Coxsackie Christmas by the River 2009

I made these burlap pillows and stenciled them with fleur-de-lis and crowns. When I took this picture, I had already sold three! I'm going to be bringing what I have left over to a gift shop in Delmar, NY, called Chancery Lane, so she can sell the rest.

See my portable little electric fireplace? It was a big hit--as were the burlap stockings. I believe I sold three of those as well. I didn't get these pictures taken until after the initial rush, so I didn't even get a pic of my bunch of felted candy canes. A woman came right in at 10am and snapped up five of them! I had one left at the end of the day, and I gave it to my sister.

Kathleen and I made these yummy pretzels. I made more that week, and brought them to my sister's cookie exchange. Again--big hit! :)

I just love my birds...

...and of course my jewelry! I did very well this year. One repeat customer (she's bought from me the previous two years) spent almost $200 in one shot! Yay!

Do you like my earring cards?

I snapped some pictures of the downtown area, because it's so quaint:

I was in the Heartland Realty building.

This is another vendor...she had some great felted wool purses.

...and someone's lovely soap display...

....and my friend Donna's primitives shop. She sets up a little mini-shop every year and runs it for about a month for Christmas shoppers. I spent WAY too much money in there this year. She has lots of fun stuff.

And that's all she wrote!

Flying Squirrels In My Walls

Cute, right?

They have been in my walls making all kinds of noise for a couple of weeks now. BF decided the other night (while I was out) that he would try and catch one. So he rigged up this glass bowl with a stick and some peanut butter, and lo and behold, about 5 minutes later, this is what he had!

Kathleen took the pictures. Apparently the little guy was so scared, he pooped himself!

So I get home from the movies and BF is telling me the whole story of the bowl up in my bedroom ceiling, etc. , and I'm looking at these pictures that Kathleen has posted on Facebook, and I manage to ask "Well, what did you DO with it?" And BF says "I brought him across the street and let him go over in the woods."

Hellllloooo!

I said "So........you don't think a flying squirrel is going to find his way back across the street?" *Sigh* His heart was in the right place, right? Actually, I think the thrill of trapping something was too much to resist for him. He used to do trapping with his father as a kid. So I'm sure our little furry friend will be back to join his brethren in the eaves of my house, until we can patch up whatever entry point they have up there on the roof.
But he IS adorable.
I'm glad I didn't put out the rat poison like I had planned.

Photo into Painting

I can't seem to stop playing around with textures. Here is the before shot:

...and here it is after I added a canvas texture to it:

...and then another layer of something...I forget...that made it a little darker.

It's interesting to me that I can take a simple photo, which was pretty "eh" and turn it into something with a mood, you know? Pretty cool stuff.

Braces Off!

Kathleen got her braces off today! She's had them on for two years, nine months! Phew!
Here she is on the way to the orthodontist this morning:

...et voila! All gone! How 'bout that "before" mold?!

She is SO happy!

Yay! I swear she looks three years older. *sigh* My baby is growin' up!

I would like to send a big shout-out to my mother, God rest her soul...she paid for those braces! Thanks, Mom! :)

First Snow in NY

I woke up yesterday morning to the most beautiful snowfall! Above is my edited version of the original photo, which you can see below. I enhanced the saturation, and added a parchment filter layer on top, using the "multiply" layer style, I think. What's interesting to me is that the feeling

I got yesterday when I was looking out my window was the feeling I get when I look at my doctored photo. It truly was that beautiful and ethereal with the morning sun just peeking at the tips of those trees. My basic photo just doesn't cut it.

I played around with some other filters and brushes to make a fantasy type scene too:

This one's just a little paler:

Be sure to click to see the larger versions...it makes all the difference. Tell me if you prefer the raw photography, or my altered versions....I'd be interested to hear your opinions!

This next one is my before looking out my kitchen window....you saw this view just a few weeks ago in its autumn glory:

...and here I've cropped it and filtered it a bit for your enjoyment. :)

Um...have I mentioned lately how much I love my Photoshop? :) Now I just need Photoshop Elements 8.0 and Elements Premier 8. Anybody looking for a Christmas idea for me? *snicker*

Giving Thanks

Finally! I'm here to post some Thanksgiving photos. Of course, the first thing I'm thankful for is my amazing daughter, and her fabulous little cousin Madeline. I say "little" but she's actually turning 12 in February. So she's little of stature, with a mature little mind to go with it!

This picture of them is one of my early attempts at morphing two pics together to get one good one. Can you tell I swapped out Kathleen's face in this one? I combined two so that both girls would have some semblance of a smile. Have I mentioned how much I love Photoshop? No? lol

My sister Marjorie made a delicious pumpkin pie (pretty, too!)...

...and a really yummy apple pie.

The girls put on a little concert for us, which is always nice....

...and Kathleen took some good shots of the table all set up in the living room. My cousins are big guys (over 6' 4" tall!), so there was no way I was going to try to cram 10 people into my dining room. It worked out quite nicely in the living room. In fact, the dining room has now become a cozy little den/office for me. :)

This was my grandmother's china. It's perfect for Thanksgiving and autumn parties! I used it for the birthday party I had last Tuesday too. It's called "Friendly Village."

There's BF in the kitchen (wearing MY slippers), pretending to cook. LOL. Actually, I had him peel and chop all of the potatoes and yams. He made the mashed potatoes, too....so I didn't have to do EVERYthing. ;) Come to think of it, he carved the turkey, too. Now if I could only get him to do dishes....ah, well...

I set up my skaters...sort of. My sister gave me these guys for my birthday (in June) and I had to wait until now to display them! I just bought a mirror for the "rink" and I need to get some fake snow goin' on there. I'll post a pic when I get that accomplished.

Pretty, right? :) I love my house.

Oh yeah! I made cranberry bread from scratch too! Yummy!

Now here is another of my Photoshop projects. Kathleen had taken this photo of Tess on Thanksgiving. It's cute, but it's a little blurry....so....

I've been learning about adding textures and adjusting layers, and I came up with this. I'm quite happy with it. It's interesting, isn't it? Oh, and I did my signature with my new Wacom tablet, which is a whole other wonder of its own. I love that thing!