(almost) wordless wednesday

I was playing around with my camera and lighting yesterday. For most of the shots of this still life I kept the sunlight and the shadow of the blinds away from the table, but as it turns out, this one with the shadow is my favorite. Maybe I should drag out my paints and attempt to paint it?

I have discovered that the unasked-for accident can be the salvation of what you are doing. ~ Stephen De Staebler

See other Wordless Wednesday participants here…

march madness book giveaway

guernsy I recently read The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society and really enjoyed it. It’s written as a series of letters between a group of people and when I first started it I wasn’t sure if I’d like the format. It wasn’t long, however, before I forgot about the format (which is actually great for starting and stopping, each letter is like a little chapter) and became absorbed by the story. Juliet Ashton is a writer looking for inspiration for her next book. She begins to exchange letters with a small book club on Guernsey in the Channel islands off the coast of England. The story takes place just after the Second World War, and as she gets to know the people of the island she learns how the German occupation during the war impacted their lives. You get a little history with this novel, the Channel Islands were occupied during the war, you get some tragedy, a touch of bravery, a scenic setting, and of course, love. What more do you need? Sadly, the novel’s first time author, Mary Ann Shaffer, passed away before the book was published and her niece Annie Barrows saw it through to publication in honor of her aunt. It is a charming, entertaining little book that will take your mind off the evening news and the economy. If you’d like to win a new, hard cover copy of this book, leave a comment on this post, I’ll pick a random winner on March 25, good luck!

skywatch friday

…she stared out the car window and watched as the country terrain began to roll gently under a lovely postcard blue sky, the fields and meadows changing color like the patterns on a quilt, moving from pale greens to muted gold’s to faded browns, dotted here and there with grazing creamy white sheep and striped with sleeping grape vines strung out like martyrs between five foot posts. ~Chapter 15, Love is a Many Splintered Thing

the climb

I haven’t paid much attention to Miley Cyrus or the whole Hannah Montana movement, but I came across this video of one of her new songs and really liked it.Ā  Good song, good message, and so far she seems to be a good kid who hasn’t been corrupted by the fame game (yet!). Another plus is it’s kind of uplifting, which I could really use. I’ve been dragging lately and I’m not sure why. I’m not sleeping great, having a lot of dumb, stress-filled dreams that seem to leave me more tired when I wake up than when I go to bed, overall I’m just feeling a bit gutted. Oh well, spring is right around the corner and it will probably do this body good to get outside and into the garden.

“breezy” wordless wednesday

The website Illustration Friday gives people a topic every week and you illustrate it using any medium. It’s designed to jump start creativity at any and all skill levels. I started doing it because I was in a long term creative funk and it really helped get those juices flowing again. As my mom got sicker, and I got busier with my iStock photography, I stopped participating. Yesterday I felt like doing something just for fun and did another George collage. I’ve done a whole series about you-know-who on my Tales of George blog. Okay, no more words, this is Wordless Wednesday afterall šŸ™‚

baby bump

I strong-armed my son Andy and my daughter-in-law (actually, it was my son who needed the coaxing) to model for some iStock pics this weekend. Before we got started I offered to do some photos for them of Meagan’s growing tummy. So far, everything is going great with this pregnancy. When they first got pregnant again we were all so guarded, trying to push back our emotions, afraid that…well, just afraid. Some of Meagan’s friends, when trying to comfort her after she lost the first baby, told her that everything would be fine this time because they already had a heartbreaking event. And as we stumbled through the baby’s loss last year and my mom’s progressing illness and difficult death, we sometimes told each other the same thing. Sometimes. Most of the time we knew the truth. That pain and heartache know no boundaries. That they will come into every life, even when we think we least deserve them, even when we think we just can’t take any more. But we have also learned another truth. That hope is not just a word. It is a light that can lift you up off your knees and carry you into a tomorrow where broken hearts are slowly mended – where joy replaces fear.