Spring Is Coming

I am so looking forward to some sunshine and blossoming trees...

 

sunflower fields, daisies and Knock out roses and beautiful berries on my Beautyberry bushes...

 

and this makes me want to get out my paint and paintbrushes!!!

 

 

Visit Mary for Mosaic Monday At Little Red House

Thrifty Finds and Oatmeal Cookies

Michael asked me to make some oatmeal cookies for him last night.

He doesn’t ask for anything very often...so I baked cookies this morning.

His favorite oatmeal cookies with lots of raisins, cinnamon and chunks of walnuts are waiting for him now...

Oatmeal Raisin Cookies

• 1 - 1/2 cups white sugar
• 3/4 cup brown sugar
• 2 eggs
• 1 -1/2 tsp. vanilla
• 1- 1/2 cups butter (I used a combination of butter and coconut oil)
• Cream this mixture with your mixer
• Combine the following and add to the creamed mixture
• 2 -1/3 c flour ( I used self rising because I was out of plain)
• 2 cups oatmeal
• 1 -1/2 c. raisins
• 1 or more cups of walnuts
• Bake for about ten minutes being careful not to overbake and let cool on a wire rack...these freeze well

 

I thought I’d show you my little thrifted finds here...

 

I’ve enjoyed this little kitchen towel so much...it is cross stitched and has a little ruffle on the bottom...I think it cost $.99

 

My little heart goes pitter patter everytime I look at this vintage red aluminum pitcher...I love it and it was in mint condition...it cost $.50

 

 

I also purchased this cute little Pfaltzgraff honey jar recently (it was brand new)...it was pricey!!! about $5

 

My cute little bird plates came from TJ Maxx...I bought four of them...they were four dollars each ...

 

 

I had a tough time getting a good photo of these plates!!! sorry...

 

Have a beautiful weekend peeps!!!

 

 

Linking up @ Bargain Hunting With Laurie

De-Wonkify Your Photo in Picasa

When I make photographs they are usually wonky...to the right...to the left...just wonky (not straight).

I think my brain has wonkified my eyes so that I hold my camera wonky (unlevel).

I usually have to straighten the wonky out on almost every photo I make.

I applaud you if you have that wonderful ability to make straight photos.

It must be one of those God-given talents that I missed though.

A perfect example of  “Wonky”...

This little dish and crystal are perched on my windowsill...

Aren’t you glad my windows are not that crooked??? I am!!!

 

Open your photo in Picasa

Click on Basic Fixes

Click on your Straighten icon

A grid will overlay your photo

Now select a prominent line...like the windowsill line or if you have a landscape...click on the horizon line

 

Now my windowsill is straight...but the dish still looks crooked...that’s because of perspective...

I wasn’t perfectly in front of this shot...I was slightly to the right side so the shot is at an angle

Most of my shots are like this...you have to decide what is most important to have straight to you...

I’ll edit it more and see if this is the right decision for this shot...

You can always undo this “fix” by selecting  (undo straighten) button and it goes back to the original shot...

 

I went to the  “tuning’ tab first

I then adjusted my fill light slide tab to about 75% toward the right (adds more light)

 

The next step to to select the “Highlight” sliding tab and slide it about 25% to the right...

a small adjustment that makes a big difference...

See how it is changing the color of the sky...

Now I want to try and adjust that color...

 

I slid the color slider over about 12% over to the left ...

I wanted more color but couldn’t get what I desired without the photo being way overexposed...

 

Going back to the Basic Fixes Tab...I cropped a little off the top of the photo and cropped off the windowsill...

I think I’ll straighten it some more...

Go back to Basic Fixes and click on Straighten again...

 

First I cropped out some more of my sky.

This time the straighten tool cropped that little sliver of light that you could see underneath the dish...

 

I hope this helps someone dewonkify a photo!!!

Just remember to have fun and experiment a lot!!!

I used to teach painting classes and the most important thing that I could do was to make my students

understand that “fun” makes everything better. If it’s fun, you’ll try again!!!

This is one of those cases where the learning process is fun and you’re not trying to be a professional!!!

“JUST HAVE FUN WITH IT”

Lucky Number 7

 

True Random Number Service

Random Integer Generator

Here are your random numbers:

7

Timestamp: 2011-02-22 13:44:09 UTC

 

Lucky Number seven is the winner...the seventh commenter is.......Ms. Bake It ...you’ve won the CSN gift certificate!!!  Email me and I’ll give you all the “info”!!! Congratulations!!!

Ms. Bake-it said...

Love your photos, especially the sunflower! I am a happy follower!
~ Tracy

February 17, 2011 11:10 AM

Mosaics...

Somehow this mosaic..well...it just doesn’t speak to me like I think it should...

What should I do with it???

 

I like this one better...same photos...

I eliminated the top left photo, changed the color of the frame around the photos to a  softer color and changed the orientation from

vertical to horizontal...

still...not just how I think it should look...

I do like the single drop of rain on the  yellow calla lily...

 

Win a few...lose a few...sometimes I should just leave well enough alone!!!

 

Go here for my giveaway...I will announce the winner Tuesday...and someone has to win!!!

 

 

 

Visit Mary to see some very pretty mosaics @ Little Red House

 

Boogieboard Cottage features  Masterpiece Monday

Strawberries That Taste Like Pineapple???

I found this photo of gorgeous White Strawberries on Pinterest...the original site says they taste like strawberries!!!

I think they are so gorgeous!!!

Go here to see the original source.

 

 

Please enter my CSN Giveaway here!!!

 

Tootsie has some gorgeous stuff at “Fertilizer Fridayhttp://www.tootsietime.com/”...visit to see!!!

 

CSN Giveaway and Some Eye Candy

Do you have a home office that is in need of  modern office furniture ???

CSN and I are giving away $30 for one of my followers to shop with any of their stores.

I know I need office furniture since I am trying to put together a home office. Well at least I have the wall paper pulled off the walls and have it all

freshly painted.

Just leave a comment on this post and be a follower and I’ll draw for someone to win the $30 gift certificate...

I’ll draw the winner from comments on this post on Tuesday, Feburary 22 and announce the winner on Tuesday night.

Just leave a comment and tell me that you are a follower...easy Peasy...

I would love to have this great laptop stand...since I blog on my laptop...while sitting in my nice cushy recliner...

CSN even has all kinds of paper and ink for my printer...who knew that???

 

 

 

 

The “Set Up”

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This sequence of photos depicts how I “set up” my photographs...it may not be the right way,

it’s just my way...hopefully it might help someone else.

Everything is edited in Picasa...

Please remember that I am self taught...

 

I think you can see that the room is painted a real light yellow, so the photos with the beigey yellow background haven’t had any color change...

The photos with the lighter backgrounds were edited by pushing the color temperature to the left on the scale...

that makes the colors go toward the blue spectrum.

By experimenting with the fill light, and the highlight slide you can lighten even more.

I find a red rose to be very tricky to lighten...you can get pink and purple streaks if you’re not careful.

 

The mosaic is also made in Picasa by clicking the green pushpin (in the bottom frame of Picasa), this holds your photos until you’re ready to make a collage (mosaic).

Just click the collage button on the right bottom part of the page and select the type of collage you want to make.

Experimenting is the best way to learn here.

 

This textured photo was also made in Picasa...using the collage option.

Hold the photo and the texture in your selection box. Click collage and choose the multiple exposure

button in the settings tab. After my collage was finished I edited it.

l chose fill light, highlight and color temperature to tweak my photo.

 

Have fun.

Patience

I’m waiting for these to arrive in 2011...patiently ...