Something Old

Trying to finish the year off with photos of something old and the first thing that came to mind was the old sewing machine I have.  It was given to me many years ago by my Mother and Father-In-Law.

Christmas Luminaire

Thanks to my daughter and her Christmas decorating ideas I decided to make ice Luminaires for our deck railing  to light up on Christmas evening.  The idea was to place them in the snow that accumulates on the railing, but with the lack of snow I have to shovel the grass and place the snow on the deck.  First time I've ever shoveled the grass, but it was fun and I'll be trying it again next year with a few modifications.

A little perplexed

I made an animated gif Christmas card for my sister's business and I am a little perplexed.  It posts nicely on this blog, changing colors as it should.  I have resized it to a very small file for the web in hopes that she could post it on her company's Facebook page, Long Branch Trading as a Christmas card for her customers, but it doesn't look like Facebook will show a gif as animated.  She has a lovely gift store and lunch room and I highly recommend that anyone passing through Irma, Alberta make the stop for lunch.

Christmas Cooking

A friend reminded me today that I had to take a snack to the camera club for the Christmas Potluck snack so I baked tonight.

Celebrating Life

(with a cup of tea, a Christmas cookie and my daughter's china)

The theme last week of gratitude at Kim Klassen's Texture Tuesday, has kept me thinking about all the things I'm grateful for.  My husband, my children and their families, my little grandson, my sister, my friends and even my job are some of the things I'm grateful for.  This week's theme of  "celebrate" would have been easy with the upcoming Christmas season and all the decorations and ornaments, but I keep thinking of gratitude.  One thing I'm most grateful for is the life I have to be able to enjoy the things I'm grateful for.  So after a first round of Christmas baking I decided to enjoy a cup of tea and a cookie and celebrate my life, after of course photographing it.  The texture used on this is Kim Klassen's dream.  If you mouse over the picture, you can see the before and after.

Saturday Morning Visitor

This year we bought a new bird feeder for the Chickadees.  The last one we had was made of wood and was in need of replacement after the deer chewed on it.  Careful consideration was taken in trying to find a place to hang it so the deer, cat and squirrels would leave it alone.

This is what it was meant to be used for.  Sometimes we have dozens of these little Chickadees flitting about to get their seeds.

This little guy showed up Saturday morning and asked if he could please have some seeds too.

He then let us know how cold it was outside with the blowing snow.

After climbing the house and making the jump to the feeder he felt quite at home and began to fill his little belly.

Texture Tuesday - Gratitude

Kim Klassen's challenge this week is "Gratitude".  Canadian and American Thanksgivings are now both over but, William Arthur Ward stated "Gratitude can transform common days into thanksgivings, turn routine jobs into joy, and change ordinary opportunities into blessings".  This would make everyday, Thanksgiving Day.

The texture used on this photo was Kim Klassen's Believe.  By hovering over the photo with your mouse you can see the before and after image.

Anthuriums at The Enjoy Centre

Images Alberta Camera Club held an outing yesterday at the Enjoy Centre in St. Albert. This outing was one of the major reasons I joined the club. An opportunity to go into a greenhouse with a tripod and shoot flowers and giftware for the day, a little bit of heaven for me. Joining the club has turned out to be so much more, but I did enjoy the day. My favorite exotic flower has always been the Anthurium and to my delight Hole's had these, begging to be shot. I now only realize that I treated these as I would have shooting a flower in nature, touching nothing and trying to maneuver the camera to get the shots I wanted. If I were in the greenhouse to buy a plant I would have touched all the pots and moved the flowers to get the one I wanted. I'm sure I missed a lot of different colors and shapes but, oh well, next year.

The weather outside is frightful.

Our first snow storm arrived with a vengeance today.  After arriving home from work I took this picture of our front yard and so many snowflakes landing on the lens it looked like a very bad case of sensor dust.  The only way to fix it was add a texture or two.  I first used Kim Klassen's  Phoebe followed by her Grunge frame. I finally figured out the mouse over code so you can see the before and after by hovering the mouse on the photo.

Hoar Frost Macros

Hoar Frost in the pasture

Sunday morning nature treated us to an incredible display of hoar frost turning the pasture into a magical world.

Kim Klassen's Texture Tuesday theme this week is the number 2.  Kim's texture Lifesgood was added to this photo of 2 trees.

A foggy morning in Irma

Saturday morning in Irma, Alberta started off foggy, cold and a thick hoar frost, which of course made for some beautiful scenes.

Gratton Coulee

Train through the hoar frost



Fabyan Trestle



Cows in the Field

Texture Tuesday - The Washday Greens

It's been awhile since I've participated Kim Klassen's Texture Tuesday but this weeks challenge of using her texture "And then some" was perfect for a couple of photos taken at a museum at Aldon's Auto Salvage during a recent camera club outing.  An auto salvage yard isn't the place one expects to find a wringer washing machines so this was a very pleasant surprise.  Both photos were taken with the Lensbaby Composer and I couldn't decide which one to pick so I'm posting both.