What do you do? Inspiration, Motivation, and Oz! LOL

What do you do when inspiration and motivation to create seem to have flown out the window?  Lately it seems the mood to create has left me.  My garden is blooming like crazy and I'm enjoying taking photos of the flowers again, but CQ and Tatting have been pushed aside with no desire to pick it up.  I'm happy to be taking lots of pretty flower photos and tons of them are on my Honey Bee's Photos blog!

I also took a trip to visit family and it was fun!  I had packed some tatting for the airplane but I never picked it up once!  LOL  I did get that round of chains finished weeks ago on the doily but I still haven't taken a photo of it!  LOL  It's like procrastination set in and got out of control! LOL

I did pick out some pink and yellow fabrics, inspired by my roses.  I think I better just buckle down and make a block at least...sometimes it's like giving your battery a jump-start to just DO IT.

How do you overcome the blahs?  Do you wait for it to come or do something to jump-start yourself again?  It seems that not even eye-candy on Pinterest is helping!

Sometimes I can figure out what's demotivating me, but I'm having a hard time putting my finger on it this time.  My last block was really hard to work on and it's been harder and harder since then to work on things.  I had the idea to crumb piece a block and make it really "crazy" inspired by "The Patchwork Girl Of Oz", since I've been reading through all the Oz books and love them, but I hated the results.  Hopefully the pink and yellow rose inspiration will do the trick.  Hmm, maybe it's color!  I know I get energized seeing the bright colors in my garden, and my bright colored blocks are the ones that are making me happy, so maybe that is what was demotivating me.  Also the color of the crumb pieced reject is what really put me off...it's anemic looking to me and just upsets me to look at it, I hate it, I need to throw it away and get it out of my workspace! HA!  The only way I would do it again would be if I picked a rainbow of jewel toned colors, and in fancy fabrics too, that's how I "see" Scraps in my mind.  She's bright and spunky and whimsical, and she's a bit crazy (of course being crazy patched) but very fun and has lots of energy.  Hmmm, maybe I will work on this idea after all for next month.  Scraps my not be able to drink tea with us, but she'd be a fun addition to the tea party!  In Oz that never stopped the ones who didn't eat from hanging out with the meat people who need to eat at any dinner or feast. ;-)  I could see myself doing a whole Oz series after reading so much about them.  I'm almost done with the set, I just finished "The Lost Princess Of Oz" (in which Scraps is one of the main characters again) and started "The Tin Woodman Of Oz" after that there are only 2 books left.  I think it's really neat reading Baum's letters in the intros of each book and in "The Tin Woodman Of Oz" he talks about how the Oz books are for all ages, the young and the young at heart.
It's funny because I didn't start reading the Oz books because of the movie or anything, in fact I never really cared for the old movie that much and I HATE the song that everyone loves, it's like nails on a chalk board to me kinda like the titanic song...HAHAHA ;-P  Anyway the way I got into reading them was searching free books for Kindle and I read Baum's "The Sea Faries" and loved it and then when searching for more books everyone raved about the Oz series so I figured I would probably love those too.  And I do.  Then it just so happened that the new Oz movie came out in the midst of reading them!  LOL  I really loved the new Oz movie too.  It may not be perfectly true to the books (they never are) but I loved it and all the nods to the books and I felt it was true to the spirit of Baum's Oz.  I think he would have loved the movie!  It's so neat how what once could only be seen in the imagination is now able to be put into movie form!  I could see how now the ideas in the Oz books could be made into movies and really work!  The porcelain girl was so cool looking in the movie! Wow! Ya, Baum would be impressed.  Live, yet porcelain!  So cool!  I digress...LOL

Okay I better get to work if I have a hope of getting a block done this month! ;-)  At least I'm feeling better to have talked about it!  Thanks for read/listening!

Sweet Shot: Sun-Filled Rose

 Here is my Photo Of  The Day plus some extras.  I just love the sight of the sun shining through petals and leaves!  These just look so cheerful I thought I'd share it with you all too.

Sweet Shot: Lady Bug

Thought you all would enjoy this photo I took today too.  Such a cute little Lady Bug hiding in my Daylily leaves.

Sweet Shot Serendipity

Gotta love it when right as you are taking photos and have everything just right...wildlife lights upon that very spot!  This is what's called a 'Hummingbird Moth'.  Not a hummingbird but a moth, a large one that is mistaken for one when first seen, they hover and sip nectar too. LOL  I even love how its wings are lit up...so cool!

I remember the first time we saw one of these we didn't know what in the world it was and tried and tried to get a photo of it to see what it was!  They are really common here in the desert and they love all the nectar plants, and usually come out in droves in the evening! LOL  Today I looked out my kitchen window and saw my yellow climbing rose all blooming...made me really happy!  Gotta love that I got roses blooming in March!!!

CaptureYour365 POTD: Daffodil Bouquet

Yay the daffodils are blooming in my garden!  I used to hate how for the flower of the month things, with March being my birthday month, that the daffodil was always the one represented!  I always wished for Sweet Peas, Violas or some other more romantic flower.  But now after missing my garden flowers in the winter, it's the Violas and the Daffodils that are cheery and happily showing themselves!  They make you happy to see something finally, and symbolize the return of the garden!  I also really love these light yellow more ruffly variety too!  This photo just says springtime, cheery, bright, and fresh!  And they smell so good too, it's a green-light-fresh smell and it makes me happy!  Now I'm wishing I had more Daffodils planted!

Favorite Things: Tea Cookies

Thought you all might enjoy this sweet shot since I'm working on tea themed CQ!  One of my favorite teacups a Royal Albert 'Old Country Roses' and my fave tea cookies on one of my antique Haviland Limoges plates!

Gifts for Friends

I've been having fun wrapping gifts for friends today, and then I had to take a photo of this cutie!  I got him at Ikea and then I bought a wired ribbon that is red velvet and silver sparkles and I created a perfect bow for him using my old-trusty-handy-dandy EZ Bowmaker (once I found it!!! LOL).  Now I need to package him up and get him sent off to my friend!

My Favorite Things: Christmas and Ginger!

I so love decorating for Christmas, and because of that I've been doing it earlier each year!  And what's so cool is that I'm not the only one doing that either!  It seems to be gaining popularity to decorate earlier!  And why not?  I always feel sad when they come down and feel like it was never long enough...it kinda makes you understand why some people love to have Christmas decor all year round.  But I also love garden stuff so I wouldn't want Christmas all year, but during the months the garden is sleeping it's nice to have something pretty!  Since we got the Ektorp couches from Ikea I got the white covers to put on for Christmas time, and I got green velveteen pillow covers and I made bands of Christmas fabric to go over them so it's nice to be able to change the covers at my whim!  LOL  (and they are washable, a must for white!!!)

My Hubby saw our little dog Ginger sitting here all cute and since we had the camera on the tripod still from taking photos in the garden he thought it would be perfect to get a photo of her!  But he's forgotten how to use a SLR so deferred  to me to get the shot.  It's cool that we both enjoy photography.  It's been a long time since we've gotten to do any this way, the last time either of us used a SLR camera was back when you used film!!!  LOL  So I've had a time getting used to thinking about photos in Manual settings instead of the old point and shoot we've had for 10 years of digital cameras.  Back then it was way too expensive to get a digital SLR and it still can be if you get a fancy pansy professional one, but I got a good starter SLR (Nikon d5100) which is perfect and it's all about the lenses you use anyway than it is about the camera itself.  I'm really enjoying using a wide open aperture and getting some nice shallow depth of field photos (where only a small area is in focus and the rest blurs).  I think it's nice to look at this photo and see Ginger in focus and everything else not so much, which usually with point and shoot you get everything in focus and it can be a bit plain.  I like how it gives it good depth like you are looking in a window at her.  If you take your hand and focus your eyes on it and bring your hand closer or further than your face you will see that your eyes blur what's around you as you bring it closer to your face, and that is the effect of a wider aperture which I LOVE!!!  LOL It's fun to play around with it and practice, so I can capture the feeling I want in a photo!

Anyway isn't Ginger adorable?  And she loves to snuggle too!!!  So I guess this photo is really 3 favorite things in one!!!  Christmas, Ginger, and Photography!!! LOL

And this reminds me I need to make my annual Christmas Ornaments!

My Favorite Things: Nutcrackers

I took this photo the other day experimenting with back lighting and depth of field.  I love nutcrackers!!! They are one of my favorite things!  Having been a military brat, I lived in Italy when I was a kid, and nutcrackers are everywhere!  I also have never seen The Nutcracker Ballet and would really love to someday!
Also with all his sequins I think he provides some good embroidery inspiration!

Caught a Hummingbird!

I really love this photo, isn't it so cute?  This little hummingbird found a little perch in my climbing rose that it kept coming back to, so I was able to set up the tripod and capture a photo!  One of my Favorite Things!

Photos?

I've been debating whether I should share my photography photos on here or not, or if I should post them to my other blog Honey Bee's Fancy instead.  So I'm thinking for now I'll test things out, maybe post more over there and then only a very few of my absolute favorites here.  So here are a few that I really loved from a couple of sessions.

 My garden has always been inspiration to me!  I love this one of the light shining through honeysuckle vines.  Seeing this photo just makes me feel happy

 Then I just love this teeny tiny little butterfly, if you know how big the flowers (alyssum) it is sitting on then that gives you a good idea how tiny this butterfly is.  An interesting tidbit is that I used to use a stamp very often that was of this very butterfly and I had never seen one in person.  So when I saw it in my garden for the first time I was thrilled and had to get a photo of it!

Gotta love the sweet little violas!  I liked the idea of having one in focus and the others in the background blur.

Some Ornament Photos

 I'm venturing into photography, which has been on my back-burner for far too long now, but now is finally able to come to the front.  I'm learning all over again with a digital SLR so I thought I would share some of my beginner photos.  They say the secret to improving is to take tons of photos, so today I played around taking photos of my Christmas Tree.  I will probably do that a lot this month!  I didn't shoot any of the hand made ornaments yet, but since I need to practice I will get to them!  These are my favorite photos from today.  I had opened my front door and the light spilled in onto my tree and I couldn't resist playing with it!

 I really love this one, just something about the nutcracker, I'm not even fully aware of why I love this photo so much.  Partly the sharpness of his hair, the light hitting him.  It's hard to be just beginning, but everyone must start somewhere and I have to give myself permission to be a beginner! ;)

 I love the sparkles on this bird and the light hitting them.

 I liked this one because of the color, and I like the way the glitter looks.  I also like how the feathers are softer out of focus further back.  I really love the shallow depth of field photos out there and what's known as Bokeh which is basically background blur.  I also like the sparkle in the crystal drop.  You can see a handmade ornament in the background the Tree that Wendy made for me!

 This one loved right away, I love the shininess and the Bokeh of the lights in the background.  And you can see a little tatted snowflake in the background too.

 I liked this angle too focusing on his beak and the hanging ornament more to the side instead of coming out of his back like the one above.  I would have liked to try out a bit deeper depth of field on this one and get more of his body in focus and see what that would be like, so I will keep that in mind for next time.

 I like how the sparkles on this guy looks like Bokeh.

And this one I was playing with the exposure, I think the feathers are so wispy and soft looking!