Focusing on Life: Monochromatic and Percolated

I'm a photo app kinda girl.  I love me some quality time on the iPad with some creator's inventive way to manipulate and play with photos I've taken. 

For this week's "one" photo, I went back into my vault of black and whites...keeping it monochromatic...and tried out a new app that I found out through some friends on Facebook (thanks, Sue & Nancy).  It's called Percolator.

It was hard to step out of the colorworld, since I was feeling pretty colorful this week.  But, following Sally's prompt, I enjoyed time in the grey world.

This is a shot of a gorgeous chandelier in the Bellagio that I took when I was in Vegas for Mother's Day last year with my ma.  It's all dotted up and ready to go.  Love the tones and the texture.  I think it'll have to get printed....and at least put up on the fridge.

Tons of friends have joined in on the "one a week" idea to focus on life.  They'll be linked over at Sally's Studio Sublime. 

I don't get out of the house much...

So, here's the only picture I took all week that had a flower involved.

And, it was from a crafty night.  I probably talked to the cats a lot since I do that while I paint.  They love that.

haaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa

Needed: A Mess

I'm feeling a little stressed out lately.  Has made me exhausted during the day and sleepless during the night.  It'll pass, eventually, since it's all about getting ready for my move to Charleston.  In the meantime, I have a bunch of work projects that I want to finalize and time will run out before I get things done.  So, after making it through today, complete with a nap at lunch and some minor progress on a few of those work projects, I wanted to craft it up tonight.  

I needed color and mess.  And I succeeded.

I was trying to get through all of February without buying any crafty art supplies, but I needed some stencils.   Yeah.  I used the right word:  need.  Not want.  haaaaaaaaaaaa

I tried a few pages in my art journals.  I've been playing in a few sizes and love the way these look.  There's so much potential

I found the little bottles via amazon.com.  They'll probably get all clogged up, but whatever.  I used them at least once! 

I tried a few different water-based products.  I think the dye-na-flow is nice and bright, but the India ink is still my favorite.

The mess is fairly well cleaned up.  Now it's time to power down and really relax.  There are still three days of work to get through.  haaaaaaaaaa

Focusing on Life: Feel the Love

Yeah...I was thinking that "feeling the love" would involve people of some sort, but I think it's more about capturing how much fun I had with my friends at the Norfolk Botanical Gardens last weekend.  This is my favorite shot of the day.  The little sign near it said that it's witchhazel.  I've never seen anything like it before and when I think of witchhazel I think of Tucks medicated pads and then I just laugh and laugh.

So, I took along three friends who weren't really into "photowalk" mode, but they were great sports.  Then, I was a little surprised and really thrilled when they all pulled out their "little" cameras and phones and started playing when we went into the tropical plant house.  We ended up in there for about an hour and all had sooooo much fun exploring camera and filter features.  It was awesome!

I got a shutterfly coupon in the mail this week and decided to order a copy of this one.  Can't wait to see what it looks like live!

There are lots of photographer/bloggers out there sharing love this week...

Focusing on Life: Capture a Heart

Sally tells us this week to take notice of all the hearts that end up in life everyday.  I looked past just the shape and thought about "hearts" and came up with a couple of things...

It's the driver of a healthy body.  A racing heart and a sweaty forehead actually feel good.  Sure, it's probably just the endorphins making me feel that way, but it still counts!

It's the passion behind doing what you love.  My friend and trainer, Andi, is following her passion to help people and grow a business.

It all came together on Thursday morning at 0700 when she had me squatting across a room and doing all kinds of things that make it hurt when I laugh the next day.  My heart was racing as I jumped up and down while she yelled at me...well, she actually just encourages me firmly and makes me laugh.  She had me rolling in sweat in the first 15 minutes of our workout.

So, that's us, sweaty and pretty in the gym!  
Our hearts' efforts on display.  :)