A journal of sorts.

I am an avid photographer with a love for digital processing. The Bearded One and I have become "Townies" once again and are in the process of transforming our suburban nest into a peaceful refuge.
This blog is where I like to stash things. An assortment of random thoughts, a recipe or two, a few of my favorite photos, and the processing thereof.

Monday, January 30, 2012

Monday and moving on...vegetables are involved.

 

Rustybits

Today's 365 photo "rusty bits"

Cottage Life

Getting into gear this week to de-tox from my vacation schedule. The reality is that staying up until midnight is not conducive to getting up bright eyed and bushy tailed at 5:00 in the morning. This means that I will be posting (hopefully) first thing in the morning rather than in the wee hours of the night. I know that most of you won't notice. A few fellow night owls will however note my absence. You know who you are. Anyway I'm in the process of getting things turned right side up again before I return to work next week. I am really looking forward to the variety of images I can shoot when I'm out and about in the real world. I've been looking at the same ferns and winter leaves decaying for the last three months, the change will do me good.

Before and After

Yesterday I went around with camera in hand taking shots of "textures". Shingles with moss, muslin curtains, wood grain, and anything else that I  thought could be useful for adding dimension to some artwork. The following is one of those photos. It is a shot of a small rag rug that I have sitting on top of an end table.

Before

IMG 0029

I thought it would be interesting to see if I could come up with something interesting using it on its own, Complete with threads and knot.

After

Ragrugsig

I ran it through a "topaz" filter called clean, then bumped up the color and added a canvas texture. At full size you can see the brightness of the colors.

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Here I've turned it sideways added a "posterize" layer and added an antler button just because. I know I'm obsessed. :-)

Ragrug antler button

Green Lowcarb livin'

When eating low carb, green veggies become the main attraction and what adds variety to meal planning. They are fairly low carb, good for you and they become the "side dish" of choice rather than starchy potatoes, pasta, or rice. This being said I take a little more effort in preparing them. Oven roasted brussels sprouts with olive oil, sea salt, a little garlic and pine nuts. Steamed broccoli with butter and fresh grated parmesan, sometimes a squeeze of lemon. One of my favorites is kale finely chopped, saute'd in butter or olive oil, with bacon, garlic, onion, and whatever leftover chopped veggies that are lurking in the fridge. Add a few pine nuts at the last minute. Perfection. I like to blanch and drain the kale before chopping. Another nice way to do broccoli is to make a nice broccoli salad. I chop my broccoli, add a half an apple.. (watch the carbs here... but by the time it's portioned out it's not bad) some chopped onion, chopped walnuts, a couple of tablespoons of good vinegar, (I use my sister's homemade cranberry vinegar) a dollop of best foods mayo, and salt and pepper to taste. I then carefully toss in about 15 raisins. Raisins are a low carb eaters mortal enemy. Through the roof in carbohydrates. I figure the three or four that will end up in my serving is well worth the cost. :-)

Hmmm... Pause for Thought

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Until next time...

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