Rain, Rain Hooray!!!

Hi
After I had edited my little sketches I decided that I really kind of liked the way they looked.  This one looks kind of friendly so he's being used as my greeting today.  You will probably see more of my little sketches and drawings in my blog just because I'm having fun with them.  They are not great art but they are fun.
I've changed my layout, I got an e-mail about new blogger layouts and decided to try them.  I was thinking of changing my color scheme anyway; I was getting tired of the dark color scheme.  I think maybe it's because of a change in me.  Anyway once again serendipity came into play in the form of an e-mail.  One of the premises of Dr. Dyer's book Excuses Begone, which I am currently reading for the third time, is that when you are ready, the help that you need will come into your life.  Serendipity.  I have found that the more I accept the gifts of serendipity the more I get them and wonderful gifts they are.  Sometimes they seem small at the time but the joy they bring is out of proportion to the size.  For example the change in my blog colors, before I changed them I never would have believed how good it make me feel to see the new set up.  I could do a whole blog just on the little gifts of serendipity I have received of late, and maybe sometime I will but for now I'm going on with other things.

My last blog was on the outrageous pollen counts we in Georgia have had to endure.  Another serendipity, Tom bought me a painter's mask just a couple of days before the pollen rise and it has help me keep breathing normally or close to normal in spite of the pollen.  We woke up to dew on the pollen and it actually made it kind of pretty.  Then we got rain and got pollen sludge.  Yuck!

  After the second rain when most of the sludge was gone the pollen once again made patterns that where really kind of pretty.  That's why the post is called Rain, Rain Hooray!  Well that and the pollen count went down to 1941 still extraordinarily high but better.
I think maybe I should have called this post Hodge-Podge because I'm going to change the subject again.  The economic crisis that has hit pretty much all over has hit this family too.  Although it hasn't reached crisis proportions a little extra money would sure be nice.  I'm working on selling my photographs and now have a website on redbubble (see top right hand corner of my blog and click to go there).  I have also started with ads on my blog not something I wanted to do but I think it could be an advantage to both me and my readers.  I am only working with Amazon.com because they have good prices and service; I've used them and like them.  They also let me choose what to advertise so when I read a book and enjoy it all you have to do is find it in the slideshow click on it and it will take you to Amazon where you can order it. Convenient. I like that I can choose what to put up to advertise that way I know you will probably like it too.  Hopefully finding this will turn out to be serendipity for me too.
I hope you like and enjoy my new blog and your life is filled with serendipity too.

Seeing Yellow

Normal extremely high pollen count is anything over 120.  Well today in Atlanta the pollen count was 5733.  I think that qualifies as extremely high.  I live outside of Atlanta in a wooded area and I'm not sure that I would even want to know what the pollen count is here,  Everything is covered in pollen and it is starting to seep into the house.  You can't keep anything dusted.  I've been dusting off my computer every couple of hours and you would never know it.  I took my camera out to take these pictures and came in with a dusty or should I say 'polleny' camera.  As you can see in the first picture even the windshield wipper has a hard time keeping up. I looked off into the distance and instead of clear blue skies or even gray polluted ones it was a yellow green.  I didn't even try to capture the sky because even if I got the sky color perfect no one would believe me.  If you look at this mornings post you will notice the sunrise is definately yellow.  They say that this pollen is too big and heavy to cause any 'real' allergy, but whoever the they are surely doesn't live here at this time of year.  Allergy or not it will certainly irratate one's eyes, nose, sinuses and lungs.  Usually at this time of year everyone can hear me coming from a ways off by listening for my breathing.  Last week Tom bought me a mask and it seems to be helping as I am breathing pretty normally for this kind of pollen count.  I've been wearing it whenever I go outside to walk the dogs or work in the garden and I'm seriously considering wearing it every time I go out.  It seems Tom got it for me in the nick of time; the pollen counts have only been in the extreme range for just a couple of days.  I guess if one wants lots of trees and flowers one has to put up with the pollen.  As for meI'm going to continue taking care of myself so hopefully I can make it through this time of year with minimum problems.

All the picture where taken of the outside of mine and Jeremy's cars.

Sunrise

Good Morning !!!

Just in case you missed it; the sunrise was beautiful.
Such a wonderful way to start the day. 

For Hayden

Most kids go through a stage where they are fascinated by dinosaurs and Hayden is no exception.  Since my camera is broken and is in the camera hospital I have been having fun editing and experimenting with editing my photos.  Yesterday however I realized that I did not have a photo that I liked for Easter that I hadn't already used somewhere so I pulled out my sketches and used one of them.  While I was looking through my sketches I ran across several dinosaur sketches done at several different times for several different grandsons.  To make them brand new for Hayden I used my photo editing programs to give them a whole new look.
Enjoy

Happy Easter

 

About 25 years ago I was making Easter eggs for the kids from a kit that my mom had sent me.  We were spending the day getting ready for Easter which was the next day and having a good time, when I received a phone call that would forever change the way I celebrated the Easter holiday.  My sister called to tell me my Mom had had a stroke and was in a coma.  I was shocked and Tom and I made arrangements for me to fly to Florida from where we where living in Utah so I could be with my family.  It was a time that we as a family grew closer together as we talked of our Mom and her wishes and our memories of her.  Mom died a few days later.  In talking about mom we decided that she probably picked Easter as her time to leave us; as a way to comfort us as we all believe in Jesus Christ and his redemption and resurrection.  What a wonderful comfort that was to us as a family to share that kind of testimony of Jesus and all of us be able to comfort each other with this knowledge.

Since that Easter I have not dyed Easter eggs but we have had baskets and goodies, but they never had the importance to me that they once did.  Now the significance of the holiday; the atonement, the death and the resurrection of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ holds number one priority in my heart.

Today was especially tender for my heart as my friend Marsha died just last week, it being close to 25 years since my Mom died and today was General Conference (the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints) from Salt Lake City and many of the talks by the general authorities, the apostles and the Prophet centered around Easter and the resurrection.  The choir even sang my all time favorite hymn "I Know That My Redeemer Lives".  What could have been a sad day of grieving was instead a day of inspiration, peace and comforting.  I am so grateful for my knowledge of the gospel of Jesus Christ.

My wish for you is that on this day you could feel the peace that I have felt, no matter your beliefs or religion.

Trees

I have found a fun blog that I am going to enjoy participating in. You can access it by clicking on Written Inc. on my blog list.  Once a week he introduces a theme for the photographers out there and then invites us all to contribute our photos along that theme.  It certainly makes a interesting blog.  His other posts are fun also.  A thoroughly enjoyable blog.  This weeks theme is trees.  Since Georgia is in fact a temperate rainforest there is no shortage of trees to photograph.  Actually it is difficult not to get a tree in any outdoor picture that you take.  I have learned to either shoot around them or to incorporate them into my artwork.  Most of my pictures have trees in them.  I probably have a couple of thousand of them.  I will not try to show them all but I have picked out a few of my favorites.  I hope you enjoy.

When this you see

I've been trying to get all my little avatars, icons, or whatever you want to call those little identifying pictures on the web to all match.  So when you see this picture on the web you will know that it is me.  I think it symbolizes me and my personality or what I hope to become pretty well.  It has a somewhat traditional look, kind of like a Chinese painting and is therefore familiar, but it is taken a step further to become creative and unique.  The colors are soft and feminine with just enough bold and dark colors for contrast, liveliness, vitality and interest.  The shapes of the limbs, branches and trees have both character and variety from both years of growth and predetermined genetics.  Lastly the frame pulls it all together for one complete whole.
As part of my living fearlessly I have decided to sell my artwork, which is why I have added the slideshow and redbubble.com icon should you wish to purchase one of my photos.  Just click on the icon and it will take you to my site.  If you do not see the photo art you wish to purchase just contact me via e-mail (listed on right) and I will see if I can get it on the site for you.  Not all of my pictures are sufficient size or resolution to print well, sorry.
In celebration of starting my own sales website I will be giving away a 16x20 print of one of my photographs on April 30.  If you would like to make suggestions as to which photo that will be leave a comment either here or by e-mail.  There are plenty of photos to look at; see the 'Contact Information' box on the right.  Please give me the name of the photo or the name of the post.  I will be deciding on which photo to give away on April 15.  More details to follow.