Desperately seeking flowers...

Found some.

{{{  big grin about the size of Texas  }}}

Read More

Texture Tuesday...pink

...borrowed some pink-nesses...

Tickled pink:  to be happy

In the pink:  in good health

Pinking shears:  scissors with serrated blades

A pink elephant:  term to describe hallucinations during intoxication

Pinkie finger:  the smallest finger on the human hand

Pink slip:  notice that employment is ending

Pink collar:  refers to a particular class of jobs once only filled by women.

But today,

I'm really thanking Audrey Hepburn for saying this...

“I believe in pink.  I believe that laughing is the best calorie burner.  I believe in 

kissing, kissing a lot.  I believe in being strong when everything seems to be going wrong. 

I believe that happy girls are the prettiest girls.  I believe that tomorrow is another day 

and I believe in miracles.” 

: : :

For this Texture Tuesday challenge, my cattail received two layers of Kim's 'Aurora'

and a sweet (pinky) texture

from Sarah Gardner, the Renaissance Collection...

...some of my faves from our group pool:  I want to sit right here,  I want to be as openly raw

and honest as this, and I'd put these on RIGHT NOW if I had a pair!

: : : 

Till next time, my friends...

Read More

Tattered lace on a black dress

Thumbnails.  How many times has it happened?
Those itty bitty pictures that just beg to be clicked.  I saw one today and had to follow it.
I was certain it was an antique textile and I had to have a closer look . . .

this, of course, was the tattered lace edge on an old black dress.

Ahem.

I've come to accept the fact that I just don't see things as they really are.  It happens so often
I really can't ignore it.  I see what I want to see.
I think it's a habit, this  misinterpreting  reading into things.  Dunno why I embellish with
some sort of alternate reality, but this I do . . .

constantly.

There's an upside to this penchant . . . I head into new territory without even meaning to.
By following that "tattered lace" thumbnail, I discovered a photographer doing some wondrous things
with completely ordinary objects.
Oh, how I admire this!
Don Taylor is on Flickr and has an amazing eye for capturing metallics - yes, metal -
to the extent of being poetic in his renderings.
Even sublime.

This is metal . . . and all I saw was fabric.  My alternate reality.

In fact, I see textiles or work with cloth, in all of these photos.
Call me crazy, but this is how they look to me . . .

 . . . marks from natural dyeing

. . . beautiful seam work

. . .  boro mending

and shibori . . .

rust dyeing over indigo . . .

and embroidery stitching on a nine patch.

This is a thread knot resist . . .

and these . . . layered silks, probably invisibly basted  ;>}

a beaded line over a linen collage . . .

old scraps, torn and frayed, yet anchored with cabochons . . .

and a fragile weaving within a bigger (much bigger) story.


Each one gritty . . . raw. . .
highly textural.
Not exactly the words I might use to describe textile art . . .

ooh, that's right . . . it isn't.


: : :


p.s.  up for one more?  look what Taylor can do with a Victorian hightop shoe...

Read More

For WAS and jude...

spirit

Read More

Texture Tuesday...the view from here

Rot...it happens to the best of us.

That  was  going to be the title of this post, but I didn't want to go all negative on you.

There are days...and today was one of them...I wish I was the writer of one of those "feel good" blogs...

you know the kind I mean,

the ones you can always count on to be upbeat & positive...leave you feeling glad you visited.

I'm really laying out the welcome mat for you now, aren't I?

Don't mind me.

I'm kinda sick of gray.

Grabbed the camera

& wandered out with my bestie today.  We have some favorite haunts around the island that we visit regularly.

She never cares which one we're headed to...soon as that leash comes out, she's so

upbeat & positive

we could walk to the carport and back and her tail would still be wagging.

Someone's got to have the sunny disposition around here.

Anyway, the *Beyonders* are working on black & whites over at Kim's place and as it happens,

the challenge this week for Texture Tuesday is b&w... I knew

where I could find some grotty subjects...

nothing like a falling down, derelict dock

and an old rotten boat to....

oh you know what I mean.

I'll tell you what little bit of gray I am NOT sick of...

my new programmable breadmaker...

with a gluten-free setting.

The delicious bread from this recipe is manna from heaven...

oh joy, oh joy.

A gal's gotta do what a gal's gotta do,

don't you agree?

: : : 

Many thanks to Kim Klassen for supplying such fab FREE textures...the dock has

two layers of 'Madlove'...the boat, two layers of 'Faved'.... 

Read More

Not just like old times...

...hours in the darkroom manipulating an image till it's juuuuuust so.  Cross-eyed from dodging & burning.

Nostrils aflame from hanging ones head over chemical soup of the unsavory kind.

Nope.

Black dog in white snow might have taken hours in days gone by

but now...

ok, it's no secret, this

 loveHATEloveHATE  relationship I've been having with digital photography.  I've had the odd rant or six on that

tired & worn subject.

Sometimes it's best to just not give up...so here's some news...

{{{{  drumroll  }}}}

I think I might be getting over it.

I hope my fiber & stitching friends are hanging in there with me during my recent photo madness...

it's finally gelling and things are falling into sensible places - that's my hope anyway.  Winter has been

such a good time to put nose-to-Photoshop.  Soon enough it will be spring again

and I'll be out in the garden, under the umbrella,

with a basket of threads and a pile of scraps...

In the meantime, I'm in the digital darkroom.

I'm participating in a couple of online workshops simultaneously ~ it's so great,

these teachers who teach this way.

The best perk as a student...what could be better than practicing an assignment in your pajamas???

Susan Tuttle is teaching Toy Camera...how to replicate toy camera & old fashioned film processing effects

using Photoshop (or PS Elements).  Remember the Diana cameras, pinholes & Holgas?

Oh, it's such a blast!

The black & whites above started out as color, which you remove & tweak & add a layer of milky texture, 

mimicking the silver gelatin process on glass plates...

My fine feathered friends up there were  willing  suitable subjects for a vintage polaroid effect.  Years ago,

I probably would have taken their picture with my really clunky SX-70 Folding Land camera anyway...

 what a fortune I spent on that film!  These are residents of my local historical museum...a western screech owl

and a (very rare) albino red-tailed hawk.  I normally never prefer to see birds in this way

but in this instance, they are a kind of teacher as well.

I've recently learned that the Samish (one of our local Native American tribes) say

we shouldn't display night birds and day birds together...

I'd like to know more about this...if anyone can tell me, please do.

Till next time...

Read More

Pockets of paradise

Of Goodness


How good
that the clouds travel, as they do,
like the long dresses of the angels
of our imagination,


or gather in storm masses, then break
with their gifts of replenishment,
and how good
that the trees shelter the patient birds


in their thick leaves,
and how good that in the field
the next morning
red bird frolics again, his throat full of song,


and how good
that the dark ponds, refreshed, 
are holding the white cups of the lilies
so that each is an eye that can look upward,


and how good that the blue-winged teal
comes paddling among them, as cheerful as ever,


and so on, and so on.....


~ Mary Oliver ~

When I am outside, it is far easier to see (feel) the big picture than when I am sitting here in my chair, sometimes worrying over what isn't helped by worrying.  You'd think I'd learn after all these years to stop wasting time on useless habits.  All it takes is changing my perception - and sticking to it.  But how to hold on to that?  I think our deepest frustrations arise when reality doesn't mesh with our deepest desires.  How to let go of that?   

The other day, my dear friend wrote to me, "you have to find pockets of paradise."  I have not been able to get this out of my head.  How perfectly true.  More than that...how attainable.  I started to think about where my "pockets" might be and once I started to pay attention, they were not hard to find.

Here is an amazement --- once I was twenty years old and in
every motion of my body there was a delicious ease,
and in every motion of the green earth there was
a hint of paradise,
and now I am sixty years old, and it is the same.


~ Mary Oliver ~

Paradise....an illusive wish-I-were-somewhere-else place....a place of outstanding natural beauty that serves as a buffer to the out-there-over-there world....somewhere one has landed due to much good luck and the fortunate movement of the stars?  Ha.  It's what I make of it.  Nothing more.  No matter where I am.

: : :

I found a very heartfelt interview with poet Mary Oliver over here.  It's from March of 2011, then age 75.

She reveals some astounding truths about herself

and offers a few glimpses into why she is braver now...

: : :


Still learning & working with textures in PSE...for the cloud photo, I used two
from Distressed Jewell and for the bracelet, one again from DJ and another from Tim_in_Ohio.

Read More

When everything seems in between

The birds know.

It's not really winter anymore but neither is it spring...they still forage endlessly in the garden,

one of the last strongholds for seed collecting.  I wonder

what in the world can be left to gather?

I watch them and know that I can't be ruthless, not yet...

so my newly sharpened clippers stand in a pail by the back door while I try to ignore the tatters out there.

The grass has been growing...sort of.

Not enough to bring out the mower,

but just enough to make me think about it.

Nothing much is leafing out either.  Bare branches reveal long views into the woods

and the last of the rose hips hang suspended like big ceramic beads...quite pretty...

still, it seems like a very long time until those thorny armatures will be covered in roses again.

The days are a bit longer (yes, there is a noticeable increase in daylight!) although not long 

enough to feel like there is  enough  light.  Low light might be beautiful 

but a higher sun brings warmth...

so instead, the chill prevails...along with my caught-between frame of mind.

Must keep the fire going

within and without.

: : :

Should you wish to cure a little bit of the between season angst, I can highly recommend 

some serious playtime with an app

like ScratchCam.  All photos here were duly scratched  :>]]

Read More