zoo trip

To celebrate my birthday at the weekend we had a trip to the zoo to see the new pandas.  We was me Mum, Dad, my sister, my two nephews and one of their girlfriends.  The weather was warm and sunny which was great for us but meant that many of the animals were sleeping, or finding shade. 

Because the pandas are new you book a time slot and have a set time at each enclosure. The male was inside his sleeping area but from one spot you could see him relaxing – thank goodness for zoom lenses.  The female was outside sleeping on her highest platform so we same an arm and her side. 

Here is the page I’ve put together of the day for my Monthly album (Cathy Z template – adapted to A4)

Thank you for all the birthday wishes on my previous post – much appreciated.

50

Prompted by Deb Turtle I’m telling the (blog) world that its my birthday on Saturday and I’m going to be 50. There will a a visit to the pandas with family, cake, bubbles and presents – photos next week.

It actually feel less of a threshold than 40 did.  When I turned 40 I was aware of the idea of life changes at 40 and several of my friends had made big changes (marriage, divorce, change of career, moving country) within 18 months of their 40th birthday.  I changed career too.  At 45 the only change was that the NZ government starts to subsidise medication costs for the over 45s and less I did see the doctor a lot more that year.  And the only official sign of turning 50 so far is a notification that I will receive a bowel cancer testing kit soon. 

And the 50 specific cards in the shops are not exactly inspiring.  A friend in NZ confessed to having missed the post with a card and asked me to buy myself a card with a ‘I’m 50 badge’.  Well I dutifully had a look and two local shops were sold out (!!) and the one I saw in another shop was dull. 

After some consultation across the world I did this – always useful to have foam stickers on hand.

angular art

Bonnie’s suggestion for our photoart this week was to include lines and angles. 

I was also inspired by an exhibition of Impressionist works that I saw earlier this month, in particular the emphasis on light.

And I ended up with 4 pieces that I’m really pleased with

I started by looking through my folders for images where the angles and lines stood out, even in the small size of the thumbnails.  These are my 4 starting photos

for each one I followed the same process:

1. duplicate the photo and try the different blending modes to find one that emphasised the lines and angles

2. Add Bonnie’s Fabrique texture and find a blending mode that I liked

3. Flatten layers and apply the artistic filter ‘paint daubs’

And that was it.

Check out how others have created with lines and angles here.

Random memory

Amy from Over at Our Place posted an old photo chosen by finding the 3rd photo in her 30th album and asked us what was the 7th photo in the 21st album.  I like this kind of random selection so I went to look and this is the answer

A badly lit and slightly blurred photo that would not otherwise see the light of day.

It was taken in November 2009 on the day that I helped to decorate this (artificial) tree with coordinated brown and bronze decorations that I had helped select the previous January in the sales.  In the house of friends in Thames, NZ. 

Thanks Amy for an interesting foray into old photos.  Have you looked in your 21st album for the 7th photo?

The other place I often use this method is in the library when I need to try some new authors.  I’ll take the 15th book on the third shelf or something similar – I’ve discovered some good books this way. Do you use such random methods to choose anything?