Your June calendar freebie

Earlier this month, I had the opportunity to visit The Textile Museum of Canada. I had only been there once before and that was ages ago. Photographs are permitted, with the only rule being "no flash", so I opted to experiment and use only my iPhone as I walked around, instead of the traditional camera buried in the bottom of my purse. It was truly an experiment as the lighting is quite subdued and I was unsure if I would get any quality shots. I am pleased to report that overall I was quite happy with my photos. So happy, in fact, that I decided to use one of those images to create June's calendar page. Here's the original photograph, before the playfulness began:

I brought this iPhone photo into Photoshop and then played around with it before adding the smudged orange edge and the calendar info. The image altering included a substantial curves adjustment as well as utilizing both the poster edges and cutout filters, at a very low opacity.

Did you know you could lower the opacity of a filter? This is one of those hidden gems in Photoshop. Unfortunately, I don't believe this works in Photoshop Elements and I'm not sure it even works in earlier versions of CS (I have CS4). I'd appreciate knowing if your version of PS supports this so, if you give this a try, please let me know the results. Here's the how-to: immediately after applying a filter, go straight to your Edit menu and you will see the Fade command near the top. This not only lets you reduce the opacity of the filter you just applied, but also lets you apply a blending mode to it as well. Neat, eh?

As always, please click on the calendar image at the top or click HERE to get your copy. Just click on the All Sizes link where you can choose your download size (I recommend Original).

Hollywood Cemetery

For me, one of the great joys of a road trip is the anticipation of discovery. What's around the next bend? What detours or diversions await?

Leslie, Irene and I are now home from our wonderful journey to the Art & Soul art retreat in Virginia. As we drove down the interstate on Day Two of our road trip, Leslie suggested I pull out the CAA guide book for Virginia and have a peek at the attractions in Richmond. There were many listings, including Hollywood Cemetery. A few moments later the GPS -- a.k.a. Evil Lola -- was set and off we headed into Richmond.

Hollywood Cemetery, despite its name, is not where you'll find movie stars; it's named for the abundance of holly found there. Despite the lack of popular celebrities, it is the final resting place of many notables, including Jefferson Davis, the President of the Confederate States of America (please read up on the Civil War if he is unfamiliar to you). It's a large cemetery and we never did spot Davis's gravesite but we did see many lovely stone angels. It's a beautiful, peaceful place.

We arrived back in town yesterday; today, I have no energy -- likely a combination of the heat and the return from vacation. I have been content to fiddle on the computer and it's been enjoyable playing around in photoshop. All three of these photos were taken in Richmond's Hollywood Cemetery and altered by me today. Above, at the very top, is one of those wonderful angels. For this artwork, I owe thanks to Marie Otero for one of the textures I used, received in her excellent Lovely Layers class at Art & Soul. And if you're interested, I have added the second angel to my RedBubble account, where you can purchase it as a greeting card or print. Click HERE if you'd like to have a look.

I will be blogging about my classes soon, but if you have plans to attend Art & Soul in Portland in October, I strongly suggest you take Marie's Lovely Layers class, mentioned above. Her Surface Magic class is also amazing. I thoroughly enjoyed them both!

Five Guys and three women

Tonight, we three women had dinner with five guys. As I like to say....HOOBOY.

Er, make that Five Guys, as in Five Guys Burgers and Fries. After a wonderful Photoshop class with Marie Otero today (thanks for the clipping masks, Marie ... used one here!), we treated ourselves to some shopping and dinner away from the hotel. Leslie ferried us expertly to JoAnn Fabrics, WalMart, and finally the plaza containing both Five Guys and good ol' Target.

If you have the opportunity to get yourself to a Five Guys, don't miss it. You'll be treated to delicious homemade burgers, topped with a variety of condiments including sauteed mushrooms and onions. No extra charge, either. Yum. Although I am not a fan of french fries, Irene and Leslie both gave them a try and I sampled a few. The servings were generous and tasty. I pulled out my iPhone after my dinner was demolished; my apologies for not capturing the burger in all its glory but instead offering only an empty wrapper.

Five Guys ... highly recommended by these three women!

The Art & Soul Road Trip: In the beginning...

Today, THE GREAT ADVENTURE begun. Finally.

Leslie, Irene and I headed out this morning at a civilized hour, making our way to Virginia for Art & Soul. We had a wonderful day -- loud singing in the car, lunch at Cracker Barrel, what could be better? We even drove through a tunnel (above, the Allegheny Tunnel), something that would have been a huge highlight when the captain and I travelled with Rob many years ago. And the day was wonderfully capped off with a terrific dinner in a comfortable hotel suite.

We are in Maryland; our drive tomorrow should take us no more than four hours or so. Time for outlet mall shopping in the morning, perhaps?

BIG news!

I am so delighted to finally be able to reveal a secret I've been keeping. I have been busy with many projects of late, but this has been a big one.

Announcing......the launch of my new online shop!

Yes, the site went live last night and I'm now offering a selection of my photographs and digital art for sale. No doubt, you noticed the new addition to the blog, the link just below my banner. That will whisk you away to the shop, but for a lovely viewing experience on black, please click HERE.

The fulfillment of your orders is handled by RedBubble and I'm very stoked about the service they offer. While I do have certain images available only as greeting cards, all the other artwork can be purchased in a wide array of styles, everything from inexpensive laminated prints right up to framed pieces.

I hope you'll have a look and, please, if there are any of my images you would like to see from my photo sets on Flickr offered in my online shop, please let me know. I would also be happy to customize any image into a greeting card, such as thank-you cards, sympathy cards, birthday cards and more.

It's iPhone time

Yes, I've done it again: found a new app (or two) for my iPhone. They just keep coming, don't they? Just when I think I couldn't possibly find another image-editing app I could use, I come across one I absolutely, um, need. And you know I'll share the scoop.

First photo, above. I took this photo of Toronto's famous CN Tower while at the Blue Jays baseball game at the end of April (the dome was open at the time). As I often do, I used the Toy Camera app, set on random. Toy Camera and Hipstamatic seem to be my go-to apps.

I then brought the picture into the Lo-Mob app, an amazing tool everyone should have on their iPhone. It offers a huge selection of choices from grunge to vintage, such as ttv frames and instant camera styles.

Next, another picture I took while at the baseball game. Again, I used the Toy Camera app, set on random. I enjoy the surprise factor when using the random setting; for this photo, the app selected a black-and-white appearance. I then brought the photo into my newest app, FotoMuse. Using that app, I heightened the contrast and then applied the "textures" (the app calls them Layers and Borders). That's it; easy peasy.

I need to find some time to play with these apps extensively!

It's Mother's Day

These are the years, the gentle years,

the soft and sentimental years

when wee little fingers

reach and touch

and little eyes gaze

with wonder and trust,

when you love so tenderly

and so so much,

these are the gentle years.

These are the years, the rainbow years,

the quiet, walk-on-tiptoes years,

the years of laughter

and smiles and sighs

when both of you watch

with misty eyes

the tiny bed

where a cherub lies,

these are the rainbow years.

These are the years, the tender years,

the blissful, sweet-surrender years,

when your little treasure

from above

is the soul and purpose

and center of

your plans and dreams

and dearest love,

these are the tender years.

Barbara Burrow

My years with a wee one are long ago; those tender years have evolved into the amazing years, the wonderment of having your child walk this world as an adult. The years flow together and it's a lovely journey, this motherhood. May all my friends and all my family enjoy their day today.

Special sights in Chicago

Do you see it?

No, no. I don't mean the Sears Tower. Here, let's look closer.

Now do you see it?

No? How about this, then:

Ahhhhhh...now you see it. A sign that made my little ol' heart go pitter-patter. The real honest-to-goodness Route 66! Even if it did look just like a downtown Chicago street. Which, it was. Is. Whatever.

I owe a debt of gratitude to Leslie who kept mysteriously insisting that day that she had "something" to show me, something important enough to delay our visit to the Art Institute of Chicago. And since that was the reason for our trip to the Windy City, it was an intriguing mystery to me. So we walked along Michigan Avenue, turned the corner, walked a few steps and ... ta-da! This amazing sign. She knew it was there and knew it was something I absolutely shouldn't miss.

The captain and I have always said that, someday, we'll drive Route 66, the whole thing. And while I knew that it started in Chicago, it never entered into my mind as something to put on my Chicago agenda. After all, we were going to be downtown, without a car. I had no idea that sign was walking distance from our hotel. What a treat!

Leslie had something else to show me before we headed back up the street to the Art Institute. She knew I was a diehard ER fan, so she wanted me to see this.

To Leslie -- and to me -- this El station is pure ER. I've shown you both the east and west stairways on both sides of this one station, from the street up to the platform. Don't these stairs up to the El look like the ones the show's characters were always running up and down?

I miss ER. Thursday nights just aren't the same.

Looking for distraction

The eatwritecreate household experienced a minor crisis Friday night: part of our living room ceiling collapsed. The captain and I were out and came home to discover a living room filled with dusty rubble and a terrified dog. Poor Tippi. The mess is cleared up and today, finally, Tippi doesn't seem spooked anymore.

In the full spirit of complete denial, I have been playing around in Photoshop and pretending the ugly ceiling is really just a tromp l'oeil project!

The photoshop time has been well-spent. Above, a charming angel I photographed back in January in Savannah's Bonaventure Cemetery. More Savannah, below: the orange interior wall inside the Soho South Cafe and a barber shop we walked by. Also below, the box office sign at the historic Chicago theatre.