5 posts tagged “nature”

We had a wonderful 4th of July despite all the rain, over 4 inches in all.  Lots of good food, and good company.  Went out with my camera this morning to check on my flowers.  They seem to have survived just fine.  This little cricket seemed to be using this day lily as a sort of shelter. 

 

This calendula still had rain drops on it from last night.

 

This bee was busy collecting pollen on this calendula.  They don't all look the same at all.

 

I auto edited this day lily.  It made it a bit more wine colored than it really is. 

 

Auto edit made this pink day lily a little bit lighter.  It was rather cloudy this morning.  I played around a bit with white balance, but I'm still not very good at it. 

 

I still like the contrast of the wine colored petals with the lime green center.  I'm going to have to try to get these colors on a cake.  I tried something new on Friday that turned out great.  I wish I had taken my camera.  On one cake, for a 50th birthday, I made lavender and purple colors on a pale lavender background with purple writing and borders, then oversprayed the whole cake with black.  Then I took a new pearlized spray that we have and sprayed just the roses.  It turned out very stunning.  I made a chocolate iced cake later with roses in shades on pale pink, pale orange, and pale yellow, then sprayed them with the pearlizing spray.  That turned out stunning, too.  We also have a gold and silver spray.  I'm going to have to see what I can do with them. 

 

Usually, I just try to get one flower in a shot, but I like the way these two look with the white yarrow.  I got another rejection for iStock today, so I guess I'd better go see if I can impress them with something else! 

Happy July, everyone!  Where is time going?  Thanks to my country cousin, Country Cinderella, for a tip about Art Fire.  It's another place to sell handmade creations.  I got my shop up and running last night, but it needs a bit of refining.  I have to get a banner and correct a couple of typos.  I was tired last night.  I'll let you know how it goes. 

 

I was doing some more experimenting with white balance settings last night.  This is what happens when you have your camera set on auto or whatever to take a normal shot, then change the white balance to tungsten.  Amazing!  This is a wine red day lily. 

 

This one isn't in focus, but I love the color. 

 

I had stayed out late last night waiting for the sunset, then I got so preoccupied with white balance shots, that I almost missed it!  This one would be better if I lightened up the foreground a little bit. 

I think I know what I am going to post for this week's Photo Quest, but first I need to go fix my Art Fire shop. 

 

Every day I think I'm going to run out of things to that pictures of, but I always manage to find something.  These dark red flowers grow on a rather tall plant without many leaves.  I don't know what it is, but the color is striking. 

I finished another Moda project tonight.  I'll post pictures tomorrow. 

No rain again today.  It is starting to get dry.  I watered plants this morning and again this afternoon.  Haven't gotten out the hose and sprinkler yet, but will have to if it doesn't rain on Thursday. 

Hubby walked down to the lake a couple of times today, but no action.  At least he doesn't have to mow the grass so often.  He still doesn't have his mower fixed.  He had to borrow on last week.  The grass is still soft and green.  I love to walk barefoot in it.

I did manage to get one fairly good photo of my hummingbirds this afternoon.  I next to crop it down because I wasn't close enough. 

This doesn't compare to Darcy's dragonflies, but it is the best insect shot I've ever taken.  I wouldn't have seen him if I hadn't been taking pictures because he is exactly the same color as the tiger lilly he is sitting on. 

 

Here's my latest experiment with my photo editing software.  Wouldn't this make a really neat fabric design? 

Had an almost perfect day in the country today.  It was cool all day, and cloudy.  The only problem was a little wind.  I spent a couple of hours working in my flower bed.  I completely dug up one section and replanted it.  A couple of the day lillies have bloomed, but right now is a slow time.  I didn't get any annuals planted.  I did plant some seed, so I will have a few later.  Maybe they won't get as ugly in late summer as they usually do since their season will be so much shorter. 

I'm going to do some more quilting tomorrow.  I have an idea for the last set of Moda fabric that I bought earlier. 

Thanks to everyone who left comments.  It's another day in the city.  Since the pictures that I uploaded before I left home didn't end up in the right place, I going to add them to this post so they will have a home.

 

These photographs were taken about a month ago.  It had been very foggy, then overnight the temperature dropped into the single digets.  The fog froze on everything, leaving a world of pure magic.  The pictures, from left to right, show the hoar frost (as the old timers call it) on the needles of a pine tree, around a pipe in a gate, covering a barbed wire fence, and on our mailbox.  I took pictures that morning until by hands were frozen!  Let me know if you would like to see more. 

 

 

 

This is three Christmas stockings that I made in 2006.  I like some of the design elements in each of them, but they are each lacking something.  The ones of the left and the right were made by machine quilting the fabric after I cut out the shape.  I drew lines on the muslin that I used as backing.  The one in the center is made from rag quilted squares.  I sewed the squares together into a rough "L" shape, then cut out the stocking.  The one of the left is decorated with a rag quilted four patch, while the one on the right has a minature log cabin. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This log cabin square started out to be a design element for another stocking, but it was too big, so I turned it into a potholder.  I machine quilted the log cabin square onto a backing square with batting in the middle, then attached that square to a denim square that was slightly bigger than the log cabin square. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

These are the stockings that I made last month.  I'm still not happy with them.  The pink one is machine quilted and the red and green one is ragged squares.  The log cabin above was supposed to go on the pink stocking, but it wouldn't fit!  I did change the shape of the stockings, and I like that better, but they still need something. 

 

 

 

 

Sorry about the strange angle in the picture below.  I was standing on the ladder up to the loft when I took it, and I forgot to turn it around before I uploaded it.  This is one thing I did for this past Christmas that I really like.  I made a small runner that is off-white on top backed with red and green homespuns.  Then I arranged some of my collection of tea cups down the center.  I put votive candles in the cups, but never got around to lighting them.  Then I added the red balls and gold ribbon curls.  I like a short centerpiece on the table so you don't have to look over it to see who's on the other side!  This table will sit twelve.  We had 26 for Christmas dinner!  This was the first year that I didn't put the food on the table.  We used paper plates and everyone had to go thru the line.  So much easier on the cook and dishwasher!

 

Hope everyone had a wonderful holiday season!  My decorations are all still up.  I didn't get anything out until just before Christmas, so I'm not tired of it yet.