Richard's Art Work

Some of you that read this blog would know Richard. I scanned some slides of some of his art work. Here are the results of a couple of those scans. The one is the painting and the other is done entirely with dots. He seemed to do a lot of his artwork by just making dots. He was such an interesting person. I wish he would have shared a bit more about his art work as I find it quite interesting.

Creating!

I love paper, stamps, embellishments, creating.....Going to Hobby Lobby, Archivers.....well lets just say it is not healthy for my checking account....but then there are all the places online to shop and at least that saves a bundle on gas!! Seldom do I have much time to "play," but I have been having the coughing, sore throat, cold and whatever else crud the last few days. I didn't feel much like doing the things I should have been working on....all though I did do some...but I spent some time creating a bit of nifty packaging for wallet size picture for clients, mainly seniors. The little black plastic box with the clear plastic lid is soooo boring!! I have searched and searched for alternatives but mostly came up with nothing from a mass produced standpoint. If anyone out there knows of a cool source photo packaging let me know!!

Anyway, I had some fun with these.....

My color is black.....

Like I had nothing better to do, I did this little questionaire thingy on tickle.com....Hmmmmm. Funny, my favorite color is black too.

Jo, your true color is Black!
Your color is black. The color of night. Serene and mysterious, black conjures up images of elegant evening gowns, dashing tuxedos, and gleaming limousines. Traditionally a symbol of success, black also represents power and an uncompromising demand for perfection. Not surprisingly, you tend to set challenging goals for yourself and do whatever it takes to achieve them — your strength of character is second to none. This unfaltering determination, along with your natural elegance, impresses people. But keep in mind that your personality might be intimidating to some. Try to temper your demanding side with a little softness — trust us, it won't kill you. Overall, though, black is the color of professionalism and achievement, which means it's clearly the color for you.

I'm in love with Moo....

These are 1x3 mini cards that come in sets of 100 and you can put 100 different pictures on the front and your contact information on the back. It was easy to upload the pictures and they allow you to set the crop for each one. They come in a cute little hard plastic box and I bought the hard plastic case that fits in your pocket so you can carry them with you. They are awesome!! I got these for Bryden because I thought they would be neat to try out. The company is in the UK so shipping takes a bit longer, but totally worth the wait! Check out their product for yourself. http://www.moo.com/products/

I can't believe how that temperature is dropping! It is down to 49 degrees already from a high of 69 this morning. The wind is blowing hard too and that makes it feel even colder. Doesn't feel springy at all right now. Bryden brought these plant home for me to take care of so I will have to bring them into the house so they don't get too chilly tonight.

The pot of succulents is one he planted last year and kept over, as well as the hibiscus. The pepper and tomato plants are babies that got dropped on the floor by the machine that does the transplanting. Bryden always rescues them, plants them and brings them home to me....That is partly how I ended up with 100 tomato plants last year!!

Plants are up.......

I planted short rows of radishes, spinach, mixed lettuce and tangy and mild mesclun mix Wednesday night, the 16th. I took these pictures yesterday. I was afraid the ground would be too cold but they came up fairly quickly. Needless to say, they have enough moisture!

I just like to take pictures....

Okay, I was outside for a while this afternoon with my camera and it is fairly obvious that if it holds still for a little bit, I will take a picture......do I like bees?....NO! But....the pussy willow bush was just humming with thousands of them and so I just had to see if I could get some good bee pictures.....enjoy!

I was also surprised to see this butterfly flitting from flower to flower. He/she looks a little worse for wear with some wing damage. I wonder where he came from.....

First Wedding for 2008

Saturday was my first wedding for 2008. It is the first of many for the year and I look forward to every one! I love the variety and creativity that are a part of every wedding.

The bride and groom have the cutest little boy....I took way too many pictures of him just being cute!!

senior pictures

I took some senior pictures of an '08 senior on Sunday afternoon. It turned out to be a beautiful afternoon to be outside....especially after all the dreary days and rain we have had. He has a cute little daughter that he wanted some pictures with, so it was a lot of fun.

Spa day for me!!

I worked until noon today, went out for lunch with a friend and ran into another friend that is a massage therapist. Well, who can resist, not me!! I had to ask her if she could give me a massage. Lucky for me, she had nothing better to do this afternoon so I got well over an hour massage and then I went back to the office where I work and got a chiropractic adjustment. Ahhh, sweet relaxation!!

So, I get home and I see the Arbonne Spa sample kit I was given by a sweet friend...why stop with just the massage and adjustment?? So I had a long soak in the tub with the Sea Salt Soak (it even smells relaxing!!) and used the mud mask on my face. Then, I had a cool shower with a sea salt scrub and finished up with their remineralizing lotion!! Needless to say, I am just a boneless mass of mush by now!! Too bad every Friday afternoon isn't that wonderful!!

Arbonne products may seem expensive but anything I have tried seems to live up to their claims. Unfortunately for my checkbook, I love their Re9 products for face and body!

Now if someone would just make me some supper...........Oh and do all the things I really should have been doing this afternoon......hehe

Another sign of Spring....

We sometimes grill in the winter, but we grill a lot when the weather is warmer. Seemed like a good night to grill some steak that I had been marinating for a couple days. It was kind of windy, but that made the charcoal heat up faster. Good old charcoal grill flavor makes me feel like summer might come soon! Yummy!

Spring is Here??

Wow, it got up to 68 degrees this afternoon! Problem with that was the wind was blowing 40 miles per hour (resulting in a wind advisory) so it wasn't very nice to be outside. On the plus side, the wind does really help to dry things up. I am hoping that it will dry the ground out enough to get some early garden planted before long! Unfortunately, it sounds like rain is in the forecast starting Wednesday evening thru Friday.......

I went outside to see how my spring flowers were coming. I have some dafodills with fat buds. One even appeared to have tried to open a bit but looked like the frost had damaged it. We had a really heavy frost yesterday morning. The wind was blowing so much that the little purple flowers were about impossible to get still enough for a picture. There is some blur in this one, but it was the best of the lot!

Twice As Nice!

These twins are sooooo adorable! I feel very lucky to get the priviledge of taking the pictures for their first year. These are their 6 month pictures. I am already looking forward to our next session and I just took these yesterday!

Des Moines

Last weekend I went to a photography class in downtown Des Moines. It was a Rocky Mountain Photography School weekend seminar. It was a good class, money well spent!! I spent some time walking around on lunch break taking pictures and playing with camera settings. I took this picture in front of Vets Auditorium. Okay, I will admit I had to use photoshop to get the sky...it was a gray, overcast day....so the sky was really boring! Any way, it was a fun weekend. Fun to be with lots of other people that love to talk about all the challenges of photography.

Sunset

This was looking across the road from our house at the golden sunset tonight. Still a few storm clouds hanging around.

Bluebirds

After the rain quit, there were birds everywhere, including lots of bluebirds. This one appeared to be pretty comfortable on his perch. We wondered if they might not be thinking of nesting here as there was another one hanging around the area too.

wet day, wetter evening

Well, the roads are once again extremely muddy after having rain all day. Tonight it poured and we were under a tornado warning for awhile. We didn't have any strong wind here and just a little bit of small hail for a very short period. These pictures were taken after the worst of the rain let up.

Wedding Photo Book

Another project I have been working on is a "coffee table" style hardback book for a couple as a wedding photo book. I am designing it totally myself without the use of any templates so it will be unique. It is so fun and challenging! I love the strong graphic look with the black, red and white. I am so anxious to get it done so I can see it in print!!

Jo

Unique Graduation Announcements

These bookmarks seem to be one of the latest fun ways to send out the invitations for your graduation reception. I think they are a really great idea and something people would be more likely to keep and use rather than just throw out. Plus, you can showcase several of your pictures. I have been busy doing all kinds of different invitations for graduation. They are really fun to create.

Jo