The Island of Malta 

and 

Art Challenges 

August 9, 2012 

Nostalgic about my two Ethiopian Abbys... 

Greetings Family and Friends, 

I hope you've had a good week and that your days brought many smiles! I'm back into the swing of playing with Photoshop, art, my new camera and of course, the challenge blogs. I'd like to share some of the resulting art with you... 

The piece above (my 6-word memoir for this week) is a scrapbook page I did honoring the daughters of my two dear Ethiopian tribal friends, Walla and Buno. They each blessed me by naming their daughters Abby...above are their photos. The Abby on the left is 4 1/2 and on the right is my friend Buno with her 14 month old Abby.  :) Cute, aren't they?

To balance that piece, I did another scrapbook page honoring my daughter and her Hunter and Lilly... the best grandchildren (and the best daughter) anyone could wish for...T

 This week, the participants of Darcy's Art and Sole Postcard Challenge 2012 traveled (virtually) to the Mediterranean island of Malta. Amazing that this little island has been entered in the Guinness World Record book TWICE...for the largest fireworks display with their Catherine Wheel and for assembling the most people dressed up as storybook characters!!! Color them happy!! You'll note, from the postcard message, that one of the correspondents...Jarrod...thinks he's met the woman of his dreams in Malta. More to come... Here is the art for the postcard as well as the book page of an old bus. In the earlier days, these colorful buses, all individually owned and decorated,   were eye candy all around Malta... a source of pride as well as a dependable mode of transportation. They represent some of the island's visitors' fondest memories!  

   

COLLAGE OBSESSION wanted us to create a piece with an oriental theme...I used a photograph I took of a young monk while visiting the Kingdom of Bhutan (between China and India.) 

TAKE A WORD was feeling nostalgic... me too!! With the theme of MEMORIES, I created the following piece...  

Finally, THINK MONDAY-THINK ATC, in the spirit of summer, asked for a piece with a boat or ship as its theme... 

That's it for this week...wishing you all a peaceful and joyful weekend and upcoming week...hope to see you for the next posting of The Vivere...

Hugs,

abbyj   

Travel (real and virtual,) The Beatles and Blog Challenges 
August 5, 2012 

"Pursuing passions for photography and travel..."

"For me, the camera is a sketch book, an instrument of intuition and spontaneity." 

Henri Cartier-Bresson

French photographer,  Father of Modern Photojournalism  

Hi Family and Friends,

Happy you've joined me for this posting. I must say that I haven't been busy with my usual art playing as I've been learning my new camera. It's a bit heavier and larger than I would like, but the quality is worth it! I tried the smaller cameras because I wanted to downsize and carry less weight, but there is a difference in the quality of the photos. Here are some pictures from my new camera...I took them in Asheville, North Carolina this weekend where we celebrated our dear friend Joanne's birthday! We visited America's largest home, THE BILTMORE. It's the home of the famous Vanderbilt family and  uniquely American. With the Blue Ridge Mountains as a backdrop, George Vanderbilt worked with the best architects and craftsmen of the era (1890's) to develop his vision of a self-sufficient estate. It was opened to the public to help Asheville's tourism industry during the Depression (and to bring in money to preserve the estate) in 1930.

A view of the estate from below in one of its many gardens

Two of the Vanderbilt children...loved the photo

The cathedral where the Vanderbilts worshipped

The weekend before this, we were in Toronto visiting with our daughter and her children... always a good time! Our season subscription to the city's theater series took us to the Royal Alexandra Theatre to enjoy BACKBEAT...the story of  the birth of the BEATLES. The show was just okay...until the end when the "stars" played several favorite Beatle tunes...they did well and we all loved it! It was interesting to learn how the Beatles got together and how they became such important names in pop music history! This is my tribute to the show...

BLOG CHALLENGES this week include 'Windows and/or Doors" from THE THREE MUSES...

THINK MONDAY-THINK ATC offered a challenge to  participants to include a "garden gate" in their art piece...

On the Art and Sole POSTCARD CHALLENGE 2012, Darcy, our host, challenged us to take a virtual trip to Denmark... a small country that, surprisingly, has more pigs than humans. Danish ham is a huge export product!  It has the oldest state flag in the world that's still in use by an independent nation; LEGO was invented in Denmark; Hans Christian Andersen, the children's fairy tale writer, is a son of the country; Denmark was the first European country to abolish the slave trade (although it was the state of Vermont that actually abolished slavery) and they were the first European country to legalize same-sex marriages. Here's the art... 

As Bugs Bunny says,  "That's all folks!" Hope to see you next posting and hope, too, that you stay well!!


Hugs,
abbyj