Happy Birthday, Nazare

Last Sunday was the birthday of a good friend who is very artistic but never takes time for art. For my present, I asked Katydiddy to come up and show us some techniques. As you can imagine, it was a wonderful day. How lucky am I that Laura is at my beck and call? By the way, if you don't already, you will want to keep up with her. Good stuff happening over there.

Here is the journal I made for the birthday girl. She is a proud Spainard who hails from Madrid. And I have seen her flamenco!


This is a transparency of my Grandmother. We put flame to them over my kitchen sink and hoped the husband (and father) didn't catch us.
See the chubby little girl with the dark hair? Me. The tall slender blond is Nancy, my best friend in the whole world at that time. I recently had a great dream where Nancy and I played and played so, when Laura asked us to choose an old photo to distress and paint, I reached for her. My mother gave me the book "What I Know Now: Letters to My Younger Self" and I may write that letter in the space around the photo.
Ok, you may want to get a cup of tea, or a snack. Maybe use the restroom. Stretch your legs. I have more!

Side Trip
We tend to get all caught up in the stuff of daily routine, things you can't even remember the next day and never get out for fun. The husband and I have committed to more outings and for some reason he calls these "side trips",as in being at a vacation destination and deciding to deviate from the itinerary. I guess since he's retired every day feels like vacation!

Last week we went to Descanso Gardens in La Canada, Ca. What a beautiful place. Something like 180 acres with acres and acres of that being camellia forests. Yes, forests. Outstanding. Here are the results of a lot of camera fun. There are no photos of the cammellia forests because they are too big and too dense for my little camera.

Fish are always a favorite of mine. Lots of huge koi in here. Got some photos of the beauties, but they didn't come out good enough to bore you with.

Aren't photo editing programs wonderful? Here I used iPhoto special effects. I'm going to put this on cards.
This one, I promise, was not retouched. The day was perfect for photos. Overcast with moments of the most brilliant sun. The word here would be "dazzling".
I want a pergola. The husband just sighs when he hears things like that.
I've had a thing for weeping willow since I used to play under one as a child.
This should be the illustration for "pink" in the dictionary.
And here is "white". Imagine the sun shinning full on these. It was actually hard to look at.
There is a grand old house on the property with a carriage house that is used by local artists. The curtain patterned light on the rug made me think of Mary Ann and all of her stencils.


The Tea House is in what they call the Japanese Garden. Other than the plum tree and the house, it didn't look very Japanese to me. A bit overgrown for that. Still, however, very lovely.

There are several very tall stands of bamboo, which were also waaaaay too big for my camera, but I found the carving on the stalks interesting.

I have been getting interested in the mechanics of pin hole cameras and took the last two through knot holes and narrow slats in the fence. The change in light really gives them a different depth.Thanks for hanging out with me. I've overdone it a bit today and being here with you has been just the rest I needed. I'm off to celebrate the mysteries. Hope you can do the same.