Wednesday, March 19, 2008

"No one can determine who I am
But myself
My parents can not
My teachers can not
My friends can not


They can guide me
But in the final analysis
The problem is completely mine
For I have abilities
That are unique to me
And the challenge of Life
Is for me
To discover them
To develop them
To use them


For then and only then
Will I know
Who I am"
Javan

~ Valaine

posted 03.19.2008

Photos from this morning
Sunday, March 16, 2008

"The day the Lord created hope was probably the same day he created Spring."
- Bern Williams

I can barely work the mouse and type because I exhausted my hand working on that chubby squirrel last night. I just wanted to take a moment to post these pictures I took this morning. Now I'm going back outside to try and bring some order to our backyard. Leaves are every where and I want to see spring. Although the daffodils have left already, they only visited for just a moment, the sun is beckoning the other spring plants to come and I want to help them get here :)

~ Valaine

posted 03.16.2008

Illustration Friday - Heavy Eater
Saturday, March 15, 2008

photo manipulation

Not only do the squirrels empty the entire bird seed feeder in about two days or less, sometimes they take turns getting really comfy in that big bowl of bird seed I set out so that I can get some close up pictures of the birds. This is what I think the squirrels might look like soon :)


***This started out as a drawing, and then I started adding the features from pictures of a squirrel that I took eating out of the bird seed bowl. One thing led to another and I wound up covering my entire drawing with real parts of the squirrel. It was pretty challenging but I enjoyed using photoshop as the sole means to doing this art piece. I had a lot of fun trying to make him/her look real. I think it comes close enough for what I was trying to show what I had pictured in my mind. One of my art teachers once told me that "our ideas look good in our minds until we get our hands involved, and then we have to try to make our hands create what that idea looks like and that is always a challenge."

~ Valaine

posted 03.15.2008

Illustration Friday - Garden
Wednesday, March 12, 2008

pen and ink colored digitally


“A little garden in which to walk,
and immensity in which to dream” - Anonymous

~ Valaine

posted 03.12.2008

My favorite Pictures
Monday, March 10, 2008

"I reach out to the World
A World that has given me Life
A World that has given me Dreams
And I pray
That I might have the Courage
To explore my Life
To live my Dreams."
Javan

~ Valaine

posted 03.10.2008

Illustration Friday - Leap
Wednesday, March 5, 2008

pen and ink colored digitally


“Leap and the net will appear” – Zen Saying

~ Valaine

posted 03.05.2008

Sunday, March 2, 2008

"In almost everything that touches our everyday life on earth, God is pleased when we're pleased. He wills that we be as free as birds to soar and sing our maker's praise without anxiety." A. W. Tozer

~ Valaine

posted 03.02.2008

photo friday : Fuzzy
Saturday, March 1, 2008

~ Valaine

posted 03.01.2008

Our cat Spicy
Saturday, March 1, 2008

I never thought I'd write entirely about my cat on my blog but when I was looking at these pictures I took of him yesterday morning I kept thinking to myself,


"Wouldn't he have been the cutest kitten in the world?" I wish I raised him from a kitten, but I didn't and his personality is a result of some mean someone in his past. But his awkward and sweet ways (that somehow need me to be there for him) makes me care so much about him. I knew the first day that we brought him home from that dreary local pound that one, he was too pretty to be there, and two, someone had definitely abused him. I tried to go about my normal life that first day with him but he would run in front of me and hiss and try to bite my feet. I thought it was very strange. I picked up the phone and called the pound and asked the lady why she had let me take home a cat to my very young children (at the time 2 and 5) that had the potential to bite. She reluctantly agreed that yes, he would bite and that she was sorry. She had no knowledge of his past just that when they found him he was completely matted and overtaken by fleas. She said it took many baths and brushings to get him clean. Now I know why he doesn't like to be brushed. I never tried bathing him and probably never will.


I thanked her for her time and hung up the phone. I decided to not give up on him and to give him a real chance. I know what it's like to be misunderstood and to have others give up on me.

That was about eight years ago. We have had some rocky roads with him but more sweeter times than bad. His unusual ways grips my heart.


He lives on our back porch, and takes his daily afternoon strolls around the fenced in yard and relaxes quietly sleeping in the sun or spends his time watching the birds, and the clever squirrels. Though every time he hears a stranger walking in the front of the house or a neighbor next door it startles him and he quickly hurries his way to his little house that I have set up for him to hide. I don't let him live in the house because he would for sure trip me.


I notice that its mainly when we spend a good amount of time with him that he will run in front of us and hiss. We have to make sure that we take slow steps and sternly tell him to stop. We just ignore him when he gets in those moods and leave him be.


I also wonder what happened to him concerning sticks or brooms or something similar, because when Jay and I sweep the back porch or are walking around the yard with a rake or even a shovel he gets terrified and heads for cover. He seems to not like people wearing hats as well.


But I'm really glad that we get to take care of him. I never met one like him. He really has been a good cat, beautiful and sweet. He just needs a little understanding. Don't we all?

~ Valaine

posted 03.01.2008

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