Re-cap…schmeee-cap. Or…why do I feel like a slug compared to so many…

So…I literally had to look through the months to see what I actually

DID

accomplish this year of twenty-ten.

Not as much as some years…maybe more than other years.

I’m a Libra. And middle child. Surprising, eh?

Started out with a little Laundry re-do

tiled,painted built cabinets, new floor, new lighting…

That was fun…onto

Big butt…The chair with multiple personalities…

Then…the demure little butt chair…who didn’t put up nearly the fight!

Then, somewhere…painting and re-decorating the Livingroom…windows, walls, art…

Then…I lost track… We had a son in the hospital…And, somehow I ended up with three jobs…

…and had a hard time keeping it all together.

But did continue gardening.

well…keeping plants alive.

Sorta

This year….who knows?

I’m a live by the seat of my pant’s kinda girl…

But....What ‘bout you guys??

Spill.

Join Rhoda to find what other much more energetic than me people have been doing.

Eliminate That Hotspot!

While I was out shooting Santa last week I had some spare time to play with my flash and shoot through umbrella set-up and took the following shot:

As you can see there is a distinct hotspot in the umbrella. Not so great for even distribution of light, which is the point of the umbrella to start off with. Of course it does help to distribute light, but not as well as it could. The flash was set to about 50mm here, so I flipped out the built in diffuser and it automatically went to 14mm wide with the following result:

Beautiful even distribution of light resulting in a better wrap around effect for portraits!

The light stand used here is in fact a junky old cheap tripod with the head removed and refitted to an extension pole which I then mounted to the top of the junky old cheap tripod, I then drilled a hole through the plastic head (taking care to avoid anything important) and voila! Nice tall light stand for the man on a limited budget. Here is a close up of the head:

Some people say I'm tight, but I like to think of myself as frugal...
;-)

Angel's Hair

X IS FOR?

EXCEEDING ALL EXPECTATIONS!

Once the festive season is done and dusted himself and I usually start discussing holidays. When I say discussing I mean so at great length. The process usually turns out to be an epic saga of earnest debate, maps and guides overload as well as some minor spats before we come to a satisfactory conclusion. It is often well into the new year before we make any decisions, sometimes only a few weeks before we are due to depart. This year was no exception to the rule. The dilemma seems to be that my ideal holiday features the coast and garden visiting, whilst himself has a yen for mountains and architecture. This year we both comprised ~ our destination was the Loire Valley, where there are both grand gardens and chateaux in abundance. We both agreed after the event that our choice more than lived up to our expectations. The most exciting and exhilarating day of the holiday for me was a visit to the annual international garden festival at Chaumont - sur - Loire.  The above photo is of the most exceptional exhibit in my eyes which was entitled 'Cheveux d'Anges'. This translates as 'Angel's Hair'. I still have to post in length about this visit. I have made a start several times but have agonised over which photos to include. I will do so though before we decide on where to venture forth in 2011! 

More on the extraordinary letter X can be explored over at ABC Wednesday.

Meanwhile if you would like to indulge in some seasonal silliness and possibly win a small prize do have a peek at my last post here.

Pancha Tantra…and wool slippers...

As we pretended to be snowed in

albeit it WAS cold…we continue to wear our flannel Jammies we got for Christmas…and wool slippers

such decadence in Florida

we played monopoly

not just any monopoly…but electronic banking monopoly…whole new world.

forget 200 clams when you pass go…how about 2mil?

I…perused…a fave gift

Walton Ford’s Paintings in a Taschen Book

a HUGE taschen book called Pancha tantra...

His paintings are often life size

and full of the animal world like you have never seen…provocative

often with scribbled field notes around the edges…

Tantalizing and disturbing

What better combination…while donned in flannel pj’s sipping warm cocoa?

Enjoy your after festivities time…

Still Celebrating Christmas

We are still celebrating at our house.  Are you?   Christmas was wonderful.  

After attending early mass, we made our annual Christmas eve trip to the movies.

 followed by a visit to Waffle House.  

On Christmas day there were fun gifts,

Christmas jazz courtesy of KMHD 89.1 Jazz Radio Portland, and the sounds of Fruition String Band.

Later in the evening good friends stopped in 

to enjoy a visit and incredible performances by Parker Smith

AND

 

and our very own Mimi.

Then it started to snow.

 On Sunday we joined friends for dinner

Before going to the Atlanta Thrashers game.

Tonight we're watching the Falcons (RISE UP!) and visiting with friends.  There are lots more Christmas carols to be sung and memories to be made.  

I'm so happy to keep my Christmas tree up until after the Epiphany.

At our house, we're going to keep celebrating the season.  Season's greetings.

Some Seasonal Silliness

The space between Christmas and the New Year is one of my favourite times of the year ~ the drawbridge is up, the larder is well stocked and there seems to be endless time to browse through the seed catalogues, make a start on Christmas books, indulge in Scrabble marathons and pour over giant crosswords ~ oh what bliss. So in keeping with the season,here is a little quiz to tease your grey matter ~ this like my recent post featuring a guide to etiquette at the bird table, was unearthed as I  continue to declutter. It featured in our garden club newsletter some time ago. The answers to all the questions are names of plants, flowers, herbs etc.

1) Wise old man
2) Without a dance partner
3) In perfect condition
4) Harlequin's sweetheart
5) It's in the eye
6) Fictional hotel proprietor (first name)
7) Elizabeth has been active
8) Wordsworth sung its praises
9) Prickly Christmas evergreen meets a German wine
10)Did Chaucer's pilgrims hear these when they ended their journey? (plural)
11) A company of animals or birds
12) Romance bloomed in the foggy weather
13) A motionless insect usually busy
14) The girl would share your tandem if you sung to her
15) The truth be told
16) The Universe
17) Mother sprinted like this on sports day
18) Amour, prone and haemorrhaging
19) Head cover worn by monastery's inhabitants
20) A floral fiddle
21) It would smell as sweet by any other name ?
22) This girl has been in a fight
23) Daughter of Zeus and Hera?
24) Ms. Ledward may grow this in her garden
25) Bear's Breeches

In the spirit of the season there will be a small prize for the first set of correct answers to be pulled out of a plant pot or whatever I can lay my hands on. Answers should be emailed to me at thegreentapestry@googlemail.com before midnight on 6th January 2011.

For the winner a copy of Elspeth's Thompson's 'The Wonderful Weekend Book' which includes many ideas for enjoying the simple pleasures of life!

Shooting Santa...

...a profitable low point in my artistic career! Lets face it there is no artistic value in doing the typical Santa in the mall shots, but it does provide the bread and milk money.

I decided to go for the less is more philosophy and had a single shoot through umbrella with a Nikon SB600 flash, camera set to manual, 1/80s, f5.6, customised portrait mode, jpg only (to save time). The results were quite adequate for the task at hand:

The setup

Santa with baby

Santa with another kid

Santa and Helper

Everybody loves Christmas! Except the Grinch I suppose, but he wasn't there.