Summertime...

I'm not a country music fan but Kenny Chesneys

Summertime was stuck in my head today. Played around

with icolorama brushes again then opened the 

image in Oggl to add a vintage camera lens and 

film effect. Added some texture with DistressedFX and

finally the lyrics with Word Swag.

I know….it's not a Ford….but it's the only shot

I had of a truck.

Yoo-Hoo!

The Ancient

I've been looking at the icolorama app for a while

now. I've seen some wonderful things done with it

so I finally plunked down the $2.99 to add it to my

arsenal of photo manipulation tools. 

This is my first piece and to be honest I can't really 

tell you how I did it! I opened one of my digital

collages and played around with brushes in the

artist mode….I think….

After getting something that caused that little

"yeah…that's it" kinda thingy in my stomach

I saved it and then reopened it in Tangent and

added the geometric elements….and 

The Ancient revealed herself.

I've got a LOT to learn about this app but it

looks like a great purchase.

Rainy Morning Walk….

Here are a couple of pics I took this morning on a 

walk around my yard. 

Yes….I HAD to snazzy them up with a couple of apps.

I've become quite obsessed with apps….BIG bang for

little bucks!

Here's the raw shot of the succulent:

I used Oggl (Hipstamatic) to get the effect above.

I have Hipstamatic on my iPhone…it lets you shoot

using a combination of lens and old film types but

I like shooting raw and opening the image in Oggl 

to see which combos I like best.

And the chives:

I opened this image in Snapseed and converted it to

HDR then saved and opened in my new favorite…

Tinned Cam and added the light effect and color

change. Easy peasy!

A little snazzing up makes all the difference!

Lola #2

Here's #2 in my Lola series. To keep with the theme

I used the same process as in the previous post. I played

around with more color choices in this one and really

liked the result. 

"Well I'm not dumb but I can't understand

why she walked like a woman and talked like a man

Oh my Lola

la-la-la-la Lola

la-la-la-la

Lola"

L-O-L-A……LOLA

Do you remember the song "Lola" by the Kinks?

It was stuck in my head all day and ended up in my

art. The original picture is an old high school photo.

I opened it in Tinned Cam and added the overlay

with the white lettering and distress marks. Next I 

used Procreate to add the "makeup" and saved the

image and then opened this image and the original

 in Image Blender. After blending the two pictures

I opened the result in Word Swag to add the lyrics.

I've recently joined a group on Facebook moderated

by Karen Divine where she suggests a direction and then

she and other artists discuss your post. The current 

challenge is to develop a series based on one idea.

I'm thinking I'll continue to bring out the "Lola" in

more old photos for my entries.

Bird is the Word

I haven't had much of a chance to play around with apps

lately. After watching my gran while 

we waited for her sister to arrive I woke up the

day after she went home with some kind of cold/sore throat/

nausea thingy…..yuk! Still not feeling all that well but I did

play with a new app….Tinned Cam… to create this picture.

Fun app! I can't wait to feel better so I can really explore

what this one will do.

Welcome Ever…….

My newest gran….

Everleigh…

'Ever'

Little Miss Blondie…

She should be home tomorrow.

I haven't seen her yet 'cause I'm 

keeping her big sister Lila..

Miss TERRIBLE two!!!

Ever weighed in at a whopping

6 lbs 11 oz and is 18 3/4".

My daughter says all the nurses

are commenting on her white

blonde hair. This Grama is

looking forward welcoming

Ever home!

Words of Wisdom

ABSOLUTELY!!!!!!!!

My First "Girl Crush"…..

Ok……..I'm just gonna put this out there….

I have a huge "girl crush" on Carla Hall.

I think she is the coolest….funniest….

wildest woman ever and I want her for my BFF!

I always look forward to her instagram

videos and watch her on The Chew just

to see what she's gonna wear. She 

cracks me up with her facial expressions 

and humor….and she cooks!

I want to be just like her!

The Seeker

More iPhoneography for you…

I shot this yesterday using Camera+ while

my grans were hunting Easter eggs then

opened it up in Pencil Camera and played

around with the filters until I got the look

I wanted. Easy peasy…..

Raw image:

and my sweet boy….

Raw image:

In Her Easter Bonnet…..

Easter at my Grandmothers in the 50's……

oh how I hated being dressed like this!

There should have been a law against doing

this to little girls!

Happy Easter….

Oh Yeah…..!

Lettuce from my garden…

oh yeah…

that's what I'm talking about!

Slid down pretty easy…

now if this crazy weather will decide

what it's gonna do maybe I can get started

on getting my veggies planted. 

I have four rosemary plants about

waist high that really took a hit this winter.

It looks like 90% of the plant is dead but I

do see some green on all the plants. Keeping

my fingers crossed they decide to stay with me.

Fresh tomatoes….can't wait!

Arlene Was Here

My senior picture and a snapshot taken in a jail

cell where women were housed back in the 70's 

make up this piece. I used Image Blender to combine

the two…adjusting the layer mode and opacity to

get this effect. 

Originals:

Foxy Lady

Just felt like having a little fun tonight.

Snapped a picture of a vintage sewing pattern

with Camera+ and cut out this lady's body.

Her head is from a picture I did playing 

around with free motion sewing. I combined

these two in Procreate and merged the

completed body with the background in

Image Blender adding the text with

Swag Word.

"You know you're a cute little heart breaker

Foxy

You know you're a sweet little love maker

Foxy

……Foxy Lady"

                                                                    jimi hendrix

Follow Your Bliss

"Follow your bliss and the Universe will

open doors….." 

                                                           joseph campbell

Snapseed and VSCOcam were the apps

used to process this shot. Only added a little

HDR and a filter.

Raw photo:

iphoneography…..definitely my bliss….

Oh What the Heck…..Stairway to Heaven

I wanted to call this Stairway to Heaven but

it isn't a stairway…is it? This was taken this

morning in an alley down town. I liked the

angle and how it seemed to fade out from the

sun glare. 

I opened it first in Snapseed and applied an HDR

filter…adjusting the scale until I got the muted color.

Next a filter was applied in VSCOcam to further

enhance the color of the brick. Last thing I did was

apply two textures in DistressedFX to get the heavy

texture on top and add the darkness around the 

border.

Here's the original raw from the iPhone:

All in all I'm happy with how it turned out.

The pollen count has held me hostage this last week so

I haven't ventured out to do much shooting but have been

immersed in a wonderful PhotoShop class so I've kept

myself busy inside. I wish I had been able to take this

class when I first taught myself to use PS. I can't say

enough good things about it and would recommend it

to anyone wishing to make digital art.

Seeing Double

Simple bicycle tire rim shot with Hipstamatic app using

Salvador 84 Lens and Blackeys Supergrain film. 

Double exposure…shadows….lines….

oh my….

Mobile Home with a View

Found this abandoned "home" in my asparagus

bed this morning.  I snapped this shot using

the Camera+ app on my iPhone…the only

adjustment was the lighting. I sat the shell

on the rusted lid of a galvanized can where

 I store bird seed to take the shot. Next I 

added the water/reflection below the picture.

And there you have it…mobile home with

a view.

Snips 'n Snails

I took a photo of my youngest grandson and skewed

it in Elasticam…opened it in Photoshop…selected

just his head and converted it to a PNG. I layered

the head on an old book texture…added the stars and

boat using a stamp brush. I reopened this in my

Reflection app and added the water…playing 

around with the color and opacity until it felt right.

Finally I opened it one last time in DistressedFX

and added a couple of textures and adjusted them

to get the colors I wanted. I really like the effects

I can get with the Elasticam app…I've always 

loved wonky things!

That Beard….

I don't know what drew me first to this picture…the beard

or the eyes. I got it from the Swedish National Heritage Board

on Flickr. It was a black and white image.

I opened it first in Photoshop…converted it to an HDR image

and burned the eye area to make them even stronger. Next I 

opened it in Focal Lab and created the blur effect. After that

I opened it in Hipstamatic and applied a lens and film combination

that gave it the grain and color. Finally I opened it in Distressedfx

and converted it into an HDR photo again to get the strong visual.

Kind of a scary looking fellow…..

Reflections…..

“It is when you lose sight of yourself that you lose your way.

 To keep your truth in sight you must keep yourself in 

sight... and the world to you should be a mirror to reflect

 to you your image... the world should be a mirror that

 you reflect upon.” ~ C. Joybell

The Beauty of a Seed Pod

"Everything has its beauty but not everyone sees it."

                                                         ~ confucius

I don't know of too many folks that like having a

Sweetgum tree shed these seed pods in their yards.

They do have a beauty if you really look closely.

This piece started with an older photo that I took

several years ago.

As you can see it had some limbs and shadows

in the background. I opened it in Photoshop

and played around with the layers settings until I

got the background a vivid white with just a blurred

shadow of the limbs. Then I took the clone tool and 

cloned the white over the limbs creating a solid white

background. I thought about extracting the pod and

making it into a PNG but didn't really want to spend

thirty minutes getting all those details so I decided to

work with the white background. Next I sent this to 

my iPad and opened it in my DistressedFX app and 

played around with the different textures and opacities

until I got the look I wanted. The warm earth tones

of these textures really make the seed pod pop.

I saw a snap on lens for my iPhone with a fish eye…

wide angle…and two macro lens that I'd LOVE to

have if I had $67.00 to spend. Oh well…

maybe someday...

Margaret

I've always loved this picture of my cousin standing

in front of our grandmother's house. I practiced a little

photoshop wizardry to blur the background and add

 a little texture then scanned in an old letter..printed it..

cut it in strips and rescanned the strips in two lots. I 

spent a goodly amount of time selecting and making 

each strip into a png before adding all sixteen layers

of letter to the photo. It seemed to call for a dark frame

to keep with the vintage feel so I added the black frame 

using Camera+ on my iPad. I love the way it turned out.

Here's the story behind the letter….on one of my junkin'

trips I was thrilled to find a keep sake book from 1939. 

It's full of letters and mementos of Miss Zelda Shutt.

This particular letter was written to her by her niece

and the child like handwriting was the reason I 

chose it for this piece…and I was intrigued by the

whole 'quarantined for scarlet fever' thing.

My Sacred Tools

…..my sacred tools

i feel the energy just looking at this picture.

The Bee Keeper

I'm not sure where I saw this article about the bees

attending their keepers funeral but I always thought 

it was such a beautiful story. Playing around with

iPhoneography this sunny Saturday morn.

Totem

I've been taking an Iphoneography Class with Susan

Tuttle and can I just say that I'm absolutely twitterpated

by the idea of being able to shoot and edit pictures anywhere

that I happen to be. I've always carried around my Canon but

it can be cumbersome and to be able to carry an iPhone in my

pocket….well that's so much easier. I'm in app heaven at the

moment….love all the apps that I bought for this class. If you

are interested in seeing my work progress you can follow me

on Instagram….justjody59.

Boundless and Infinite….

I want to live simply.

I want to sit by the window when

it rains and read books I'll

never be tested on.

I want to paint because I want to,

not because I've got something to prove.

I want to listen to my body,

fall asleep when the moon is high

and wake up slowly,

with no place to rush off to.

I want not to be governed by money

or clocks or any of the artificial

restraints that humanity

imposes on itself. I just want to be,

boundless and infinite.

Both this image and this quote are from

Facebook so I don't know who to

attribute either of them to but I think they

 are both awesome! When I read this 

quote I realized that I'm pretty

much there….and very blessed to be

able to say this. And the image…well

it just seemed to be representative of

my life….blessed….

blessed indeed…. 

I see you……..

This little one was at my youngest grans birthday 

celebration today. Those eyes….I couldn't wait to

do a little photoshop wizardry on him!

Least'uns…...

My first attempt with the mixer brush….

Art on my Mind….

Always….

Blessing the Tree

my pecan tree during this last snow

didn't see this until i posted

the angel…

blessing

the

tree

Counting Sheep

1….

2….

Someone asked me if I counted sheep to fall asleep…

nope..

just pick up a book after 8pm and try to read..

The Necessary

We never had an outhouse when I was a child but

I do have vivid memories of spending the night with

a friend who had one. They had a terrifying dog chained

to the darn thing and one person had to run around the

outhouse so the dog would chase them in order for the

other person to enter…and repeat to exit. Even now I

can't figure out the logic of this other than the fact that

she had a house full of older brothers and this was probably

their greatest form of amusement.

Memories Warm and Spirits Lighter…..

another 'makes me happy' film…..

Whispers…...

this is an abandoned cotton mill in the town where i live….

i'm so drawn to these forgotten building spirits…

they whisper my name...

Happy Place…..

i have no idea what this is saying but it makes me

…..happy.

The Comfort of Spirits…..

                                                          art by isabelle bryer 

Everything is Waiting for You

Your great mistake is to act the drama
as if you were alone. As if life
were a progressive and cunning crime
with no witness to the tiny hidden
transgressions. To feel abandoned is to deny
the intimacy of your surroundings. Surely,
even you, at times, have felt the grand array;
the swelling presence, and the chorus, crowding
out your solo voice You must note
the way the soap dish enables you,
or the window latch grants you freedom.
Alertness is the hidden discipline of familiarity.
The stairs are your mentor of things
to come, the doors have always been there
to frighten you and invite you,
and the tiny speaker in the phone
is your dream-ladder to divinity.

Put down the weight of your aloneness and ease into
the conversation. The kettle is singing
even as it pours you a drink, the cooking pots
have left their arrogant aloofness and
seen the good in you at last. All the birds
and creatures of the world are unutterably
themselves. Everything is waiting for you.

                                                                             poem by david whyte

i am much comforted by the spirits of my surroundings…

i honor and thank them daily…

aho…

Just Give Your…..

"the heart has reasons that reason cannot know.."

                                                              blaise pascal

and that's enough…

Blessed…..

safe and warm inside after feeding my little feathered

ones….feeling blessed….

Sigh……..

sigh…….