Try A Little Tenderness

Dear Gentle Readers,
I am reminded every so often how beautiful simple things are, how wonderful the quiet moments are and how healing they can be for the soul.

No Deadlines, Just Progress

It's been a while, hasn't it, gentle readers?

Sorry for the radio silence as of late, but there's been a lot of work going on here. There still is. I'm not working toward a deadline for anything, just trying to make progress the best way I know how.

Late Light

A preview of a new preset from my Four Seasons collection.

A few fall pictures

A few of my fall snapshots, now that the season is officially upon us.

Take care, friends!

A short, happy update

Hi friends,
There's been a lot going on lately, but I just wanted to share that I've had another story accepted by a publisher and it will be out this December. I am very excited to share this news, especially since my last post dealt with the inevitable rejection that comes with creation and finding a market.

More details to come later!

Aren't you glad it's almost fall?  I know I am! I hope to reopen my etsy shop to orders in October, the perfect time for enjoying all the fall photography and colors. Until then, my Society6 shop is still open, and I've got a tumblr for my art, if you want to follow me there.

That's all for now!

Rejection

Recently I got a rejection for a story I wrote, from a magazine I've submitted stories to before. Even though my story didn't make the cut, I was happy to hear back from them. There have been enough rejections in the past and they no longer sting as much.

Free Background Wallpapers

A while back I offered some free background wallpapers for download here on the blog.

Recovering

Hi all!
I'm writing on the other side of a successful eye surgery.  I am recovering well at home. 

Let me tell you, my spirit is so light.  I feel so much better.  Things feel like they are turning for the better in my life, and it is making my smile reappear.   I am eager to go back and start some new work, even though we're still in the process of moving.  This change is so inspiring y'all!  There is so much relief in my heart too, now that I'm done with both eyes.  I don't worry about losing my livelihood anymore, or slowly watching the important moments in my life shift out of focus.

It's been a healing time, and I'm so happy to share it with you all!  Things are starting anew, and here's a budding picture to symbolize it all.

A New Still Life

I've been thinking about doing some more still life photos recently.

Another Montreal Visit

Hi friends, I'm going back to Montreal again this week for more eye surgery.  Hopefully this will be my last eye related trip there.  But in the meantime, I've been reading some great books on Black and White photography, and I decided to revisit one of my Montreal photos from last year and redo it in Black and White.

Back to Black

A favorite older photo of mine.

Taken with a Pentax K100 D in my early days of taking digital photos circa 2009.

On Taking Breaks

One of the best pieces of writing wisdom out there is to write something, then stop working on it and put it away for a while to come back to later with fresher eyes.  Honestly, I think that applies to any long term project.

It's hard to step away from doing your job - especially when it's one that you've created for yourself and that you love.  But it is also necessary to do so every once in a while.  This past weekend I stepped back and I'm not ready to come back yet.  I have a lot to do that has little to do with my work, and finding time to balance it all has been a challenge.

So enjoy a picture while I am on a break this week, getting everything back together and resting.

Slush Pile: Steam on a Horseshoe

Another picture from this past winter's visit to Horseshoe Falls.  This picture was edited in Lightroom with my new preset "Breeze" and then in Photoshop with the texture "Spring Green" from the Dramatis Set I.

I'm still busy packing up my house.  Hopefully for not too much longer.

Making New Textures

Note: Right now I'm in the middle of packing up my house, so these posts may be shorter than normal.  Never fear, I'll return to regularly scheduled posts as soon as I can.

A while back I made a texture pack and release it for sale, but despite my best efforts, I haven't released a follow up pack yet.  I have, however, been working on new textures for a while, they just haven't coalesced into a whole set yet.

Sophisticate

There's so much going on right now in my house, but I'm still working to put up some new pieces for sale.   Meet Sophisticate, available in my Society6 store.

Red

There are times when I just really love the way the color red stands out in a photograph.  There's something about capturing the various shades of red in all of their glory that can take the breath away.

Slush Pile: Montreal

One of these days, I'm going to do a longer post with some of the awesome buildings I've photographed.  This one from last August in Montreal, came out especially nice in black and white.  Unfortunately, I was on a bus tour and didn't write down information as I took the photos, so while I can recall many of the general areas where I took the photos, I don't know the individual buildings.

Montreal, I'll be back soon!

Taking it to the Limit

The title of this post might sound extreme, but it's really about knowing your limits and when to slow down.

Slush Pile: Beach Day

This is an older photo of mine that I don't think I've ever edited before.  I like to go through my older pictures and just see what's there.  Something I might have hated back when I took it can look completely different to me once some time has passed.

Preview: Sweater Weather

It's just warming up outside in my part of the country, but in some places of the world, it's Sweater Weather.  Which also happens to be the name of my new preset for Lightroom, previewed here.

About This Photo: Tumble Down Fire

Tumble Down Fire is one of my favorite autumnal photos that I've taken.  Let me tell you a little about how it came to be.

Slush Pile: Fog

The photos I took in this set will always be favorites of mine.  On a day where intense fog rolled in the evening, my husband came home and said "it's zombie weather outside".  I immediately ran to get my camera.  Fog is so much fun to photograph.

My street doesn't normally look like this; this fog was exceptional.  I don't even think I took my big camera out because I was in such a rush to get outside, I just grabbed my powershot and went.  It reminds me of the beginning of a horror film - before life starts to unravel, and when the audience knows that something is coming soon.

I edited this photo of the end of my street with my Lightroom Preset Multigrain, available in the Black and White Collection and the Premier Bundle on my gumroad store.

Premier Lightroom Presets Bundle

Hi all!  This week in Rains on the Plain professional news, I've bundled all four of my Lightroom Presets into a discounted bunch and put them on sale in my Gumroad store.

A Future Less Ordinary

It seems strange to talk about influences on my writing since I'm not doing much of it right now, but it is on my mind.

About this photo: Winter Gold

I walked by the place where I took this photo just recently, and it got me thinking about Winter Gold.

Spring! Finally!

Spring came late this year to my neck of the woods.  I live in Massachusetts, and as you may remember, we had a lot of snow this year.

About This Picture: Lake George

I started thinking about some of the photos I've taken, and how they mean a lot to me, but that meaning doesn't always come across in the photo itself.  I'm always glad to take a wonderful photo of a beautiful natural vista or city that invokes the innate wanderlust in our souls.   Now, I'm here to talk a little more about some of the photos I've shot and why I like them so much.

Traveling and a Discount

Just got back from a short trip.

Update notice

Just a small notice to say that I'm updating this blog twice weekly, on Mondays and Wednesdays for tat least the month of May and probably beyond.  Hopefully posts will build up to more frequency, but until then, see you twice a week!

Fabric Retrospective

One of the things I really enjoy about working is making up new fabric patterns.  I've shared quite a few of the ones I've made on this blog, but I'd like to do a small retrospective of some of my fabrics.  All of them are available on Spoonflower, and most are not just fabric, but wallpaper and wrapping paper as well.

Spring Inspiration

Spring, despite my allergies and related crankiness because of them, is a great time of year.  It's always when I feel the most energized with relation to my work.  I love the possibility contained in spring and how it makes me seek out new creative opportunities and inspiration.

Essential Lightroom Presets

I've released a new set of Lightroom Presets in my Gumroad store, and these are my Essential Presets pack with some of my favorite tools.  Check out this preview!  I love this set so much!

A photo from Montreal edited with the High Contrast Color Preset

Gathering Creative Inspiration

There are few things more frustrating than wanting to create, but feeling like you have a dearth of ideas.  Sometimes, it feels like if you've got the time and the inclination, that you should be able to work, but it doesn't work that way.  When you try your brain just dries up and ideas fly out of the window, away with the fairies.  Luckily, I've worked through this peril more than a few times, and can share some of my tips.

Grey Vines

Happy Friday all!

This is a painting that I finished about a month ago, maybe a little bit more, for my best friend.  I really loved the finished product, and am so glad that it's going to be hanging in her lovely home!  It's always such an honor to see my work hanging up, or on a iphone case or anything really.

I called this piece 'Grey Vines' for lack of a better name.  That big flower got repainted SEVERAL times before I liked it, and the last time with just a palette knife and some heavy body paint.  I started painting this at the beginning of my painting class with Flora Bowley, and I liked the way that it changed the way I made this piece, even mid-process.  This piece definitely has more texture and some of the techniques I learned from her class.

Grey Vines on Society6

My paintings will become available on Society6 as they are finished and photographed.  I hope to find a printer that I love and also put them up in my etsy shop as giclee prints, but until then, they're exclusive to my S6 shop.

Slush Pile: Sunrise over Niagara

Hi friends!

I have a lot of projects going on right now that I am super excited about, but I won't lie, I am also very tired.  So here's a picture of sunrise over the city of Niagara in Ontario.  I got up one morning in a hotel to see the sunrise, and really it was the only lovely part of the day - it grew very rainy after that and I don't think the sun was seen again that day.  I always enjoy going to Canada, and it's doubly fun for me now because my husband hasn't seen as much of it as I have.  Like me he has the heart of an explorer, but less chance to indulge it as a child.  It's fun to get to make up for it now - and I never turn down a chance to take more photos!

Niagara photography for sale

Cabin Fever

It's always in March that I start to get cabin fever.  The urge to go out and do something, anything outside is great, but the weather is not always obliging.  This is the time of year when I start to dream about a vacation to a sunny and far away island paradise, but alas, aside from my honeymoon, I haven't gotten one of those trips yet.  Does anyone else feel this way in March?  Every year it rolls around again and I start dreaming of places to go and cloudless skies with warm sunshine.

So here I am in March, thoroughly ready for a vacation.  I'm not going to the islands yet, but I've got a new fabric to share.

This is Victory Coral, a revision of one of my older prints for the weekly challenge on Spoonflower.  This challenge was to use a limited color palette, coral, black, white and mint to make a design.  When I redid this, I went in and cleaned up some of the design itself while putting down the new color.  I really like how it came out, though I wish I had made the mint a little more prominent.  Regardless, the heart motif in the design is nicely brought out by the dark background and works well with the coral and white. Victory Coral will be available for purchase in April (probably) after I receive a sample to confirm it looks as good in print as it does on my screen.

Paint, Paint, Paint

I've been on a painting kick lately.  It's been all paint and organizing around here.  I've been painting both watercolors and with acrylics.  These acrylic paintings are getting pretty big in here, and I hope to finish three more by the end of March.  You can see my progress with them on my instagram.

My watercolors are a little more modest, but no less satisfying.  Here's a beautiful floral print that I made into fabric (and is available on Society6 as a print and accessories) called Petals and Joy.  Click on the image to go to my spoonflower page.

As for the organizing part, I've made no secret that I want to sell my house and move someplace closer to my family.  This is the year, I hope.  Organizing and cleaning are the first steps in packing, at least it is for me.  I'm determined to make this move a much less hectic move than the last two I endured.  The memory of them linger even though we've been in this house for almost six years.

Where will we go?  Where the wind blows us, I suspect.  A lot has to do with timing this year, and jobs, of course.  I also need to have surgery on my other eye and my last wisdom tooth removed, so there's going to be a lot of outside issues demanding my time this year.  But I am ever positive, these things are for the best for my health, as is my prospective move closer to home.  

For the time being, my etsy shop is closed so I can work on organization and my new painting projects.  My etsy shop demands the most attention of all my shops, because I have to handle the printing and packaging.  However my spoonflower and society6 stores are still open and are getting new items added as I make them.  Please check them out!

Authentic 2015

It's been a while, hasn't it friends?

Last year I had vision problems, which meant that I had to take a whole lot of time off to go deal with them and the doctors that came with them.  It meant moving away from my art and accepting that I might never see clearly again.  It's not over, even after my treatments and everything else.

But I have learned a few things since then, and I've done some cool stuff.

The anthology that features a story by me was published at the end of September in ebook. I am so happy to share that with you, though I don't know when the hardbacks will come out.  You can purchase it here, Spellbound is an anthology of retold fairy tales.  My story is "The Four Skilled Sisters".

Another important thing I've done recently was take a class on painting.  If you've followed me on instagram, you've seen a lot of paintings.  You'll see a lot more.  I'm not finished yet with painting or anything else.  Hopefully finished paintings and prints will make it into my shops and maybe even become fabric.

This is just a work in progress, friends.  I think the final project will be full of more fun colors and shapes.

I've got plans for this new year that I'm so grateful to have.  Not all of them are about photography or painting, or even writing, but a lot of them are.  I love my work, and I love growing and changing with it.  I want to bring more of it to you.  But this year I've resolved to take better care of myself.  This painting process taught me a lot about that, about self-care and listening to the voices deep within.  It takes so much to create and put yourself out there constantly.  We have to give back to ourselves sometimes.  I need to take trips that don't include a day out for photography.  I need to go on and do things I've been putting off out of fear and uncertainty.

My 2015 is about being authentic and brave and inspired.  My best to you as you pursue your resolutions.