Happy Birthday, Daddy

Feeling surprisingly emotional today on Dad's birthday.  He would have been 89.  Here he is in early adulthood at the Cascades fountain, Joaquin Miller Park, in Oakland, CA.

Just Two

Carrie and Drew about to announce their engagement to the world!  Took this on our Palm Springs Weekend with them just last week.  I miss them already!  I'll let them tell everyone when and where.  I'm lucky, though, that they decided to use this pic for their Save The Date announcement.

The photo coulda been better if I'd paid more attention to the background.  Still, I did remember to have them take off their sunglasses and to step out of the spotty, half shade/half sun light that was everywhere but where they're standing.

Congratulations you two!  May you have many happy years together!

Letter I

Using stone knives and bear skins, I created this Letter I photomontage today.  Been hanging out in Palm Springs with my husband who's at a conference.  All part of my plan to get away to warm places during our Oregon winter.  But my old, creaky laptop has only Photoshop Elements 6.0 and too little memory to move may files around. 

I think this is an interesting, textured letter.  Would like to have made a layer mask to erase the texture on the I some.  But don't have that capability today.  Still, not bad.  It has an interesting look for something made with primitive tools. 

Aitches

Found the Hs in a row on the restaurant sign for Cha! Cha! Cha! here in Westmoreland.

Manipulation

Today while doing errands and thinking what kind of G to use for my daily photomontage, I kept seeing newspaper boxes with the Oregonian's business section logo on them.  I wondered how I could make a similar effect with this G in spite of my rudimentary photomontage skills.  After trying most of yesterday afternoon, sleeping (well, not really) on it, then trying again this morning, Ta Da!  Not the most amazing looking photomontage, but still an expansion in how to manipulate the images.

E Of The Day

It's been a long day for me in photomontage world.  So, this is a brief E rather than an extravagant E.  These elements are from the sign on Cosmo Lounge in downtown Westmoreland.  As you can see--they have a kind of retro Jetsons look to their marquee.

I made three photomontages today for my class assignment.  I'll post some of those once I've turned them in and gotten a good grade!

Sock Dreams

An enchanting local store–Sock Dreams.  A tiny house crammed with socks you salivate over!  Fortunately for them, it's way too easy to overspend on the most colorful, cozy, wild, wooly socks imaginable!

I love their sign and tried all kinds of ways to make the D into a photomontage.  However, nothing I tried made it look more wow than this bit of sign in it's original glory.

What's At SCRAP Today?

Went looking for fake flowers for my photomontage class assignment yesterday.  That's how I ended up at SCRAP.  Where I got this Letter C but no fake flowers--well not ones I wanted anyway.  Instead, I found fabric.  And textured paper to photograph.  And this:

A clown lamp someone created from SCRAP's scrap!

If you're a Portlander and haven't been to SCRAP, you're missing out on a cool aspect of our local culture.  I'm surprised Portlandia hasn't spoofed them yet!  It's definitely cleaner and safer than dumpster diving for all your crafty urges!  They take donations--yarn, fabric, clown masks, staplers, old calendars, bits of tile, half used bottles of glue, puzzles, milk bottles, construction paper, old postcards, half finished hooked rug projects--and resell them to keep these bits and bobs from going into a landfill.  Check out their website for daily hours and what they accept.  It will give you an idea what's at SCRAP today!

Noodles

Went to Boke Bowl on Monday for lunch with friends.  Loved the place!  And I'm not alone!  The line was out the door and customers were busy munching (or rather, slurping) savory noodles and chatting with each other at the long, community style tables.

Boke has been receiving raves from the time it was just a once-per-month flash eatery in whatever space they could find downtown.   But now, Boke has its own permanent lunch spot over on Water Avenue and their delicious smells have tickled my nose each time I walk past their door on my way to yoga class.

Boke is definitely the place to eat if you want to be "in" on new eating trends in Portland!  Lunch only, 10-3--'cept for their Thursday Korean Fried Chicken Night,  5-9:30 p.m.  Noooooodles!

An A Day

A spectacular day with sun!  And fifty degrees!  Both of which made for a lovely photo walk around my neighborhood.

For the first February, this day deserves an A!