before and after

A few weeks ago I wanted to send a get well  photo to a friend. I looked around my hard drive for a flower photo and found this one, above. This is SOOC {straight out of the camera}. It's a pretty before shot, but the light's not quite right, and there is a bit of blur to the flowers due to  a breeze.

Here is the after.

Shot with a canon xsi, canon 50mm f/1.8
Photoshop Elements 9 for processing.
This is the simple recipe:
I used Kim Klassen's Scripted texure, soft light 100%.
I used a layer mask to brighten just the main flower, by 16%.
That's it folks. Easy peasy, a quick transformation.

I'm linking up at

 

To see more before and after transformations  check out the Blog Hop list at Pixel Perfect.

 

There is still time to enter the giveaways at the Mortal Muses blog. This bracelet is just one of the wonderful giveaways.

We will be drawing the winners from the comments left during the entire 9 Days Of Inspiration from all three pages and announcing them in a special *muse flash* on October 31. Make sure to visit the Everyday Beauty and More Musing pages and comment each day for more chances to win. Each comment is an entry to win. Good Luck!

♥ maureen

finding inspiration

Autumn is a second Spring when every leaf is a flower ~ A. Camus

I am fortunate to live where I experience the changing seasons, and I believe  Autumn is the most dazzling time of year. Each morning when I go out for my run around a local park, I see the amazing spectacle of color Mother Nature puts on. I return home inspired by all that incredible color and the early morning light.

Every day I try to find time to get out with my camera to record the changing beauty of the season.

On some days I simply walk through my neighborhood.

Other days I go back to the park to try to capture what I saw earlier on my run

On the weekends I try to find other places to enjoy and record the fall beauty.

Are you enjoying the changing colors of the season?

Today I'm musing about inspiration at Mortal Muses.

Stop by for a visit, there are daily giveaways right now.

We are having nine days of giveaways and special guests. We will be drawing the winners from the comments left during the entire nine Days Of Inspiration from all three pages and announcing them in a special *muse flash* on October 31. Make sure to visit the Everyday Beauty and More Musing pages and comment each day for more chances to win. 

This inspire bracelet is one of today's giveaways.

So, tell me, what inspires you?

♥ maureen

time for another purple tuesday

I'm not sure what I'm going to shoot once winter is well and truly here. This shot is mine.  The mosaic below is made of photos from the ♥happy purple tuesday♥ flickr group.



1. Happy Purple Tuesday!, 2. Mini Eggs, 3. best beater, 4. Bench Monday #7, 5. hairbands, 6. Purple Starfish Wish, 7. day 292/10.19.10, 8. beautiful mess, 9. Southern Expedition_5725, 10. Wavesounds from an old Jimi Hendrix recording, 11. Balloon Fiesta 27, 12. Blast o' Color, 13. sunset over castle village

I hope you will join us in the Flickr group or if you have a post on your blog with purple or about purple, or anything to do with purple, leave a link in the comments. I'd love to see it.

This week on Mortal Muses we've been musing on inspiration, and having daily giveaways. Please visit and leave a comment on any post this week to have a chance to win.


♥ maureen

trip to the pumpkin farm

Texture: distress2 by Kim Klassen, recipe: The Pond, from Kim's Photoshop Recipe book. Original shot at the end of this post.

 

Happy Monday blog friends. How was your weekend? We were blessed with another warm sunny weekend, I took advantage of it and spent as much time outside as possible. I began the weekend with a trip to the local pumpkin farm. I just love seeing all those pumpkins large and small, tall and squat, smooth and bumpy and all the different colors.

One of my favorite things about pumpkins are the stems. Like snowflakes, no two are ever alike. I usually base my final decision about which pumpkin to adopt by the beauty and uniqueness of the stem alone.

I love listening to the children choosing their pumpkins. Too tall . . . too round . . . too fat . . . not enough stem . . . too bumpy . . . too dirty {too dirty???} . . . perfect!

Usually the perfect chosen one is a pumpkin that outweighs them. When they try to carry it, they end up in a hunched over duck walk with the pumpkin between their knees.  It slips and slides as they walk, until they finally drop it right before they make it to the scale.

This little one came home with me. I love the stem, it's almost bigger than the pumpkin.

I don't usually carve jack-o-lanterns any longer, although I do love cooking the seeds. I bring home pumpkins purely to have that autumn orange beauty sprinkled throughout the house.

original unedited photo

How was your weekend? Did you take time to enjoy the beauty of the season?

♥maureen



♥happy purple tuesday♥

It's Tuesday, yep, all day. {Whew, barely got this post up in time.} That means it's time for some purple. The mosaic below is made up from photos in the ♥happy purple tuesday♥ flickr group. I fell in love with all the purple bokeh found there.

 

1. Lilac haze, 2. Day 223, 3. Goodbye Summer, 4. just when I think … , 5. kind of purple, 6. M o t i o n, 7. Untitled, 8. Pastel Purple Tuesday, 9. purple hammock, 10. Rescued from the rain, 11. C o n v i c t i o n, 12. Happy Purple Tuesday on Thursday, 13. Purple Afternoon I

The purple pansy is one I found for sale at a farm stand. With the cooler weather, it's time for them around here again.

I invite you to partipate with us in enjoying all things purple, and by all means join in!

♥maureen



surprise packages

A surprise package? In the mailbox? For me?

Don't you just love getting old-fashioned mail, especially when it is hand addressed in beautiful handwriting? How exciting! In all of the celebration of my birthday week, I had forgotten that I'd won a giveaway hosted at Kim Klassen's Inspiration Studio blog.

 

 The sweet little package wrapped with tissue and red twine, with a tiny bird tuck in, held this 3x3 collage made by ELK, you can see more of her work here. This 3 x 3 collage is made of  bits and pieces of the ordinary seen differently, with a special message on the back. I love this little inspiration collage, and have it hanging above my computer where I can enjoy it each day.

Aren't the little birds she creates the most darling things? The bird on the left, carrying the heart is a birthday card for me that she included. The tiny bird card on the right is her business card, with her website on the back. Darling, no?

 

I think we would all agree that receiving a surprise package in our mail box can certainly brighten our day, if not our week. Is there someone you know that could use a smile? What could you send to share a little inspiration, a long-distance hug?  It doesn't have to be anything fancy or expensive. Gifts handmade, from the heart are often what we value the most. How about trying your hand at your own little collage with found materials and a simple message of how much that person means to you. Go ahead, make someone's day.

I'm musing today at Mortal Muses about another way we give from the heart, please stop by for a visit.

♥maureen

 

early morning at the fields

 
 
I took this shot last weekend when I dropped off my son at the soccer fields to ref at a tournament. The scene certainly brought back memories of many, many early mornings on the fields. Three boys, times soccer every weekend, for over 12 years consecutively. As a single Mom, it was a busy time. I miss those days, with all the hustle and bustle of making sure everyone had their equipment. Cleats? Shin Guards? Water bottle? Tape? Then getting everyone to their respective fields on time. Cheering from the sidelines. Watching them through the years as they grew, developed their talents, gained skill, and became athletes that were part of a tight knit team. For many years their best friends were their teammates, they played on the field together as well as off. To this day, they are still close friends with most of those teammates. My boys all played the sport through high school, two played in college, and they all continue to play now. The best part of playing now? They play together on the same team. My three sons, grown now. Yes, I miss those early mornings on the soccer fields.


This is dedicated to all the Moms who are still making sure their athletes have whatever they need and make it to the fields, courts, gyms, pools, ice rinks, and tracks on time. And stand in all manner of weather to cheer them on. Proud of their accomplishments, for showing up, for working hard, for being part of a team.
Have a great weekend . . .  hope your team is the winning team.

♥ maureen

gifts of immeasurable worth

What a week this has been. Practically a week long birthday celebration. So much fun time with family and friends. *sigh* the perfect gift. Thank you all so much for your sweet comments and birthday wishes. This birthday was certainly one to remember. I really do feel like life is just a bowl of cherries right now.
I promised to announce the winner of the Dream necklace giveaway yesterday, oops. With all of this fun birthday stuff going on, time got away from me. You’ve heard it before, but I’ll say it anyway. I really wish I could send a dream pendant to each of you. If you’d like a little dream reminder, send me your snail mail address at cottage960[at]gmail[dot]com, and I’ll send you one.

And here we go . . . drum roll please . . . . and the winner is . . .

Mosey from mosey along. She has just marked her two-year anniversary of blogging. Go have a visit, enjoy her beautiful photography, and leave her some anniversary love. Mosey, I’ll get the necklace in the mail to you as soon as I receive it from CT.

By now you are probably wondering what the title of this post has to do with anything i've said so far.
A few weeks ago suki of Suki Photography wrote about gifts of immeasurable worth and offered to share “a piece of her autumn breeze, inspiration and a bit of love," with anyone who left their address on her blog
I was certainly intrigued by the idea of gifts of immeasurable worth, so of course I gave suki my address, and waited. This week I received a package from suki, mailed from Germany, full to the brim of her gifts of immeasurable worth.

My favorite thing in the package was a cd with a photo slideshow set to a soundtrack. The song playing is about gifts of immeasurable worth. You can listen to it here, on suki’s blog where she explains her inspiration for this project. Watching the slideshow of Suki’s images playing along with the song caused my heart to swell with love and friendship as I enjoyed the joy and beauty of her photography, and the idea of her gift, given from the heart.
From the song:

a gift of immeasurable worth
moments so unnoticed they
slip through your hand
a gift of immeasurable worth
precious and small and
great in the things they bring.

Her gifts were certainly precious and small, but great in the joy they gave me. Suki is an amazing young woman, a nursing student, photographer, blogger, inspire-er and friend. She has her own blog, and muses with the Mortal Muses and contributes at the inspiration studio. Her photography is always filled with light and her beautiful essence. What I received from suki in that package was a gift of her, her way of reaching out, wrapping me in a warm hug, sharing her creativity and inspiring me from a continent away. Such a simple act, multiplied across the miles to the people she reached out to that day.
I love this idea of  sharing the gifts of our immeasurable worth. If you would like to receive one, email me at cottage960[at]gmail[dot]com with your snail mail address and I’ll share my gift with you. I hope that you also are inspired to share part of yourself, your gift of immeasurable worth with someone near or far.

have an inspired week!

♥ maureen

learning to dream

good morning blog friends. I’m soooo excited today. Lots of fun stuff happing. Let’s get started.

1. cosmea*lastsummer, 2. Gentle Purple, 3. Lisianthus, 4. Emerging Dahlia, 5. Ranunculus, 6. Untitled, 7. IMG_6148 Web, 8. Little. Purple. Different., 9. the last few summer flowers, 10. Cheerfulness, 11. Pastel Purple Tuesday, 12. Wild Lavender Flowers - happy purple tuesday (Explored), 13. what started off as a joke

First up we have another ♥happy purple tuesday♥. That means another purple mosaic, the photos in the mosaic are chosen from photos added to the ♥happy purple tuesday♥ flickr pool.

My purple shot for Happy Purple Tuesday. A yummy sea of purple and green bokeh.

Next . . .

A yummy cupcake for all of you.

. . .  today is my birthday! Woot! I’m so excited. This is a biggie too. The big five-O. yeppers that’s right I turn nifty fifty today.

Oh, and did you know that Oct 5 is the most common date for a birthday out of the whole year? Guess that means I have lots of birthday buddies today.

According to a recent database query, the most common birthday in the country is October 5th. On this day, over 968,000 people celebrate and over 12,500 new celebrants are born each year!

And? I was born on my Mom's 35th birthday. Yep, we shared a birthday. I always thougth that was so cool. {miss you bunches today, mom} and purple was her favorite color, violets her favorite flower. Guess it's in my genetic makeup. :)

As this birthday was approaching I spent plenty of time thinking about where I am right now in my life. And joyfully I can say that I’ve never been happier. The other day I read a post by Jamie at Lyrical Journey. Something she said in her post really resonated with me: "For the first time in my life I feel comfortable in my own skin. I can honestly say I like the woman I've become, I enjoy the life I live, and, while I still have many goals I want to accomplish, I know I'm on the path to do so." I could not have said it better.

In all honesty, it’s been a long road to get here, with plenty of heart ache and disappointment along the way. For most of my life I was afraid to be who I am, afraid to follow my bliss, afraid to dream. One day, years ago, in church on Sunday, the minister said something that stuck with me. “If you don’t have a dream, how can you have a dream come true?” I was so sad when I heard that, because I didn’t have any dreams. I allowed myself to be filled up with taking care of other people, of putting their dreams before mine. Now I find myself in the place of only having myself to please, and time to dream.

As I read your blogs, and see all of you follow your bliss, and dream your dreams, and have them answered, I knew it was time. I began to make a list, of everything I could think of that I wanted to accomplish, to experience, large and small. And I dared to talk about them with others, and act on them when opportunity came my way.

And sometimes is frightening to follow your bliss and act on your dreams. But it’s so worth it. Some of my dreams have come true, some are in the process, some are still in my heart. But I sincerely believe with all my heart, that the first step is to dare to dream, and to believe. To believe that they will come true. You may not know how, or when, but you have to believe that they will.

And so, on this, a milestone day for me, I encourage you to dream. And I want to share a gift. Leave a comment on this post, sharing if you wish, one of your dreams. I’ll have a drawing on Saturday for this necklace,  to remind you to dare to dream.

I purchased this necklace from the CT Jewlery Design, etsy shop.
She has lots of pendants to choose from and will do custom orders.

I have some new things planned for the blog, I'll be sharing that with you in the next few weeks, and hopefully I will be able to tell you about some of my dreams-come-true soon.
Thanks for stopping by, leave a comment so you can be put into the drawing, and please, dream big!

And happy birthday to all the other Oct 5 birthday peeps out there!


♥ maureen

autumn beauty

Happy Monday blog peeps! So glad you stopped by.  How was your weekend? Mine flew by, they all seem to don't they? I did get out to enjoy the beautiful fall weather we have had here in the midwest.

I’m participating in the Picture Fall class at Big Picture Classes right now, and I love the way it encourages me to take time each day to view life though the lens, and record it. No matter the prompt, I am reminded to slow down and take time to see the beauty around me. It's easy to become so busy with life that we forget to pick up the camera and record memories.

Sunday’s prompt was to look beyond the obvious beauty of the season, and capture what would normally be overlooked. I planned to take a quick trip to the local park for a photo walk to find some of the season's fading beauty. When I ended up without transportation, I decided to take a photo walk around my yard. I live in the city and I don't have a garden, or a particularly pretty yard, so this was a bit of a challenge. I began by following the light. The light late in the day was beautiful, lighting up little bits of nature's beauty. At times I had to lay on the ground to capture the beauty through the lens, but it was there, waiting to be noticed.

To me a lush carpet of pine needles or spongy grass is more welcome than the most luxurious Persian rug.  ~Helen Keller

The sun is the epitome of benevolence - it is lifegiving and warmthgiving and happinessgiving, and to it we owe our thanksgiving.  ~Jessi Lane Adams

But make no mistake: the weeds will win: nature bats last. - Robert M. Pyle

Weeds are flowers too, once you get to know them - A. A. Milne, Eeyore from Winnie the Pooh

I hope that you  find time during  this busy season to slow down and notice the simple beauty around you.

♥ maureen

weekend edition ~ catching up

This is where I love to curl up and get comfy, with a glass of wine, some music in the background and my laptop. Catching up with all of you.

I keep thinking I’m going to get caught up. heh, as if. Caught up on reading blog posts by all the wonderfully talented photographers, decorators, writers, dreamers, inspirers . . . friends  that add so much to the fullness of my life.  Caught up on viewing and admiring the amazing photography  added to the flickr pools by old flickr friends, and newly discovered flicker peeps. *sigh* So much to see, so little time.  When I’m honest with myself, I know there is no land of ‘caught up.’ It’s not a destination where I can arrive, slip off my shoes and say “I’m here.”  And really? I love that no matter what, all of you wonderfully talented people are going to continue to create and share and inspire. Every day. How wonderful is that? To wake up every morning and know that with just a few clicks I can stop by for a visit and some inspiration, some friendship. I am never disappointed. I'm so grateful to all of you for always being there when I have time to stop in.

Today is the second day of Picture Fall with Tracy Clark at Big Picture Classes. As much as I’ve fussed about the end of summer, I really do love fall. I’ve been looking forward to this class for some time. Looking forward to a way of marking the days of a season often full of stunning color and light that seem to pass all too quickly.

The comfy photo above is from today’s prompt, below is my shot from yesterday.

Last week was a fun week filled with activities and beautiful sights.  A trip to Soulard Market in St. Louis, a trip up the great river road to Grafton, IL, photo walks around town, trying to capture the last fading flowers and the bright blue skies and the beginning signs of  this new season.  I’d like to share with you some of the beautiful sights I enjoyed this past week.

copper colored mums welcoming autumn alongside a sidewalk



a new lighthouse along the river road

jello shots at the market

fall color beginning to show

spied this sunflower along side a city street thriving next to a parking meter

a bin full of little pumpkins with a new kim klassen texture

one more amazing sunset at the lake

I’m on holiday this next week and have lots of things on the To-Do list to accomplish. A bit of housekeeping here on the blog, and a bit of housekeeping around the house, tasks that need to be taken care of before winter sets in.

I have a few creative projects I’m working on also, and lots of fun news to share. Be sure to stop by on Wednesday lol, Tuesday for a giveaway announcement!

thanks for stopping by, have a great weekend . . .

♥ maureen