early Christmas Prezzie, of course (He! He! :)

With a matching long sleeved nightie, they are heavenly, cozy and so feminine, I LOVE Them!!! :)

What makes you all cozy???

Have a Lovely Wednesday :)

Happy Painting/Creating! :) T.

Hi All :)

I just wanted to stop by and wish all my American Followers and Friends, best wishes and a 

HAPPY THANKSGIVING :)

I Hope everyone, everywhere celebrating or not has a lovely Day! :)

Cheers!

Happy Painting/Creating! :) T.

A Customer's Collage Wall :)

Hi All :)

I hope you are all staying warm and dry :)

A few weeks ago, I sold a few Ocean themed photos from my Etsy Shop PhotosByChipperfield to another Etsian, JoAnn, and she kindly sent me a few photos of how she has framed them.

She has created a lovely collage wall and I loved the concept so much I asked her if I could share her photos with you all :)

click on photos to see larger images :)

My work is on the top right, "SAILING" Sail Boats in San Fran Bay and "WHITE HORSES" a shot of the Beautiful Pacific Ocean underneath that one :)

Isn't this such a fun way to present a collection :)

My Dear Blogger Buddy Anna, another wonderful Etsian, also bought some of my photos back in 2010 and when she had framed them, in such a beautiful way, she shared them on her blog and I just have to share them with you, HERE :)

You can check out Anna's lovely Jewelry at AlmostPrecious 

on Etsy :)

You can also check out JoAnn's beautiful Quilt work at 

ISewMuchTime on Etsy too!! :)

As we approach the Holiday Season, or should I say Buying Season, LOL!!! I just wanted to let you all know that I am having a 

Buy One Get One Free Sale on 11" x 14" size photos or smaller in my Photography shop on Etsy, PhotosByChipperfield :)

Here are a few recently added new photos :)

Light up my Bike

"Frosty"

I Also, decided to reopen my art shop on Etsy POPPYPLACE I have now included some photography as well, (that is NOT found in my other shop :)

Here are a few from there :)

"POPPIES"

"LUCKY 8 BALL"

"AUTUMN"

"GOLDEN GATE BRIDGE"

AND LASTLY, a few Art Pieces :)

"SWIRLING RIBBONS"

"SUN SHOWER"

Have a Lovely Wednesday :)

Happy Painting/Creating! :) T.

How Not to Shoot A Squirrel :)

I mean with a CAMERA, of course, LOL!!! :)

Hi All,

Hope you are all doing well and enjoying your Weekend! :)

I really have to say you guys "ROCK!!!" Thanks so much for all your sweet words last week, it has been so challenging recently and knowing you guys are there is pretty damn AWESOME, cheers for that!!! :)

 It is gloomy and cold here, I hope you are experiencing better; definitely one of those days where you just want to cuddle up with a quilt and hot chocolate and watch your fav. movie. :)

The other day I was thinking that I haven't really shown you any of the photos that don't turn out very well. You must know by now that I take a LOT of pictures and I think I use maybe one in every 100 - 200 but I still have thousands that I haven't looked at very closely at all, YET!!! (I will get there eventually, but I might have to stop taking photos for a while, LOL!!! )

So, on a recent trip to the park, for a short walk, I was trying to take some photos of the Squirrels but they were so busy back and forth, that it really didn't matter what settings I had my camera on I was not going to get the shot :(

Uh Oh!! Might make a good texture though, LOL!! :)

The way NOT to take an "Action Shot" :(

I got a LOT of BUTT shots (I think they might have been trying to tell me something!!! (He! He!)

Nearly...........

This was the best I could do that day, I can pretend I cropped it to look this way but........( I'd be lying :)

Then I remembered I had taken some photos a couple of years ago, on our trip to Southern Oregon, of a cute little Chipmunk.

These guys are as tricky to capture on camera as the Squirrels they are quick and fidgety But............

Yep, I want a photo of YOU!!!

Rapid fire shooting................ leads to lots of blurry shots :(

FINALLY!!!!! YAY!!!!!

I really can't take any credit for this, except perseverance. It really was the Camera and the Chipmunk :)

Cute Though!!! :)

Have a Lovely Weekend :)

Happy Painting/Creating! :) T.

Trying to Keep Sane :)

Hi All :)

Well, the past few weeks have been Exhausting, Confusing Frustrating and Stressful :(

Not to bore you with too many details but we have been going thru the crazy process of getting ready to move, pricing a household move (totally scary, the price not the movers, so much, LOL :) They told us it would take 3 days to pack our household belongings and 2 days to load the truck (Do ya think we should get rid of some stuff??? He! He!) 

Then Costing everything that needed to be done to our house before it was market ready (Even more scary! :) And on and on, you know all the little things that suddenly add up to a huge pile of stuff to be done when you are planning to move. We thought it would be worth the stress and a calm transition in the end.

Then it all feel apart in a hurry and now we are sitting shell shocked and baffled, trying to come to terms with what happened. :(

On top of that;

I have also had 3, yep, THREE C.T.Scans in as many weeks, multiple doctors visits and then a Spinal tap tomorrow, a Mammogram and an E.E.G. next week. I am totally exhausted and I guess this is what happens when you put off doing stuff or aren't up to doing stuff or you change Neurologists and they have a different approach on trying to work out what is causing all the symptoms I am experiencing, Oh The Joy :(

So, now you know why I haven't been around much, blogging, commenting or FB - ing (does that mean something else, He! He!)

Anyway, I have so many photos from my trip to Eastern Oregon I want to share with you but working on them right now is going to be challenging but I did want to share this one with you :)

click on photos to see larger images :)

Sunset over Mt. Hood

As my Hubby and I were driving on the East side of our beautiful state of Oregon, across high dessert, we saw this beautiful site and of course I just had to get out of the car and take some photos :)

I had never seen the Mountain from the East Side before :)

Because of all the smoke from the forest fires in Oregon and Washington State, at the time, it made for a beautiful sunset :)

I didn't want to photo - shop out the telephone wires, as for me it added to the surreal environment we found ourselves in. It was amazing, warm high desert for miles and miles, not a tree in sight, not a building for miles and a great paved roadway where few cars passed us and it was so, so, so quiet, I truly believe we would have heard a pin drop on the roadway :)

For this City Girl it was absolutely magical :)

This is our wonderful Mt. Hood, that we can see from Portland on most days :)

This is a photo I took of Mt. Hood a few years ago, on Thanksgiving Weekend, from the West Side :)

I hope you are all doing well and life is treating you kindly :)

Have a lovely Tuesday :)

Happy Painting/Creating! :) T.

As Summer Comes to an End...........

Hi Everyone! :)

I know I have been MIA but as my youngest headed back to school in Ohio and then on to Boston for a college internship, my Daughter packed up and when back to live in San Fran (where her heart is.......thanks Tony Bennett, LOL!! :) My Hubby went on his 3rd business trip in 6 weeks to China and the Darling came back and gave me a cold which led to a really bad case of Bronchitis which took 3 weeks to clear up and totally wore me out (so I have asked him kindly not to bring anything back to give me this trip, LOL!!!:) 

My eldest son is still living at home for now but I think he would like a place of his own now he has a job, YAY!!! (only took 2 years after college to get a job, who said the economy is bad............)

It was wonderful to be able to spend the Summer all together, even though everyone was working crazy hours and sometimes not even on the same continent (I'd add, not even on the same planet but that is just rude, LOL!!! :)

So, as the house empties, once again, and no, it never gets any easier, this coming and going, sometimes living here, sometimes not; I know I raised my children to want to go off and spread their wings, I have raised a band of Nomads, I know that, but I think there is a little (actually a lot of :) Gypsy in me too, I always had Wanderlust, so I have no one to blame (well, except my Hubby, He! He! :). 

I am sharing photos of our time spent all together on our Oregon coast vacation during the Summer and remembering what a wonderful time we had :)

I hope you enjoy them too! :)

The first morning we woke to this view looking south, it is a pretty typical Oregon Coastal morning and there is no predicting if it will burn off or not but it is beautiful in its own right :)

But slowly, the sky started to clear :)

Looking North towards Cape Kiwanda started a little overcast and then.......

it got brighter and 

Brighter as the day progressed YAY!!! :)

If you missed the post of the photos I took of that massive sand dune and would like to see how big it is because the people on it look like ants, LOL!!! You can check it out HERE :)

These 4 photos are of the "Dory Days" procession thru Pacific City, we have never been there to celebrate this before, it was so much fun, true Americana, LOVED IT :)

We had some beautiful days and beautiful Sunsets but this night we sat out on the deck facing the Ocean, eating and drinking and I took photos all the way thru the Sun setting, it was absolutely gorgeous, not sure my camera did it complete justice but I LOVED the changing light :)

Just in case you didn't see this on FB, here is the Chipperfield Clan (sans moi), Sam, of course, doing his impression of "Blue Steel" :)

The Beautiful,

Majestic,

Powerful,

Mighty Pacific Ocean :)

Tierra Del Mar, such a gorgeous beach :)

It was quite windy this day I took these shots at a view point on 101 and this seagull was having trouble launching, I didn't like to mention that she really had too much eyeliner on, seemed like she was having a bad enough day, LOL!!! :)

Last night, at the Pelican Pub at Cape Kiwanda, watching the sun set, not too shabby :)

If you've ever had a bad day, think of this poor women she has been like this for as long as I can remember, LOL!!!!  Thru all weathers and it is part of our family tradition to check she is still there every time we visit Pacific City on the Oregon coast, we call her the "Lady in the Loo" but we do not know anything about her or how it came to be :)

I hope you enjoyed these and it is good to be back :)

Have a lovely Thursday :)

Happy Painting/Creating! :) T.