there is a season

for Dad

Aldo G. Notarianni

January 10, 1925 - October 8, 2011

This started as an iPhone photo that I captured while on my walk yesterday morning. I liked how the old, dried up leaves mingled with the still-vibrant greenery along the path, kinda like the mingling of old and new, elderly and youthful. Each needing the other: to remember from whence it came...and to realize the fulfillment of its destiny.

I admit I felt a little disloyal to the whole iPhoneography concept, but I've been wanting to play around in Lightroom and Photoshop, and Kim's Beyond Beyond Autumn Processing post was sorely tempting me.

I quickly got over the guilt and imported the photo into Lightroom, where I rotated and cropped, spot-healed and edited following Kim's tutorial. I love the coppery tones! Then I opened it in Photoshop, where I added some textures and text.

I used Kim's new DayPair texture duo (kk_wake Multiply 41% and kk_day Overlay 22%). Eventually I added Patti Brown's Rainbow Sun Flare overlay to lighten/soften the rough texture of the concrete path so that I wouldn't have to go too 'heavy' with the text font (Garamond Regular).

Linking up with

Texture Tuesday

Tuesday Muse

show & share: 'young cindy' printer tray

Printer trays have been around for years; they lend themselves quite nicely to creative ideas for storage or display, or in this case, altered art. You can find them at antique stores, on eBay, and lately I've seen something similar made by 7 Gypsies. A few years ago I saw one in Ali Edwards' book, Life Artist. I've made a couple more of these, which I will share another time. This is the first one I made, back in 2010.

I found that it helps to unify everything if you start with a theme. Mine is about the many blessings of my childhood. I pondered it for a week or so, not knowing quite where to begin...then I just jumped in and started. I unearthed some old photos and started playing with them. Just looking through old photos stirred up memories, words, phrases, topics, etc. After awhile it got a little easier, as the doing of art begets further inspiration (not, contrary to popular belief, the other way around).

This hangs in my art studio. It makes me pause and smile every time I see it.

I'm going to let the images speak for themselves...

I had the best of intentions to get this post up yesterday as scheduled, but the InLinkz thing took a bit of doing the first time around.

This link-up will stay open until Saturday night, October 12th.

Next week should go more smoothly.

Share my button:

<div align="center">
<a href="http://cindyswainson.blogspot.com" title="my art is life"><img src="http://i1254.photobucket.com/albums/hh619/cindyswainson/Button-ShowampShare-2_zps3a933efe.jpg" alt="my art is life" style="border:none;" /></a></div>

An InLinkz Link-up

friday finds: techie stuff I've learned this week

This has been a week full of technological learning for me. Here's what I did:

1. Learned about Instagram and Hashtags  I've been meaning to explore just how all of this works, and this week's Friday Finds link-up finally motivated me. So here's my contribution to the 'collective energy' on Instagram for Kim's husband, John, along with my heartfelt prayers for them both.

#lightforjohn

2. Organized my Blog with Pages and Categories  First I organized/categorized in my mind four types of art that I do, and labeled all my posts accordingly. I have also re-designed my blog to better reflect its content and purpose. Just under the blog header you now see the following pages:  Home, About, Mixed Media, Photo Art, Family History, Art Journaling, and Show & Share. If you click on any of them you will see all posts with that label (more on Show & Share below).

3. Made a Blog Button (or Two)  Again, it's one of those things I've been wanting/meaning to do, and being off work for a few weeks, I finally have the time. And the patience. Which it took lots of. I tried Kim's html formula, from her awesome Behind the Scenes blogging class last year, but I just couldn't get it to work. It finally dawned on me that maybe it's a recent Blogger issue...so I googled my way to a solution: the "Grab My Button" Code Generator. Just like magic, in less than 10 minutes I had my button up on my blog! (it actually took two days of research, trial and error to finally get it right) Here it is, ready to share on your blog:

<div align="center">
<a href="http://cindyswainson.blogspot.com" title="my art is life"><img src="http://i1254.photobucket.com/albums/hh619/cindyswainson/Button-MyArtIsLife-2_zps2c470949.jpg" alt="my art is life" style="border:none;" /></a></div>

4. Show & Share: My New Weekly Link-Up  Every week I will post something I've made recently - or in the past - be it Mixed Media, Photo Art, Family History, or Art Journaling... the kind of art I like to create. I invite you all to do the same on your blog or Flickr, and 'link up' so the rest of us can be inspired by your creativity. Over the years I have discovered that I'm not the only one with many and varied creative outlets...and I am greatly comforted by this revelation. I hope this will be a gathering place for all you eclectic artisans, where you can 'show & share' your art. Not to worry: critique is not necessarily a part of this...unless you mention in your post that you would like comments to that effect. Please do not feel limited by my categories; any creative pursuit of yours is welcome here...stitchery, knitting, weaving, painting, sculpture, gardening, decorating, cooking, baking, flower arranging, woodworking...you name it. This is the place to Show & Share your art with like-minded folks.

Just take a couple of pictures of it and tell us about it. Then link up your post with mine. At this point I am aiming to post on Sundays. I will leave the Link-up open for one week.

You can link up with this button, or simply hyper-link to your post:

<div align="center">
<a href="http://cindyswainson.blogspot.com" title="my art is life"><img src="http://i1254.photobucket.com/albums/hh619/cindyswainson/Button-ShowampShare-2_zps3a933efe.jpg" alt="my art is life" style="border:none;" /></a></div>

5. Some Very Helpful Sites for Bloggers: With all the googling I was doing for the pages and button code I unearthed several related topics. Is it any wonder why it takes me so long to get anything done?

Some sites are just run by one or two helpful, tech-savvy souls (I really like the personal touch):
http://www.fabulousblogging.com
http://storyofmylifetheblog.blogspot.com/p/blogging-tips.html
http://www.abeautifulmess.com/2012/05/how-to-start-your-blog-with-a-bang.html (BTW I just discovered that Elsie and Emma are offering a blog e-course which looks too good to pass up)

Some are by and for 'professional' bloggers (I'm kinda laid back about all this, and I blog for fun, but I can still pick up some tips here)
http://www.dailyblogtips.com
http://freebloghelp.com
http://blog.bufferapp.com/blogging-advice-for-beginners-from-16-experts

Some sites are platform-specific (I use Blogger) which is good if you are learning just how your platform works:
http://dummies.bloggertipsandtricks.com
http://helplogger.blogspot.com

Linking up with:

Friday Finds

be still...

These eight words came to me as I walked around the lake

last Friday on a misty, foggy, still morning.

Maybe I don't need to see clearly all the time.

The following excerpt from Father Joseph Breighner's post

at CatholicReview.org

sums it up better than I can...

Just know that God is, and that God is in charge. We look at life with such limited human vision. God looks at life and knows. When we just get quiet enough to just know, it's enough just to know that we know. It's enough to know that we are one with God. Often in our busyness, we are individual egos – individual mind-bodies – running around doing all kinds of things. When we just know, we know that just to be is enough. Let God be in charge of life and of our personal lives.

We Catholics can be busy pray-ers. We say lots of words, sometimes official words, even necessary words, as well as private devotional prayers. We seem to like to be busy and anxious even in our prayers just in case God won't notice us, or to make sure we tell God exactly what to do.

Words are helpful, certainly necessary for public worship. But the purpose of all prayer is simply to bring ourselves and our world into the presence of God. When we go through life with the consciousness of God always living with us, always living in us, and always living through us...

...then life itself becomes a constant prayer.

***

original photo SOOC

iPhone 5

ProCamera app

Crown Hill Lake

early on a misty morning

Here are some more SOOC shots

from my walk that day:

***

The top image was

edited on my iPad Mini

with the following apps:

Snapseed

(straighten and crop)

 PicTapGo!

Cool It Down (50%)

+

Alabaster (15%)

Image Blender

using Kim Klassen's texture:

kk_myrtle (Soft Light 30%)

Phonto

font: Avenir Next Condensed Ultra Light

***

Linking up with

A Weekend Walk

Texture Tuesday

(seriously, I had all this done before I saw Kim's post today)

Tuesday Muse

obstacles - part 2

Edited with Image Blender and Phonto apps

iPad mini

using Kim Klassen's textures:

kk_bamboo (Soft Light 64%)

 kk_canvasgrunge (Multiply 26%)

font: CicleFina

quote from

The Fulfillment of All Desire:

A Guidebook for the Journey to God

a book I picked up Sunday morning

in our church's

Eucharistic Adoration Chapel

original photo SOOC

iPhone 5

Monday morning, September 24, 2013

on the now-flooded path

around Crown Hill lake

a couple more shots from my iPhone...

 

several Mallard ducks have taken over

the paved path

next to the lake...

...as well as the dirt path next to

the paved path

(the extensive flooding is a new development)

Linking up with

A Weekend Walk

Texture Tuesday

Tuesday Muse

the obstacle is the path

iPhone photograph

Saturday morning, September 14, 2013

I saw this proverb on a poster in Erin's doctor's office last Friday. The following morning as I took my morning walk around Crown Hill Lake, I noticed this flooded trail. On my second lap around the lake I stopped to capture it with my iPhone camera. I've been pondering these words ever since, toggling between life's micro and macro situations of late. I've recently blogged about some of the micro. As for the macro, read on...

***

After almost a week of non-stop, torrential rain here in Colorado, watery devastation on a massive, catastrophic scale has spread across over 4,000 square miles...from picturesque mountain canyons and valleys, to peaceful foothills dotted with quaint villages and small towns; and now the floodwaters are endangering towns and farmlands in northeastern Colorado - downstream in the great river basins flowing east of the Continental Divide.

Folks here are incredulous:

• at least eight people dead, and still hundreds unaccounted for (mostly -  hopefully - due to communication difficulties in the mountains)
• over 19,000 homes damaged or destroyed, and hundreds of businesses as well
• dozens of roads and bridges washed away - many of them crucial links to mountain destinations
• ongoing helicopter rescue operations that now dwarf those of Hurricane Katrina
• the high plains east of the Front Range now resemble the Mississippi Delta, with flooding on a scale unheard of in these parts

 And keep this in mind: flooding in the mountains means flash flooding...which means seek higher ground ASAP. With steep, narrow terrain this means a 'wall of water' rushing down a narrow space:

Check out these links:

Fox News, (Sunday) for a national, breaking news perspective.

The Loveland Reporter-Herald, for a local columnist's perspective.

***

iPhone photograph

Monday morning, September 17, 2013

This view from Crown Hill - where I've been walking every morning recently - belies the tragic story: the worst of the flooding is less than 100 miles away, easily visible from here. You are looking north at the gorgeous mountain vista of the Front Range: the Flatirons near Boulder, and beyond that 14,259 ft Long's Peak, in Rocky Mountain National Park (which, for now, is reachable only via the muc farther, western slope entrance, due to washed out roads). 


Daily I watch and I pray: not far from our home in a suburb west of Denver - which was also not immune to flood damage - are people and places, homes, businesses, entire communities...devastated.  Favorite weekend destinations - we honeymooned in Estes Park...so did Kelly and Aaron last summer; I've picnicked, camped and hiked countless times, traveled those roads, visited those towns, loved those places since I was a little girl...

***

After a failed attempt to get the desired results with iPhone apps (I'm still pretty new to this, and at this point don't have much control within the process), I imported the top photo into Lightroom and then CS6 for further editing and texturizing:

I went back through the archives of Kim Klassen's 2012 Beyond Layers class and more or less followed one of her tutorials, incorporating a layer of kk_jessica (Soft Light blend mode 25%). Then I added one of Roxi Hardegree's Photo Textures (Multiply blend mode 28%). I'm still not quite satisfied, but it's time to 'fish or cut bait.' I did finally figure out the screen capture thing though. Small victories.

Linking up with Texture Tuesday and Tuesday Muse.

***

The obstacle is obvious.

The path to recovery seems insurmountable.

The two are inextricably linked.

the calm...before the storm

Sunrise at Crown Hill Lake

Edit done with Modern Jr. app

iPhone 5

Monday, September 9, 2013 10:17 AM

...photo editing done while in the waiting room at

Panorama Orthopedic Physical Therapy

original photo SOOC

iPhone 5

Monday, September 9, 2013 7:07 AM

...photo taken while on my daily early morning walk

around Crown Hill Lake

***

Back home a few hours later it looked like this:

not snow...hail.

original photos SOOC

iPhone 5

Monday, September 9, 2013 4:35 PM

...photos taken while surveying the aftermath

of the hail storm

that hit our neighborhood

earlier that afternoon.

We were fortunate to experience

only minor flooding in our basement.

Bob had just gotten home moments before;

he hurried outside with a bucket and

bailed hail out of this stairwell -

- the unused 'inlaw entrance' which flooded my art studio/sewing room.

Then he hurried back inside, where I was damming the flood with every big towel I could find.

We hurriedly unboxed his newly purchased Shop Vac

while I frantically read the assembly instructions:

You gotta remove the filter before vacuuming water!

We emptied the big nine gallon tub at least four or five times

into the shower in the adjacent bathroom.

Tight quarters in this tiny, narrow bathroom...especially for two of us in slings,

using only one good arm each.

***

Hail piled up about 6 inches deep in our yard.

Just two blocks away the hail was two to three feet deep.

This video pretty much sums it up:

 Jonathan Dismuke shot video of the storm

that washed away his newly poured cement patio this afternoon.

Hail and rain flooded many areas in Golden, Wheat Ridge, Lakewood and Arvada.

viewer-submitted video uploaded Monday from 9News (KUSA) website Monday night

The hail finally stopped after about 20 minutes,

but...

It hasn't stopped raining here since.

Check out this blog too.

***

We are truly blessed.

Our situation is a minor inconvenience

compared to the folks in surrounding areas.

Lissa, I've been thinking of you and Kobi

up in the heart of Boulder County.

***

The Lord is my rock,

my fortress and my deliverer.

My God is my rock,

in whom I take refuge,

my shield and the horn

of my salvation,

my stronghold.

Psalm 18:2

***

Linking up with

Friday Finds

and

Weekend Walk