Fall in Anchorage, Alaska

September 5th  for Alaskan's means putting up the summer toys and bring out the long winter gear.  Usually for Anchorage by mid-September there is frost on our windows in the mornings and snow on the mountains.  None of this has happen until a few days ago! 

This year I proudly say it has been the most beautiful month for Fall I've ever seen while living 21 years here in Anchorage.

Flowers are still blooming, the leaves of the Birch are golden yellow even though now laying upon the sidewalks and yards in my neighborhood;  many of those golden leaves have just fallen off the limbs within the last couple of days.

Creative Types

Are you a gambler trying new and wild things?  Do you jabber away while creating that next Mona Lisa?  Or are you a silent type whose yearnings can only be read in your eyes? 

I have to admit there are various days that I could be one of the three. 

                  

I’m sure you can add more to the list of ‘creative types’.  I’m just hitting the top of the iceberg for those whose passion is some form of art or crafts!

Many of my friends on Facebook and Twitter are the creative type.  It is so enjoyable to see pictures of their latest creations and even pics of their old stuff.  

Artists across the world seem to encourage each other, tease and taunt each other, plus sometimes even become sponsors for another.  That makes me so glad… in this day and age of so much pain and grief that one sector of life remains constant – art and those who encourage folks to be creative.  

Art is a passion.  You either love it or you don’t.  Once it has its hands around your throat there is no surrendering.

Freedom in Art

I've been exploring new filters on my Adobe Photoshop Elements. 

Its a blast being creative - 

a wild abandonment of being safe 
&
uninhibited has flooded my photo folders.

Various filters and layers have been applied...

Frozen in Time

Cycle of Life

Happy Feet

All I can say is this is keeping me happy until summer arrives when flowers are blooming!

Technology Dreaming

Today a contest ends.  The winner receives a brand new Canon Rebel Camera.  Sweet!  I entered the contest; something I rarely do.  

I have a little Samsung 10mp digital pocket model camera that I’ve used for the last two years.  I have dropped it more times than I should admit – so it at times acts up – the back is a tad scratched up from roaming in my camera bag with car keys and other countless items a woman carries when one does not take a purse.   Although most of the accidental drops of camera where from when my bike would toppled over on uneven ground  as I was loading everything back into the small basket on my front handle bars on various bicycle rides visiting gardens around town.

As far as one can tell my photos are not affected by the dropping of the camera.  There are times I need to gently tap the camera to get the lens to move out of the camera body so it is operable or for it to focus.  Not a big deal when one knows about the camera’s slight problems.

When one depends on a camera to create art one has dreams of newer and better cameras to enhance ones work and play load!

Last night out of boredom and wistfulness I visited Ebay.  Technology is a powerful entity.  My mouth was drooling over several specimens in both categories that I was clicking through:  large format printers and cameras as the viewing selections. 

If one has $1,500 to $2,200 lying around an 18mp digital camera by a couple of manufacturers where placed high on my dream list.

For $1,000 more selections were added to my list. 

And several winners I found for the under $500 with 14mp – enough pixels for large format photos up to 30 inches.

The large format printers’ price range was $2,500 to over $6,000.  These printers were more for the professional photographer who was well on their way to recognition and one who has a large studio that one could take in work to help fray cost factors.  Ink and photographic papers are more expenses than the average person realizes.

It is always fun to look at what is available, enticing one to dream and wish.  No one is too old to dream and have wishes. One never knows when the dream fairy can bring a wish to you.

My Handmade Holiday

My Handmade Holiday

As one grows older and more creative the thought of purchasing mass produced items for my loved ones across the various states is not my idea of sharing the spirit of how wonderful I think each of my family and friends are to me and my guy.

My favorite memories of holidays are those which focused on gifts that where handmade and given to me by siblings or children in my family.

Over the years I have sewn my heart out making quilts for all.  Each quilt a treasure to the one on the receiving end.  Some being utilized, while others are stored away brought out only at Christmas.  Others folded and placed in a chest for future generations.

As my eye site has gone from fresh dew youth to a person with bifocals I have changed my perspective and gone back to my first love for gift giving: my photography.  

I’ve only been showing my art in public a short time.  This Christmas one full year will be celebrated as one who can call themselves an artist.  I’ve sold various creations and continue to develop my own style.  

The smiles one see’s from a gift that is handmade is the reason I continue to have each holiday in the spirit as I do.  From deciding on the perfect gift to be given from my stash of art to my various family members; then mailing these precious gifts,  to handmade ornaments adorning my tree,  plus homemade food gifts sitting under the tree awaiting a friends’ arrival.

Sharing a handmade holiday from beginning to end is all I can ask of those who share my life and the journey of handmade.

The one who I hold dearest in my heart will be the focus of our handmade Holidays Greeting Cards this year.  We both enjoy simple lifestyle, we both have almost lost the other due to major medical issues, and sometimes we catch each other on camera.

May I present: My Handmade Guy - 

Wacky Tacky Mondays

Mondays are wacky. 

Period.  

As a person with no real life job other than my art - Mondays are nothing to get excited about. 

Mondays are tacky.

Weekends are nothing more than days making the week longer. 

Days run together.  Weeks have no end.  Months add up to years.

Wacky.

My art is getting wacky but I like that!

Artful Deeds

From a lovely garden to behold at Kinaid Park in Anchorage, Alaska. 

Summer was filled with gardens west to east and north to south here in Anchorage.  I could not get enough photos of the flowers blooming.  Bees where busy when days blasted sun, rain made for riding my bicycle not so possible many a time.  But as soon as it stopped and I knew a break would last for awhile - off I would go snapping up photos of my favorite subjects.

Now as fall takes its hold upon Anchorage, my art will be basically exploring, refining, and printing out natures beauty one page at a time.