Magical Transformations

This week the challenge at Inspiration Avenue is
"Magical Transformations".

This has been such a beautiful Spring and I can't stop gazing 

at all the fabulous blooms everywhere. 

My apple tree is covered in blossoms. 

The bottom photo is the same tree 

during the snowstorm we had in February.

It's hard to believe in a little over 2 months there could be such
a transformation in one tree! Nature is amazing!
And it's all there for everyone to enjoy, if we only take the time!

Head over to Inspiration Avenue to see the entries 

for this week! I can't wait to see them all. 

If you have time to enter, (just post your entry 

by 12:00 noon on Sunday the 18th) 

and you will be in the drawing for April's giveaway, 

a beautiful bookmark created 

by Luthien of Pimp and Paint!

Inspiration Avenue Weekly Challenge

So Many Fish in the Trees

When I saw the fish in Lisa's post on Inspiration Avenue for this week's challenge, I got inspired to do something  really colorful. Maybe it is because of all the springtime color that is popping up all around or maybe I just loved those fish.

At any rate, I then thought about who else would love some colorful fish, and naturally a cat came to mind. Can cats see color? I'm not sure but I know they can't resist anything hanging just out of reach, colorful or not. They're kind of like people that way. 

Head over to Inspiration Avenue to see everyone's fish creations!

This promises to be a very exciting challenge!

I've Been Tagged!

(A Long Time Ago!)

I'm so late with this ~ but I've had every intention of posting, things have just gotten very hectic. I haven't been able to keep up with the challenges, I haven't been visiting  blogs, or posting. 

But I'm back, since I can now take time to stop and smell the,

erm, daffodils, since the roses are still a couple months away.

I've been tagged by 2 lovely friends,

Luthien of Pimp and Paint

and

Angie of Artangel!

They are both extraordinarily talented and creative artists

so you must visit their blogs and shops if you don't already!

At first I was apprehensive about what my10th photo would be.
Luckily I take most of the photos, so the chances of the 10th one
being of me were slim. And also lucky because there is no such thing
as a good photo of me. I'm  truly un-photogenic!
Ugh. But you never know.

But happily, I had scanned some old family photos
not long ago, and here was one of my grandparents!
I don't know how old they were here, I'm guessing in their 30s?
I think my grandmother's dress looks rather 30ish. 

She was born in 1907, my grandfather in 1901.  

My grandmother died when I was only 10,
but my grandfather lived into his 90s and got to know his
great-grandson. So as not to get all the grandfathers confused,
my son called him "Big Grandpa", even though he was never "big",
just tall, but even less so as he entered his 90s. 

 

I think Jesse takes after him somewhat ~ 

a tall drink of water who never gains weight! Wish I was that lucky!

The rules of the game are:

Open your first photo file

Scroll to the 10th photo

Post the photo and the story behind it

Tag 5 more people

So, since it is extremely hard to choose 5 lucky people to tag,
I'll just say, play the game if you'd like! It's actually quite fun.
You might find a picture that you ordinarily would not post,
and that can be quite rewarding!

It's Party Time!

 You Are Invited to a Blog Party!
It's such a pleasure to be able to thank all of you who participated in Inspiration Avenue's Auction for Angel Faces! In fact, Inspiration Avenue is hosting a   Blog Party with a fun theme in honor of all who helped raise over $500 for the girls at Angel Faces.  And, to be honest, we always think  'the more the merrier'  so absolutely everyone is invited!

What can you bring to the party?  Well, thank you for asking!  We would love it if you would contribute a tip, a tutorial, a lesson of some kind showing something that you know how to do, and that you'd like to share with us all.

Post it on your blog! Leave a comment at Inspiration Avenue so everyonecan pop over to your blog and learn something new! The party takes place May 1 and 2, 2010 so save those dates!

In the mean time, to learn more about the party, please click the  badge in the right sidebar. This will take you to the code that you can use to place the button on your own blog, as well as the post that will give you all of the party info! We'd be thrilled if you'd spread the word by putting the button on your blog!

So, thinking caps on, and see you at the party!

Inspiration Avenue Weekly Challenge

Opposites Attract

Wow. What was I thinking? 

I was thinking this challenge would be fun and easy, 

that's what I was thinking.

Since it was my brilliant idea, I must apologize to everyone 

who had as much trouble with it as I did!

Every time I thought of opposites,

my mind drew a great big blank. A

  big black blank  

that went with the 

big white blank

which was the only thing I could think of for "opposites".

So I decided to reach back to my graphic design days

and do a sort of layout I might do for a magazine article

using some stock photos I had around.

The guy has rejected the perfectly acceptable,  perfectly beautiful girls

in favor of the one who is most opposite.

You know what they say.

Opposites attract and then they drive each other crazy!

Free Digital Downloads

Yellow Primrose

I just realized it's been a while since I posted some free images.

Primroses are as "spring-y" as daffodils and crocuses, 

but I don't see them nearly as often. Pretty and delicate,

they come in many colors. I came across this vintage image 

of some yellow ones, and added a grungy background

and some text and voila! a 2.5 x 3.5 ACEO-size image.

Click on the picture above to go to the high-resolution image,

then right-click and save to your computer.

Use however you would like!

Another Free Download

This one is part of a new collage sheet that

is available now in my Etsy shop. 

I'm posting the single image above as a free download. 

Here is what the full sheet looks like. 

Visit my shop to see the other eight,

all ACEO/ATC size!

Inspiration Avenue Weekly Challenge

My Town

Greensburg is not my home town.  But after 15 years it qualifies as "my town".  I consider it my son's "home town" since he has lived here since the age of 5. The little girls from the 20s? 30s? look quite at home on the page. In other words, these buildings haven't changed in 80-100 years! In the case of the courthouse, maybe closer to 150 years. And of course nowadays, everyone is busily trying to preserve, renovate, and restore to make sure nothing changes in the future either! Our house is in a "historic district" and although there are some fine old homes located here and there, some of it is just plain shabby. But, oh well, we all like shabby chic, right?

This piece shows a rather "fantasy" view of Greensburg, founded in 1799, named after the Revolutionary War General Nathanael Greene. While researching, I found that there are towns in several states (Greensboro, NC, Greenville, SC to name a few) that were also named after the General. He really got around! He was either much loved or else people found his name quite impossible to resist when naming towns. And now we are back in fashion again, since "green" is the new buzzword!  

This is a mixed media piece consisting of photos of some buildings in town, acrylic paint, and decorative papers collaged on stretched canvas.

Visit Inspiration Avenue on Sunday afternoon to see all of the entries in this week's challenge. There are sure to be some fun and interesting ones! And tune in Monday to find out the challenge for the coming week. I would give you a hint, but I am the challenge host next week and I have no ideas yet!