One last artsy blast before school starts!

Yes, the start of the school year is looming. I've spent the last few days playing with artsy things (or, as some might put it - avoiding doing work!) and thought I'd show you some of the results. It all started with Adele coming over one day to make fabric paper (basically, a muslin base, with lots of glue and scraps of paper and paint layered on top of it) and issuing a challenge that we should actually make something using the fabric paper!

You'll be stunned, I'm sure, to hear that I decided to make one piece of paper into ... yes, a prairie landscape!! (I'll pause for a moment while you get over your shock!)

And here it is ...




I cut up another sheet of fabric paper and used it in this little piece, which also uses some of the charms I've bought:



I've also been making little books (based on an idea in the latest Sew Somerset magazine). It's a fun way to use up some of the paper I've been accumulating, and I like the way it combines paper and stitching and rubber stamping and pretty much whatever else you want to include! I'm not sure what (if anything) I'll use the books for; maybe they're complete as is.

Here's the cover and a few pages from my first attempt:










And here's my second one:








And, finally, a little accordion book, which uses up some old Artist Trading Cards I had lying around (sorry about the slightly blurry pictures!):



And now, it's time to start doing some work. No, really!

Hello! I'm back from my annual visit to Winnipeg. As usual, I spent lots of time driving around enjoying the landscape - and, as usual, taking lots of pictures! Here are a few. (I'll post some black-and-white shots to my other blog, too - see the link at the right if you're interested.)

First, some beautiful flowers. These were taken at some of my favourite places, like Assiniboine Park's English Garden and Sculpture Garden.











This statue is in one of many by a sculptor named Leo Mol; there's a garden containing a collection of his works in Assiniboine Park.





And now .. the usual prairie landscapes. Ho, hum, more beautiful scenery. I never seem to get tired of it! Hope you still enjoy it, too.









Here's a little cemetery in a tiny town in the middle of nowhere. What a peaceful place to rest.



I had to take a Rufus with me, of course. (His brothers went to stay with their friends, the Rufi, who live with their person, Jackie.)

Here he is enjoying a nice healthy dinner (I'm sure he was the happiest naked mole rat in Winnipeg!) and surveying the view from his perch on the dashboard.




I always go to Gimli when I'm in Manitoba. It's on the western shore of Lake Winnipeg and it's a nice little beach town with a stony beach and a few cute little shops and a restaurant where I always have a pickerel dinner! (Me, a creature of habit? Nah!) This trip I went for the first time to Grand Beach, which is on the other side of Lake Winnipeg. It's a provincial park; no shops but oh, the beach! Beautiful white sand. Shallow water - good for wading. I walked for about an hour from one end of the beach to the other. Here's a picture of the sand dunes, and of some interesting tracks in the sand.



I enjoy walking the trails at Assiniboine Forest and Fort Whyte Alive (a nature centre). Here's a view of the forest.



So that's it! Another wonderful trip. Can't wait to go back next year!

(Check out Jill Blogz for some black & white shots, too!)

Thanks for stopping by!

I've been playing some more with Photoshop Elements and having a great time! Here are some of my "altered" pictures, along with the originals. I've enabled comments to the blog (I think!), so let me know - which ones do you like? Or dislike, for that matter!

(By the way, sorry about the funky spacing on the blog. It looks fine when I type it in, but then changes a bit when I post it. I may have to learn HTML at some point!!)



Somehow, this makes the original look bland! If only I could remember exactly what I did to get this effect. I think it involved increasing the saturation and adding a warming filter. Maybe.









Again, the original pales by comparison!!






















Yes, well, we have to get a prairie landscape in here, don't we?! I think I used "diffuse glow" to brighten this one up. It's not exactly realistic, but I think it's kind of cool.









Here's another shot that I like even better with the Photoshop manipulation.


















This next one didn't come out quite the way I expected. There's a filter that's supposed to make the picture look like a watercolour, but I don't really see the effect here. (I think it might look better on a larger scale.) I do, however, like the canvas look.





And now, starting with a pretty flower picture ...



... and going wild and crazy!





So those are my latest experiments. I really love the extra intensity. I've just signed up for a digital photography class at the IMA in September - I'm looking forward to learning more!

(I've also posted a couple of black-and-white shots to my other blog - see the link at the right if you're interested.)

What I did on my summer vacation ....

It's hard to believe that my trip to Europe is over! The two weeks went by much too quickly. I had a bit of trouble getting there (an unscheduled overnight in Boston after possible engine problems with our plane), but from then on it was great. Lots of long days on the bus and quick rest and lunch stops along the highway, but that's a small price to pay for all the places we saw.

Here are a few highlights. Hope you enjoy! (I've also posted some of my black & white photos on my other blog, JillBlogz - click on the link at the right under "Favorite Links" if you're interested.)

The Famous Sights













London: Tower Bridge; Big Ben and the London Eye



Lucerne, Switzerland - the anguish in the face of the lion is heart-wrenching (it's a memorial to a battle in which a large number of Swiss soldiers lost their lives)





Rome - Roman ruins everywhere! (who'd'a thunk?!)










Yes, it really does lean!












Nice - the Promenade des Anglais





Paris - the Eiffel Tower and the Arc de Triomphe, of course! And signs for the Metro.

























Other places: the castle and town of Heidelberg; Florence - the Duomo and a tour of a leather workshop, where I got to model a 290 Euro jacket (Needless to say, I didn't buy it!); Avignon's beautiful palace of the popes; St. Paul-de-Vence, a medieval town perched high up on a hill - lovely buildings and views and some very nice shops; Monte Carlo - the Casino (which you have to pay to go into! people lining up outside it to see if anyone famous goes in; I went to a different Casino and actually won 10 Euros) and the course that the Formula One cars run!

Food

Let's see: croissants and butter and jam for breakfast; gelato; Belgian waffles; pizza - heaven! (Luckily I walked a lot, too, so I didn't gain any weight. But I won't be getting my cholesterol checked for a while!)

















Cruising

I didn't have enough time in London to do a Thames cruise, but still had plenty of time on the water. There was a ferry crossing from Dover to Calais.

A short cruise along the Rhine in Germany, with beautiful views of hills, castles, and small towns. Not to mention bratwurst and fries (keeping up the healthy eating theme that you've probably noticed already)!







A cruise on Lake Lucerne.






And, oh yes, a gondola ride in Venice! (Corny and touristy, yes; but cool!!)






Shopping!!

I bought some great clothes (t-shirts and pants) for 3 Euros (about $5) each! And some fabrics and lavender from France. I also picked up a few French magazines - quilting and scrapbooking. Looking at the pictures is fun and, who knows, I might even be able to understand some of it!


This is a market in Florence - purses (cheap imitation Guccis) everywhere. I resisted temptation here, but did buy a nice purse in Paris. One of the markets there was amazing - several blocks of stalls (mostly produce, but also some clothes) tucked under the Metro and packed with people.







People

Lots of great people on the tour, mostly from Australia and New Zealand. Here are a few of my new friends:



Anne & Darryl (from Australia) and Murray, who I sat with on the bus (he's from New Zealand). Such nice people!





Bev and Laura (we called ourselves the 3 Amigos!) - sisters from Australia. We had a wonderful time wandering around Rome and Avignon and Nice and shopping and eating and talking!





Scenic views!



Paris from the second level of the Eiffer Tower.





We also took a beautiful drive along the Corniche roads, high above the Mediterranean. The water was so blue!! Lovely towns nestled into the hills along the way. I could live there!

Windows and Flowerboxes

Last but not least, a small selection of photographs of beautiful windows and flowerboxes. My motto was: let no windowbox go un-photographed!



























Well, that's a small sampler of my trip. So many other memories: beautiful scenery in Tuscany and the Black Forest; paying for toilets!; beautiful architecture - I wish I knew enough to be able to identify the different styles - a little different in each country;



markets and flower stands (this one was in Paris);












and beautiful tree-lined streets (I think this one was in Avignon. Or maybe Versailles. Well, you get the idea!)








So has this trip cured me of my desire to travel? Probably not!! I'd still like to see more of France (I really loved Paris), and maybe a bit of Tuscany, and Britain and Ireland (I enjoyed being a tourist in a country where I could speak the language!). On the other hand, I've been lucky enough to see pretty much all the places I wanted to see and, if I never go back again, that will be enough.