Cross- Stitching Once Again...

I haven't worked on this cross- stitch project (designed by Thea Gouverneur) for a very long time...



'Amsterdam'

I've been working so much on my sewing, photography and lately all that Photoshop editing, that the project has been laying by the way-side a bit. 

That is ok.!

These kind of large projects don't have to be finished immediately...

I've added my feet so that you can see the actual size!

I'll 'sip and savour' a little bit at a time...

Last Photoshop Action For Today....

Yes, I've spent my whole Sunday behind the computer: wonderful stuff!  {smile}



Miss M. at the helm...

Near Volendam, The Netherlands...
July 2011



Tomorrow I will get some fresh air again, I promise...

Last Cross-Country Race For This Year...

Yesterday we had to drive all the way to Lakewood, south of Tacoma, for Master C.'s final race of the season: the Tri-District-Race.

The weather was absolutely phenomenal, especially considering that the days before and after it was pouring with rain...


Click to enlarge!

On the way back home we had these sitings...



I didn't know they were still manufacturing these!



And Mother Nature also added some more 'stunningness'...


Mount Rainier



What a day!

PS: Master C. didn't win any ribbons but to be allowed to run in this race was already an honor! His best time this season was 17 min. 52 sec. for a 5K run... (and this is cross- country so hills and different terrains are involved, no track running)

Notebook...

It is absolutely pouring rain outside, so a good time to fiddle around with Mr. Photoshop once again. What do you think of the following?

Yay! Success at last!

Of course I only show you the proper results, not all the banged-up ones. This time I managed to add the notebook picture to a blank document. I then re-sized it bigger and added the (colored!) text. After that I added (in a different color) the pictures to the right.

Ha, that gives me quite an accomplished feeling!  {smile}

Hey You, the Weekend is here!!!!

PS I have finally become a member of the Pinterest Family. You can check it out if you like... <wink>

Tartan Skirt Part Deux...

My new skirt felt a little bit too formal, so after glancing at it a few times I decided to add some fun little pockets to it. I've sewn them so that they will (hopefully) start fraying around the edges after some washing...

I'm still a child of the 80s after all...   <wink>  (listening to 'This Charming Man' in the mean time)

PS Here is a little Fashion Shoe Show:
(sorry about the dirty mirror...)



These are all Doc Martens except for the upper left ones...

'Hey Ho, Let's Go!'



Tartan Skirt...

Today I finally finished that huge sewing project for the school's auction, so then I had room in my head again to start (and finish!) a new project...



A bit difficult to see here on the picture maybe, but the skirt has five different buttons!



The fabric is super soft and the skirt is very comfy. I'll probably show you a picture of it on sometime during the weekend...

So Disappointed...

Well, apparently everybody who does not have my fonts also downloaded in their own computer can not see the fancy fonts I used in my blog: how disappointing is that?!  {not smiling}

I have now changed the settings so at least you will still have a pleasing view but it is not quite as I had in mind. The only way for me to show the 'Val Blanc' font in the main text is by typing my post in Photoshop. I'm not good enough at using that program (yet) to also be able to add pictures in between the text then, but that is something I can work on. Dang it, I am not happy about it!

The only good thing I have now noticed though is that Blogger has added more fonts to their regular list so obvioulsy  they are working on it...

OK, enough winging and whining! Dinner is ready, so we're off to eat and then we will watch the latest episode of Mythbusters which is currently recording on our DVR. That will surely bring a smile to my face again!

What Do You See?

During a lovely visit with my friend this morning we happened to look up my blog on her computer. Shock, Horror & Gasp when I realised that she couldn't see all the lovely fonts I have been using in my blog! (and spent a lot of time finding them in the first place!)

So the question is: Do you see the following fonts?

Sharing The Love...

 OK you guys, I just found a plethora of downloadable shapes, brushes and fonts! The first source is Tack-O-Rama:



These are all Fonts!



Shapes for Photoshop

  The next source is Nadine Pau:


Brushes for Photoshop

 I also found a lot of clip art but haven't had a chance to work with it yet. That Tack-O-Rama site had tons of retro stuff and is definitely worth perusing! (and all free downloads as far as I could tell)!

Now I'm off to Little Bit. A big day there today since we have an Accreditation Team visiting so they will be asking us questions etc. A bit like a test: Yikes!  <wink>

Fall In The Valley...

Finally I had the presence of mind this afternoon to actually take my proper camera with me on my way to pick up Master C. from his cross-country practise...

The Valley is just plain gorgeous right now!

(And yes, I've been playing around in Photoshop again. I just can't get enough of those sticky tapes...)

A 'Thank You' Card In Photoshop...

I've been spending quite a bit of time teaching myself on how to use Photoshop these last few days and yesterday I managed to download a whole bunch of extras to use.

This morning I really wanted to send an email 'thank you' to my neighbors for all the driving and entertaining they did with my daughter and her friends during an evening trip to a corn maze this weekend. (they didn't return until midnight and were very muddy!)

Within a few minutes I had this whipped up:

Not bad I thought!  {smile}

I found the corn picture online, added a white canvas background, added the scalloped edges, added the compass (a Brush) in the upper left hand corner, added the see through tape (also a Brush) and then added the text. Oh the possibilities!

If you're also interested in trying out this Photoshop lark then check out this site: Pugly Pixel. She has great tutorials and fabulous blog bling! I also found great shapes, brushes and textures on Fuzzimo with all free downloads. Of course there are tons more sites but these are the ones that I found most helpful for now...

Be prepared for lots of frustration however since it is all very complicated. I borrowed several books from the library and the only one that was truly useful was the "Teach Yourself Visually Adobe Photoshop CS4" book written by Mike and Linda Wooldridge. They show actual pictures of your computer screen and circle exactly which buttons to click and in which order. That sounds really stupid but that is how complicated it is.  The pictures look something like this..

This one was borrowed from Pugly Pixel...


I also borrowed the "Photoshop For Dummies" book but I didn't understand anything they were saying and there were hardly any pictures whatsoever. I felt pretty dumb to be honest after trying to read this one, so don't read it!  <wink>

Now I'm off to finish that large sewing project. 'Only' 19 more squares to go! (out of the 84...)

PS: Check out Pike Street for a fun picture to start out the week!  {smile} ( I meant the one about the desserts, she has posted several pics since...)

I See RED! (and gold and green and blue...)

Sunday Morning, 8 am... (in the rain)

Dover, Photoshop & IKEA: What A Combo...

The other day, during one of my lengthy perusals through blogland, I read something about signing up for free weekly samples from Dover, the artsy book publishing company. (they also have awesome coloring books!) Just click on the link, then click on 'free samples' and sign up...

So I did and yesterday I received several fun and interesting samples in my inbox. Above you see this fabulous vintage balloon drawing, but they also had all these old posters for example:

If you are at all familiar with Dover then you know the huge variety of materials they carry. Very cool indeed!

Also during my blogland perusals, these color palettes keep popping up and I wanted to see if I could recreate one in Photoshop and 'Yes indeedy!'

It took me a little while, but in the end I figured out that all I needed was one layer per color box. If you've worked with Photoshop at all you will know what I mean. (and if not, it is too complicated to explain, since I'm barely getting it myself...)

I am taking one step at a time with this Photoshop program, trying hard not to overwhelm myself with all the complicated manoeuvres. I must say there are a lot of things that you can do really easy in Picasa or in Photoscape so I will continue using those programs for the more regular stuff. But, for the more 'fun' projects like this color palette, I will continue to explore the wonders of Photoshop...

On to a completely different subject: some 'Jul'  items (= x-mas) have started to arrive at IKEA!!!

Just about all right up my alley. Not so certain about that Santa fabric though...

Well, I guess I'd better continue with that humongous sewing project which has now landed on my sewing table in all its glory. 84 table toppers it is!
I offered to cut and sew them all so that we don't have to constantly contact each other (we all live between 30 and 45 minutes apart) about who is doing what.

The end is not in sight yet, but hopefully it will soon because all my lovely fabrics that I ordered last week have arrived, have been laundered and ironed and are now waiting to be used!

PS Strange smells in the house today: I've got a Moroccan crock-pot going (very spicy!) and Mr. G. is brewing 'a double', in other words a Belgium Beer, in ridiculously large pots on the stove. Can't wait until that is ready!  <wink>
Oh, and I see he also has the mini crock-pot going with some kind of spicy bean & cheese mixture for dipping tortilla chips in. I think I'd better have a few before it is all gone...

Pegasus & The Casbah...

Click! to enlarge...

Last Saturday, the 'Tuesday Troublemakers' (= volunteers at Little Bit) and myself had the honour of a private tour at 'Pegasus', an elite racehorse and sports horse training centre near here. Wow, what a facility! Do check out their website for more information on what they do there. The tour leader was none other then the (grand) son of the owners! (a fact we didn't realise until the end of the tour...)

You can already see the collage I made of this event but I also wanted to high-light some of the more amazing pictures I made that morning. As you will see it was extremely foggy and stone and stone cold and it stayed that way the whole morning! My fingers were numb after the almost two hour tour...

And now get ready for  a whole bunch of horse pictures. I've also tried some of my new Photoshop techniques on some of them, just so that you know... <wink> Here we go:

I see you!

This facility also has a large rehabilitation center for injured horses and to me this was the most impressive part. They had a large circular pool (shaped like a doughnut so that one trainer could stand in the inside 'hole' and one trainer could run around the outside) for horses to get a work out in...

Working hard!

And a hyperbaric oxygen chamber for horses! (see their website for more info on this)

If you look closely on the screen on the right you will see that a horse is actually standing in there!

Apparently this treatment is miraculous...



'Lady Di' 

(she has a British owner)

This was a very sad result of a barn fire two months ago. If you look closely you can see that she was burned very badly on her back, but is healing very nicely now, mainly because of the use of that hyperbaric oxygen chamber...

Pegasus also trains horses for the race track and of course they have their own practise track there. Unfortunately with the fog we couldn't see much and there wasn't any training going on, but it gave me some pretty shots nevertheless...

The last two photos above were of an (almost vintage) race-starter. (that is not the official word for it, but I don't know the official word for it...) Loved the lettering on top!

Every tower- nook had one of these beautiful wind direction thingies on it. I especially loved the last one...

So, even though we were completely frozen to the bone by the end of the tour, it left us with a heart warming feeling inside!

- * - * - * - * - * - * - * -

And now for something completely different. Every year our school (and employer) has a fundraising auction and this year's theme is 'Casablanca'. Some fellow parents and friends have asked me to help out with the sewing of the center pieces.
I said: 'Sure, I can sew!" Oh oh, the project is a bit larger than I anticipated: 42 tables times 2 square  fabric pieces equals 84!!! That is not only a lot of sewing but it is also a lot of cutting of very slippery fabric! (big pain in the behind I can tell you)

Anyway, now you know what I'll be doing today...

Just A Glance...

9:30am on a Monday morning, I just happened to glance out of our kitchen window...

When I looked around me I saw this...

And when I looked up I saw this...