I'll let you in on a little secret...I just had a birthday. Yep. But I'm not telling how old I am, because I don't feel my age (well except on very bad days)... but I will just say this, that my forties are quickly disappearing much faster than I would have liked.

My twenties brought new experiences...
My thirties introspective...

My sweet girl Willow, taking time to smell the flowers

My forties...changes, and no not what you are thinking lol!...

I guess more of a re-visitation of things... kind of if their broke, well then fix them attitude that I didn't quite have when I was younger. Life is just too bless-ed short to put up with things that don't work right, are always clamoring for attention, and taking up unneeded energy...

I would rather spend my time and energy on the meaningful things and the things that I know are full and rich that are healthy and good for the soul...

I am very happy to be in the growing place that I am in now, although sometimes growing pains hurt, but  in the purpose of life it is necessary...
So if you have been wondering "what's up with her?" I'm weeding out the unwanted things in my life and trying to focus on the blessings...sometimes it makes me inconsistent in my internet friendships and I am sorry for that, but overall I am still a lover of life, no matter how hard or challenging it may be 8)...
Thanks for being patient my friends,  hugs to all XXOO

Hello May! So glad to see your smiling flowery face...
My personal life has been in quite a flux of disarray since the first of the year and I have been very lax in posting here...please forgive that...but with all the beautiful Spring blossoms of promise and sunshine adorning my days I believe I am ready to embrace beauty and creativity once again...
So with that in mind, my creative friend Elle Moss has posted a May Photo Challenge and I am going to dive in!!!

I am so excited to do this, so tune back in starting on Monday May 7th for my first photo installment! 

Hugs and kisses XXOO

Just saying'...

There has been so much going on around my home since December...and 2012 brings much change to our family~hopefully much of it will be good. This year I plan on being strong, and giving it my all...

Source: imgur.com via Amber on Pinterest

Source: kimberlyfightsback.tumblr.com via Amber on Pinterest

I really hope everyone had a beautiful Holiday and warm and wonderful season of celebrations!
We are just getting back to much of our normal routines around here...much to my delight.

On poppytalk I found an article about some incredible art by Lauren King...it sort of reminded me of the post I shared  here about the site dear photograph...If you missed that be sure to go back and catch up on that too 8)
(also check out those feathers, aren't they just so cool!!)
beatiful-art-by-lauren-king



If you have always been interested like me, or have ever just had an appreciation for beautiful things, I think you will find looking at this process and transformation interesting...http://www.graphicart-news.com 

This beautiful poster has been designed with only typeface and has turned out so elegant...see for yourself

to see more click here

Every once in a while I run across an illustrator that I can't get enough and Sarah McNeil is just one of those people...

her art stirs up all kinds of playful muse possibilities for me...









Hoping you are having a wonderful week XXOO

Happiest Holidays...

December happenings....

Happy December!!
It is one of my favorite times of year.
We celebrate our Anniversary in December (this year will be our 24th) and my youngest son has a birthday on the 26th day of December...and of course Christmas is one of my favorite holidays!!

I hope you are all staying warm and feeling the seasonal glow spread wherever you are...

I found a few things to share that I thought were worthy...

I really loved the creativity of this site dearphotograph ...the idea is to add old photos to the current real life places...kind of cool right??

If you are looking for inexpensive ways to decorate early for the holidays, in place of fresh flowers that will wilt on you...the folks over at Ruffled gave us a beautiful photo demo  as inspiration or to use as a jumping off point for your own ideas!

And finally, over at orange you lucky they are offering the CUTEST holiday gift tags to download...There is more to see and download at their web page.

Warm hugs to all!!

Thankful...

“Rejoice with your family in the beautiful land of life!" ~ Albert Einstein

Photo Amber Heagerty 2010

Blessings of Thankfulness to my friends and family far and wide...

My newest work...digital deconstruction, hope you like it!

digitally deconstructed photo 2011 Amber Heagerty

Without giving away all my secrets here is how I did this fun new photo processing technique...
1)I turned the photo below into a B&W simple line drawing with my photo editing software. There are many programs out there and many different  ways to do this...you will have to experiment and find out on your own program what works for you...
2)I saved it to my computer as a png file to be used for later...
3) I then brought up the background photo ...which just so happens to be an out of focus flower photo into my photo editing program.
4) I then used the B&W "overlay" and layered it over the background
5) added the heart and words
and whoolah! it was done 8)

If you have any questions about this you may email me, I'll be happy to try to answer them...

digitally colored vintage B&Wphoto via 2010 Amber Heagerty

I've also been spending some time over at Society 6...I would love it if you would come visit me there !

She blushes in shades of Autumn...

@ Amber Heagerty

The two textures I used this week for Kim Klassen's  Texture Tuesday challenge was "Dreams" and "Dropcloth"...

This is a shot of some tiny pears from our beautiful pear tree reaching out to the sun for sweetness...

You can see the original photo below. 

We are now starting into much cooler but still equally sunny weather...sometimes I forget to wear a coat, but not for long 8)

original photo @ Amber Heagerty

Much love and sunshine!!

Some people say I'm a dreamer...

Just wanted to say THANKS to my friend Sue Simpson at earhtonestudios who mentioned me in an article on her blog...and asked me to do a little feature post   www.earhtonestudios.blogspot.com ...


Don't forget to come back here when you are done reading Sue's blog!...

 by Amber Heagerty 2010

"I saw myself sitting in the crotch of this fig tree, starving to death, just because i couldn’t make up my mind which of the figs i would choose. i wanted each and every one of them, but choosing one meant losing all the rest, and as i sat there, unable to decide, the figs…began to wrinkle and go black, and, one by one, they plopped to the ground at my feet."-s.plath

This poem kind of haunt and taunts me...I guess because it reminds me that good things left unused will rot or at best be unusable...and that is sort of how I have been leaving my art these last many months...

by Amber Heagerty 2010

 ...a little like little miss Muffet I suppose...sitting on my art so to speak, like a tuffet...not listing it for sale or pursuing getting it published, etc...

What I feel like I need to do is share what I have, then create some more...

because like the poem, I feel that I don't want to let my art wither and fall unused to the ground... 8)

by Amber Heagerty 2010

Thanks again to Sue for the blog feature and to many of my art friends that encourage me even though you may never know it...
I appreciate the creativity and energy that blogging, art and friendship brings to me on a regular basis!!

much love and happiness...