Focus on Simplicity

Today I'll just let the photos and the quotes speak for themselves. I focused on three words: white, round, minimal for the third week of Kim's new class.  We're being challenged to find our own style...which evolves over time.

Seeds

I found these sunflower heads in a pail today...

My Edster is harvesting the seeds for next year.  And it got me to thinking...about the lessons of seeds.  Look at them!  Perfectly placed for their own perfect purpose.  Randomly designed?  I don't think so!  So let's reflect...what can they teach us?

Confession is the act of inviting God to walk the acreage of our hearts. “There is a rock of greed over here, Father. I can’t budge it. And that tree of guilt near the fence? Its roots are long and deep. And may I show you some dry soil, too crusty for seed?” God’s seed grows better if the soil of the heart is cleared. - Max Lucado

Gratitude for the seemingly insignificant—a seed—this plants the giant miracle. - Ann Voskamp

Every adversity, every failure, every heartbreak, carries with it the seed of an equal or greater benefit. - Napoleon Hill

There are in this world blessed souls, whose sorrows all spring up into joys for others; whose earthly hopes, laid in the grave with many tears, are the seed from which spring healing flowers and balm for the desolate and the distressed. - Harriet Beecher Stowe

Seeds must be sown everywhere. Only some will bear fruit. But there would not be the fruit from the few had the many not been sown. - Chaim Potok

The tiny seed knew that in order to grow, it needed to be dropped in dirt, covered in darkness, struggle to reach the light. - Sandra Kring

See a flame in a spark, a tree in a seed. See great things in little beginnings. - Richard Sibbes

March - Schmarch!

For the love of Mike, where did February go?  March is here and I am SO not ready...but that's another story.

But how can one help but focus on Spring...especially being in the middle of the Lenten season.

So Day 6 in Kim Klassen's Beyond Beyond class...we were challenged to take photos "From Above."

Here's some of my renderings...paired with quotes about Spring...

Texture used here is Kim's 1301...

The same texture was used for this one, as well...

These next two photos are not from above but ones I tok from the same setting...

Again using 1301 texture, which I think works great here...

And if it's not broke, don't fix it...so I used 1301 texture here, as well...

Additionally, Kim provided one of her Lightroom presets (barely color) and gave us a few secrets to use in Lightroom to give the effects below.  Again...I can't share the secrets...my gangsa KK groupies will find me and cut me... They are obsessed!

This is using Kim's texture called Chilled...

And I liked it on the first one, I used Chilled again.

I think this quote is very appropo for the month of March...it is SUCH a tease...

Who knew Sitting Bull could be so eloquent?...

And this is just part of how I responded to Kim's challenge for Day 6...

And just how are you feeling about Spring?

Simple Pleasures

Already the second week in Kim Klassen's Beyond Beyond class...or has she is changing it to 2B class.

Focusing on aperture (or f-stop), we were challenged to do a still shot with a variety of apertures.  Mine ranged from f1.8 to f4.  The lower the number, the greater amount of light allowed into the photograph.  All photos were taken in my "gray" room.

Here are mine...and I chose to pair them with quotes focusing on the theme of simplicity. 

f/4



f/2.2



f/1.8



f/2.8

f/2



f/3.2



Wonderful sentiments...fun lesson...and great use of this pale aqua ceramic bowl from one of my favorite and reasonable stores for props...TJMaxx...$2.99.

I'm grateful for a simple post, nothing heavy or complex...with a subtle undertone of the way to live life.

Showers of Mercy

We have been in a moderate drought this summer...like a lot of the country, we have had weeks of heat and little rain.  Monday, however, was a treat...it rained all day and I came home to water drenched sunflowers.  The rain was such a gift to a very thirsty and parched Ohio.

Thank you for indulging me with my sunflowers again today...although the focus is the rain, paired up with quotes about the same subject.  Once my volunteers are gone, it will be a year before they come by again.

 

Perhaps this one is soaked with joy...

 

This one is rain-kissed!

 

This flirt is being seductive...

 

This one has such a plain ole practical attitude...

 

And this one is a little subdued!

I love my sunflowers and am grateful for God's gift of a day of refreshing rain.  We take so much for granted.

With gratitude,

 

Rachel Carson, Silent Spring, and Homework

One of the gifts we enjoy daily, while directly from God, the Creator, can also be attributed to the work of Rachel Carson.  It was her work and authorship of her book, Silent Spring, that addressed the peril of our natural world from the misuse of pesticides after World War II.  Multiple species of disappearing birds have returned making our Spring full of song, once again.  So I thought I would use one of her quotes in doing my work for Kim's Texture Tuesday and her Beyond Layers class.  In our Beyond class we learned some new tricks with type text.

Those who contemplate the beauty of the earth find reserves of strength that will endure as long as life lasts. -- Rachel Carson

I added the words "take the time...to look...and really see" as I contemplated how we miss so much in our daily lives that God gives to us to enjoy...His gifts, His mercies.  And I recall another quote.

Live your life each day as you would climb a mountain. An occasional glance toward the summit keeps the goal in mind, but many beautiful scenes are to be observed from each new vantage point. Climb slowly, steadily, enjoying each passing moment;  and the view from the summit will serve as a fitting climax for the journey. -- Harold V. Melchert

So continue whatevery journey God is guiding you on, but don't miss His wonderful gifts along the way.

With gratitude,

A Week of Quotes and Words - Day One

In my eCourse with Kim Klassen in her Beyond Layers - 52 Weeks of Artfulness class I started in January, we have been challenged this week to focus on one word for each day and pair it up with a quote and photo representing that word/theme.

I've always been drawn to meaningful quotes, prose, and poetry...writing them down in spiral notebooks with red felt pen as a teenager.  I have collected them, printed them on decorated computer paper, cut into little pieces, folded them and put them in a jar, with a ribbon on top as a gift to special people in my life.  This challenge was going to be a pleasure.

The first challenge word is "life."  Every Memorial Day, I take some extra time off to decorate the graves of my relatives/ancestors in West Virginia.  Someone years before had planted these lillies in front of my Great-Grandfather Powers' grave...so gorgeous, rich in color.  I sat on the ground in front of the headstone at bloom level at dusk with my camera lens drinking in all this beauty.  And how poignant to think on the word "life" as I sat on the grave of a loved one who died long before.

 I heard someone point out that "life, at best, is brief."  The years blur and run together and before I know it, I'm eligible to order from the Bob Evans' 55 and over menu!

There really is no dress rehearsal for life...and it goes by quickly.  Not a single day is guaranteed.  I think of Psalms 90:12 that says,

So teach us to number our days so that we may get a heart of wisdom.

Once again, as I pondered the word "life," I reflected once again with the backdrop of a cemetery.  As a Hackers Creek Pioneer Descendant, my Memorial Day weekend ritual took me to Friendship Cemetery near Jane Lew, West Virginia on Hackers Creek.



Today I see the merecies of God that for a moment I am physically separated from those I love who have gone onto heaven, the relationship endures as I hold the memories close to my heart, knowing that what has been will always be, meeting again "on the other side."

With gratitude,