Thanksgiving, and every day

“Gratitude unlocks the fullness of life. It turns what we have into enough, and more. It turns denial into acceptance, chaos into order, confusion into clarity… Gratitude makes sense of our past, brings peace for today, and creates a vision for tomorrow.” ~Melody Beattie

"Gratitude connects us to others and feeling gratitude allows us to be our best selves. When we are truly grateful, we can count on living the life we want." ~MJ Ryan

I am grateful for the countless blessings in my life, including you, my blog readers and online friends. May you have a fun-filled, healthy holiday!

PS ~ I've received a couple inquiries about how I made the purple FP pendant, so I'll be sharing details in an upcoming post ~ just not sure how soon due to the holiday, family in town, catching another bug, working most every weekend, etc. But ... creating & sharing via this blog make me happy, so it will definitely be ASAP!

purple fp pendant

It was a stellar day last week when I found a forgotten gift card in my wallet. Without missing a beat, I trotted off to that store & found a beautiful purple shirt, crying out for a custom-made pendant. It was so much fun creating this pendant last night, I'm making matching earrings tonight! This Friendly Plastic is a tad addictive {smile}.

Thanks for coming by! Don't be shy if you have a question or comment. I'd love to hear from you.

fp & metal pendants

Here are my latest Friendly Plastic & metal pendants. Boy, are these fun to make.

Here's a shot of the backs, along with a penny to show their size. I like embossing the back so it looks nice, just in case the pendant flips on my neck.

And in case you're wondering what the heck I could wear the blue, aqua & orange one with, well, I wasn't thinking of it at the time I made it, but it goes great with one of my favorite shirts....

Thanks for coming by! Drop me a line if you have a question or comment. I'd love to hear from you.

to start your day...

In case you missed the sunrise this morning, I'm sharing the beautiful sight from central Iowa just a few minutes ago. It took my breath away. Now I'm sipping my favorite coffee as I type this. I have a hair appointment this afternoon (wonderful scalp massage), RENT tickets tonight (my favorite musical) and plans to go to a art/craft show tomorrow with my mom & sister. Life is good! Have a fantastic Friday, everyone! Oh, and I have been creating some here & there.... I just don't have anything done yet. I'll share when I do.

part two ~ getting arboreal: a nature collection

It's time to check in on our trees, for the photo excursion Julie & JeriAnn are hosting. These updated photos are a stark contrast to the green leaves I photographed on the tree August 28. Just a few leaves remain, shimmering a golden yellow. I didn't realize it until I downloaded the photos to my pc, that our pooch is in the background of one of them. The little sweetie is with me everywhere....

It over 70 degrees here in Iowa today ~ a rare treat for November. I hope you're enjoying rare treats today too!

diffusing flash

I don't have any recently completed items & am not big on sharing works in progress so today I want to share a photography tip. The other day in one of the Yahoo groups I belong to, the subject of photographing our creations came up: specifically, to flash or not to flash. Sometimes you need the light a flash provides but that light is just too darn harsh. What can you do?

• Weather and all other things permitting, take your photo outdoors.
• Add other lighting at various angles to offset the shadows cast by other lighting.
• Bounce light off white walls and/or ceilings. This spreads out the light and reduces the shadows.
• Increase the ISO setting, attach your camera to a tripod and take the photo without the flash.
• If your camera has an internal flash, try covering it with a piece of white paper, tissue, coffee filter, opaque plastic lid, etc. I've found various layers of bubble wrap work nicely. This lessens the amount of light reaching your subject, thus reducing harshness & shadows.
• If your camera has a pop-up flash, cut a white or opaque plastic bottle so it will fit over the flash, thus dispersing the light a bit.

Beware that diffusing your flash can change the light from a bluish cast to a more golden tone. You may or may not like this. It's easy to adjust with your photo software if you want to change it....easier than trying to remove shadows.

If you're interested in more information, there are a good number of photography books & websites out there. Just google "diffusing flash" and you'll get all kinds of hits. Most important... experiment to see what works best for you, your camera and your situation(s).

Here are some photos from my experimentation last night. The first three photos were taken with my subcompact Canon with internal flash. Photo one is with no flash (it's blurry because I didn't use my tripod). Photo two is with flash and photo three is with flash that I diffused with bubble wrap. What do you think?

These next four photos were taken with my better quality Canon. Photo one is with no flash (using a tripod). Photo two is with added lighting. Photo three is with flash and photo four is with pop-up flash diffused by a plastic bottle. The differences are subtle, but there. If I wanted the best photo possible, I'd start with photo four and enhance it with photo software. What do you think?

belated blogiversary!

Monday was the first anniversary for my blog. Woo-Hoo! While I wasn't sure what I was doing when I started out, and still don't have a clear focus, I look back at my posts over the year and see growth, which was one of the main reasons I started the blog. I've also met some talented individuals and made some good friends. I thank you for visiting my blog and enriching my life. You've reached out and connected with me, encouraged & inspired me. I'm grateful. Life is good!

I'll close this short post with a quote I came across today. It goes along with the variety of creative endeavors I experiment with and share on my blog...

"Everybody has talent, it's just a matter of moving around until you've discovered what it is." ~ George Lucas