Gardening }{ Texture Tuesdays

Partake as doth the bee

Abstemiously.

The Rose is an Estate -

In Sicily.

Emily Dickinson

Gardening was the theme for today's Texture Tuesday's challenge.

small flowers from one of our flower beds

• start with original and minor adjustments
• background copy desaturated -25%  on luminosity @70%
• gaussian blur on background copy
• Kim Klassen's "stained linen" on multiply @26%
• layer mask to erase the texture over the flower
• Kim Klassen's "warm sun" on soft light @80%

N. playing with one of the flowers we picked

• original with minor adjustments
• convert background copy to BW on lighten @30%
• Kim Klassen's "warm sun" on linear burn @26%
• Kim Klassen's "love" on luminosity @26%

These were my attempts at minimalist, simple photos involving our garden.

I'm not an orderly person. If you see my crafting areas, things are a bit... disorganized. Still, there's a side of me that likes everything in order, neat, absolutely logical. When I get around to organizing my closet, about once every month, it has to be done just so - sleeveless shirts, short sleeve shirts, long sleeve shirts, button down shirts, jackets and cardigans, sweaters, skirts, pants, cocktail dresses, business suits and dresses, and finally a few formal pieces I still have; and within each of these categories, they have to follow a progression of light colors to dark colors; and they all have to face the same way.

Back to gardening. Like me, my garden is messy and orderly all at once. Flowers follow a color based distribution, the spaces between them having been measured, trying to achieve a balance and order in quantity and shades. And yet, there are spots with overgrown grass, weeds that I never get around to pulling out. How do you reconcile all of this?

Lately, my organized side has been winning the battle. I've been in full "simplify" mode, getting rid of clutter, donating old clothes, shoes, toys, packing away things I don't need for a while but that I'll take when we move. 

This has been a long post for a photography based challenge. My apologies. Like my house, I'm trying to get words out, de-cluttering my thoughts. 

ps.: in case you are wondering what's with the quoted poems lately, I've been in the mood for poetry, revisiting a lot of my old favorites.

New directions (no, not the Glee Club)

Still a bit shocked that I made it through April. But now it's time to think about what's to come.

I realized during the A-Z challenge that it pays to push myself to write regularly and to have some theme behind what I write. I'm normally a bit of a spaz when it comes to writing, doing whatever my mood dictates whenever it feels right. Well, this blog came to life as my stress reliever and inflexibility creates more stress than it takes away! Still, I think I can get into a more regular schedule of blogging without being too hard on myself if I miss one day. 

With that said, this is what I plan on doing for the foreseeable future, knowing that sometimes I may deviate from the plan:

• Mondays: Mondays get a bad rep from being the beginning of the work week, so I'm planning on doing nothing on Mondays. Except for today.... ;-)
• Texture Tuesdays: Yeah, I love textures. So I'm participating on Texture Tuesdays from Kim Klassen Cafe, and I'll post my picture as well as the settings I used for the texture layers on the blog. 
• Hump day reviews: a review of a site, book, or product related to creative endeavors.
• Tutorial Thursdays: every Thursday I'm planning on putting up a tutorial for some type of craft that I've played around with.
• Free for all Fridays: the name says it all. Anything goes on Friday - I want at least one day to write about whatever comes to mind. This may include family going-ons, sewing projects, crochet/knitting, paper crafts, etc, 
• Sketchbook Saturday-Sunday: I've also joined Illustration Fridays, and I'll be posting my drawings and paintings on the weekend. 

There you have it. I'm pushing myself to write more regularly and hopefully you'll benefit from knowing what to expect when you come to the blog. Whenever I can (and believe it worth it), I'll share the steps I took to do whatever it was that I did. I love sharing. 

And just so you don't think I spent the weekend lazying around, this is what we did around here:

I love bleeding hearts! I had to add one to my garden this year.

almost ready to pop out :)

N. picked this little guy to protect our garden

Husband's choice. He likes small, unassuming flowers. He's sweet like that.

A whole lot of gardening was happening in these parts. 

How did you spend your weekend?