Night Blooming Cactus

 A few years ago we removed the grass in our front and back yards.  The front looked like this before the removal

and this after the removal.

Hubby spent the better part of the next two years planting with drought tolerant plants, both California 

native types and succulents.  It now looks like this.

   I'm so glad he did this.
We are in a severe drought in California.  If we have to ration water, there will be many very brown lawns around here. 
The blooms on the cactus below are so large and gorgeous.  You do have to go out at  night to see them  though.  I caught this one very early in the morning just before it closed.

I processed two versions - one cropped to a 
square and textured with Kim Klassen's Prague texture.  I then edited it in Photoshop and Topaz Restyle and Topaz Adjust.  This one is my entry for Kim's Texture Tuesday.  

The image below was processed in Photoshop using Kim Klassen's Cool  Grunge texture.  You can see 

the buds above the bloom.  They probably opened the next night or two.  Such a treat. 

Making Faces

#5 in this series…..I did a spread which I'm going to post in a journal group.  First acrylic paint, some stencils and then the face drawn over the background.  I decided to journal right over her, and I may add journaling to the left side.

  

Let's Face It…..

I think the one below is in a twit because I cut her hair too short!

~ Namaste~ 

Back to Faces

Yes, I'm back to faces.  Since this one is in my journal, I prepped the page with gesso and a wash of acrylics…..added a little doodling and a stencil.  I drew "Pretty Woman" with a Stabilo MarksAll pencil.  

In the coming days I will be doing more faces.  

Someday soon, I'll get back to my photography and PS edits.  I seem to flit back and forth and obsess over one or the other for a period of time.  

Bless you all who are following me….you never know what you will find on here.

Oh and look what I got in the mail from Linda at Just Another Volunteer.  Thank you, Linda!!

Do visit her blog.  She is involved in the ICAD project, and this is one of her works. ICAD stands for Index Card a Day.   For more info on this visit Tammy at Daisy Yellow blog.  I believe she is hosting it.  It's not too late to join in the fun.

~ Namaste ~

Weeks 16, 18 and 20

I keep trying to catch up and let's face it, things just take me a while.  I realize this is a journal, but I have to please myself.  Seems some pages sit on my workspace far too long,  but it's because I haven't found the sweet spot yet.  I know I could just post something, but I'm sure you all feel as I do…..I don't care if it's not perfect…. I do care if it doesn't please me!

Week 16 involved adding a piece of cardboard from a food box.  

I just really wanted to use this Meyer Lemon Cookie Thins box because I l-o-v-e them so much.  They are dangerous for me.  But I didn't have a spread I felt I wanted to put it on.  I had drawn the face, so I added it as a tip-in to this page that had a dictionary page glued to it.  Since the previous spread below was very colorful and reminded me of crows, I thought I could just sketch some crows.  Ha!  I need a bit more practice.  The page looked boring with not a lot of visual interest so I decided to add my cat stamp as a border, thus fulfilling week 20's theme of using a rubber stamp in an unusual way.  I don't know how unusual this border is, but I loved the cats with the birds.

Now doesn't this look a little like an abstract crow?  Anyway…..this is the other side of the tip-in with an inspirational quote (requested for week 18).  It's a bit hard to read but says "Art is music frozen in time" followed by "Music creates order out of chaos", a quote by Yehudi Menuhin.  I've always liked this quote.