T Stands For 2OLOTR: Two Old Ladies on the Road - Rolling Home

Our last morning. While Teague was having her cup of tea, I decided I'd try to go for a walk along the Marginal Way, the ocean cliff walk that winds it's way from Ogunquit a mile and a half East to the village of Perkins Cove. Though the weather was still very cold, the wind had died down. 

Across the lawn there were gaps in the hedges with a chain link fence and gates to get on the Marginal Way.

Where I looked the path was still covered with snow and ice

Maybe it would be better on the other side of the lobster trap tree.

Nope. There were a couple of intrepid individuals with rugged hiking boots. Though I was wearing ankle boots, they were made for city walking and not rugged terrain. One woman told me that around the bend from this photo, it was clear. But she neglected to mention you had to walk up an icy hill. At my age, snow and ice are just a broken hip waiting to happen. 

I would have to be content taking pictures from the Beachmere lawn over the fence

and hoping when the weather was warmer, we'd be able to make another trip to Ogunquit.

Since "The Season" hadn't started, not a lot of restaurants were open. We decided to have breakfast in the Beachmere's Restaurant. I was too busy being in the moment with Teague so I didn't take a picture of breakfast. This is the breakfast I had on Friday. Sunday breakfast I had scrambled eggs, bacon, hashbrowns. I had a cup of tea served in the dark, blue mug just like Friday's breakfast

After breakfast and checking out, we headed to Ogunquit Beach to say good-bye. 

There were a few people on the beach, but I felt like I had the beach to myself

A seagull yelling: Are you looking at me?

The brutal winds and tide created patterns in the sand

A couple was celebrating their First Wedding Anniversary.

We left the beach and headed South to stop at Nubble Light. Every time we are in the area on the way or back, we stop at the lighthouse. The view never gets old. At least this time we could see the lighthouse. The day we arrived, the lighthouse was fogged in.

As we were getting ready to leave, I noticed a couple and they were blowing bubbles.  As I got closer, they looked like they were packing up. I asked if they could blow a few more bubbles

and

they kindly obliged.

I enhanced the bubble using a stamp of a glass marble in Paint Shop Pro so the bubbles can be seen.

I thanked the couple for indulging me. The woman said I would remember the Nubble Bubbles.

So the first runaway trip of the year in the books. Hopefully, another trip when the weather is a lot warmer.

Drop by hosts, Bleubeard and Elizabeth's blog to find out what the rest of the T Stands For gang is up to. If you want to play, include in your Tuesday post a beverage or container for a beverage. Don't forget to link your blog to Bleubeard and Elizabeth's page.

T Stands for Teaticket

 

This card is from my teacher, Gerry Jackson Kerdok. When I saw the card, I knew I had to use it as my tea ticket for the Tea post. See what I did there? 😺

This year, Gerry moved to a bungalow, seaside home. The name of the village is Teaticket. So cute and perfect for my post.

Gerry's card is not only a Christmas card, but doubles as a we've moved card. So clever Through the magic of Paint Shop Pro, I used some of the holly and berries from Gerry's card to cover the address.

Drop by hosts, Bleubeard and Elizabeth’s blog to find out what the rest of the T gang is up to. If you want to play, include a beverage or beverage container in your post. Don’t forget to link your blog from Bleubeard and Elizabeth’s page.

Kids Say the Darndest Things

A practice piece from something the Eldest said which I found amusing. "Whoever said a diamond is a girl's best friend has never used a step stool."

Originally, I had drawn a diamond in Chibi's (the Eldest's nickname) hands. But then got the bright idea of using a diamond earring from a piece of costume jewelry. The diamond was attached with Crafter's Pick The Ultimate, a non-toxic, water-based, super glue.

Pilot Parallel Pen 1.5 mm with Noodler's Black ink, on Diploma parchment, 8 in. x 10 in., cartoon frame done in Paint Shop Pro X8

Reggimented Saturday

Studiomate, Ben Dover, tries his hand at the assignment

This weekend is another Reggie weekend so I will be up to my elbows in gouache, ink, and gold.

One of our homework assignments had to do with spacing. Spacing can effect mood. During class, we cut out letters from Hermann Zapf's typeface, Palatino. We had our choice of two words. Calligraphy or Languidly. I chose languidly. Our assignment was to create an image with tight spacing and then with wide spacing on an interesting background.

I chose languidly because I have a picture of Ink taking a nap on our old chair in the sunroom. It was hot that day, and Ink had just melted into the cushion. I thought this was the perfect definition of languidly and used tight spacing.

For wide spacing, I thought languidly on an ocean background would work. While trolling images, I found one of a string of seagulls dipping and swooping over the ocean. Through the magic of Paint Shop Pro, I replaced the seagulls with the letters to spell languidly. I tipped the L and added a dot to represent a person just floating languidly in the ocean. Using the clone tool, I added water splashing over the letters and a drop shadow so the letters would look like they were in the picture and not just on the surface. The shadow effect looked better in my head, but the gist is there.

I liked this assignment. It was one of the few assignments I approached with confidence. I enjoy playing around with images in Paint Shop Pro so I could have some fun and enjoyment with this assignment.

The Friday Five Good Things

Five good things that happened this week.

1. The new printer is up and running.

2. Enjoyed watching football with Himself.

3. The return episode of Supernatural didn't disappoint. Predictable, but I loved it.

4. PSP X8 arrived earlier than expected. Install went smoothly.

5. Worked on an idea for the Graceful Envelope contest.

How was your week?

Paint Shop Pro X8

Sandra asked: Is Paint Shop Pro like Paint? And is it easy to use?

No, Paint Shop Pro, now in version 18, is a complete photo editing program. I like to think of it as a poor man's version of Photoshop.

You can enhance your digital images. Add filters, special effects, even virtual picture frames. I first started using this program about 8 years ago when the program PSP 7 was owned by Jasc Software. I used it to make signature tags when I belonged to a Western writers' board. At the time, its only use was for amusement.

Since then, Corel Software bought out Jasc, and PSP has become the most useful software program I own. I scan in my artwork and tweak the image. I've manipulated my artwork to create signatures, avatars, and have "framed" my artwork to be shown on my website. Artwork just looks better when it's framed.

These are things I had tried to do in Photoshop which had come bundled with my first scanner. I couldn't quite figure things out. Photoshop has a very long learning curve (at least for me) and a hefty price tag. (approx. $650) Definitely out of my price range.

At $99.99 Paint Shop Pro X8 is very affordable. I found the program to be more intuitive than Photoshop. I also like the fact that Corel allows a free 30 day trial. (I think Adobe also offers a free trial for their products, too.) Corel also offers an extensive Learning and Tutorial area on their website.

My advice? Give a try for the 30 day free trial period. If you like the program, you buy it. If not, you haven't lost anything.

Wazzit

While participating in the 29 Faces challenge, Robin from Pink House Studio created noses, eyes, and mouths .pdf you can print out and use to create faces.

I had fun manipulating and playing with the images in Paint Shop Pro. I used the rubber stamp tool to add the bee and to make the yarn hair.

I borrowed the 11th Doctor's fez, his jacket, and bowtie.

Tools, Gadgets, and Widgets: Marble Cam

Before

I'm not a huge shutterbug. Half the time, I forget to take a picture of the interesting or mundane things going on around me. I do like playing with the photos that I take. Usually, I manipulate things in Paint Shop Pro, a poor man's version of Photoshop.

After

Last week, I found a fun app for iPhone called Marble Cam. Marble Cam makes it looks as if you've take your photograph through a glass marble. You can use the app to alter photographs in your albums or photo stream or use the camera function to capture an image.
While in the sun room last week, I was mesmerized by the sun light through the trees. Grabbed the iPhone and snapped the picture. Not a great shot especially since I shot it through the sun room screen. The translation was lost in the exposure. Marble Cam took my lack lustre photo and made it look awesome. Just as the app promised the photo looks as if it was shot through a glass marble or one of those Victorian gazing globes.

The app is also available for Android phones as MarbleDroid.

Do you have a great app to share?

Oh, and Jan over at Creative Instigation has featured my Alphabet Sunday series as a jump start for getting your creativity running. Go take a look.

The Friday Five

Five decisions I made this week

1. Start a blog to go along with the Etsy shop. Thought buyers might be interested in stories behind some of the items in the shop.

2. Picked the platform. Decided to stick with Blogger because it's what I know.

3. Pick layout and design. Pick color. That was a no brainer. Wanna guess what color?

4. The Young One edited a pink, copyright free pig and made Mafundsalo white and blue. I found the wings from a PSP tube site. She altered the color. Didn't my baby do a great job? I was able to make the banner used at the blog and the Etsy shop.

5. I wrote the first Mafundsalo blog and scheduled it to post today.

What decisions did you make this week?