The Ceiling Tile

Just about forgot that I told you I would post this.  I picked this up a few years ago at our Chautauqua in the Park.  It's been hanging on the front porch wall ever since.  It used to be a bit brighter red but the sun has faded it down.  I still like it.  I'll post an image of my front door one of these days....I'm still thinking it is too bright of a red and I'll probably repaint it in the Spring.  But....it does show up from the road now...LOL....when it was painted the light green, it didn't show up much.


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Seasons Greetings

Picked these up at Wally World on Thanksgiving day.  I also bought gold hummingbirds but those shots didn't come out too good.  Anyway, thought these would look great on my outdoor tree along with the hummingbirds. They were just want the tree needed.

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On the other side of the window

Tufted Titmouse




Hope you and yours had a wonderful Thanksgiving. We did but I ate way to much good food.
The kids, Grands and the rest of my family was all here but Neal and he was working. That's ok just glad he has a good job.

I sat my camera and tripod up in the sunroom last Saturday to try snapping some shots of the birds at the feeder outside the window. Not a good idea at that time to much sun. All the brick you see on the right side of the image is reflection and since it was late afternoon when the sun in lower in the sky I decided to wait till morning and try again.......Rain for the next 3 days....... Soooo....... this is the best of the ones I snapped that day, but I'll keep trying. Want to get a shot of the Chickadee's and Nuthatch when they stop by for a snack.

Staples are from Shabby Princess.




End of the Season

Not the best image but I was in a hurry the day I snapped these.  These are the only mums left that are still pretty and they are in my window box.  I put them in with some ornamental cabbage.  They don't really show up cause the Japanese Maple has gotten too big and it blocks them when its leaves are still on.  But, since the leaves have fallen off, you can now see the mums..

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Before & After

     Just so you can see how much darker it is. If you look close you will see that I didn't get the window box painted yet.  I'm going to re-cover the cushions on the rockers to either a black/gold mix or some kind of red. I'm thinking more on the lines of the black/gold.  I painted the bench black and the rockers are a deep/ dark brown.  I'm still thinking I'd like the red door to be a bit darker red but will wait till Spring to re-paint  it. I've got to paint my bicycle again and will paint it red this time.  I do believe this will be the 4th coat of paint that I've put on it....LOL....it was white first, then green, then a darker green and now it will be red.  The hydrangea is getting so big that it covers it up and no one can really see it. Plus, by painting it red, it will give me a triangle of reds on the front of the house, thus balancing things out more. My door is red and I have the red ceiling tile on the right side of the windows.  I'm painting the window box white and still debating on taking the shutters off the house completely.  Right now, they are painted the same color as the scallops in the porch peak. I really like my white trim with the dark color of brown.  I'm going to paint my garage the same color next spring but the shutters on it will be white because the trim around the window is so narrow that I think it will look too plain. I've never painted vinyl siding before but my paint company says I can do it.  The new garage/shop is about the same color as the scallops, so will not be painting it again.  The potting shed is going to be red.  

     So much to do...so little time.  LOL  I'm trying to convince Bill into rebuilding my potting shed.  It has a good concrete floor but the foundation is giving away.  I think we could just take the foundation out and re-build the walls on top of the floor. It will be a bit narrower than it is now but not by much.  I also want to put some windows in it and new siding on  the outside to match the rest of our place.

     You are correct....those are leaves you see...lol....I've picked up for the last time...what's left will be compost for the lawn.  The Cleveland Pear holds the leaves as well as the oaks till mid winter.  Those will be used for cover on my flower beds...unless the wind blows and they end up in someone else's yard.  LOL...I've picked up at least a half dozen times. I've got most of my flower beds cleared out except for the mums and the pampas grass and I leave them till Spring. 

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New House Paint

Project for today

It has rained for the last 3 days needed something to cheer me up some. Planted these Paper White blubs and 2 Amaryllis blubs. One of the Amaryllis was new but the other one was from last year. Had it drying in the garage. Have no idea if it will bloom or not..... Hope so.
Also did a little more shopping and I have several packages that should be here in the next couple of days. I have never had my shopping started this early before in my life. Has me a little worried....LOL

Finally found some Sunflowers

I have been looking for some nice Sunflower to snap for the last couple of months and I finally found some. I have seen them in bouquets but they alway looked a little ragged.

These are SOOC only edit is cropped.
I'm happy with the snaps and the Sunflowers make me smile.

Mighty Oak

Walked around the yard this afternoon looking for something to snap and this is what I came up with.


The ground is covered under one of our trees. The squirrels should have plenty to eat this winter.

When I'm watching TV in the sunroom I can see the squirrels run up & down this tree. That's more fun to watch than some of the TV shows.

Another Round

I keep trying to capture the light right but it never seems to happen.  I blew out the light in this so had to adjust two of the same images on top of each other to get the bulb right.  I still think it is a bit too yellow but couldn't figure out how to change it without blowing it out completely.  I wanted the age of the bulb to show too.  I'm quite intrigued by this barber pole and don't really know why but I like capturing images of it.  I know I can take two exposures and meter for the highlights and the shadows but then I have to get them lined up correctly and that doesn't happen.  LOL...or well, this is close to what I saw when I took it except the boards are a bit darker but only because I liked the look better. 

Anyway, this is it for me on the subject of round....unless I process one more image but I really need to get my butt busying doing something around this house.

What type of image should we shoot for this week?  Color, shape, theme?  You pick!

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Eight Ball

Well. it's not much but it is round!  LOL.....I took this yesterday morning but didn't have time to work with it until today.  This is on the window of a pool hall, here in town.  I took the raw file into PS and adjusted it to Black and White and then added a layer and change the blend mode to vivid light.  I don't know how or why but I love how it changed the image.  Got rid of the dirty window and gave the shadow a weird effect on the blinds.....added the black stroke and this is how it looks after.  I posted both images so you could see what the before looked like too.

I'm sure most folks would just say I made the image in Photoshop but I didn't...its really a photo.  But, it does give ideas for making clipart...LOL

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Granny Smith

Not very creative hope I can come up with something better before the week is done.

Got my PC back yesterday and it's working fine. Had to have a new power supply.

You are not going to believe this but I started my Christmas shopping. I would love to have it done by the first of December but I know that's just a dream.