Where has the Time Gone?

I really can't believe we are 2 months into the year already! Where has the time gone?

I had a C.F.S./Fibro relapse in January; I guess too much partying over the Holidays. Not really, I take it relatively easy most of the time, there seems to be no rhyme or reason to what will trigger a relapse. I only know that the past 4 weeks have truly sucked. I haven't had the energy to do much but rest. It is exhausting to sit at the computer for long, so no blogging :( 

It is too exhausting to sit and hold a book to read and even then my mush of a brain can't retain anything so I find I read the same thing over and over :(     I can't really tolerate a lot of noise so watching TV is out for any length of time. Life gets very boring and frustrating and isolating. It is impacted by the fact that all my workspaces are in my home, my art studio, my sewing room and my office. So, with lots of projects sitting around calling to me to finish them and with no energy to do anything but ignore them it becomes downright depressing. Thankfully, I am starting to get a little energy back but it is a bad relapse and will take a few more weeks before I can try to start doing anything like photo shoots :(

So, what have I been able to do?  Here are a few photos I was able to resize or play with. Let me know what you think :)

Art Sculpture DownTown P.Town

Stack of paper serviettes in a restaurant added my fav. PINK :)

 

(BEFORE) I love this :)

(AFTER) This was fun but I do not think as good as the original

(BEFORE)

(AFTER) This one I loved creating. I added one of my fav. layers to this and added a little pink tones :)

(BEFORE)

(AFTER) Just cropped and added a little colour, I love how it just pops :)

(BEFORE)

(AFTER)  Way more interesting :)

These were a couple of photos I took in restaurants before the Holidays. I love the challenge of taking photos of Lights :)

So, what do you think?

I also wanted to share a couple of other things. As a lot of you know Etsy, in their infinite wisdom, closed down some of the community forums from their site. These were, what I believe, to be the very HEART of the Etsy community. Not sure what their thinking was behind this but it was dumb in my opinion. Anyway, some smart Etsians opened up The Unofficial Etsy Forums. My Blogger Buddy Aquariann blogged about it a few weeks ago, thankfully, I still feel in the loop. YAY! Here is the link 

so pop over there to share your blog links, promo or just chat to your Blogger and Etsy buddies.

One more thing, one of my fPOE (Female Photographers of Etsy) Ladies is having a giveaway of a beautiful 2011 calendar with such gorgeous photos I just had to share it. If you have a min. pop over and check it out :)

Amy Longberry Photography Giveaway.

Well, I hope you all have a Lovely Day!

It is nice to be back Blogging :)

Happy Painting/Creating! :) T.

What have you been buying on Etsy recently?! :)

Happy Saturday Everyone! :)

Sorry I have been MIA recently (I will explain in another blog post :)

Well, over the past few months I have bought a few items on Etsy and I LOVE them! So, I wanted to share them with you!

Hope you Enjoy!

Nina Wreath By The Keepers' House

I just couldn't resist taking a photo of this beautiful wreath on my front door :)

Hand painted small journal By Arty Aitch

"Feather" By Dirksen Dabbles

Now if you haven't been over to see Bethany's work you are missing out on viewing some beautiful artwork. Bethany is a fellow Portlander who just happens to be living in Europe right now and you can read all about her art and her adventures on her blog Dirksen Dabbles

Hand Crafted Red Journals By Tiger Food Books

These Journals are truly amazing. Hand Crafted from start to finish. Clare is a talented printmaker, book binder, talented artist and photographer. She is also a fellow Portlander. If you want to get to know more about this talented lady check out her blog Tiger Food Press

2011 Mini Beach Calendars By Mary Vican Photography

Mary is a member of fPOE (Female Photographers of Etsy) of which I am a member too. I have LOVED Mary's work for sometime and so just had to buy some of her beautiful mini beach calendars for mini Xmas prezzies :) The added bonus for me is she lives on the East Coast and as I have never been there I get to experience it thru her eyes :)

Vintage Wooden Blocks By Retro Vertigo

Very excited to use these in some photos :)

Ladybug Tea Cozy By Debs 102

I just couldn't resist buying this cutie for my Daughter for Xmas :)

Leave me a comment and let me know what you have LOVED buying on Etsy recently :)

Thanks for all the comments and advice about Photoshop; I think I am going to get a free 30 day trial and see how I do with it. :)

Have a Lovely Weekend.

Happy Painting/Creating! :) T.

Photoshop or Not.

HAPPY FRIDAY EVERYONE! :)

I do not have Photoshop! (Now, you all know my little secret, He! He!) What I do have is a very old, and in computer terms ancient, version of Paint Shop Pro. I rarely alter many of the images that I take expect to use the brightness/contrast feature, slightly.

So, as I have been getting more into working with my camera and taking LOTS of photos (close to 20,000 in 2010, Phew!) I have started to explore the other features in Paint Shop Pro and also, have been drooling over some of the work other Photographers are creating with Photoshop. But now I am trying to decide whether it is time to upgrade to Photoshop.

So, if anyone who has Photoshop or Paint Shop Pro (the more recent version :) would like to let me know what they think about them I would love to hear from you.
Until then, the Artist in me, cannot stop wanting to play with the layering feature. The past few weeks I have been using a few random photos and seeing what I could create; the programme is limited but fun.

Hope you enjoy! :)

Relax

shadow catkins

stone wall texture

Peaceful Bench in Paradise

I layered all 3 of the above photos to get this :)

Xmas Holiday Light Bokeh

Stars and Stripes

Patriot

I layered the Xmas Holiday Light Bokeh over the photo of the Stars and Stripes to get Patriot

Reflective Light Bulb

Again the Xmas Holiday Light Bokeh

 

Sparkling Light

I layered the Xmas Holiday Light Bokeh over the photo of the reflective light bulb and this is what I got :)

I hope you like these fun little photos :)

I just found out that I can download a free 30 day trial of Photoshop so I might just have to do that. Please let me know if you have any experience of Photoshop, I would love to hear your thoughts.

Have a Lovely Weekend.

Happy Painting/Creating! :) T.

Which Photo Do You Like the Best?

Happy Friday Everyone! :)

I wondered if you would all help me make the decision which of these photos to list in my Etsy Shop. I am having a really tough time trying to decide, I really like them all :)


Which "Flying to the Moon" photo do you like the best?

Leave me a comment and let me know :)

Have a wonderful Weekend :)

Happy Painting/Creating! :) T.

HAPPY NEW YEAR! :)

HAPPY NEW YEAR EVERYONE! :)

(I know I am a tad late but I was struggling with a very weird flu like bug last week, too much partying I guess (He! He!)
It never is good to start a New Year with a bug but at least I got to tidy up some of my computer files, slowly, that was about as ambitious as I could get :(


Anyway, I was planning this post last week but better late than never!
Here are some of the photos I didn't publish last year that I thought you might like to see :)

I Hope you enjoy them :)

JANUARY

I guess coz we have so much cloud cover so often we get some beautiful patterns in the sky at Sunset

Lovely Catkins at the local Park

FEBRUARY

Buttercup :)

View of Mt. Hood from our neighboring Neighborhood :)

MARCH

P.Town

Gorgeous Tulips

APRIL

Fishing Rope, Port of Ilwaco, Washington.

Coastal Trees, Astoria

MAY

Trunk of a Monkey Puzzle Tree

Box Elder

JUNE

Young Bull

Party Table at a wine country restaurant

JULY

Seeds on the Vine Maple Tree

I am not sure what happened to this light bulb but I love the colours on it and the reflection, amazing :)

AUGUST

"Walk like an Egyptian" just kept going thru my head when I saw this photo :) 

Thistles always remind me of Scotland (I guess because it is their National Flower :)

SEPTEMBER

Bird House at a local restaurant's gorgeous outside dining patio

Foxglove at the Shakespeare Garden in Portland Oregon

OCTOBER

Stain Glass windows line the Stairs in the Vista House, Oregon

Fall Grass

NOVEMBER

Yellow Fall Maple Leaves

Fall Hydrangea

DECEMBER

I couldn't resist sharing one of my Bokeh Xmas light shots :)

New Year's Eve celebratory Drink :)

I hope you all had a wonderful Holiday Season, here's to a really wonderful 2011, Cheers T. :)



Happy Painting/Creating! :) T.