Moving...yes, again!

Here is our beloved little farmhouse that we moved into last September.  Yes, we are moving from it already.  We were hoping to live here for a very long time, but unfortunately our rental agency had some conflicting issues with the owners.  We are so sad! 

So, this week we are in the middle of moving to our new, new house...

It's strange moving in the winter when you have no idea what the place looks like without snow.  But our new, new house is really nice.  It's only 3 years old, the newest house I've ever lived in.  It still smells new!  You know, they have those "new car smell" air fresheners for your car...I wonder if they make a "new house smell" air freshener.  Just a thought.  Incidentally, I hate the "new car smell" air fresheners...I don't think they smell like new car at all.  But my hubby sure loves them!  I like vanilla...and of course he hates vanilla! 

Ok...back to the new house.  Here are more photos of the new, new house that I uploaded to Flickr.  It has 3 bedrooms, 2 bath, living room, family room, kitchen, dining room, garage.  It's really nice.  I love that the living/dining/kitchen are all open.  The house is on a corner lot, so we are not buried in houses, and there is a park and playground just across the street!  The kids are so excited about that! 

This will be my last post to you from the farmhouse.  Our internet in the new, new house will not be installed until early next week when we are fully moved in and buried in boxes. 

So, ta ta to you all from the farmhouse!  I'll be seeing you all next week from the new, new house! 

Photo Art

I posted this photo a few days ago.  I wanted to show you some fun photo art I learned from Kimi Kreations. 

Here is my version.  It was really fun!

Have a great day! 

 

If any of you, my readers, have fun tutorials that you come across, I would love to hear about them!  Just add a comment and let me know. 

Winter Scenes From Around These Parts

Here are some photos I took recently of scenes around here.  We've had a lot of fog lately and it's made for some really awesome photo ops.  I've been having fun.  I hope you enjoy them!

Have a nice, crisp wintery day!

Sharing

Well, I have been thinking lately about sharing with you some of the fascinating things I've learned along this exciting journey of digital scrapping and photography that I enjoy so much. Mind you, I'm no expert. Quite the contrary. It's just that I get so excited when I'm playing around with a new technique and end up learning something totally unexpected and wonderful...you know, those "accidents" that turn out to work just right. So I want to share with you one of those experiences I had today. Sort of a mini tutorial, if you will.

Over the past several years, since I became interested in digital scrapping and photography, I have found a wealth of information online. The internet is such a fabulous tool for self-teaching! There are SO many tutorials available as well as networks of people who are willing to share what they know. Several of my favorite tutorial sites are ScrapGirls, Digital Scrapbook Place, and one of my most recent favorites (within the last year) Pioneer Woman (don't ya just love her?). I have found tutorials in many other places as well, but these have been the most influential for me.

So, what I want to share with you today is a tutorial on digital chalking by Brandy Hackman that I found some time back at ScrapGirls. This tutorial was written for Photoshop, but I operate with Photoshop Elements 5 (or PSE) and it works just fine. If you take a look at the above layout I did of my daughter J, you will notice the little embossed, chalked, flower in the lower left corner. I won't share the whole tutorial with you here, as you can follow the link provided above and go through it yourself if you like. However, what was so fun to me was what happened as I was playing with it after I did the tutorial. Let me just say also, there are many ways to arrive at a given result. Like my Grandma used to say, "There's more than one way to skin a cat." Well, we won't do any real cat skinning here...I like them to much. So here's one way I did it.

After the "chalking" was done, I thought the flower would look cool if it had an embossed look to it too. So here is what I did:

- Turn the eye (icon) back on, on the PNG layer

- Go to Layer Styles > Bevels > Simple Emboss: 125 degrees lighting angle; Bevel size: 1; click OK

- Make sure the PNG layer is still selected (looks blue), then play with the blending modes (the drop-down menu under "normal" in the image below) until you find one that suits your taste.

This effect made a wonderfully textured, embossed, chalked look! It was so easy and so fun!

By the way, if there is anything mentioned here that you don't understand or are not familiar with, please feel free to leave me a comment and I will try to explain. Also, if you have done this technique, or another that you really enjoy, I would love to see it! Send me a link in the comments section below. Thanks!

Layout Credits: Background paper: "For Love of Clover" by Amy Bleser (DigitalFreebies.com); Flower Doodle: "Doodles 2" by Angie Briggs (ScrapGirls.com); Overlay: "Serenity" by Angela Sharrow (DigitalFreebies.com); Word Art: "Winter Sparkle 2" by Miss Mint (PeppermintCreative.com); Photo corners: "Patch It Up" by Theresa Kavouras (ScrapGirls.com); Font: Tangerine.

So Very Thankful

Today I am so very thankful.  See these footprints in the snow?  These are the footprints of my Hubby heading to the garage this morning on his way to work.  These footprints are very precious to me, especially today. 

As he was heading down the road, a few miles from home at about 5:45am, my Hubby saw a small herd of horses standing in the road.  He tried to slow down but it was just too icy and he hit a mare, killing her.  Amazingly, my Hubby came through with no marks or injuries!  His suburban is "pretty messed up", as he says.  I haven't seen it yet. 

When he called to tell me the news, I was struck again, as I have been at different times in my life, at just how fragile life is.  In just an instant it can be gone or severely altered.  The events of this day have been another reminder to me to cherish my loved ones.  To hold them dear.  To enjoy them and be with them more often. 

This evening as we were sitting at dinner together, I couldn't help but think that it was one of the most delicious dinners I've ever ate.  It was a simple meal...very simple.  Just roast chicken, potatoes and veggies.  But it was so delicious!  Simply because it was shared with my whole family and we are all well.  I am so very thankful. 

 

Happy New Year!

From our home to yours...

Wishing you all a very Merry Christmas!

Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow!

Well, it took a long time this year, but we finally have snow.  And boy, the snow we are getting!  I can't remember when we've had this much snow! 

It was boot-top deep just in the driveway, before the snowplow man came and plowed it.

It's a good thing he came out too!  Or I wouldn't have been able to go anywhere! 

I think the little farmhouse looks so cute dressed in winter white!

Out where the barn is the snow is knee-deep!  I was surprised!  There I was in just my snowboots without snowpants.  The driveway was only boot deep.  So I went trudging out toward the barn and it got deeper and deeper!  I was getting snow inside my boots.  But a photographer must endure some hardships to get the just the right shot, you know.

Oh I love winter!  There's just something crisp and wonderful about it!  It's so invigorating to be out in it! 

The girls are having so much fun playing in the snow.  The only problem is that it has also been very cold.  In the negatives.  So, they only go out for short periods of time before their faces, fingers and toes are frozen.  It's so cute!  They come in and their cheeks are pink and their lips can hardly move when they talk.  And they always ask for a cup of hot chocolate.  You just have to have hot chocolate when you come in from the cold.  It's just what you do!

 

Sassafras

This is Sassafras...or Sassy, as we call her.  Let me tell you about Sassy.  For so very long my girls have been wanting a cat.  But since we rent, most of the time owners don't want tenants to have pets.  So the closest thing to pets we are allowed are fish in an aquarium, which we do have, by the way, and we love them.  When we moved out to the farmhouse we thought that maybe, since it was a farmhouse out in the country, the owners wouldn't mind if we had a couple pets, particularly a dog and cat.  But no...they said absolutely no pets. 

Well, we went about moving and getting settled in.  As we would come and go we would see a couple of "phantom" wild cats.  They were so scared of everything.  As soon as we would pull into the driveway, they would be off like a shot into the woods or the garage or under an outbuilding. 

The more we were around, the more this little black one became used to us.  And the trouble she caused!  She would get into the garbage and string it all over the place!  We finally had to get a couple garbage cans that had latches on the lids.  Even then she would get up on the lid and scratch the plastic bag to smithereens.  After awhile we didn't see the other one.  In fact, I never did see it.  The girls told me about it.  I think it was a calico. 

I decided to start giving Sassy some milk in the mornings to see if we could get close enough over time to hold her.  After all, she wasn't our "pet".  We didn't choose her; she chose us.  And she came with the place.  Of course the kids were ecstatic about this idea of befriending her. 

 

At first she would cry and cry when we were outside.  It was like she wanted us so bad, but was still too afraid of us to come out of hiding.  We put her milk on the front porch, on the bistro table by the window so we could watch her.  She would only come up to it after we went back in the house.  Then she would almost stick her whole head into the bowl while she ate.  She would shake her head and splatter milk all over the window.  She figured we were a safe distance away from her and would watch us through the window, rubbing against it like we were petting her, smearing up the window with her dirty little coat and milk splatters.  Over several days this became her habit.  She would drink her milk and stay at the window meowing and rubbing up against it and purring.  She would come and go throughout the day.  She felt like she was part of our family, just watching us through the window. 

It wasn't long until the girls were able to go outside while she was on the porch and finally they were able to touch her and hold her.  Then Sassy became their best friend.  You never would have known that at one time, only a few weeks ago, she was deathly afraid of people.  She went everywhere with them.  She would even try to get into the car when we went somewhere.  Like a puppy dog, she would follow the car out of the driveway.  It was like she had never been fearful at all. 

Well...sadly, it's been several days now since we've seen our little Sassy.  Over the weekend it got down to -15 degrees outside (not counting the wind chill factor).  The first cold day, she spent almost all day on the bistro table by the window.  I put a small box with an old towel out there for her and she didn't leave it all day.  That evening we didn't see her.  When K put out her milk the next morning, Sassy didn't show up to drink it and it quickly froze over.  Yesterday it was warmer out (just above 0 degrees) so the girls bundled up and went out to see if they could find her.  They walked everywhere calling her, but didn't find her.  We are all so heartbroken!  We are hoping and praying that she is ok and just weathering out the cold somewhere nearby. 

We miss you, Sassy!

Walkin' in a Winter Wonderland

Today dawned with a bright shining sun and a frosty blanket over the countryside. It was so gorgeous, so I decided to go for a walk in the winter wonderland.

The mountains finally have their coat of snow. They just gleam in the sunlight!

The sky is so blue! It's been quite gray out for several days now, so the beautiful sky is such a treat.

Our little homeplace looks so cozy tucked in the dusting of snow.

Winter cheer to all!

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I would sure love to hear from you, my readers! If you are enjoying the photos and stories feel free to leave a comment. Have a great day!