How I wasted my afternoon when I was supposed to be somewhere else...

It all started yesterday, when I went to a local craft fair. I don't like to spend money on things I can make myself, but instead I love to shop craft fairs for ideas. I saw some lovely pictures of flowers that at first I thought were photos (no) and then I thought were paintings (no) and then I considered that maybe they were actual pressed pansies (no), and finally I asked. The exhibitor explained that he grows his own flowers, and scans them while fresh, and then prints on high-quality photo paper. Cool, huh?!

So today, I noticed that the pansies (my favorite flower) on my path were wet from the rain and looking rather spectacular. So I ditched my plan to clean the bathtub and vacuum the cat hair off the rug and instead played on my scanner/computer all afternoon. I haven't done much editing yet, and these pics above are what I've got so far, but I do see lots of possibilities. Below are two more, the first with a fancy wrapping paper background, and the other which was me playing with an image, inverting colors and solarizing and otherwise altering it for fun. Just what I needed... another hobby...

And if that all wasn't enough, then there was the gal who made really gorgeous floral brooches by rolling and looping zippers. She was charging $25 per pin (yikes), so I made a pit stop at Joanne's Fabrics to buy my own zipper, and my hot glue gun is warming up. I'll let you know how it turns out. :-)

Sigh... I planned to post a heavily philosophical art teacher-y musing today, but I guess this distraction was way more fun. I should get to it in a day or two.

And one last thing -

For those of you who are interested in the lives of people you've never met - my son has been in South Africa now almost a week, has been bitten by a penguin (he's fine), climbed a mountain behind Stellenbosch University (Stellenbosch Mountain perhaps?), and is having a fine time. He's enjoying the enthusiasm surrounding the World Cup, though those crazy horns (vuvuzela?) are loud and traffic is rather heavy.