Sepia Scenes The Kiss

Almost Valentine's day ...




Do you see these two doves? Boring huh?
I made a series of pictures them. Well, ... to be honest, I thought they were going to ..um ... do "it" and I was ready to make full coverage of that event.
I stood there waiting with my camera, ... but in the end they did nothing. Duh!
And so I ended up with more than a dozen(!) rather boring pictures.
(! Hmmm, yeah I'm a very patient girl)

After all, they're just two doves up on a roof huh? Doing ... nothing?

Now this morning at breakfast I was wondering what on earth I'd have to come up with this week for my Sepia Scenes when the series with the doves crossed my mind.

So I opened my Corel Paint Shop Pro x12 and had a little fun.
I picked the cutest picture, "the kiss".
First I cropped it. Then I created a layer.
I used the time machine option for the sepia effect.
Which was nice, but I thought it looked rather plain.
Well you all know how I love to play with half sepia, so I removed the sepia from the doves with the eraser tool.
And this is the result. I uploaded the full sized picture, so you can click on it to enlarge it.



Happy Valentines Day!! Even though it's not quite Valentine's day yet!

For more Sepia Scenes go on over to Mary the Teach and visit the other players as well?

Ruby Tuesday,Work in Progress.

Work in progress ....


I'm working on this today ...
I'll tell you more about it sometime this week, I hope.
I'm very excited, I'm really on to something now, and I want to continue working on it today.
Oh um ... this is how it's done ...





Complicated?
Well ... I don't know, any child can do it, look!





Visit Work of the Poet for more Ruby Tuesday pictures.

Macro Monday, The Lace Project

Remember the lace project I'm working on?

I finished my first sampler.

When I removed the pins, I thought it would make a great subject for a macro photo shoot.





Find more gorgeous Macro Monday pictures at Lisa's Chaos.

Macro Monday Needles and Pins

For those who are "on needles and pins" to see what I'm doing ....

Click to enlarge the last picture.

For more Macro Monday Pictures, visit Lisa's Chaos.

Weekly Winners, Inside and Out ...

Most of this week's pictures have to do with my project in lace I spent quite a lot of time on.
My kitchen is my workspace...

 

But before I could get started I had to sort out my tools and  my materials...

I got some roses too ...
I keep them there so I can look a them ...

While I was busy inside ...
I noticed that some of the flowering plants on my patio still had not given up on me ...

Is it Spring yet?

 

Click on the banner to visit the other Weekly Winners players of this week.

What a Week it Has Been for Me!

These past couple of days have been a roller coaster of mixed emotions for me. Stressful moments worrying about my father being in hospital for surgery, some very busy moments, and happy moments as well.

My father is doing well. Thanks to all of you who have included him in your prayers. Your thoughts, prayers and good vibes have certainly helped him, he was wide awake, smiling and talking to my mother when she went to visit him last night. That's a very heavy load off my shoulders, because my father is very very special to me. He always has been, and always will be.
But it can worry me sometimes when I notice that he's slowly getting older, that he's maybe not as strong as he used to be, a little slower in his movements ...
Anyway, I'll be visiting him tomorrow and if all goes well he should be home by Tuesday.

All of the above gave me quite some stress yesterday, but to top it off, I lost all of my comments on this blog. To make a long story short, I messed with my template trying to install the new Google map Blogger in draft is featuring at the moment. And I managed to install it, oh yes! But at the same time I lost my HaloScan comment form and all of my comments on this blog. I care deeply about the comments people give me, I don't think I would blog if it was not for the friendships one builds through these comments?
It felt as if this blog was stripped naked of all of the friendship,appreciation, encouragement and love I have gotten from all of you throughout this whole year. One whole year worth of comments, tokens of friendship ... the history of my blog, they were all floating around somewhere in the blogosphere! Aaarggh!!
Anyway, as you can see, after a couple of nerve wrecking hours, I managed to get it back together, and what a relief THAT was!

Speaking of friendship ...
Remember the give away?

I am happy to announce, I have three winners.The first one to say "YES!" was Melli, then Quilly and then this morning I found Christine's comment, winner number three!
They will in their turn take this give away to their blog, and create something special for their winners.

And then there was a package in the mail this week. Jan of the Prytz Family had some books to give away some time ago.I had never entered a give away before but I did and I won the cookbook!
And it has arrived, ... look!
The cookbook has lots and lots of mouthwatering wintery recipes, beautiful pictures AND I don't have to worry about measurements as the recipes also include grams and kilo's as well as lbs, oz and cups.
I don't even have to worry about that, how cool is that?
Thank you Jan, I'm very very happy with it!

First time in my life I have ever won anything, but I won twice in a row this week, as I am one of the three lucky winners of the Pay it Forward on Lceel's blog!
I'm very much looking forward to get a painting from him. Thank you Lou!!

As for me, I have been very busy working on MY project.
I spent a whole day sorting out all of my tools, patterns, books and materials.

Ahum. Yes, I know ... It had been neglected for a couple of years.

And then I had to try and get the feel of it again...
But I'm getting there.

This is the progress so far.
Mind you, this is just a sampler, to figure out different patterns.
There, now you all know what I've been up to this week!
I hope you all had a nice week too?

Pay it Forward

There is this fabulous Paying it Forward give away going on in the blogosphere
and I was one of the three lucky winners to win a small painting over at Lceel's blog.
So I must now in return Pay It Forward to my readers.

The Rules, such as they are, are quite simple:

1. Be one of the first three bloggers to leave a comment on this post, where the first word in the comment is "Yes". By saying "Yes" as the first word, you signify you want to participate in this give away. Being one of the first three to say "Yes" will then entitle you to a handmade item from me. I will create a little piece of modern lace art, something that can be worn as a jewel, or put in a small frame, according to the wishes of the winner!

2. Winners must post this challenge on their blog, meaning that they then must Pay It Forward, creating a handmade gift for the first three bloggers who say "Yes" in a comment on THEIR post.

3. The gift that you send to your three friends can be from any price range and you have 365 days to make/ship your item. This means you should be willing to maintain your blog at least until you receive your gift and have shipped your gifts. And, remember: It’s the spirit and the thought that count!

4. When you receive your gift, please feel free to blog about it, sharing appropriate Linky Love!

5. If you are not one of the top three commentors on today’s post, you’re still a winner in this Time of Grace and Giving. Please take this symbol of the seasonal spirit and post it on your blog; start your own Pay It Forward Chain, and encourage your bloggy friends to do the same!




This is really great, and I'm very much looking forward to creating something special.
If you're interested to see what I used to make, and how lace is made, read this post.
It includes a video demonstrating the technique and some pictures of my work.

I spent most of the day yesterday digging up all of my tools and materials .

They haven't been used in over twelve years.
It's been that long since I made anything,
so it IS going to take some studying to get back in track!


But I'm working on it!!

Ruby Tuesday Fall Decoration

My Ruby for this week is a "how to".
How to make a lovely fall decoration with simple materials.


You need fresh leaves, pins and three different sizes of Oasis or Polystyrene balls.

It is very important the leaves are fresh. Fallen leaves might be too brittle.

Remove the stems and the hard parts, and pin the leaves on the foam balls.
You might have to make an incision in order to bend them to follow the shape of the ball.
Make sure you overlap each leaf with the next one well, you will not want to see the foam peeping through. Please bear in mind that while drying the leaves will shrink a little.





There ...
They look great on my coffee table, don't they?

See more Ruby Tuesday participants at Work of the poet.