What a wonderful walk in the woods Jeff, Miki & me took yesterday. It was a wonderful early fall type of day, altho the colors haven't started changing yet. In fact, there were still some pretty little blooms still to be seen...... 
And, yet, in a few places, leaves were giving us a taste of what is surely to come before too long......Enjoy!
Welcome to the latest ATC swap! This one involves blackbirds and sheet music. I couldn't resist taking advantage of the title of the piece of music (above) and expressing it as a dilemma for our little blackbird friend!
And do blackbirds really sing in the rain.....or is that just Gene Kelly??
And what lovely lady doesn't like to be serenaded by her favorite blackbird? Enjoy!
Another month of bizarre holidays! It's October, and of course, folks think about Halloween, but there are other bizarre holidays! Actually, Halloween isn't even on the bizarre list. However, the day before Halloween, it's National Candy Corn Day!
And, here's another irresistible day - who hasn't felt so frustrated from time to time, you just want to scream? Well, if you ever have, October 12th is your day!!!Enjoy! (but no screaming, please!)
So, another fun book page background ATC swap! I could do whatever I wanted as long as the background is book pages (text). I decided that this would be a good opportunity to try something I haven't really worked with much - transfer ink. In a nutshell, I print off a photo on regular copy/printer paper, put it face down onto the book page background, and spray the transfer ink until the paper is saturated. Pat it off with a cotton towel and then gently peel off the paper - and this is the result!! The above shot is of a flower that was in our garden last summer. The plant didn't really make it thru the winter, so it's been replaced, but it will always live on in my photos and other art work!
Yes, I know - the text is sort of running the wrong way, but....oh well! The image is of an iris that grew in my garden in Illinois. I just love the image of this iris, don't you? And, it transferred so well, too! It took me several practices to find the right types of images that worked well with this process - that's actually why this is on text that runs in a different direction from the way the image does - an image that didn't work well is on the back of this card!
This is just a really nice result, too! The contrast in the images really works well with this transfer process. I think that the images almost look like a little watercolor painting on the book pages, don't you? Just a nice, soft effect.....Enjoy!
At our final state park in Washington, we found a jewel! There was a pond with hundreds of waterlilies in it......and dragonflies! I was lucky enough to be able to get this image of a dragonfly relay....
I think this will make a great bookmark - it gives you an idea of how many waterlilies there were all around. What a wonderful find!!
And, finally, here's an intimate portrait of a waterlily pond. This was just a wonderfully relaxing and renewing place to spend a couple of days.....Enjoy!
These are a bit different from my usual photos. These are some photos that I took while I was wandering thru the garden of Jeff's sister, Nancy. The above flowers were just below the window of the office (formerly the dining room) of her and her hubby (Lonnie)'s home. The title of the photo - "From My Window".
The above image is of a flower in Nancy's garden that I applied a special effect filter to. Altho the original image is of a soft pastel, with this filter, the petals appear to be glowing. The title of this image is "Glowing Petals". Hopefully, this looks as cool on this blog as it does on my PC!
"Colorful Blooms" is the name of the above image. I applied a sort of painterly type filter to the image so that it looks like this is a painting instead of a photo. Wonderful wanderings thru Nancy's garden!
And, the last image is "Season's End". As I was walking by the bird bath, I saw that someone had tossed some roses into the empty bird bath. I thought it was just the perfect set up for a photo. I converted this to a black & white image, and then "erased" the black & white from certain parts of the image to allow the color of the roses and leaves to show thru. I plan to use all of these as note cards - that's why there's the special effects on these images.Enjoy!
We spent a couple of days at a great state park in northwest Washington state - Raser State Park. There was a very nice series of paths thru some second growth forest, and Jeff and I explored those trails. Above, I am just a sucker for sunlight thru leaves on trees, and this image came out really well - hopefully, it gives you an idea of why I love when sunlight does that!
The above image is one that I find glorious in a subtle sort of way. This wasn't an old growth forest, but was what Jeff thought was a second growth forest. Still, it's very old, and I just love the image of ferns and moss growing up the trunks of trees!
And, finally, here's an image of Jeff as he stood on the path (see the right side of the photo) next to the stump of what was probably an old growth forest tree. Jeff is about 6 feet tall - gives you some perspective about how tall the old growth tree once was, doesn't it?Enjoy!
