Lament of a Malcontent Fragment

It is Friday and time once again for the fun and generally easy Fragmented Friday party over at Mrs. 4444's. You can join in too, it really is a nice way to wrap up the week and clear your posting to do list of all those undeveloped posts.  

Occasionally the merry-go-round spins so fast one wonders how on earth they are going to get off. That is exactly how I have felt for the last few weeks.  I dare say it has resulted in rather sporadic posts and a number of unhappy fragments that are so undeveloped even I have no idea what they are about....LOL

But here we go lets see if we can give a few of those sad frags a home.

I came across this article on why we see faces' that aren't really there. It reminded me of how often I find faces in the oddest of places.... a tree; the clouds; rocks; fences and so forth. The plan was to go out and about and photograph a good selection of faces.... well that didn't happen. So instead I looked in my archives and all I could find that hadn't found it's way into a prior post was this scene I captured a few summers ago of Mickey Mouse being chased by a little dog. 

I admit to being clueless at times, but generally when that happens  my search to correct my lack of knowledge begins in haste. So when I saw this car with the popular Keep Calm sticker on the back and realized it said Keep Calm and Chive On I couldn't help wondering what does the 'chive' refer too?  Not only did it have the sticker but the license plate said KCCO. So, I snapped the shot and played with it to put on Instagram but decided to save it till I knew what it was all about. For those of you that don't know, the sticker and license plate refer to a popular T-shirt company that caters to those with shall we say a warped sense of humor, named The Chivery. 

So much for eating healthy! I have a feeling I will be enjoying a lot of these this summer. One can not live by health food alone....lol

Although I do plan on trying this  tasty and healthy recipe out.

Tuesday morning I was all set to sit down and get caught up on some work, when I got a call from the school.  It seems my granddaughter trip over pebbles and injured her wrist and knee. So it was off the the ER for us. Thankfully the wrist wasn't broken just sprained. 

Stress and drama come into everyone's life at some time or another and I guess we were overdue for it last week. There are many ways to deal with life but one of my favorite ways to deal with stress is through the use of meditation and when that doesn't work, a night out playing pool is always good. Mrs. G and I spent an enjoyable few hours playing pool last weekend.

Have a safe and enjoyable Memorial Day Weekend!

But please take a moment to remember the reason for this holiday. 

We at Artistix Network offer our heart felt thanks and appreciation to all service members and their family's. 

It takes talent

Heading to my granddaughters talent show this morning and my son in law shows off his talent.

Memory Art

During a short visit with my In-laws back in January we did an impromptu mini portrait session and my Mother-in-law recently asked me to do a composite using photos taken during that session and the portraits I did of my Father-in-law last year. My MIL whose favorite flower is the rose, is also an accomplished pianist and lover of all things Victorian. So when she left the design completely up to me it wasn't too hard to figure out a design that she would love. Here is the finished memory photo.

Happy Mother's Day

Have a great day!

Forge the Ford to Fragment Land

The party may be over but the Frags forge on!

That is right yesterday Friday May 9th was the last day of Mrs. 4444's Fraggin Fantastic Tercentennial Celebrations. I hope you joined in with the fun and will continue to join myself and others as we continue to Frag on each week. A great big thank you to Mrs. 4444's for a fantastic party and the chance to win a fabulous gift. My congratulations to the other winners  Bill (aka Lisleman), Traci, Cathy and Karen!

Round and Round I go!

Some days the proverbial rocking chair on the front porch is so appealing. It has been one of THOSE weeks. Just maybe going back and forth is better than going in circles.

Lord of fiction!

One of the greatest testaments to the ability of an author must surely be to have their works emulated and used as inspiration for other artistic works. I can't imagine anyone would argue with me that Tolkien is just such an author. Tolkien's famed 'Lord of the Rings' novels were written over a period of years from 1937-1949 and have gained great popularity over the years, and references to his writings can be found in many 70's era rock songs, including songs from such great artists as Led Zeppelin, Styx and Rush. 

Hail the Queen!

Rock n Roll's king may be gone but it sure looks like there is a new Queen. Do you follow American Idol? It is one of those shows that I enjoy but have never been really excited about until this season. Wow! the talent this season has been so amazing it has been difficult to have a favorite. I was leaning toward Caleb as my favorite but then Jena stole the spot with her amazing rendition of Elvis Presley's "Can't Help Falling in Love". I still think Caleb will be the next American Idol but boy I wish they could both win. Who is or was your favorite?

My Week In Review:

At Artistic Composition this week I asked for readers opinion and shared what 'Golden Years' means to me. Then over at my photography blog I shared a sneak peek of a birthday party I photographed, along with a few odd and abstract photos. While on South Dakota photo blog I shared my favorite photo of a quaint little horse ranch nestled in the Black Hills. This coming Sunday I will be sharing a few horse shots on the South Dakota Photo blog.

Let's keep the party going folks! Please stop over and thank Mrs. 4444's for hosting the fun and easy Friday Fragments and stop by and say hi to the fragment party goers!

Encouraging or Discouraging?

The latest note card creation.

I meant this to be encouragement for one who may be going through a difficult time. Then I realized that the texture added by life's little rough spots could also be referring to grey hair and wrinkles instead of the strength of character that I associated the word texture with. What do you think? Is this encouraging or discouraging or just too vague?

Golden Years

In by-gone days of yore the term 'golden' was used to refer to good times. Thus in the 1950's when more people were living well beyond their fifties advertising agencies jumped on the opportunity and began referring to the years of retirement as golden years. Using the term as a way of appealing to retiree's desire to live out the remainder of their lives in the comfort of warmer climates and easily maintainable homes. It was a good strategy and one that has continued to this day.

But for me the term has never brought to mind the later years of life. No, when I think of the golden years, my first thought is of Robert Frosts poem 'Nothing Gold Can Stay'. I was was about ten when I read the book 'The Outsiders' and was introduced to Frost's poem.

Frost had it right! It is the years of youth that are golden, when a child is pure and sees the world through innocent eyes. Such a difficult attribute to maintain. With that thought in mind I created the image below to use as my cover on Google+ and then added the wording to use as my cover photo for Facebook. We may not be able to 'stay gold' but we can work to never lose some of the aspects behind a golden innocence.

 Now for a bit of poetic advice to all parents.

Golden Years

Like the flicker of a candle

burning brightly one moment

only to quickly fade the next

Embrace the joy

Feel the wonder

Cherish the moment

All to soon these golden years will pass

Never be too busy to enjoy them

while they last.

Be it with your cell phone, a point and shoot or a fancy SLR or DSLR snap that shot! You will be glad you did when your child is a child no more. 

It's Fraggin Time Again!

After a full week of navigating the roller coaster that is social media marketing I am feeling a bit like I have been ran over by a steamroller! Thank goodness for Mrs. 4444's Fragmented Friday party. Don't forget to join in the special celebration is still taking place.

-Well I did it! I jumped head first into social media! My blogs are now tied to my Google+ account and am I learning how to use it more. My badge is there on the left so all you Google+ users can now follow me right on Google+. I even started using my Twitter account which I created eons ago but haven't spent any time to figure out. So if you are on Twitter you can find me @ArtistixNetwork. I am sure there will be a bit of trial and error figuring out what I am doing on Twitter. If you have any tips my ears and eyes are open. :D

I also created an Instagram account. Anyone on Instagram? Not sure how I am going to use that but hey it seemed like a good idea and well even a little fun.   Now all I have to do is figure out how to develop a level of cohesion between those, the blogs, our website, Facebook, Pintrest and oh yes my life.

- While watching The Voice I heard Rixton preform this song and absolutely love it! I don't much care for the official video but do really like this acoustic version almost as much as I like the full band version.

- I posted yesterday about the beautiful photo my granddaughter took and directed me through the editing process. Well, I also decided I wanted to see how it would look as a black and white so here is the black and white version. I still like her version better but this is nice too.

- I wish I was sitting by this stream right now! It isn't really very far, only about 20 miles from the city.

-  Now here is a news story to watch! Talk about a very special young man, a boy Ohio took his great-grandmother to his senior prom! Now that is awesome! 

That all I have for this week folks, so now head over and check out the party!

Tranquil Reflections

My soon to be ten year old granddaughter took this photo the other day and asked me to edit it for her. She thought with a little work it would be just right to offer as a card in our gift shop. She sat with me while I was editing it and told me exactly what she wanted done. She wanted it to look like a worn olden day photo with the the appearance of worn edges.

This is the original straight out of camera shot. Seems I forgot to switch off the viewing window and she was having a difficult time keeping the camera level. Since I wasn't with her she figured I could straighten the horizon for her....LOL

That and getting rid of the foreground distraction were the first things she asked me to do.

After that she wanted the photo changed to sepia and a brush stroke added to the entire image. Next came the texture overlay which she wanted only on outer edges and heavier in each corner. All in all I think the result is beautiful and have added it to the note cards available in our gift shop. Don't worry, commission from the sales of this design will go to her. :D

Note Cards available here.

I hope you have enjoyed Sissy's reflection as much as I have. To see even more beautiful reflections be sure to visit Jame's Weekend Reflection.