The Wind in the Willows

Greetings from Maryland on this mild February day. Yesterday was unusually warm but today it’s back to normal, which is fine for me – considering that it’s February. It’s in the high 40’s and we’ve got some good wind, but the sun is shining on the land.

I love sleeping in late on a Saturday morning. Actually, anything after 6 AM is sleeping in, because that’s what time I get up on the week days. (Anyway, that’s the time the alarm goes off).




I had coffee on the porch this morning with my husband, who had been up for hours doing his daily walk with the pup. I took a couple of short videos which are below.

Quiet.

We were having wind gusts quite often and it was fun to watch while we sat in our protected little area of the front porch.

Wind gusts.

By the way, I couldn’t see a thing while I was filming. The little Sony Handycam doesn’t have a glare proof screen and all I could see was myself. Squinting.

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After coffee and a nice walk with George, I worked on some photos I took this morning. I haven’t taken many pictures this week and had begun to miss it. So I poured the last of my Kellogg’s Granola, splashed on some nice cold skim milk, and headed into the living room to upload my images into the hard drive.

I love playing around in Photoshop. If you’re new to actions and textures, deciding which one to use – especially when you have a vast library – is the first step. I don’t like spending hours sitting around on my butt though, so I tend to make my decisions quickly. But today, for some reason, it took longer than I wanted to get this post up. But for what it’s worth, here’s what I have for you on this fine morning.




Leaf on a grapevine. For this, I used the SOOC version, adding a Kim Klassen texture called Nature’s Beauty (soft light blending mode) as well as her February Magic Edges texture (screen blending mode). The original (SOOC) and the finished version are below because I’m unable to do the mouseover effect anymore. I haven't been able to do it since I went to Blogger’s new template last fall. If anyone knows how, please let me know.



And for those of you who loved my husband’s outdoor decorating scheme, I grabbed a shot of his buoy collection before I came inside.



For this I used Florabella’s Soft Color Pop action and then Slice Like a Ninja, a sharpening action from Totally Rad. (For links, see my sidebar). I also added two SkeletalMess textures, Infectious Grooves (hard light blending mode) and Hell Bound (soft light blending mode). I love the names of some of the actions and textures, don’t you? Original and finished is below. Click on photos below to embiggen, if you like.



For some reason, I felt like putting my watermark on everything today, too. I should probably do it all the time but I’m too lazy.



The original looks so close to the finished product on the photo above, but I’ll post it anyway. I worked on it because the SOOC version had the bowl and cereal a lot brighter than it really was. I ran the Super Fun Happy action from Totally Rad, then used a Les Brumes texture and called it a day.



And now I’m off to run some errands.

And I’m taking my little friend here with me.

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Have a wonderful weekend, all ~

I feel as if I had been through something very exciting and rather terrible, and it was just over; 

and yet nothing particular has happened.

- Kenneth Grahame, The Wind in the Willows