Maggie's Birthday...

"Cats are anthropomorphized in art because they are so laid back that you automatically attribute human thoughts, and feelings to them." -Jim Davis (writer of Garfield)

I thought this picture was hilarious, and had to share it...(not my photo...found on the web.)

Yesterday, March 15, was Maggie's third birthday.  What do you do to celebrate a cat's birthday?  Not much, especially when your cat is a picky eater.  Well, she does eat her cat food, but she doesn't like table scraps, cat treats, or milk.  She only likes her cat food, which is good since that is probably healthier for her.  Correction, she does eat bugs, string, tinsel, or any other small object of no taste that might ultimately lead to her death.  But normal things you would think a cat would devour, no such luck.

I couldn't let her special day go by without some recognition to her.  So I sang her "happy birthday" as she was sitting by the door waiting to be let out.  She looked at me like, "What is wrong with you lady?"  That was after taking birthday photos.

No cake... just a cake hat...

"Hmmm.  This does not smell like something to eat...although these flowers look like they might be fun to nibble on..."

"or maybe these candles...they look sort of yummy..."

Doesn't she look good in her hat?

I tried another kind of birthday hat...this one she liked much better.  It had tinsel to eat, something she loves to eat, when she should not...

She loves to go into tiny spaces...

"Maybe I can get my body in here..."

Next I showed her this lovely metal cake decoration...

A sniff here and there, but she was not impressed.

"Just let me go outside...that is the best kind of birthday present."

I let her go outside.  She was happy.  I put away all the birthday items.  Cats are just not impressed with birthdays.  Oh well...Happy Birthday anyway... I love this cat, even if she doesn't care it is her birthday.

Friday finds, Art, and Maggie again...

"This world is but a canvas to our imagination." -Henry David Thoreau

I am linking up to Kim Klassen's Friday finds...

I went with a friend to photograph some new born lambs.  I did get some lamb pictures, but I fell in love with a dog on the premise named "Angel", and she was an angel.  So loving, furry, and friendly.

Angel...with a texture added... 

She is a very large, and hairy dog...and so sweet...

She would get up on her hind legs for a better position for petting...

And then there was this barn...did I ever mention that I love barns. I had to take a photo of it...Here is the barn as a normal picture...

I loved the birds flying over the barn...

One of my goals for 2015 is to make one photo art picture a month.  I decided the barn might make a good photo art picture.  I converted it to a sketch, then painted back in some of the color by using a layer mask.  The texture is from 2 Little Owls.

I love how this turned out...I added a silhouette of two people walking up to the barn for more interest.  And I had to move the tree over to the left in order to get it into the photo after I cropped it.

I am sure you are wondering what happened to the lambs.  Well, I did get photos of some lambs, and their mamas.

Since I was gone to Las Vegas for a week, I missed some of my BeStill52 class with Kim Klassen, so I tried to get caught up.  I did two weeks worth: the theme for the first one was organic, dark, and moody.  I have a friend who keeps me in farm fresh eggs...yes, she is wonderful, and so are her eggs!  What could be more organic than farm fresh eggs?  Did you know the color of the egg shells is determined by the color of the hen's ears?  That is what my friend told me.  Not that I want to get close enough to see the chicken's ears though...I just thought that was interesting.

Then the next theme was light, and airy.  These flowers are left over from Valentine's Day...can you believe that?... they lasted a long time.  The books are childhood favorites of my husband's...so they are at least 50 years old.  The charm bracelet with the little shoes belonged to my grandmother.  Each shoe represents on of her grandchildren, and has the grandchild's name engraved on the bottom.  When I was a little girl, I loved looking for my shoe.

No post would be the same without something about Maggie.  One of her favorite places to rest is in the sink.  I thought she could use a rubber ducky for her sink sitting, so I got her one.   Here she is checking out her new ducky...

 She has settled into her comfy position, so now she needs her rubber ducky...

"I think I would like to have my ducky in the sink with me...come here ducky..."

Oops...not quite in the right spot...I have to fix that...

There...That is much better...

Ahhh. Now to settle down...

into a nice nap...

She loves her rubber ducky...

Maggie...and lens baby...

"Now we see only an indistinct image..." 1Cor. 13a (ISV)

I recently went to a photo conference in Las Vegas. (more about the trip later).  Not only were there a lot of workshops, but there were two huge buildings with nothing but vendors selling camera gear, accessories, photo books, storage, and everything else your little heart could desire.  I refrained from buying anything, except a lens baby for my iPhone.  The lens baby for a DSLR camera is quite pricey, while the one for the iPhone is fairly cheap...and I got an expo discount.  So I bought it.  The Lens Baby is a tiny lens that mounts to your iPhone camera.

the lens baby...it is about an inch in size.

Here it is attached to the iPhone...there is one for the android as well.

The lens has a small "sweet spot" of focus, and blurs out the rest of the picture, which makes for some nice effects.  Stephanie, (one of the girls I went with), was trying it out on me...I am a little overexposed, but you get the idea.

I tried it out on a bouquet of flowers...

I tried it out on my grandson...

Then, I tried it out on my cat...Maggie...when she was sleeping.  This is the only time she is very still... a perfect subject to practice on with my new lens.

She heard the shutter as it clicked...and opened her eyes...to see what was happening.

"What are you doing?  I can't believe it...you...with your camera phone...more pictures... !" Maggie Groans loudly.

"Leave me alone...Can't you just go...away..."

"And let me take a nap..."

In peace...???

No more pictures...please!

I think I am going to like my new toy!

Still getting caught up...Be Still 52...week 37

"Creativity is God's gift to us.  Using our creativity is our gift to God." -Julia Cameron

I am still playing catch up.  Today, I decided to work on some of my online classes that I have gotten way behind in.  One of my classes is from Kim Klassen's Be Still 52, which is 52 weeks of creating still life projects that bring calm to the chaos of our lives.  It is a time of creativity, stillness, and soaking in the beauty around us in our ordinary, daily routines.  One of the things we were supposed to do is create a scene with a vignette of favorite things, and to use bunting in the background.  I could not believe I was making bunting this afternoon to use in my project...like I don't have enough to do.  I made the bunting out of old dictionary papers, and twine.  I actually like it quite a lot. I chose to use some daisies from my Valentine bouquet as the subject...yes they are still alive.  See my homemade bunting (the triangle flags) in the background.

Although I like this, I did not quite achieve the effect  I wanted, so I looked around for something else to use for my subject.  I came up with calligraphy ink, pens, and nibs; some old money, and flowers.    Perfect.

The tiny books are from my hubby...he buys me the neatest stuff.  My old calligraphy pens are from my friend, Holly.  The old money was from Jane, my lady that I took care of...the nibs are mine. Preset kk_melancholy.

When my little lady died, I inherited a box she had from her first husband full of old money from various foreign countries, stamps, letters, pictures, and receipts.  I thought these would make a very nice arrangement as well...lots of old stuff.

processed with kk_darkmood, and tweeked a little.

That is enough creativity for one night.  I cannot decide which one I like the best.  I think all of them!

Winter wonderland...

"Even in winter an isolated patch of snow has a special quality." -Andy Goldsworthy

Brrrr!  Was it ever cold yesterday...19°.  It was snowing pretty hard early in the morning.  I wanted to get some photos of a windmill not far from my house.  What could be more beautiful than a windmill sitting in a field of snow?  I decided the dirt road leading up to it would be quite frozen, so I would not have to worry about getting stuck in the mud.  I just had to worry about the iced over streets.  I went debating whether I should tell someone where I was going just in case. I decided to chance it.  I had a cell phone after all.    Did I say how cold it was?  Gloves do not work well with camera equipment.  I have those modified kind with just half fingers, so I can operate my camera.  My fingers were pretty much frozen in 5 minutes time.  The rest of me followed shortly there after.   I got some nice photos though!  Well worth all the effort.  And being frozen.

kk_onair preset...I love how this preset sort of whited out the background.  

kk_prairie preset

taken with my iPhone. Another perspective... Apps: snapseed, distressFX, VSCOcam

kk_prairie...what better preset for a prairie, than prairie?

Same photo as above but with 2 lil owls texture soft chaos #3 multiply 20%, and soft chaos #6 soft light, 100%

HDR preset, kk_prairie preset

I am linking up with Kim Klassen's texture Tuesday.