August impressions

The dog days of summer are upon us. I especially like the magical quality of the early evening when it cools down a bit and the light is perfect for taking photos. Lately I had great fun blowing soap bubbles -- it's the little things which can easily make you happy.

One World One Heart follow up # 2

One of the highlights in the blogging world in the beginning of 2009 was surely the One World One Heart event organized by Lisa Swifka. It was so much fun to visit all those wonderful blogs and such a surprise to win a couple of goodies along the way. I would like to thank once again the following five generous ladies whose lovely gifts brought so much joy to me.

Sharon created a truly beautiful rosary which I have worn a couple of times on special occasions. She made the rosary herself -- it's absolutely stunning! Be sure to check out Sharon's Etsy store.

Deryn is also a talented jewelry designer. I am the lucky owner of a cool necklace and bracelet set in ethnic style showing an elephant and leaf. I just love the earthy colors. Be sure to visit Deryn's Etsy store, too -- you won't regret that!

Deci doesn't have an active blog at the moment. She made a fantastic copper necklace with blue crystals and a dolphin charm which I am proud to wear.

Letha treated me to the cutest stickers one can imagine! I am a big Old West fan, so these stickers are just perfect for me. I already have a project in mind -- most likely I will use a couple of these stickers for a shadow box in western style.

Vanessa is the queen of making fancy flower hair clips. I won her orchid hair clip which is just perfect for my hair color and also looks marvelous as decoration item. I am sure you don't want to miss visiting Vanessa's Etsy store.

A heartfelt thanks to Sharon, Deryn, Deci, Letha and Vanessa -- you ladies rock!!!

Flower Power

Think Monday Think ATC's latest theme is "Flower Power." I used a photo of lovely yellow flowers in my garden for my digital ATC.

A previous life

Art On The Darkside challenged its readers to create something new with the painting Paris Catacombs by Viktor Hartmann. The image definitely has a gothic feeling about it, so I settled for a previous life theme. I wonder if I am going to dream of 19th century Paris during my next nap?

Nap

What feels better than a nap -- that famous siesta -- when it's really hot outside?

The last days have been somewhat hectic, so I missed the official entry deadline of the Mind Wide Open August challenge. Nonetheless, I had much fun creating a collage, using my siesta photo again:

Fly

Think Monday Think ATC has the theme "fly" this week. This inspired me to introduce you to Cassandra:

Only in her dreams Cassandra could fly as free as a butterfly.

Rose dreams

Gothic Arches has such a lovely topic this week that I just had to create a gothic arch with roses. I used one of my photos of the Da Vinci roses in my garden.

Surreal

The Three Muses are getting surreal this week. Marie wrote: "If I were asked to give a one-word definition of surreal, it would be 'unexpected'."

Talk about the unexpected effect eating those strange mushrooms had on Josie. Suddenly, she felt like a doll wearing a mushroom cape going to a ball with fish friends.

Free

It has been some time that I last created something in the inchie format. Small World Of Inchies & Twinchies has currently the theme freedom which inspired me to work in the tiny format again. For the background I used an image provided for the new Soartful challenge, even though you don't see much of the original picture after quite a bit of layer blending work.

Geisha

Art Creations Friday offers a lovely background for its new challenge. For me it has an oriental touch, so I came up with this digital ATC:

Mysterious

Artarazzi provided the image of a vintage woman who turned out to be a really mysterious lady after all:

Steampunk Babe

Art Creations Friday provided the image of a lovely vintage lady who happens to be a real Steampunk Babe:

Up Up And Away

The Three Muses take us up up and away this week. So here's my little vintage butterfly girl on the verge of flying up up and away:

Heal the World

Michael Jackson 1958 - 2009

Heal the world
Make it a better place
For you and for me
And the entire human race
There are people dying
If you care enough
For the living
Make a better place
For you and for me

Happy Independence Day

Isn't July just bliss with all those opportunities to celebrate?! Happy 4th of July!

Contentment

Mind Wide Open celebrates its first anniversary -- congrats! Of course, there's another great challenge this month for which I came up with this dragonfly-winged garden fairy who happens to sit on one of the Da Vinci rose blossoms in my garden being perfectly content there:

Happy Canada Day

It's a reason to celebrating, eh?!

Wild Thing

The Three Muses have come up with yet another interesting topic for their challenge blog -- wild things. So what's the ultimate wild thing after all? Somehow, that made me think of Mothman, a creature that was seen in West Virginia in 1966 and 1967.

Doors

The Three Muses have come up with another interesting theme which I simply couldn't resist -- doors. My first image takes you to Taos, New Mexico. I took the photo of a store door and digitally enhanced it.

The second image is another altered photo which I took a couple of weeks ago at the cemetery. I like how the open door is beckoning in the distance, offering a safe haven.

Free fall

At Artarazzi the guest designer Kelly provided one of her photos of an interesting architectural structure. It inspired me to a free fall.