Author: coffeeandcapturedmoments

Dragon Thursday – Forest Dragon. The Amazing artwork of Caralyn Edwards-Tucker

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This gorgeous dragon popped up on my news feed this week.  It was from DeviantArt.  The artist is Caralyn Edwards-Tucker.  This is one of the most beautiful nature inspired dragon sculptures I have seen.  The detail is amazing.

Forest Dragon by Caralyn Edwards-Tucker of Mystic Reflections (From her Facebook page)

This past weekend she was at Dragon Con in Atlanta.  From what I gathered, this piece was one up for auction.  Who ever won this beautiful dragon is so very lucky!  

Here are a few more photos from her Facebook page.

 

The artist has a tutorial on how to make this dragon on her Blogspot site:

MysticReflections.Blogspot.com

You can also find her artwork on the following sites.  She specializes in fantasy and steampunk creations. There is quiet a variety, all beautifully detailed.

DeviantArt

Facebook

Etsy

 

Captured Moments – Vintage green glass inkwell

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My mother and grandfather were always finding unusual things at garage sales.   Many times, I happened to be there when they brought their treasures home.  This is one of my favorites.  

Green ink well

This inkwell was one of them.  I love the dark green glass.  It has an iridescent sheen to it like carnival glass.  The cap is brass.  If you know more about this piece, the age, maker, please comment below.

Day in the park

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Good morning,

I wish I could remember where this photo was taken.  It is from the days when I was using an old 35mm Vivitar SLR camera.  I have boxes of photos and even more negatives that I need to sort into some kind of order.   I scanned this photo using an Epson  Perfection v600 scanner, then did a little clean up using Adobe Photoshop Elements 13 and Topaz Studio.  In the original photo, the chess pieces have seen better days.  

Original photo scanned with out edits.

Photo edited using Adobe Photoshop Elements 13 and Topaz Studio.

It was fun rediscovering this photo.  The day was gorgeous and the kids looked like they were having a lot of fun.  Hope you find some joy in your day.

 

Coffee Monday – Fall Already?

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Good morning.

To day is Labor Day in the United States.

From Wikipedia:

“Labor Day in the United States is a public holiday celebrated on the first Monday in September. It honors the American labor movement and the contributions that workers have made to the strength, prosperity, laws and well-being of the country. It is the Monday of the long weekend known as Labor Day Weekend and it is considered the unofficial end of summer in the United States. The holiday is also a federal holiday.

Beginning in the late 19th century, as the trade union and labor movements grew, trade unionists proposed that a day be set aside to celebrate labor. “Labor Day” was promoted by the Central Labor Union and the Knights of Labor, which organized the first parade in New York City. In 1887, Oregon was the first state of the United States to make it an official public holiday. By the time it became an official federal holiday in 1894, thirty U.S. states officially celebrated Labor Day.”

Many people use it to mark the end of summer and the beginning of fall and celebrate with backyard barbecues.  It is also the time when we start seeing Pumpkin Spice everything, everywhere, which some people also seem to think it a harbinger of Autumn.

So, Happy Labor day! Go celebrate!  Have a pumpkin spice latte while you get that barbecue going. 😉

Captured Moments – Guanyin of the Southern Seas

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Last year I had the pleasure of visiting Kansas City, Missouri.   My friend Tim took a group of us to The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art.  There was so much to see and we had limited time, I would love to go back and visit again.  One of my favorite areas was the one containing South and Southeast Asian art.   I loved this sculpture in particular. 

Guanyin of the Southern Seas, The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art,
Kansas City, Missouri.

 

This is the information plaque:

 

Dragon Thursday

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Good morning,

Tuesday I posted some edits of photos taken on vacation from 1976.   When a friend sent me a link for a dragon incense burner, I thought I might continue that 70’s feel with Throw Back Thursday – Dragon style.

None of the incense burners I had as a teen were nearly as cool as these.

This one can be found on many sites but for today I will be linking to Amazon. It is a backflow incense burner.  Pretty cool. The price was $29.0 with free Prime shipping at the time of this post.

Next is another backflow incense burner .  It is also from Amazon. The price was $12.98 with free Prime shipping (at time of post)

The search brought up many dragon incense burners in varying styles.  These two  are just a sampling of what’s available.

Enjoy,

Melyna

 

Captured Moments – Southern Leopard Frog

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We have Southern Leopard frogs in the pond this summer.  Shy little guys.  I snapped a few photos of them, then played with them in Topaz Studio.

Here is the original photo.

Here is our darling frog with an effect titled Fine Wine Cafe2.

Reminiscing – snapshots from 1976

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I was going through my olf photos today and stopped at a folder of snapshots that I had scanned a cople of years ago.  They were from a vacation I took with my grandparents in 1976 from Texas to Oregon.  It was a whirlwind trip with  fond memories. The snap shots had been placed in a cheap photo album and they were stuck to the pages. They had faded.  I did some mild adjustments to them when I posted about the album on Throw  back Thursday. Way Back.  I decided to try to do something with a couple in Topaz.

The first is a snapshot of one of the look outs at the Grand Canyon.  It was hazy and faded.

Unedited:

Edited using Topaz Studio.  Better.

Next is one of my favorites that was damaged the most from age and poor storage.  It was a bear on a bridge.  I recently found out that is was one of the bears on the Kalmath River Bridge in Kalmath, California. (Click the link to read about how the bears turned gold. Cute story)

Unedited: Sad bear.

Edited with Topaz studio – I went for more of an abstract effect.  In the other post, I left the snapshots, looking like old snapshots, just a little cleaned up.  Here I used a effect called Evening Shadow, removed the vignette and added a dual color tone called Golden Age. 

Coffee Monday

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Good morning

While searching Pinterest for ideas for Coffee Monday, I found several Etsy shops that sell supplies for pour over coffee.  I did not realize this was popular (again).  There were two shops that caught my eye.  Click the links or photos to go to the individual Etsy shops.  Be sure to take a look around.  They have many wonderful items.

The first is a cool industrial looking model.  Great repurposing idea.

PipeLineDesignStudio

The photo shows one of their single cup stands.
They also make stands that hold two funnels and have other styles.  

This is the description on the shop page:  This single cup pour over set makes an exceptionally fast and fresh brew that accentuates the individual flavors of your coffee. The cone/funnel rests on a heavy duty industrial black pipe stand. The base and stand are made with a combination of black pipe and silver ring cup holder. Crafted with the best combination of design and function in mind, the coffee pour over stand connects coffee lovers to the best-in-class tools that make for memorable coffee experiences and of course a unique conversation piece for your kitchen.

Note from seller: Coffee cup/mug, funnel/cone and filters not included with purchase. The clear glass funnel pictured can be purchased for under $15.00 (Hario # 1) online. The white funnel (pictured) is a Starbucks brand funnel and costs $16.00 at the retail store.

The second one is a handmade pottery pour over cone with handle made by

Fox Rosalita

This one shows it on one of her handmade coffee mugs.