Coastalgirl

pet week

I have been feeling like death for a couple of weeks now and who would have thought sickness could last so long? Today I am out of bed and with a bottle of water in one hand I'm going to try to post to this blog, but also peek into my favourite blogs and the rest of blogworld. I'm hoping my strength returns with the warm weather and soon I will be able to eat normal food. I guess I am feeling a little sorry for myself, but I know I will feel better eventually...the trick is not to let it get you down for very long. sooooo...

This week is pet week for Leah and she is learning everything about domestic pets. I quickly scanned through our pet photos and came up with these that I printed off and mounted to cardstock for Leah to make into a little book. We have two white kitties, Helen and Clare. They are 14 and 13 years old.

hand painting

water lily , originally uploaded by coastalgirlimage.

I was reminded of kayaking Lake Superior today and decided to go through my photos of the trip. I picked this one to process a little differently and decided to do a little hand painting in photoshop. That is my version of a little daily craftiness in addition to another thank you card using a few of my photos and coloured cardstock.

card making and fingerpainting 101

Today we were inspired by a little craftiness.....first came the card making since I get so tired of lamely searching for storebought cards and sentiments. I have a love for paper like some love fabric, so I search out interesting patterns or make them myself. I have collected stamps for years and I'm always thinking of ways to incorporate them into cards for birthdays, thank yous, etc etc. Here are two recent ones. One is made from lemon slice printing with white acrylic paint (great idea for food printing for Leah too).

   
Our other bits of craftiness took the form of fingerpainting 101. Leah fingerpainted on the easel and mushed the colours together and then painted arms and backs of hands. I don't know if this is an activity we will ever outgrow. I think she loves the feeling of paint mushed between the fingers. Doesn't it look like great fun?

toothpicks and popsicle sticks

This week we joined the Moms over at unplug your kids for the weekly art/craft theme of WOOD. I dug out the toothpicks, popsicle sticks, and homemade play clay and wanted to see what we could come up with. It seemed the most likely candidate was a porcupine with its spikes for toothpicks and popsicle sticks for legs. As you can see, the activity was enjoyed and progressed into many questionable animals.

at the beach

at the beach, originally uploaded by coastalgirlimage.

After a rough start (I was sick with stomach flu for 2 days), we finally made it to the beach on the Florida panhandle. My parents were staying there for a few weeks to relax, shop, and walk miles on the beaches. Leah had a blast collecting buckets of shells, making sand castles and promptly knocking them all down. She learned the differences between the gulls, sandpipers, and pelicans and Grammy hopes to make a birder out of her yet!
I still feel weak and not 100%, but hope to be feeling better soon. I wonder now if there is another colour theme in photography going on this week? Must go cruise blogworld and see..........

off to the beach

We are off to the beach on Monday morning and will be back on Thursday. A trip to a different sort of beach than we are used to, but at least Leah will get to dig in the sand and who can resist that wonderful feeling of sand between the bare toes? More photos when I return............

experiment in B&W 30:12

I took this photo last month with the trusty 100-400mm lens (I know I've mentioned before how much I LOVE that lens...can't help it) and I know I've posted the colour rendition of this photo before. I can't help going back to it again and again. For one thing, I still have visions of a very bored white tiger looking at me with disinterest, but when Leah starting talking to him and asking him questions like, "are you hungry?", I couldn't help but snap his photo when he showed such interest in a little girl. Perhaps he was hungry or perhaps he liked the sound of her little voice. It must be so boring living in a zoo instead of the habitat he should be living in.....BUT it's nice that there may be a few more tigers in the world because of conservational efforts. Isn't he just beautiful? The black and white quality of his fur made the transition to B&W tones quite easy in photoshop.

fish magnet for green week

fish magnet, originally uploaded by coastalgirlimage.

This is the last of my photos for green week over at shining egg. This is a great fish magnet that I purchased for a friend as a housewarming gift. She loved it. I bought it in a funky art shop in Lunenburg, Nova Scotia. A simply fantastic quaint artsy town on the south shore. I've always been meaning to make funky magnets, but like everything else, there are so many things to make and do, I never get around to it. How hard can it be? Acrylic paint, dimensional paint or glue, corrogated cardboard, and lots of imagination. You just have to love the googly painted eyes! classic!

Green 5---green day artwork by Leah

Here we are reaching the end of green week at shining egg and I thought it might be nice to get away from the nature shots today and focus on Leah art. This particular painting is a finger painting done on watercolour paper. This paper is great because it soaks up a lot and you don't end up with mashed pieces into the table as more and more paint is applied. Leah labelled this one "green day," so I thought it was quite fitting to be included in green week. Happy green day to all and may the northerners continue to see green things popping out of the ground!

My town in B&W this week

My town is an interesting place to live because it really is black and white in many ways. Culturally, it's very different than the northern US and Canada. There are many things I like about it and a few things I don't like which is pretty much what you could say about anywhere you live. When I first moved to the south for 3 years I read everything I could about the history and I soaked up civil rights museums, southern cookery, southern novels like "To kill a Mockingbird" (fantastic novel which I first read in high school), southern flora and fauna (I got used to big lizards and armadillos in the backyard), and of course the preponderance of derelict buildings and religious signage. Here are a few photos from My south:

I can't say I'm a huge fan of the religious signage, but this sort of thing dots the south and I guess there are many that feel quite strongly about the issue. So I won't say much more, but will say, that I just about ran my car off the road the first time I saw it...I just couldn't believe my eyes.