More phone photography, and a contest elsewhere

Maybe you’re thinking, “enough already” with the camera phone pictures, but I’m finding it extraordinarily easy to carry this little device rather than lugging around the big D80. So during a couple of my walks this weekend, I popped the phone into one of my pockets and off I went with the hiking poles and the dog.

The leaves lasted a good long time this fall, and it wasn’t until Friday that we really began to see a difference in the view. It’s beautiful when the wind blows because it rains fluttering leaves from above.

 

For most of these, I used my current favorite photo app for the Droid, Be Funky. If any of you know of other apps we might like, feel free to shout it out in the comment section.

 

I used Photoshop on some of these, and spent part of Saturday afternoon fooling around with pictures. Always a fun way to spend some time, as far as I’m concerned.

 

The phone doesn’t do a half-bad job at capturing things.

 

I love crunching through the leaves.

 

The path is actually under this pile of leaves. It was nearly up to my knees, as it runs right next to a wooded area.

 

I bought pillows on sale at the Pottery Barn, and am using them on the dog’s couch. I don’t know what else to call this couch because the main occupant of it is a border collie named George – who now has brand new pillows.

With goose down.

Nothing but the best for George.

 

 

 

 

 

 

All in all, it was a beautiful weekend.

 

And someone is very tired tonight.

 

I read about a contest for phone photography on a blog I visit. It runs through the month of December and anyone can enter – all you need is a camera phone and a Flickr account. You may submit up to 3 photos per week, giving you more chances of winning. Grand prize is a $100 Amazon gift certificate.

Cabin Fever in VT – Phone Photography Contest, Nov/Dec

Hope you enter. Should be fun!

 

Until tomorrow, my friends . . .

Camera phone pictures

Boy, was I up early this morning. I woke when my husband got up and couldn’t fall back to sleep. I’m glad, though, because I have a lot to do this morning and I also got to enjoy a beautiful sunrise.

Yesterday, the wind blew off most of the leaves on the trees, and suddenly everything looks different. And it’s quite chilly this morning here in Maryland.

I took all of the photos in this post using my camera phone. Some were tweaked using the Be Funky app I downloaded to process photos in the phone. And some were tweaked using Photoshop, like my favorite one just below.

My driveway on Thursday morning.

It was quite foggy that day as I headed to work, and the driveway was so pretty that I stopped the car and got the phone out. I used a tilt shift effect in the Be Funky app on the phone, then ran Florabella’s tea time action in Photoshop, then PW’s Boost. I love this photo ~ and I promise you this . . . every single time I drive up or down this old driveway, I realize how blessed we are.

Even when there’s a tree down.

We are absolutely blessed to be living here.





Taken from my window seat at a restaurant in Chesapeake City, Maryland last month. I used an app from Be Funky, and one of their grunge borders. This is the view from the Bayard House Restaurant, along the C&D Canal.

Our house, earlier this week while we still had leaves on the trees.

Coffee on the front porch in my favorite slippers.

(i got them here)

Sunrise this morning. Bare trees, and the twinkling lights along the main road. I took this from the front door, and you can tell we live on a hill here.

Well, better get to work. Got some housekeeping to do today, and later our son is supposed to visit. What are you up to this weekend? Inquiring minds, and all . . .

Thanks for stopping by today. It’s always a pleasure having you visit.

Night comes early

Early this morning I woke up to find that I had been denied access to my e-mail account, which was probably due, the message said, to a violation of their access terms. I wrote to google mail, giving another e-mail address I keep for school purposes, to dispute the charge.

Then I tried to open my blog, only to find that it had been shut down, also due to a violation of terms. I disputed this claim too, and began to wonder if something was up with google.

It was a message I had seen on other blogs, and I decided there are worse things that can happen in this world than losing your blog in cyberspace, so I let it go so that I could get ready for work. It worried me a little bit about the e-mail account, and if I hadn’t been through what I’ve been through the past couple of months, I probably would have gotten more upset.

But I wasn’t too upset. Because in the scheme of things, it was probably fixable.

And by the time I got to work, it was fixed, with a sincere apology from the google team.

 

Thanks to all who wrote me this morning asking if there was anything wrong. You were so sweet to do that. But all is well.

And it’s nearly dark when I get home from work now. And today, the almost-full moon was coming up as I took a walk with one of my favorite guys.

 

These were taken before 5 pm.

I love this weather. I adore fall days.

 

Autumn is my favorite season, second to spring.

Today was the first day that I was not only back to work full-time, but that I did not come home for lunch to be with my husband. I started back to work full-time last Friday and have been coming home at lunchtime to visit my husband who is recuperating well from his last brain surgery. He’s just really sad, and he’s lonely. And he loves it when I’m home.

Today when I got there, I saw a box from REI waiting on the table. My husband had ordered a couple of things and was waiting to show me what he’d bought.

Somebody got a new frisbee.

 

It’s a really nice one and it soars really well (even when I toss it).

 

And there was a hat for my husband.

And a pair of pajama bottoms for me. They’re very cute, winter flannel ones. And they looked . . . well, they looked . . . shall we say . . . a bit on the large size.

I checked the size and it said XXL.

 

OMG, I thought. Does he really think I’m XXL?

And so I asked him about the size. He said he was looking for an L. And he thought they were extra LL. I don’t really know what he said to explain it, and it didn’t matter anyway.

What mattered was that he bought himself a hat. And he also got each of us a little present. And that was kind of sweet, actually.

 

Just like this weather.

It’s kind of sweet, actually ~

Gotta go. Survivor’s on.

Until tomorrow, my friends . . .

Fruit tarts and other such deliciousness

Warning: There are photos of food in this post. I’m just letting you know now that there is a plethora of delectable edibles here, and I’ll understand if you make a hasty retreat from this post.

I mentioned last Friday that one of the parents at our school stopped by to drop off some paperwork for one of her sons and happened to mention that she and a friend were going to the Italian market in Philadelphia.
She then went on to describe pastries, and cheeses, and all sorts of wonderful things and ended up asking if she could bring anyone something. I finally acquiesced, saying that I would love to take something home to my husband, and she ended up getting several pastries for all of us in the front office.

I have never been to this bakery, which is in the heart of the Italian Market, but it’s known for its award-winning pastries.

Isgro Pasticceria




It should say Pastries since 1904, because that’s how long they’ve been in business. I was excited just to open the sweet little box.

And inside was a fruit tart for me, and an individual Italian cream cake for my husband.




Oh, be still my heart.

I was thrilled that it wasn’t a yellow custard but rather a white, thick, and only slightly sweetened cream. The top of the tiny pastry crust was lined in chocolate.




And the tart was adorned with the freshest of fruit bits. That’s a fig making an appearance on the left above. I mean, how often do you see fresh figs?

I never do.

The tart was divine.




And then there was the Italian cream cake.

My skills at food photography are extremely limited. I try to get the light right, but am terribly lacking at the styling end of it. Looking at this, I want to yell at myself for not getting out a fork and slicing a piece off to show you the inside.

But I didn’t yell, because why beat myself up over something trivial?

It was layers of cake and cream, and oh so good.

Thank you, Suanne, for going to the trouble to bring back these wonderful treats for all of us.

: : :

But the food glory didn’t end on Friday. In fact, it only kick-started the weekend.

On Saturday, I made cinnamon raisin bread.




And I sprinkled chocolate chips on it along with the raisins.

I don’t know what possessed me to do this. But . . .




OH. EM. GEE.




On Saturday night, for dinner, I made these french fries. They were excellent, and I’d found the recipe on Pinterest. They’re actually healthy, too, because they’re baked rather than fried.

Oven Baked Parmesan Seasoned Fries




And I also made this. Another treat I found on Pinterest, but it happened to be on one of my favorite food blogs, Kayotic Kitchen. Kay, the cooking Dutch girl, calls it her Kaytucky Chicken. The chicken is made with a cheese spread inserted into a big slice in the chicken, then wrapped in a pastry shell and baked. Delish.

Crescent Chicken

I’m going to stop now because just writing this post made me so hungry that I had to go out to the kitchen and get a small bowl of Ben & Jerry’s Fro Yo. Oh, the sacrifices I make just to write a blog post, I tellya.

Hope you enjoyed ~


Until tomorrow, my friends . . .

Feathered, from Pinterest

I've been on Pinterest again. This weekend, I made several recipes I found there.

I'll share them with you later. Today, I'm sharing some of my favorites from one of my boards. It's called 'feathered'. And this time, I'm going with the embed code for the credits. I've found that if you click on the code, it will take you to my board, where it will eventually direct you to the photographer's credit.

So much easier than what I did the last time I shared some of my Pinterest board photos.

And these are all so amazing . . .

Source: tumblr.com via George on Pinterest





Source: adme.ru via George on Pinterest

Source: wannasmile.com via George on Pinterest

Source: blog.patulrichphotography.com via George on Pinterest







Source: ineedfile.com via George on Pinterest

Source: piccsy.com via George on Pinterest

I loved reading about your weekends. It's the simple things that count in this life. Cleaning up the yard, family parties, dinners with friends, grandchildren and sleepovers . . . or just taking a walk in the park, your camera at the ready.

Thanks for sharing the small things with me.

Hope your week is off to a good start. I'm hoping the same for mine. Until tomorrow, then . . .

ps - unfortunately, those links under the photos don't work. They just take you to general pages. Grrrr. Why must things be so difficult?

Life is beautiful

It’s Friday evening and I’ve just had one of the best days I’ve had in awhile. I started back to work full-time today, and although I would rather be home spending time with my husband, being away all day (and being productive) feels like things are getting back to normal.


My husband is feeling better, too, and getting stronger every day. Click {here} if you’ve been away from this blog for awhile to read what I’m talking about.


We just enjoyed an excellent take-out dinner, so that means no dishes. And today, although it was a bit windy, was really a beautiful fall day. One of the parents stopped by early this morning to say that she and a friend were going food shopping over in South Philly all day and asked if I wanted anything. She ended up bringing sweets from a wonderful bakery for the office staff. I’ll share them with you later.


What I mean is, that I’ll share the photographs of the treats with you.


Ain’t nobody gettin' my fruit tart.





While I’ve been home, I’ve been taking a few photos here and there, then editing them to get them just right.

Here are a few I’ll share with you today.





I love fall and all its colors.





And the lacy leaves.


And the way the light plays on the grass.

: : :

I’m not usually a big fan of floral photography in black & white, but while at Talbots last Saturday, I was stunned by two incredibly striking framed prints in the hallway by the dressing room. They were florals in sepia tones, framed perfectly. I was inspired, so I played around with some of my own.





A sunflower in the early morning, after a light rain. I used Kevin Kubota’s chocolate syrup action on this one which gives it a rich sepia tone. Then I layered it with a texture from Kim Klassen.


For the photos below, I used a cappuccino action, then layered it with a lightly colored texture from Florabella called ‘Seaside’, which I thought looked interesting.





I hope you like. And hey, even if you don’t – I like.





Life surely isn’t easy street right now, but I’ve got a husband who is still with me, and who is so incredibly thankful for everything I have done for him.


(Either that, or it’s the drugs talking . . .)

: : :

So tell me, because inquiring minds want to know . . .

What are your plans for this weekend?

Until later, my friends . . .

Vintage Photos

In early October, my husband bought me a Canon scanner, something he’d been talking about getting for years. Maybe he had these (unrealistic) visions of me, diligently scanning all of of our old slides, negatives, and film into neat chronological order.

I really haven’t had the energy to do any of this, but I did get up the strength (ha) to scan a few more random photos of us. I had such a surprising response from my original post, with people asking for more, so I’m obliging here.

And once again, I ask you to please be kind.





Our friend, Jeff, took this photo of me one Sunday morning. We were all sitting around having coffee and reading the paper at our place – a little cottage on the first ‘big horse farm’ where my husband was employed at the time. Our children were really young, and I see that I’m sporting the 80’s look with ripped knees in my jeans.

Ever the fashion plate.





Years prior to the photo above, this is me on the first horse farm of my husband’s career. It was a small, private estate in Glenmoore, PA and we were 21 or 22, I believe. And for some reason, this was my favorite sweater.

Egads.





This is not one of my girlfriends. This is actually my husband (my boyfriend at the time). I took this with a camera I’d just bought for fifty bucks from one of the photographers at the newspaper where I worked. It was a Nikon F, completely manual, and I had no idea what I was doing. The two photos above were from my first roll of film using the camera. I remember being mad that the horse was out of focus, But looking back, I realize that I love it this way.





My husband with our dog, Alex. Alex was our first border collie, and was part beagle. I used to drive my little Fiat 124 Sport Coupe with Alex in the front seat and he would sing and be a guest speaker on W-DOG Radio, where I was the host. This was a game I played. He would howl when I sang ‘Chantilly Lace’.

Hey, I was young.

And I had a cool car.

And I kept the boyfriend around because he could fix the car, which was always breaking down.

Ok, and I liked him too.







Summer of 1980, at Cape Hatteras, NC. The year prior to this was when my husband’s parents began renting a house every year, and their three children and spouses (or significant others) would come to spend the week. I fell in love with North Carolina during those visits.





September, 1989 – the first year we rented our own house for the week at Hatteras. This is my husband with our youngest son, Shaun. Please note the Ernie doll, my baby's prized possession at the time. The doll never left his side.

I love this photo and have it in a beautiful frame on my dresser.

: : :

Hope you enjoyed the trip down memory lane. As I continue scanning, I’ll share more from time to time. To see my previous vintage photos, feel free to visit here:

Vintage Photos – 1

Have a beautiful day ~