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Photo Fun, Art on a Budget

Greeting friends! Always a thrill to have you stop by! Hope you had a good week. It sure flew by for me. How about you? Sure hope it slows down for the weekend...yes?

I enjoy creating things, wreaths, broken china mosaics, embellishing photo frames, and so forth. But I cannot sketch to save my soul! I so admire people who can. My sister is one. You may have noticed the "Swans" on my side bar.

Yea, she painted that. She's so bloody talented.

A while back, a friend took this shot of me via cam (unknow to me...I was just blathering on lol)

and surprised me with this....

Well, today I was playing about with the photo features in Photobucket. I was trying to figure out how he did that sketch. I tried all kinds of different effects, all disasterous. But while I was at it, I decided to try out the Pop Art feature on the sketch. Here's how it turned out.

I like how it turned out, maybe tweak the colors a bit. Anyway, I also tried an effect called Fresco. Didn't work well at all on people photos but did well on these:

I actually like it. Possibly play with it a bit more. Might be fun to enlarge a few and see how they look on the wall. Sign it, frame it, hang it! lol.

What do you think? Have you played around with the photo effect? Are you using the results in your decor? Let me know what you think!

Thanks so much for stopping by!

I'm hooking this post up with:

Show and Tell Fridays @ My Romantic Home

Have a lovely, safe and warm weekend! Be well!

Cheers!

Bird Houses Painted and Broken China Mosaics

Greeting everyone! Sweet of you to drop by! Hope your weekend was a superb one! We had lovely weather here. It's pouring today though. Good for the flora n fauna (everything has an upside...yes?)

I probably should have titled today's tasty treat as...yep, I'm a goober!! Those of you who've been with me for a bit are quite aware of this. Status quo can be such a comfort ha!

Has this scenario happen to you? I spend oodles of time thinking about a post. When I (finally) decide on one, I'm all excited and charge full speed ahead. I can't get the post up fast enough!

Anxious as I am, unfortunately the most time consuming element is getting the photos together; the lighting is off, the photo is crooked, the exposure is too light/dark, and so forth *sigh*.

Then, finally, I pull it all together, publish my post, pat myself on the back and celebrate.

Suddenly, whilst admiring my hard work, I notice something is not quite right....cue the pain ha!

Well, this post is not the one I intended. Lucky for me, I caught my faux pas before I ~~wasted~~ spent any energy composing it. Allow me to illustrate

A while back I posted about bird house transformation I had (thought) was finished. Was beaming with pride and couldn't wait to show it off...

I had this bird house

and transformed it to this...tah dah

I was so pleased with the result, I painted a couple more using different colors...

So there I was, all set to pull together an update about it when I noticed something was not quite right. Do you see it? Maybe you saw it straight away...maybe i'm too pedantic or not very observant ha.

I notice that there are door frames but the door itself isn't really defined. So I quickly popped the photo into the paint program to mock it up to see if I should paint the doors white. While I'm doing that, I notice something else is not right; I neglected to finish painting the chimney on both the green and pink ones...bugga

From completed to not so much ha! Now I have to add them back to the "must finish" list along with these:

and of course, these are (still) waiting for attention

Three of them are still wrapped in brown paper. Two steps forward, three steps back! lol!

Now I'm off to finish them once and for all! Cross your fingers for me!

Thanks so much for stopping by and letting me vent a bit! I hope you have enjoyed your visit and do feel free to vent as well, or just leave me a quick hello so I know you were here!

Have a lovely, safe and warm week! Be well!

Cheers!

UPDATE: Susan @ Writing Straight From The Heart just posted this very said and important post about one of our fellow bloggers. Please click here to view

I'm hooking up with:

Whatever Goes Wednesday @ Someday Crafts

Pimp Yourself Wednesday @ {Pimp}

Pink Saturday Eye Candy for the Pinkettes

Greetings and Happy Pink Saturday Pinkettes!! Don't you just adore Pink Saturday? I've been away for a bit, but am so happy to rejoin all you Pinkettes!

First, a shout out and special thanks to our fabulous queen of pink, Beverly of How Sweet the Sound. If you haven't already, do stop by Beverly's blog and say hello.

Ok, time to get comfy, grab a cuppa and enjoy all the fabulous pinks the other wonderful and clever Pinkettes have posted to delight our senses.

Let's start with a WOW factor (now where did I put my tiara?)

Sings to the princess in all of us..yes?

No tiara? That's ok, this will compliment rather well

A bit less formal...perhaps you could glide down the red carpet in this stunning Oscar de la Renta creation...

Oscar does it so very well!

Perhaps a little someplace to stash your lipstick...

If you are planning a romantic evening, say candle lit dinner for two on the beach, might I suggest this oh so pretty option

Isn't that just the dreamest pink dress ever?

Now before I go, I just want to share with you my newest passion! It's Pinterest! I'm sure most of you already know about it. I missed that memo and am playing catch up!

For the few that don't, it's a fabulous website where you can easily add/organize all your favorite eye candy! If you'd like to know more about just click the link below. It will take you to mine but you can click on the header and it will take you to their home page. But you can see how just this week I've already added so much!

So I can find those of you who already have an account, please add me so I can drool over your Pinterest. I promise I'll add you too! Fair enough?!

Now I will leave you with one last (but certainly not least) pretty photo to delight your pink senses!

I hope you have enjoyed your visit and thanks so much for taking the time to leave me your sweet thoughts!

Have a lovely, safe and warm weekend! Be well!

Cheers!

Chandelirious! Fly by PhotoViewing Opportunity!

Greeting dear friends and fly by photo viewers! So happy to see you so soon. You know, I too am guilty of (occassionally) being a fly by photo viewer...so many blogs, so little time. And, we do love the eye candy...yes?

Well today's tasty treat is another great opportunity for fly by photo viewing. Although, I'm fairly certain you may need to hit the breaks a time or two. For today I'm sharing one of our favorite things...chandeliers! Ohhhhh I love me some sparkly chandy dripping in lots of crystals. I also have a few other favorites I'd like to share as well.

So grab a cuppa, get comfy, fasten your seatbelt, and let me fill your senses with delight!

First up, the dripping in sparkle chandys.

Hello gorgeous!

chandelier

an antique oh so la la classic french beauty

Wrought iron and crystals with shades...

or without

Love this wrought iron dripping in crystals, it sings to me.

crystal chandelier

I'm sure you hit the brakes for this Glam goddess in green. Oh yea baby!

romance in pink

Now this one I've written to Santa for

As well as this one..Santa Baby I've been oh so good!

I'm sure many of us have...written to Santa that is.

Not too sure about the "been good" part *cheeky grin*

Gee whiz, now I've got that "Santa Baby" song in my head *sigh*.

Have a few more I want to share with you. I would be completely content with ~~all~~ any of these.

A bit of whimsy does the heart good!

Some bird watching, a cottage cutie!

Another cottage delight, too charming

Here's a brake slammer for ya! I would hang this in my dining room (if it were larger....umm, my dining room, not the chandy.

I swooooon for this one

An antique chandy that absolutely needs to belong to me!(are you listening Santa?)

I'd like to sail away home with this antique treasure

Last, but by no means least....

I know many of you have seen variations of this amazing chandy....

...well here is a similar beauty all a glow. Can you say "WOW?"

Sad to say, but, we've reached the end of the road. Did you see a favorite or two? Or perhaps I've introducted you to a new love...yes? It's hard for me to pick an absolute favorite. I love them all. Guess one could say that I'm an equal opportunity swooner lol!

I do hope you enjoyed your visit and should your heart desire, spare a moment to share your thoughts! Love hearing from you!

Have a lovely, safe and warm week! Be well!

Cheers!

Hello, it's me....again

Hello my dear friends and readers! I've missed you all very much. I've not been around for a bit I know, bad blogger! I do have a reasonably good excuse. I've been on a very long pity party.

Me at the peak of my pity party

Several months ago I went into the hospital to have my ovaries removed and came out with a brain tumor. Hence the pity party lol! Now, no worries, I'm (finally) at the point where I am determined to get myself out of this seriously funky place I put myself in. What better way than to catch up with my beloved friends in the blogosphere!

First things first. One of the most motivating way to fix one's mindset is through inspiration...and favors lol. I've got a little favor to ask. I've been inspired by a very lovely woman. Her name is Heather Von St. James. Here is a picture of her and her oh so beautiful little girl Lily.

Heather is a Mesothelioma cancer survivor. You can read her amazing story on her blog HERE

Aren't they both so beautiful? Ok, now for the favor. If you could show your support by posting Heather's button on your sidebar, I know she would be most grateful, as I am!

You can grab her button below or anytime from my left sidebar.

Heather Von St. James - Mesothelioma Survivor Blog

Now that I'm focused on energizing myself, I've gone back into my little studio....

...and have been finishing up on project I abandoned months ago; specifically some lovely mosaics. I've also been planning some fun posts. So do stop by to see what tasty treats I have in store for you *wink wink*

Last but certainly not least, I'd like to thank those of you who hung in there with me and didn't take me off your favorites! Also, a special thank you to those who were kind enough to take the time and email me.

this buds for you
I'm very sorry I didn't reply to some of you, as I had trouble finding the right words that didn't make me sound like the pathetic wallowing brat I was being at the time. Hope you can forgive me.

I hope you have enjoyed your visit and thanks taking the time to leave me your sweet thoughts!

Have a lovely, safe and warm week! Be well!

Cheers!