Scavenger Hunt Sunday

It's the end of Homecoming week  . . .

And I can say that as we have all had fun, we are all glad that it has come to an end.

Locker decorations for football, a shopping cart parade, a carnival, a pep rally, my son's

game (our first win) and varsity the following night (another win!!). Although, that varsity game

had us all on the edge of our seats until literally THE last one second of the game!

I know I'm behind on my visits to all of you and I'm really hoping this is the week

I can get caught up, please be patient with me? xo

I'm squeaking out these prompts this week . . . again.

{ yellow }

My what big "eyes" you have . . .  

{ getting ready }

The carnival was Friday at the high school and we were getting the sandwiches

ready hours before it started, taking turns scooping. It was hot, and of course we haven't had rain in

weeks - it rained too. Hot, muggy, rainy, yep it was perfect weather for a carnival! ; )

{ bright }

Love these bright birdbaths!

{ teeny tiny }

A teeny tiny water drop with teeny tiny flowers refracted inside. 

{ connections }

All that's needed is a pencil, to connect the dots? Yes it's a stretch!

I think lately that I'm more tired now with a 15 and 17 year old, than when they were 10 years younger. Or is it that I'm 10 years older? haha   And the exhaustion of getting them to bed when they

were younger has been replaced with the waiting for them to come home.

Have a good one today -

Love, Kim

XO

Oh . . . oh, oh, oh!

I had something entirely different for today,

But,

sometimes ya just gotta change your mind.

I went outside, to what I call my coffee cave,

 

{KKlassen partings, hardlight}

to watch the sun rise over the neighbor's house, as I do most mornings.

I was also hoping to finally capture a photo of the hummingbirds that are coming daily

to the wild morning glory, but they aren't so sure about me yet . . . they come and drink a bit, look up

and remember I'm there. In between they like to sit on this branch . . .

After a while, I decided to add some water to my bird bath . . .

{KKlassen partings, hardlight}

When I spied a spicebush butterfly and went in to go get my big girl camera and thankfully

he was still there . . .

This is the wild morning glory that has taken over my bushes, but I don't have to heart to take it out yet,

as the wildlife is flocking and I'm loving it. I followed the butterfly . . .

{KKlassen partings, overlay}

to the other side of my front porch, where I spied a green anole lizard licking the moisture from the leaves.

(the lizard photos are all taken with my camera phone)

I changed the setting to close-up and zoomed in . . . and as I was snapping,

he was getting closer and closer . . . which is unusual and at first I thought maybe he spied a bug.

No bug, but he was really getting close!

Something seemed to catch his eye . . .

At this point I'm kinda laughing to myself, because I can't quite figure it out . . . 

Oh, but curious he was and at this point he is just a mere inch or two from my phone . .

And this would be when he started to lick the camera lens, and I'm just dying here, haha . . .

But what happened next I had no way of capturing . . . he climbed on top of my phone! But when I tried to get him on my finger he jumped off. Not soon after that he climbed back onto my hand and continued to check the phone out, licking it some more. He jumped back off and after a little while he began to bite at the phone? It was really quite comical and of course I was in heaven!

He finally went along his way when he figured he wasn't getting a piece of my phone. The butterfly came back, and so did the hummer . . . although my camera (big girl) couldn't focus fast enough and as soon as he

heard the camera clicks he was gone.

"In all things nature, there is something of the marvelous" - Aristotle

My day is now complete . . . sigh!!

Happy Tuesday,

Love, Kim

XO

Sharing with Communal Global and . . .

Scavenger Hunt Sunday

Hey, I was wondering, does anyone know where September went?

It's almost over, how DID that happen?

What I wish I knew was . . . WHEN are the cooler temps coming my way?

Almost October and it was 90 something today, crazy!!

{ cracked }

You know that saying, some things aren't all they're cracked up to be?

Well, that's not something I will ever say about a shell, cracked or not.

I simply love the character of a cracked, broken shell.

My reason why . . . coming soon to a blog post near you! ; )

{ fallen }

I've fallen and I can't get up . . . well thankfully they do get up. But fall they must in football!

{ ordinary color }

Green, it's everywhere and could be considered an ordinary color, plain and undistinguished,

but it can be quite extraordinary, especially it multiple shades AND when the resurrection vine

is growing on 300 year old trees. I grabbed this from my Florida vaca archives....

{ bokeh }

La vida bokeh (the bokeh life), not to be confused with la vida loca . . . the crazy life!

My Sunday Best

{ fence }

As in don't fence me in . . . let me run wild and free!



 And there you have it, another Scavenger Hunt Sunday under our belts!

Until next time,

Love, Kim

XO

The Harvest Nest . . .

"Winter is an etching, Spring a watercolor,

Summer an oil painting and

Autumn a mosaic of them all."

- Stanley Horowitz

{ Kim Klassen paper and paste in overlay }

"The Harvest Fairy"

Today I want to share something very special with you, a blog I happened across called 2 bags full

from another blog friend. Vicki's bags, they are full of yarn. Beautiful, scrumptious, incredible yarns that she

collects and uses to knit and decorate little nests. And these little nests of goodness are knitted with love

and are magical and last weekend my newest one called "The Harvest Nest" arrived.

I opened the box and inside was the nest wrapped by hand stamped tissue paper and the beautiful

handcrafted tag (above) was made by her friend Sue.

It's always fun to receive a package in the mail, but even more fun when there is so much attention to detail put into it.

I present to you, The Harvest nest . . .

I'll wait while you pick your mouth up off the floor. Isn't it just exquisite!!

She said that in designing the nest, she wanted to create a collection of yarns that would represent

a sunny walk in the woods on a crisp, cool Autumn day. And she did just that.

{ Kim Klassen stamped right 1 in overlay }

 And each nest came with three bejeweled acorns, the perfect touch.

She even nestled a small tin heart, between the glittery acorn and the sunflower . . .

More details . . .

Yarns, ribbons, and even beads . . . I like to display mine on a candle holder so that

the yarns dangle. I'm looking forward to using this on my Thanksgiving table!

And I even found the perfect house nest guest!!

Vicki said, "Because this is such a special nest - a nest that represents the bounty and of blessings

abundant", she is donating the charitable profits to a group of knitting women at her church. They will then

use the money towards buying more yarn to use in knitting things to keep others warm this winter.

Thank you Vicki, for sharing your time and talents with all of us. I hope you'll hop on over and check

out her blog (at the link I gave above).

 Hope your week is going well!

Love, Kim

XO

Psssst - It's my day over at my collaborative blog, Focusing on Life and I would love for you to

join me over there (click here) as I'm talking about life in the fast lane and hurrying up to be still. And while

you are there consider adding some of your photos that represent connections (theme of the month) to our flickr group, you just might be chosen for our InFocus photo of the week!! xo

Sharing with Communal Global and . . .

Scavenger Hunt Sunday

Hello Sunday, and scavenger hunt . . .

Yes, it's highly likely that you will see from time to time during the football season, like last year,

football themed scavenger hunts on my end. With booster club Mondays and football Thursday and Friday

it doesn't always leave extra time for anything else. The only difference from this year to last is that I have a sideline pass! (swoon)  But when the sun goes down, my very basic 70-300 is just not fast enough glass without having to blow up my ISO to 4000. I am amazed at how fairly well the D7000 can handle the noise though. I pretty much had to stretch the prompts to fit this week . . .

{ kiss }

It was quite an exciting game on Friday with a win of 32-8, and 3 of those touchdowns were in the first few minutes of the game, one being a kick off return of 103 yards! Let's just say after having lost our first two games, there were a lot of kisses and hugs from some very happy kiddos to some very happy coach dads. 

{ askew }...in a crooked position

These girls do some amazing flips, and I guess you could say that before they are right side up again,
they might get a little askew, especially if you freeze frame it!

{ fragrant }

Ummm....yeah.....I tried, I really did, to see if I could find anything remotely fragrant . . .

Just. Not. Going. To. Happen - at a football game. And there should definitely be a disclaimer

on the field to make sure you stand on the back end- and not down wind from the players. Just sayin'! ; )

{ simple }

Not complicated, a simple design  . . . yep another stretch.

{ plant }

(v). implant, put or fix firmly

After the game, win or lose, every player, coach and trainer firmly plants a hand upon another, as they

reflect on a few thoughts from the coach.

Whew, one more week down or should I say survived! For anyone with more than two kids in high school, God bless you!! 'Cause even though we are having fun, I'm just tired!

And I can say with much certainty that today will be pajama Sunday!!

Love, Kim

XO

A little stroll . . .

"There is an art to wandering. If I have a destination,

a plan - an objective - I've lost the ability to find serendipity.

I've become too focused, too-single-minded.

I am on a quest, not a ramble.

I search for the Holy Grail of particularity,

and miss the chalice freely offered, filled full to overflowing.

- Cathy Johnson, On Becoming Lost



Oh how I love this quote! You know wandering IS one of my favorite things to do, but sometimes
time doesn't allow (or my budget) to wander to some of the places I would really love to visit.
But that's okay, because if I could never go to another place, I would, be quite content to just wander
the 8 acres of my favorite place, Maas Nursery. It sits just along Galveston Bay and borders the
coastal birding trail I like to visit, a two for one!

It's where I went last weekend in a quest to quiet my mind from the busy week. And it seems fall is
just as busy a time as spring for all the bees, who were in abundance gathering their stores for the
cooler weather . . . if we ever get any.

This bee took off right as I was snapping the picture, but there is something about the perspective of this
that I really liked.

There were tables upon tables of beautiful pink Dianthus....

And morning glory vines blooming. And then I heard it,  this little sound,

that is very distiguishable and matches its sweet owner . . .

{Flower art Friday}

 . . .  and then I saw it - he flew down from the tall Oak trees to perch on this wire above the table
that held the Flame Acanthus.

And then down for a little treat, but I'm not sure who it was sweeter for, him or me!

Okay, I think it was me . . .

No, I'm sure it was me!! You know, these little gems are soooo fast, and it was almost dusk and the light

was fading, so I had to really bump my ISO just to get a half-way decent speed.

{Photograph life}

And this week at Pixel Dust, Bonnie asked us to use the prompt to compose a seven word sentence that describes your life or experience or process as an artist (be it photographer, painter, mixed media artist, digital artists, whatever...) and marry your sentence to a piece of photo art that somehow illustrates your sententce. 

And this is what I came up with . . . finding Bonnie's blog, and her link up of photo art opened up my world

to a whole new meaning of creating and she generously shares free textures for us to use in our creations. As usual I waited til that last minute to create this, and not sure I'm completely happy with it. But Bonnie just know you have been instrumental in opening up a new world for me, and I thank you!  

 Wishing you all a weekend full of wonderous serendipity!!

Love, Kim

XO

Sharing with, Photo Art Friday, Flower Art Friday, Photograph Life, Finding Serendipity