Lost in Dreams

A Midnight Chat

Today I want to share Annabelle's Etsy shop CassienadognamedBoo with you. As you can easily see from the picture on top, she is a wonderful talented artist. Let's hear her very own words:

"With a little help from Charlotte the Whimsical Spider, the Ingenuous Charlotte the spider character from the famous book "Charlotte's Web" ( my favourite story) and Cassie the Little Witch and her ghost dog named Boo, I create whimsical dark and light fairytale worlds."

A Polar Bear Swim for Alfie the Mouse - can you see Alfie?

Annabelle is from Ontario, Canada, where she lives in Ottawa. She adores art and enjoys delving into different mediums and styles.

Fairy Door Home

She calls her art whimsical fairytale art, and I think that is a perfect expression. Please visit her shop here and look for yourself.

This is my favorite of her paintings - can you see why?

Ghost Cat

Isn't that little cat super adorable??

A Bit of Color in Black & White

How long has it been since I last participated in Kim Klassen's Texture Tuesday? I can't even remember...

This week's theme is black and white with perhaps a tiny bit of color. I opted for this rose that was peeking through a weathered fence in Mendocino. The photo in color is pretty "normal" on the border to boring. However, converting it to black & white and just keeping the pink/red of the rose gave it some interest. Okay, so my "tiny bit" or "hint" of color turned  out a little bit more than that.

This is what I did:

- Converted the original photo to black & white

- brought back the color of the rose by using a layer mask

- hue/saturation adjustment

- added Kim's texture "februarymagicedges" in blending mode Lighter Color at 75%

- added Kim's texture "kk_scriptedges" in blending mode Lighten at 100%

I haven't worked with textures for such a long time - or with some major changing in PSE in general - that I had to turn to my notes that I jotted down during the various classes I took with Kim. I certainly miss the practice!

Liberate Your Art

This year I participated in Kat Sloma's Liberate your art postcard swap again. I had done so the first year, but missed it last year due to the move.

I received six beautiful cards, and it was quite exciting to get all of them. They came form the US and the UK, and most of them had some kind or other of blue in them. It's something I realized the more cards I received.

This funny moose came from William with the message "Aim for the concept, not the reality". Bill blogs at WJCS Digital World and as you can imagine, he loves digital art.

Alison Bent wrote on the back of this cute card these words by Aldo Leopold: "Our ability to perceive quality in nature begins, as in art, with the pretty. It expands through successive stages of the beautiful to valves as yet uncaptured by language".

This beautiful scene was sent to me from Kat in the Appalachian Mountains. You can find more of her beautiful photos on Instagram.

Natasha sent this beautiful work of art with an inspiring quote by Scott Adams, "Creativity is allowing yourself to make mistakes. Art is knowing which ones to keep." I quite like that!

The fifth card came from Mel in the UK - her message was wonderful: "Put your he{ART} into all you do!" She blogs at I Speak Melsh - why don't you look for yourself what she means by that?

Last but not least - and this card didn't even arrive as the last one - the card from Kat herself in beautiful shades of blue.

If you want to see the cards I sent out - I'm sorry that I have to disappoint you. I was so excited about the swap that I totally forgot to take pictures of my cards! I sent five different cards of my artwork - unfortunately, that is all I can tell you.

If Kat is doing a Liberate your art postcard swap again next year, I'm pretty sure I will participate again. It really is a lot of fun.

A Beautiful Walk in the Morning

A couple weeks ago Kaefer had an early Saturday morning singing during a choral festival at the local university. It was a beautiful morning, the sun was just starting to rise, and I decided to take a walk in the nearby regional park.

This little bird greeted me when I arrived. The sun had just crept over the hills, the light was golden and warm. The park is nestled in a hilly area among several vineyards.

There is an abundance of trails in the park, each of them offering gorgeous views over wine country. I opted for the Poppy Trail into the park and then the Fiddleneck Trail for my way back to the parking lot.

Since it was that early I had the place almost entirely to myself. I met only one or two other people while I was walking here. The park is full of beautifully shaped trees.

There were many wildflowers as well. This is one of my most beloved ones - when it is done blooming it gets a beautiful puffy seed head and looks like it belongs to some kind of fairy land. Unfortunately I don't know the name of it, but if you do, please let me know.

The air was filled with bird song, it was lovely. The most dominant was the very distinguished call of the red-winged blackbird. It's such a beautiful bird.

The Canada geese decided to hang out in the old trees.

And of course there were fences - and you know who likes fences, right?

Many of the fence posts had big holes in them which made for some lovely shots.

When I was ready to leave the park and pick up Kaefer again, the dog walkers had arrived.

This early morning walk in nature - just me, the birds, the flowers and the trees - was just the right thing to do. It was relaxing and gave me energy for the rest of the day.

Twice As Nice Baby

Baby Dinosaur T-shirt

Today I want to share Tammy's Etsy shop "Twice As Nice Baby" with you. This will enlighten all of you who have little ones or tiny grandchildren.

Tammy is from Colorado and has opened her shop last February. Her boutique specializes in fun, handmade, custom baby clothing for infants, toddlers, and children.

Isn't this ruffled bottom onesie just adorable?

I really fell for these baby socks and matching headband - if my daughter were still a little baby I would get these!

And this pink whale onesie as well!! Too cute!

Now, don't get mistaken - she also has cute baby clothes for little boys. As a mother of a girl myself, I of course feel myself drawn to little girls' clothes, but the boys can get just as wonderful little shirts as the girls. Like this one for the little farmer:

So why don't you go here and look at Tammy's baby clothing yourself?

Roses And Fences

Photo of the week

As you know, I love to photograph fences. Fences are even more interesting if flowers are spilling over or between them. When I walked around the neighborhood some time this week I noticed how many fences there are with an abundance of roses. The roses seem to have turned up overnight - the gardens are exploding with all colors of roses and their lovely scent.

On the way to our little neighborhood grocery store I saw these - 

- and when I took a different route back I saw even more -

Okay, this last one is not a fence, but I thought I let this ladder count as a special fence :-)

There were white roses spilling over high wooden fences - 

- and some roses were already past their prime!

Actually, roses aren't my favorite flowers. But I do love the romantic feeling they seem to ooze out, although with thorns! Their scent is so lovely, I can hardly resist. And they make wonderful photo motifs!

I especially love this climbing rose, just around the corner from where I live.

What about you - do you like roses? Are they your favorite flower? If not, which one is?

Paintings by Yvonne

This month I am participating in Denthe's Etsy shop promotion campaign, and I am going to share five Etsy shops with you until the end of May. Etsy has such an abundance of really nice and often cute shops.

The first shop I will share is called Hartelief Yvonne. Yvonne is a mixed media artist from Wangeningen in the Netherlands, and she opened her shop just a few months ago.

The first painting that caught my eye is this one, "Guardian Angel":

I love the expression in the faces of both the child and the angel, but especially how the child touches the heart of the angel. So sweet.

This painting, "Just a crazy ride to enjoy" turned out differently than Yvonne was thinking when she started out. Somehow, the giraffe made it into the painting...

The words at the bottom of the painting read "There is no road to happinez, just a crazy ride to enjoy..." - I like that!

You know how much I like owls, and how happy was I when I discovered an owl painting in Yvonne's shop!

Then there is this redhead which I think is fabulous! Yvonne already sold the original, but she has different sized prints in her shop. Look at her - isn't she gorgeous?

Yvonne also has a Facebook page, in case you want to check out her art that way as well.