Seriously Blown Away!

S-E-R-I-O-U-S-L-Y

excited that Ree (aka The Pioneer Woman) selected another one of my photos for her photography assignment.

After my Gray Kitty picture was selected a couple of weeks ago I was floored, and now to have another one in her "green" challenge is just, well, overwhelming!

Funny thing about it is that this picture was part of my own little color challenge from last year around this time.  Several friends from online and IRL had gotten together to do a photo color challenge on Flickr just to stretch our creative juices.  Of course I don't have the bazillion readers of my sad, pitiful little blog like Pioneer Woman and am unable to give out sweet prizes so our little challenge didn't go over quite like hers do! ;)

We did have fun though I must say!  Here is a glimpse of our green photos:

When she announced her "green" challenge, it made me a little reminiscent of our Color Fun challenge and I went back on our Flickr group to give our pics another look-see...that was a fun little walk down memory lane!  Give it a whirl if the urge hits you.


color fun

And be sure to submit your own GREEN photo - you might be blogging about being blown away by getting selected next! :)

It's an Epiphanie

I really need to win the giveaway over at Epiphanie Bags!

#1 - I covet those bags!!!!  I seriously want one and will own one at some point.

#2 - I would ding-dang-dong-DIE to win this 5D! 

#3 - If I don't win, I sure would love for someone I know to win!  So get your tail on over there and check-check-check it out!

Epiphanie Bags.

Which bag is your favorite?  I like them all for different reasons, but Ginger and I would really get along well I'm thinking.

Week 13

Maybe it's the unlucky 13 or something, but I have felt a wee bit crazed the past few days!
That plus my crazy hair that was just plain wild on Sunday produced some crazy selfies for the week:
Enter exhibit A:

I call this one psycho*diptych

I decided I needed some lip color to brighten up my selfies but when I got a little "outside the line" I thought: "hey, I'll go with it and look really crazy!"
A straight jacket would have been a really cool prop for this one, but I'm afraid some people who know me might want to keep me in there!!! :)

Here is my take on Week 13:

Obvious use of some cool actions on both of these shots.

The psycho*diptych shot has an action found here: deviantART
On the latter shot I bumped up the levels and ran an action I've had for awhile (from parts unknown) which is an extreme lightening action.  Then I sharpened the shot using the sharpen action from one of Pioneer Woman's free sets.

I love actions!
Can you tell?

Beautiful Blogger

Ahhhhh, what a great award to receive from my fellow blogging/tweeting/facebooking friend Susan.

...and now for the rules!  (Dude, there's always rules, ya know?)   ;)

As always, there a rules for this award! And they are:
1. Thank the person who nominated you for this award. (THANK YOU, Susan!)
2. Copy the award & place it on your blog.
3. Link to the person who nominated you for this award. CHECK!
4. Share 7 interesting things about yourself.

1. I am 40 and have a 16 year old brother. My first brother was born when I was 16.
2. I hate having my picture taken but am trying to overcome that with my 52 week self-portrait project.
3. I've never had surgery or had to go to the hospital. (hope I'm not jinxing myself by stating this!)
4. I eat around the perimeter of my sandwich and burgers and save the middle for last.
5. I get incredible road rage when someone rides my bumper...beware: I WILL slam on my brakes!
6. I don't bite my fingernails, but I pick at and bite at my cuticles - ugly habit that I've always had.
7. I am completely and totally afraid of mice.  Like panic attack and lose sleep afraid!

Not sure how interesting these seven things are - but they were first to pop in my head!  (Maybe I'm just not very interesting.)

5. Nominate 7 bloggers to receive this award.

1. Julie
2. Deana
3. Sarah
4. Mandie
5. Nancy
6. Jeanie
7. Karla 

Anyone else who is reading this...please consider yourself nominated as well and let me know as I always enjoy reading interesting things about other people...seeing as how I'm so UN-interesting! :)

softball season has rolled around

Alex is again playing softball - this is her senior year - so this is it for high school sports.
They lost most of their team last year - the team that went all the way to the State Finals and were runners-up two years in a row.

Honestly, I have not been looking forward to this year's season just because I was afraid of the let down.  It's hard to go from winning pretty much every game to not really knowing how it will go.  I had to miss the first few games simply because of them being so early and having to take so much time off work.

I must say I was pleasantly surprised after finally getting to attend a game this week.

I am very impressed with their young, up and coming pitcher, Haley. 
How hard would it be to follow in the State's record breaking strike-out pitcher?  Well, Haley seems to be coming into her own.  Looking forward to seeing more from her!

Now, I must come to the part of this blog post that is totally going to sound like I'm bragging - and yes, I am so bear with me.  This is the part where I talk about Alex's awesome offensive skills AND her over the fence home run!!!! 

I even captured the hit! :)

 

 So so very proud of her for that!

Love these pics of her team coming out of the dugout to congratulate her when she crossed the home plate! :)

They have not won every game by any means, nor will they probably go to the State Finals this year, but I'm looking forward to seeing more from this team!

...and I'll admit, I was wrong, but ssshhhhhhh, don't tell anyone I said that. K?

Wow!

Two days in a row! 

Go ME! :)

Just sharing this week's self-p.

This would be Week 12.

I wanted to take a pretty, springy type photo with the jonquils, blue sky and green grass,

but Sunday's weather wouldn't permit! :(

Got the jonquil and what little natural light I could capture from the dreary, cold, rainy day that was Sunday.

WHAT IS WRONG WITH ME????

My blog and I just cannot come to terms lately!  

I seem to have great intentions, but we all know what road we are on with that one. 

:-\

Anyway, I hope to figure out a way to become motivated to blog more regularly, 

but until then I hope you can sleep without thinking about it. he he

That necklace (previous post) has a story - and I am finally going to tell it!

It's some junk jewelry I made.

I've been seeing it - just as you have - everywhere on the web, etsy, and cute boutiques.

I do as all you crafty people do when you see something like that: "oh, I can totally make that!!"

Well, guess what?  

I finally followed through! 

(see, my intentions sometimes DO come through!)

I had a couple of non-real, short pearl necklaces. 
Mind you, I'm not a pearl girl, but I had bought one to wear in a wedding and the other was from my granny's jewelry stash.

I just clasped them end to end.  

Then to hide the clasp, I made a white crochet flower and shabbied it up with some tulle and a pearl button.

I absolutely love how it turned out!

(Alex has even worn it - so it passed the teenager test!) 

I have a bag full of jewelry - broken, old and tossed aside - that my friend's mom gave me and I plan to put more of these together! 

What crafty projects are you working on?  

I'd love to see! :)

Monday full of extra sunshine

I totally love when we Spring forward!

Not because I love losing an hour of sleep,

but because of the extra sunshine after work.

Makes me so SO happy!

I first wanted to say "THANKS" for all the sweet comments on my Gray Kitty pictures.

I was seriously so thrilled to even have a photo considered in PW's photo assignments...

I mean there were some awesome pictures indeed.

Unfortunately Gray Kitty wasn't a finalist, but again, I don't think it could have made me any happier than I was! :)

PW announced the winner today and I think she made a great choice! 

What a fun-fat-cat!

Pioneer Woman

You can also see the finalist and her explanations for selecting them.  I personally love the groovy looking cat in the pink bathroom...just quirky and different.

Here is Week 11 from my 52 self portrait project.

That necklace?  More on that later...

overjoyed!

I had to post a quickie to share a small bit of excitement!
Ree (aka Pioneer Woman) chose one of my Gray Kitty photos as part of one of her groups to choose finalists from.

Out of "litter"ally (pun intended) thousands of photos posted to her flickr group, she chose this one of mine:



I have been totally mesmerized by the dog photos and cat photos that have been submitted the last couple of weeks. If you have an extra couple of hours that need to be filled with beauty and fun inspiration, you should check them out here on her flickr

Here is a link to her post of Group 4.

I'm just totally honored to be included in such a fantastic group of photographs.
It's also cool that Gray Kitty is getting a special honor. We lost him about a year ago...he disappeared in the night. Those Tom Cats just do that! I don't even like cats, but he sure was cool and found his way into our hearts (and in our house on occasion where he totally antagonized the dogs, which was quite entertaining!)

A little Gray Kitty tribute:

week 10

I am quite happy to make it to 10 weeks on one of my "resolutions".

I'm sticking with two things so far:  my 52 week self-potrait project and reading my Bible through.
I am a wee bit behind on my art journal project, but I'm not giving up - I plan to catch up on the prompts I've missed.

How are your resolutions going?

sign of spring

Today was seriously PERFECT!

If everyday was like today, I truly believe the crime rates would go down...SERIOUSLY!

Thank you Lord for this day - Only you could do something so glorious.

After spending a wonderful day with my Granny - church, then Judy & Jerry's (my aunt and uncle) where we hung out on the deck soaking in the Vitamin D (even though Jerry argued it was Vitamin C...not!), I came home to this:

I do believe it's a sign of Spring, and I couldn't be happier!  

I just want time to slow down so I can soak it all in and savor every day like this. 

Some flower love

I'm behind on this post - but that's just how I roll sometimes.
I have been overwhelmed with Crochet Candy love and I am so SO appreciative that people are responding to them.  :)
Does anyone know how to make more hours in the day?
It would be so cool to have a couple of free hours to just craft every day...I have so many ideas swimming around my head.

Here are a few that I finished and mailed out or delivered last week:

(that red, gray and white flower up there was for Alex - she wanted the Highland school colors to wear last week while the school was hosting the State basketball tournament. Cute!)

Have more orders to fill so I better get to "hookin'"! ;)
It's a beautiful day today and I hope to get outside some and soak up the sunshine.

something on my mind

This week's photo is just a literal picture of what is on my mind right now!

What's on your mind this week?