New Year's Resolution

I am about to embark on a 365 day project. That means I am committing to creating a piece of artwork everyday. For me, artwork means either something hand rendered for photographed. It is going to be tough...

Miss C's got a new 'do

Decided to get a keratin treatment...

Unexpected color

I was walking in the woods around my place of work last week, and saw a flash of blue. Then there were a lot of flashes of blue. Turned out it was a small flock of Eastern Bluebirds. I didn't expect them to be so far North where it was so cold. It was the first time I have ever seen an Eastern Bluebird. Luckily, I had my new Nikon Coolpix L110 Superzoom to catch the moment.

Happy Holidays

Dreidel and Latkes

Must be Hanukkah

Chaos

This is what keeps me up at night...

The Path Not Taken

More fun with Hipstamatic

Behind the wheel and stuck in traffic

I spent 90 minutes today stuck on Route 1, Northbound, just south of Route 18.

The view from behind the wheel.

All this and punch too.

I work with a people from all over the world. I am also lucky enough to have a supervisor that likes to celebrate. Not the usual stuff, though. She likes to celebrate National Waffle Day, Chinese Lunar New Year, Halloween, etc. Every year we organize a big feast to start off our Thanksgiving feasting just a little bit early. We get together and create the complete traditional Thanksgiving along with new dishes. This year, our feast included a Chinese spare rib cook-off and a Serbian Cheese Pie. Of course, there were plenty of desserts and a wonderful fruit punch with raspberry sherbet.

Round and around

My clothes washer broke down this summer. It was a front loader that was only 7 years old. I was amazed that it fell apart in less than 10 years. I was even more amazed that it cost me $169 for someone to come out and tell me that it was going to cost $450 to get it fixed. Even he admitted that it was going be cheaper and easier to buy a new washer.

We have top-loading washers in my townhouse community for every one to use, but unlike landromats, they just aren't clean. There is no one to really maintain them on a regular basis. There is only a phone number to call if something is wrong. And top-loaders just really do not get the clothes clean, in my opinion.

So now I go to laundromats. The one I prefer is actually a 20 minute drive away, but they have front loading machines of every size. Even a couple of them are so big that they can wash two or three quilts. The machines are kept clean and are pretty efficient. My only complaint is that they don't spin well enough to get out all the water.

In some ways, going to a laundromat is annoying because I have to bring everything and drive and unload and wash and fold and reload and then drive back. But it is also social and I get everything done in two hours - everything. No doing load after load. And I can bring the big stuff too, like bedspreads to be washed. I also get fascinated by watching the clothing go around...

But now there's already new dirty laundry to wash. It is never really finished is it? I think the dirty laundry breeds while we sleep.

Channeling Your Inner Salvador

Please vote for my photo entered on the Hipstamatic contest site. The winner will get their photo displayed in the Salvador Dali Museum in St. Petersburg, Florida. The voting is only open for five days, so please do not wait.

A rose by any other name...

Or altered digitally, would it not smell as sweet?

Reece's up close

One of the few occasions she sat still long enough to let me photograph her.

Reece's gets bold

Sometimes we give the cats a "treat" of Fancy Feast crunchies. It's one of the few treats that Reece's really loves. She actually got very bold today and pushed Al out of his bowl and ate from it. Even better - he didn't attack her for it. He seemed a bit bemused.

Outside and Inside

Autumn is moving into winter and the cats are still being themselves...

Al at rest

New shower curtain

More cat pics

These two are becoming my favorite models.

Having fun with iPhone

I am having a lot of fun shooting photos of my cats with my new iPhone. I am having even more fun with applications I have found to create digital art with my iPhone. My two favorite applications are Hipstamatic and iM8tr. The first application creates raw, shot from the hip, photographs. The second one can turn anyone or anything into a zombie or frankenstein or any monster in between.

Life returns

Since May, heatwave after heatwave, culminating in a long-term scorcher that dried up all the surplus water. Now we are on voluntary drought restrictions. The grass has gone brown. All the milkweed that was about to bloom just dried up. Things are starting to get a little better. While the heat is here, there have been periodic rainstorms. Enough so that the butterflies are slowly returning. Today I found these little guys - Monarch caterpillars. In another month, there will be Monarch Butterflies winging their way south.

A couple of Fiery Skippers

With the weather being much more mellow, the butterflies have come out. I keep my camera with me now and shoot during my lunch hour. I found a couple of Fiery Skipper butterflies engaged in some kind of courtship or perhaps a territorial dispute. I never realized it before, but butterflies can be quite aggressive towards one another. I have actually seen larger species chase smaller ones out of their "space". I have also been checked out by butterflies to see if I was a threat to their turf.

It is really amazing to see what is around you if you look really close.

Faux Fossils

My lastest creation using gesso board as substrate. Then I applied Golden's Crackle paste. Patience is a virtue with crackle paste because it can take about 3 to 5 days to cure but the effects are well worth it. So is the texture. I then used a patina solution to first put a iron coat of paint, then a rust patina over the painted surface. I then added the rubberstamped images (courtesy of Mad Rat Rubber Stamps) by stamping them on tissue paper and then pasting them on with acrylic medium. I then added a coat of medium all over the surface. The final coat was a good layer of self-leveling gel and a couple of more days to cure completely. Viola! Faux fossilized fish.

Why Is This Cat Laughing

It's not an LOL cat or something taken off the web. It's Al...