Old Recipes

Because my grandparents lived with us at the time of my grandmother’s death, I have inherited a collection of old books, recipe books, photos and other memorabilia valuable to me, if not to the rest of the world. Mimi was a wonderful cook, something she learned when she went to finishing school In Boston (she also learned etiquette, French, and Italian, among other things). This still life for Be Still 52 includes Mimi’s Fannie Farmer Cookbook and little notebook of her favorite recipes written out with her Parker pen in her signature turquoise ink.  I didn’t grow up baking, so the recipe card is from one of my first recipes for Christmas treats- Seven Layer Cookies (no baking!).I’m enjoying working in my garage “studio”- even on a drizzly day with the garage door open!

DSC_7373-Edit-Edit

Edited with Kim Klassen’s chill and one of the magic textures.

Melinda4 Comments

Square, Top Down, 2 Sides

This was fun- and trickier than I thought! The BeStill52 challenge was to create a square, top-down composition where subjects were arranged on two sides of the square, leaving some negative space.  Now, I am a big fan of negative space- but somehow these compositions were hard for me. I struggle with top-down photography anyway. I’m short, so getting the bird’s eye view involves standing on a chair or ladder.  The second photo was easier for me, because I deliberately used small objects and shot it standing on the floor- yippee!

The photo below is of two old photo albums- my grandmother’s and my father’s.  I didn’t see either of them until after my parents were gone, so wasn’t able to ask questions about them.  I’m so curious about the open album on top- look how the photos are cut and arranged artistically! My father graduated from high school in Wolf Point, Montana about 1919 (!), and these photos appear to be of him and his high school friends.  Was my father really a scrapbooker? I wonder if one of his girlfriends put the albums together for him. Anyway- it is VERY cute! My grandmother’s album features family photos from the 1920’s, often involving camping trips and excursions to the beach. The photo of the three children is my mother (left) with her brother and sister- taken around 1915.

20141129-DSC_7307_melinda_anderson-EditAnd here is the photo of smaller objects- much easier to photograph!

20141130-DSC_7314_melinda_anderson-EditBoth photos are textured with Kim Klassen’s breakfree texture for Texture Tuesday.

Melinda9 Comments

Old things that are falling apart

I am well aware that the title of this post could be referring to ME- so please resist making a joke! 🙂

On our drive in Paradise Valley (see yesterday’s post), I mentioned to Miles that I was going to be looking for barns and for old things to photograph.  He commented that he LOVES things that are old and falling apart (again, please resist the joke!).  I checked with his mother later, and it is TRUE- he is drawn to old, falling apart things- pretty cool for a six year old!

So look what we found!

26May2014-9198-Edit

Oh,  I so love this barn!  And the yellow flowers in front- so cool! This one was textured with 2 layers of golden by Kim Klassen.

And then there is the shot below of the same barn. I wanted the photo to look old too (although, realistically, the barn should look NEW in an old photo, right?), so I edited it and re-edited it- and edited it again- way too much time spent on this photo.  Basically, I added a couple textures, brought it back to Lightroom and then decided I wanted a vintage look. Instead of starting over, I took the photo into Silver Efex Pro and used one of their presets to give it a tintype took.  But the clouds had gone away!  So I brought the new version in AS A LAYER over my original version in Photoshop and blended them.  Then I kept playing with the textures (all Kim’s- mostly her older ones), adding and subtracting them until it looked the way I wanted.  No point in naming the textures for you- I masked out and reduced opacity so many times- it would make no sense- ridiculous!

26May2014-9197-Edit

And finally- when we had finished our drive, we were in Livingston, where we took Miles out to lunch at his favorite Mexican restaurant. When we got into the car to drive back to Yellowstone, he pointed out something for me to photograph- he has quite the eye, huh? So proud of him!

26May2014-9226-Edit

Linking up with Texture Tuesday.

 

 

 

 

Melinda13 Comments

Rodeo!

The highlight of last weekend was the rodeo- my Friday Find for the week.  I hadn’t been to a rodeo since childhood and had forgotten what fun it could be.

There were bucking broncos. . .

25May2014-9124 25May2014-8954

 

and bulls!

25May2014-9042

 

And, of course,  I love taking the detail shots.

25May2014-9071 25May2014-9064

But most of all, I loved watching Henry enjoying himself!

25May2014-8981 25May2014-8976

Melinda13 Comments

Remembering

We were in Chico, my hometown, this week, because of business my husband had nearby.  It was a very brief and bittersweet visit, because I knew I might not have occasion to return, now that we live in Arizona.  My college roommate, Carol drove up from Sacramento to keep me company; I have some fun photos from that visit to share with you tomorrow!

On the way out of town yesterday, we stopped at the cemetery, where the ashes of my mother and three grandparents are located. On my other visits, I didn’t take time to really notice how beautiful the grounds are- or maybe it wasn’t at the same time of year. This time I took time to soak it all in.

Beautiful oaks shade the lawn.

30Apr2014-651130Apr2014-6517

The artificial flowers we put in the vases by their vaults have disappeared. My mother would have disliked them anyway; she was a lady with impeccable taste!

30Apr2014-6467

 

Melinda3 Comments

Photobooth Boys

One of my goals for this week was to start getting caught up on my Beyond Beyond (2B) lessons.  I’m working backwards and doing whatever strikes my fancy.  This one (Lesson 51) was so much fun- I downloaded a photobooth storyboard action that Kim linked for us and put in some of my shots of the grandboys from when they were here! Easy and very entertaining!

PHOTOBOOTH_BOYS

Melinda6 Comments

The Brothers Again

We’re still missing our sweet grandsons a lot!  We’re so grateful for the wonderful visit we had and are already planning our next trip to Yellowstone to visit them. We’ve received two phone calls from 3 year old Henry (one unknown to his mother!), which lets us know he’s still thinking of us.

26Mar2014-4156

Melinda1 Comment

Hidden

My sweet little guys have flown back home, and I’m going through photos and remembering the special moments of this visit.  One day, the boys (on their own) made forts in the living room with their blankets and the afghans and throws they found on the couches. This was especially appealing to Henry, whose favorite game is hiding under a blanket and calling, “Come find me!”

27Mar2014-4166

Melinda3 Comments

Brothers

The boys love bathtime in our big tub, and last night they were rolling around afterward on our bed.  I thought I’d take a bunch of photos, but Caitlin and I mostly were in stitches over their antics.  Here is one brotherly shot that I love.

26Mar2014-4162

Melinda4 Comments

Hiking (AKA Running)

We took the boys (along with their parents) on a picnic and hike at a city park which has trails overlooking the town.  Henry and Miles lead the way and were triumphant reaching the point where we would start back down to the parking lot.

Here they are leading the way; that’s Granite Mountain in the background. I added a Jessica Drossin texture to this one to add some color and depth.

25Mar2014-4052-Edit

And here is my favorite photo of the day- the boys at the top of the trail.

25Mar2014-4104-Edit

Melinda2 Comments

Quiet

Today’s Texture Tuesday theme is QUIET.

Hmmmm…… there hasn’t been much quiet around here lately due to the presence of two rambunctious little boys- UNLESS they are asleep.  I took some photos of Henry asleep in the car and used a much more heavy hand than usual when adding textures.  I used two layers of Kim’s 1612 at multiply mode (brushed off face) and then added a grunge texture from my Photoshop Artistry class.

21Mar2014-3708-EditLinking up with Texture Tuesday.

Melinda7 Comments

They’re Here!

It’s been a wild few days in our usually quiet retirement home here in Prescott- the grandkids are here (along with their mom and dad)! Today, we drove over to Jerome and Sedona; the boys’ favorite part was getting out of the car finally and walking (running!) partway up Bell Rock.

21Mar2014-3585-Edit

Their exuberance at being outside in a natural environment was evident!

21Mar2014-3630

Melinda2 Comments

Knotted

My daughter and I both discovered knitting a few years ago, and I have been fortunate to receive some beautiful gifts knit by her over the years. Both of us have drifted away from knitting in the last few years- me, because of hand issues and my other obsession (photography) and her, because she is an incredibly busy mom of two little boys (as well as being a preschool director).  I was searching for photo inspiration on Flickr and found that KNOT was a topic this week. I immediately thought of knotted fringe and this beautiful scarf, made by my daughter. I think the pattern is lattice lace, and it is made with a beautiful, soft mohair.

9Jan2014-1413-Edit

I searched for a quote, and found this Japanese proverb.  I’m not sure how true it is right now with the polar vortex (receding, I hope?), but like the sentiment.

I am linking up with Friday Finds today, not because I found the scarf (it wasn’t lost- I wear this scarf!), but because I discovered a new processing technique! I had already posted this image to Flickr, but this morning I added a frame, with an easy technique I learned from Kim Klassen’s Test Kitchen. I love how you can still see the image through the frame!

Textures are from Kim’s waterfront collection.

Melinda2 Comments