Bleh ...

Howdy.

I have been flat in bed since the day before Mothers Day.



Urgh.



Don't know what is wrong. Went to the doctor today. X-rays, ultra sounds, EKG, and a myriad of other tests - in addition to donating 15 tubes of blood and a little pee ...

Everything looks fine - will wait on the labs.


It seems to be a mystery.

Hoping to get my blog groove back any day now ...

A Day Early

Gary's gift to me for Mother's Day was grocery shopping ...

Not really - but that would have been a GREAT GIFT! I loathe grocery shopping. He was heading home from somewhere and called and asked me what we needed - and thus did this chore for me.

What he really got me follows. If I had gone - our house would be much less colorful right now!

Therapy

Look at me ... blogging and everything ...

Have had these photos for about a week and thought that I might as well get on with this blogging stuff.

Gary finished the night stands for the guest room / Ryan's room. They are ADORABLE! He made up the design to match the dresser and they turned out rather nice:


There really is not enough room for two in that room, but it seemed like a smart idea to make two at the time - therefore Jessie's room gets a lovely night stand also:


So ... the room is almost complete:



Gary is still hating the desk ... or what he disgustedly calls 'The Organ' since he thinks it looks more like a musical instrument. He has a plan to put it out at the top of our staircase and make shelves for the room. Another wood project for him!

And the title? This is most assuredly Gary's therapy. He says it is cheaper than the real thing (but with the price of oak these days ... iffy). Today he mentioned that it keeps him from beating the dog and the children - so another plus!


And as a side note: He got a belated birthday gift from me (who knew the darn things would take 6 weeks to ship?). It is an electric 'brander' to burn into his wood projects. I think it is cool that he can put his name and the year he built something on his projects:

Now to convince him to go 'brand' everything in our house ...

Denmark ...

Wednesdays Pic of the Day comes to you from Copenhagen, Denmark. (And for those of you that saw 'Thursdays' up there earlier - yeah, yeah, yeah - I thought it was Thursday for at least 3 hours, before I started wondering why Gary was at YM/YW on a Thursday night ....)

If it seems as if I have a lot of photo apps for my iPad ... it is because I DO. I can't pass up a chance to play with my photos for 99 cents. Some people have asked me about what apps I like - so I am showcasing the ones I like the best here.

The one tonight is called 'Mobil Monet' and is rather fun.

Enter your photo, this one here from a town square right off of the famous 'Nyhavn', and it takes out all the color and leaves a 'posterized' version of the lines, grays and blacks. You can then mess around with the lines, amount of gray or black to make the 'drawing' more to your liking:

You then can adjust the brush size, then 'paint' in the color by swiping your finger across the areas you want to color. Here is just a wee bit of color:

Here I pretty much filled in all the color:


Original Pic:

I do have a lot of fun with these apps. They aren't Photoshop ... and usually only do one thing, but they are pretty darn good at doing it!

Tues Pic of the Day

Tuesdays pic of the day comes to you from Maui.


DOGS IN GOGGLES!!!


I made this guy stop and let me take a photo of his dogs wearing goggles. He seems pretty happy about it (you can see his face in the side mirror).


This is using an iPad app called 'Snap & Sketch' using the 'colored charcoal' option:




This is using an iPad app called 'Sketch Agent' using the colored pencil option:



Note - all these photos that have been altered look waaay more altered bigger - here the second sketch you can barely see unless you click on it to blow it up ...


Original Photo:

Mon - Pic of the Day

Wasn't on the computer at all yesterday - HUGE headache ...

So - here is Mondays pic of the day.

I am using an iPad app called Sunsetter ... and it turns your photos into sunset photos:

Original pic:

Playing with Waterfalls

This is a waterfall near the Stalheim Hotel - which is located between Gudvangen and Voss in Norway. I WOULD name it if I could. I know exactly where it is, but the photos of the falls 'near the Stalheim Hotel' don't look anything like this ... thus it shall remain nameless ...

Experimented with several filters - both in Photoshop and an app on my iPad call '100 Cameras'.

It is a good app. LOVE, LOVE, LOVE the 'authors' HDR photography - but he needs ... what? A lesson ... something ... when it comes to NAMING FILTERS. Here are a few examples of the names ... I kid you not:

'An ancient simplicity of zen and peace'

'A feeling of conflict and discomfort'

'Waking up, surrounded by pillows'

'The first smell of summer chlorine'

'Maybe what I am thinking about will come true'

Bizarre? But I like the effects ... whatever they are named. (Still ... I think Trey Radcliff should have some sense slapped into him - just sayin')

The following one is where all the elves and fairies live ... with their unicorns:

Original Photo: