Nasty cold took ahold of me big time...but things are looking better as the days wear down. I know it was wearing ME down.
A new Friday Meme has caught my eye, and I want to participate, so I'll add it below my fragments
I completed the book: "Secret Confessions of Anne Shakespeare". If you love fiction, imagination of an author such as Arliss Ryan [the author of said book], a bit of 'what ifs' and 'could this be possible, perhaps?' ---Yes, it's about William Shakespeare somewhat, [written in 1st person - by Anne herself] but the characters, both besides William and his wife Anne Hathaway, many others also surface in the book - filled with actors of their time in history; with a hint of lust for other men [Anne], and William's taste for taverns and being 'the talk of the town' good at what he does; acting and play writing. To be held in very high esteem was his goal. But did he actually pen the famous literary marvels? What was his family like? Parents, children, - his marriage?...it's all revealed in this novel. And if you are even into being a little bit of a history buff, and a shade curious, I would highly recommend this book. It's worth reading just to get to the end...ohhhhh, the ending - was outstanding; marvelous!!I have given up on the threaded commenting system in Blogger for now. I worked and worked and worked on it...getting it enabled and functioning properly through my Firefox and Chrome Browser...then, the next morning ---**POOF**, it was all gone. I clicked on my own comment link to read and perhaps 'reply' to some ---nothing there but a white, blank, page. "Ferrrgit 'bout it"!! Too much hassle. I'll just wait for better results from Blogger's staff to come up with something that'll work properly ---on ALL Browsers. Even if it did work for a day's time on FF and Chrome, those reply threaded comments code NEVER worked in Internet Explorer.
connecting to: Friday Fragments [linked button on top of blog]
FRIDAY FAVORITES & Friday Photo ArtA favorite of mine is cardinals. I love both the real, live, flesh and blood cardinals [no, not the baseball team or the football team...the bird is what I love] and china cardinal figurines. The bold, bright, scarlet flitting through the sky or dancing through the tree limbs...they're so so beautiful. I have a small bone china collection placed on my master bedroom bed's headboard; draped with plum silk against the plum wall color along with the two pewter lamps [which have muted lavender lamp shades]. Here is one of them...
connecting to: 
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"Anti pasto...presto...change-o "Fresco""....Then, for Photo Art Friday meme and the challenge, I used the same image of the cardinal and came up with this work of 'art' ---
PAINT SHOP PRO steps used:
1] feather/cut the cardinal [saved] background effects mosaic/antique 25/25/72/2/132] on cut, saved, bird, I used these effects:
textures blue sandstone -blur 7 detail 19 luminance 15 3] textures asphalt -depth 12 ambiance 7 shimmer 4 smooth 0
pasted the feather cut cardinal back into mosaic background
When completed, I used preset framing chalkboard filling in with hex color #000000 then, wooden preset frame changing color to a matching lichen green and finishing it off with gold title plate.connecting to: PHOTO ART FRIDAY meme
PS...I don't have Photoshop on my computer, I use only Paintshop Pro, so the textures on Friday Photo Art are not presets from the meme's owner, only from my program. I work with what I have; hoping that's okay.
Your cardinals are beautiful! We love these birds, too! I hope you are feeling so much better for the weekend!!!
ReplyDeleteEnjoy your weekend, love you.
ReplyDeleteI love the cardinals paint shopped.I have something similar on my computer but I don't understand it so I don't do it. I'm glad to hear your feeling better. Colds are terrible when they have you in their grip. I wonder if grip has anything to do with the spanish word for flu gripa. ANyway, get well soon.
ReplyDeleteThe cardinal is our state bird (Virginia) so I am naturally in love with them! We have several that visit our feeders...and I remember a china cardinal my mom used to have. Wonder what happened to it? I'll have to ask her. Any, loved the photos, and the instructions for how you handled them. Great job today! Hope you continue to feel better and have a great weekend!
ReplyDeleteGlad you're feeling better! The cardinal is beautiful!
ReplyDeleteI don't know what's up with blogger's commenting system but I switched mine back too because I had several people tell me they couldn't comment on my blog. Gah!
ReplyDeleteAnd red cardinals have a special place in my heart. :)
Quite a great finished abstract! Welcome to Photo art Friday which is a very fun gathering! Also really enjoyed your commentary on what sounds to be a great book! I am an avid reader, so will download this on my nook today and expect to enjoy it from your "literary review'. Nice to meet you! Jeanne
ReplyDeleteOh indeed! I like your cardinal a lot! You did great using what you have.... and that book sounds brilliant. I'm a big Shakespeare fan myself, so I think I may have to give that a go!!
ReplyDeletei love these cardinals!
ReplyDeletethey are awesome!
glad you're feeling better!
have a wonderful, relaxing weekend!
Hope you are feeling better! I just can't figure out the comment thingy too...I am trying to talk my wife into fixing it for me...
ReplyDeleteI love what you did with that bird!! I've got Paint Shop Pro but I've not yet entered into the whole layers and cutting and pasting thing...
ReplyDeleteI think it's fun to play with these photo editing programs, but they are not intuitive for me at least. I like what you did with that cardinal! Very cool...
ReplyDeleteI hope your cold totally disappears over the week-end. I have been blessed so far to avoid the germs that are rampant around here. Maybe I shouldn't even say that!
ReplyDeleteYour ability to maneuver this blogging system, etc. always amazes me. You'll probably get a kick out of my latest post, since I am so techno-challenged! But I am wondering what you were talking about with the thread issue - I have been trying to figure out how people are able to respond to my comments with a message to my e-mail. Drives me crazy that I can't do that - is that what you're talking about?
Well, have a great week-end!
You too, have given up on that New Blogger Comment Thing.
ReplyDeleteThank you... -chuckle-
And though I may be in the minority, I still maintain that its *crappy* for (yes free) Blogger to throw these BETA things out there, at us.
I didn't want to be part of the.. Help-Blogger-Find-The-Kinks in this. And it got installed anyway, on mine. And I had to figure out how to make it uninstall.
That is not acceptable.
Free or not, it is not acceptable.
And big deal, that Blogger is free! No one really thinks they are doing our blogging support, "out of the goodness of their heart" do they? They have to be making money in some way.
And if Blogger began to charge us, we would go to another free service.
Nope, I don't buy the reasoning that we should *swallow* stuff like this, because it is free.
Off my soap box. LOL!!!!!!!!
Sorry about the cold. Give that "the-boot" soon!!!
"Anyone who says they have only one life to live, must not know how to read a book."
~Author Unknown
Dawn....no the 'reply' stuff I'm talking about has nothing to do with email...it's the ability to click on a new interfaced 'reply' link in the script that Blogger has implemented. So you can reply directly UNDER the comments left by another. Like in blogs by Word Press. Instead of commenting/responding in a whole NEW comment box. Like this one, it's in a new comment instead of under your previous comment you left for me.
ReplyDeleteResponding by email is a whole 'nother feature.
What an incredible transformation! Beautiful. Hope you continue to feel better and thanks for sharing with Photo Art Friday.
ReplyDeleteHello Anni,
ReplyDeleteI like all birds except for maybe crows and blackbirds who show up in flocks and run the other birds off...
I had a figuring of my Mother's which was a bit dirty looking that I took when we divided up their possessions..I decided to wash it in the dishwasher (it had worked before) and the result was the paint came off...if I was talented like you, I could re paint it but alas I'm not so it sits on my shelf in all its whiteness.
Mama Bear
You have done a fabulous job especially as you say "with what you have" -- more than I sometimes in PS. LOL - Great work. And, thanks so much for the tip on reading material. I am in the middle of "Passionate Nomad" and can hardly put it down. Hope you are feeling better - seems these colds keep going around. Thanks for posting your process. Karen (visiting from Bonnie's PAF)
ReplyDeleteI love the cardinals also. We see them in our Cedar trees alot.
ReplyDeleteI am happy to hear the you are feeling better. That cold bug as been going around here like wildfire.Hubs is still trying to get over his.
I will have to look for that book next time I am at the Library.
Hugs
What a beautiful cardinal before and after photo shopped. You are very talented even with a head cold.
ReplyDeleteIf you want to lol hop over to http://mayziegal.wordpress.com
to see Madi dancing with woofies.
Hugs and we're glad you feel better.
Madi and Mom
I think I would like that book. Shakespeare has always fascinated me.
ReplyDeleteVery nice piece. I'm glad you joined in on the fun. I don't have PSE either but use a Free program called, Gimp.
ReplyDeleteI love the way your Cardinal looks as if it has light coming from within. So pretty.
Lovely artwork.
ReplyDeleteRegards and best wishes
Awwww hope you feel better real soon my friend. Not fun having a cold, no matter what time of year it is. So far this winter I've managed to stay away from colds/flu...touch wood! lol
ReplyDeleteSo many people have been having problems with the comment thread thingie. Sometimes I wish Blogger would leave well enough alone.
Cardinals are such beautiful birds and I wish we had them in my little corner of the world. LOVE what you did with your Paint Shop Pro program!!! xoxo
Cardinals are so pretty!
ReplyDeleteI have had a bunch of trouble in the past trying to get blogger comments to do anything. I now use Disqus, but I had a hard time installing it in the first place. Now it works well.