Saturday’s Most Special Little Sweethearts

After spending three days with my dearest friend in NC, I returned home to experience a bit of sadness resulting from having to leave her behind.  We had such fun reminiscing about our combined 7 children and in particular our 2 grown daughters caught in the middle of all those boys. Tonight while thinking about her and our wonderful visit, I decided to go online and see if I could find some photos or artwork of young girls.  I finally found a really special site that allows you to use their art free of charge: Free Your Soul - The Free Art Projects. Should you want to use any of these beautiful drawings or others from their site,  just click on the link above in red letters. All of these little sweethearts definitely put a smile on my face. I would like to have a set of postage stamps made from them.

“Every artist dips his brush in his own soul, and paints his own nature into his pictures.”
~Henry Ward Beecher

My Friday Favorites

Tuesday morning it was sunny but not too hot, so I decided to put on my hat and sunscreen and take a hike up on North Mountain to look for bugs and butterflies and play with my camera. It is a favorite spot for Buddy and me as it is only about 15 minutes from our house. How lucky we are to have such beauty so close by... lots of trails and out-of-this-world views of Virginia and West Virginia. Here are a few of the pictures I took including a moth and a frog...I could’t resist including them. Be sure to click on the mosaic so the shots will be enlarged and you can see the beauty of these magnificent creations of nature. The grouping as it appears here on Blogger just does not do them justice. Many thanks to Vicki over at Cherry Chick for suggesting I use my butterfly photographs for this week’s “Friday Favorites”.

Telephoto Practice Flower Mosaic

Year before last I sponsored our middle school yearbook and had the opportunity to use a Canon EOS Rebel XSi. Then last year I went through a hugh “camera withdrawal” having to do back to my point and school Canon.  Finally, about 6 months ago I decided to treat myself to the same camera - which incidentally is not being made anymore - which came with a fine Canon EFS 18-55mm lens. I used it until about a month ago when I ordered a refurbished Canon  EFS 55-250mm lens. Well, it is the greatest with a magnification from afar which is unbelievable.  These are all flowers from around our house using Big Blue Labs Mosaic Maker - I followed the tutorial from Little Red House entitled  “Making Photo Mosaics: A Tutorial.”  Also, and so VERY important, Vicki over at  Cherry Chick has been the best teacher in the world for me.  Her patience and continual help with my blog is greatly appreciated. She is so patient with my being so slow at catching on!  If you have not checked out her blog be sure to do so RIGHT NOW!!! She is even having a give-away which is especially nice of her. Click on the “Cherry Chick” above and you will go right there.

“You don’t take a photograph.  You ask, quietly, to borrow it.”
~Author Unknown

The Grandchildren Come to the Creek for a Cool Weekend

The Grandchildren Come to the Creek for a Cool Weekend
Originally uploaded by buttonsforbaga

It was so hot in Richmond Eloise and her mommy and daddy came home to the creek to cool off. Then Uncle Andy drove down from Maryland to pick us her cousins Willy and Henry from Camp. They all ended up here at the house and we had a GREAT time. Now they have all gone home, and the house seems VERY empty and a bit sad and lonely. The good news is Baga only has a month until we will all gather at the beach for a family reunion.