A CHILD OF GOD

Recently Hubby and I decided to spend a day taking pictures. We went all over the county and into Staunton as well. Yes, that's how it is spelled and it is pronounced Stanton.

Two years ago a "new" hotel opened. The Stonewall Jackson Hotel and Conference Center. Actually the hotel first opened in 1924 but had eventually closed and become quite run down. It had a multi-million dollar face lift and has become quite the place to be seen in the area. Although you won't see us there unless we go in to take pictures. So, here it is in all it's grandeur!!



On the inside you are greeted by such much elegance and grace!









Not sure if this is local art or not:


And finally, all decked out for New Year's Eve...


Hope you enjoyed this part of the tour. Stay tuned, there will be more to come.

Well, I thought I didn't have any pictures of a MESS, but then I remembered this one!
It's K's first birthday!

I wanted to share with you a fantastic FREE photo enhancing program I found and downloaded. I know, there is Paint Shop Pro and Photo Shop but they cost a LOT of money and since I'm a "woman of leisure" I can't buy those. The one I downloaded is called Photo Filtre and it's wonderful. It does so many things. Today I took a photo that was not very clear and turned it into this:

Didn't it turn out good??? Or is that well????

I think it rivals the expensive ones and the price certainly is right. If you want to try it, you can download it on CNET's website.

UPDATE: Melli asked for a before shot, so here it is:

Good morning everyone. I have so many things to be thankful for that I hardly know where to begin.

I'm thankful for everything that God has provided and all the gifts he has given me. I'm especially excited about my new hobby of photography.

I'm thankful that I don't have to work out of the home.

I'm thankful that I had an empty nest for about a month (see post below) but I'm also happy that our youngest is back home. She may not be in the house all the time, but she's at home.

I'm thankful our oldest and her husband have found a place to rent and all their "stuff" is gone. Although I miss our dear, sweet grand-daughter being here, I'm able to take care of her several days a week. She just keeps getting cuter!!!

I'm thankful for my sister-in-the-Lord (also my sister-in-law) that brings so much joy to my life.

I'm thankful for all my blogging friends and "sisters" who responded to my post yesterday saying they had missed me.

I'm thankful for the beautiful weather we've had this week~almost like Fall. The morning's a cool and the days are NOT humid~which is a big problem for me.

If you'd like to share some things you are thankful for, please visit my friend, Iris. Blessings to each of you!!!

For those of you wondering...one maybe two of you...the quiet is MOSTLY still here. This past Saturday we went to Atlanta and picked up Colleen and drove back on Sunday! Whew, what a trip! Not one I want to make again~in more ways than one.

I've been spending most of my time on my hobby~photography. It seems my speciality is turning toward flowers although I like taking all types. This is a picture I took of one of my neighbor's roses. I've taken so many in our gardens, that I had to start taking pictures of her flowers (with permission, of course). I'm thoroughly enjoying this outlet and it gets me outside so much more than just blogging.

These pictures were taken at the home of a nearby Virginia Tech alumnus. If you would like to leave your condolences, please visit the Virginia Tech Shooting Victims site.

Yes, it's after Easter and I would have posted this prior to Easter, but I am just now able to do so.

Have you ever wondered about the thorns on the crown of thorns? I have. I've only been able to connect thorns with the ones on my rose bushes. Although I've seen pictures, I've never seen thorns the size depicted in this painting by ElGreco

In addition to the scourging Jesus received he had a crown of thorns placed on His head and I don't imagine it was "placed" there gently. With the anger and mockery that was felt by most people there, it was probably driven into his forehead.

Saturday my curiosity was satisfied. While out and about, Hubby and I visited a neighborhood park (just a very small one) and while walking along the newly refurbished walkway, I notice a tree beside the fence...one among many. This one was different. It had thorns on it.

Although this is just the trunk of the tree all the branches had these same thorns and even larger ones. Imagine the pain thorns of this size could cause. And He did it for YOU.

I'm thankful today. Yea, I'm thankful all the time, but today, I found something! And I'm so excited. I get just like a little kid sometimes! I have a couple of free photo enhancing programs on my computer and I'm always exploring them to see what I can do with my pictures.

Some time back I had to get a new DVD drive and along with it, came the photo enhancing program Roxio. I used it some, but mostly used Kodak, Shutterfly or something online. Today, I ran across the extra CD that came with the Roxio program and guess what I can do... I CAN CREATE DIGITAL SCRAPBOOK PAGES!!!! Check out my first attempt.

Something new. I'm using Opera web browser! We've been having problems with Firefox. It seems to take forever to get started and once it does, it freezes up frequently. This has been a BIG disappointment to me. Yes, I have the latest version so I don't know what the problem is.

Having some Irish blood in me, I was thrilled this morning to find this site. If you'd like a tour of Ireland, please visit 2ireland. The site owner is an awesome photographer as well as a believer! WhooHoo! Happy St. Patrick's Day to all you fellow Irish believers:-)))