Round Robin Challenge: Hand, Colored

For the Round Robin Challenge: Handy I did hope to get someone else's hands to photograph, but ultimately I went with my own, mostly. But those photos don't have to be boring! Hands are a good subject for fiddling with PhotoStudio's various filters and effects:


Solarization effect, denoise, saturation, tone adjustment and negative. I think.


Neon Edges effect


Solarization again.


The negative version of the previous edit.


Wet Brush effect.

When I asked John if I could photograph just his hands (for privacy's sake, he doesn't allow me to post pictures of him) he pointed out that I did something like that a while back. I used one of them at the time, but here is the other:



Karen

Please check out all of this week's Round Robin entries:

Linking List
as of 8:16 PM MST
Monday, February 27th, 2012

Karen - Posted!
Outpost Mâvarin
http://outmavarin.blogspot.com

Jama - Posted!
Sweet Memories
http://mummyjam.blogspot.com

Mary Tomaselli - Posted!
Mary Tomaselli's Photography
http://marytomaselli.blogspot.com

Kara - Posted!
Notes From the Tiny Napping House
http://notesfromthetinynappinghouse.blogspot.com

PhenoMenon **Welcome, New Participant!**
Throo Da Looking Glass
http://capturedalive.wordpress.com

Who Can It Be Now?

This is me as of today:

Maybe to you folks online this doesn't look like a big change, but I've been getting "Wow" and "OMG" reactions from pretty much everyone I see in person since I left a salon called Polished yesterday afternoon. Even the least observant casual acquaintances do a double-take. Father Smith took one look at me and said, jokingly, "If you see Karen, tell her I was looking for her."

I'm going to be 55 years old in less than a month, and my hair, unsurprisingly, has been getting grayer. The last time I used hair color (auburn mixed with light reddish brown) was perhaps six months ago, so the top six inches of my hair had grown out as gray mixed with my original ash brown. I never liked my mousy brown hair, but the gray actually improved it. Cool!

Unfortunately I still had lots of the red hair below those first six inches, which made for a jarring contrast with the new hair up above. I needed a haircut anyway, and the place I used to go was out of business, so I sought out a salon that does hair color. (If I did it myself, I'd almost certainly screw it up!) I told Gaby at Polished that I wanted my hair cut to my shoulders, and the whole thing to look enough like my natural gray-plus-ash brown not to look funny as it grew out. Gaby went to work, with a preliminary haircut, highlighting, a wash, more hair color, a second haircut and styling. The whole process took about an hour and a half.

My vision is so bad that it can't be completely corrected even with strong glasses, so you can imagine how blind I am without them, and how frustrating it was not to be able to see what was happening to me as Gaby worked. My experience with hairdressers is marked with several memorable disasters, from the Shirley Temple Incident to the Lopsided Watermelon Debacle. Even the most successful of the radical changes have always freaked me out at first. In the words of the Great and Powerful Oz, I was petrified. Finally Gaby finished and I was allowed to put my glasses on. In the somewhat dim light of the salon, I could have sworn my hair was now white, at least on top. OMG! (The lighting on the shots above makes the hair on top look a little lighter than it is.)

"Do you love it?" Gaby asked. She was justifiably proud of her handiwork.

Gulp! "Um, I like it, but I'm going to need to get used to it. It's...lighter than I expected."

Gaby was very nice about my ambivalent reaction, and I knew better than to complain, whatever doubts I had. I paid and left. Sitting in the car, I flipped down a vanity mirror. No, it wasn't white! It was actually rather nice - grayish blond more than grayish brown, but really rather nice. And everyone who has seen it since has liked it, from the teacher at St. Michael's who doesn't even know me by name to the supervisor at Safeway. Everyone at the church office loves it, and even John likes it - and he's always my harshest critic on this sort of thing. He even compared my hair, in a complimentary way, to that of Florence Henderson! Really? Um, okay!

Late this afternoon I went back to Polished and left a message for Gaby that everyone loves it, and so do I. She deserves that. I also explained about my not being able to see it properly at first.

You know me; I hardly ever go on about physical appearance, particularly my own. But this is such a big change, in addition to the 55+ pounds I've lost since last summer, that I felt the need to write about it. And now I'm done.

Karen

Arizona Turned 100 - And I Missed It (Sort of)

Happy Day After Your 100th Birthday, State of Arizona! 


I did take a few new pics today of clouds and snow on the mountains, but accidentally deleted them. Drat!

Karen

Round Robin Challenge: No End to Her Yarns

Okay, yes. I had ulterior motives for assigning this week's Round Robin Photo Challenge: Crafty. For the past month I've been absolutely overwhelmed with yarn, beads, needlework, costuming, embroidery, crochet, tatting, jewelry-making supplies and who-knows-what-else, all from the estate of my friend Jan Lockett, who died January 21st. In early January we packed up the contents of her shed and bedroom and moved it all into a 10 ft. x 20 ft. storage space, completely filling it. By the time she died I'd been given the task of disposing of it all. Other than furniture, I swear the majority of what was in there was yarn or thread, along with many cookie cans full of beads, and bags full of half-finished projects.



There must have been over twenty bins, bags and boxes of yarn, knitting needles and crochet hooks. A member of the church's Knitters and Quilters group took home five bins to hand out at future meetings, and I carried another eight bins or boxes and three bags of the stuff across a crowded parking lot into the church's Bride's Room one Sunday afternoon. The photo above was taken in the storage space after all that. Everything you see on or next to those shelves is yarn and related supplies, except for a roll of tape and a pair of scissors. Oh, and the filing cabinet, but she also had lots of knitting, crochet and needlework patterns on file, along with books and magazines on the subject.



We had a mini-estate sale after Jan's memorial service a week ago, which we carried over to after church the next day. People from several different knitting groups carried off yarn and partially completed scarves, blanket panels and so on. One person needed specifically pink and blue, non-wool yarn for charity baby blankets. Another group makes comfort shawls or blankets (I forget which) for injured soldiers.



Even after all that, there was plenty of yarn left in the Bride's Room, along with crafts made (or partially made) from yarn...



...much of which is colorful and attractive, but hard to identify!

Now let's see what crafts other Robins have come up with:

Linking List
as of Midnight MST
Saturday, February 11, 2012

Karen - Posted!
Outpost Mâvarin
http://outmavarin.blogspot.com

Jama - Posted!
Sweet Memories
http://mummyjam.blogspot.com

Mary Tomaselli - Posted!
Mary Tomaselli's Photography
http://marytomaselli.blogspot.com

And as always, you're welcome to join in too!

Karen

Round Robin: Tangles of Branches

This week's Round Robin Challenge: Branches doesn't really need explaining, does it? Let's get on with the pictures!

An intricate tangle of branches stands out against bands of color in the late afternoon sky.

I think these are olive trees, but the shapes and angles remind me of bonsais, 

or trees in Japanese paintings.

Branches melt into indistinct blobs against orange clouds.

Branches illuminated by a streetlamp at sunset.

Karen

Now let's see what the other Robins branched out with!

Linking List
as of Saturday, 1/28/12, 12:20 AM MST

Karen - Posted!
Outpost Mâvarin
http://outmavarin.blogspot.com

Freda - Posted!
Day One
http://fredamans.blogspot.com

Jama - Posted!
Sweet Memories
http://mummyjam.blogspot.com

Kara **Welcome!**
notes from the tiny napping house
http://notesfromthetinynappinghouse.blogspot.com/

Mary Tomaselli - Posted!
Mary Tomaselli's Photos
http://marytomaselli.blogspot.com

Tina - Posted!
Tina´s PicStory
http://tinaspicstory.blogspot.com/

Round Robin Challenge: House Is a Museum

The Round Robin Photo Challenges topic this week is "Home," a word I have a rather different perspective on at the moment. Normally I go on about Casa Blocher, the Museum of the Weird, and I did indeed take some pictures of our household oddities for you, . But if you read my previous entry, it won't surprise you to learn I have a more serious theme in mind as well.



Let's start with our house. Come on in!



Casa Blocher is nothing if not a house full of collections: dolls, toys, scripts, video, games, tikis, midcentury modern decor, Disney stuff and so on. Some of it is fairly straightforward....



...while other things are a bit more unusual. This vintage shelving unit has a number of items from the 1950s and 1960s on it, plus some Southwestern Indian art items. These aren't so unusual in this part of the country, but I don't suppose too many of you have seen a pottery storyteller figure or a mudhead kachina.

Our house is more than a little messy at the moment, but we're working on it, off and on. We cleared out about 40 boxes of stuff in 2010 and donated it, and are in the process of sorting through a bunch of stuff that got caught outside in the rain a few months ago. (Long story.) John's been working 7-day weeks and I'm working two jobs right now in addition to dealing with various arrangements for my friend Jan. Ah, Jan. That's the other part of what I want to show you.

For fifteen years, Jan lived with her friend Patti in a house of the south side of Tucson. That changed in 2010 and 2011, with Jan home only briefly in between hospital visits and long stints in a nursing facility called Devon Gables. Meanwhile, Patti was diagnosed with dementia, declared incompetent, and sent to another facility. The house has been standing empty. Well, not exactly empty. There were two cats still in there, being fed by a neighbor, plus most of Patti's earthly possessions, plus Jan's, overflowing into a large, very full shed in the back yard. With Jan in the hospital, suffering from a serious lung infection, liver failure, breast cancer and who knows what else, it very recently became clear that Jan was never going to be able to be discharged from Devon Gables, gather up her stuff and move into an apartment. So on Tuesday, a bunch of us from church went out to the house and retrieved Jan's things, with the help of two movers and a rented truck. Unfortunately, I forgot to bring my camera along. Here's where Jan's lifetime of possessions ended up:



I've already lost the keys to the padlock, or I would open the door and give you a peek inside.
That's a 10' x 20' space, and it's very full. It's stuffed with Jan's furniture, books, papers, sheet music, lots and lots of knitting and crafts, a dulcimer and who knows what else.



But a storage space is not a home. It merely contains things that used to mean home.



Yet more of her things are stuffed in the trunk of my car right now, having been accidentally left behind when the movers and I (driving the U-Haul) drove away. Ila rescued these things and here they are, waiting for me to either find the storage space key or have the lock cut off.

Jan was moved to a hospice yesterday, and her parents have cleared Jan's day-to-day possessions out of Devon Gables. Jan's walker in in my office at church now, just in case, by some miracle, she's ever well enough to use it again. Jan never considered Devon Gables home; she pretty much hated the place, but for the past year and a half it's the closest thing she's had to a home. The hospital is certainly not a home, nor the hospice. It sounds mawkish or maudlin or something, but those of us who love Jan now wonder if she will soon be heading to her true home, the one you get to when you die.

Now let's see the other Robins' Home pictures, preferably more cheerful than mine!

Karen

Linking List
as of 7:11 PM MST
Saturday, January 14th, 2012

Karen - Posted!
Outpost Mâvarin
http://outmavarin.blogspot.com

Jama - Posted!
Sweet Memories
http://mummyjam.blogspot.com

Sherrie - Posted!
Food for Thought
http://100sweets.blogspot.com/

Mary Tomaselli - Posted!
Mary Tomaselli's Photography
http://marytomaselli.blogspot.com

Gattina - Posted!
Keyhole Pictures
http://gattina-keyholepictures.blogspot.com/

Two Lonely Cats

Sorry I haven't been online much lately. This is the time of year when I do a little consulting work at a second church, plus I've been dealing with a close friend's major health crisis. Jan is in Tucson Medical Center with a serious lung infection and kidney failure, and has nearly died three times that I know about. I was the hospital's only contact person until this past Friday night, when I managed to get the names of Jan's parents in New Mexico and pass the info on to the nurses. Jan is seriously confused when she is conscious at all, absolutely miserable and restrained for her own protection. This is someone I was taking to church, out Christmas shopping and to restaurants just a month ago! 

While all this has been going on, the Pima County Fiduciary Office has been badgering us to get Jan's belongings out of the home she lived in for 15 years, so they can sell the house. It belonged to Jan's housemate, who has been declared incompetent with dementia. Sale of the house will help to pay for the housemate's care. So yesterday, I rounded up some volunteers, rented a U-Haul truck and went out to the house to clear out Jan's bedroom and storage shed, and move it all into a $150 a month storage space which I'm hoping the family will ultimately pay for. It took eight hours and the hiring of professional movers to help, but we got it done, except for one important detail....

Sweet Pea has similar coloring to this cat, but shorter hair.

I wish I’d gotten a photo of at least Sweet Pea, but I’ll try to rectify that later. You see, Jan had two cats left behind in the house, being fed by a neighbor against the day Jan could move out of the nursing facility into an apartment. That's not going to happen now. Even if she does survive this crisis, Jan won't be able to live on her own, let alone care for two cats. We need to find a home for both cats, or two homes for one cat each. 

Here are the details, as written up by another friend of Jan’s:

Sweet Pea is a youngish tortie cat, black and amber/orange, with a distinctive black splash down her nose.  She lives up to her name.  She needs an immediate new home.

Flash (temporary name I gave yesterday), her gold offspring, also needs placement but hasn’t had much chance to socialize with humans, and hides when approached.

The situation:  Sweet Pea’s owner has multiple medical problems and has not lived at home for well over a year.  She hoped to find a new location, but her condition is worsening.  Her house-mate, the home’s owner, was caring for the cats until she was institutionalized several months ago with dementia.  Neighbors have been feeding the cats and changing the litter box.  The fiduciary is planning to sell the house.

Friends of the cats’ owner closed out the house as best we could yesterday (a protracted ordeal), and I brought Sweet Pea to my house.  Flash is still hiding in the only house he/she has ever known.

The present:  As of last night, Sweet Pea is living in my screened nook, safe but a bit chilly.  She is bewildered but likes the food and being petted.  Luci, the most temperamental of my three (already one over my limit) is scandalized, a state which she shows vigorously.

If I can’t find a placement or at least temporary fostering, Sweet Pea will probably go to The Hermitage late today or tomorrow.  Ditto for Flash, when he can be lured into a cat carrier.

I am hoping we can avoid shelter placement at least for Sweet Pea.  Let me know if you can help or have ideas.

What I can guess about the cats, and a promise:  Probable ages are 2 to 3 years for Sweet Pea, and 1 year for Flash.  Immunizations are probably overdue.  I don’t know if Sweet Pea has now been spayed, and for certain Flash (of whichever gender, but probably male) will need to be neutered.  The promise:  If someone can foster one or both cats, I will ask our good friends at Spay and Neuter Solutions to refer for neutering, and I will make a donation to them at least equal to their costs.  I am willing to negotiate re the additional vaccinations.  Sweet Pea seems to respond well to other cats.

Help!  I really can’t take on another cat, especially since I have to have a house-sitter all summer, when I am in Guatemala.

And thank you.

Ila

***

As of tonight, “Flash” is still out at the house, being fed and watered by a neighbor. I’m trying to arrange for someone to go out and retrieve her (I’m horribly allergic, and still have multiple rashes a day after being in that house), but that’s not the biggest problem. What we really need is someone to take in one or both of the cats. Is that someone you? If so please message me (mavarin on Tumblr and AIM, mavarin2 on gmail). Thanks!

Karen