Natalie’s Weekend Coffee Share
Happy Sunday, February 19th.
It’s time for some hot coffee with chocolate. It’s still cool here in Prescott, but Vince has the front door open this afternoon.
Our Biggest News
We’ve had a busy week this week. Our condo passed the appraisal, so we sign papers on Wednesday and the movers come on Friday. Then we figure out how we are going to fit our and Cindy’s furniture and stuff in our two-bedroom condo. Wish us luck! Most of Cindy’s furniture will go into storage unless she wants to sell it.
A Fierce Statue for PPAC
taken at the Aria in Las Vegas
Lens Artist, Bren, Challenges Us -Turn Fierce into Soft
Bren from Brashley Photography hosts the Lens Artist Photo Challenge which teaches us how to make our images softer this week. I struggled with this guy. I tried using Patti Moed’s technique of making him Sepia soft.
That only made him look darker and fiercer to me. So I ambled off to Canva and painted him Retrata.
He’s not cuddly yet, but that’s about as soft as those spikes get.
Using my iPhone 12, last week I snapped some frosty pictures, and I experimented with one of them for this challenge. Even though I liked the first photograph, I think each step made it look more professional. If you use your cell phone to take pictures, you’ll enjoy John Steiner’s Cell Pic Sunday Challenge as well.
Adding some white vignetting to the image in Bridge, I think softened it up. Then I opened the image in Photoshop, which overwhelms me, to be honest about it. I changed the opacity, like Bren recommended, and added a signature. What do you think?
Over an hour has lapsed since I started this post. I stopped to read Terri’s post to see what Sunday Stills had to say about sweetness. Then I took Vince back to a trip we made to Las Vegas where we had to stop for a gelato. This was just an ordinary picture of some delicious flavors of soft gelato.
I added layers, and a color filter then went crazy with an eraser at a low opacity. Probably I should have deleted that effect. I experimented with all of the different filters. Finally, I started painting the background that I had already mostly erased. Since I liked that so much, I sprayed on my own vignetting in the brown color I had somehow created from the eyedropper. After I added my signature in brown, I changed it to red and that’s as soft as this sweet picture is going to get.
I learned a lot doing this post. I haven’t done much else all week except pack, move boxes, and look for places to put things away. My closet is uber-organized now.
Last week I read the first Dickens novella, The Battle of Life, and wrote a post about the first part this week. I also started another one, The Haunted Man. I’m way behind in my Chronological Bible reading. Feb. 11th, I think. Moses received the commandments, then the text veers off into other commandments about daily life from a different book of the Bible.
Yes, We Have a Social Life
We invited a couple over to eat a new recipe of turkey chili I tried. I left out the corn for Vince, but he still wasn’t crazy about it. The rest of us loved it. After eating, we watched some training videos for the upcoming Alpha video series we are hosting at the church. A game of Mexican Train finished off the evening accompanied by strawberry shortcake.
The next night we visited some of our neighbors for “movie night” and watched The Silver Linings Playbook starring Bradley Cooper and Jennifer Lawrence, with Robert De Niro as the obsessive-compulsive father.
Health
- Puppy Girl is eating better since she had her teeth cleaned. Tomorrow she gets the stitches out of her side where she had some moles removed.
- I’m still walking. I missed Saturday night, by a bunch, but I should be back on track tonight. Yoga has been replaced by lifting boxes!
Upcoming and Ongoing on Always Write
- WQ Page
- WQ #7 Grid – The Power Word
- WQ #8: February 22: BELOW/WRITER’S CHOICE/DOUBLE DIP CHALLENGES/WOTY
- #DICKENSCHALLENGE started February 7th. Join Yvette Prior, Trent McDonald, and me in reading ONE – not THREE Dickens’ novellas by June 9th.
- #DICKENSCHALLENGE – Just read – novella, The Battle of Life
Marsha Ingrao - Always Write 
46 responses to “Coffee with Cuddly Softness”
HI Marsha, I’m sure you’ll be glad when your move is over. I like your pictures. It is interesting to see the changes resulting from the filters. I have started The Battle of Life and stand in awe of Dickens’ description of the battlefield in the beginning. So powerful.
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Thanks, Robbie. I had fun with the various processing techniques. Moving is almost over and we can settle in to living again!!! I thought he did a brilliant job of describing the battle scene. It reminded me of Gettysburg during the Civil War. I think his tie to his present was loose. Maybe you have some more insight to that.
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I will let you know in due course.
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I’m over due to write a post. I’m on my third novella already. Writing about them is the hardest part.
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😊💕
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It sounds like you’ve had a busy and eventful week! Congratulations on passing the appraisal for your condo and getting ready for the move. I hope everything goes smoothly for you and that you find a good place for Cindy’s furniture.
Your gelato picture looks delicious, and I’m sure it tasted great too!
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Thanks so much Ritish. Gelato is always a delicious snack to me. My tummy expands each time I eat some to say thanks!!!
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Marsha these are beautiful shots for the Lens Artists Challenge. Thank you for joining in xx
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Thanks for hosting, Bren! I always enjoy your photography.
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Thank you very much xx
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Great news about your appraisal and move Marsha~! Love the pics and sorbet is a fav. Great you have a fun social life and puppy girl is doing well! 💗
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PG is doing great, stitches out and a little bit of hair growing back! Have a great day. Snow and blasting wind last night and today.
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Oh that’s great to hear Marsha! Wow.. we might even have snow up the hill today. the wins are gusting and power out at my dads again! ❣️
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Yikes – and that’s Sunny CA! 🙂
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Mmmm, that gelato looks delicious. Best wishes for the next few weeks.
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Thanks, Carol. It’s busy, for sure. 🙂
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Good luck with the move, Marsha. We have also sold our house and are now in the process of looking for a place to stay. We need to downscale too!
I love yor frosty photos and the icecream off course!
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Hi Aletta, I’ve been thinking about you this week. That must be why! Good luck finding a good place to stay.
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Thank you so much Marsha. 😊
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🙂 Talk to you more soon. We’re off to sign papers!
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👍🏻
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Great post, and I love how you explained your trials and tribulations of softening. I guess the creature is meant to stay fierce. We all …are who we are, lol. The tree with icicles is a beautiful sequence to really see how post processing works. I like the one altered in bridge.
I hope your move continues to go well. I actually love moving and weeding out. Everything feels fresh and like a birthday when it is reopened. lol. Then again I have had to do it a lot of times in my life.
And…I am glad you had time to squeeze in a coffee with Natalie.
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I’ve done it quite a bit too, but this time we are squeezing Cindy and her stuff into the house along with all the furniture that the former owners of the two condos left behind! 🙂
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Great news that your move is confirmed but I don’t envy you that packing task! I’m not a fan of snow but do like to see pretty photos of it and your edits are really effective 😀
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Thanks, Sarah! I was super pleased with the snow edit. The others were not the best choices to make soft, I think. We have more snow coming Wed. and Fri. (which is our moving day!) That may be a problem. We’ll see.
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Oh dear, moving in the snow won’t be fun, but I’m sure you’ll cope! Good luck with it 😘
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Thank you. Fortunately, it is not me who is doing the heavy lifting.
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Good luck with the move, Marsha. No, I don’t really love snow shots but that soft one’s very pretty.
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Thanks, Jo. We will be going to the valley soon after the move to get away from the cold. 🙂
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Good plan 🌞❣️
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Indeed!!! 🙂
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I was doing so well, enjoying the photos and the words. And then that last cartoon just had me laughing so much. Evening well jollied up thanks Marsha 🙂
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Thanks for coming along for a step into my world. 🙂
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I’ve just started the battle of life. Let’s see how long it’ll take me to finish it. Have a great week Marsha.
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You’re probably done with it as I write this comment 14 hours later. How did that much time go by? Whew!
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Not yet. I read just before sleeping so it’s not much. Besides Dickens style takes a while to get used to.
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I started on The Haunted Man and found it hard to read just before going to sleep. It did help me fall asleep! 🙂
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Haha! I’m almost at the end of this one.
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Hahah, was it good?
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I’ve yet to read the ending but I can guess where it’s going. It’s very well written with the author’s life philosophy in the shape of the views of the characters.
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He is a fabulous writer, if a bit windy at the beginnings of stories. 🙂
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Of course he is. 👍🏼👍🏼👍🏼
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Marsha, Congratulations on your condo! I’m in awe of your energy to manage all of it and your patience to play with different photo applications. I like your Retrata-treated dragon. Good to hear your Puppy girl is eating better. Thank you for your weekend coffee share and PPAC contribution. Have a great week ahead!
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You have a great week as well, Natalie. It really helps having you take PPAC. I haven’t had time to take pictures, so that has really suffered.
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I love the snow pics and best of luck with your new home. and all of your stuff )
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Thanks so much, Beth. We are doing a little each day.
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