Photo Challenge #5

Here we are already at challenge #5. This challenge is about creativity. First we need to shoot a couple of subjects in macro. Second, we need to shoot 2-3 representations of "time". Third, we are shooting our creative spaces.

First is Macro:

I'm usually not particularly fond of spiders. Especially if they are in my house! Watching them outside in their own habitat is fascinating though. I love to watch them catch prey in their webs. Sometimes I will help them out by throwing some bugs in their web for them and watching what they do.


Anyways, this spider is a Argiope aurantia and was found in my parents garden. This spider was huge!!! She measured about 2"! When I showed the boys they ran off quickly!








Next is a cicada. These guys are insanely loud nowadays and are easily spotted!










Here is another spider that was spotted by my neighbor. This one was pretty good size with a yellow jacket caught in its web.












I thought I need to offset the icky spiders with a beautiful butterfly so here she is. All I had with me was my little Pentax p&s. It's difficult shooting moving insects with a p&s which brings up the subject of "time".







A split second doesn't seem very long until you are trying to shoot a butterfly!! Trying to time the lagtime with my P&S is very hard! I was lucky enough to get the first shot when this butterfly decided to land for a few seconds and take a rest. I was really wishing I had my DSLR before that!


I was really thinking about the subject of "Time" and I couldn't think of anything until yesterday when I suddenly had all this "time" on my hands! We planned on being at the baseball field all weekend because both of the boys had games on Saturday and Sunday. We woke up to rain Saturday morning and it has not let up. I thought this would be a good example of time and how our time was going to be used up at the ball park but we suddenly had all this time on our hands!
























My first idea for time was this last picture of the kids' first day of school. Seeing them off to school makes me think of all the extra free time I'll have while they are in school! Even though I work the mornings on most days I get home earlier than they do and have a good 2 hours to get stuff done before they come home.






Last is my creative space. It's not very impressive. I've got a small corner in our sun room right off the kitchen to work. It's always a mess because I'm usually working on several projects at once. Right now I'm working on a pencil portrait of "Maggie" the dog and also working on jewelry. A lot of my scrapbooking supplies are stored in my secretaries desk but I haven't worked on my scrapbooks in a long time.


I've been working on the computer either at the kitchen table or in bed. I just took a picture at the kitchen table. I just got this laptop and I love it! I like being able to work on the computer from anywhere in the house!

I used to be stuck downstairs at this computer desk for doing computer work. It was hard in the winter because this corner is really drafty and I would have to bundle up and wear a glove on my right hand that was working the mouse because it would freeze up!!

Well,

that's it for now! I hope you enjoyed this challenge!!!

Challenge #4-Portraits

We recently took a little vacation to Jellystone Park in Wisconsin and we were able to take a little hayride with Yogi bear.

Michael and Ryan were the first ones in line to sit next to Yogi.








Here's my dad blowing out his birthday candles in June.


















Here's Ryan snuggling with his daddy.

















Michael enjoying an ice pop at a pool party.

















This is Maggie. She is a Great Dane and she belongs to one of the doctors that I work with. I was playing with photoshop to come up with this image.


















Here's my little neighbor Frankie. He's a year old and his feet were in the first challenge! Here he is just starting to think about walking. Now he's practically running all over the place!
















This is Auggee. I've been taking portraits of Auggee every few months since he was small. Here he is about 8 months old. His mom wanted some pictures to make a graduation announcement when he graduated obedience class :)













Here's my self portrait. My least favorite and most challenging photo to take. Thank god for photo shop!
















Thanks for looking!

First Wedding Commission!!

I was so honored to be asked to make necklaces and earrings for the girls in a wedding party! First the bride wanted me to make her a pair of cluster earrings to match a necklace that she had already gotten. Her necklace was two strands of white freshwater pearls so I made these earrings to match.

They were a hit so she commissioned me to do necklaces and earrings for her girls. I was so excited since this would be my first wedding!

The girls dresses were a light blue so I thought that making cluster earrings with Swarovski blue and white pearls would be perfect along with a strung swarovski blue and white pearl illusion type necklaces.

Since I work with one of her bridesmaids I've had to keep this little secret for months because the bride wanted to surprise them with the jewelry at the rehearsal dinner.

Well, her wedding was last Sunday and the jewelry looked beautiful. Now I can post pictures on my blog so here they are.....

Hammered Silver Earrings

Back from vacation and on to a good start! Here are my hammered silver earrings to match the bracelet below. These are also made of hand forged fine silver rings fused together by me :)
If anyone is interested in these come and visit my website!!!

New Hammered Silver Bracelet

Hey! I've added a new item to the website. I'm very excited about this one. I've started fusing fine silver now and here's the first item I've created using this technique. I took 12 ga silver wire and made rings out of it and then fused the rings closed with a torch. Then I hammered the rings to give them this unique look. It's a lot of fun and I really like the look!! This bracelet I used Swarovski crystal but I would like to use natural gemstone beads next! Enjoy!!
This bracelet is available on my website.

Custom Larimar Earrings

Here's a pair of custom earrings I made for my friend. She gave me the Larimar stones and wanted a simple design wrapped in gold. Here's what I came up with. What a beautiful color!

Vacation Time

Summer camp is over, school is starting very soon. One more week left so we are heading off to Wisconsin for a little get away this week. We are renting a little cabin at Jelly stone and we are camping with Yogi Bear this week. The plan is to lay around by the pool all day and sit around the campfire in the evening. Much needed R & R before school starts. We can hardly wait. I'm hoping to come back energized and ready to start working again. I haven't finished a piece of jewelry in weeks! I have lot's of ideas in my head but no motivation to start working. Hopefully that will change very soon! Off to vacation we go!!!!