Friends, Friends, Friends

I put this puzzle together four days ago while I was on my puzzle-solving spree. It's a 500-piece puzzle I bought at Dollar Tree. 

The quality of the cardboard isn't the best, but the quality of the image as a puzzle is wonderful. The colors are bright and there's enough variation to be interesting without being too difficult. In other words, the fun factor is high with this jigsaw.

The name? Three Amigos! Very clever.

I have some puzzles that I return to again and again. I'll wager this puzzle fits that category.

Try It Too-sday: Rubberband Land

This week on Try It Toosday, I'm recreating a photograph by Nick Albertson that I squirreled away on September 11, 2013. The simple shape of the rubber band is repeated over and over on a stark black background.

Inspiration by Nick Albertson

At first glance, you might think that a box of rubber bands had been overturned on a desk and a picture snapped with a smartphone camera. But as I studied the photo, I saw it would take much more effort than that.

First, I had to find the rubber bands. I didn't have enough of the tan bands on hand, and my local store didn't have them, either. So instead, I used the tiny 1/2 inch hair bands I had. I separated out the black, blue, and purple rubber bands for this project.

With my light pad as the backdrop, I put down a single layer of black rubber bands. I used some tweezers to urge them into place. Then I turned off all lights in the room, turned on the light pad, and took the photo with only that backlight.

Next I added the second layer of rubber bands, starting in the center with blue. 

Since the blue bands I had weren't quite enough, I added purple on the edges to complete the second layer of rubber bands.

The magic happened in photo editing. After cropping and resizing the image, I needed to figure out how to make the colors mimic my inspiration photo. First, I learned to invert the colors. 

The white background became black

The black rubber bands turned white

The blue rubber bands became a light orange  

The purple rubber bands turned a light green.

Almost there!

The last step was to change the color of the rubber bands. I used the "Vintage Photo" tool in my photo editing program to colorize the photo. By using a sepia tone, the three colors of rubber bands look nearly identical.

Here's my final image!

My Re-creation of the Rubber Band Photo

Now compare it to the original.

Inspiration by Nick Albertson

These #tryittoosday challenges are quite the brain teasers. It's satisfying when I get it close.

Easter Bouquet

Look who's hopped out again this spring? Time for more Easter fun.

Start with a falf-dozen peachy-pink roses

Toss in two purple hydrangea stems

Pull out the sparkliest Easter basket

Fill the bottom with foam, and poke all the flower in place.

Gather the crocheted chicks and bunny heads and bunny butts

Then turn them into an Easter bouquet

to decorate the coffee table in the living room -- along with the amusing bunny pillows that remind me of Watership Down.

This is about as ready as we'll get for Easter this year.

Ruff Enough?

Alongside sticking my nose deep into the flowers, I thoroughly enjoy the vibe at Ruff Park, the magnolia arboretum. There are evergreens and deciduous trees mixed in among the magnolias. A nice concrete walking path runs the circumference of the park. Scattered about the park beneath the branches are picnic tables where guests share an afternoon lunch.

Magnolias come in many sizes. The bud on this tall, tall tree is larger than an adult's hand!

Much of the park has a wood rail fence, separating the park from the nearby neighborhood.

There are views of mountains and pastures just beyond the magnolia blooms.

This tree has a particularly wide reach, completely in bloom.

Yet still, it all comes back to the blossoms

and all the hidden details.

Stage One

So, this happened today.

First to Dale

Then to me

Our county has a great drive-up system! 

It felt ... patriotic. Gave me a sense of civic pride that we're all in this together. Or as Gretchin Rubin says, it gave me the "America feeling." 

Have a Cup-a

My brain was twisted into a couple knots yesterday, so I helped give it order and rest by putting two small puzzles together yesterday. Both have happy, vibrant colors. My morning puzzle involved coffee.

It is 300 pieces and bought at Dollar Tree. I check their puzzle selection every time I stop by (usually to pick up pretzels!)

I believe I found six new puzzles last week, so I have lots to choose from for my next puzzle spree.

More Magnolias

I made it out to Ruff Park, the magnolia arboretum, on Sunday. It was a very cloudy day. I had my "big girl camera" with me, and took nearly 200 photos. Unfortunately, the combination of the cloudy day and the fact that I haven't used that camera in a while meant that I had a lot of trouble figuring out how to get the most out of the available light. 

These three photos were the stars of the day.

I find magnolias difficult to photograph because the trees are a big tangle of limbs, with a flower popped out at the end of each branch. There aren't a lot of leaves to speak of. Taking in the beauty of the arboretum in an overall photo wasn't in the cards for me.

But check out this texture close up!

The magnolias grow in a spectrum from white to pink to magenta to a dark purple. This was one of the brighter pops of color in the park.

I'll see what I can do in my photo editing program to highlight more of this jewel of a park. If you live in the Eugene area, I highly recommend you seek out Ruff Park this week while the magnolias are in full bloom. 

Nantucket Winds

While I was on my puzzle-making spree last week, Dale helped me put this 1,000 piece puzzle together. 

It's another illustration by Charles Wysocki. 

This image had fewer charming details than other Wysocki puzzles we've finished. I did like this farmer with his wheelbarrow full of goods headed to market.

This detail of a dog hunched patiently in the bike basket, wind to his back, watching the kites fly tickles me, as does the seagull overhead, flying against the wind.

Try It Too-sday: Here's Lookin' at You, Kid

Today I'm attempting to recreate an image involving a simple pair of black-rimmed glasses. 

I've been toting this inspiration image around since February 28, 2011 -- over a decade! I like the bold lines and simple speckled background. I'm pretty sure these frames have no lenses, or I'd see some reflections. I appreciate how the stark shadow is nearly as dense as the black of the frames.

Inspiration image by kootoyoo

For my version, I used this pair of Coke Bottle Glasses I found in my costume box. To get the speckled, textured background, I used a sheet of Styrofoam. I took the photo right next to a window in bright afternoon sunlight. In editing, I gave the image a lot of contrast, and converted it to black and white with an infrared filter.

Not bad!

I'm rather pleased with myself.

Trees in Bloom

This is happening all over our neighborhood.

Trees bursting into bloom, seemingly overnight.

Beautiful from every angle, far and near.

Happy Turkey Day!

When Jodie and I were out scouting around the countryside last week, we stopped to find a geocache in the parking lot of the Alvadore library. We heard an unusual-to-us sound, looked up, and saw a flock of at least 30 turkeys napping under some trees. 

So why did the turkeys cross the road?

To see what the humans were doing on the other side?

To check out some library books?

Or maybe they were hungry.

We wanted some better pictures, so Jodie quickly googled, "Are wild turkeys mean?" We decided to keep from getting too close.

I whistled and, uh, guess I wanted to see what they'd do. A leader or two perked up, started looking around, then roused the group. Up they stood and waddled in the opposite direction, obviously not wanting a thing to do with us.

Jodie got closer than I did and even got photos of one flapping his wings and spreading out his tail feathers. It was a great experience to be so close to so many big birds.

Kaleido-Butterflies Puzzle

I put this puzzle together two weeks ago. It's one that Jodie gave me for Christmas.

It's a 500-piece, 20 inch x 20 inch square. I've rarely put square puzzles together.

I liked that it was easy to decipher the vertical pieces from the horizontal pieces. That detail make a jigsaw easier to put together because I'm searching through half as many pieces to find the one that's needed.

The variety of butterflies was interesting, as were the muted colors.

As a nice surprise, I learned that all the "leaves" are also butterflies.

Granddaughter Annie will like the the center of the puzzle looks like an owl.