A Personal Photo Challenge - Still Life

When I saw the heading, I was like...yeah, no problem....I take them all the time, and most of us do.  BUT...then I got to reading the different instructions and helpful hints and realized I was one of those point and shoot people. Which isn't a bad thing...but there is a little more to still life photos.

I read about all the indoor stuff and the out door stuff and was really wondering what I would take a picture of for the challenge.  I have been keeping my eyes open, trying to figure it out, when out of the blue...the perfect opportunity dropped in my lab.

My husband had gone out side to do some work on the car and our dog, Miss Penelope, decided to go out and lay in the grass..Well I ran back inside and got my camera and started taking pictures.Of course I couldn't get her to look at me....but I moved around her and over her and then my son laid on the ground and took one "up" of her. I made sure my camera was in outdoor mode and made sure the flash was off.

This first set of pictures are the "raw" ones I took to try and get the "perfect photo"
Of course I couldn't get to close or my shadow would have been in the picture.

This second set is where I took the "raw" pictures and cropped, soft zoom, and framed them out. I really like how they turned out and may print some for my kids albums and to put on the wall. She is 12 so I don't expect her to be around forever!

Hope you enjoyed see my sweet Miss P. For more great pics you can hop over to A Personal Photo .Challenge

Thriftin'

While I was out the other day just browsing around town I stopped at one of my favorite Thrift shops.  While in there I spotted these beauties that are going up in my Etsy store.

Of course with it being 1/2 day, I could have bought more...but I was on a budget so these are the goodies I came away with!

I love the little Santa set but I have enough miniature sets as it is...and the tins were just as cute as could be.  The scarf is of Lighthouses of Maine. I didn't know there were that many....

Linking with Distressed Donna Down Home

New Selection of Fall Themed Button Earrings I Made

While searching for fall colored beads I came across these fall themed buttons. And since I was in an earring mood, I whipped up some sets of fall button earrings.

I have them listed in my Etsy shop, Dontforgetthememory, if you would like to see more.

But they were really easy to make with square jump rings and buttons...I have some in Christmas themed too I will be making up soon.

Linking to Distressed Donna Down Home

We're All Ears - September 2014

This month we were challenged to create a set of earrings using the outdoors using the picture below....

Of course as most know by now, I always want to do something very out of the box, extreme eclectic if there is such a thing

So I choose the "fungi that are weird shaped with light blue on the outside and dark blue/black on the inside.  The material I used is called Nautolex, which is a type of vinyl that is used in boats, rv's anything outdoor.  I had the light blue that was patterned and then the black. I used one of my scrapbooking cutters to cut out a template to cut out the vinyl. I then used the green and gold large seed beads to mimic the browns, golds, greens, yet look like the little seeds in the upper right hand corner. I cut out a solid black piece and poked a post earring back through it. Then I glued it on the back of a patterned piece. I then glued 4 patterned pieces back to back to create the two lower pieces so that the front and the back matched. The beads are strung on gold tone eye pins. The whole thing is put together using gold tone jump rings. 











































In trying to use new techniques with photographs, I put both earrings on and had my son take my picture where I then cropped it down so you could see the earrings.  I have read that by wearing them, it gives a better sense of how big the piece of jewelry is..really need to find a mannequin or a new model....

Anyway....hope you enjoy looking and please hop over to Earrings Everyday for more great pieces.

Later
V

Vintage Finds - Memories Remembered

Hi all,

Seems like retro is in now and I sooooooo agree! I love vintage items as, well some aren't really vintage to me, I grew up with them.

But I have seen vintage pages popping up on the internet so I want to join too.  I have some vintage jewelry on my etsy site. The name is dontforgetthememory. I chose that name a long time ago for a college course I had to take and just left it...

Up for review today are a few pieces of the jewelry. I have other items listed too if you want to browse around.

Thanks in advance for looking.

Vntage Coro Silver Tone Earrings

Vintage Sara Coventry Clip On Earrings

Vintage Clip On Earrings

Vintage Goldtone Flower

Vintage Lisner Green Acrylic Earrings

Enjoy and thanks for visiting.

Linking up with 

Vintage Bliss

A Personal Photo Challenge - Sept 2014 - Movement

This time I was able to actually READ all the hints that were given us to take the "perfect" movement picture.  I have a FujiFilm 16 mega pixel Finepix AX.  It is a point and shoot. But I love taking pictures so anything new I learn is a bonus.

With the point and shoot I am limited to how I use the camera in that I cannot really control the aperture or shutter speed.

So in reading up, they suggested using the portrait, landscape, sport and even nighttime settings to  try and get the "blur" to dictate movement. I also read up on panning which sounds fun and it is not as easy as it sounds, though I did try to get some pictures using that ability. So below are the three I took that show "some" blurriness that could indicated movement.

With the car, you can kinda tell it is moving and with the flag, the top right corner is blurred and with the flower, it is blurred.  I know that isn't exactly what I think they were looking for, but I tried all the settings to try and get movement with no luck.


Of course I do have others, that I took with just the plain point and click option and in them you can see the blurred movement. The first one you see that there is movement because of the ripples in the water, the second, the birds wings are blurred, the third one the ripples in the water and the mist/droplets indicate that the water is moving up and out. The bottom left, his foot is blurred as he is "walking" from one spot to another and with the last one, my daughter's hand is blurred as she is motioning to the bird to walk closer.

Though I don't have all the fancy settings, I think this challenge will make me look at my picture taking differently from now on .

Thanks for looking and will see you next month!

Blue Fantasy Blog Hop - 2014

Again, Lisa Lodge of A Grateful Artist has given us a challenge using blue beads.  

What I received from Lisa:

The first piece of jewelry I made is a bracelet.  I had purchased these 3 tiered dark blue and light blue bead sets several months ago on line, though I don't remember from where. I have been wanting to use them. First I tried to do a triangular piece with them but they were to stiff to do what I wanted so I used the pearls and crystals from Lisa to create the bracelet below. The little square blue beads are acrylic with tiny rhinestones set in them...It has a lobster claw closure, though I think I may change it to a magnetic closure. The beads are strung on silver tone wire. The little blue filler beads are size 8 glass seed beads I had on hand. 

The second piece I made is a necklace. At first I didn't put the 3 tiered crystal pieces on the dark blue sea glass pieces...but it looked soooo naked! So I asked my daughter and she suggested the crystal pieces.  They are attached with size 26 silver tone wire.  Each one is a little different as I did free form wire wrapping. Then around the lighter blue seas glass bone shaped beads I did tiny wire wrapping with tiny curls on each end of the wires.  I used the silver spacers with the bone shaped beads at each end and one is in the middle of the light blue crystal beads hanging on the leaf. I used the silver tone toggle closure with silver tone chain. Each bead section is connected with jump rings attached to the end of eye pins that run through each bead set. 

For my last piece..and I still have beads left over but I have plans for them with some others I have received from Lisa....will post that piece later. Anyway, this last piece is just a simple necklace using the dark blue sea glass leaf and the light blue crystals from Lisa.  I also had some light blue glass flower beads that I used along with light blue glass leaf beads. I strung them along with matte and shiny blue glass seed beads.  I joined it to gold tone chain and a lobster claw closure. Very simple and light. 

I hope you have enjoyed my BLUE offerings. For more stunning pieces jump over to Lisa's page at Gratefulartist. Make sure you comment so we know you have visited. And as always...THANK YOU Lisa for the great challenge!