waiting for the sun

I've posted this photo before, it was taken one morning early when I dropped my son off at the local soccer fields, it was a beautiful sunrise scene.

I don't know how your weather has been, but it's been quite a wet spring season around these parts. We've had weeks of rain and storms and the sun has been a very infrequent visitor. Over at Mortal Muses, Tammy begins another nine days of musing, today begins the theme 'here comes the sun.' I'm going to be challenged to capture a sun photo this week, still lots of rain in the forecast.

Our next theme is 'Relax', we invite you to share the relaxing moments of your life with us in our Flickr group beginning today. One of my favorite ways to relax is with a mug or glass of a favorite beverage and a favorite magazine.



The photo above captures both themes, lovely early morning light, while I indulged myself with a relaxing morning enjoying breakfast in bed, with a few more of my favorite magazines.

This week over at Jan's place the theme for Focus 52  is April Showers. heh. Jan's funny that way. And as much April  showers storms as we've had, I'm not sure I've taken many photos of the rain, but I'm certain I'll have another opportunity for some soggy photos this weekend. Jan's link up will stay open all weekend so there is still plenty of time for you to join us.

We'd love to have you join us in all of these photo prompts, you can jump in anytime.
And don't forget to pop over to Mortal Muses to see what sunshine we've found this week.

stay dry,
xo
maureen

catching up, purple and some texture love

{the above photo uses Kim Klassen's textures Warm Grunge, Cool Grunge and Corrugated Crack}

Hey bloggy peeps. Whew. I've been busy. Busy with some fun stuff {more on that in a different blog post} and some serious stuff. A great big thank you and hugs to those of you who have left comments and emailed about my whereabouts. That's one of the very best things about blogging. It's been said before, and by other bloggers more eloquently than I, but the friendships and connections made through blogging are priceless. Now, hopefully, I'll have time to get around to your blogs, for a visit and to catch up.

{the above photo is a dish of pieces of hail that I picked up after a recent hail storm, BAH, Mother Naure has a warped sense of humor}

I hope you've had a lovely spring and Easter season. I don't know about you, but I'm so ready for summer. This spring stuff has been crappy. Here in the midwest it's been one round of thunderstorms, hail and tornadoes after another. Enough already. And while I fuss about the weather, I'm blessed that I've not been impacted by these violent storms like many people in my hometown, and the bi-state area. My heart goes out to these people who have to put their lives back together after such a devastating loss.

Today is Tuesday, and that means it's time for some purple. Yesterday I received the most wonderful surprise package in the mail from one of my sweet Muse partners, Christy. Not only is she a talented photographer, and not only does she have master ninja iphone skillz, but also? She is wicked with the knitting needles. In the best possible way. She sent me these amazing and beautiful purple fingerless gloves that she made with her own hands. Thank you so very much Christy, I love them. And? It was actually cool enough here to put them on and have fun with them yesterday. Of course, it's not cool enough for snowflakes, but I do have a yard full of something white and just as seasonal and fleeting as snowflakes {no, it's not hail}.

Also on Tuesday is Kim's Texture Tuesday party. This week Kim asked us to create an image using her recently released texture, Serendipity. This rose photo uses Serendipity, Chalk and Scratch and Cool Grunge textures, all by Kim. And? Kim's having a giveaway this week too! Some of her fab textures, stop by and check it out.

Happy Purple Tuesday!

thanks for stopping by,

xo maureen

purple spring

texture recipes

The small town where I live is surrounded by rail lines. {When I was growing up, there was only one road out of town that didn't cross railroad tracks. Waiting on a train was a fairly common occurrence, and is still today. When I was in high school it provided a perfect excuse for getting home after curfew.}
Recently when I was trying to think of a subject for the current Mortal Muse transportation theme, a friend suggested I have a go at shooting trains. Last Sunday the weather was warm and sunny, so off I went with my camera in search of a railroad photo.

I was pretty happy with a few of the shots I took and decided they would be great subjects for some texture work. I used quite a few textures on all of the photos, and have been asked about the layers and the opacity of each layer.

This is a copy of the layers used on the above image. All textures used are from Kim Klassen.

All texture layers are soft light, you can see the opacity adjustment next to each layer. Layer 1 is a blank layer I add last and put my watermark on that layer. It makes it easy to turn it off when I want to save a copy without a watermark for printing.

I posted this photo on Tuesday for Kim's texture link up.  Hover your mouse over the photo for the before SOOC photo. *****edited***** So. In preview the magic mouseover worked. And once I published, it won't work for me. Does it work for you? arrrrggghhh!!!!!!! I decided to add the before photo here, until I can determine if the mouse over is working or not. All layers are Soft Light and I have noted the opacity adjustment next to each layer. You can also see where I used a layer mask on two of the layers to remove just a bit of the texture. If you are new to experimenting with textures don't be afraid to add another layer of the same texture or a different texture. That's one of the things I love about doing texture work, the playing and trying different combinations of textures. I'm musing today at Mortal Muses, stop by and see the photo and song I shared on my transportation musings there. thanks for stopping by, xo maureen

purple spring

 
We had crazy warm weather here again on Sunday, highs in the 80s. Don't hate, it's dropped to freezing overnight again. {plants in, plants out, plants in . . . } Anywho, I spent a few hours out with my camera in the warm sunshine. Spring has sprung around here. This shot of lovely purple hyacinths is one of the nearly 300  photos I took for the day.
The purplicious mosaic below is made of photos from the Happy Purple Tuesday flickr group. If you click on a link below the mosaic, you will be taken to the photographers flickr stream where you can see their photo better.



All images are from the Happy Purple Tuesday flickr group.

1. ~ purple tulips ~, 2. Kind of *sigh*, 3. Spring has sprung, 4. Purple Tulip, 5. Eden Project - Spring in February?!, 6. Spring, 7. ♥ Here's to LOVE! ♥, 8. Celebrate the Everyday, 9. Afternoon light, 10. crocuspatch, 11. Purple Tulips w/ #grunge effect and Walden on #Instagram #iphonography, 12. spring purple, 13. Smith College March 2011

And today is another link up with Kim. She challenged us to use her free texture WarmSun on a photo.
I used WarmSun, Old West, Paper Stained Grunge and Nutmeg on my railroad spike photo.

thanks for stopping by! xo maureen