2021 Year in Review

Well, that was a year!

On January 1st last year, I had lots of plans. Unfortunately, most of the ideas and goals didn't pan out. My creativity went dormant, so trying 21 new artforms was a no-go. A  few months in, I switched things up and revised my goal to re-create 21 photographs that I found online. I got a gold star for that.

My Word of the Year was Explore. The pandemic kept me inside most of the year, so I didn't go out much to learn more about my new town and state. Two years into living in Eugene, I still am a bit confounded as I try to find my way around. Thank you, GPS!

But here are the stats for what I did manage to complete in 2021:

Word of the Year - Explore: 16 new places

Artforms: 4 tried

Books/Audiobooks: 44 consumed

Online classes: 3 completed

Crafts: 29 completed (This surprises me since I've felt so creatively depleted!)

Geocaches: 27 found

Keto recipes: 1 tried

Letters/Cards: 0 (A huge sign of my mental health status. It's so unlike me to not reach out to others.)

Minor holidays: 1 celebrated

Movies & Series: 100 watched

Podcasts: 28 series

Puzzles: 47 completed

21 Goals for 2021: 21 #tryittoosday photo recreations. Here they are:

Happy New Year!

Try It Toosday: Finger Puppets

It's time for another Try It Toosday! The day I attempt to recreate a photograph that caught my eye. This is the final photo recreation needed to complete my 21 Goals in 2021.

It's just a couple fingers with facial features drawn in Sharpie, and hair scribbled in the editing process, right? Super simple.

Not.

Here's my (older, wrinklier fingered) version:

Here's my inspiration photo. I don't know the name of the photographer. The image caught my eye in February of 2012. I've been toting this around for nearly a decade!

In all honesty, I had two more complex photos in mind for my final #tryittoosday attempt. The first photo, saved in 2007, is a garden where all the flowers are balloons. I bought all the supplies and made some test "flowers." I even lined up some help with blowing up balloons! But my yard isn't big enough ... and I'd have to borrow some kids (which is hard to do in a pandemic). This idea is on hold. I still might find a way to use those 100 balloons.

The second is a box covered in woven lines of toilet paper. There are a lot of tricky parts to this photo. In my analysis, I recognized toilet paper that tears far too easily, to very specific and stark lighting, to figuring out that the photo was very likely flipped 180 degrees in the editing process. I got about half way through the construction of this photo before I gave up. It's a wickedly cool photo by Nick Albertson!

As I worked on trying to recreate these wonderful images, the difficulty factor kept increasing exponentially. If I learned anything this year by doing this project, it's the ingenuity of the original photographers. Even simple photos like the one I did today are more difficult and take hours longer to recreate than you'd think! 

Gathering the supplies, crafting and construction, getting the correct angles for the composition, proper backgrounds and lighting, photographing, and editing all take time. The brain energy that goes into trying to figure out the original photographer's process can be enough wattage to light an entire city. I've thought about several of these photographs for months before attempting to make them. 

It's an excellent exercise. I can recommend it to other photographers that want to test their skills and learn a lot along the way.

I admit, though, that I'm glad I challenged myself to only twenty-one photos!

Try It Toosday: For the Littles

It's time for another Try It Toosday! The day I attempt to recreate a photograph that caught my eye. This is number 20 of the 21 I hope to complete this year.

This kooky photo is for my grandkids. I love to make them laugh.

My version:

I saved this inspiration photo last March. I think I found it on Instagram, and don't know who the original artist is.

I've got only one more #tryittoosday photo to create to complete my 21 goals for this year. Yeah!

Try It Toosday: In the Rain

It's time for another Try It Toosday! The day I attempt to recreate a photograph that caught my eye. This is number 19 of the 21 I hope to complete this year.

Today's photo is more of a rhyme than a duplicate. The inspiration was raindrops on fallen leaves. The inspiration photo has more variation in color than I was able to collect. My bum knee doesn't allow me to wander in the woods right now, collecting several different species and the full range of autumn color. 

This leaf, complete with raindrops, was right outside my mailbox. I carried it carefully into my dining room, losing about half the droplets while transferring it. I played with the light from the window, the weave of our kitchen placemats, and my macro lens to come up with this composition. Though it's not much like my inspiration photo, I do like the result.

My inspiration photo was collected in November 2012. I'm sorry that I don't know who the photographer is.

Tomorrow I'll share a different take on this theme.

#tryittoosday

Try It Too-sday: Needle

It's time for another Try It Toosday! The day I attempt to recreate a photograph that caught my eye. This is number 18 of the 21 I hope to complete this year.


Today is a macro photo of a needle, threaded with yarn. Here's my version:

click for larger image

This is my inspiration photo which I saved in June of this year. I don't know who the original photographer is. 

Every time I attempt another of these photos, I learn something new. Today my lessons dealt with lighting for a macro photo, measuring angles, photo ratios, and depth of field. After experimenting for a couple hours, this is what I was able to produce.

Try It Too-sday: Celery

It's time for another Try It Toosday! The day I recreate a photograph that caught my eye. This is number 18 of the 21 I hope to complete this year.

Today the beauty of celery is seen close up. Here's my version:

And here's my inspiration photo that I found on ‎January ‎24, ‎2015. I don't know who the photographer is, but they have a wonderful eye for the beauty in simplicity of form and color.

Try It Too-sday: Scattering the Love

It's another Try It Toosday! The day when I try to recreate an image that caught my eye online. This is number 17 of the 21 I hope to complete in 2021.

Today's photograph is a kissing cousin of my inspiration image. My proportion is off a little. The original looks more like "legal size." I used an 8.5 x 11 inch background. I didn't notice the difference until I reached the photo editing process. Ah, well.

Once again, I used materials I had on hand, rather than attempting to duplicate the original. I call this a success!

My Version

The inspiration photos is from Dreamstime. 

Inspiration Image

#tryittoosday

Try It Too-sday: Lasso of Love

This week's Try It Toosday is more of an interpretation than a duplicate of my inspiration image. I really like the white rope on the dark background of the original photo, but I didn't have the correct rope in my stash. Using what I had on hand, I came up with this.

My inspiration photo was found on the Wallpaper Flare website:

To make this image work, I had to do a little magic with a piece of floral wire, a needle, and thread.

I sewed the wire to the back of the rope with a whip stitch. This way the rope could mold into the heart shape.

The "wood floor" is one of my photo backdrops.

The rest is some fancy digital manipulation to tweak the crop, the size, the colors, and the contrast.

Rockin' Robin

I'm finalizing my idea and making lists of the materials I need for my next #tryittoosday. Instead of another challenging project today, I've got a puzzle to share. I put this together at the end of June when Dale was out of town.

Songbirds

This is a good quality, 500-piece puzzle by mudpuppy that I bought for myself simply because I adore the illustration - and it was on sale. I'll be sure to put this puzzle together many times over the coming years.

It was great fun to put together! I could construct each bird and place it in its approximate spot quite easily. The blue background with the black notes was the more challenging part, but there wasn't much of it.

It reminds me of a cross-stitch pillow I once made for my college music teacher, 33 years after I graduated from college. Constructing that, too, was hours of enjoyable time.

I'm considering stitching this piece again and keeping it for myself.

Ready for My Close-Up (part 3)

The last four stickies take a bow

Struttin' his stuff

The traffic cop

The skater

This is my favorite. "Wheeee! I'm flying!"

Or maybe I'm jealous of Twiggy's long legs.

Ready for My Close-Up (part 2)

 The next four take the stage.

I call this one "Hair On Fire!"

This dude says, "Whaaat?"