my old underwood typewriter

While I was visiting my parents last week in Tennessee, we dug out my old (or should I say my mother's old) Underwood Typewriter. It was under fishing supplies in the garage. My mother got the bug nests out of it and we cleaned it up so I could take a few photos. Unfortunately, it was late afternoon and there were lots of shadows, but photos with shadows are better than no photos. I have such fond memories of typing on that old Underwood with the upright keys, the manual return and the ribbon you had to change. I typed up my college notes and papers on it in the early 1970s. She even has the owner's manual wrapped up so that it looks like new.

Jewelry - Using Tim Holtz Ideaology

I thought I would share photos of a couple of necklaces I made in a class at My Heart's Fancy. They are totally unlike my usual taste, but I am trying to stretch my comfort zone, and make and wear things that are not my "norm". Thanks for looking.

Tennessee Sunset

I had the pleasure of visiting my elderly parents in Tennessee for a couple of weeks this month. They live out in the country, on a lake, with no internet access (yikes!) and my phone didn't get reception there either. It's funny how much we think we need the technology. One evening while walking, I took this photo of the sunset. I didn't have my camera with me, so I took the photo with my iphone. I am posting two versions of the same photo, one with a little photoshop "tweeking".

Dianne's Southwest Cornbread Salad

This was delicious.

1 (6-ounce) package cornbread mix

1 (1-ounce) envelope buttermilk Ranch salad dressing mix
1 small head romaine lettuce, shredded
2 large tomatoes, chopped
1 (15-ounce) can black beans, rinsed and drained
1 (15-ounce) can whole kernel corn, drained
1 (8-ounce) packaged shredded four-cheese blend
6 bacon slices, cooked and crumbled
5 green onions, chopped

Prepare cornbread according to package directions; cool and crumble. Set aside.
Prepare salad dressing according to package directions.
Layer a large bowl with half each of cornbread, lettuce, and next 6 ingredients; spoon half of dressing evenly over top. Repeat layers with remaining ingredients and dressing. Cover and chill at least 2 hours.

Makes 10 to 12 servings.

From Southern Living Magazine 2004

note: I altered the recipe to make it less spicy.

photo sharing

I wanted to share a photo from the Netherlands.

Edit: sorry to be misleading, this is a photo that I did multiple steps to in photoshop. The original is on top.

Digital Scrapbook Challenge at JessicaSprague.com

Jessica Sprague is teaching a free online class on digital scrapping and this week they are giving away freebies and a different challenge each day. This is my digital scrapbook page for today.

Watercolor of Kaisers ice cream shop

I thought I would post my latest. I went to St Anthony's for the Celebration for Cancer Survivors on June 7 and on the way home I was struck by the beautiful flowers in front of Kaisers and along the circle at 10th and Walker. I decided to try to do a watercolor of the front of Kaisers with St Anthony's Hospital in the background. I wish I knew what those blue/purple flowers were. I am posting the original photo and an "in progress" of the watercolor and the completed watercolor.

~Thanks for looking.

Finally got a decent photo of myself

Last Friday evening as I was about to leave home for the Survive and Thrive Single Mother's Conference put on by Arise Ministries, I decided to try one more time for the elusive decent photo of myself. It is amazing how the older I get, all I see are the wrinkles and other defects. It's funny that one of the breakout sessions at the conference had quite a bit of information related to low self-esteem! Anyway, I took a few shot by setting the timer on my camera and standing in front of my bedroom door. I thought this one was acceptable. And since I didn't care for the design of the bedroom door behind my head, I used photoshop and moved my image to a solid black background.

~Thanks for looking.

Happy Father's Day and I love Photoshop

These photos are from 2005. My father's boyhood farm home was lost to the family when the government cut payments to disabled WWI veterans and the family could not keep up the payments. My grandfather was gassed in France in WWI and my dad was in the service in WWII. I had a photo of my dad when we went to Massachusetts looking at one boyhood home and I also had a photo of his farm home that the family lost. I wanted to put my dad in the photo of the farm home, so I tried to do it with Photoshop. It's not perfect, but I am happy with the results.

Free Photo Editing Class

Jessica Sprague is going to have a free online photo editing class. To register, go to http://www.jessicasprague.com/. You can only register June 22 - 28 and the class starts July 6.

The class runs for two weeks. I have taken an online class with Jessica Sprague previously and it was excellent. They had an active forum and gallery and even though it was free, they were very open to making changes and improvements during the class.

Still Life

This is my interpretation of Karin Jurick's photo of veggies on a table still life. It is watercolor.

Old Farm House - watercolor

Thought I would post a pic of my grandparent's old farmhouse and my attempt at a watercolor. I am not happy with the watercolor, but decided to quit.

Sketch of Diana

This is a sketch that I tried to draw of a statue of Diana.

Watercolor

I am trying to learn to watercolor. This is supposed to be a farm scene of the countryside.

Heritage Triptych

I made this Heritage Triptych in a class last week. On the left is a photo of my grandmother.

In the middle are a couple photos of my mother

when she was about 20 years old. On the right

is a photo of my mother's brothers and sister

when they were in their teens. There is also

a photo of Falls Mill grist mill in the background

in the middle section, and of the old barn in the

background of the right section.

~Bye for now.

Geese

I am constantly reminded that God is Sovereign. He sends little reminders so I don't forget to see Him in the everyday, the mundane. I took the photos of the geese and the crane in front of the little pond at the apartment complex where I now live. And I took the photo of the sunset from the parking lot at my church in Edmond, OK.

~Bye for now.

Falls Mill Grist Mill, Belvidere, TN

I thought I would post a few photos I took in 2006 of Falls Mill Grist Mill in Belvidere, TN. My grandfather used to take me there every summer when we would visit him and my grandmother. I used to be his shadow. Falls Mill is still a working grist mill. The photo of the egret was taken on my parent's dock on Tims Ford Lake.

St. Louis

I was blessed to be able to spend a few days with my son who lives in St. Louis. We toured the Missouri History Museum, walked around, watched Italian DVDs, and he showed me around the law school. One of the photos is of the ceiling in the law school library. The other is of part of a building I saw while walking in the Central West End. The third is 'mother and son'.

One little word for 2009

It seems to be a popular theme for people to pick a word for the year. So I have chosen mine for 2009. My ONE little word for 2009 is Persevere. According to Webster's Pocket Dictionary, the definition is: to continue in spite of difficulty. Of course, that could apply to many people in today's world.

Be careful when you walk on ice

On Monday, January 26, 2009, we awoke to sleet that lasted all day, followed by a mixture of sleet and tiny snow drops which continued through the next day. I describe it that way because it was more of a mixture of tiny sleet and frozen raindrops than real snow. I had a dentist appointment at 2 pm Monday. Since Oklahomans don't know how to drive on snow or ice, I surmised that the news crews were overreacting, and headed out of my apartment to my car. I made it down the wooden steps safely, as they are covered. But after about four steps onto the sidewalk, I did the splits. Of course, I can't do the splits completely, so about halfway down, I leaned and fell onto my right side. It was actually a rather funny sight. After a few minutes, I slowly picked myself up, and made it to the asphalt parking lot. After about ten steps this time, I fell again. As I was looking up to the sky, I made a wise decision that I would crawl back to my apartment and reschedule the dentist's appointment. :o)