by Cindy on October 6, 2009
Hello friends!
We made another trip to one of our favorite destinations: Baltimore. This time we were celebrating my son’s 9th birthday. We knew a trip to the Maryland Science Center would be perfect for our scientist-to-be son.
We were so fortunate that it happened to be the opening day of the da Vinci exhibit. This exhibit is said to be the largest, most comprehensive traveling exhibit (the largest stays in Italy of course). I think we could have stayed for hours… it was incredibly fascinating. I learned so much in such a short time about da Vinci, and now I want to do some additional reading and learn more. There was so much information alone on Mona Lisa…who stole her and for how long….what the painting must have looked like originally…did she have eyelashes and eyebrows, or not? Looking back, I realize how lucky I was to see this painting in person at the Louvre.
Mona Lisa's smile
Here are a few pictures from the day…oh what glorious weather it was!! I’ve converted the pictures to black and white while doing one of this week’s Visual Poetry projects. I can’t believe how much I’ve learned….before I would simply “remove color” in Photoshop Elements. I didn’t adjust for saturation, contrast, or brightness settings. A few simple adjustments really leads to a much more depth…thank you, Susan!!
Thank you for stopping by!
by Cindy on October 1, 2009
Halloween is just 30 days away, but who’s counting? With today being October 1st, it was a jolt that Halloween is right around the corner. I saw candy corn for sale for the first time in the grocery store. Only one out of the four kids has decided on their Halloween costume. I think I need to start giving this holiday some consideration because we all know how fast this month flies by! Are preparations underway in your house?
I don’t tend to make seasonal jewelry very often, but I usually can’t resist Easter and Halloween. Just so many cute and creative beads out there made by talented lampwork artists. Last year I custom ordered some beads from Novelty Beads and Snozberry Beads. I made two long necklaces that could be worn from year to year (in lieu of a costume even) …I wanted them to be a keepsake, full of sterling silver links and SILLY AND SPOOKY lampwork beads. I did not have an Etsy shop at the time, so my extra necklace will be available this year. I’m hoping to add it to my shop later. My necklace sure received a lot of attention at the preschool last year. Why do preschool teachers get to wear all of the fun, whimsical necklaces?
Oh, and did you remember to say Jack Rabbit (1st of the month!) 🙂
by Cindy on September 28, 2009
Yesterday we had fun with Magic. Our oldest son is going to turn 9 in a week and we celebrated his birthday with many children from his new class.
As guests arrived, they decorated fabric that I had precut and fringed for their Magic Carpet. They sat on their transformed carpets for the Magic Show. The magician was really great with this age group…8 year olds are full of “I know how you did that..!” kind of statements. But he still had some tricks up his sleeve to stump them. Especially at the end of his show when he changed a balloon in to a real white rabbit, Max. Some were so surprised they thought for sure the rabbit was only a robot (!). My husband put together a cd for the kids to go along with the Magic theme -did you realize how many Magic songs were out there? “Every Little Thing She Does is Magic” by the Cars, “Abracadabra” by the Steve Miller Band, “It’s a Kind of Magic” by Queen, “Magic” by The Cars (my favorite)…….
I’ve been learning some MAGIC myself this past week. Visual Poetry, the online photo manipulation workshop has started. In this workshop, Susan Tuttle presents 3 projects per week for four weeks. She provides printable handouts, step by step screen shots, and most importantly video tutorials!! The Visual Poetry site is engaging with an “Art Bar” where she’ll upload your favorite inspirational music, and a group Flickr site – you can stop by and see photos created by participants. I’ve applied some of the techniques (toned-down and faded colors, rounded corners) to these photographs.
I love the retro character that I’m learning to apply to my pictures. If you’re interested, sign up for the Visual Poetry newsletter – Susan will be offering another class!
Have a great week, friends.
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