When birds grow up

Way back in 2005 when I started this blog, our daughter just turned 11,and I posted this photo collage of her:

At that time college was something so far away that I didn't think about it. But now I find myself in the "club" of so many Moms that waved good bye to their kids these days. While we are on the West Coast, the little bird bravely entered a plane and flew all the way to the East Coast, to the heart of the biggest city, to pursue her dreams. There are so many thoughts and emotions that I would like to express right now, but can't. They will probably show up in my art somehow. For now, I'll leave you with some of her art. Her wish is to study computer science, but I can't help and wonder if art be a part of her future too...

Our "baby boy" (I don't think I'll ever stop calling him that in my mind, even though he is all grown up and behaved as a grown up even when he was little) drove 400 miles just to wish his little sister a safe trip and happy college days, then 400 miles back to his home and work. 

We love them and miss them and are extremely proud of them both. Good luck birdies, happy flights! We'll keep the nest safe and inviting for whenever you wish to come back :-)

Off to a new phase in life...

Waiting for words

I love when images that were not there before show up on crisp white pages. 

I used the same shapes I did in the exercise I blogged about here.

But then she showed up... and I can't really read her expression. Worried? Troubled? Tired?

101 BIRDS - Painting #34

Remember the previous bird? I used a book page to cut out some of the petals on the flower. I painted white over them, so they almost don't show (see where the arrow points to).

The book page with the cut-outs was left on my table, because I don't just throw away stuff, as I'm sure you don't either. I used it as a stencil in one of the layers, and it grew into this grouping of flying wingy things. Love when something like that happens, it is probably my favorite part of this painting! 

I'm still in full color mode :-)

Digital journaling (my favorite apps)

Happy August!

Some of you may remember that I started using my mini iPad to capture daily snippets way back in January. And would you believe it - I stuck to it, and now have captured memories for each day of this year. I call them "snippets", because that is what they are... little bits of days that weave together the story of our life. I love looking through them and seeing the big and small, good and not so good things that happened.

Since I know that many of you have iPads and might want to do something similar (I received email questions about it), let me share which apps I use. The main one that houses my digital books is called Noteshelf. This is how my "shelf" looks right now. I will start a new book for August this evening. If the stripes on the covers start bothering me, I can change them quickly. For now - they make me smile.

To create super quick collages (like the one below) I use an app appropriately called TurboCollage. I made the heart with Photo Stack (free app) and added it over the collage. 

Can you see the butterfly in my daughter's hair?

Most pictures I take are with my iPhone, so the quality is far from perfect. My favorite app for photo manipulation is PhotoToaster. It can do almost anything! There are many very artsy options, but I use it mostly to crop the pictures and pull out as much detail as I can (the ducks below are a good example of that, as they were not very close to me and were moving quickly).

One of my other favorites is TitleFx for it's amazing lettering capabilities. The example below is not imaginative at all, but I used it simply because I wanted to have this blue picture here, as it was really a happy, amazing day. The photo collage below is done also with TurboCollage, after I cropped the photos and added frames with PhotoToaster.

There are other apps that I use from time to time, but the ones I listed continue to be my favorites. I would love if you add to the list and suggest some of your favorite apps :-)

Cheers! Happy August!