by Susan Lobb Porter | Family, Life, Parents |
“Nature often holds up a mirror so we can see more clearly the ongoing processes
of growth, renewal, and transformation in our lives.”
Author Unknown
First apples blossoms of the season
Two years ago today we buried Mama’s ashes within a circle of moss covered rocks in the oak grove where the deer bed down.
It’s where she wanted to be.
We took Daddy down from the hutch and placed his ashes beside her. Then we covered them with earth from the forest floor and marked the spot with another great rock.
Family and friends planted Vinca around the grave. Some tears. Some laughter. A whole lot of numbness.
Then we walked up to her house, just a few yards away, and sat on the patio eating and drinking and telling stories. There was beer involved. And chocolate.
Mama would’ve liked that. Daddy would’ve too, especially the beer.
Two years later the Vinca has grown and spread. I walk by the oak grove every day on my way to and from the barn. Sometimes I stop and say hi. Sometimes the chimes that we hung ring out with the wind. Or without it.
Someone else lives in the cottage now.
And it’s all good. Because life goes on.
by Susan Lobb Porter | Life, Ponies in the Morning |
You.
Yes YOU!!!
Step away from the news. RIGHT NOW. Take a deep breath.
Now scratch the monitor and sniff the pony.
And if you smiled, even for a second or two, then I’ve done my job.
Namaste, my sweetums. Namaste.
by Susan Lobb Porter | Artists, Life |
“I owe it all to art books, chocolates and young men”
Artist Beatrice Wood, when asked the secret to her longevity. Her most productive years were between the ages of 80-105
Whoot Beatrice! My kind of woman!!! Handsprings and black flips My. Kind. Of. Woman!
Because I’m gonna be a kick-ass old lady myself. Yes indeed, I surely am.
I come from a line of women who are direct descendants of the Energizer Bunny. They keep on going and going and going until their batteries run out somewhere around the century mark.
Barring unforeseen circumstance, like Kim what’s-his-face throwing a temper tantrum with a nuclear warhead or maybe a meteorite landing on top of my head, I plan on hanging around for quite some time.
But not just hanging around.
I plan on BEING here.
Painting. Writing. CREATING. Dancing. LOVING. Moving. Laughing. Learning. And GROWING.
Making a damn good time of it.
There will be chocolate involved. Family and good friends. And when I finally cross over, I pray it’s with a smile on my face and paint under my nails.
Oh, and that novel I haven’t finished? It’s not too late. Beatrice published her first in her late 80s. The first of four under her own name. There were others published under the psudonym Countess Lola Screwvinsky. Screwvinsky? Hmmmm…methinks Beatrice was a kickass old lady herself.
by Susan Lobb Porter | Cool Apps, Photography, Ponies in the Morning |
Right now Sophie and Studio Quat are facing off becoming reacquainted. Studio Quat is becoming House Quat, she’s moving in with us. Along with all sorts of crap treasures from Mama’s house, the old studio grande.
Notice how I don’t capitalize that one. It has been … decommissioned. Like a battle ship. Or a church. Or something.
I’d planned on moving SQ to the new, improved! Studio Grande but that is not to be. At least not now. The studio, like my house, is a victim of moving Mama’s stuff. There is not a single clear surface. And when I do get them cleared I’ll be faced with concrete. Remember the concrete countertops? Well, at the tender age of 17, I figure Studio Quat deserves upholstered furniture and puppy playmates.
I’m sure she’ll eventually agree.
Meanwhile, it’s hard to paint…so I’m not. But you can’t keep a creative girl down. That’s where the ipad and iphone come in handy. I can sit at the sofa at the end of the day, feet up on the coffee table and make fun stuff.
This is one of the pony pics. A snapshot taken with the iphone. Unedited. What you see is what the camera saw.
This is it arted up in in the ipad using Paint FX: Photo Effects Editor. There’s a free version and a premium one. I bought the premium, cost me a whole 99 cents. For under a buck this thing has a lot of creative potential. All sorts of filters. And you can layer them.
I can’t tell you which ones I used in this because I didn’t set out to write a blog post when I played with it. I know I used a lightening brush to bring out my hair.
Here’s another version of the same photo. I used three apps here. The first was Captions HD. It’s a fun little app, amazingly versatile. And once again, cheap. I can’t find the receipt but I’m sure it wasn’t anything more than a buck or two. Good thing for making cards and such. Then I added some layers in Paint FX. And then I softened everything in Glazes, an oil painting app. At $2.99 Glazes was a splurge… but cheaper than a latte so I have no complaints.
And the last one for today, a totally different feel. This is a combination of two apps. The first is a new app I bought tonight, another splurge at $2.99, ArtMasterpiece FX HD. The original effect is a sketch with the feel of an old master, the kind of thing I had to draw over and over back when I was in school. It was quite nice but I can never leave a good thing alone so I threw it in Vintage by Jixipix, which changed it up even more.
So there you have it…one photo, and not a very good one at that, transformed into three totally different looks. Easy-Peasy. Addicting. And fun. OMG, So. Much. Fun.
So that’s it for now, my sweetums. Which one of these do you like the best? Would love to hear what you have to say in the comments below. And if you know anyone with iphone or ipad be sure to share this with them.
