Black & White Photo Challenge

When I posted some black and white photos, several people told me how much they liked black and white, which, in turn, gave me the idea to issue this challenge. Again, I got carried away with using what I learned in the recent Paint Shop Pro X2 lessons by adding masks, edges, and frames. Even though I jpg optimized, adding those extra elements makes for fairly large files and possible slow downloads.

Check comments to get the addresses for those that are participating in this challenge. Since I'm posting first, I haven't seen any photos but can hardly wait to see the black and whites in this challenge.

One of the roses hubby gave me for my birthday.

The tractor. lol

Until next time, God bless.

The Brenda's Photo Challenge

Butterfly Gardener is hosting The Brenda's Photo Challenge. The theme is "Getting Close Up with Macro." Be sure to go over to Butterfly Gardener to check out the terrific photos. BTW, I've been into using what I've learned in the Paint Shop Pro X2 lessons, i.e., adding masks, frames and matting. Even though I jpg optimized, adding those extra elements makes for fairly large files and possible slow downloads.


Up close on one of the roses my hubby gave me for my birthday.



One of four baby scissortails nesting in our Bur oak tree. Momma was sitting on the fence giving me the what for as I was photographing her babies.

Until next time, God bless.

NOTICE: Black & White Photo Challenge

UPDATE: June 19, 2009
Tomorrow is the day to post your B&W photos. Be sure to leave a link after letting us know you've posted your pictures.

Let's have a black and white challenge on Saturday, June 20. If you are interested, leave a comment, post your photos in your blog on that date, return here on June 20 to let us know your photos are up and leave your address.

Until next time, God bless.

Bath Consultation

Rare and Beautiful Treasures is giving away a bath consultation by Layla of The Lettered Cottage. I am in dire need of a consultation. This is the last room that needs updating. I've been on a five-year house update mission.

To enter your name, we have to post photos of the bathroom............groan. To publicly show my bathroom is almost an embarrassment but not so much if I get chosen for the bath consultation! Gad, what I will do for a giveaway. lol After posting photos, I go over to Rare and Beautiful, leave a comment, leave a link to the photos, and hope like crazy they decide "this girl really, really needs a bath consultation."

Here goes:
Since this is the front bath, I've been wanting it to have the "wow" factor. And since I've not come up with a "wow" factor idea, it stays drab and uninteresting. I made the shower curtain, added the black print valence hoping it would spice it up. Ummm, no it doesn't.

To the left. As you can see, it is quite small; the dimensions are 5 feet by 8 feet. The art work above the commode is an original I bought in Houston at least 35 years ago.

Last September, I changed the vanity to a Stilestone, added a new brushed stainless faucet, framed a mirror from my mother's house in mesquite, and left the back splash for me to do a coordinating fused glass tile. There is approximately 5 feet of back splash area. As you can see, no back splash yet -- I've some glass for it but got twisted off on blogging, creating a garden, doing fused glass pendants for friends and for a street fair, and taking classes on Paint Shop Pro. In short, I'm procrastinating.

This old stained glass window hangs in the bathroom window and serves as a wet towel rack since I made a mistake when building the house and did not put a wet towel bar in the tub area.

That's about it. Now it is a matter of waiting for an email that I was chosen for the consultation. Keep your fingers crossed. BTW, if you are in need of a bath consultation, be sure to register for it at Rare and Beautiful, the more the merrier.


Until next time, God bless.

Say What? No Wonder!

I had the biggest laugh on myself yesterday. But, first here is a quick background. I've been wearing contacts off and on for at least 20 years. I do monovision: one eye reads and the other eye sees the distance, i.e., one contact is for a nearsighted eye and the other corrects a farsighted eye.

When I first started getting contacts, you got one pair, cleaned them, and took care of them for a year or until you needed another pair. I don't remember exactly when the throw aways came out, but I eventually got some. When you have one pair to take care of, you do not get the prescriptions mixed up. However, after getting the throw aways, I did not know or forgot which prescription went into which eye. I have complained for years that the contacts are not very good and wore them only when I left the house.

Yesterday, I went to get a new prescription for both glasses and contacts. The eye doctor gave me some contacts to try for a couple of weeks to see how I liked them, etc. Anyway, I did not want to put them in because I was wearing mascara and was afraid that I might trap a piece of mascara under the contact. Believe me, you don't want to do that! I did once and had a dreadful case of pink eye! The doctor told me she would have the one of her assistants put the contacts in my eyes.

Now here is the "Say what? And no wonder!" I saw the farsighted prescription number as the girl started to put the contact in my right eye and told her that was the wrong eye. The doctor looked at the records and told me that this prescription was for the right eye not for the left one! Bottom line, I have been wearing the wrong contact in the wrong eye and the prescription for both eyes would be wrong anyway. No wonder I haven't been seeing very well all these years when I'd wear contacts. Even though I had the wrong contact in the wrong eye, I could see very well to drive, but it was very difficult to watch TV or read for any length of time.

I have got to say that this has been the biggest laugh on me, probably ever! It has gone on for years, I've complained to my husband, I've fussed to myself, and gotten very frustrated. If there is a moral to this story, I do not know what it is. However, henceforth, I think I'll be very happy with my contacts and will probably wear them around the house more often. :D Computer work will be much more enjoyable since I will not have to tilt my head up for the bifocals to see the screen. lol

Until next time, God bless.

Speaking of Frames

Since I mentioned frames in the previous post, I thought I'd go back into Paint Shop Pro X2 in order to change the edges and frame the masked photos.





Works pretty good, doesn't it? I'm beginning to think I have too much time on my hands. lol

Until next time, God bless.

Week 5 - Paint Shop Pro X2 - Masks

This week's lesson from LVS Online was working with masks, creating masks, and saving in a transparency file format for Word and Excel. The transparency format worked in both Word and Excel, but Blogger would not import a true transparency.



The above two masks look more like a frame or matting.

This transparency is more of a matting.

If used in Word or Excel with a colored background, the outer edges are transparent. But again, Blogger would not accept a true transparent file, although, perhaps, you can get the idea.

I'm ready and waiting for Week 6, the last in a 6 week course.

Until next time, God bless.